‘Kerr said I shouldn’t. He said it wisnae important. It was irrelevant.’
‘And Silver himself told you to hide your notes?’ she asked.
‘Aye, and he was telt by Muncie himself. So he said.’
I asked softly, ‘Did you beat him, White? Did you knock a confession out of him?’
He wriggled in his seat. ‘No’ much. I mean we didnae gi’e him a pasting. It was more a slap or two.’
‘Did you ever leave him alone with Kerr or Silver?’
He looked up at Sam beseechingly. She raised her brows and waited.
‘Aye. A couple of times that night.’
‘Did they do him over, White?’
‘Aye. They did. No’ on his face. Just the body.’
‘And after that he confessed?
‘Yes and no. I don’t think we made him confess. He didnae seem to care what we did. I think he just finally got kinda bored with it a’. Like he wanted to be left alone.’
‘And the details? How did they get into the confession?’
‘Sergeant Kerr. He kinda dictated it. Though he couldnae get Donovan to say onything about the other four kids.’
I could see Hugh now, chest heaving and eyes blinded with tears after another round of punches to the kidneys or kicks to the balls. Rolling in physical agony from the relentless punishment and accusations. But almost welcoming the torture for the brief respite it gave him from the searing images of his dead son. Through it all, just wanting time and space to grieve. Wanting these sadistic clowns out of his face. He saw no future for himself. His brief link with normality, the time with his son and with his former lover, had been wrenched away from him. There was nothing left for him, even if he got off. Back to the heroin fixes and the squalid tenement flat? Alone again more finally than even he could have imagined. In that mood, ready to say or do anything if these thugs would just let him rest, let him mourn. And not caring that by signing the confession he’d as good as set a date for the gallows. For Hugh, at that moment, death couldn’t come quickly enough. Sam broke my reverie.
‘Are you willing to testify to all this in a court of law?’
‘Oh Christ. Could you no’ just use the notebook? Would I have to stand there?’
‘Your choice, White. The witness box or the defendant’s box,’ Sam stated. There was a heavy pause, and his shoulders raised and lowered. ‘Aye. It’s a’ one, now.’
There were some last questions from me though I could hardly bring myself to look at him.
‘Did you plant the evidence in Hugh’s flat?’
‘No! Not at a’! We wouldnae go that far!’
‘No? After what you did it’s only one more wee step. And before you know it you’re personally putting the rope round an innocent man’s neck!’
‘Ah didnae! So help me!’
I gazed at his pathetic face. He seemed genuine enough. One of his buddies could have done it and just kept White in the dark.
‘Who made the phone call that led you to Hugh’s flat? Who was the mystery caller?’
He sighed. ‘Cassidy. Father Cassidy.’
‘And yet you sods refused to believe what Mrs Reid told me? Didn’t you make the connection? Cassidy was the last man to see Hugh that night! And the next morning he phones you to have him arrested!’
‘We were in too far. We couldnae back oot. We’d have looked like eejits.’
‘You mean you’d rather string up an innocent man than look stupid?’
White was wringing his hands. ‘You don’t understand. We had all the bloody press after us. Muncie told Silver we had to do something. Get them aff our backs.’
‘Including framing someone?’
He lifted his hands, palms up, in resignation. Then something struck me, like an icicle driven into my stomach. Surely not?
‘Wait a minute. Why are you doing this now, White? Why did you wait till Hugh Donovan was barely cold in his unmarked grave?’
He said something that I didn’t catch. ‘What?’
He lifted his head. His eyes were glassy. ‘They’ve found the weans. The Reid weans.’
THIRTY-FOUR
They’d received a phone call yesterday from the police station at Largs. Four bodies had been found on the beach. Children who’d fitted the description of the missing Reid brood. They were washed up within twenty yards of each other. Three wee boys and a girl. Drowned without a moment’s remorse, like you’d drown a batch of surplus kittens. The Largs police, knowing the currents, reckoned they’d been dumped into the sea from a boat out in the bay. From the state of the bodies, they’d been in the water about a day. My too vivid imagination churned through images of how the killers had gone about their filthy deed.
They were unlikely to have thrown them from a ferry. Too public, too noticeable. So some sort of private boat. Had they ushered the kids on board with promises of a trip around the bay? Rothesay rock? Were they laughing and joking with them right up to the time when they threw them overboard? Taking bets on how long they’d thrash around in the water knowing they lacked my grown-up strength? But sticking around until they went under, not taking any chances of a Brodie-like resurrection? Had the kids been bound? Were they all thrown in together or made to watch as one by one the bastards chucked them over? Did they try to cling to each other as they went down?
I stood looking at White, my rage white hot, wanting to hurt him until he screamed for the mercy that was denied to four children. But then I saw in his eyes that a personal punishment had begun. It would go with him to the grave. He was part of the team of so-called professionals that had allowed this vileness to happen. Sam had her hands to her mouth, her face racked with horror and grief. Tears coursed down her white cheeks.
I found a voice. ‘What’s Silver doing? And Kerr. What are they saying and doing?’
‘They’re a’ kind of in shock. No saying much, you know? But telling each other it couldnae be helped. No way of knowing. No ransom note. Nothing to warn us.’
‘Except me! Except me! I told the lot of you she was in danger. And after she was murdered, I told you the kids were next! What did you do?’ I was shaking and could feel tears burning my own eyes, tears of outrage and frustration and bitterness. ‘Bugger all!’
White stood, pale head hanging, like a chastened school kid. I turned and faced Sam.
‘What now? What do we do with this confession? How do we get Slattery and clan inside?’
Sam wiped her face and struggled for control. ‘There’s nothing here that adds up to a case against Slattery, and it’s a bit damn late for Hugh Donovan and the other innocents that got in the way. But we can start a case against the police for, let’s see… perversion of justice, dereliction of duty, conspiracy, perjury…’
‘OK, hen, that’s enough,’ gasped White. He looked as if he’d collapse, and we didn’t want our prime witness to be carted off to an early grave. Not before he’d helped put the rest of his cronies behind bars.
‘You…’ she began, and now her horror had turned to a cold burning anger. ‘You might just get off with a light sentence by turning King’s evidence. But only if you tell us everything. The rest of your cronies will never see daylight again, if I have my way. Understood?’
He nodded, abjectly.
She turned to me. ‘I’ll phone the Procurator Fiscal’s office. We’ll get them to take this… this officer’s… confession.’
‘I’d like to pay a call on his pals. Just to see Silver’s face. But we’d best leave my little bout of schadenfreude until you’ve got White’s confession in the bag.’
I stormed up and down the kitchen long after Sam had summoned a taxi and whisked White off to the office of the Procurator Fiscal. One day too late! That was all. The difference between life and death for Hugh was one rotting stinking day. It was too cruel to take. I felt the bleakness break over me. I grabbed a glass and the whisky bottle and sat at the kitchen table. I wondered how long it would take to reach oblivion. I stared at the bottle for a while feeling my heart race and thinking through my conversation with Sam yesterday. We vowed to go after the truth. Wasn’t this the breakthrough we needed? Too late for too many people, but a breakthrough. I pushed the bottle away, lit a cigarette and drew deep on the smoke, and deep on my soldiering. The difference between winning a battle and losing it was all in the heart. Taking the fight forward, not cowering behind a tree. I had to keep the momentum going.