The two young men waiting in Room 1 stopped their argument immediately she entered, unaware that she’d been listening to it through the door.
The one with dark auburn hair she knew to be Leila’s brother without an introduction. The similarity in eye and hair colour was striking. Leila had been beautiful, her brother equally handsome. According to McNab, there was only ten months between them, Leila being the elder. An only child herself, Rhona had no experience of the closeness of siblings, but imagined that with less than a year between them, the brother and sister must have felt like twins. Yet according to McNab, Danny had claimed that he and his sister weren’t close.
The argument raging as she’d approached the room had suggested the two men were at odds over Leila’s death. How exactly, Rhona wasn’t able to make out, except for the fact that they both blamed each other.
As Rhona introduced herself, she was acutely aware of Danny’s appraising glance. Barry kept his eyes averted.
‘So you’re a doctor?’ Danny said with a smile.
‘Of science,’ Rhona replied.
‘Still, a bit too important to be taking swabs?’
Rhona let that one go and asked him to open his mouth. From the corner of her eye she noted that Barry looked decidedly worried about what she was doing. Danny on the other hand was gallusness personified. He even gave her a wink as she circled the inside of his mouth with the swab.
When it came to Barry, she saw fear in his eyes, but then again McNab had run a drawing past him which suggested his DNA might have already been found at the scene of crime. If this sample was a match to the semen found inside the doll, then Barry was one of the nine.
‘So,’ said Danny as she prepared to leave, ‘will I see you again, Dr MacLeod?’
Rhona met his challenging look with one of her own.
‘Unlikely, unless it’s in court.’
Danny didn’t like that answer. A cloud suddenly covered those handsome green eyes.
He immediately came back at her with, ‘Why would I be in court?’
‘To see your sister’s killer brought to justice.’
‘If you lot ever fucking find him.’
Rhona wanted to say, ‘We’ll find him, all right,’ but chose not to, which she decided irked him even more.
DS Clark and McNab were waiting outside for her.
‘Well?’ McNab said.
‘Barry’s worried about the swab, Danny not so much,’ she told him.
‘Looked like Danny was chatting you up.’
‘He is very handsome,’ Rhona said, with a glance at Janice.
‘And knows it,’ Janice agreed.
McNab intervened. ‘If you have the hots for Danny, I’d better do his interview.’
‘Barry’s not bad either. He definitely works out,’ Janice said.
McNab looked from one woman to the other.
‘You’re shitting me.’
‘Took you a while to work that one out, Detective,’ Rhona said as she departed.
Back at the lab she found Chrissy eager to tell her the news regarding McNab’s love life. Rhona decided not to burst her bubble by revealing that she knew already. Her plan failed, as she suspected it might. Chrissy McInsh had an eye for a lie.
‘You know,’ she said accusingly.
‘McNab told me himself, first thing this morning.’
‘He did?’ Chrissy looked taken aback. ‘Why would he do that?’
‘Confession’s good for the soul?’ Rhona tried.
Chrissy, the Catholic, didn’t go for that. ‘He wanted to make you jealous.’
‘Why would he want to make me jealous?’
‘Were you?’
‘No.’
Chrissy eyed her speculatively. ‘Is it the real thing?’
‘I believe he likes her. Very much,’ Rhona said truthfully.
Chrissy seemed at a loss for words at this, but only briefly.
‘Well, good on him. He deserves it.’
Rhona couldn’t have agreed more.
Danny had been in Glasgow when his sister had died. His excuse for not going on tour was that he’d been ill.
‘Ill with what?’ McNab said.
‘Flu.’
‘You went to the doctor?’
‘No. I sweated it out and got better.’
‘When did you last see your sister?’
Danny threw him an evil look. ‘In a drawer in the mortuary twenty minutes ago.’
McNab didn’t rise to the bait. ‘Before that?’
‘I don’t keep a diary. Maybe three weeks ago.’
‘What did you talk about?’
‘She talks. I don’t listen.’
‘What was the room of dolls in her flat about?’
‘Never saw it. Don’t go there.’
‘Where do you meet then?’
‘We have coffee some place.’
And so the conversation had progressed mainly into dead ends. The most important question was where Danny had been on the night his sister died and that was one that demanded an answer.
‘I told you. I was ill. So I was in bed.’
‘Anyone vouch for that?’
Danny nodded, and McNab could swear he was very pleased with his reply.
‘Maggie Carter.’
So the plan was for Maggie to give him an alibi.
‘Funny she didn’t mention that when I spoke to her.’
‘You didn’t ask,’ Danny said with a smirk.
‘Been conducting your own interview?’ McNab said.
‘A policeman comes to the door, I want to know why.’
McNab had left it there, for the moment. Danny was cocky and confident. Maggie not so much. He had a feeling she had a greater respect for the truth than her flatmate, or lover. Did he think Danny might have killed his sister? Most murders were committed by someone known to the victim. Few were carried out by a stranger.
McNab had a strong feeling that Danny and his sister’s lives were far more intertwined than he had been willing to admit. He also thought Danny had a plan. To do what, he didn’t know. He would love to put a tail on Danny if he could convince the boss that it would be worth the man hours and the money. And McNab didn’t have anything other than a feeling, yet.
Once he’d finished with Danny, he checked on DS Clark. The room she’d occupied with Barry was empty, so he went to top up his caffeine levels at the machine before seeking her out. This was the time in an investigation when you were bombarded with spurious bits of information, possible witnesses and false leads. It could sometimes feel like you were wading through treacle.
And still no pointers to the man Leila had left the pub with.
McNab was beginning to believe the guy wasn’t local. Both Shannon and Barry had maintained he was Scottish, but that didn’t mean he lived in Glasgow, or even Scotland. If one or both of the men had been up in Glasgow for the weekend, and departed swiftly afterwards, they had little chance of locating either of them.
If McNab had been a praying man, he would have prayed for some luck.
As he downed the double espresso, a call came in from Ollie.
‘Hey, Ollie.’
‘I have some good news for you. We found Shannon’s mobile.’
‘Where?
‘Tossed in a litter bin not far from her flat.’
Somebody had just made a big mistake. McNab said a silent thank you to the God he hadn’t prayed to.
‘It’s been damaged, but not badly enough. Want to come and see?’
McNab very much wanted to come and see.