‘Basically, the only one who was at odds with him that night was Oliver, his son?’
‘Yes. But if you’re thinking he had anything to do with his father’s disappearance, then think again. Oliver and I were in a ballroom with more than a hundred other people when the plane went over.’
‘Can you tell us who was left what property in Oliver’s will?’
‘Clive was left the log house, Shona the lodge, and Fenton and Zachary were left a house each. Nothing that will make them rich, but they do share the hotel, the big house. And the business, of course, which will make them rich.’
There was a knock on the door and a uniform poked his head round. ‘Sorry to disturb you, but we’ve had a phone call that you should know about.’
Dunbar terminated the interview and let Thomas Deal leave before talking to the uniform.
‘We’ve just found Shona Wolf dead. In her car.’
Twelve
Debbie Comb and Lillian Young were at the scene of the crash, along with a fire engine and an ambulance. Several patrol cars were in the mix.
The back of the car was draped with a tarpaulin to keep prying eyes away, if there were any, but Harry couldn’t see any thrill seekers. Except for a man with a dog who, they had been told, had come across the scene and called it in.
‘Hello again,’ Debbie said, coming across to the two detectives. ‘Nasty one. Her upper torso and head are crushed.’
‘She rammed into that JCB?’ Harry said. ‘How the hell did she manage that?’
‘That’s what we thought when we turned up, but Lillian came along, simply because of the case with Shona’s brother, Clive, just to have a once-over, and…well, I’ll let her explain.’
Both Harry and Dunbar walked past the fire crew and stopped at the front of the car. What was left of the front end had blood spattered on it and they could see a form under a sheet that the fire brigade had put over the victim to stop prying eyes.
‘This is not what it seems,’ Lillian said.
‘What’s the problem?’ Dunbar said.
‘Look into the car from here.’ She was standing on the passenger said, so they both went round to look. ‘See anything obvious?’
Both men looked in, but nothing jumped out at them.
‘Go on then, give us a clue,’ Harry said.
‘This is a manual gearbox car,’ Lillian said. ‘It’s in reverse. She was trying to reverse the car when the machine hit her. She was trying to get away and it looks like the car stalled. She didn’t hit the digger, it hit her. Somebody drove it into her as she tried to get away.’
Harry took in a deep breath. ‘Somebody murdered her.’
‘Unless somebody was driving it, and she tried to get the car out of the way, and he didn’t see her and hit her, then panicked and ran off.’
‘That doesn’t even sound right, does it?’ Dunbar said.
‘Not at all. First of all, the building site is closed down until Monday. Nobody was working here, and we can check with site management, but it doesn’t look like there is, or should be, any activity.’
‘Somebody was waiting for her,’ Harry said. ‘Waited until she got in the car and then killed her with the machine.’
‘That’s what I’m thinking.’
Dunbar nodded to the older man with the dog. ‘I think it’s unlikely he’s the culprit.’
‘Agreed. But it’s somebody who knows his way around these machines,’ Harry said.
‘Where’s the husband?’ Dunbar said. ‘What’s his name again?’
‘Brian Gibbons,’ Harry answered.
‘Aye. Let’s find him and have a word. Meantime, I want to talk to the old bloke with the dog.’ Dunbar turned to the pathologist. ‘Have you started the post-mortem on Clive Wolf yet?’
‘I have. The cause of death was blunt-force trauma to the head.’
‘Okay. We’ll let you deal with this and talk to you later.’
Dunbar and Harry walked over to where the man with the dog was standing talking to a uniform.
‘I’m DCI Dunbar. This is DCI McNeil. We’d like a word.’ Dunbar nodded to the uniform to leave, which he did. The dog was medium sized and friendly, just like Dunbar’s own dog.
‘What’s your name, for the record?’
‘Arthur Mortimer.’
‘Can you tell me what happened, Arthur?’ he asked the man.
‘I was walking my dog, like I do every day. This is one of our routes. We walk past the fairground, come round the hill and go through the park. Or what used to be a fucking park.’
‘I’m sorry?’ Harry said.
‘This,’ Mortimer said, sweeping his free arm around, ‘this was just a park at one time; the dog could run about. But some bright spark decided to build houses on it. The land was owned by the Wolf family, and they wanted to be greedy and build houses. There’s even going to be a marina over there. God almighty, there will be nothing left soon.’
‘Was there anybody about when you got here?’ Dunbar asked, looking at the half-finished houses.
‘No one. I could faintly hear the music from the festival over there, but there was nothing going on round here. It was all peace and quiet. I thought there had been an accident, so I went over to look. I thought the lassie had run into the digger thing there.’
‘How many ways in and out of here?’ Harry asked.
‘Just the one. The way you came in. The park ends over there with the trails that lead up into the hills. It’s a great walk. You can go up there and come round at the other side. There’s a car park down there.’
‘You could park round there and walk here over the hill back to your car?’ Dunbar asked.
‘Aye. That’s what me and the wee fella do,’ Mortimer said. ‘Although my legs are shaking so much, I’m going to walk back round instead of going up the hill. Even if it means going past those freaks again.’
‘What freaks?’
‘Those carnival freaks. I mean, they’ve been here for years, but they just look weird.
