‘I know nothing else, Brodie. I think I’ve told you all I know.’
‘Tell me, Connor, was Father Cassidy involved, in any way, with the IRA?’
‘Why do you ask that?’
‘Just fishing. It was something the Slattery boys were accused of. Before the war. Nothing proved, mind.’
His voice was shaken. ‘No more than any of us in the North, I’m sure. The Republicans were mainly Catholic, of course. But that doesn’t make every priest an IRA man.’
‘Especially with the IRA being allies of the Nazis, eh, Father?’
The silence ran on until he cleared his throat.
‘What will you do now?’
‘Find the Slatterys. I think they murdered Patrick Cassidy. I think that’s one of the keys to this whole wretched business.’
‘I wish you well, Brodie.’
I wondered if he did? We hung up and I made myself some tea to help me digest what he’d told me, and what he hadn’t.
By five o’clock, there was still no sign of Sam, so I went off and had a pie supper at our local Italian chippy. I ate it, piping hot, at the table, washed down by a glass of Tizer. I walked round to her garage and found the car gone. By 7 p.m. I was pacing up and down with worry. I had no means of contacting her and unless she’d called me while I was out, she’d not been in touch. If the note had been left sometime before eleven o’clock, it meant Sam had been gone for at least eight hours, far too long for a simple meeting. Finally I did what I should have done hours ago and took a tram into the centre. The Royal Crown is a majestic sandstone building off Sauchiehall Street. As I walked towards it I kept glancing around at the few parked cars. I found hers with ease.
I strolled up to it. There was no doubt it was her Riley, all locked up. The bonnet was cold. No sign of Sam. I walked into the hotel and looked around. A big welcoming lobby with plenty of deep-pile carpet and big flower arrangements. To the left was a seating area with stuffed leather armchairs and low tables. No Sam. I walked up to the receptionist.
‘Hello, sir. Can I help you?’
‘I’m looking for a friend of mine. Miss Samantha Campbell.’
‘Is she a guest, sir?’
‘No. She was meeting someone here. Lord Chief Justice Allardyce.’
‘Oh yes. Justice Allardyce is a guest. He reserved a suite for today. Him and his manservant. I don’t know if he had a guest or not. Let me ask Stanley, our doorman.’ She struck the bell by her side. A middle-aged man appeared. He wore his uniform tight round his thin chest. His hair was greased flat and parted in the middle.
‘Yessir?’
I explained.
His eyes brightened. ‘Oh, I remember her, sir. The lawyer lady. It was a legal conference with the Chief Justice, I understand.’ He winked at me to show how important this hotel was and, by association, he was too, if these important folk were having important meetings here.
He jabbered on. ‘Smart lady with blond hair. I took her up to Room 301. One of our nicest. Big lounge area and nice and quiet at the back of the hotel, sir. Good for sensitive meetings, sir.’
‘This Allardcye. Did you know him? I mean have you seen him before?’
‘Not as such, sir.’
‘So how do you know it was him?’
The receptionist looked at me as though I was daft. ‘That was the name he gave us.’
‘So you have no proof it really was the Chief Justice?’
The doorman and the receptionist were beginning to look askance at each other. The doorman chimed up.
‘Is she better, sir?’
‘What? What do you mean “better”?’
‘It seems the lawyer lady took a bit funny. She came down in the lift a wee while after I’d taken her up to 301. Maybe twenty minutes. She was being helped by Justice Allardyce’s manservant. He got her outside. I offered to hail a cab, sir.’
‘When was this?’
‘Oh, about twelve of the clock, sir.’
‘Did Allardyce go with them?’
‘No, sir. He stayed in his room.’
‘The manservant. Did he come back?’
‘Not that I know of, sir. Said he’d look after her. Didn’t need a cab. That he’d escort her home. Went off in the car.’
‘What car?’
‘I assume it was the Chief Justice’s personal car. An Austin I think.’
‘Was it just waiting?’
‘It had been there a wee while. I think.’
‘You let a strange man take an ill woman off in a strange car?’
He nodded, fear flitting suddenly across his face. Within spitting distance of retirement and Stan realised he was heading into big trouble.
‘This manservant. Did he have a name?’
The receptionist was now looking as desperate as Stan. ‘No, sir. ’Fraid not.’
Stan piped up. ‘But I’d ken him in future.’
‘How come?’
‘The ginger moustache. Looked like he’d killed the cat for it.’
It was as though Slattery himself had squeezed my heart.
THIRTY-EIGHT
‘Room 301, you said? Have you got a spare key?’ I asked the receptionist.
‘Yes sir.’
‘Get the manager.’
The duty manager, a slick Englishman doing penance in the North, and I arrived on the third floor and strode to 301. The door had a ‘Do not disturb’ sign up.
‘Open it,’ I demanded of the manager.
‘We can’t simply barge into a private room with that sign up, sir. A senior judge and all that.’
Through clenched teeth I said, ‘A woman has been abducted from your hotel. Her life is in danger. Open the door before I break it down.’
The manager fumbled through his keys, knocked a couple of times on the door and then, seeing me on the point of combustion and portal destruction, unlocked the door. I dashed inside and found myself in the lounge. It looked unused.
But there was a strange smell back in the hall. I looked around and noticed a white hankie lying by the door. I picked it up. The stink assailed my nostrils and made my head buzz. Dental chairs and hospitals. Chloroform. On the floor partially tucked under a sideboard was a folder. Sam’s folder. I reached down and grabbed it.
I heard a gasp from the doorway to the bedroom beyond. The manager was standing looking in. I pushed him to one side.
A man lay flat on his back, face bulging and blackening, with a cord round his neck. At least he was fully clothed. If this was Lord Chief Justice Craig Allardyce he’d found out the hard way how it felt to have one of his ultimate sentences carried out.
I dropped the chloroform wad back on the floor but took her folder. The manager had gone into full ‘how do we protect our reputation’ mode while at the same time summoning the police. It was time I got out of there before
