hapter 45

A pall of darkness hung over Carlton Way. Within the gloom, darker shapes moved, semiautomatic weapons held close to their bulletproof vests. They covered the terrain with the silent delicacy of a lion stalking an antelope. As they approached the house, they fanned out, crouching to stay below window sills, then regrouping on either side of front and back doors. Each man fought to keep his breathing soft and steady, heart pounding like a drum calling him to battle. Fingers checked that earpieces were in place. None wanted to miss the clarion call to action when it came. If it came. This was no time for ambivalence. When the word sounded, they'd demonstrate their commitment.

Above their heads, the helicopter hovered, the technicians glued to their thermal-imaging screens. Theirs was the responsibility for making sure the moment was right. Sweat prickled their eyes and dampened their palms as they focused on the two bright shapes. As long as they stayed apart, they could give the go-ahead. But if they merged into one, everyone stayed on pause. There was no room for error here. Not with a life at stake.

Now it was all in the hands of one man. Assistant Chief Constable James Lawson walked down Carlton Way, knowing this was the last throw of the dice.

Alex struggled to make sense of Macfadyen's words. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"I saw him last night. With the baseball bat. Under the bridge. Hitting your pal. I thought he wanted justice. I thought that's why he was doing it. But if Lawson killed my mother?

Alex clung to the one thing he knew to be true. "He killed her, Graham. I've got the evidence." Suddenly the line went dead. Baffled, Alex rounded on Duncan. "What the fuck?" he said.

"Enough," Duncan said, wrenching the headphones from his head. "I'm not having this broadcast to the world. What the hell is this, Gilbey? Some kind of pact between you and Macfadyen to fit up Lawson?"

"What are you talking about?" Lynn demanded.

"It was Lawson," Alex said.

"I heard you, Lawson killed Rosie," Lynn said, gripping his arm.

"Not just Rosie. He killed Ziggy and Mondo too. And he tried to kill Weird. Macfadyen saw him," Alex said wonderingly.

"I don't know what you think you're playing at? Duncan began. He was stopped in his tracks by the arrival of Lawson. Pale and sweating, the ACC looked around the group, puzzled and clearly angry.

"What the hell are you two doing here?" he demanded, pointing at Alex and Lynn. He rounded on Karen. "I told you to keep her in the ARU van. Christ, this is a fucking circus. Get them out of here."

There was a moment of silence, then Karen Pirie said, "Sir, some very serious allegations have been made that we need to talk about?

"Karen, this is not a fucking debating society. We're in the middle of a life-and-death operation," Lawson shouted. He raised his radio to his lips. "Is everyone in position?"

Alex dashed the radio from Lawson's hand. "Listen to me, you bastard." Before he could say more, Duncan was grappling him to the ground. Alex wrestled the policeman, dragging his head free to shout, "We know the truth, Lawson. You killed Rosie. And you killed my friends. It's over. You can't hide any longer."

Lawson's eyes blazed fury. "You're as mad as he is." He bent down and retrieved his radio as a couple of uniformed officers dived on top of Alex.

"Sir," Karen said urgently.

"Not now, Karen," Lawson exploded. He turned away, his radio to his face again. "Is everyone in position?"

The replies crackled back through his earpiece. Before Lawson could respond, he heard the voice of the technical-support commander in the helicopter. "Hold fire. Target with hostage."

He hesitated for only a second. "Go," he said. "Go, go, go."

Macfadyen was ready to face the world. Alex Gilbey's words had restored his faith in the possibility of justice. He would give the man his daughter back. To ensure safe passage, he'd take a knife with him. One final insurance policy to get him safely out the door and into the arms of the waiting police.

He was halfway to the front door, Davina tucked under his arm like a parcel, a kitchen knife in his free hand, when his world exploded. Doors caved in front and back. Men shouted, a deafening cacophony. Brilliant white flares exploded, blinding him. Instinctively, he pulled the child round to his chest. The hand holding the knife came up toward her. Through the chaos, he thought he heard someone shout, "Drop her."

He felt paralyzed. He couldn't let go.

The lead marksman saw a child's life at risk. He spread his feet, steadied his gun hand and aimed for the head.

Chapter 46

April 2004; Blue Mountains, Georgia

The spring sunshine shimmered over the trees as Alex and Weird emerged onto the ridge. Weird led the way to an outcropping of rock that jutted over the slope and clambered up, settling down with his long legs dangling over the edge. He reached into his backpack and came out with a small pair of binoculars. He trained them down the hillside then passed them over to Alex.

"Straight down, then slightly to your left."

Alex adjusted the focus and ranged over the territory below. All of a sudden, he realized he was looking at the roof of their cabin. The figures running around outside were Weird's kids. The adults sitting by the picnic table were Lynn and Paul. And the baby kicking on the rug at her feet was Davina. He watched as his daughter spread her arms wide and chuckled up at the trees. His love for her pierced him like stigmata.

He'd come so close to losing her. When he'd heard the gunshot, he thought his heart would explode. Lynn's scream had echoed in his head like the end of the world. An eternity had passed before one of the armed cops had emerged with Davina in his arms, and even that had been no relief. As they approached, all he could see was blood.

But the blood had all been Macfadyen's. The marksman had hit his target unflinchingly. Lawson's face could have been carved from granite for all the expression he showed.

In the mayhem that had followed, Alex had torn himself away from his wife and daughter long enough to grab Karen Pirie. "You need to secure that caravan."

"What caravan?"

"Lawson's fishing caravan. Up at Loch Leven. That's where he killed Rosie Duff. The paint on his ceiling matches the paint on Rosie's cardigan. You never know, there might even be blood traces still."

She'd looked at him with distaste. "You expect me to take that shit seriously?"

"It's the truth." He pulled the envelope out of his pocket. "I've got the paint that will prove I'm right. If you let Lawson get back to the caravan, he'll destroy it. The evidence will go up in smoke. You've got to stop him doing that. I'm not making this up," he said, desperate to make her believe him. "Duncan heard Macfadyen too. He saw Lawson attacking Tom Mackie last night. Your boss will stop at nothing to cover his tracks. Take him into custody and secure that caravan."

Karen's face had remained expressionless. "You're suggesting I arrest my Assistant Chief Constable?"

"Strathclyde Police took He'd Kerr and Jackie Donaldson into custody on a lot less evidence than you've heard here this afternoon." Alex struggled to stay calm. He couldn't believe this was all slipping away from him now. "If Lawson wasn't who he is, you wouldn't be hesitating."

"But he is who he is. He's a highly respected senior police officer."

"Caesar's wife, officer. All the more reason why you should take this seriously. You think this isn't going to be all over the papers tomorrow morning? If you think Lawson's clean, then show him to be clean."

"Your wife's calling you, sir," Karen had said icily. She'd walked away, leaving him stranded.

But she'd taken his words on board. She hadn't arrested Lawson, but she had gathered a couple of uniformed officers and unobtrusively left the scene. Next morning, Alex had had a call from Jason, exultantly informing him that he'd heard on the forensic grapevine that his colleagues in Dundee had taken possession of a caravan late the previous night. Game on.

Alex lowered the glasses. "They know you spy on them?"

Weird grinned. "I tell them God sees everything, and I have a direct line to him."

"I bet you do." Alex lay back, letting the sun dry the sweat from his face. It had been a steep and breathless climb up here. No time for talking. This was the first chance he'd had alone with Weird since they'd arrived the previous day. "Karen Pirie came to see us last week," he said.

"How was she?"

It was, Alex had come to understand, a typical Weird question. Not, "What did she have to say for herself?" but rather, "How was she?" He'd underestimated his friend too often in the past. Now perhaps he'd have the chance to make up for that. "I think she's still pretty shaken up. Her and most of the cops in Fife. It's a bit of a stunner when you find out that your Assistant Chief Constable's a rapist and a multiple murderer. The reverberations are pretty serious. I think half the force still believes that Graham Macfadyen and I made the whole thing up between us."

"So Karen came to debrief you?"

"Sort of. It's not her case anymore, of course. She had to hand over the Rosie Duff investigation to officers from an outside force, but she's made pals with one of their team. Which means she's still got an inside track. Credit to her, she wanted to come and fill us in on the latest."

"Which is what?"

"All the forensics have been completed on the caravan. As well as the paint matches, they found some tiny spots of blood where the bench seat meets the floor. They took blood samples from Rosie's brothers and from Macfadyen's body, because of course there's nothing left of Rosie's DNA for comparison so they have to go with close relatives. And the overwhelming odds are that the blood in Lawson's caravan came from Rosie Duff."

"That's incredible," Weird said. "After all this time, he gets caught by a flake of paint and a drop of blood."

"One of his former colleagues has come forward with a statement that Lawson used to boast about passing the time on the night shift by taking lassies back to his caravan and having sex with them. And our evidence puts him very close to where the body was found. Karen says the fiscal's office were a bit wobbly at first, but they decided to go ahead with a prosecution. When he heard that, Lawson just crumbled. She said it was as if he just couldn't carry the load any longer. Apparently, it's not an uncommon phenomenon. Karen told me that, when they're cornered, it's not unusual for murderers to feel the need to unburden themselves of every single bad thing they've ever done."

"So why did he do it?"

Alex sighed. "He'd been going out with her for a few weeks. And she wouldn't go the whole way. He says she would only ever go so far, then no further. And she drove him beyond control. He raped her. According to him, she said she was going straight to the police. And he couldn't handle that, so he picked up his filleting knife and stabbed her. It was already snowing, he thought there would be nobody around, so he dumped her on Hallow Hill. He meant it to look like it had been a ritual killing. He's saying he was horrified when he realized we were being suspected. Obviously, he didn't want to be caught himself, but he claims he didn't want anybody else fitted up for the crime."

"Very high-minded of him," Weird said cynically.

"I think that's the truth. I mean, with one little lie, he could have dumped one of us right in the shit. Once Maclennan knew about the Land Rover, all Lawson had to do was to say it had slipped his mind that he'd seen it earlier. Either on the way to Hallow Hill or outside the Lammas at closing time."

"The Lord alone knows the truth, but we can give him the benefit of the doubt, I suppose. You know, he must have thought he was home and dry after all this time. Never so much as a whisper of suspicion."

"No. We were the ones who carried that can. Lawson had twenty-five years of living an apparently blameless life. And then the Chief Constable announces a cold case review. According to Karen, Lawson had ditched the physical evidence the first time DNA was used successfully in court. It was still held at St. Andrews then, so he'd have had no trouble accessing it. The cardigan was genuinely misfiled at some point when the evidence was moved from one location to another, but the rest of the clothes, the stuff with the biological samples, he got rid of himself."

Weird frowned. "How come the cardigan ended up in a completely different place from the body?"

"When he was going back to his panda car, Lawson found the cardie lying in the snow. He'd dropped it carrying the body up the hill. He just stuffed it into the nearest hedge. It was the last thing he wanted sitting around in his police car. So with all the relevant evidence missing, he must have thought he could still ride out the review safely."

"And then Graham turns up out of the woodwork. The one factor he'd never been able to take account of because of her family's craving for respectability. Here was somebody who really had a stake in Rosie's death, demanding answers. But what I still don't see is why he decided to start killing us off," Weird said.

"According to Karen, Macfadyen was on Lawson's back constantly. Demanding he reinterview witnesses. Particularly us. He was convinced we were the guilty men. Among the stuff on his computer, there was an account of his conversations with Lawson. At one point, he comments that it surprised him that Lawson hadn't seen anything suspicious, sitting in his patrol car. When he put that to Lawson, he seemed very edgy about it, which Macfadyen assumed was because it sounded like he was being critical. But of course, what was really behind it was that Lawson didn't want anyone focusing on what he'd been doing that night. Everyone had taken his presence at the scene for granted, but once you took us out of the equation, the only person we know for sure was in the area that night was Lawson himself. If he hadn't been a cop, he'd have been the prime suspect."

"Even so. Why decide to go for us after all this time?"

Alex shifted uncomfortably on the rock. "This is the bit that's hard to take. According to Lawson, he was being blackmailed."

"Blackmailed? Who by?"

"Mondo."

Weird looked thunderstruck. "Mondo? You're kidding. What kind of sick line is Lawson shooting now?"

"I don't think it's a line. You remember the day Barney Maclennan died?"

Weird shuddered. "How could I forget?"

"Lawson was the front man on the rope. He saw what happened. According to him, Maclennan was hanging onto Mondo, but Mondo panicked and kicked him off the rope."

Weird closed his eyes momentarily. "I wish I could say I don't believe it, but it's exactly how Mondo would react. Still, I don't understand what that has to do with Lawson being blackmailed."

"After they pulled Mondo up, it was chaos. Lawson took charge of Mondo. He went in the ambulance with him. He told Mondo he'd seen what had happened and promised that he would make sure Mondo paid the full legal price for what he'd done. And that's when Mondo dropped his wee bombshell. Mondo claimed that he'd seen Rosie getting into Lawson's patrol car one night outside the Lammas. Well, Lawson knew that he'd be in deep shit if that came out. So he did a deal. If Mondo kept quiet about what he'd seen, Lawson would do the same."

"Not so much blackmail as mutually assured destruction," Weird said harshly. "What went wrong?"

"As soon as the cold case review was announced, Mondo went to see Lawson and told him that the price of his continued silence was to be left alone. He didn't want his life blown apart a second time. And he told Lawson he had insurance. That he wasn't the only one who knew what he'd seen. Only, of course, he didn't specify which one of us he'd allegedly told. That's why Lawson was so insistent that Karen concentrate on the physical evidence rather than interviewing us again. It bought him time while he killed off anyone who might know the truth. But then he got too clever by half. He wanted to make Robin Maclennan look like a suspect in Mondo's murder, so he told him how Barney had really died. But before he could kill Mondo, Robin Maclennan got in touch with Mondo, who panicked and went to see Lawson again." Alex gave a wry smile. "That was the bit of business he had over in Fife the night he came to see me. Anyway, Mondo accused Lawson with breaking his end of the bargain. Older and wiser, or so he thought. He said he'd get his side of the story in first so that Lawson's claim that he killed Barney Maclennan would look like the desperate mud-slinging of a cornered man." Alex rubbed a hand over his face.

Weird groaned. "Poor, silly Mondo."

"The irony is that, if it hadn't been for Graham Macfadyen's obsession with the case, Lawson might well have succeeded in killing all four of us."

"What do you mean?"

"If Graham hadn't been tracking us all via the Internet, he'd never have found out about Ziggy's death and he wouldn't have sent that wreath. Then we'd never have made a connection between the two murders and Lawson would have been able to pick us off at his leisure. Even then, he muddied the waters as much as he could. He carefully made sure I knew all about Graham, even though he pretended he'd accidentally let it slip. And of course, he told Robin Maclennan how Mondo had killed his brother. That way, he could give himself a bit of insurance. After Mondo was killed, the sly bastard went to Robin and offered him an alibi. Which Robin agreed to, not thinking for a minute that it worked the other way too?that he was giving an alibi to the real killer."

Weird shivered and pulled his legs up, hugging his knees to his chest. He felt a twinge in his ribs, the shadow of a former pain. "But why did he come after me? He must have realized that neither of us knew what Mondo had seen or else we'd have confronted him with it after Mondo's death."

Alex sighed. "By that time, he'd dug himself in too deep. Because of Macfadyen's wreaths, we'd made the connection between two killings that were supposed to look completely unrelated. His only hope was to make Macfadyen look like the killer. And Macfadyen wouldn't have stopped at two, would he? He'd have gone on until he'd taken us all out."

Weird shook his head sadly. "What a terrible mess. But why did he kill Ziggy first?"

Alex groaned. "It's so banal it would make you weep. Apparently he'd already booked his holiday in the States before the cold case review was announced."

Weird licked his lips. "So it could just as easily have been me?"

"If he'd decided to go fishing on your side of the country, yes."

Weird closed his eyes, steepling his fingers in his lap. "What about Ziggy and Mondo? What's happening about that?"

"Not so good, I'm afraid. In spite of the fact that Lawson's singing like the proverbial bird, they've got no corroborative evidence that ties Lawson into Mondo's murder. He was very, very careful. He's got no alibi, but he claims he was up at his caravan that night, so even if they can find a neighbor to confirm his car wasn't at his house, he's covered."

"He's going to get away with it, isn't he?"

"It looks that way. Under Scots law, a confession has to be corroborated before a prosecution can succeed. But the cops in Glasgow are giving He'd and Jackie a wide berth, which is a result of sorts."

Weird slammed the flat of his hand against the rock in frustration. "What about Ziggy? Have the Seattle police done any better?"

"A little. But not much. We know Lawson was in the U.S. the week before Ziggy died. He was supposedly on a game-fishing trip in Southern California. But here's the thing. When he took his rental car back, it had about two and a half thousand miles more on the clock than you'd get from local driving."

Weird kicked out at the rock beneath his feet. "And that's a round trip from Southern California to Seattle, right?"

"Right. But again, there's no direct evidence. Lawson's too smart to have used his credit card anywhere other than where he was supposed to be. Karen says the Seattle police have been showing his photo around hardware stores and motels, but no luck so far."

"I can't believe he's going to get away with murder again," Weird said.

"I thought you believed in a judgment more powerful than humans can provide?"

"God's judgment doesn't absolve us from the duty to operate in a moral universe," Weird said seriously. "One of the ways we show love for our fellow human beings is to protect them from their own worst impulses. Sending criminals to jail is just an extreme example of that."

"I'm sure they feel loved," Alex said sardonically. "Karen did have one other piece of news. They've finally decided not to charge Lawson with attempted murder for his attack on you."

"Why the heck not? I told them back then that I was willing to come back and testify."

Alex sat up. "Without Macfadyen, there's no direct evidence that it was Lawson who did you over."

Weird sighed. "Oh well. At least he's not going to be able to wriggle off the hook over Rosie. I guess it doesn't much matter whether he faces charges over what he tried to do to me. You know, I've always prided myself on being streetwise," he mused. "But I walked out of your house that night full of bravado. I wonder if I'd have been so brave or stupid if I'd known there was not just one person but two on my tail."

"Be grateful for that. If Macfadyen hadn't been spying on us, we'd never have been able to place Lawson and his car at the scene."

"I still can't believe he didn't intervene when Lawson started beating me to a pulp," Weird said bitterly.

"Maybe he was forestalled by Eric Hamilton appearing on the scene." Alex sighed. "I suppose we'll never know."

"I guess what matters most is that we finally got the answer to who took Rosie's life," Weird said. "It's been a thorn in our flesh for twenty-five years, and now we can put it to rest. Thanks to you, we managed to neutralize the poison that infected the four of us."

Alex gave him a curious look. "Did you ever wonder?"

"If it really was one of us?"

Alex nodded.

Weird considered. "I knew it couldn't have been Ziggy. He had no interest in women, and even back then, he didn't want to be cured. Mondo wouldn't have had the nerve to keep his mouth shut if it had been him. And you, Alex?Well, let's just say I couldn't figure out how you would have got her up to Hallow Hill. You never had the Land Rover keys."

Alex was shocked. "That's the only reason you decided it couldn't have been me?"

Weird smiled. "You were strong enough to have kept your own counsel. You've got the capacity for tremendous coolness under pressure, but when you blow, you blow like a volcano. You were taken with the lassie?I'll be honest. It did cross my mind. But as soon as they told us she'd been attacked somewhere else and dumped on the hill, I knew it couldn't be you. You were saved by the logistics."

"Thanks for your confidence," Alex said, wounded.

"You did ask. And you? Who did you suspect?"

Alex had the grace to look embarrassed. "You did cross my mind. Especially when you got God. It seemed like the sort of thing a guilty man might have done." He gazed out over the treetops to the distant horizon where mountains folded into each other in a blue haze. "I often wonder how different my life would have been if Rosie had accepted my invitation and come to the party that night. She'd still be alive. So would Mondo and Ziggy. Our friendship would have survived in much better nick. And we'd have lived without guilt."

"You might have ended up marrying Rosie instead of Lynn," Weird commented wryly.

"No." Alex frowned. "That would never have happened."

"How not? Don't underestimate how slender are the threads that bind us to the life we have. You fancied her."

"It would have worn off. And she would never have settled for a boy like me. She was far too grown up. Besides, I think I knew even then that Lynn was the one who would save me."

"Save you from what?"

Alex smiled, a small, private smile. "From anything and everything." He stared down toward the cabin and the clearing where his heart was held hostage. For the first time in twenty-five years, he had a future, not just the millstone of a past. And it felt like a gift that he'd finally earned.