Steven looked at his watch and said, ‘If you’ve got jump leads I’d rather have a start. I’ve got a way to go so she’ll charge herself on the journey.’
‘ No problem,’ said the neighbour. He brought his car alongside Steven’s and brought out a set of jump leads from his boot. He connected up the two batteries, trying not to let his smart business suit come into contact with the bodywork as he did so. Steven started his car, blipping the throttle until he was sure that the engine wasn’t going to stall.
‘ I’m obliged to you,’ he said.
The neighbour waved away his thanks with a smile as he wiped his hands on a paper towel and got back into his car to set off for work.
Steven thought about the man as he drove across town. It had been a simple, everyday act of kindness but he found himself clinging to it to reassure himself that such things still went on. That he needed to do so was telling him that Verdi’s sordid world of vice, pornography and murder had been getting to him more than he had realised, as had thinking about the Littles. There were times when it would be all too easy just to give up on human nature and drift down into the welcoming arms of complete and abject cynicism.
Steven parked by the sea front in Cromer and used his mobile phone. He was relieved when it was James Grant who answered.
‘ This is going to sound very melodramatic, Mr Grant,’ he said. ‘But it’s Steven Dunbar here and I’d like you to answer one question before you say anything else. Is you daughter in the house at the moment?’
‘ No, Lotty’s out shopping with her mother. They’ve gone into Norwich.’
‘ So you’re alone and they’ll be away for a while?’
‘ They’ll be back around tea time,’ said a puzzled sounding Grant.
‘ I need to speak to you. I’m in Cromer. Is it all right if I come to the house?’
‘ I suppose so. I’d rather hoped I’d seen the last of you, Dr Dunbar, if you don’t mind me saying so.’
‘ It’s important,’ said Steven.
‘ All right,’ said Grant in a resigned tone.
Steven and Grant spoke in the conservatory. Today, a bag of potting compost and several large pots were lying on the floor, as was a trowel and a number of colourful seed packets.
‘ I was in the middle of doing my early planting,’ said Grant.
‘ Always a nice time of the year,’ said Steven. ‘What are they?’ He could see that Grant was worried: it showed in his face despite the polite small talk they kept up for a few moments. ‘I’m afraid I have some disturbing news for you,’ he said. ‘I thought it best if you heard it first rather than Charlotte.’
Grant’s shoulders sagged forward and he shook his head slowly in disbelief as Steven told him of David Little’s innocence.
‘ This just cannot be,’ he said. ‘Charlotte was told — we all were — that he was guilty beyond all shadow of a doubt. I mean, they found
…’
‘ It must have seemed that way to everyone at the time,’ said Steven. ‘To be fair to the authorities, there was no other way of construing the evidence.’
‘ Fair to the authorities?’ repeated Grant slowly as if it were the last thing on earth that he wanted to be.
‘ I know it’s going to be difficult,’ said Steven.
‘ This could prove the last straw for Lotty,’ said Grant. ‘I know my daughter and she’s going to be overwhelmed by guilt. It could well push her into a complete nervous breakdown.’
‘ That’s really why I came here to speak to her personally,’ said Steven. ‘I was convinced that Little was guilty too. I know that your daughter had no option but to believe the evidence presented to her at the time.’
Grant shook his head again as if trying to clear his head of what he hoped might still turn out to be a bad dream. ‘But who would do such a thing? he asked. ‘And why?’
‘ A man with a grudge against your ex-son-in-law,’ said Steven. ‘His name is John Merton; he was working in the police forensic lab at the time. That’s how he had access to Julie Summers’ body. The police are trying to find him as we speak but it won’t be easy.’
‘ Will Charlotte have to see David?’ asked Grant, his mind wandering to other things.
‘ That’s entirely up to her,’ said Steven. ‘It’s been such a long time. Apart from that, he’s very ill.’
‘ What’s wrong with him?’
Steven took a deep breath before saying, ‘Well, that’s another thing… He has full-blown AIDS.’
Grant’s eyes opened wide as if his senses were reeling. His lips quivered as he tried to find words. ‘How?’ he murmured.
‘ He was the victim of rape in his early days in prison.’
Grant rose out of his chair and put a hand to his forehead as he turned his back on Steven and shuffled over to look out of the windows. After almost a minute of complete silence he turned round and said, ‘I really… I really… I re…’
Steven saw that Grant was about to faint and rushed forward to break his fall, realising that the ceramic tiles on the floor would be less than kind to his head. The contents of Steven’s pockets scattered out on the floor as he threw himself forward but he managed to grab hold of Grant’s shoulders and lower him the last foot or so to the floor. He loosened Grant’s tie and put him in the recovery position while he examined the damage to his own knee, which he’d hit on the unforgiving tiles. It was nothing that a good rub wouldn’t heal.
Grant came round and was hugely embarrassed at what he saw as his ‘girlish’ behaviour. ‘Don’t know what came over me,’ he said.
Steven helped him to his feet and settled him in a cane armchair while he picked up his own belongings from the floor. ‘You had a severe shock,’ he said.
‘ That photograph,’ said Grant coldly.
In his hand Steven was holding the photograph of John Merton that McClintock had given him. ‘This is John Merton,’ he said, showing it properly to Grant. ‘The man responsible for David Little’s arrest and conviction.
‘ No it isn’t,’ said Grant, sounding bemused. ‘That man is John Mission.’
TWENTY ONE
For a few moments Steven felt like a man who had just awoken from a nightmare to find that it was all true.
‘ The photograph was taken some years ago,’ he said, hoping that Grant might be mistaken.
‘ This is John Mission,’ said Grant. ‘I’m hardly liable to forget him. Damn the man.’
‘ Then you are telling me that the man who engineered David Little’s false conviction and who subsequently treated your daughter so badly are one and the same?’ said Steven.
Grant continued to stare at the photograph, his face reflecting the anguish of painful memory.
‘ His grudge must have extended to your daughter too,’ said Steven. ‘Merton held Little responsible for having ruined his career and for the fact that the girl he planned to marry left him. Putting Charlotte through hell must have been part of the plan.’
‘ What kind of man thinks like that?’ murmured Grant.
‘ Merton’s a psychopath,’ said Steven.
‘ I don’t know how I’m going to tell Lotty all this,’ said Grant, looking as if he’d aged ten years in the past half-hour.
‘ You don’t have to; I will,’ said Steven. ‘Perhaps you could tell your wife while I’m doing it?’
Grant nodded. ‘God, I need a drink,’ he said. ‘Will you join me?’
Steven said not but encouraged Grant to go ahead. He said that he had some calls to make in the light of what he’d just learned. Grant invited him to use the house phone and said that he’d leave him alone until he’d finished. Steven called Sci-Med first and then McClintock in Edinburgh.
‘ Mission?’ exclaimed McClintock. ‘Freudian or what?’
‘ Quite so,’ agreed Steven. ‘I haven’t spoken to Charlotte yet but there’s a chance she might be able to give us some clue as to his whereabouts. I’ll get back to you if I make progress.’
‘ In the meantime I’ll start the ball rolling with an alert for Mission as well as Merton.’
‘ Any progress with the video girls?’
‘ Not yet,’ sighed McClintock. ‘I’m beginning to think that these particular films weren’t made in the local studios. ‘There are just too many people pleading ignorance. Even Verdi seems confident we’re not going to pin these murders on him.’