Chapter 14
EDINBURGH
Brodie had skipped lunch and now it was halfway between lunch and dinner and he felt his stomach grumbling.
He had to admit, Gabriel Kane had a good poker face. No tics, no eye movement, no sweating, just the briefest hint of a smile that was questioning Brodie’s statement.
‘You want to do this little dance, Liam? Try to throw me off balance?’
Brodie resisted the urge to look at the camera that was recording this conversation. Det Supt Rob Cross would be watching on a monitor, and Brodie didn’t want to look at it.
‘Just telling you how it is, Kane,’ Brodie said.
‘Here we go with last-name using again. I thought we had an agreement?’
‘We did; you agreed to tell us who your victim is. That was obviously a blatant lie.’
‘Maybe you mistook her for somebody else,’ Ruth said, in a tone that was placating, as she would talk to her grandfather who had just pissed the bed.
‘Ruth, you really are a sweetheart,’ Kane said, shifting his eyes to her, ‘but please don’t treat me like a fool.’
Christ, he doesn’t know, Brodie thought. He really thinks that’s Marianne Taylor.
‘Could you be mistaken, Gabriel?’ Brodie said, switching tack now.
‘Either beating me with a verbal hose or killing me with kindness. There doesn’t seem to be any middle road with you, Liam.’
‘That’s exactly what it is: meeting you halfway.’ Brodie locked eyes with the doctor.
Kane took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. ‘How can you be so sure that it’s not her?’
‘Marianne Taylor had her own teeth. Her friend told us that she was the one who drove Marianne to the dentist. So we know that she was missing, had her own teeth and was never found. The woman we found today had false teeth. Top and bottom. Unless Marianne went to another dentist and had all her teeth pulled, then it’s not her.
But DNA is being extracted as we speak and Marianne has a sister who lives in Dundee.
She’s agreed to a swab, then we’ll get it to the lab and we’ll get a familial DNA result if it’s her.
’ Brodie stared at Kane. ‘But we both know that’s not her. Why don’t you just tell me who it is?’
He watched every line on Kane’s face, looked at his eyes, watched the breathing. The old bastard hadn’t known it wasn’t her.
‘I want to go back to my room now, please,’ Kane said.
‘Just a few more questions,’ Brodie said.
‘Now!’ Kane shouted, the mask slipping.
He was escorted out of the room and back to his own room.
‘You aren’t playing games with him, Liam, are you?’ Ruth asked when it was just the two of them.
He looked at her. ‘I wish I was.’