Dark as Night (9 page)

              Phil Boag stepped forward. ‘The Barrhead station had a call from a local cabbie. He recalls taking a man of Nathan McLaren’s description to the car-park by the reservoir at roughly 9.30pm on Saturday night. He picked him up from the end of the High Street in Giffnock. McLaren didn’t ask him to stay and wait.’

              ‘McLaren could have been meeting Lomond there. Both men would have been approaching from different directions. They wouldn’t necessarily have travelled to Balgray Park together.’ Alice felt excited by this piece of evidence. ‘Maybe Lomond’s flat was too far for Nathan to get to late in the evening, so they chose neutral territory somewhere between their two places.’

              ‘What is Lomond like – would he be physically capable of over-powering McLaren?’ Dani looked at both of the DCs.

              Clifton nodded. ‘Definitely, Ma’am. Lomond is twenty years younger and a rower. He’s got impressive upper body strength.’

              ‘Then I suggest that we ask Tony Lomond to come in to the station voluntarily to provide us with a statement. I want to know exactly what he was doing on Saturday night after 9pm.’

              ‘But what would his motive be?’ Andy Calder chipped in. ‘Nathan was unlikely to reveal Tony’s sexuality to the university. McLaren wasn’t exactly out and proud himself.’

              ‘Perhaps there was an argument between the two men,’ Alice offered. ‘One of them wanted to take things further and the other didn’t. My guess would be that Nathan McLaren became too attached to Lomond. Potentially, this was Nathan’s first ever relationship with a man, he could have been overwhelmed by the feelings he had.’

              Dani nodded. ‘It’s certainly plausible, but at the moment it’s just supposition. We can’t make Lomond our prime suspect purely because he is a gay man who happened to pass the time of day with Nathan on the afternoon before he was killed. We’ve got to do far better than that.’

              ‘Our victim could have visited any number of bars in the city centre in the hours leading up to his murder,’ Phil asserted. ‘Glasgow was heaving with people. He could have arranged to meet any one of them later that evening at the park.’ The DS glanced at his boss. ‘I think we should get an outside advisor in, Ma’am.’

              ‘How do you mean?’

              ‘I took a look at the criminal profiler list this morning. There’s a new name on it. Professor Rhodri Morgan from the University of Glasgow; in his biog, it states he wrote the best-selling true-crime book about Ian Cummings.’

              ‘The man who murdered all those young men down in London in the late eighties?’

              Phil nodded. ‘Yep. Cummings had targeted the homosexual community in west London. He’s now serving a life sentence in Broadmoor. There was a campaign about twelve years back to get him released. That was when Professor Morgan wrote the book. He argues in it that Cummings should never be let out, that he lacks any real understanding of the impact of his crimes.’

              ‘You seem to know a lot about it,’ Andy said with a grin.

              ‘Well, I’ve read the professor’s book, it’s very good.’ Phil cleared his throat. ‘My brother was living in London at the time the murders took place. Colin is gay and settled down south with his partner. We were very worried about him at the time these killings were taking place. My parents wanted Colin to move back to Scotland. It was a great relief to my family when Cummings was caught. I’ve had an interest in the case ever since.’

              Calder looked embarrassed.

              ‘I think it’s a great idea, Phil,’ Dani responded. ‘Can you get in contact with Professor Morgan and set us up a meeting? I think it would be worth shelling out some of our budget on this. For the time being, let’s get what we can out of Tony Lomond. Then we can at least strike him off the suspect list.’

*

Dani put down the phone after an awkward conversation with her boyfriend. She wouldn’t be able to spend the weekend with him in Edinburgh now, not with the McLaren case going on. James seemed to understand and was very sweet about it, but Dani wondered if he really knew what being in a relationship with a copper was like. Not just at the beginning, but months and years in, when there had been many such let downs and disappointments. Bevan shook this thought from her mind, padding into the kitchen of her ground floor flat to fix a glass of whisky.

              She sipped it standing by the patio doors, staring out into the tiny garden, partially lit by a large moon, which appeared swollen against the navy blue sky. The phone rang again. Bevan very nearly didn’t answer it. ‘Hello,’ she sighed into the receiver.

              ‘May I speak with Andy,’ a voice snapped back at her, no attempt at pleasantries. It was Carol Calder.

              Some ingrained instinct made Dani reply, without hesitation, ‘I’m afraid you’ve just missed him. I’m sorry for keeping him so late, but he’s on his way home now.’

              Carol grunted, ‘okay, thanks.’ Then the line went dead.

              Dani snatched up her mobile and hit the speed dial. The phone she was calling rang onto voice mail. ‘Andy? It’s Bevan here. I don’t know where the hell you are but Carol just called my flat thinking you were with me. I’ve told her you’re on your way home. She’ll be expecting you in twenty minutes time.’ Dani took a deep breath. ‘I’ll cover for you this once, because of everything we’ve been through together, but never again. I hope that’s understood.’

Chapter 16

I
t turned out that Tony Lomond had no alibi. He’d gone for drinks with some of the lads from the rowing club early on the Saturday evening but then returned to his flat near to the university campus and spent the rest of the night there alone.

              Bevan couldn’t yet rule him out as a suspect. Lomond had been ordered to remain in the city. The DCI had instructed a couple of DCs to keep him under surveillance. All he’d done in the previous twenty four hours was move between his home and the university library. No one else coming or going from the flat. Dani found this suspicious in itself.

              Bevan had the case files spread out across her desk when Professor Morgan was shown to her office. The man was tall and bearded, with piercing blue eyes. Dani placed him in his early sixties.

              She held out her hand as he entered.

              The professor seemed to hesitate for a moment before he took it. He appeared almost reluctant to make physical contact. Dani put him down as one of those self-contained academic types.

              ‘Thank you for coming Professor Morgan,’ she began with a warm smile. ‘Please take a seat.’

              ‘Not at all, I’m happy to help the police with their enquiries.’

              Dani wheeled her chair closer, so that there wasn’t a desk between them. ‘Is this your first time consulting with the City Division?’

              Morgan nodded. ‘I’ve been on the list for six months, but hadn’t been contacted in that time.’

              ‘We don’t get many cases which require your kind of specialist input, thank goodness.’

              ‘I imagine not. But you have now?’

              ‘Before I set out the details, I need to remind you that whatever is discussed here remains strictly confidential.’

              ‘Of course. I was once a practising psychologist. I understand the importance of confidentiality.’ Morgan clasped his large hands together in an expectant gesture.

              Dani reached behind her and selected the photograph of Nathan McLaren. She handed it to the professor. ‘Have you seen the accounts of this man’s murder on the news?’

              ‘Yes, I have. The unfortunate chap’s body was discovered in Balgray Reservoir, is that right?’

              ‘Correct.’ The DCI outlined the details of the case that they’d ascertained so far. She handed him the file.

              Morgan nodded his head as he listened, saying nothing throughout. Then he read the report in silence for what felt like hours to the DCI.

              Eventually, Dani said, ‘we have no reason to believe we are dealing with a serial offender here, but my DS felt you may have some insights to offer, what with your research into Ian Cummings’ crimes.’

              The professor pursed his lips. ‘Do you recall the west London murders, DCI Bevan? You would have been very young when they occurred.’

              ‘I don’t remember very much from the time. I was at school on Colonsay back then. I have skimmed the reports since, however.’

              ‘Then you’ll know that the popular press called Cummings the ‘latch-key killer.’ This was because he got hold of the keys to his victims’ flats, letting himself in and waiting for them to arrive back home from work. The murders themselves were brutal and frenzied. The characteristics were quite different from the case you’ve got here.’

              ‘I suppose the reason we wanted your advice was because of the possible homosexual element to the crime.’ Dani felt she was being placed on the back foot by this man. His attitude seemed almost hostile. ‘In your expert opinion, from what you’ve read, do you think McLaren’s sexuality would have played a significant part in his death?’

              ‘It’s what took him out of the comfort of his own home on that Saturday evening, even though he must have been exhausted after attending the Fair. It was also most certainly the reason for him being in Balgray Park, so I’d say it was absolutely central.’

              ‘What was Ian Cummings’ motive to kill those young men?’

              Morgan tipped his head to one side and looked thoughtful. ‘The man is undoubtedly a psychopath. I’ve interviewed Cummings on a number of occasions and he shows no remorse or appreciation of his crimes. He is one of those individuals for whom that part of the brain which allows us to feel empathy for others does not function. Having said that, Ian did have a justification of sorts for the murders. I find that they always do.’ The professor stared off into the distance, gazing over Dani’s shoulder and out of the window. ‘As a boy, Cummings had lived in a number of care homes. In each of these institutions he was sexually assaulted by the older boys, many of whom were not much younger than his victims. This was where the rage had come from.’

              ‘Did Cummings know any of the men he killed?’

              ‘He’d picked them all up in bars at some point in the months before the murders. He always insisted he went back to their flats for sex. This was how Cummings was able to take an imprint of their door keys. Eventually, it was how he was caught. The police knew he was prowling the gay bars and nightclubs of Soho for his victims. They set up a kind of sting operation – a honey-trap, if you like.’

              ‘We believe that Nathan McLaren may have picked up the man who killed him in one of Glasgow’s gay bars.’

              ‘Of course, you have CCTV cameras these days, which the Metropolitan police working in London in the late 80s did not. Those officers had to rely upon hundreds of painstakingly garnered witness statements. There was also the issue that many of the detectives themselves felt a few less homosexuals on the streets of the city might not be such a bad thing. Times were rather different then.’

              ‘Luckily, no one on my team feels like that now, otherwise, they wouldn’t be on my team any longer.’ Dani was becoming increasingly frustrated with this man and was finding it hard to keep the emotion out of her voice.

              ‘You want to know my professional observations on the circumstances of this particular murder.’ Morgan rubbed at the grey hairs on his chin. ‘I suspect that the killing of Nathan McLaren was carefully planned. It’s
possible
the murderer lost his temper on the spur of the moment, beating and smothering McLaren, then, realising what he had done, used a bin bag from the boot of his car to dispose of the body. However, certain elements in the PM report suggest the act was more organised than that, most notably, the wedding ring found in McLaren’s gullet. The man was either forced to swallow it or the article was shoved down his throat after death. Whichever is the case, it’s a sign. The killer has left us a message. It’s up to us to decipher what this message means.’

              ‘What do
you
think it means?’

              Morgan narrowed his bright blue eyes. ‘There are several possibilities. The killer may have been forced to swallow objects as part of some kind of childhood abuse and is regaining a sense of power by repeating the act on someone else. Or, the use of the wedding ring is deeply symbolic. The perpetrator may have been raped or assaulted by a married man. He might have targeted Nathan for this specific reason.’

              Bevan jotted these two theories down.

              ‘Most importantly,’ Morgan waggled a long finger at the DCI. ‘We should bear in mind that the person who committed this crime may not themselves be gay.’

              Dani stopped writing and looked up.

              ‘There is no evidence that the killer actually had intercourse with McLaren. Penetration
had
taken place, but potentially with a foreign object, as yet unfound. This could mean that the motive wasn’t sexual at all. In the case of Ian Cummings, the victims had been raped repeatedly before and after death. This murder has a more
clinical
feel to it.’

              ‘So, we might be heading along a blind alley by assuming this murder resulted from Nathan’s homosexuality?’

              Professor Morgan raised his hands in the air. ‘Psychology is not an exact science, Detective Chief Inspector. I cannot promise that is the case. All I can do is to provide you with my opinion. But if I were you, I’d look at everyone connected with McLaren, not just his lovers. The family and friends must be suspects too.’

              Dani nodded, feeling slightly deflated. This advice widened rather than narrowed their search. But something about this man’s instincts seemed to ring true. When they had more evidence to go on, she would certainly be looking him up again.