‘No, he didnae; nor even a stubble.’
‘What made you notice him?’ Alison continued.
‘It was him that noticed us. He came up to the bar for a drink, and he bumped into Archie. Then he gave him the look, like, and said, “Watch it, mate.” Archie said, “What are you fuckin’ on about? You bumped me.” Then the guy said, “That’s the fuckin’ least of it. Hard man, eh.” Archie just shrugged and said, “Aye, fine, have it your way,” but the guy wouldnae let it go. He said to Archie again, “Fuckin’ hard man, eh,” and he kept on lookin’ at him.’
‘Did anyone notice this exchange?’
‘No. The bloke was quiet-spoken, ken.’
‘Did you become involved?’
‘Me? No’ me. I thought he was drunk at first, but I saw that he wisnae. He was fuckin’ spooky though, I’ll tell you. I could see that Archie was a wee bit scared, ken. He just said, “No, no’ me, sorry, pal,” and turned his back on him. The guy leaned over and whispered, “See you later,” then he went away.’
‘But not for good?’
‘Ah could see him in the mirror behind the bar. He was standing at the back of the bar, near a’ those students, but he’d his eyes on us too. After a wee bit, he put his pint on the shelf behind him and he went off tae the gents’. I told Archie… he was still shakin’, ken
… and I said, “Let’s get out of here.” And we did. We got fuckin’ out of Dodge like, and headed up Morrison Street as far as Grove Street. I never thought he’d come after us, but he did. We never heard him though, or even saw him. The first Ah knew was when he stabbed me in the leg. I yelled and I went down, but he didnae bother wi’ me after that; he went after Archie before he could move and he stabbed him, half a dozen times at least.’
‘Can you describe the knife?’ I asked him.
Wyllie winced. ‘It was fuckin’ sharp,’ he whimpered. ‘It was big, no a wee dagger like, or a flick knife, but that’s all I can tell ye.’
‘Okay. Go on.’
He blew out his breath. ‘Archie stopped movin’ after a while. Ah thought he was dead, then the guy came back to me and I thought I was too, but he never touched me. He just said, “Tell no one, or you’re on the same train to heaven as your pervie pal there.” He was walking away, when the other bloke came round the corner and found us. He never ran or anything, just kept on walking, and the bloke never even looked at him.’
‘That’s borne out by the other witness’s statement,’ Alison confirmed. ‘He only referred to finding the two wounded men. He never mentions the attacker.’ She frowned across the table. ‘So, Mr Wyllie,’ she continued, ‘that’s the truth, is it?’
He nodded.
‘The tape doesn’t have a camera,’ I growled. ‘You need to say it.’
‘Yes,’ he exclaimed, ‘it’s the truth. Honest.’
‘So where did all that other shite come from? Why did you make it up?’
‘I had tae say something. I didn’t want you lot asking questions and findin’ out about the guy pickin’ on us in the pub, so I just made up that story about queer-bashin’. I don’t want him coming after me.’
‘Is… queer-bashing as you call it… something that you and Weir have done in the past?’ Alison snapped.
Wyllie shifted in his chair, glanced at me, and thought better of replying.
‘Had you ever seen this man before?’ I murmured, just loud enough to be picked up by the tape.
He shook his head, vigorously.
‘Say it!’
‘No, sir. I’d never seen him before.’
‘But the description you’re giving us now is accurate?’
‘Aye, I swear!’
‘It better be, otherwise next time you see me, we’ll be having an even more serious talk. Do you think that Archie Weir could have known him? Is that possible?’
‘Ah don’t think so. If he did, he never said. No, he didnae. I’m sure he didnae.’
‘What did he call him, when he spoke to you after he’d stabbed him? Tell us again.’
‘He called him “your pervie pal”. At least that’s what it sounded like; I could have got it wrong. Maybe he said “your pushy pal”; maybe that was it. Mister, I was bleedin’, and I still thought he was goin’ tae stab me again.’
‘Do you know what he meant?’ Alison asked him.
He shook his head, then looked at me and replied, ‘No, miss,’ loudly.
‘That would be Detective Inspector,’ she said, icily. ‘Come on, Weir was your pal, you must have an idea.’
‘He wasnae a big pal, though,’ he protested. ‘We were at the school thegither…’
‘Which school?’ I interrupted.
‘Maxwell Academy,’ he replied, then carried on, ‘… and we go out for a pint, but he wasnae best man at my weddin’ or anything.’
‘You’ve got a wife?’
‘Aye. Ah got married three years ago; we’ve got two bairns.’
‘So what were you doing out on the batter with Weir?’
For the first time, he seemed hesitant. ‘The wife chucked me out a couple of weeks ago. I was bunking wi’ Archie for a bit. But Ah’m back home now, ken,’ he added.
‘I see.’ She paused. ‘When you went out with Archie, did anyone else ever tag along, any other men?’
‘No, no’ really. It would be just the two of us usually.’
‘Archie was single, wasn’t he?’
‘Aye, lucky bastard.’
‘Yes, dead lucky,’ she said. ‘Does the name Albert McCann mean anything to you?’
‘Naw, I don’t think so. Naw, it doesnae. Why?’
I leaned forward, eyeballing him again. ‘Because, Mr Wyllie, Albie McCann was murdered on Sunday night by the man who killed Weir and stabbed you, the man you effectively protected for a week by giving us that made-up bloody story.’
‘And you havenae caught him yet?’ he squealed. ‘Ah want protection.’
I nodded. ‘We’ll protect you, Robert. You lied to us; that’s a criminal offence. You’re going to be charged with perverting the course of justice. You’ll be held here overnight and will appear in court tomorrow morning. You can apply for bail if you like and the sheriff will probably allow it, since we’ll have no real reason to object, or you can stay nice and safe in the remand section at Saughton. It’ll be up to you.’ I rose to my feet. ‘Detective Inspector Higgins, I’ll leave the formalities to you and DC McGuire.’
Alison followed me out into the corridor. ‘Do you really want to be that hard on him?’ she asked. ‘The fiscal will probably reduce it to wasting police time.’
I shrugged my shoulders. ‘He might, but my guess is he’ll let it run to secure a plea to the reduced charge. I know, Wyllie was a victim himself, and he was scared, but he concocted a story, and now we have two murders on our hands. There’s also the chance that he might still be in danger from this man, and we’ll be doing him a favour by locking him up. If the fiscal does query the charge, refer him to me and I’ll deal with him.’
‘Yes, sir,’ she replied, smiling.
I grinned back at her, awkwardly. ‘What’s your next move?’
She turned serious. ‘To look for a connection between Weir and McCann. These may be two random attacks by a psychopath out for kicks, but then again, if there is a link between the two victims, it might provide the motive for both murders.’
‘Absolutely. Where will you start?’
‘With Maxwell Academy.’
‘Logical, but if McCann was at that lunatic asylum as well, wouldn’t Wyllie have known him?’
‘They could have been in different years.’
‘True. Okay, run with it and see where it takes you. But I’m interested in what the man said to Wyllie as well. Maybe he got it right first time. Have another look at Weir’s background too.’
‘I will, but I’ll also get warrants to search both victims’ homes. There might be things there that put them together.’
I left her to charge Wyllie and went back upstairs. I took Fred Leggat into my glass-walled closet and gave him a rundown on how the interview had gone, and on Alison’s investigation in general. I didn’t expect him to be involved, but he was my de facto deputy in the Serious Crimes Unit, so it was only right for me to keep him in the loop on all of its business, even that which had been slung our way for reasons of convenience, office politics and public relations. When I’d been offered the job by Alf and the chief, they’d given me fair warning that would happen.