‘Hell of a thing, Jimmy,’ she said.
‘Lillian, this is DCI Harry McNeil from Edinburgh. Harry, Inspector Lillian Young.’
‘Hello, sir.’
‘It’s Harry. Good to meet you, Lillian.’ Harry nodded to the dead man sitting in the chair. ‘If this was a game of Cluedo, I’d say this man was killed in the bedroom with the hammer. Not sure by whom yet, but if you could help us, that would be great.’
‘Correct on him being killed here,’ she replied. ‘Dr Comb and I concur on that.’
Debbie nodded. ‘Sitting in the chair. Blood spatter would indicate he was sitting when he was struck from behind.’
‘The question is,’ Dunbar said, ‘how did this little situation play out? Did he come in here, sit down and get murdered? Or was he here with somebody else who was hacking away at the wall while he looked on, then that other person attacked him for a reason that we have yet to establish?’
‘Whoever smashed the wall knew what he was looking for,’ Harry said.
Debbie had a quizzical look on her face.
‘Harry’s right,’ Dunbar said. ‘I mean, what were the chances of him breaking the wall and finding old Murdo at that exact spot? Either he knew first-hand where the old man was or he was told where to look.’
‘What about motive?’ Lillian asked.
‘Oliver Wolf died last December,’ Dunbar said. ‘The Wolf estate is a big thing to wrap up, I’m sure, but I’m no expert. The properties were divvied up between the offspring, and now they’re here having a wee hooly to give their father a send-off. Invite family and friends over for a memorial, and then the solicitor can read the will and they can go and do whatever they like with what they were left. But one of them was left this place, and somebody knew about Grandpa being buried in the wall.’
‘What happened to the plane, I wonder?’ Lillian said. ‘If the old boy was stuffed in the wall, then somebody had to have landed the plane somewhere. What if he wasn’t even on the plane?’
‘That’s what I’m having my DI, Tom Barclay, look into. I’m having him fax over reports of the original disappearance. We’ll have copies in Glasgow, since the family have their head office there and one of our stations was involved at the time. I’m sure the wee polis station here won’t have any details on it.’
‘You could always ask,’ Lillian said.
‘Oh, I will, trust me.’
Harry looked at the decomposed features of the old man peering out of the wall and he walked over to it. Although they had rotten away over the years, steps had been taken to line the space where the corpse was. It was obviously big enough to hide a corpse, but tight enough for the body to remain standing.
‘Must have been awkward trying to get the corpse to stay standing up while the plasterboard was put in place,’ Harry said.
‘Not if there were two of them,’ Lillian said. ‘One holding him up, another one nailing the board into place. That’s the logical thing to do.’
‘Remind me never to come round to your place for a drink again,’ Dunbar said.
‘You make it sound like I’m your bit on the side, Jimmy.’
He looked at the others. ‘I was referring to last Christmas when you had a wee shindig.’
‘Of course you were,’ Debbie said.
‘I was. And if you think you’re going to trip me up and get me to admit that Lillian and I are seeing each other on the sly, it isn’t going to happen.’
‘Just tell them, Jimmy. Get it over and done with.’ Lillian grinned at him.
‘See if Cathy could hear this talk now, she would take a nail gun to my personal bits. And you know how things get around. I don’t want to be paying alimony for my dug.’
Lillian laughed. ‘Take it easy, Tiger. Besides’ – she looked at the others – ‘Cathy was with him.’
‘Harry doesn’t seem convinced,’ Debbie said, smiling again.
‘Harry doesn’t care what his colleagues in the west get up to in their spare time. But you have a point, Lillian. Unless it’s somebody who’s very dexterous, there could have been two or more of them. But is there any obvious sign of death?’
Debbie walked over to the old corpse. ‘There isn’t anything obvious from the front, but as you can see, I’m only seeing the top half. I’ll be able to get a better understanding when we get him out of here and into the hospital down the road where I can examine him. I’ve been told there’s a small operating theatre which can double as the pathology suite.’
Dunbar looked at Harry. ‘He’ll be given a post-mortem by Dr Comb with a couple of the forensics team assisting, as well as one of our sergeants in there to witness. Unless you want to go?’
Just the thought of being in a makeshift mortuary made Harry shiver. He didn’t do too well in that situation. Death he could handle; watching them being cut up, not so much.
‘I’m fine with uniform being there.’
‘What sort of time of death are we looking at?’ Dunbar said. ‘For the younger man, of course.’
‘He was discovered last night around nine, which was’ – Debbie looked at her watch – ‘seventeen hours ago. I reckon he died within the last twenty-four hours, so around one or two p.m. yesterday.’
‘Right. We’ll let you get on with it, ladies. We’ll have a debriefing in the station later on.’ Dunbar looked at them. ‘Where are you staying?’
‘My team and I have a wee hotel near the harbour,’ Lillian said.
‘Me too,’ Debbie said.
‘We’ll see you all later. You have my number.’
‘So do I,’ Lillian said, grinning.
‘Don’t start.’
He walked out of the room with Harry and found the young uniform downstairs talking with her colleague.
‘You ready to go back to Wolf Lodge, sir?’ she asked.
‘We are that,’ Dunbar answered.
Harry stopped Dunbar for a
