Most of them were dark skinned and this alone made the tall policeman purse his lips and wonder why.
Had Britain been seen as the land of milk and honey for many of these fellows from overseas? And had they turned to lives of crime in their disillusionment? Who knew the answer to that one? He thought of DC Fathy and the young Egyptian's privileged background.
Frowning to himself, Lorimer began to wonder if the man had been targeted not for the colour of his skin at all but because he came from a wealthy family, unlike most of the officers who joined the police force. It was an angle worth considering, he told himself, mentally filing that thought away for future consideration.
'Detective Chief Inspector, how nice to meet you,' a slim blonde woman approached him. Lorimer took in the sleepy eyes that regarded him from under her long lashes and that curving smile. Kirsty Young put out her hand and he took it, noting the firm handshake and the way she looked so steadily at him as though they were quite alone and not surrounded by technicians, cameramen and youngsters passing in and out of the dark walled area. His first thought was what a great police officer this woman might make. There was something about her that reminded him of a quotation from King Lear: 'you have that in your countenance which I would fain call master. What's that? Authority.' Yes, Kirsty Young had such a quality, Lorimer thought, following her as she led them out of the studio into a corridor leading to a large room where rows of chairs had been set out.
'We haven't had the pleasure of working together before,'
Kirsty said, her husky voice still holding a trace of her Scottish roots. 'But I believe you did a programme when Nick was here?
And of course you know Alex Loughran,' she added as the programme's editor passed with a wave of her hand.
"l'hat's right,' Lorimer replied, taking a seat beside her as she motioned towards the end of a row.
'A couple of soft drinks, Pamela,' the presenter asked the tiny girl with the bright scarlet hair. 'That all right with you, Chief Inspector?'
'Fine,' Lorimer replied. 'We had a series of young girls found strangled and left in a Glasgow park,' he went on, picking up the thread of their conversation. 'Your programme was hugely instrumental in finding the killer,' he said approvingly.
'But this is quite a different sort of case, isn't it?' Kirsty asked, crossing one leg over the other, her navy linen trousers draping in loose folds as she clasped her hands over her knees.
'You're right. This is altogether trickier. We want to see if we can locate a woman, Marianne Scott. Her brother, Billy Brogan, is somewhere overseas and we have reason to believe he's involved somehow in the murder of Marianne's former husband.' Lorimer stopped, biting his lip. 'It's a bit complicated. Brogan was thought to be a small-time drug dealer but our current intelligence suggests that he was involved in the drug scene in a much deeper way altogether.'
'Go on,' Kirsty nodded, her eyes still holding his own, showing that she was genuinely interested.
'We think the ex-husband, Kenneth Scott, had been stalking his former wife. He was found shot in his own home, he's got no record nor has he any known association with criminals other than the fact that Brogan was his brother-in-law.' Lorimer took a deep breath. 'Then a couple of other Glasgow dealers are found shot dead in Brogan's home and we get the nod that Brogan has skipped to Spain.'
'You think Brogan killed all three men?' Kirsty asked.
Lorimer gave a mirthless laugh. 'That's just it. We did at first, but we don't think that now. Timing for the second two is all wrong and we've got ballistics evidence to suggest that all three were killed by the same weapon.'
Kirsty re-crossed her legs and frowned at him. 'So why are you putting out an appeal for the sister? I don't quite understand.'
'She's deliberately gone into hiding. Even made sure her name was taken off Glasgow University's registry database while she was a student there. Something's wrong,' he said, leaning forward. She may even be dead, he almost told her, but stopped himself in time. Had Marianne Scott been tatgeted by the same hit man? This was a question that Lorimer did not yet want to utter aloud, his mind full of so many doubts and possibilities. But what if she were still alive? 'If we can find her and question her, or anyone who knows her or has seen her, we may be able to locate the brother.'
'How will that help to find the killer, though?'
'Brogan owed a lot of money to some very dangerous people.
And only he can give us their names. That isn't the whole story, though, I'm afraid,' he continued. 'A man called Sahid Jaffrey was brutally killed on the south side of the city recently.'
Lorimer looked hard at the woman across the table. 'He was the police informant who let us know that Brogan was in Spain.'
'This gets more and more complicated,' Kirsty said. 'How do you suggest we put such a lot of information across to our viewers?'
'We don't,' said Lorimer shortly. 'What I want to do is to appeal for information for any sighting of this woman whose ex-husband was found dead. If we can slant the appeal to that sort of angle, suggest without actually saying that she may be a suspect, then perhaps we will have some response.'
'And you don't think she actually had anything to do with these killings?' Kirsty asked, slowly.
'They were done by a professional,' Lorimer replied. 'Brogan's ex-army and we thought at first it might have been him.'
'But the timings were wrong,' Kirsty said, echoing Lorimer's earlier statement. `So what do you actually know about this woman, Marianne Scott?'
'She was a mature student at the University of Glasgow. That's why we asked the editors to have footage of the campus as part of the appeal,' he said. 'Anyone who knew her in that context might want to give us a ring.'
'How odd that she was able to have her name taken off the registry,'
Kirsty remarked.
'Aye,' Lorimer replied. 'We're looking into that as well. And we'll find out just how she managed it, believe me.'
'Well, Chief Inspector, this is certainly going to be a little bit different from our usual appeals. Still,' her eyes twinkled at him, 'we are accustomed to senior officers giving out only part of their case histories. Wouldn't do to give too much information to the criminals, after all. That's not what we're about.'
'Indeed,' Lorimer nodded. `So, this is what I have drawn up.'
He handed over a slim sheaf of notes from the folder that was on his knee.
Maggie set down her empty coffee mug on a coaster and tapped in the numbers she knew off by heart. Almost immediately she heard her friend's voice. Rosie sounded tired, Maggie thought guiltily. 'Hi, it's me. Hope you weren't lying down or anything,' she added lamely.
'Don't worry, the phone's beside the sofa,' Rosie replied. 'Nice to hear from you. It's been a while. Busy as always?' she chuckled.
'Yes, you know what it's like,' Maggie said vaguely, twisting a dark curled strand of hair through her fingers. 'Sorry I haven't been in touch,' she said. 'Anyway, just wanted you and SoIly to know that Bill's on Crimewatch tonight. It's not a reconstruction, just an appeal,' she said.
'Oh, right. That wouldn't be anything to do with these three chaps whose PMs I did recently, would it?'
'Yes, same case. The one that involves a man called Brogan, I think. Bill hasn't told me too much about it,' she replied.
'Great,' Rosie said. 'Well, thanks for letting us know. If I'm off to bed before it's on I'll get SoIly to record it. He's up at the uni just now,' she added. `Oh,' Maggie replied. There was a silence between the two women as Maggie struggled to put her thoughts into words. She couldn't tell Rosie why she hadn't been in touch, she simply couldn't.
'Well,' Rosie said at last in a tone that Maggie realised was forced brightness. 'Maybe we'll see you pair up here one of these days when life's calmed down, eh?' `Mm. That would be nice. Maybe once Bill's less busy with this horrible case,' she added.