I recognised the man in charge immediately – Chief Inspector Bob Davis from St Andrews. I had played golf a couple of times with him in competitions.
He stopped, aghast at the sight in front of him. He looked at me, the four bodies and the shattered window.
“Jesus! Bob Bruce! What the hell’s been going on here?” “If you could just cut me free I’ll tell you – and I suggest you handcuff all these guys and take them into custody.”
He cut me loose as quickly as he could, looking with despair at my burns. He helped me to my feet but I couldn’t stand. I collapsed back into the chair.
“You need to get to the hospital as soon as possible,” he said, and called over two of his men. Before they helped me up I gave Bill a very quick explanation of what had happened, but not why.
“These two over there kidnapped me and brought me here. That one,” pointing to Reid, “has been torturing me. I think he has been shot and also burned. He’ll need medical care but, please, not at the same hospital as me!”
“And I think you know who that is” I added, pointing to Keith McDowell.
“I certainly do.” “Well, believe it or not he was the boss behind the whole business. He is accessory to torture and murder and I think you’ll find that one of these three will give you the evidence you need. Can you hold them all overnight?”
“Sure. But who tied them all up?” “I was rescued by three masked men in combat gear. They came in through the window, neutralised them all and then scarpered when they heard your sirens. God knows who they were but they’ve gone.
“Listen, could you get me to the hospital in Cupar please? And, if you come round tomorrow and I’m up to it, I’ll tell you the whole story. If you want to take photos of all this before your guys take me off, go ahead. I can hang on for a few minutes.”
Bill confirmed he would hold them all overnight and come and see me the next afternoon. He took photos of the scene, including my wounds and his two officers helped me out to the car and took me off to the hospital.
Chapter 26
On the car journey to hospital there was no conversation. I couldn’t have talked if I tried. I surrendered to the intense relief of being safe. I could bear the pain much more easily now that I knew there would be no more and that soon it would all heal and disappear. My wounds would leave a few scars but I honestly didn’t care.
The policemen arranged for me to be taken care of as soon as we arrived. My wounds were cleaned and dressed and, with a healthy dose of painkillers, I was installed in a private room and took no more than a few minutes to crash out.
I had been assured by Dr Bishan that they would all heal but that I was liable to have to stay in for four days. I hoped that the hospital bed crisis that we kept on hearing about would oblige them to let me home earlier. I managed to get one of the nurses to promise me that she would contact Fernie Castle and pass on my news to Pierre.
I awoke late the next morning bathed in sun streaming in through the curtainless, east-facing window of my room. I felt rested although uncomfortable. They had rigged up a cage across my legs to keep the weight of the blankets off my wounded thighs. My left arm was bandaged and strapped to my side.
My immediate reaction was a desire to get up and out of here, but as soon as I tried to move my legs or arm I changed my mind. That wasn’t going to be possible. The painkillers had worn off and any movement was excruciating agony. I gave in and accepted that I wasn’t going to be playing golf for a few days yet.
Breakfast was brought in to me by a cheerful nurse who helped me butter my toast as I only had one arm operational. I munched my way through three slices of toast and marmalade (I’d asked for an extra one!) and I reflected back on the previous evening’s events. I’d been damned lucky. Keith McDowell was a ruthless bastard. I had suspected that but I hadn’t realised how much of an issue I had created for him. I was convinced that he would have had no compunction in getting rid of me permanently. Gavin Reid was clearly round the bend. There’s probably some crazy title for his condition – post-adolescent mental pyromania disorder or some such cock-eyed term. As far as I was concerned he was just plain nuts and needed to be locked up. And I’m quite sure that anyone who had gone through what I had would agree with me.
With my hunger suitably satisfied I made myself as comfortable as I could, moving my limbs very gently, and tried to snooze.
I assumed that Bob Davis or one of his men would be round to visit to get my version of yesterday’s events but, in fact, my first visitor was Pierre. He had got my message at the hotel and he came round mid-morning.
I was delighted to see him. I had been wondering how he had managed his Seventh Cavalry stunt and I was desperate to ask him. He enquired after my well-being. I assured him that I was OK and that according to the doctor I would be out in a few days and my wounds would be healed up.
I now felt sufficiently safe to be able to unburden myself. So first I explained to Pierre how I had suspected what had been going on.
“It was weird. If you remember we had worked our way back to the lawyer, Reid, and the only person I knew who knew him was Keith McDowell. That in itself didn’t help me much, but suddenly I remembered the article I had read about the death of Dewar in the mountains. You probably didn’t notice it but it mentioned that he had been chairman of the Committee for Urban Planning. It was that that got me wondering. So I called my journalist friend in Edinburgh who did a little digging for me. He managed to find out that McDowell’s Group is sitting on about twenty plots of land around the country which, if he could get planning permission for building more of his bloody supermarkets, would be worth a fortune to him. That got me wondering if he had been feeding money to Dewar through Reid and Purdy’s crooked scheme at AIM in order to get planning permission pushed through more quickly. You know how difficult it is to get these things approved nowadays.
“It made some kind of sense. When we blew the AIM thing apart and Purdy disappeared he couldn’t bribe Dewar any longer and keep far enough in the background to be safe. He could have tried to set up some other way of channelling money to Dewar but that would have been difficult without creating a fairly direct line between them. He must have decided to cut his losses and get rid of any chance that anyone could trace anything back to him. So he got Gavin Reid and his henchmen to eliminate me and Dewar.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” asked Pierre. “It seemed a bit far fetched at first. I wanted to find out more. I was going to tell you when I was sure. That’s why I invited McDowell for that game of golf. I thought I might be able to steer the conversation a bit and confirm my theory. One big mistake. He must have already decided that he needed me out of the way. But he also needed to be sure that I hadn’t spoken to anyone else. He wanted to know how much I knew or had guessed. Which explains all this.”
“What the hell did they do to you?” I explained briefly what had happened in that room and Pierre was very concerned and apologetic that they hadn’t got there in time.
“I presume your three helpers were Mike, Doug and Mac? But how did you know where I was?”
He then told me how he had been worried the last time he had seen me and when I hadn’t explained to him my thoughts he had had a chat with Mike. They had decided to put Mac and Doug on my tail for a few days just in case I was in any danger.
“They saw the kidnapping at the golf course but hadn’t been able to do anything about it. Doug followed the car and Mac got in touch with Mike and me. When Doug saw you tied to the chair in that front room he sounded the alarm. We got organized as soon as we could but, unfortunately, not fast enough to save you from all this. I’m sorry.”