I ran through what had happened that day and how Dewar had tried to jump me in Sauchiehall Street Lane, and how it was all a huge misunderstanding because he thought I was one of his wife’s wrestling partners. Maybe it was the prison uniform I was wearing, but when I heard myself say it all out loud, even I didn’t believe it. Ferguson sat impassively, as did his fat friend, and made no comment when I was finished.
‘Let’s move on,’ he said. ‘Ellis’s murder. You say that you were originally hired by Andrew Ellis’s wife to investigate the possibility that he was having an affair?’
‘That’s right.’
‘So you followed Ellis about, and got Archie McClelland to do the same, because you were being paid to by Pamela Ellis?’
‘Yes’
Ferguson frowned. ‘Well, that gives us a bit of a problem. You see, Mrs Ellis told us not only that she never hired you, or any other private detective, but that she never had any suspicions whatsoever about her husband’s fidelity. She’s never heard of you, Lennox.’
‘And you believe her?
‘I have no reason not to believe her.’
‘She was in my office, Jock. And we spoke on the ’phone. How does she explain that?’
‘Archie confirmed that you had him follow Ellis’s car.’
‘Well then? I told you…’
‘All that proves is you told Archie to keep tabs on Ellis. And that you, for some reason, were following Ellis yourself. Archie would do anything for you, Lennox, except lie. He couldn’t tell me that he had been there when you were supposed to have met with Pamela Ellis. In fact, he’s never met or even seen Pamela Ellis.’
‘ Supposed to have met?’ I looked at Ferguson beseechingly. ‘For Christ’s sake, Jock, just tell me straight if you don’t believe me.’
‘This isn’t about what I believe or don’t believe. This is about what can be proved or disproved in court.’ He sighed. ‘And, call me picky, but my belief in you tends to get shaky when you tell me outright lies.’
‘I’m sorry I didn’t front up about having had prior knowledge of the Dewars. It was just that the Dewar thing looked like a straightforward murder-suicide. I thought if I kept it simple all you would need would be a deposition and the inquest and paperwork wouldn’t get in the way of me getting back to Canada. And, if you must know, I felt pretty shitty about the whole thing. Dewar was in a hell of a state that day he jumped me and after that he badgered me to take on his case. The fact remains that I turned my back on a desperate man. And that is the extent of my responsibility for the Dewar deaths. And the extent of my lying. Everything else I’ve told you is true. Can I have another cigarette?’ I stubbed out what was left of the one I’d been smoking. Ferguson pushed the pack and lighter to me and I lit another.
‘Listen,’ I went on, blowing a jet of smoke towards the ceiling strip lights. ‘I’m not saying that I haven’t bent the truth on occasion — but if I were lying to you to cover up that I’d killed either of the Dewars or Andrew Ellis, I’d make it a hell of a lot more convincing and a hell of a lot less elaborate than this crap. Shit, Jock, it even sounds made up to me.’
‘But the fact remains that there is no evidence of you ever having met Pamela Ellis.’
‘Like I said, she was in my office and I ’phoned her. You can check her ’phone records.’
‘That’ll take both a warrant and an age.’
‘But it will at least prove we had a conversation.’
‘Okay. I’ll look into it. Can you give me a date and a rough time?’
My heart sank and the sinking must have shown on my face.
‘What is it?’ asked Ferguson.
‘I ’phoned her from the pub. The Horsehead. I don’t think I ’phoned from the office at all.’
‘A call from a pub doesn’t prove anything.’
‘Yes, Jock,’ I said forcefully, ‘I’m well aware of that.’ Another thought struck me. ‘Wait… she made a call to my digs. She ’phoned to tell me her husband had just gone out. Fiona White took the call before passing it on to me.’
‘Did she tell Mrs White who was calling?’
‘No. But at least it’s proof of contact.’
‘If we can track the call down with the GPO. Even then it doesn’t prove much other than a woman ’phoned you from Andrew Ellis’s home. The fact is his wife flatly denies hiring you and that leaves you following her husband around for reasons of your own. A husband who ends up dead in your office.’
‘She’s lying. This Hungarian group killed her husband and have probably threatened to do the same to her if she talks. You convict me and they’re free and clear. I’ve been set up very professionally and they’re not about to let Pamela Ellis unhitch it all.’
‘Listen, Lennox, this all smacks of you holding back on me. Like you held back on me about your involvement with the Dewars. I have to tell you that we also have witnesses — the doormen — who say you and Sylvia Dewar left the Locarno at almost the same time. Separately, but within a couple of minutes of each other. The same night you get into a tussle in the street with Sheriff Pete outside the Barrowlands over an unnamed woman.’
‘Jesus, Jock… now you’re really clutching at straws.’
‘The truth is I’ve got a lot to clutch at.’
‘Well,’ I said with as much confidence as I could muster, ‘the one thing you don’t seem to have been able to come up with is the most important thing of all: a motive. Say one or both of the Dewars was murdered by a hand other than Tom Dewar’s own; say the Ellis killing, which is completely unconnected in any way to the Dewar deaths, went down the way you’re suggesting it did, the question remains, why? What possible motive would I have for either killing?’
‘On the night before he was murdered, Andrew Ellis’s business premises were broken into. As you know, he was in the demolition business but the target of the raid wasn’t the secure explosives locker. The night watchman was held at gunpoint, tied up and had his public spiritedness pistol-whipped out of him. The one thing he could tell us about the raiders was that they carried the whole job out with military precision. And they communicated by hand signals, not speaking once.’
‘What’s this got to do with me?’
‘The raiders stole fifteen thousand pounds in wages cash from the office safe. Everything this team did was highly professional and showed they had really done their homework. They knew the money would be there that night and the night watchman said they seemed to know their way around perfectly. Almost as if they had had someone on the inside.’
‘Well, don’t you see?’ I said, suddenly energized. ‘All of that with the hand signals… that’s exactly what you would do if your team had voices that would be remembered, either because they would have to talk in Hungarian or Bela Lugosi English. Maybe Ellis himself was their man on the inside, either because he sympathized with them or because he was coerced. I’m telling you, Jock, you find who carried out that robbery and you’ll find who murdered Ellis.’
‘So, let me get this straight,’ Ferguson spoke slowly and deliberately, as if laying down one thought after the other like paving slabs, ‘Whoever took the cash that night murdered Ellis? That’s what you’re saying?’
‘Exactly!’ I held my hands out then let them fall onto my thighs with a slap.
Ferguson reached into the folder again. This time he laid a package on the table next to where he’d left both my business cards lying. The package had been wrapped in brown parcel paper and tied with string, but the police had obviously opened then loosely re-wrapped it. Ferguson eased back the paper to reveal an inch-and-a-half thick brick of banknotes. Fivers.
I hadn’t known what had been inside it, but I recognized the wrapping paper, the string and the size of the package. With everything that had happened with Ellis and subsequently, I had forgotten the package Magda had passed on to me from Ferenc Lang.
‘We found this in your coat pocket. The serial numbers match the stolen cash.’ Ferguson leaned back and folded his arms. ‘Like I said, Lennox, you’ve been holding back on me and now, most definitely, is not the time to be holding back. So let’s have it. Everything.’
And that was exactly what I gave him.
