Stuart MacBride - A Song for the Dying

More hair twiddling. ‘But she’s not asking the right questions.’

He fidgeted with the phone. ‘We have to maintain evidential integrity .’

I leaned in close. ‘Docherty’s going to keep his mouth shut, and Jessica McFee, Ruth Laughlin, and Laura Strachan are going to die. They’re going to starve and dehydrate till their organs pack in. And you’re just going to sit here and let it happen?’

Not to mention what Wee Free was going to do to Shifty.

‘It’s not that simple, it-’

‘You called Docherty in on the investigation. He’s here because of you.’

Knight chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment. ‘Fine.’ He reached across and punched a number into the conference phone. Sat back.

The speaker burred, then what sounded like a hard-rock version of ‘Scotland the Brave’ came from the TV. Ness sagged a little, swore, then pulled out her phone. ‘ I’m busy. ’

Tough. I tapped the microphone. ‘You’re asking the wrong questions.’

On screen, her back stiffened, she turned her back on the table, voice dropping to a whisper. ‘ Do you have any idea how unprofessional you’re- ’

‘Hey, I’m not the one who left my phone on during a major interview, OK?’ I pointed. ‘Go on then.’

Alice leaned over the table, her voice raised. ‘I know you said you didn’t want my help, but whoever’s advising you isn’t doing it right. He’s rehearsed for all this, every bit of evidence you bring up, he’s going to have an explanation for.’

‘ And you think you can change that, do you? ’

‘He’s laid down a challenge for you — if he’s been doing all this to get into the Inside Man’s head, what insights has he got?’

‘ I really don’t- ’

‘Docherty’s egotistical and narcissistic in public, shy and uncertain in private. The persona you’re dealing with right now wants to show off. Let him. If we can get him caught up in the fantasy that this is all just an innocent misunderstanding he can talk about what he’s done as if it’s someone else and we can use that to find his victims.’

‘ Thank you .’ She held the phone against her chest. ‘ So, Dr Docherty, if you did all this to understand the Inside Man better, what did you come up with? ’

He turned and smiled up at the camera. ‘ Well, well, well. If it isn’t Dr McDonald. What an excellent question. ’

‘ All that “distasteful” masturbating over photos of murdered women, what did it get you? ’

He kept his gaze where it was. ‘ I want you to know that I won’t be pressing charges for assault, Doctor. I know it was just a misunderstanding. Heat of the moment. Anyone without all the facts would have done the same. ’

Jacobson knocked on the table top. ‘ Come on then, Dr Docherty: what did you learn? ’

He pulled his gaze away from the camera. ‘ The Inside Man is a very complicated animal. His hatred of women stems from his abusive relationship with his mother… ’

The CID room was packed — everyone on the phone to some agency or other, chasing things down. A blown-up photo of Dr Docherty sat in the middle of the whiteboard, surrounded by boxes and lines and question marks.

I perched on the edge of Rhona’s desk. ‘Anything?’

She pulled the biro from her mouth. ‘He’s got a handful of elderly relatives with property in Castleview, Blackwall Hill, Dundee, and Stonehaven. The Mire and Tayside are running theirs down. Waste of time — no way he’s butchering them in Dundee then wheeching them up the A90 to dump them here — but you know what it’s like. We’ve got cars out to the others.’ Rhona swivelled her chair left and right, arms hanging limp at her side. She nodded at Docherty’s photograph. ‘Always knew he was a slimy tosser… The Super still not burst him yet?’

‘Says he was only taking trophies from evidence so he could think like the Inside Man.’

‘You should have a crack at him, Guv.’

‘It’s not a movie. They don’t let civilians interview serial killers in real life.’

‘Hmmm…’ A nod. Then she pulled out her notebook and flipped it open at the marker. ‘I spoke to the guy in charge of the psychiatric wards at Castle Hill Infirmary, a Professor Bartlett. Seems Dr Frederic Docherty was a regular visitor when Ruth Laughlin and Marie Jordan were admitted. Spent about six months doing follow-up therapy, pro bono .’

Poor sods. What the hell did he say to them? Sitting there, once a week, all alone in a room with the women he’d violated. Did he mock them? Relive the fantasy, playing with himself while they sat there, doped up to the eyeballs?

I thunked my cane off the floor a couple of times. Stared out of the window at the carrion-crow clouds draping their dark wings over the city.

Where the hell did he take them…

‘Get onto the CCTV monkeys — I want them going through all the ANPR tapes for the last four days looking for Docherty’s Volvo. If we’re lucky, we might get a clue what part of town to look at.’

‘Might take a couple of days to run everything through the Automatic Number Plate Recognition System — you know what they’re like.’

‘So threaten them.’

‘Sold.’ Rhona grinned. ‘Tell you something: there’s definitely going to be a party tonight.’ The smile slipped. ‘You’re still coming, right?’

‘Wouldn’t miss it for the… Sodding hell.’ I dug out my unofficial phone. ‘Henderson.’

Wee Free McFee: ‘ Where’s my bloody daughter? ’

I put a hand over the mouthpiece and stood. ‘Sorry, got to take this.’ Then limped out of CID and down the corridor. ‘We’re running down every address he’s had access to in the city. We’ll find her.’

‘“ After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities. Even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise .”’

‘God’s sake — we’re doing it, OK? Now sod off and let me do my job!’

Silence.

‘You still there?’

Nothing.

‘Hello?’

Pfff…

I settled back against the wall, took the weight off my right foot. Let the hot glass settle between the bones. ‘I know how it feels. When Rebecca went missing, we thought she’d run away. Thought we’d done something wrong. Been bad parents.’ I closed my eyes, allowed the darkness in. ‘Then twelve months later, I got the homemade birthday card with a photo of her tied to a chair on it. And soon as I opened it, I knew. I knew it was him, and she wasn’t missing — she was dead.’ The floor was hard against my right foot, setting the glass moving again, driving the shards through the skin. I leaned in to set it burning. Got the fire good and stoked. ‘And I knew that it wasn’t quick. That every year, from then on, I’d get another card showing how he tortured her.’

Wee Free’s voice was a cold hard rasp. ‘ And what would you have done if you knew they had him in a cell, all safe and cosy? Three square meals a day and a nice cup of tea. ’

I’d have torn the bastard’s throat out, and done the same to anyone who’d got in my way.

Docherty’s lawyer sighed on the TV screen. ‘ We’re not really going over this again, are we? My client has made his statement and offered his insight, that’s as far as we’re prepared to be drawn on the matter. My client needs a break .’

Ness didn’t move. ‘ He’s just had a break .’

Jacobson pulled a sheet of paper from a folder. ‘ Well, why don’t we have a bash at something else, then. Dr Frederic Docherty: where were you between the hours of ten last night and three this morning? ’