The Ardmore Inheritance, Rob Wyllie [best novels for students TXT] 📗

Frank spoke through a mouthful of blueberry muffin. 'So Jimmy boy, what's the story?'

'Not much to tell,' Jimmy said, giving him a rueful look. 'Around nine-ish Elspeth said she was going to the loo to freshen up and she never came back.'

'And that's it? Nothing else?'

'Well there's one thing that I've just thought of. You see, she got a text or a WhatsApp or something, a minute or two before she went. But she didn't look at it, and I remember thinking at the time that it was a bit odd. You know, as if she was expecting it and already knew what it was all about.'

'What, you mean it was pre-arranged or something?' Maggie asked, evidently amused. 'That's going to a lot of trouble just to be able to walk out on a date, getting a friend to text you.'

'Aye, very funny,' Jimmy said. 'I mean, maybe it was nothing but it would be good to look at her phone records.'

'Well hopefully Barker's boys will have thought of that already,' Frank said, looking doubtful, 'but I'll chase that DI Jones up and remind him, just in case.'

The thing was, he'd been in and around DCS Colin Barker's investigations often enough to know that nothing could be taken for granted, not even the absolute basics. For years, it had puzzled him how the useless lump of lard had held onto his job. That was, until that clever wee Eleanor Campbell had got him access to his iCloud account. It was surprising how far you could go in the police with the right handshake.

'I tried to tell Barker about the will of course,' Maggie said, 'but he wasn't listening. Because with Elspeth dead, it doesn't half simplify things.'

'Aye, and it's a cracking motive for her sister and her husband, isn't it?' Jimmy said.

Maggie nodded. 'Yes, and for her step-mother too, don't forget. If she's come to some arrangement with Rory Overton and Kirsty, then it's all suddenly looking very neat and tidy.'

'Or it might just have been an opportunist sexual assault,' Frank shrugged. 'A beautiful girl like that walking alone along a quiet side street at that time of night. Every bit as likely in my opinion. But listen, I'm sure Barker will get on top of this soon enough and the first thing he'll want to do is check out the alibis of all the Macallans. I wouldn't have thought that would be too difficult, even for that fat arse.'

'Kirsty and her husband were going out that night,' Maggie said. 'They told me they were meeting some friends for a drink and then going on somewhere to dinner. It was some sort of surprise and Rory hadn't told his wife where they were going. It did occur to me at the time that they might turn up at the same restaurant as Elspeth and Jimmy. It would be worth checking if that was their intention, don't you think?'

Frank smiled. 'I'll add it to my list, or at least the list I'm going to pass on to Barker. And maybe you could ask them too? Because I assume there's now going to be a lot to be tidied up with respect to the will.'

'Well that's true enough,' she said. 'But I'm not exactly top of their Christmas card list at the moment. They're not taking my calls or answering my messages.'

'Ah well,' Frank shrugged, 'it'll just have to be a police matter then. I might just get my mate Ronnie French to pay them a visit, unofficial-like.'

Which caused him to smile inwardly, since he knew it would piss off Barker big-time to have his wee Department 12B clumping all over his murder investigation. That in fact was what would make it all the sweeter. But he couldn't hide the fact that he was worried about his brother becoming unwittingly involved in this brutal murder. The unscrupulous Barker had a track-record of playing fast and loose with trivial little things like actual evidence, and it wouldn't be hard to imagine how he could easily spin a half-credible case against Jimmy. The non-existent argument in the restaurant would be amplified into something it wasn't, and then they'd find out about the nervous breakdown his brother had suffered after witnessing the murder of that young female soldier in Belfast. The damaged bomb-squad officer loses it in a fit of rage after having his sexual advances rejected, and lashes out. All lies of course, but the motive would have to be disproved, since nowadays the concept of innocent until proven guilty seemed to be out of fashion in the prosecution system. No, he was going to have to keep a bloody careful eye on the case and be ready to step in if he didn't like the way it was going.

But now he was just going to give them a wee update on progress on the Morag and Isabelle McKay murders before heading back to Atlee to see how they were getting on with the Geordie warrants. In a moment of madness, he'd delegated responsibility for that task to Ronnie French, a task so outside the lazy turd's zone of competence as to be on another planet. Dismayed, he realised he'd best get on to Google as soon as he was back at his desk.

To check for the signs of early-onset dementia.

Chapter 24

It was no surprise to Maggie that Kirsty Macallan had swiftly taken to her social media channels in the days after her sister's brutal killing. In every appearance, it was evident her stylist had been to work, expertly-applied make-up revealing the tracks of her tears and her hair carefully dishevelled for maximum effect, but there was no concealing the dark crescents under her eyes and the genuine heartache in her voice. Although as Jimmy had pointed out with ill-disguised