Chapter 61
FIFE
‘I wish I’d gone for a pee before we came here,’ Cameron complained.
‘I’m glad I did. And my bladder is a lot older than yours,’ Art said.
They were sitting in a pool car in Arncrouch, a little bit down the road from the cottage.
‘How long did Brodie say we had to sit here?’ Cameron was hungry too. His mother had made fish and chips but now he felt like a teacake. ‘You hungry?’
‘No, I’m not hungry. What are you like? A fucking bairn would be sitting quieter than you. “I need a pish.” “I’m hungry.” What next? You going to start running up the main street naked?’
‘You got any mints?’
‘For God’s sake. Get a fucking grip.’
‘My arse is numb. I need to get out and stretch my legs.’
‘Duck down. There’s some bastard now.’
‘Where’s Brodie?’ Cameron asked, slinking down further into the seat.
‘He’s five minutes out. He sent me a text.’
‘When?’
Art looked at him. ‘Five minutes ago.’
‘Oh, right.’
Art kept his gaze just above the windscreen as he observed the figure, clad in black and moving quickly. He turned right into the quiet street where the entrance to the cottage lay and approached the front door. Tape had been affixed across the entrance: Police – do not cross.
The figure pulled the tape off, took a key out of his pocket and unlocked the front door.
Then he was inside.
Art sat back up, as did Cameron, and he got on his radio just as a set of headlights approached from behind and stopped right behind their car. Art’s phone rang.
‘Sir.’
‘What’s the latest, Arthur?’ Brodie asked.
Fuck’s sake. ‘Somebody is now in Mrs Wallace’s house.’
‘Right. Warn the others and let’s go.’
Cameron didn’t need to be told twice and was out of the car. ‘I think I can hear my bladder sloshing,’ he said.
‘Well, if we see any forest fires, I’ll point you in the right direction.’
Brodie walked up and Art looked at the DCI. ‘If you don’t mind me saying, sir, you look like shite.’
‘Let’s just say, I’ve had a busy evening. But so do you. What’s your excuse?’
‘I look like this just to blend in.’
Brodie patted him on the upper arm. ‘Let’s get in there, Arthur.’
‘Do me a favour, sir,’ he asked.
‘What’s that?’
‘Call me Art.’
‘Okay, Art, but let’s move before he comes back out.’
They crossed the road and walked over to the entrance where the figure had gone in, and entered the house, just as the headlights from a patrol car came round the corner.
Inside, they were as quiet as they could be in a cottage that was probably hundreds of years old and had all the stability of a house of cards.
Tarps had been fastened to the roof, making the house waterproof but not silent. This didn’t really matter, as there was the sound of banging emanating from within the house.
Brodie followed the noise, turning down the hallway where the damaged bedroom was. The banging was coming from the room opposite.
Brodie gently pushed the door open and flicked the light switch.
Ted Carr was standing holding a hammer. An old, dusty one, not the one he had used to prise up some floorboards.
‘Put it down, Mr Carr,’ Art said.
‘It’s over now,’ Brodie said, just as the two uniforms strolled along behind them. For once, PC Don McCoy wasn’t shouting at the top of his lungs. He simply nodded to Cameron, poised to start kicking and swinging.
Carr sighed and put the hammer down.
‘Is that the one Toby Wallace used to kill Marcus?’
‘It is,’ Carr said. He locked eyes with Brodie.
‘The bastard deserved it. He battered that little boy and abused Laura. He would have abused Ruth too if I hadn’t interfered.
Laura told me what he had been doing, and Marcus came in when Toby was sexually assaulting her and he ran off shouting, but Toby was quick.
He picked up a hammer and hit Marcus with it, killing him.
Toby then slumped down and started crying.
Laura came running over to my house and told me what had happened. I went back over with her.’
‘Where was Margaret at the time?’
‘Away on a trip or something. That’s why Toby had no problem going into Laura’s room.’
‘Why didn’t you call the police?’ Art asked.
‘And have him walking the streets again years later? No, you didn’t see those girls’ faces.
They were terrified, especially Ruth. But we made sure she didn’t see Marcus lying dead.
I was incensed. I asked Laura if there were sleeping pills in the house.
She said her mother had plenty. She had them prescribed but didn’t take them all the time.
So we crushed a lot of them and mixed the powder into a bottle of whisky.
Then I told Toby it was going to be alright.
We would help. He took the offered whisky and kept on drinking.
We got him on his feet and into the living room.
We put him in his armchair, wiped the bottle clean, and then placed his hand on it so only his prints would be on it, just in case.
Then we left him. Laura begged me not to.
It would mean the world would know her foster father had raped her, and then it would be her word against his.
Except he would be dead. I agreed, and we wrapped the poor little fella up in plastic bin bags and taped it, then I lifted the floorboards and we put him inside.
Then when they were nailed down, we cleaned up. ’
‘How long did it take Toby to die?’ Art asked.
‘I’m not sure. Laura went to bed. The next morning, she called for an ambulance, saying she couldn’t wake Toby up. His death was ruled a suicide, and then Marcus was reported missing and soon Toby’s death was forgotten about. I hid this hammer under the floorboards.’
‘And now you’re taking it out in case the forensics team find it,’ Brodie said.
‘Yes.’
Brodie turned round to the Uniforms. ‘Arrest him. I’m going to talk to the procurator fiscal in the morning.’
McCoy stepped forward. ‘Right, ya fuckin’ baw bag. Get your fucking hands out in front of you.’
Brodie looked at Art, who just raised his eyebrows and shrugged. When Carr was taken out, he looked at the DCI. ‘Det Supt Breck’s nephew,’ was all he said.