CHAPTER 13
It was eight days since Winter and Narey had been to the Lake of Menteith Hotel and Rachel wasn’t happy at all. Despite the bombs she’d casually dropped at the hotel and in Callander, and regardless of the ad she’d placed in the Sunday papers, she hadn’t managed to kick up the shit storm she’d hoped for. The email address and PO box she’d provided had received no more than a few crank messages and chancers looking for a reward. She’d told Tony it was time to up the stakes.
She should have been investigating an attempted murder of a drug dealer in Garnetbank. Or else a suspicious fatal fire in Cowcaddens that needed a further round of witness interviews. Or a gang-related beating that had been clogging her in-tray for weeks. It wasn’t a workload any heavier than any other DS in Strathclyde but Narey was having to keep her plates spinning alongside one of her own. If any of them fell because of that extra plate, then her arse would be on the line. That afternoon, as far as anyone else was concerned, particularly DI Addison, she was in Springburn chasing a lead about a missing grandfather. But she wasn’t.
Laurence Paton lived in the Riverside area of Stirling; just ten minutes’ walk from the city centre yet quite removed from it, a middle-class area of handsome stone terraces built around the turn of the last century. Narey indicated left just before the railway station and crossed the bridge into the residential peninsula that was looped by the River Forth.
The Ochil Hills cast a stunning backdrop as the road fell before them then rose again, a long if relatively low range of summits that separated Stirling and the Hillfoot villages from the Kingdom of Fife. To their left, the Wallace Monument rose high above the Abbey Craig in stark contrast to the snow-covered hills behind it. The monument, all 220 feet of Gothic sandstone perched on the hilltop, was a magnet for tourists and fans of Mel Gibson’s bastardised biopic Braveheart.
‘Left here,’ Tony told her, a set of printed directions in his hand. ‘Then right.’
Rachel took them onto Millar Place, then quickly onto Sutherland Avenue before taking another left into Wallace Place, a narrow street dotted with cars and neatly tended gardens, a series of semi-detached villas, most a monotonous pebble-dashed grey fronted by low hedges and fragile fences. A stone, high on the marled wall they were looking for, declared it had been built in 1920.
‘You have arrived at your destination,’ Tony intoned.
Rachel reversed the Megane easily into a space in front of Paton’s house, turning off the engine and pulling hard on the handbrake until it made a decisive series of clicks and stopped dead.
‘Now what?’
‘Now we wait,’ Rachel replied.
The prospect didn’t fill Winter with joy. He’d be there for her but he’d rather have been on the business end of his camera, seeing whatever darkness Glasgow had to offer.
‘Wait until what?’ he replied.
‘Until we’re noticed.’
A thin path of slabs ran from the solid low wooden gate that ran from the street to the door, dissecting a pink-chipped front garden. Climbing the walls of the house was some hardy-looking shrub while a drive by the side of the building was paved in the same mix of pink chips and dreary grey concrete. The front door was recessed within a porch, two windows on either side of it. White venetian blinds left the windows guarded but enough light shone through that Tony and Rachel could see there was no light switched on in either of the rooms that faced the street.
‘What if there’s no one home?’ Winter asked her.
‘Then we wait until there is.’
Rachel’s patience lasted all of half an hour. Tony was content to close his eyes and let his skull sink back into the Megane’s headrest, while she was the one who proved more impatient. She gave up staring at the windows, willing someone to look back at her through them, and instead got out of the car.
‘Where are you going?’
‘Just you sit there. I’m pushing things along.’
She positioned herself, half perched on the bonnet, half standing on the kerb, facing Paton’s house. Not looking remotely suspicious, Winter thought. Her white coat was buttoned up to the neck but still she held the collar closed in a vain attempt to keep the chill at bay.
Suddenly, Tony saw a figure behind the venetian blinds on the furthest left of the four windows, a shadow looking out at the street and at Rachel. The shape lingered there before slipping out of view again. Rachel had seen him too; of course she had, for her eyes had never left the house.
Then, from the other side of the road, a door opened and a fair-haired woman in her early sixties stepped onto a gravel path. She was pulling on a coat as she walked, a look of consternation on her face, and making a direct line for Rachel.
‘Hello, can I help you?’
The woman’s tone of voice was more demanding than attempting to be helpful.
Rachel turned slowly, casually swivelling her head to face the neighbour.
‘Help me? No thanks,’ she smiled.
The woman looked confused and none too pleased.
‘Are you lost? Perhaps I can help you with directions.’
Narey smiled again.
‘Nope. Not lost at all.’
‘Well, I… I was just wondering what you were doing here.’
‘So I see.’
The woman hesitated, clearly expecting Rachel to explain herself. Instead, all she got was a calm smile and her stare returned.
‘I… well… I’ll be watching.’
‘You do that.’
The neighbour’s mouth dropped slightly before she turned on her heels and sped back into her house, doubtless ready to tell a long-suffering husband about the rude and highly suspicious stranger in the street.
Narey turned back to Paton’s house and saw that the shadow had returned behind the blinds. He — she was sure it was a he — looked back out at her. She could make out fair or perhaps greying hair.
Inside the car, Winter’s gaze tore back and forth between the window and Rachel. The shape in the blinds was bulky and tall, clearly staring at Narey but not flinching — neither of them was. Winter realised he was tense, braced to jump out of the car if Paton, assuming that’s who it was, left the house to confront her. Rachel probably wouldn’t thank him for it, and was perfectly capable of looking after herself, but he doubted he’d be able to stop himself.
The figure left his position at the window, moving off to his left, but Rachel didn’t budge. She continued to lean against the car, her arms calmly crossed. In a matter of seconds, he’d returned and was staring at her again. Then he moved, an arm raised towards his head — no, not to his head, not quite yet anyway. He was holding something about chest high, gripping it in front of him as if to let her see it. It was a phone.
Rachel realised what it was and the message he was sending to her. She simply smiled at him and shrugged. The man didn’t move for an age, as if trying to decide what he should do, then he brought the phone and his other hand together, punching in numbers. He lifted the phone to his shadowy head and held it there. Winter looked at one, then the other, waiting to see who would blink first.
It wouldn’t be Rachel. He knew it. Rather than back off, she pushed herself away from the car and walked deliberately to the left of the brown gate that split the low hedge bordering Paton’s castle. She stood right against the hedge, directly in front of the window where he stood. The arm holding the phone fell slowly to his side. The phone call, if he’d actually made one, was over. Then he moved quickly, a decision seemingly made, reached out an arm and the venetian blinds closed, hiding him completely. In quick succession, the blinds on windows two, three and four were also closed, leaving Narey staring at four white shields.