A thought niggled just on the periphery of Gus’s mind. It was there nagging at him, but just out of reach. Blocking out Carlton’s ongoing assessment of how fascinating the killer was, he tried to blank his mind – to let the thought develop organically. It was key, he was sure. An important consideration…
Interrupting Carlton mid flow, Gus jumped up. ‘I got something, Alice – Our killer would have been able to target Jez Hopkins easily enough – he asked a question at the press conference, he’s written articles about the Brookes woman … but how could he link Erica Smedley to the investigation? She was a CSI – not high profile, not in a position of authority, so how or, perhaps more importantly, why would he target her?’
‘He’s at the scene – he’s staking it out, revisiting the scene – which tells us how he saw Smedley – but not why he would target her. I initially didn’t think it through properly. Smedley would be completely in her CSI overalls. She isn’t in the public eye, so how could she have attracted the attention of our killer?’
The three contemplated this. Gus knew that this was important – very important, but for the life of him he couldn’t quite piece it together.
Eventually, Carlton nodded. ‘Hopkins was dismissive and rude in his reporting. That could be enough to set our guy off, but Erica Smedley was a nonentity.’
Frowning, the psychologist continued, ‘I wonder if our killer is somehow or other accessing information that we’ve been keeping quiet. Smedley’s name would be on any evidence she signed over to us, it would be easy to see who worked on the periphery of the investigation – uniformed officers, CSI’s admin staff, but that would require…’
Alice snapped her fingers. ‘Shit, remember Compo trawled through the Hudson Clinic’s security layers? He discovered someone had accessed their patient files but had covered their tracks. Maybe someone has done the same with our files? I’ll get Compo on it asap.’ And with only the click from Gus’s phone to indicate she’d hung up, the two men were left staring at each other in Gus’s hotel room.
Chapter 59
Scotland
Opening her hotel room door to Gus and Carlton, Corrine invited them in. Perching on the edge of the bed she spoke before they could. ‘Perhaps the three of you’ – she nodded towards Sadia – ‘think I haven’t noticed the sideways glances you’ve been sending my way when you thought I wasn’t looking. But, just to be clear – you may all think I’m a doddering old fool, but I’m here to remind you I most certainly am not. Now will you tell me what the hell you’ve been keeping from me since we left Westmoreland?’
Despite the severity of the situation, Gus found his lips twitching. His mum had always been able to work out if Katie or he were up to something and she’d only grown more perceptive over the years. Sadia and Carlton wouldn’t be the first to be fooled by her flaky, effervescent demeanour. Corrine McGuire was a force to be reckoned with. But what really amused Gus, was the way her slight Scottish accent had become stronger with each mile they’d travelled. It made him remember when he was younger, and her accent had seemed exotic to his friends. Over the years, living in Bradford, she’d incorporated a range of Yorkshire into her vocabulary and her accent was less pronounced, it felt good to hear it again.
Carlton opened his mouth to speak, but Corrine wafted her hand at him. ‘I want to hear this from my son first, Sebastian. You can give me the psychology report later, but I’d like Angus to bring me up to speed.’ She smiled to soften her words. ‘I assume that whatever you have to impart is going to be difficult for me to digest, Angus?’
Gus leant forward in the leather chair he’d selected to sit in and held his mother’s gaze. He didn’t want to be the one to destroy what she thought she understood about her childhood. To be the one to tell her that the little brother she doted on wasn’t dead and had grown up to be a killer, who hated her as his worst nightmare. Much less did he want to tell her that her little Jamie was now a grown man in the same facility as her foster brother, Rory. His mum was strong, He knew she was, but this would be difficult for her to process.
The truth was, she didn’t have time to process it. They had to interview – or make at least a half-hearted attempt to interview Rory, but Gus also had to try to connect with Jimmy as well as find out more about any visitors Jimmy might have had. The main worry he had was that Corrine would insist on seeing Jamie/Jimmy. Not for the first time he wished his solid old dad was here. He’d soothe Corrine – help him to break the news to his wife, but ultimately, Gus had to accept that even his father would be unable to convince her not to see Jamie.
Holding her hands in his, Gus told her everything, leaving out nothing – even the more unpalatable aspects that Compo had uncovered. Corrine sat, straight backed, her eyes, so like his, staring into his soul. Occasionally her grip on his fingers increased, but otherwise she betrayed no emotion. When he’d finished, Corrine exhaled as if she’d been holding that single breath for the entire duration of Gus’s revelation. Sadia poured her a glass of water and handed it to her. With a nod, Corrinne accepted and took a long drink, before handing the glass back.
She looked at each of the three people in turn. ‘What do we do now?’
Sebastian smiled. ‘We can phone ahead and make sure that Rory
