the accused calm but staring at the wall. DS Kerr made him sit at table. He was questioned again about involvement in the murder. Finally accused said, “All right, for God’s sake, all right. I did it. I killed him. I might as well have. Let’s get this over with.” At this point, DS Kerr brought the accused pen and paper and made him write out his confession.’
‘And in this confession he describes all the details of the coal cellar and the state of the body?’ I asked. She nodded.
White was sitting up now and nursing his jaw. He had a hankie to his mouth. It was bloody. He got on to all fours then eased himself erect using the armchair.
‘Assaulting a police officer, Brodie. You shouldnae have done that.’ He clutched his side.
‘And I’m minded to assault you again, you little shit! So don’t tempt me! Because of your lies in court, they hanged an innocent man!’
Sam interjected. ‘I saw your chair tip and you fell and hit your mouth on the table, officer.’
He stood swaying slightly, looking at the pair of us, and then he nodded. ‘Ah don’t blame you, Brodie. It’s what Ah deserve. Let me just say Ah was telt what to do by Silver and Kerr.’ He paused and I thought he had finished, but then, miserably, with a shake of his head: ‘It wisnae what I joined up for.’
‘I know another bunch of blokes in uniform who claim they were only following orders. The Nuremberg judges don’t seem to think that’s much of a defence. My betting is they’ll be hanged for acting like sheep! Isn’t that’s what you deserve, White?’
‘Brodie! Let’s hear him out.’ She seemed to have got herself under control.
I took a deep breath and walked back to my seat.
Sam switched to her courtroom voice. ‘Tell me what happened, Detective White. In your own words.’ Her calm authority brought White’s head up and he began his account.
‘We’d been trying for hours to get him to admit it. But he just kept saying he knew nothing about a’ the evidence we found in his hoose. And he claimed he knew nothing about where the boy might be. Nor onything about the two other missing lads. And a’ the time, he was like he was hungover. No a’ there, if you like. In a dwam. I suppose it was the heroin.’
‘And when you took him to the crime scene, did he know where he was going?’
‘He didnae seem to. As I said, he was in a bit of a dwam.’
‘Did he change when you showed him the body?’
‘Oh aye, and how. It was like he woke up. And then he started greetin’. Like a big wean. He said…’
‘Go on.’
‘He said…’ White seemed to lose control again for a minute. ‘He said, “My boy, my boy, what have they done to you. My wee boy.” Something like that. ’
I thought of the photo of Rory in Fiona’s house. Vivacious dark eyes glinting out at us. Sam and I couldn’t look at each other. Her voice went softer without losing any of its authority. ‘Why didn’t you record that in your notebook?’
‘Kerr said I shouldn’t. He said it wisnae important. It was irrelevant.’
‘And Silver himself told you to hide your notes?’ she asked.
‘Aye, and he was telt by Muncie himself. So he said.’
I asked softly, ‘Did you beat him, White? Did you knock a confession out of him?’
He wriggled in his seat. ‘No’ much. I mean we didnae gi’e him a pasting. It was more a slap or two.’
‘Did you ever leave him alone with Kerr or Silver?’
He looked up at Sam beseechingly. She raised her brows and waited.
‘Aye. A couple of times that night.’
‘Did they do him over, White?’
‘Aye. They did. No’ on his face. Just the body.’
‘And after that he confessed?
‘Yes and no. I don’t think we made him confess. He didnae seem to care what we did. I think he just finally got kinda bored with it a’. Like he wanted to be left alone.’
‘And the details? How did they get into the confession?’
‘Sergeant Kerr. He kinda dictated it. Though he couldnae get Donovan to say onything about the other four kids.’
I could see Hugh now, chest heaving and eyes blinded with tears after another round of punches to the kidneys or kicks to the balls. Rolling in physical agony from the relentless punishment and accusations. But almost welcoming the torture for the brief respite it gave him from the searing images of his dead son. Through it all, just wanting time and space to grieve. Wanting these sadistic clowns out of his face. He saw no future for himself. His brief link with normality, the time with his son and with his former lover, had been wrenched away from him. There was nothing left for him, even if he got off. Back to the heroin fixes and the squalid tenement flat? Alone again more finally than even he could have imagined. In that mood, ready to say or do anything if these thugs would just let him rest, let him mourn. And not caring that by signing the confession he’d as good as set a date for the gallows. For Hugh, at that moment, death couldn’t come quickly enough. Sam broke my reverie.
‘Are you willing to testify to all this in a court of law?’
‘Oh Christ. Could you no’ just use the notebook? Would I have to stand there?’
‘Your choice, White. The witness box or the defendant’s box,’ Sam stated. There was a heavy pause, and his shoulders raised and lowered. ‘Aye. It’s a’ one, now.’
There were some last questions from me though I could hardly bring myself to look at him.
‘Did you plant the evidence in Hugh’s flat?’
‘No! Not at a’! We wouldnae go that far!’
‘No? After what you did it’s only one more wee step. And before you know it you’re personally putting the rope round an innocent man’s neck!’
‘Ah didnae! So help me!’
I gazed at his pathetic face. He seemed genuine enough. One of his buddies could have done it and just kept White in the dark.
‘Who made the phone call that led you to Hugh’s flat? Who was the mystery caller?’
He sighed. ‘Cassidy. Father Cassidy.’
‘And yet you sods refused to believe what Mrs Reid told me? Didn’t you make the connection? Cassidy was the last man to see Hugh that night! And the next morning he phones you to have him arrested!’
‘We were in too far. We couldnae back oot. We’d have looked like eejits.’
‘You mean you’d rather string up an innocent man than look stupid?’
White was wringing his hands. ‘You don’t understand. We had all the bloody press after us. Muncie told Silver we had to do something. Get them aff our backs.’
‘Including framing someone?’
He lifted his hands, palms up, in resignation. Then something struck me, like an icicle driven into my stomach. Surely not?
‘Wait a minute. Why are you doing this now, White? Why did you wait till Hugh Donovan was barely cold in his unmarked grave?’
He said something that I didn’t catch. ‘What?’
He lifted his head. His eyes were glassy. ‘They’ve found the weans. The Reid weans.’
THIRTY-FOUR
They’d received a phone call yesterday from the police station at Largs. Four bodies had been found on the beach. Children who’d fitted the description of the missing Reid brood. They were washed up within twenty yards of each other. Three wee boys and a girl. Drowned without a moment’s remorse, like you’d drown a batch of surplus kittens. The Largs police, knowing the currents, reckoned they’d been dumped into the sea from a boat out in the bay. From the state of the bodies, they’d been in the water about a day. My too vivid imagination churned through images of how the killers had gone about their filthy deed.
