Danny’s decision to come to Ollie’s flat had forced McNab to change plans, so he never made the library and still hadn’t met up with Freya.
Instead he was now seated beside the man who, after Mark Howitt, he’d sought the most. Danny Hardy looked even more like his sister than McNab had previously registered, but then he’d never seen Leila alive, only some photographs. He had no wish to recall the terrible image of her corpse hanging in that room.
McNab was glad Danny had never witnessed that, although seeing his sister laid out in the mortuary was bad enough.
Danny Hardy was clearly a man in mourning, who also had revenge on his mind. McNab could empathize with that. He’d made his own vow to expose the Nine. Mark Howitt’s death had only strengthened his resolve on that front. So he and Danny shared a common goal. McNab just had to make sure they played their cards as close to the law as was necessary, to avoid any of them paying a heavy price for actions such as the one they were involved in now.
‘Okay.’ Ollie peered at them through his trademark specs. ‘I’ve uploaded the three video clips and enhanced the quality. I can do more work on them, frame by frame, but that will take time.’
‘Who took these?’ McNab asked Danny.
‘I set it up beforehand and Leila agreed to start the recording, secretly of course.’
‘Which goes some way to explain the quality, and why the camera isn’t always focused on the right spot,’ Ollie said as he set the film running.
Initially there was more sound than image, but eventually two figures appeared in the camera’s line of sight. McNab felt the tension in Danny’s body as the lens found Leila’s naked back. In this instance, Leila’s body shielded the man’s face, but they did have a partial view of the left hand.
‘Stop,’ McNab ordered. ‘Can you zoom in there?’
Ollie selected the area and did as asked.
‘That’s a pinkie ring. Is there a crest of some sort on it?’
Ollie eased in further. ‘A horse or maybe a unicorn?’ he suggested.
‘Any views of his face?’
The male had his back against the raised end of the sofa, Leila astride him, continuing to block their view.
‘Did she do that on purpose?’ McNab said, exasperated.
‘I had a hard time persuading her to let me film it at all. From Leila’s point of view I was messing with the spell,’ Danny explained.
It was clear when they reached the end of the clip that their only means of identifying the first male was by the ring.
The man in the next video was just as hidden, although there was a good shot of his right ear.
‘Ears are pretty unique and identifiable, provided we come up with a suspect,’ Ollie assured them.
Number three was the best of the bunch. This man was tall and broad, so that even though Leila was astride him, she wasn’t totally blocking his face. Ollie paused the video at the appropriate moment and zoomed in.
The hairline was grey, the dark eyebrows distinctive, as were the brown eyes.
‘That’s better.’ Ollie voiced what McNab had been thinking. ‘Particularly having access to the eyes.’
Danny regarded McNab. ‘What happens now?’
McNab didn’t want to promise something he couldn’t deliver.
‘It’s a start, but it’s not enough. Not until we have suspects to compare them with.’
‘What if one of the men in the video clips is a police officer?’
‘Did Leila say he was?’
‘She hinted it,’ Danny said.
‘If that’s true, that would help.’ McNab explained why the DNA of serving officers was stored during a live investigation.
‘So you have access to details on this group, even images of them we could compare to?’ Danny said excitedly.
‘In theory, yes, although they’ll probably be in the hundreds and they’ll cover all of Scotland.’
‘If I run their photos through the comparison software . . .’ Ollie began. ‘We might get lucky.’
A glimpse of a hand, a bit of an ear – McNab only wished he had Ollie’s faith it would be enough. The Nine had been scrupulous about keeping their identities secret up till now. He believed they had killed to keep it that way. And all he had were three video clips that showed almost nothing and the vague hope of outing a policeman, against the express orders of their superiors.
‘What spooked them enough to kill your sister?’ McNab said.
Danny didn’t like the question, that much was plain from his face.
‘Well?’ McNab insisted.
‘I think they found out about the recordings.’
‘So they know they exist?’
‘I’m not sure. Leila may have given the game away.’
‘You didn’t try some blackmail?’
Danny shook his head vehemently. ‘No.’
‘What about Barry?’
‘He was keeping an eye on Leila for me. Who she met in the pub, that sort of thing.’
So Barry had been watching out for Leila at her brother’s request. McNab eyed Danny. ‘You’ve definitely told me everything?’
‘Yes.’
Danny’s expression was set on stubborn, so McNab let it go, for the moment. His gut feeling was telling him there was something else, maybe just a thought Danny had had, but he wasn’t willing to divulge it at the moment.
‘Both Ollie and I are going out on a limb on this,’ McNab told him firmly. ‘By rights I should be interviewing you under caution, asking where you were on the night Barry Fraser died, maybe even charging you with withholding evidence.’
‘You know I had nothing to do with Barry’s death. And maybe I should be in custody. I’d feel fucking safer.’
Danny was right up to a point. He had brought the video recordings as requested.
‘We’re evens,’ McNab said, ‘for the moment, but as soon as we have something on these guys, I want you at the station giving a full statement.’
‘When will you have a result?’ Danny said.
‘Forty-eight hours,’ McNab said. ‘Keep out of sight until then.’