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‘It’s okay, Marie. Take your time.’ Shona put her arm around the woman. She could feel the tautness of her body, the physical effort required to stay upright, leaning on the kitchen counter. Together the two of them stood looking down at the relics of a young life, a life finished before it had barely begun.
Then, the jigsaw images of Isla Corr began to shift before Shona’s eyes, forming themselves into a new alignment, opening a window of memory that illuminated everything in sharper focus.
‘Isla’s ex-boyfriend? Would that be Marcus Gregor?’
‘That’s the bastard, Gringo.’ Marie nodded vigorously. ‘Always said he was a bad yin. We fell out over it. He didnae kill her, did he? I thought he was in prison?’ Anger was already battling the grief for pole position. Shona had seen it often, the swings and eddies that would roll on for months, even years, if answers weren’t found. ‘Do you know what he done to her?’ Marie continued, ‘He put her in hospital.’
‘Yes,’ Shona said quietly. ‘I know.’
Almost two years had passed since Gringo had come at her with a broken bottle in that hospital room and she’d instinctively grabbed the special’s baton. When she hit him, Gringo had gone down like a felled pine tree. She’d taken satisfaction from it, knowing all the while it could go badly for her if he made a complaint. But now the guilt flooded in. She remembered Isla propped up in a hospital bed, the small face swollen almost out of recognition. The eyes blackened, the lip split. Her name hadn’t lodged in Shona’s memory as it should have. Despite the girl’s injuries, Shona should have recognised her in the Facebook photograph. For all she’d done, putting her career on the line, she’d failed. She’d set out to protect Isla, but now this vulnerable young woman was dead and nothing could change that.
She squeezed the woman’s shoulder. ‘Marie, I think you should sit down. I’m going to get a Family Liaison Officer to come over. They’ll keep you up to date with what we’re doing. When you’re ready, I’ll need you to tell my officer everything you can remember about the last time you spoke to Isla. But for now, is there anyone we can call? What about your son, Lewis?’
‘No, he’ll be at work. My sister, she lives close.’ Marie sniffed, picking up the phone, but her hand shook so much that Shona took it from her and pressed the button marked Margaret. After explaining the situation, she took Marie back into the living room. When Margaret arrived a few minutes later, the women fell on each other, collapsing under their combined grief. Paddy sat sullen and silent, his mouth a hard line beneath the oxygen feed. After a moment he reached for the TV remote, scrabbling for it with his fingertips, and turned the horse racing back on. Murdo glared at him until he muted the sound. The three police officers left the family alone for their last private moment before the public business of an investigation began in earnest.
Outside, Shona started the Audi’s engine. Dan sat squashed in the back. Murdo flicked through the collected pictures in the passenger seat. ‘You mind her now, don’t you, boss?’ he said quietly. ‘And Jamie Buckland, giving us the run-around. Saying he didnae know her. Maybe he was supplying her? Thought we’d get him for dealing instead of just possession.’
Shona bit her lip and made a show of checking her mirrors as she prepared to reverse out of the parking space. It bought her time to steady her voice. ‘Murdo, check if Marcus Gregor is still inside. If he’s not at Dumfries Prison, find out where he’s been transferred to. I’m going to need a word with him, pronto.’
‘I could do that, if you like,’ Murdo said, also paying extra attention to the traffic-free avenue.
‘No, I think it better if I see him myself. We’ve a conversation to finish.’ She slammed the car into gear.
Dan had sat passively through the events inside, as instructed, observing the interplay of the Corrs’ marriage, the firm but compassionate breaking of bad news by Shona and Murdo. Now he leaned forward from the back seat. ‘Ma’am, if it’s okay with you, I’d like to be present at that interview.’ In the rear-view mirror Shona and Dan exchanged a glance. He was just as committed to finding answers as she was.
After a moment she said, ‘Fine. Let’s set that up for tomorrow morning.’
Chapter 11
Next morning, Shona called Murdo, Kate and Ravi into her office. Dan was already there, leaning back on a chair under the window, scrolling through his phone.
‘So, is this our case now?’ asked Kate bluntly, her eyes moving between Shona and Dan. Though she’d smiled and even flirted with Dan when he’d arrived, the question resurrected his uncertain status in the team. She was the senior detective constable here, and he shouldn’t forget it.
‘At present we’re assisting an officer from a neighbouring force,’ said Shona. ‘But as head of CID in Dumfries I’m authorising the opening of a file to be shared with Cumbria in accordance with the guidelines laid down in the document “The Management of Cross-Border Crime in Dumfries and Galloway”. Does that answer your question, DC Irving?’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ said Kate quietly. She crossed her long legs and shot Dan a malevolent look which he pointedly ignored.
‘Okay, folks. Thanks to DC Ridley we have a positive ID on our girl in the water via a partial DNA match. Yesterday Murdo and I interviewed the family, who confirmed their daughter has been missing for over a month. Murdo, what have you found on the victim?’
‘Isla Corr, twenty-one years old. Past convictions for possession of Class A drugs, a treatment order from the Sheriff for her heroin addiction. We’ve had her in for public solicitation as well,’ Murdo said. ‘She dropped out of school and has been in trouble since her early teens. There’s a son, Ryan, who’s six years old, currently living with grandparents, Marie and Paddy Corr. I’ve had uniform check out Isla’s last known address, the one she gave to the hospital when she was assaulted by her partner, but that was nearly two years ago and neighbours say she left a while back and they’ve no idea where she went.’
‘Okay, lines of enquiry and persons of intere
st,’ said Shona, squeezing across to the whiteboard propped up on the low filing cabinets at a right angle to her desk. She uncapped a marker pen. ‘Former partner Marcus Gregor. Murdo?’
‘He was out on licence when he assaulted her and went straight back to Dumfries jail.’
‘Okay, he has an alibi, but we still need to interview him. Dan and I will be doing that later. Who else?’
Murdo cleared his throat. ‘Her father, Paddy Corr. He has previous for violent offences including sexual assault on an eighteen-year-old girl. Pretty sure he brought his work home with him, but his wife Marie would never co-operate with police.’ Murdo turned to Kate and Ravi. ‘Paddy was hooked up to oxygen when we visited yesterday. Terminally ill, stage four emphysema Marie said, but if it wasn’t for his health I’d have him in pole position.’
Shona nodded. ‘Dan, what did you make of him?’
‘He looked in a bad way, but he’s a skilled manipulator. He could still have had a hand in her death.’
‘Aye, that’s true,’ said Murdo.
‘I’d want to check if he’s really as ill as he makes out,’ said Dan, tapping his teeth with his pen. ‘From what I saw yesterday, there’s something not right there. Marie would lie for him, no question. That might change though if she thought he had something to do with her daughter’s death.’
