Harkness didn’t think it was funny.
17
‘Checked the shops along Queen Margaret Drive,’ Laidlaw said. ‘Nobody knew him. For all he shows himself he could be living in a cave.’
‘Find the lady,’ Harkness said, enjoying driving on the dual carriageway. ‘Maybe Miss Farren can help.’
Lying close to Glasgow, the modernity of East Kilbride is demonstrated by the good roads that converge on it and the roundabouts that mark their confluence like whirlpools. The town occurs among them like an archipelago.
In one of the islands is the police station. There Laidlaw and Harkness found something interesting. The Uniform Log contained an entry for over a week previously, concerning a girl called Lynsey Farren. The police had been called to her place to deal with a disturbance involving a man.
Hearing the sounds of a violent quarrel, a neighbour, Mr Watters, had knocked at her door. The door was opened slightly. Before it was slammed shut again by a man who told him to go away, he heard Miss Farren’s voice saying she was a prisoner and urging him to call the police. This he did. When the police arrived no man was present in the flat but Miss Farren showed signs of having been violently treated, notably severe bruising on her arms. Miss Farren, however, insisted that she had merely meant to threaten the man with the police and declined to identify him. ‘Miss Farren refused to proceed with the matter.’
She lived in Old Vic Court, in a ninth floor flat. It was a well kept building. Coming out of the lift, Laidlaw checked the names on the landing and rang the bell to the flat that said ‘Michael E. Watters’. Harkness looked at him.
‘She seems a hider,’ Laidlaw said. ‘Like you might need radar to locate her. Let’s see if they can help.’
The door was opened by a tall, thin man whose caution suggested that only muggers called on him. He looked worn.
‘Yes?’
‘Mr Watters?’
‘Yes?’
‘Detective Inspector Laidlaw. Scottish Crime Squad. This is Detective Constable Harkness. We wondered if we could talk to you.’
Laidlaw held out his wallet with the identification-card. Mr Watters stared at it as if it were a knife.
‘Police?’
‘It’s all right. We’re just following up something that might be connected with the incident in Miss Farren’s flat. We thought you might be able to help us.’
‘Excuse me. Could you wait a minute, please?’
He disappeared into the house.
‘Probably away to stash the sub-machine guns,’ Harkness said and took a mock kick at the door. ‘Okay, baby, this is a raid.’
The man came back.
‘Come in, please. I was just explaining to Molly. The wife. She can’t take too much excitement.’
Harkness felt flattered, as if they were a ticker-tape parade. They came into a room that was oppressively cosy. Knick-knacks abounded. It was like a stud-farm for ornaments. Wee horses faced big horses, dogs cohabited with cats, a china donkey, china ducks. Wall space was at a premium. It looked as if they would soon be hanging stuff out of the window. ‘The old curiosity room,’ Harkness thought.
‘Mrs Watters,’ Laidlaw said. ‘I’m Detective Inspector Laidlaw. This is Detective Constable Harkness. It’s kind of you to see us.’
She nodded in agreement. Mr Watters gestured them to sit down.
‘Oh dear,’ she said. ‘What we’ve had to put up with. You live decently all your days. And when you’ve got the place you want, this is what you have to put up with.’
She had the high colouring and the faint wickerwork of veins in her cheeks of someone who might have heart trouble. With her very black hair unmarked by grey, she had a kind of hothouse bloom that contrasted with the washed-out appearance of her husband.
‘I don’t know. The way some people live. We keep ourselves to ourselves. We’re never out.’ She tapped her chest delicately. ‘It’s my heart, you see. But she’s a trial to us.’
‘You mean Miss Farren?’ Laidlaw asked.
She nodded.
‘In what way?’
‘Ho!’ She stared at the electric fire, leaned over and fractionally moved the dish of water in front of it as if she knew exactly where the atmosphere needed moistening.
‘You mean there have been other incidents?’
‘Don’t you think one was enough?’
‘I’m sorry. I don’t understand. What then?’
She paused and looked at her husband.
‘Men,’ she said. ‘Comings and goings.’
She looked at Laidlaw and nodded. Harkness enjoyed watching Laidlaw’s face trying to deal with the invitation to share her shock. He chewed the side of his mouth and was nodding very slowly. Harkness wondered what he was agreeing with.
‘Mr Watters. Maybe you could tell us exactly what happened three weeks ago.’
‘The noise was terrible,’ Mrs Watters said. ‘We stood it as long as we could. Then Michael went to the door. It took them a while to open it.’
‘Who opened it?’
‘It was a man.’
Laidlaw took out his photograph of Tony Veitch and made to pass it to Mr Watters.
‘Was it this man?’
Mrs Watters intercepted it. She looked at it and gave it to her husband. He covered the left-hand side of the face with his hand.
‘I only saw his eye round the edge of the door. It could’ve been his eye.’
Laidlaw looked at Harkness. ‘That your right eye did commit a severe assault,’ Harkness thought.
‘Then he told me to go away and shut the door.’
‘What exactly did he say?’
Mr Watters looked at his wife and paused. He cleared his throat.
‘Fuck off,’ he mumbled.
They all sat waiting for the word to disperse like a noxious smell. Harkness had an insight he didn’t enjoy. It was of Mr Watters spending his days attached to his wife like a life-support unit, a human pacemaker. Since they had come in everything had been focussed on Mrs Watters. The room was her sterile area. Illness has its uses, he thought. Life must approach her in a medical mask. He imagined the two of them in hiding here, interested in nothing more than the beat of her heart.
‘But she shouted to you to phone the police,’ Mrs Watters said. ‘Then she wouldn’t prosecute. She must have known she was in the wrong.’
‘Did you see the man leave?’
‘We keep ourselves to ourselves. What is it you’re trying to find out exactly?’ Mrs Watters was stern.
‘We’re not sure yet,’ Laidlaw said. ‘What does Miss Farren do?’
‘She’s not short of a shilling, the same girl. Some kind of new-fangled shop she has. What is it they call it?’
‘It’s a boutique in the town here,’ Mr Watters said. ‘Overdrive.’
Laidlaw thanked them and they left. Mr Watters saw them to the door. Mrs Watters waved abstractedly like a queen in a passing coach.
‘Which of them do you think’s in more danger?’ Harkness asked.
‘Aye,’ Laidlaw said. ‘I know what you mean.’
Lynsey Farren seemed like a different species. She opened the door at once, saying ‘Forgotten your key. .?’ She obviously hadn’t bothered to check the spyhole that looked as if it had been recently inserted in the door by an amateur joiner. The excitement in her greenish eyes hardened into distrust. She stared at them. They didn’t mind staring back.
She was a big blonde girl, say late twenties, subtle as a fanfare. The face was handsome, wide eyes, strong nose, slightly ferocious mouth, and the body was generous. She made Nell Gwynn look peaky. She was dressed to go out, if not to emigrate, in a long green dress with something that looked like an overgrown waistcoat over it, big earrings, a necklace and so many bangles they almost constituted luggage. She gave the immediate impression she was wearing her boutique.
‘Good evening,’ Laidlaw said, and seemed to Harkness to be showing amazing presence of mind.
‘Who are you?’ she asked. She had one of those slightly butch upper-class voices.
Laidlaw showed his card and said who they were.