‘The old man is probably worth quite a bit, given his half share in the firm.’
‘You think that’s what Vernon is hoping for, to inherit from the old man too?’
Cooper looked at her. ‘What do you think?’
‘They certainly sound an odd pair. Some bond is keeping them together.’
‘They’re family. That’s enough for most people.’
But Cooper was thinking about his last visit to Vivien Gill’s house, and the family gathered in the sitting room. People held together by that kind of bond weren’t always good news for everyone else.
‘Oh, of course,’ said Fry. ‘Family.’
A phone was ringing somewhere down the corridor, but no one was answering it. Cooper felt a strange sense of isolation, as if the whole building had been evacuated, except for him and Fry.
‘Diane, last time I saw Vernon Slack, he had red weals on his hands. They looked to go part way up his arms, too. They were so bad I thought at first they were burns, but he said it was an allergic rash.’
‘So?’
‘I’m wondering if they might have been formaldehyde burns.’
‘An accident at work?’ said Fry.
‘Possibly. But why wouldn’t he have said so? Why lie about them? And why did he seem so frightened? He was moving stiffly, too, as if he was bruised.’
‘You think somebody beat him up and shoved his hands into formaldehyde - what, as a warning? “Look, Vernon, this is what will happen to you if you don’t keep quiet”?’
‘Something like that.’
‘But who would do that?’
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‘Two people spring to mind. For one thing, I don’t believe Melvyn Hudson could have been entirely ignorant of what was going on. But he doesn’t seem the type for direct intimidation either. He’s a bully all right, but his bullying is psychological, not physical. He’s quite capable of scaring Vernon without throwing formaldehyde on him.’
‘Agreed.’
‘But then there’s Billy McGowan.’
Fry flicked through the files on the Hudson and Slack staff. ‘Yes, I remember him. A nasty-looking customer, all right I wouldn’t want him handling my dead relative. But we shouldn’t make assumptions from the way a person looks, should we? Mr McGowan could be a PhD in Nuclear Physics, just filling in time between Nobel Prizes.’
‘I suppose so.’
‘Mmm. He has a handful of convictions for assault and affray, according to the PNC. Suspended sentences and probation, so he’s never actually been inside. Intelligence links him to organized theft from industrial premises, but only as casual labour on heavy jobs. He’s a smash-and-grunt man. It’s all pretty low-level stuff, Ben.’
‘Well, I didn’t suppose he was the brains behind the operation.’ ‘You think he’s doing the dirty work on behalf of Hudson?’
‘Well, that’s basically what he’s paid to do at Hudson and Slack, isn’t it? How big a step is there between what he does with a dead body and what he might feel capable of doing to a living one?’
Fry seemed not to have heard him as she turned a page. ‘And no educational qualifications, to speak of. So I don’t suppose he’s won any Nobel Prizes, after all.’
‘I’d like to look into McGowan a bit more, Diane.’
‘OK, you do that.’
She was silent for a moment, deep in thought. ‘Speaking of Nobel Prizes,’ she said finally, ‘this Professor Robertson
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of yours - how did he come to be involved in this case, exactly?’
‘He knows a member of the police committee. Wasn’t that who recommended him? I’m sure Mr Hitchens said it was.’
‘Yes, but was Robertson asked to help out? Or did he volunteer?’ ‘Meaning what, Diane?’
‘Look, we all know there’s a certain type of creep who’ll commit a murder, then go to any lengths necessary to get himself involved in the investigation. That’s so he can watch what’s going on and laugh at us getting things wrong. It’s usually the creep who thinks he’s much cleverer than the rest of us.’
Cooper shook his head. ‘You’ve just got it in for Freddy Robertson because he rubbed you up the wrong way the first time you met.’
‘You can’t deny that he fits the profile, Ben,’ said Fry. ‘Let’s face it, as smug, arrogant creeps go - he’s the smuggest.’
‘It’s just his manner.’
‘OK. So you think it’s a coincidence that he knows all about the same subjects that interest our killer?’
‘Professor Robertson is an expert in Thanatology. That’s the point. That’s why he’s involved.’
‘I called the anthropologist at Sheffield University,’ said Fry. ‘He said there’s no evidence for any of it.’
‘For what?’
‘All that stuff about sarcophagi. He said archaeologists have never established clear evidence of burial rites from that time. Excarnation just seems to have been one variant. At some sites skeletons have been found
