‘You planning on joining us any time soon, Alec, or is this some kind of hiking holiday?’
McKay had been prowling aimlessly round the room in his usual style, and had now stopped to peer earnestly at Charlie Farrow’s bookshelf. ‘You got any Barbara Cartland, Charlie? I hear she’s very good.’
Farrow had clearly already made a decision to ignore any of McKay’s jibes. ‘We don’t have all day, Alec. Some of us have work to be getting on with.’
McKay nodded. ‘Need to fit something in before you go golfing,’ he said. ‘I understand.’ He crossed the room and lowered himself onto one of the chairs opposite Farrow’s desk. Farrow had a reputation, at least in summer, for slipping away early on Wednesday afternoons to fit in a round of golf. McKay assumed that wasn’t the case at this time of year, but he’d never been one to let the facts stand in the way of a half-decent riposte.
‘So, gentlemen,’ Farrow said patiently, ‘first of all, let’s welcome our good friend Alec McKay, who’s apparently here for a week or two to help us out.’ The last three words were spoken as if in quotation marks. ‘That right, Alec?’
‘Just an additional pair of hands,’ McKay said, ‘and a brain.’ McKay managed to make it sound as if the latter hadn’t previously been available in Farrow’s team. To his right, one of Farrow’s team, DS Johnny Dolan, uttered something that sounded like a cross between a cough and a snigger. McKay knew that even Farrow’s own team didn’t have the greatest of respect for their boss. From what he knew of them, they were a decent enough bunch – all male, because that was invariably the way with Farrow’s teams – but capable enough. It had already occurred to McKay that, if he played his cards carefully, he could recruit one or two allies during his time here.
Dolan was a burly man, probably in his mid-forties. He wasn’t someone you’d look to for an unexpected insight or a brilliant analysis, but, from what McKay had seen, he was sound enough. The sort of copper who’d do what he was told and not much more, but who could be relied on to do it pretty well.
The second officer present was DS Benny Edwards. He was younger than Dolan, probably only late twenties. He seemed bright and enthusiastic, a youngish graduate keen to make a name for himself. He probably wouldn’t put a foot out of line, but would come up with some good ideas when you needed them.
McKay didn’t have a lot of time for Farrow’s management abilities, but he knew Farrow was adept at recruiting officers who could make him look good. These two, along with the other team members McKay had met, had very different qualities, but would both do a decent job when needed. Farrow could just sit back and wait for them to do it.
‘So, Alec, I just thought we’d have a little informal briefing. Just bring you up to speed with what we’re up to, and see where we can most effectively deploy your talents. I should say it was good of Helena to spare you. Man of your undoubted talents ought to be in high demand.’
McKay assumed Farrow was implying, for the benefit of the others, that Grant had been trying to offload him. ‘Just thought you might benefit from my experience, Charlie. She gives to charity as well.’
Farrow gazed at him for a moment with an expression most other men would have found intimidating. ‘Let’s move on, shall we?’
‘I’m all ears.’
Having spoken those words, McKay largely tuned out for the rest of the discussion, paying attention only when something caught his interest or Farrow inadvertently offered some titbit McKay thought might provide useful ammunition later.
‘The main thing, Alec,’ Farrow said, in a tone that suggested he might finally be drawing the meeting towards a conclusion, ‘is we need to ensure we have a proper Chinese wall between you and the investigation into your brother-in-law’s death.’
McKay nodded. ‘Of course. But you’ll be done with that pretty soon?’
There was an unexpectedly long pause before Farrow responded. ‘I wouldn’t necessarily assume that.’
‘We’re just taking a bit of a look at his background,’ Dolan added.
It was immediately clear Dolan had spoken out of turn. Farrow shot him a sharp look and said, ‘Chinese wall, Johnny. Don’t want to put Alec in an awkward position.’
Dolan nodded but offered no other response. McKay wondered whether to pursue the issue, but decided he was unlikely to extract much more from Farrow. ‘That’s fine. I can’t imagine there’ll be anything in Kevin’s background to detain you for long. But who knows?’
‘People are full of surprises, Alec.’ Farrow shuffled his papers. ‘So, plenty for you to be getting on with, I hope.’ As McKay had expected, Farrow had pushed plenty of administration in his direction, along with allowing him to take charge of the enquiry into Helena Grant’s threatening texts. McKay’s own intended strategy was to take that enquiry as far as he could – which in truth might not be very far, given the limited resources available to him – and carry out as little of the administration as he could get away with. It was going to be a lively few weeks. ‘Aye, you seem to have got me nicely loaded with work.’
‘Idle hands and all that, Alec.’
The meeting broke up and McKay returned to his desk, leaving Farrow and Dolan deep in conversation. Dolan was no doubt getting a bollocking for what he’d said about Kevin.
McKay was still mulling that over. He knew little about Kevin’s background, other than that he was originally from over on the Black Isle. He’d been born and brought up in Cromarty, as far as McKay knew, though by the time he’d married Fiona he was living and working in Inverness. Other than that, and the fact that he was some kind of IT specialist, McKay had really known little about him and had always imagined there was unlikely to be much else worth knowing.
Now, for the first time, it occurred to him to wonder if it was strange that he knew so little about Kevin’s past or even his present. Kevin had never been the most talkative of individuals, and McKay hadn’t been sufficiently interested to encourage him to reveal more. But it felt odd to have almost no knowledge of a man who, after all, was a close family member.
But families were like that, he thought. They were just there. Sometimes you were close, but often you weren’t. McKay himself had a brother still living in Dundee. They thought of themselves as fairly close and got on well whenever they met up, usually over a few pints. But they hadn’t seen each other now for over a year, and their only communications had been a card at Christmas and the odd text or email about some bit of family news. That was how families worked.
Across the room, Farrow and Dolan were still talking away, Farrow casting the occasional glance in McKay’s direction. Whatever they were discussing, it was clearly something that Farrow at least was taking very seriously. McKay looked quizzically across at Benny Edwards who shrugged and went back to tapping at his keyboard. Fair enough, McKay thought. He didn’t expect Edwards to rock any boats.
McKay had already kicked off the investigation into Grant’s texter, having noted that Farrow had so far done nothing on the matter. He’d requested a check on the provenance of the two mobile numbers, although he expected that both would turn out to be pay-as-you-go burners. He supposed it might be possible to ascertain at least the approximate location of the phones at the time the texts were sent. That might be significant if the first had been sent from somewhere near North Kessock – it would at least confirm whether Grant’s house really had been under observation – but it wouldn’t reveal the identity of the sender. Still, it would be better than nothing.
For the moment, he was more interested in Martin Delaney or Gary Ellis, or whoever the hell the guy really was. He’d already taken a statement from Helena Grant to obtain a formal account of her evening with Delaney, and he’d obtained from her Delaney’s details on the dating site. It might be worth interviewing the young woman, Maggie Clennan, about her meeting with the man who was then calling himself Gary Ellis, though it wasn’t clear whether she’d be able to add much.
McKay knew little to nothing about online dating etiquette. Was it usual to employ different pseudonyms on different sites? He supposed there might be good reasons for someone to keep their identity secret, at least initially. But there might also be less good reasons.
Idly, he did an internet search on Martin Delaney, looking for any suitable candidates in or around Inverness. There didn’t seem to be any candidates who fitted the man that Grant had described to him or the photographs she’d provided.
He carried out a similar search on Gary Ellis, with a similar lack of success. That didn’t prove much in itself – not everyone lived their life online – but he was beginning to suspect that the man’s real name was something else again. It would be worth checking whether either name was registered on the PNC as well as checking the electoral roll, but he didn’t have high expectations of getting a result.
In the meantime, he continued idly searching on the internet, looking at variants on ‘finance director’, ‘leisure sector’ and ‘hotels’. Inverness was a relatively small city, and there could be only a limited number of suitable candidates in the area, if the man was telling anything approaching the truth. Which, McKay acknowledged to himself, was a large ‘if’.
Slightly to his surprise, he had some success almost immediately. One of the first news items he’d stumbled across had been a brief piece from the business section of the Press and Journal about the appointment of a new finance director to a local chain of hotels. The man’s name was Gerry Elliott, which had been sufficiently close to Gary Ellis to attract McKay’s attention.
He found the hotel chain’s website, which had an ‘About Us’ section in the menu. That in turn carried a link to the ‘Our Management Team’. There, under the name Gerry Elliott, was a copy of one of the photographs Grant had sent him earlier. The man she’d had dinner with, albeit in younger and slimmer days.
Christ, McKay thought, if only all detective work was that easy. It was often the case that one stroke of luck could give you the answer you were looking for, but it didn’t normally happen that quickly.
He hesitated for a moment, and then picked up the phone and dialled. The call was answered almost immediately by a young-sounding woman who carefully enunciated the name of the hotel chain in a manner that suggested she hadn’t previously spoken the words out loud.
‘Can I speak to Mr Elliott please? Your FD.’
The receptionist sounded flummoxed for a second. ‘You mean Gerry Elliott?’
‘That’ll be him,’ McKay agreed. ‘He’s your finance director?’
There was a short hesitation. ‘I think so.’
The whole set-up was sounding much less professional than the website had suggested. But then Elliott was apparently fatter and balder than the website suggested too. ‘Is it possible to speak to him?’
‘Oh, aye. Hang on a wee sec, will you?’
There was a pause, which thankfully wasn’t filled by incidental music, and then a voice said, ‘Elliott here. How can I help you?’
‘Good morning, Mr Elliott. This is DI Alec McKay, Scottish Police. I wonder if it would be possible for me to pop in to see you today?’
There was a long silence before Elliott responded. ‘Can I ask what this is in connection with?’
‘I’m just hoping you might be able to help us with an enquiry. It’s something perhaps better discussed face-to-face.’
There was another pause before Elliott responded. ‘I don’t see what information I’m likely to have that would be pertinent to any police enquiry.’
‘Nevertheless, Mr Elliott, if you’re just able to spare me a few minutes of your time, I’m sure everything will be resolved satisfactorily.’ This time, McKay allowed a note of unspecified threat to creep into his tone.
‘Resolved?’ Elliott was sounded worried now, which was interesting in itself. In McKay’s experience, men who blustered like Elliott were generally easy to intimidate, often because they felt they had plenty to hide.
‘Absolutely. It’ll just take a few minutes, and I’m sure we can iron everything out.’
‘I– Well, yes, of course. If you really think I can help.’
McKay glanced at his watch. Ten thirty. ‘Could we say eleven? If that’s convenient for you.’
There was a rustling of paper, which McKay guessed was Elliott pretending to check his crowded diary. ‘Yes, it looks as if I can fit you in then.’
Fit me in, McKay thought. You bet you bloody can. ‘Eleven it is, then. I’ll come to your office.’
‘My–’ Elliott stopped and for a moment McKay thought he was going to suggest an alternative rendezvous. ‘Yes, that’ll be fine. Eleven.’
I should have said eleven thirty, McKay thought after they’d ended the call. Given him more time to stew. He was definitely a man with something to hide. The only question was whether that something was likely to be pertinent to McKay’s enquiry.
He looked up to see that Farrow’s desk was empty. There were papers strewn all over the surface, so McKay assumed Farrow had either gone to a meeting elsewhere in the building or maybe just out for a smoke. He rose and strolled across to Dolan’s desk. ‘Morning again, Johnny. Long chat you were having with Mr Farrow there.’
Dolan looked up and grinned. ‘No offence, Alec. But it’s none of your bloody business. Don’t go too far out onto the thin ice, eh?’
‘You know me, Johnny.’
‘Only too well.’
‘So what was the stuff about looking into Kevin’s background?’
‘You don’t give up, do you?’ He glanced at the door, then over at Edwards, who was studiously pretending not to be listening in to their conversation. ‘I’m all in favour of your winding up old Charlie. Never does any harm for him to brought down a peg or two. But tread carefully. He’s not a nice man when he’s crossed.’
‘Charlie? You surprise me. One of life’s gentlemen.’
‘Thing is, Alec. He’s got a bee in his bonnet about your brother-in-law. When he first started on it he was just looking to mildly screw you over. Delay things long enough to piss you off.’
‘Like I say, one of life’s gentlemen.’
‘But then he stumbled across something that made him a bit more interested.’
McKay frowned. ‘What kind of something?’
‘That’s the thing. He’s playing it very close to his chest. Obviously doesn’t trust us either.’ He paused and the grin returned. ‘Can’t think why. Anyway, he thinks he’s got something and he’s asked me and Benny to do some more digging into your brother-in-law’s personal life – his background, work, finances. You name it.’
‘Kevin? He was the world’s most boring man.’
‘It could well all be bollocks. I mean, you know Farrow. Quite capable of adding two and two and ending up with whatever number he wants. And I’m sure he’s still taking a delight in making life difficult for you. But he seems to think he’s got something worth pursuing.’
‘This is going to drag on forever, isn’t it?’ McKay said, wearily.
‘One way or another, it looks like it’s heading that way, yes.’ Dolan hesitated. ‘Look, I’ve told you none of this. But that’s one of the things we were talking about this morning. Farrow’s already having second thoughts about having you in here.’
‘That’s quick even by my standards,’ McKay said. ‘People usually take a day or two to want rid of me.’
‘It’s because you try too hard to ingratiate yourself. No, Farrow felt obliged to accept Helena Grant’s offer because he’s complained so much about being short-handed. And because he thought it might be amusing to have you under his thumb for a wee while.’
‘Aye, well, good luck with that one.’
‘So I’d noticed. Now he’s taking the enquiry more seriously, he’s wondering whether it’s quite such a good idea to have you hanging around.’
‘In case we have conversations like this one, you mean?’
‘What conversation?’
‘My lips are sealed, Johnny. About this, anyway.’
Behind him, McKay heard the door opening and, almost imperceptibly, he took a discreet couple of steps away from Dolan’s desk. By the time Farrow entered, McKay was already heading towards the door. ‘Won’t be long,’ he called back to Dolan.
‘Off somewhere, Alec?’ Farrow regarded him with undisguised suspicion.
‘Just briefly.’ McKay grabbed his coat from the rack by the door. ‘Off to see a man about a threatening text.’