‘I did, but it was all above board.’
‘I’m sure it was, because he didn’t think the chances of you surviving his kids was remotely possible. And you thought that too, so you concocted the idea to have them all killed.’
‘I’m saying nothing more.’
The room fell silent. Sparky lay down on his side, obviously bored with the proceedings, but ever attentive.
‘We had the pathologist look at Fenton and Zach,’ said Harry. ‘They were dead before we were attacked in that house last night. It wasn’t them who attacked us.’
‘Then I don’t know who did. I want to go and have a lie-down.’
‘You do that, Mr Deal, but remember this: you’ll be having a permanent lie-down soon.’
‘Are you threatening me?’
Harry smiled. ‘Oh no, I’m warning you. They’re ruthless. They’ve killed without blinking an eye because they had their eye on the prize: the Wolf fortune. What do you think they’ll do when they find out you conned them out of that fortune? That they killed for nothing? That they killed the people who were standing in your way? You think they’ll just walk away?’
Dunbar walked over to Deal. ‘We can’t prove anything, but this is what we’re thinking. Murdo somehow found out that he had another grandchild. Or grandchildren. He was going to tell Oliver he knew. He had to be stopped. You had Crail Shaw kill him and hide his body. But it was a two-man effort to put him in the wall in the new extension that was being built, so you helped him. It wasn’t any of the kids, as they were too young. No, it took two adults to do that.’
‘You’re making up stories,’ Deal snarled at him.
‘Who did Clive Wolf overhear arguing before he died? You and Boxer? Was it Boxer you sent after him? I think Clive was smashing the wall and Boxer came in and killed him. But then you somehow got distracted and couldn’t get Clive or Murdo out of there, and Muckle then found them.’
‘How are we doing?’ Harry said. ‘Did you kill Murdo back then? Did Boxer? Was that what Clive overheard you arguing about?’
‘Clutching at straws is what they call it,’ Deal said, relaxing again.
‘You think because we can’t prove any of this that it will go away, but let me tell you something: the killers aren’t going away. I think when they find out about you diddling them, they’re going to come after you. They’ve nothing to lose now. They’ve already killed four people. What’s another old man who might only have a few years left anyway? You think you’ll live long enough to spend your money?’
‘Oh, I think I’ll take my chances.’ Deal chuckled. ‘You want me to give you names, is that it? Well, sorry to disappoint you.’
‘That’s fine. We’ll leave you alone now.’ Harry turned to Dunbar. ‘Alex and I are going to the fairground. I think I’ll have a wee chat with Jack Shaw. He’s going to be upset that Boxer won’t be around to challenge the public. He’s a real showman is Jack. I’ll break the news to him that his dad is dead, and if he asks me about things, I’ll have to tell him he’s getting nothing. But I can’t prove anything, so I can’t arrest him. He’ll be free to go about the island as he pleases.’
‘You do that, Harry,’ Dunbar said. ‘Meantime, I’ll see if young Brendan will open the bar for me. I’ll be needing a stiff drink after what I’ve been through. I’m sure Brendan’s a good listener. And he’ll be more than happy to listen to what I have to say.’
They’d started to leave the room when Deal sighed. ‘Okay. You win.’ He looked at both men. ‘You bastards knew, didn’t you?’
‘Suspected. When I looked at the wills of Oliver and Murdo, I saw their middle names were Brendan and Jack. Just like Oliver’s illegitimate sons. Am I right?’
Deal nodded. ‘Murdo was going to announce it at the Christmas party. He was pissed off at Oliver, and he’d kept it from his late wife, but it was eating him alive. He wanted the world to know he had two more grandsons. Boxer – Crail – was furious. His wife was pregnant when he met her, but he decided to stand by her. He would bring them up as his own. Nancy told him she didn’t know who the father was. Or he was dead, something like that. You’ve met Nancy; she’s a nice woman. She adored the boys and she loved Boxer. Now Murdo was going to throw a spanner in the works. The boys were only a couple of months old at the time.’
‘You knew Boxer killed Murdo?’ Dunbar said.
‘No. I suspected. He was the last one with Murdo. And I knew that Murdo had shown Boxer how to fly the plane. Boxer was a natural. I thought he had killed the old man, but I didn’t know for sure. Until I confronted him years later. I told him that his boys deserved to get some of the Wolf money. He told me that Oliver had told him that all four of his kids would be taken care of. Bragging about it. But there was no mention of Boxer’s sons. I told Boxer that Oliver was the father of his sons but still they were getting nothing. I confirmed this when Oliver died. I think Crail killed him. He was arguing with Oliver the night he died. Two days before Christmas, just like Murdo. I think Crail was thinking back to when he killed Murdo and he had it out with Oliver. But Oliver had a weak heart. He died of a heart attack, brought on by the stress of the fighting, I presume.’
‘Then you, in effect, got the boys to kill the other kids for you so you would get everything,’ Harry said. ‘You decided to
