'How do we play it?' asked Kelly.
'By ear,' said Fenton. 'Let's go.'
Kelly pushed open the gate. Fenton anticipated the squeal.
'Did it ring?' asked Kelly as he pushed the bell.
'Yes,' replied Fenton.
Murray appeared in the doorway. 'Yes?'
'It's me again Mr Murray, Tom Fenton. I was here last night.'
'Yes?' repeated Murray without any acknowledgement of Fenton's last visit.
'I wonder if we might have another word with you?'
Murray's contorted his face as he strained to see Kelly in the shadows. Fenton introduced them and Kelly held out his hand. Murray ignored it and turned round. 'Come,' he said and led the way inside.
Kelly shot Fenton a glance as they followed Murray indoors but Fenton pretended not to notice. Murray sat down in the chair he had been sitting in, judging by the book and the half empty glass beside it, and gestured to the two men to sit like candidates for interview.
Fenton noticed that the 'formal' double breasted jacket of the last occasion had been replaced by a more casual Fair Isle pullover whose already intricate pattern had been augmented by dried tomato seeds, custard, the ubiquitous egg and some green stuff that defied visual analysis. Murray seemed to be in a constant state of agitation, continually searching through his pockets without ever seeming to find what he was looking for.
Fenton waited for a few moments then coughed to attract Murray's attention. The pocket searching stopped and Murray stared at Fenton without blinking until Fenton spoke.
'We are puzzled about the man who came to see your sister Mr Murray. Are you absolutely certain he said that he was from the Blood Transfusion Service?'
'Yes,' said Murray without hesitation.
'Then you saw him?' asked Fenton.
'Yes.'
'Can you describe him?'
Murray produced one of his dramatic pauses before saying, 'Why?'
'I know this is going to sound strange but the BTS say that no one called to see your sister Mr Murray.'
Another long pause then Murray decided that the easiest course of action was to answer the question. 'He was of medium height and build, slim, fair and somewhere in his middle twenties.'
Fenton felt a crushing sense of disappointment for there was no way that Nigel Saxon could be described in these terms, not even by a loving mother. With unerring accuracy the slings and arrows of his particularly outrageous fortune had homed in on him again.
Fenton let Kelly continue the conversation with Murray while he wondered how to fit this latest piece of information to the puzzle. He became aware of Kelly asking about the fair haired man. 'Is there anything more you can tell us about him Mr Murray?'
'Well…there was his ring.'
'Ring?'
'He was wearing a ring…I recognised it.' Fenton could sense the reluctance in Murray's voice as Kelly continued to probe.
'Go on.'
'He was wearing a Cavalier Club ring,' said Murray finally.
Kelly and Fenton both looked at Murray's hands and he saw them do it. 'No, I'm not a member,' he said.
Fenton felt the tension in the room. He detected in Murray the same reluctance to speak of the club as he had in Ross in the lab. He noted that Kelly seemed not to share his own ignorance.
Murray got up from his chair and crossed the room to a silver drinks tray. Without asking he poured out three whiskies from a crystal decanter and handed them round. He sat down again with slow deliberation, adjusted the glasses on his nose and said, 'Now, you will tell me what this is all about.' It was not a request, it was a directive.
Fenton could see that the eyes behind the glasses had gone cold and hard, the first indication of the inner man, he thought. It had come as no great surprise for he had already deduced that there must be more to Murray than the bumbling eccentric he had seen so far. You did not end up living in Braidbank by being a complete clown.
Kelly's look suggested that Fenton should answer so he did, saying that they themselves were not at all sure what was going on but it did seem likely that the man who had come to see his sister was in some way mixed up in the deaths at the Princess Mary Hospital.
Murray looked at him like an owl contemplating his dinner. He asked slowly and quietly, 'Are you suggesting that my sister's death might not have been an accident.'
Fenton moved uncomfortably in his seat. 'It's possible,' he said.
'Do police know of this?'
'All we have at the moment Mr Murray are suspicions,' replied Fenton. 'The minute we have anything more we will inform the police immediately.'
'You mean that you haven't told them,' said Murray, construing correctly what Fenton had said.
'Not yet,' Fenton agreed.
'Murder is not a game for amateurs Mister Fenton,' said Murray.
'We realise that Mr Murray but, in this case, I think the professionals need all the help that they can get… judging by their success so far…'
Murray conceded the point with a slight nod of the head. He said, 'I want to be kept informed of any progress you make, particularly if it concerns my sister.'
'Of course,' said Fenton.
'Spooky bloke,' said Kelly as they walked down the path to the gate.
'Spooky is the word,' agreed Fenton. He was glad to be out of the place. 'Tell me about the Cavalier Club,' he said 'Or are you a member too?'
'I wasn't even a Boy Scout,' said Kelly, looking over his shoulder before pulling away from the kerb. 'I don't know that much myself but what I do know I don't like.' He paused to look both ways at the intersection before turning right then took the Capri up through the gears. 'As I understand it, it started out as a club for homosexuals in the city.'
'There's nothing too unusual in that these days,' said Fenton.
'But this one grew into something else, something much bigger.'
'What do you mean?'
Kelly slowed for the traffic lights. 'It's difficult to define but in every society there are a group of people who consider themselves above society in every way, I don't just mean that in the legal sense, I mean in terms of morality and social convention.'
'You mean like the Marquis de Sade or the Hellfire Club?'
'That sort of thing,' agreed Kelly.
'In Edinburgh? Are you serious?'
'I'm afraid I am,' said Kelly with a seriousness that Fenton found uncharacteristic. 'So they're a group of weirdos. It's a sign of the times.'
'No, there's more to it than that,' said Kelly. 'This lot have power.'
The traffic lights changed and Kelly moved off.
'How can they have power?' asked a disbelieving Fenton.
'The size and status of their membership decides that,' said Kelly.
'So there are a lot of kinky people around, that doesn't make them powerful.'
'Depends on who and what they are,' said Kelly.
Fenton was still reluctant to believe what Kelly was suggesting. He said, 'All right so you find the occasional judge that likes spanking schoolgirls' bottoms, that makes him vulnerable not powerful.'
'Only while he remains in a tiny minority. As soon as you get a lot of judges with the same frame of mind it gets uncomfortable for schoolgirls.'
'You're serious about this aren't you?' said Fenton.
