The Distant Echo. Val McDermid
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it differently. Alex knew one or two things about Ziggy that he felt pretty sure were still hidden from Mondo and Weird. That was because Ziggy had wanted him to know, and because Ziggy knew his secrets would always be safe with Alex.
He imagined how Ziggy would be with his interrogators. He’d seem relaxed, calm, at ease with himself. If anyone could persuade the cops that their involvement with the body on Hallow Hill was entirely innocent, it was Ziggy.
Detective Inspector Barney Maclennan threw his damp coat over the nearest chair in the CID office. It was about the size of a primary school classroom, bigger than they normally needed. St Andrews wasn’t high on Fife Constabulary’s list of crime hotspots, and that was reflected in their staffing levels. Maclennan was head of CID out at the edge of the empire not because he lacked ambition but because he was a fully paid-up member of the awkward squad, the sort of bolshie copper senior officers liked best at a distance. Normally, he chafed at the lack of anything interesting to keep him occupied, but that didn’t mean he welcomed the murder of a young lassie on his patch.
They’d got an ID right away. The pub Rosie Duff worked in was an occasional drop-in for some of the uniformed boys, and PC Jimmy Lawson, the first man at the locus, had recognized her immediately. Like most of the men at the scene, he’d looked shell-shocked and nauseous. Maclennan couldn’t remember the last time they’d had a murder on his patch that hadn’t been a straightforward domestic; these lads hadn’t seen enough to harden them to the sight they’d come upon on the snowy hilltop. Come to that, he’d only seen a couple of murder victims himself, and never anything quite as pathetic as the abused body of Rosie Duff.
According to the police surgeon, it looked like she’d been raped and stabbed in the lower abdomen. A single, vicious blow carving its lethal track upwards through her gut. And it had probably taken her quite a while to die. Just thinking about it made Maclennan want to lay hands on the man responsible and beat the crap out of him. At times like this, the law felt more like a hindrance than a help when it came to achieving justice.
Maclennan sighed and lit a cigarette. He sat down at his desk and made notes of what little information he’d learned so far. Rosemary Duff. Nineteen years old. Worked in the Lammas Bar. Lived in Strathkinness with her parents and two older brothers. The brothers worked in the paper mill out at Guardbridge, her father was a groundsman up at Craigtoun Park. Maclennan didn’t envy Detective Constable Iain Shaw and the WPC he’d sent up to the village to break the news. He’d have to talk to the family himself in due course, he knew that. But he was better employed trying to get this investigation moving. It wasn’t as if they were swarming with detectives who had a clue about running a major inquiry. If they were going to avoid being pushed out to the sidelines by the big boys from headquarters, Maclennan had to get the show on the road and make it look good.
He looked impatiently at his watch. He needed another CID man before he could start interviewing the four students who claimed they’d found the body. He’d told DC Allan Burnside to get back down to the station as soon as he could, but there was still no sign of him. Maclennan sighed. Goons and balloons, that was what he was stuck with out here.
He slipped his feet out of his damp shoes and swivelled round so he could rest them on the radiator. God, but it was a hell of a night to be starting a murder inquiry. The snow had turned the crime scene into a nightmare, masking evidence, making everything a hundred times more difficult. Who could tell which traces had been left by the killer, and which by the witnesses? That was assuming, of course, that those were separate entities. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Maclennan thought about his interview strategy.
All the received wisdom indicated he should speak first to the lad who’d actually found the body. Well-built lad, broad-shouldered, hard to see much of his face inside the big snorkel hood of the parka. Maclennan leaned back for his notebook. Alex Gilbey, that was the one. But he had a funny feeling about that one. It wasn’t that he’d been exactly shifty, more that he’d not met Maclennan’s eyes with the kind of piteous candour that most young lads in his shoes would have shown. And he certainly looked strong enough to carry Rosie’s dying body up the gentle slope of Hallow Hill. Maybe there was more going on here than met the eye. It wouldn’t be the first time a murderer had engineered the discovery of his victim’s body to include himself. No, he’d let young Mr Gilbey sweat a wee bit longer.
The desk sergeant had told him that the other interview room was occupied by the medical student with the Polish name. He was the one who had been adamant that Rosie had still been alive when they found her, claiming he’d done all he could to keep her that way. He’d seemed pretty cool in the circumstances, cooler than Maclennan would have managed. He thought he’d start there. Just as soon as Burnside showed his face.
The interview room that housed Ziggy was the double of Alex’s. Somehow, Ziggy managed to look comfortable in it. He slouched in his chair, half-leaning against the wall, his eyes fixed on the middle distance. He was so exhausted he could easily have fallen asleep, except that every time he closed his eyes, the image of Rosie’s body flared brilliant in his mind. No amount of theoretical medical study had prepared Ziggy for the brutal reality of a human being so wantonly destroyed. He just hadn’t known enough to be any use to Rosie when it mattered, and that galled him. He knew he should feel pity for the dead woman, but his frustration left no room for any other emotion. Not even fear.
But Ziggy was also smart enough to know he should be afraid. He had Rosie Duff’s blood all over his clothes, under his fingernails. Probably even in his hair; he remembered pushing his wet fringe out of his eyes as he’d desperately tried to see where the blood was coming from. That was innocent enough, if the police believed his story. But he was also the man without an alibi, thanks to Weird’s contrary notions of what constituted a bit of fun. He really couldn’t afford for the police to find the best possible vehicle for driving in a blizzard with his fingerprints all over it. Ziggy was usually so circumspect, but now his life could be blown apart by one careless word. It didn’t bear thinking about.
It was almost a relief when the door opened and two policemen walked in. He recognized the one who had told the uniforms to bring them to the station. Stripped of his overwhelming overcoat, he was a lean whippet of a man, his mousy hair a little longer than was fashionable. The stubbled cheeks revealed he had been rousted from bed in the middle of the night, though the neat white shirt and the smart suit looked as if they’d come straight from the dry cleaner’s hanger. He dropped into the chair opposite Ziggy and said, ‘I’m Detective Inspector Maclennan and this is Detective Constable Burnside. We need to have a wee chat about what happened tonight.’ He nodded towards Burnside. ‘My colleague will take notes and then we’ll prepare a statement for you to sign.’
Ziggy nodded. ‘That’s fine. Ask away.’ He straightened up in his seat. ‘I don’t suppose I could get a cup of tea?’
Maclennan turned to Burnside and nodded. Burnside rose and left the room. Maclennan leaned back in his chair and checked out his witness. Funny how the mod haircuts had come back into fashion. The dark-haired lad opposite him wouldn’t have looked out of place a dozen years earlier in the Small Faces. He didn’t look like a Pole to Maclennan’s way of thinking. He had the pale skin and red cheeks of a Fifer, though the brown eyes were a bit unusual with that colouring. Wide cheekbones gave his face a chiselled, exotic air. A bit like that Russian dancer, Rudolph Nearenough, or whatever his name was.
Burnside returned almost immediately. ‘It’s on its way,’ he said, sitting down and picking up his pen.
Maclennan placed his forearms on the table and locked his fingers together. ‘Personal details first.’ They ran through the preliminaries quickly, then the detective said, ‘A bad business. You must be feeling pretty shaken up.’
Ziggy began to feel as if he was trapped in the land of clichés. ‘You could say that.’
‘I want you to tell me in your own words what happened tonight.’
Ziggy cleared his throat. ‘We were walking back to Fife Park …’
Maclennan stopped him with a raised palm. ‘Back up a bit. Let’s have the whole evening, eh?’
Ziggy’s heart sank.