McClintock and Santini exchanged glances. ‘I can’t wait,’ said Santini.
‘ She played a part in the Julie Summers case.’
McClintock closed his eyes as if expecting an explosion.
‘ What the hell are you talking about, Dunbar?’ asked Santini.
‘ At one point before the Julie Summers murder, you were called in to investigate pornographic material found on a computer used by David Little at the Western General Hospital. I recognise the scars on Tracy Manson’s back. She was the girl who was being whipped.’
Santini was speechless for a moment but only for a moment. ‘There’s just no stopping you, Dunbar, is there?’ he exclaimed. ‘It’s one damned fool assertion after another. You hardly pause for breath, do you?’
‘ I try to keep busy, Superintendent,’ replied Steven, still feeling good from his discovery.’
‘ You can tell from the scars on her back that this girl featured in pornographic material found on David Little’s computer nearly nine years ago? Do you know the video off by heart?’ asked McClintock.
‘ Never seen it in my life,’ replied Steven, deliberately being unhelpful because he felt like it.
‘ Then how could you possibly?…’
‘ Before I came up to Scotland, Sci-Med prepared a file for me on David Little. There were a couple of still photographs taken from the stuff they found on his computer in it. It’s the same girl.’
Santini’s shoulders sagged. He turned to McClintock and said, ‘You’d better check, will you?’
‘ A bit amazing, don’t you think?’ said Steven as McClintock left the room.
‘ And where is this supposed to lead us?’ asked Santini who was now wearing defeat like a cloak around his shoulders.
Conversely, Steven was feeling confident again. He said, ‘Paul Verdi owns the sauna where this girl works. Paul Verdi was responsible for handling David Little’s defence. You tell me, Superintendent?’ He left out the ‘you are the fucking policeman after all.’
McClintock returned after a few minutes and said to Santini with an almost apologetic shrug of the shoulders, ‘He could be right, sir.’
McClintock showed Santini a series of photographs that he had already put into matched pairs. ‘The girl looks about eighteen in the Little film: she looks more like thirty-five in the sauna video but she could be around twenty-seven and the scars on her back do match up pretty well.’
‘ So where the hell do we go from here,’ murmured Santini, causing Steven to stifle another comment about it being his job to decide that.
‘ It would be too much of a coincidence for this girl to have been on Little’s computer by chance,’ said Steven. ‘It’s my guess that Verdi is behind the website that put it on the net in the first place. That’s probably why they had a video camera conveniently to hand when I was abducted.’
‘ That hasn’t been established yet,’ said Santini but it sounded like sour grapes and this showed in McClintock’s eyes when he glanced at Steven.
‘ We could raid the Cuddles saunas, sir?’ suggested McClintock.
‘ Santini looked doubtful. ‘I don’t want any suggestions of police harassment coming from that mob just because they happened to catch one of our lot in flagrante so to speak.’
Steven shook his head slightly in protest at what he saw as Santini’s stubbornness. ‘A raid sounds good to me,’ he said.
McClintock’s phone rang and he answered it. He was about to say that he was busy but found it important enough to continue listening. He made a series of jotted notes on his desk pad and thanked the caller. ‘Forensics, sir,’ he said. ‘The report on Dr Dunbar’s car. They didn’t find any sign of a chloroform soaked rag, I’m afraid.’
Santini looked pleased. Steven felt dejected.
‘ But they did find an empty plastic box that looked as if it might have contained computer disks at some time.’
‘ That’s mine,’ said Steven.
‘ Well, apparently one corner of the box was deformed; melted was the term they used,’ continued McClintock. ‘Some plastics are soluble in chloroform according to the lab and this box was made out of one of them. They reckon that someone hiding in the back of the car could have dripped chloroform on to it.’
Steven looked upwards and offered silent thanks.
‘ I see,’ said Santini thoughtfully. ‘Taking a broad overall view
…’ Santini paused as if the words were paining him. ‘It would appear that you are off the hook for the time being, Doctor.’
‘ Innocent is the word you’re looking for,’ said Steven.
‘ Yes well, all’s well that ends well, eh?’
‘ About the raid on Verdi’s saunas, sir,’ said McClintock.
‘ I think we’re on safer ground now,’ said Santini with a weak attempt at a smile of reconciliation. Have a word with Vice, will you, Peter? We don’t want to be treading on anyone’s toes.’ With that, Santini got up and left the room.
‘ Well, that all went splendidly, I thought,’ said McClintock, tongue in cheek.
‘ Are you going to hang around for the hit on the saunas?’
‘ Wouldn’t miss it for the world,’ replied Steven.
‘ It’ll give you another chance to get up Santini’s nose if nothing else.’
‘ I still think there’s a link to the Julie Summers case,’ said Steven.
‘ So what’s your new tack? That Verdi set up Little over the computer download?’
‘ I suppose,’ said Steven.
‘ But the computer business was before Verdi even knew Little,’ said McClintock. ‘Come to think of it, it was before Verdi was even in the sauna business. He was still with Seymour and Nicholson at the time.’
Steven nodded and said, ‘And his secretary was?’
‘ Shit! Little’s wife,’ said McClintock.
‘ The very lady,’ said Steven. ‘I think maybe this calls for a trip to Norfolk to have a chat with Mrs Little.’
‘ You think she could have been in on it?’
‘ It’s possible. But as to why she should have wanted her husband involved in a scandal like that — your guess is as good as mine.’
‘ When will you go?’
‘ When will you raid the saunas?’
‘ It’ll take a couple of days to set up. Say Wednesday.’
‘ I’ll go Tuesday if I can clear it with Sci-Med.
SIXTEEN
When he finally got back to his hotel, Steven removed the strapping tape from his ribs and ran a deep bath. He lowered himself gingerly into the warm suds and stayed there for more than half an hour, not realising how uptight he’d been about the possibility of prosecution until the threat had been removed. Now, relaxing in the warmth, listening to Miles Davis playing Kind of Blue, life suddenly seemed a whole lot better. He was still in some physical pain but when it came down to a choice between that and mental anguish, it was no contest. Even the protests of his ribs when he periodically leaned forward to top up the hot water was nothing compared to the prospect of Jenny hearing bad things about her father had Santini gone ahead with his malicious prosecution. Little bastard.
He thought about what he was going to say to Macmillan and where the Tracy Manson development might take him if — and it was a big ‘if’ — he were to be given the go-ahead to follow it up. The trouble was that it wasn’t strictly Sci-Med territory and he had agreed to pull out of Edinburgh if new DNA tests showed that Little was the guilty man beyond doubt. But Verdi’s involvement with the girl on Little’s computer was a coincidence too far. He hoped he could convince Macmillan to let him follow his nose for just a bit longer? Santini’s behaviour towards him had removed any concern he might have had about the sensitivities of the local police. Any shit that life cared to throw at Santini was fine by him. With a bit of luck Macmillan might feel the same.
When he’d dried himself — using gentle dabbing with the towel over the black and blue bits — he reapplied the strapping to his ribs, feeling and looking a bit like a ballet dancer getting it all wrong. He got dressed and called Macmillan at his home number to give him the news about the report from the hospital lab and the forensic findings of chloroform involvement. Predictably, Macmillan was relieved.