A great gasp of breath sounded clearly down the line, followed by a long period of silence. ‘Dead?’ she said at last, in a quavering voice. ‘Tomas? Dead? How?’
‘The police believe that he took his own life. He was shot.’
‘He. . They. . They think that, the police?’
‘Not just them. They’ve already done a post-mortem and that’s what the pathologist says too. Mrs Zaliukas, Regine, I’m sorry to have to break it like this, but our view was that it was better for you to hear from us, your lawyers, than to have men in uniform turning up at your door, possibly when your children were there.’
‘Yes.’ The voice was whisper quiet, but more controlled. ‘I appreciate that, thank you.’
‘The police in Edinburgh would like to interview you, about your husband’s state of mind. I’ve told them that you might prefer to communicate with them through us.’
‘Yes, I would prefer that. But I can tell you now, that when last I spoke to Tomas, let me see, it would be on Sunday, he was fine.’
‘You were estranged, though?’
‘Whoever told you that?’ she exclaimed. ‘No, I decided to bring the children over here for a few days, that was all. When both of them are higher up the school it will not be so easy. I was almost ready to go back.’ Pause. ‘Not now, though. I believe I will stay here for a little longer. This is a huge shock; my family is in France. I need its support.’
‘I understand that but, Mrs Zaliukas, there is the question of your husband’s companies. They now belong entirely to you and your children. Someone has to run them. If you don’t want to do it, you need to appoint a chief executive. Since Mr Gerulaitis is already there. .’
‘No, no. Not Valdas, not him; not for one second. You, Miss Skinner, could you do it?’
‘I couldn’t be a director,’ Alex told her. ‘I’m not allowed to. But I could administer the business on a temporary basis, on your behalf, with your authority.’
‘Then I’ll give you that authority right now.’
‘It has to be written.’
‘There will be a letter in the post this afternoon, or better, faxed to your office. I can do that, can’t I?’
‘Yes, you’re already a director of both companies. But are you sure? You’ve never met me.’
‘If you are a partner in that firm, you must be up to the job. And I share Tomas’s view. Who better to represent my interests than the chief constable’s daughter?’
Twenty-six
‘How quickly can you get an interpreter?’ Wilding and Montell heard Cowan ask as they came back into the CID office. ‘OK,’ she said, firmly, a few seconds later, ‘do it. The force will pick up the tab.’
The DS frowned. ‘Was that our money you were spending, Alice?’ ‘Don’t worry,’ she assured him. ‘The DI wouldn’t have any problems with it if he was here. While you two gourmets were at the sandwich shop, I had a call from the Royal. Our girl’s started to respond. Her name’s Anna, and she’s hungry; that’s all they’ve got from her so far, but one of the nurses there is Polish, and she says that she’s speaking Russian. When they ask her questions in English, all they get are blank looks, and they say she’s still way too wandered to be putting it on.’
‘Who were you speaking to just now? The Polish nurse?’
‘No, one of the administrators. They have non-English speakers admitted quite often, so it’s something they have to deal with. They have a list of people they can call on at short notice. They guy I spoke to says he can get a Russian translator from the university; she should be there by the time we are.’
‘Shouldn’t we go to that massage parlour place first?’ Montell suggested.
‘Why would we do that? We were going there to question the manager about the girl. Now we can question her about him. . if that’s where she came from.’
‘True,’ Wilding agreed. ‘How about I go along for a look at this massage parlour place?’
Cowan glared at him. ‘If it turns out that our girl has been held there, I want to be the one that kicks the door in, waving a search warrant. If you pull rank on this, Ray, I will be in a very serious huff.’
He chuckled. ‘Anything but that! OK, you two head off to the Royal. See if you get any sense out of this lass; that’s the first priority, right enough.’
‘Can we take ten to eat our sandwiches?’ Montell asked. He delved into a large paper bag that he was carrying and handed a film-wrapped baguette to Cowan. ‘Corned beef and pickle,’ he told her. ‘That OK? They didn’t have any pastrami left.’
‘That’ll do, I suppose.’ She grinned at him. ‘First thing you’ve got right today.’
Twenty-seven
‘You know, son,’ Ken Green drawled, frowning at Haddock across his desk, ‘I was being nice to you yesterday when I agreed to see you, but I have a busy practice, and limited free time, so this is pushing it.’
‘Your cooperation is appreciated, sir,’ said Jack McGurk. ‘That said, there are times in this job when I feel like a dentist.’
‘Oh aye? Why’s that?’
‘It’s because getting information from so-called cooperative people can be like drawing teeth. You’d have been much nicer to my colleague yesterday if you’d told him everything about your client’s involvement in the massage parlour business.’
‘The boy asked me questions. .’
Haddock leaned forward. ‘Excuse me, sir,’ he began, ‘but am I right in thinking that it’s best for someone in your profession to have decent relations with the police?’
‘Yes, you probably are.’
A look came into the DC’s eyes, a look that neither of the two men in the room had ever seen before. ‘In that case, sir,’ he went on, his tone low and even, ‘you should be aware of this. The next time you call me “son”, or “the boy”, you’ll be making an enemy for life. If that doesn’t seem like much of a threat to you, think on this; all things being equal, in twenty years’ time you’ll still be in the lawyering game, doing pretty much what you do now. And I’ll still be a police officer, still lifting your clients. But chances are I’ll be a bit further up the ladder. Maybe I’ll be a DS, like my colleague here, or maybe we’ll both be a notch or two higher. But even if I’m not, even if I’m still a humble detective constable, I will make it my business to shit on you at every opportunity. Can we be clear about that?’
Green glared at him, but Haddock held his gaze, unblinking, until the solicitor looked away. ‘That can cut both ways,’ he growled. ‘Wait till the day I get you in the witness box.’
‘I’m sure there will be a few of those. I repeat. Are we clear?’
‘We’re clear.’ The reply was almost a snarl.
‘Good.’ The DC glanced at his sergeant. ‘Sorry, Jack, I had to get that off my chest.’
‘You beat me to it by about half a second, Sauce. Now, Mr Green, to business and to what you failed to volunteer to us yesterday. Since you helped Mr Zaliukas set up his offshore company, and buy the former Manson premises, he’s continued to make acquisitions in that sector. Four more, in fact. Were you involved in those transactions?’
The lawyer sighed. ‘I was. My client instructed me to make formal offers to the owners of the premises in each case.’
‘We know where Tommy got the money for the first buys, but where did the cash for these come from?’
‘From the operating profits of the first eight businesses.’
‘With bank support?’
‘No; they were all straight cash buys.’
‘The sales went ahead, so we know that deals were done, but were all your offers accepted immediately?’
‘One was accepted on the spot, one a little later. There was negotiation on the other two, but terms were agreed.’
‘And was that negotiation carried out by you, or was a third party involved, possibly a man called Valdas Gerulaitis, Zaliukas’s cousin?’
‘I’ve got no knowledge of that. All I know is that in each case I was contacted by the seller, who said that he was now willing to deal.’