As Valentine marched into the bothy and faced Darry Millar the gun was levelled at his heart.
‘You want some of this?’ said Darry.
‘What good’s that going to do you?’ said Valentine. ‘More importantly, what good’s that going to do Jade?’
‘I’m warning you, I’ll shoot.’
‘Darry, think about it.’ The strength of his voice emboldened him. ‘You’re all she’s got now, don’t make this any worse for Jade. If you get put away she’s got nobody.’
Jade called out. ‘Listen to him. Darry put down the gun.’
‘I’m in charge here, I’ll decide what happens with the gun.’ He walked towards Finnie, pushing the gun in his face. ‘I trusted you like you were my own brother. You said you’d look after Jade. She didn’t have a dad, only me. You were supposed to be there for her …’
‘I was. You don’t understand.’
‘You and Tulloch, eh, what really went on in Helmand? Why did you really get punted out of the army? The pair of you, like best mates together.’
‘No. It wasn’t like that, you know that. He followed me to Ayr, he blamed me because I reported him. He did it in Helmand too, but the girl was shot, everyone knew it … Even you knew it, how can you pretend otherwise?’
‘I don’t know what I know anymore. I lost everything the night Jade called to say Tulloch was dead. I took off that night, ran out on the army, because somebody had to sort it, but I couldn’t because he’d already raped her. I was too late … and now look at the mess.’
‘But I sorted it for you, Darry. Can’t you even see that? I sorted everything.’
‘She was wandering the streets, crying. Look at her, still crying. She’s cried every day since because she can’t see my mother and now she never will. The mother we knew died that night too. She killed Tulloch but do you think the courts will care why?’
‘She didn’t kill him,’ said Finnie.
‘She did. Read the papers, it’s there in black and white … They have her locked up already.’
‘She didn’t kill Tulloch. I did,’ said Finnie.
Darry lowered the gun, it shook in his hand. ‘What did you say?’
‘It was me, not your mother … I killed Tulloch.’
Jade wiped her eyes and ran to her brother, held him in her arms. Her grip squeezed the anger from Darry, he stood limply, like he might now be the one to fall without his sister’s support.
‘I killed Tulloch,’ said Finnie again. ‘Your mother stuck a knife in his back but he was still alive, still breathing, moving – I finished him like they showed us. I sorted everything, you see, for all of us.’
Darry turned towards Valentine. ‘What’s he going on about, it said in the paper you had charged Mum?’
‘That should never have happened, son.’ The DI held out a hand, stepped forward. ‘Come on, he’s confessed now, you can get your mum back.’
Darry dropped the pistol to the stone floor – Valentine was close enough to lunge and retrieve the Luger. He backed away again, turned and removed the magazine. As he stuck the gun in his belt he faced Darry and Jade again and motioned them to the door.
The brother and sister moved together, gripping each other separately, but somehow as part of the same crawling mass of limbs. They were both wounded and hurt but they’d survived. As CS Martin rushed in the doorway, disrupting the moment, Valentine shifted his perspective, he knew Jade and Darry would be all right, they had each other.
‘Right, Finnie, on your feet,’ said the DI.
Grant Finnie turned around and placed his hands on the back of his head – the move seemed practised like he had been in preparation for this moment for some time. ‘He’s better dead, you know,’ he said.
Valentine longed to agree but the words evaded him. He’d sworn to remove murderers from society, no matter how much he agreed with this one’s cause, it wasn’t his job to sympathise, or even try to understand him. He grabbed Finnie’s wrists and led him towards the door. Outside DS McNeil was waiting with handcuffs to lead Finnie away to the Land Rover that had just arrived, lights flashing. As Valentine handed him over, he made no struggle, just slopped off behind the DS, head bowed.
‘Are you OK, Jade?’ said Valentine.
She nodded through her tears, she was still clinging to her brother; CS Martin stood nearby, offering a comforting hug that appeared out of character.
‘What’s going to happen to us now?’ said Jade.
‘Hard to say. There’ll be questions, lots of them, but the first step is to get you checked out by a doctor.’
‘There’s money in there, Finnie brought it. It was for me, to go away and get it taken away.’
Darry looked up at the DI, spoke: ‘What’ll happen to her?’
‘It’s not for me to say, but your sister will be taken care of, Darry, you don’t need to worry about that. She’s a victim in all of this, we’ll look after her, there’s systems in place to make everything as stress-free as possible for her.’ Valentine eased them towards the car. ‘Come on, it’s getting dark, let’s get inside and get some warmth into the pair of you, we don’t need to clear this mess up tonight.’
As CS Martin led Darry and Jade up the path at the side of the bothy she summoned Valentine with a backward nod. ‘Bob, I just took a call from Ally, the MoD chucked a fit when he told them about the case. I’d say there’s a better than good shot at reopening the murder allegations against Tulloch from Afghanistan.’
‘Shame it’s come too late for the whistle-blower, not to mention Jade and Darry.’
‘Still, it’s something.’
‘Almost justice.’
More police cars were arriving, DS McCormack was in the same Astra she’d left in earlier. She stood on the edge of the bothy looking at Valentine as he retrieved the holdall containing the money Finnie had taken from Leask at the Meat Hangers. The sky was dark but luminous behind the DS as she called out, ‘Are you all right, Bob?’
‘Why wouldn’t I be?’
‘We had a running commentary on the radio from McNeil.’
‘Oh, right.’ He drew level with McCormack.
‘I was worried about you.’
Valentine let down the bag, it rested between them on the shaley path towards the glen. ‘This weighs a ton, must be a fair amount of cash in there.’
‘Are you tempted to run away with it?’
‘I wouldn’t get very far.’
‘Is that because you’re getting on a bit?’ She suppressed a laugh.
‘No,’ he said. ‘It’s because we’ve missed the last ferry home.’
‘Well, that means Dino’s budget’s going to get another battering tonight.’
‘I’d say you’re right once again, Sylvia.’
Copyright
First published 2015
by Black & White Publishing Ltd
29 Ocean Drive, Edinburgh EH6 6JL
www.blackandwhitepublishing.com
This electronic edition published in 2015
ISBN: 978 1 84502 974 6 in EPub format
ISBN: 978 1 84502 964 7 in paperback format
Copyright © Tony Black 2015
The right of Tony Black to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission in writing from the publisher.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Ebook compilation by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay