Chapter 47
EDINBURGH
Det Supt Rob Cross sat with his elbow out of the passenger window and flicked a cigarette out into the street.
‘What happened to the mints?’ DI Lucy Warren said as she floored the car down the long street to the entrance to the cemetery.
‘I thought I’d have one last one before you take us into the stone pillars and kill us both.’
‘I have the siren on,’ she said.
‘Oh good, we can go out in style.’
Lucy slowed down as she approached. There was a patrol car not quite blocking the entrance. Cross held out his warrant card.
‘Thank you, sir. It’s down—’
‘We know. We’ve been here before,’ he said as Lucy drove in at a more sedate pace. ‘This is fucking unbelievable,’ Cross said as Lucy navigated her way down to the archway where other emergency vehicles were parked. ‘I mean, we’re sure Kane is still locked up, right?’
‘He is,’ Lucy said, slowing down. ‘I checked.’
‘Wonderful. Now we have a copycat. I told those upstairs we should have had a news blackout, but what do I know?’
They got out and were recognised by the Uniform standing guard at the archway.
‘My wife wonders why I go home and scran all the teacakes. I stress-eat,’ Cross said. He looked at Lucy. ‘You don’t think I’m a fat bastard now, do you?’
‘What do you mean, “now”?’
‘I feel that you and I were married in a former life.’
They walked towards a group of police officers and the pathologist from Cowgate, a young woman named Dr Crystal Main.
‘Dr Main,’ he said.
‘Rob. Lucy.’ She was dressed head to foot in a white suit with the hood pulled up.
‘Hi, Crys,’ Lucy said.
‘What have we got here?’ He looked down at the piece of material sticking out from underneath the gravestone.
‘It looks like somebody’s under there. The weight of the stone would have impacted them into the ground, but the edge caught a piece of this material. On further inspection, there’s a fraction of an arm caught in the material.’
‘Jesus,’ Cross said.
‘We have the Bobcat operator on his way again,’ Lucy said.
‘Wracking up bloody good money on the taxpayer, so he is,’ Cross said. ‘He probably gets paid more for driving that machine than I do.’
‘You could always try lifting the gravestone by hand,’ Crystal said.
‘And do that laddie out of some overtime?’
Crystal smiled at him. ‘That’s what I thought.’
‘Who found it?’ Cross said to a Uniform standing close by.
‘A man and woman walking their dog, sir. They’re outside.’ He led them back through the archway to where an elderly couple were standing with a little brown dog that wasn’t interested in standing still.
‘Thanks, we’ll take it from here,’ Cross said. Then he looked at the man as Lucy stood by his side, and introduced them.
‘I’m Mark Bishop and this is my friend, Trudi Brough. We already spoke to one of the officers and gave our details.’
‘I’m his girlfriend, actually,’ Trudi said.
‘Trudi with an “i”,’ Bishop said, just a hint of sarcasm in his voice. ‘And this little fella is Percy.’
Cross nodded as the dog gave him the once-over and then stood back and barked at him.
‘Can you tell me how you found that item under the gravestone?’ Cross asked Bishop.
‘We were here walking the dog and he sort of pulled us through the archway. He sniffed at that gravestone, and we noticed the material. I knew a body had been found under another grave from watching the news, mind, not because I was responsible. I wanted to do my civic duty and call you lot.’
Trudi snorted a laugh, like this was some sort of game show. ‘That’s not quite true, is it, Mark?’ Trudi said.
Bishop looked like he could quite happily strangle her, even in front of two police officers.
‘Well, it really is,’ Bishop said, gritting his teeth, wondering what prison food tasted like.
Maybe if she rattled on, there would be a chance for him to turn the tables on her and put the blame on her, taking the copper aside and telling him that he really didn’t know this woman, that he had met her online.
‘Silly billy. We wanted to come down here and look at the crime scene,’ she said, the smile still playing on her lips. Bishop wondered if she went home at night and put lipstick around the edge of her mouth as well as on her lips. Just before she sacrificed an animal.
‘Is that true?’ Lucy asked. ‘You wanted to come down here and get a close-up of where a body was lifted from?’
Bishop knew he never wanted to see this mad fanny ever again. Or maybe that choice would be made for him when they carted him away to give him a lobotomy.
‘I’m a true-crime addict,’ he said in his own defence. ‘This was right on my own doorstep. I was just interested, that’s all. I never thought in a million years that we would find another one.’
Cross looked at him. ‘You see, the problem we have now is that you started off with a lie. That throws everything else you say into question. We’re going to have to crawl through your life with a fine-toothed comb now, just in case you are the man we’ve been looking for.’
Bishop’s mouth fell open. ‘I didn’t fucking kill anybody. And you, we’re fucking done,’ he said to Trudi with an ‘i’. Then he looked at Lucy. ‘If you want any more answers, you can talk to me in front of my lawyer. Come on, Percy.’
He started walking away when Trudi called after him. ‘Wait, Mark.’
‘Don’t call me ever again,’ he said and started walking faster.
‘Do you think he’s the one, sir?’ Lucy asked as the couple were out of earshot.
Cross shook his head. ‘Any man who calls his dog Percy isn’t capable of doing something like that. Also, did you see his body language when she called him out? He nearly shat himself. No, he wouldn’t have brought her here if he had shoved a gravestone down on top of somebody.’
‘Unless he planned to do it to her too,’ Lucy said.
Cross gave an amused chuckle. ‘Who would have held his dog? He doesn’t look like he could fight his way through wet tissue paper.’
They heard the truck coming, pulling the Bobcat behind it.
‘Here we go again,’ Cross said.
Fifteen minutes later, the gravestone was moved and the body of Sylvia Green was revealed, in a horrendous state.
‘Just like Kane’s victim, with a book on top of her,’ he said to Lucy. ‘That’s all we need.’
‘I’ll call DCI Brodie and give him a heads-up,’ she said.
Cross looked at the gravestone with the material sticking out of it and then a thought hit him like a freight train.
‘Jesus, Lucy.’
‘What?’
‘Take a look,’ he said. ‘Notice anything different from when we took the first body out?’
Lucy looked at the stones. ‘Fucking hell.’
‘Exactly. There’s not just one more gravestone been knocked over, but two.’ He looked at her. ‘Make that laddie with the Bobcat earn his overtime. Get all those other stones next to the first one moved. I want to see what’s under the others.’