Chapter 22
EDINBURGH
Ivy Jack hadn’t been married. But she had a sister. And they didn’t live in Comiston like Gabriel Kane had told them.
The afternoon heat was giving Brodie a tanking. He didn’t like too much heat, preferring a more moderate temperature.
‘If we ever wondered if Kane was a lying bastard, then we just had it confirmed,’ Lucy said as they pulled up outside the large detached house in a quiet cul-de-sac in Liberton. A Victorian build, it had been split into three apartments.
Alice Jack lived on the ground floor, right-hand side.
‘Can I help you?’ she asked, answering the door. There was no caution, Brodie thought.
They showed their IDs. ‘DCI Liam Brodie, DI Lucy Warren,’ he said, and her eyes went wide. ‘Are you Ms Alice Jack?’
She took in a deep breath as if he’d just asked her an inappropriate question regarding the colour of her underwear and her cheeks flushed. ‘Yes. Is it about Ivy?’
‘May we come inside, Ms Jack?’ Lucy asked.
‘Yes, yes, of course.’ She stood back and held the door open.
She was a tall woman, closer to six feet than not, but skinny, dressed in an old-fashioned skirt that had folds in it and which looked like she was waiting to go on-set where she was the matriarch of a Highland dynasty.
The blouse was white with pearl buttons and a thin gold chain was around her neck.
The house was well kept and smelled of old money. The carpet was thick and plush underfoot. Several doors led off the hallway, which was square and was lit by a small lamp sitting on a table.
‘Please come through to the living room,’ she said, taking the lead and walking ahead.
A couple of leather couches made up the seating arrangements, with a couple of wooden dining chairs waiting in reserve should a small party of people decide to pop in unannounced.
‘Please take a seat,’ Alice said, rushing over to one of the couches like musical chairs was about to start.
They sat opposite. Brodie was surprised to see that the TV wasn’t the size of a football pitch but something that was borderline antique. At the very least, it had probably acquired classic status.
‘We don’t watch much TV,’ Alice said, seeing Brodie looking at the screen.
A black cat walked into the room, looked at Brodie and miaowed at him, walking right over and rubbing against him.
‘That’s Dutchess,’ Alice said. ‘Dutchess, that’s Liam and Lucy. They’re here to talk to Mummy.’
The cat purred as Brodie ran his fingers down the cat’s back near her tail. She arched up a bit, obviously enjoying the physical attention.
‘Is this about Ivy?’ Alice asked again.
Brodie stopped playing with the cat, and Dutchess moved over to Lucy. ‘Yes, it is.’
‘Have you found her?’
‘Ms Jack—’
‘Alice.’
‘Alice, I’m sorry to tell you this, but we found a body, and we believe it may be Ivy. But we’re going to need your help.’
‘Oh, God. She’s dead.’ Alice put her hand up to her mouth and started crying. Lucy got up and walked over to her, careful not to stand on or get tripped up by Dutchess, and she sat down beside the crying woman, putting an arm around her shoulder.
‘I’m so sorry, Alice,’ she said, and the woman put her head against Lucy.
Brodie took the time to look around the room. Photos were on a sideboard, all of them of two women together, obviously on different days, in different places. He could now see what Ivy looked like, pre-gravestone days. A pretty if not attractive woman, she looked pleasant, with a nice smile.
There was an open box of hankies on a side table next to Brodie, and Lucy indicated with her head for him to get it. He pulled one out and she shook her head slightly; the box!
He balled up the hanky, shoved it into his suit pocket and handed the box over.
‘Here, take a hanky, Alice,’ Lucy said.
Alice pulled away and tore a couple out of the box and dabbed at her eyes as she sniffed. ‘What… how did she die?’
Brodie knew he couldn’t tell her right at that moment. That would come later, when Alice was in a better place to be told the truth, but this wasn’t it. ‘I can’t reveal that at the moment due to the investigation,’ he said. ‘However, we would like to get a DNA sample from you, if we could.’
‘DNA? Can’t you identify her?’
‘No, we can’t, not through normal channels.’
Alice stared wide-eyed at them. ‘That means she’s been dead a while, doesn’t it?’
Lucy looked at Brodie, who answered, ‘I’m afraid it does.’
‘Can you tell me where she was found?’ Alice asked.
‘Again, this is just the start of the investigation, so I’m not at liberty.’
Alice nodded and looked down at the carpet before glancing at them both in turn. ‘She was murdered, wasn’t she?’ She smiled a bitter smile. ‘What other reason is there to investigate? Somebody took her life.’
Brodie locked eyes with her. ‘Yes, we believe she was murdered. That’s why we need your help with the DNA. We have to be sure it’s her, first of all. Did your sister have false teeth?’
Alice nodded. ‘Yes. Top and bottom.’
‘Let’s go back to the beginning,’ Brodie said. ‘The last time you saw her. I know you made a missing persons report, but think back to that night. Was there anything unusual going on? Had anybody contacted Ivy? Did she say she was going on a date, perhaps?’
‘Oh, no. We never married. We were companions for each other. Men didn’t enter into the equation. Not that we are… were… you know…’
Brodie nodded. Two sisters who enjoyed each other’s company and who were satisfied with that lifestyle. He’d seen it before.
‘She worked in the bookshop in Newington,’ Lucy said, ‘but if you don’t mind me saying, you don’t look like either of you needed to work.’
‘We don’t need money. Ivy just wanted to do something to occupy her time, and she knew Sylvia. When she found out Sylvia needed some help in the shop, she took the job. I have my volunteer work.’
‘She must have come into contact with quite a few people in the bookshop,’ Lucy said.
‘There were regulars, believe it or not. Sylvia, the owner, would go to estate sales just to pick up books. She found some rare ones and would call the collectors she had noted. There were plenty of regular customers, and she always had a good word for them.’
‘Tell me about the last day you saw her,’ Brodie said gently.
Alice nodded and took a deep breath before speaking.
‘She didn’t work there every day. Just three days a week, supposedly: Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
It was a Friday the last time I saw her.
We were going to have a bite to eat that night and then go see a film along Dundee Street.
I can’t remember which one now. I wish I could remember, but the name escapes me.
Ivy would remember. She was good with things like that.
Anyway, she left to catch the bus at the end of our street.
It took her to outside the old Odeon picture house, the one we used to go to before it closed down.
I said I would catch a bus there in the late afternoon and meet her in the shop.
When I went to the shop, Sylvia told me Ivy wasn’t there.
She didn’t work on a Friday. I told her she was mistaken.
Ivy had worked there on a Friday for a long time.
Sylvia said, no, it was just on Monday and Wednesday. ’
‘If she wasn’t going to work on Fridays, where would she be going that you didn’t know about?’ Brodie asked.
‘I have no idea.’
Brodie could see the lie in her face. She was keeping something from them. ‘If there’s anything you can tell us to help solve Ivy’s murder, now’s the time, Alice.’ Brodie leaned forward.
‘Well, I wasn’t sure if Ivy had had a breakdown or something.
That she might have gone somewhere to be alone and didn’t want to tell me at first, when she didn’t come back after the weekend, that’s when I reported her missing.
The police took the report, of course, but nothing came of it.
She was an adult; she could do what she wanted.
They did the barest minimum to find her, then filed it away and forgot about it.
But as time went on and she hadn’t come back, I kept her mail for her.
Every single piece, except the junk mail. I still have it all.’
‘Did any of it make you think she was coming back?’ Lucy asked.
‘I’ll go and get the pile and show you.’ She stood up and left the room. She returned a few minutes later. She handed Brodie a pile of letters with ribbon tied around them. She undid the ribbon, flipped through them and pulled a couple out.
Brodie looked at them. There was a printed address on the front from the sender. The Astley Ainslie Hospital.
‘She was seeing a psychiatrist,’ Alice said.
‘Have you opened these?’ Brodie said, looking at the back to see if there were any signs that a kettle had been used to steam them open. They didn’t appear to have been.
‘No.’
‘How do you know she was seeing a psychiatrist?’ Brodie asked.
‘The Astley is where people go to speak to a psychiatrist, isn’t it?’
Brodie looked at Lucy, almost as if he was suggesting that she had intimate knowledge of the place. ‘I think they deal with a lot of psychological problems there.’ He knew Gabriel Kane worked there and that’s where he would have seen Ivy. He kept that from Alice for now.
‘Ivy was a troubled woman. It all happened after the accident.’
‘What accident?’ Lucy asked.
Alice drew in a breath and blew it out softly.
‘We were out with our friends, me and Ivy. Sylvia, Marianne and two other friends. The summer of 2020, almost five years to the day. I drove that night. I wasn’t going to drink that night when we all went out.
We went to a pub in the countryside, near Penicuik, and it was great fun.
I had one drink, then I got the taste and had a few.
Not as much as the others but enough to put me over the limit.
We were coming down Lasswade Road, I got to the traffic lights and didn’t see it had changed to red.
We were having a laugh and carrying on. You have to understand. ’
‘What happened next?’
‘I went blazing through the red light. Two minutes’ drive from home.
It happened just around the corner at the intersection with Mount Vernon Road.
I hit two cyclists. I’m ashamed to say one of them died, and the other was badly injured.
I paid my dues to society, but Ivy was beyond furious.
We had to get rid of the car because she couldn’t drive.
And the fact that I took somebody’s life – well, you would think I’d set fire to an orphanage the way she went on.
I still feel horrendous to this day, but I can’t change things. ’
‘Marianne who?’ Brodie asked, the name of Kane’s supposed victim ringing in his ears.
‘Taylor. I haven’t spoken to them in a long time. We didn’t keep in touch after the accident. Everybody was too scared. It was a horrific night. We didn’t drift apart, more like we ignored each other.’
‘Can I ask what the outcome of your court appearance was?’ Lucy asked.
‘I got two years’ probation and was banned from driving for six years. I have to resit my driving test if I want my licence back. I don’t know if I do.’
He nodded, not wanting to judge the woman. No amount of admonishment now would bring back the dead cyclist. ‘Would you mind if we opened these?’ he asked Alice.
‘Not at all. Since she’s not going to be opening them herself.’ Her lips quivered as she spoke and she fought to regain control.
He slid a finger into the seal of the envelope and ran it along, tearing it until it was open. He took the letter out, opened it and read it.
‘It’s a reminder for Ivy to keep her appointments. She missed one. It’s dated after the day she disappeared.’
‘Does it say who she was seeing?’ Alice wondered.
Brodie shook his head. ‘No. I don’t think it would anyway. That’s private.’ The lie came easily.
‘I just wondered if there would be anybody who would tell me why she went there.’ Alice looked at him. ‘She didn’t tell me. I had no idea she was going there. As I said, I thought she was working on a Friday.’
‘Can I take this? And the other one?’ Brodie said.
‘Of course.’
‘And if I could get Lucy to swab the inside of your cheek for the DNA, that would be great.’
Lucy pulled a bag out of her pocket like a magician and did the thing with the cotton swab and the test tube.
‘Promise me you’ll catch whoever did this,’ Alice said.
Brodie didn’t have the heart to tell her they already had.