Eye of the Raven (31 page)

‘
You had every right to,’ said Steven. ‘I gave you false hope when I didn’t mean to.’

‘
Fine;
Te
absolvo
; now fuck off,’ said Little.

‘
I know that you didn’t rape and murder Julie Summers,’ said Steven.

Little stared at him, his dark sunken eyes betraying nothing. At length he broke the silence and said, ‘Do you know, no one has ever said that to me before. Not even my wife.’

‘
A man named, John Merton framed you. Ring any bells?’

‘
Merton?’ repeated Little. ‘I did know a John Merton once but that was many years ago.’

‘
Could you have given him cause to hate you?’ asked Steven.

‘
We were medical students together,’ said Little. ‘We were friends. We shared a flat.’

Little stopped talking and appeared to be lost in thought.

‘
But something happened between you?’

‘
Neither of us came from a wealthy background so we didn’t have much money to play a round with,’ said Little. ‘We lived on cornflakes and beans and toast for the last couple of weeks of every term then suddenly John wasn’t poor any more. He seemed to have money coming out of his ears. He told me that a rich relative had died but he was lying. I found out that he was supplying a foreign pharmaceutical company with human glands. He was stealing them from corpses in the med school,’ said Little. ‘I tackled him about it told him that it was a stupid and dangerous thing to do because the corpses hadn’t been screened for diseases that could be passed on through the glands he was selling.’

‘
What did the company want them for?’ asked Steven.

‘
They were extracting growth hormone for sale abroad. The practice was banned in this country because of the possibility of transmitting Creuzfeld Jakob Syndrome but the extract was still being used abroad.’

‘
So what did you do?’ asked Steven.

‘
He was my friend so I told him that if he packed it in I’d say no more about it. He promised that he would but a few weeks later I found out that he was still doing it – the sports car was a bit of a give-away. We had a fight: I reported him to the Dean and when the dust settled he was thrown out of medical school.’

‘
He didn’t leave you much choice,’ said Steven.

‘
He didn’t see it that way,’ said Little. ‘He didn’t seem to see that he was doing anything wrong. He had no conscience at all about it. He blamed me for his expulsion and threatened to kill me. He was engaged at the time to a girl named Melissa Felton, one of the other med students: she left him when she found out what he’d been doing. I think he held me responsible for that too but I never saw him again.’

‘
He must have gone elsewhere to do a science degree,’ said Steven. ‘He was working in the police lab at the time of Julie Summers’ murder. He manipulated the forensic evidence to fit you up.’

Little tried to take a deep breath to hide the fact that he was being overcome by emotion. Tears started to run down his face.

‘
But the fact remains that your semen was found in Julie’s body,’ said Steven. ‘Any idea how?’

Little looked at Steven as if the question was ridiculous then he said, ‘Oh Christ, we were donors.’

‘
Sperm donors?’ asked Steven.

‘
First year at med school, one of the research council labs was looking for donors among the students so we went along. We thought it was a hoot. A few minutes with a dirty magazine and a plastic cup and that was it. Easy money. Christ, he must have managed to get my sample from the sperm bank.’

‘
Not too difficult if you know your way around the university labs I suppose’ said Steven.

‘
A hoot,’ said Little distantly. ‘We thought it was a hoot . . .’ More tears started to flow down the hollows of his cheeks.

‘
Merton was also responsible for the pornography found on your computer,’ said Steven. ‘Your wife worked for an associate of his. That’s how he came to know where you were and what you were doing. It was Merton who supplied the utilities disk to help sort out some problem you’d been having. That’s where the porn came from.’

Little shook his head and spread his scrawny arms. ‘He said he’d kill me. I just didn’t realise that he was deadly serious about it. What’s happened to him? Have you arrested him?’

‘
No, I’ve only just worked out what happened.’

‘
The bastard,’ whispered Little. ‘He took away my life . . . slowly . . . one day at a time . . . each one worse than the one before. And the police? What are they saying to all this?’

‘
They don’t know yet,’ said Steven.

Little looked at him questioningly.

‘
I only worked out last night who’d set you up and now you’ve told me why and how. I’ll break the news to them when I get back to Edinburgh.’

‘
You wouldn’t like to video it for me?’ said Little. ‘I don’t suppose I’ll live long enough to sue the bastards.’

Steven silently agreed.

‘
Who did kill Julie?’ asked Little.

‘
Hector Combe, the psychopath I told you about, the one who confessed to the crime on his deathbed.’

‘
The real killer confessed but nobody listened,’ said Little.

‘
I did,’ said Steven.

Little turned his head – he’d been looking up at the ceiling. ‘Yes, you did and I’m not sure what to say to you. I’ve had no reason to thank anyone for anything in over eight years. I’m out of the way of such things.’

‘
No need,’ said Steven. ‘Try concentrating on positive things. Take your medication and start making plans.’

‘
Plans?’ exclaimed Little. ‘Positive things?’

‘
Even if it’s only psyching yourself up to hear apologies from everyone who owes you one.’ Steven got up to go. I’m going back to set everything in motion.’

Little stopped him with a hand gesture but then couldn’t get the words out. He had to settle for two brief nods that clearly said thank you. The tears emphasised the point.

Once back in Edinburgh, Steven went straight to police headquarters and told McClintock everything. ‘I’m telling you this because I want you to tell Santini. If it came from me it would look and sound like gloating – and it would be. I don’t much care for your boss but to be fair, there was little the police could have done in this instance.’

‘
Thanks for that,’ said McClintock. ‘But facts are facts and there has still been a bloody huge miscarriage of justice.’

‘
Fraid so.’

‘
Do you still want to talk to Verdi?’ asked McClintock.

‘
Please. Any progress?’

‘
Not yet. He’s still denying everything but we got permission to hold him for another forty-eight hours. He still doesn’t know about us having the snuff videos. We’re keeping them as our ace in the hole.’

‘
Mum’s the word,’ said Steven.

‘
Give me a moment,’ said McClintock. He left the room and came back a couple of minutes later, accompanied by a man in shirtsleeves. ‘Sergeant Wills will take you to him,’ he said. ‘I’m off to tell Santini.’

Despite the intensive questioning he’d been undergoing, Verdi still seemed sharp and alert, thought Steven as he entered the room.

‘
Shit, this is all I need,’ he exclaimed when he saw Steven. ‘What the hell do you want?’

‘
Just a few questions,’ said Steven.

‘
I’ll tell you what I told the rest. I don’t know anything about Tracy Manson’s death or any porn videos.’

‘
I’m not concerned with Tracy’s death; that’s a police matter. Same goes for the porn.’

‘
So what the hell do
you
want?’

‘
I want you to tell me about your association with John Merton.’

Verdi’s eyes narrowed at the name but he said, ‘Never heard of him.’

‘
Yes you have. He deliberately screwed up forensic evidence and then gave you the nod so you could expose the flaws in court and get your clients off – the ones who could afford it that is. Three of them to be precise, all big name criminals and all three acquitted.’

‘
Don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘
You do, Verdi, but I’m not even interested in them. It’s the Julie Summers case I want to know about.’

‘
Still don’t know what you’re talking about.’

Steven leaned closer and said, ‘You are entirely dependent on your people keeping quiet, aren’t you Verdi? They keep quiet and you’ll look after them and their families handsomely. Isn’t that the deal?’

Verdi said nothing.

‘
The trouble with that is that it falls to pieces when you go broke and that’s just what’s about to happen.’

‘
What are you talking about?’ snapped Verdi.

‘
The money, Verdi, the money that links you to an international criminal operation involving pornography, maybe even some of the money that the villains paid to you and Merton for getting them off. I know where it is and how to get my hands on it. The police don’t but I do.’

‘
Dream on,’ said Verdi as Steven sat back.

Steven took the card out of his pocket and read out the first number.

Verdi winced but kept his composure. ‘I take it these are your lottery numbers,’ he said. ‘Let me tell you, it’s a mugs’ game. You’d be better off buying Premium Bonds.’

Steven read out the second account number and then finally, the third.’

Verdi swallowed but didn’t say anything.

‘
Ring a bell?’ Steven asked. ‘Or should I say, sing a song?’

‘
What?’ croaked Verdi.

‘
Eleven letters, usually sings in Berkeley Square,’ said Steven. ‘How am I doing?’

The blood drained from Verdi’s face. ‘You’re serious?’ he said. ‘The police don’t know?’

‘
They don’t,’ said Steven. ‘I’m the only one.’

‘
How about a deal?’

‘
Tell me what I want to know and I’ll give you the card back.’

‘
Not a word to the police?’

‘
Not a word.’

‘
All right, I did have something going with John Merton.’

‘
How did you meet him?’

‘
We met at a club in the early nineties. Let’s say we had a mutual interest in young ladies.’

‘
And their exploitation,’ said Steven.

Verdi ignored the comment. ‘John was a computer buff. He convinced me that that was where the real money was to be made. All we needed was a few willing girls and some film equipment. I had a few friends who were in the sauna business so we pooled our resources and made a few videos. John distributed them via the net and they went like shit off a shovel. Then I found out what his day job was and we decided to help each other out there as well.’

‘
He faked evidence for you?’

‘
Fucked more like. He messed it up and I brought it to the attention of the court.’

‘
Tell me about the Julie Summers case. That was different.’

‘
Yeah, that was different. God help me, I don’t know too much about that. None of it was anything to do with me. It was John’s thing. He had some bee in his bonnet about the guy who was charged.’

‘
David Little?’

‘
That’s right. John maintained that he was as guilty as sin and was determined to see him go down for life. The DNA fingerprint evidence against Little was perfect but John said that some of the other stuff was a bit iffy. He asked me not to challenge it so I didn’t but that bloody case was just about the end of us.’

‘
How so?’

‘
Lee, John’s boss was a piss artist. He didn’t suspect anything about what had been going on until the Summers case. John could usually convince him that he must have screwed up but this time he kept on arguing with John about some gel pattern I think he called it. He refused to accept that he’d made a mistake. The drunken old bastard overheard John telling me on the phone about it in one of his sober moments and checked up on the phone number afterwards. He got in touch with Seymour and Nicholson to say that he thought that something ‘gravely unprofessional’ had been going on.

The old queens called me in and made noises about calling in the police. I had to point out that they had been sharing handsomely in the money I’d been bringing in to the firm and even if they didn’t go down with me, it would be the end of the line for dear old S & N. I put forward the alternative of my resignation from the firm with a bit of a pay-off and they went for it.’

‘
What about Lee?’

‘
I had a word with him.’

‘
What does that mean?’

‘
I told him that S&N were not going to take the matter any further so there would be no support for him from that direction. If he tried doing something on his own he would be exposed publicly as a drunk who couldn’t run a pie stall let alone a forensic lab. On the other hand, if he forgot about the whole thing he would be paid generously for his continuing silence. Guess which option he went for?’

‘
When did you last hear from him?’

‘
Funnily, a few weeks ago. He called me to say that some nosy bastard was asking questions about the evidence in the Summers case. I suppose that was you. He was up to high doh about it.’