‘ Then she’ll be back soon?’ said Steven hopefully.
‘ A look of resignation appeared on the woman’s face. ‘You’d better come in.’
She led the way through the hall, across the lounge and out into a small sunny conservatory with views across the nearby cliffs to the sea. Steven accepted the offer of tea and stood, admiring the view until the woman returned with a tray.
‘ I do hope you are not going to upset Charlotte. She’s had so much to contend with in life. I sometimes wonder how she’s kept her sanity.’
‘ It can’t have been easy for her,’ agreed Steven.
‘ My daughter is a very intelligent girl, Dr Dunbar, but when it comes to picking men…’
‘ She’s hopeless,’ said the petite woman in her late thirties who had just appeared in the doorway of the conservatory. She was wearing a white roll-neck sweater and jeans tucked in to wellington boots. Her dark hair was cut in a fashion that made Steven think of a pixie.
‘ Hello dear, I didn’t hear you come in,’ said her mother.
‘ Dad’s just coming up the hill. I came on ahead to put the kettle on. I didn’t know you had company.’
Introductions were made and Steven noticed a nervous tic begin to play on Charlotte’s left cheek. ‘I’m afraid I have to ask you a few questions, Mrs L… Ms Grant? I shan’t take up much of your time. Promise.’
‘ About David?’
‘ Indirectly.’
‘ I’ll leave you two on your own,’ said Charlotte’s mother, picking up the tea tray and bustling off.
‘ She’s nice,’ said Steven.
‘ I don’t know what I would have done without her and Dad,’ said Charlotte. ‘They’ve always been there to pick up the pieces.’
‘ You’ve lived with them since the trial?’ said Steven.
‘ Not all of the time,’ replied Charlotte, looking down at the floor as if Steven had hit a raw nerve. ‘I met someone else,’ she said. ‘Let’s just say it didn’t work out and I ended up back here.’
‘ I’m sorry,’ said Steven.
‘ How can I help you?’
‘ It’s about the pornographic material that was found on your ex-husband’s computer when he worked at the hospital in Edinburgh,’ Steven began.
‘ God, that all seems a lifetime ago,’ said Charlotte. ‘He swore he knew nothing at all about it,’ she said. ‘He told me it must have been a student prank and I believed him. He was a liar, a rapist, a murderer and I believed him. In fact, I believed everything he said right up until the time they found his… inside that poor girl and then the game was over. I realised just what a fool I’d been and I was so angry. God, I was so angry.’
‘ I’m sure,’ said Steven, giving her a moment or two to compose herself. ‘I understand you were a legal secretary at the time they found the stuff on your husband’s computer?’ he said.
Charlotte finished blowing her nose and nodded, ‘You have been doing your homework. I worked for a firm called Seymour, Nicholson and Verdi. I was Paul Verdi’s secretary.’
‘ This is going to seem like a very strange question but could any computer material from your office ever have found its way on to your husband’s computer?’
‘ From my office?’ exclaimed Charlotte.
‘ Anything at all,’ said Steven. ‘A disk, a file transfer, borrowed software, anything.’
Charlotte shook her head and said, ‘I don’t think so. I just used the office computer for word processing. David used his for all sorts of scientific things. It seemed to be a constant thorn in his side more than a help. Actually…’
‘ Yes?’ prompted Steven, seeing that Charlotte had remembered something.
‘ There was a time when David thought he’d lost some valuable data and he was acting like a bear with a sore head. I mentioned this to Paul because it was getting me down too and he’d noticed that I seemed preoccupied. When I told him about the missing data he said he’d speak to a friend of his who was a computer expert. A couple of days later he gave me a disk to give to David. It was some kind of utilities programme for recovering lost files. Samson Utilities, I think it was called.’
‘ And?’
‘ It worked. David got back his lost data and stopped behaving like a spoilt schoolboy. I remember he bought a bottle of malt whisky for me to give to Paul for his friend.’
‘ Do you know this friend’s name?’ asked Steven.
‘ Paul never said and I didn’t ask.’ After a moment’s thought, Charlotte suddenly became animated. ‘Surely you’re not suggesting that this had anything to do with the filth they found on David’s computer?’ she exclaimed.
‘ I rather think I am,’ admitted Steven.
Charlotte’s eyes opened wide and she seemed dumbstruck for a moment but then it was like a volcano erupting. ‘But why would anyone want to do that?’ she exclaimed. ‘And just what is the point of suggesting something like that after all this time and after all that happened? My husband raped and murdered a little girl, for God’s sake! Have you nothing better to do with your time?’
Charlotte broke down in tears and her mother returned to usher her out of the conservatory.
A tall, erect man with a white moustache and carrying a cup and saucer in his hand entered the room and introduced himself curtly as James Grant. He was annoyed and Steven did his best at being conciliatory. ‘I’m sorry I had to bring back some bad memories for your daughter,’ he said. ‘But I had to ask her some questions.’
‘ Bad memories are something my daughter is not short of,’ said Grant, accepting Steven’s apology and indicating that he should sit back down again. ‘Believe me.’
SEVENTEEN
‘ I understand your daughter has had another unfortunate relationship,’ said Steven.
‘ Unfortunate relationship?’ snorted Grant. ‘That’s a nice way of putting it.
Nightmare more like.’
Steven sensed that the man needed to talk.
‘ Finding out that the man you married, the man whose children you bore is a rapist and a murderer is not something you can ever come to terms with, Dr Dunbar. You really don’t need a second bad experience after that.’
Steven nodded. ‘I guess not.’
‘ Lotty became a virtual recluse after the trial. If she put a foot over the doorstep she was hounded by reporters who wanted to know how she felt. God, what do these people have instead of a brain? How did they imagine she felt?’ Grant shook his head. ‘They circled round her like preying animals, entirely without any vestige of human decency. “What does it feel like to be married to a rapist, Mrs Little?”… “What do you feel for Julie’s family, Mrs Little?”.. “What will you tell your children, Mrs Little?” It was a long time before she could be persuaded to go out again socially but eventually the hyenas moved on to new victims and she did. Then she met John Mission. He seemed a nice enough chap and seemed to care for Lotty — even when she told him about having been married to Little. I have to say we all liked him; even the girls took to him right away. When Lotty told us she was going to set up home with him it seemed like things were taking their natural course but Mission had a different agenda.’
Grant took a sip of tea before continuing. ‘He told Lotty that he was having trouble selling his property up north and persuaded her to buy a house down here for them, using her own money. Not only that, he persuaded her to put the property in his name so he could use it as collateral for a new loan from the bank. He said it would make it easier for him to move his business down here.’
Steven looked down at the floor and Grant said, ‘I know, I know, I can see what you’re thinking but he really did come across as a charming man and Lotty had fallen for him head over heels. Well, I’m sure you know what comes next. Lotty wouldn’t say at first but it gradually emerged that he was abusing her. Matters came to a head when she turned up on our doorstep one night with the girls in the car. Her eyes were blackened and her shoulder had been damn nearly dislocated. He’d thrown her and the girls out of the house — her own house.’