In Place of Fear by Catriona McPherson

Author:Catriona McPherson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Chapter 12

If things had been different, this would be a moment to treasure. Helen lifted her feet as Sandy put a wee stool under them, then watched him draw water and fill the kettle. While he washed, she tried to gather her thoughts but, on his return, still she opened with, ‘I scarce know where to start.’ Then she drew a breath, told herself it didn’t matter where she started as long as she covered it all in the end, and began.

‘For one thing, that girl in the shelter was no Glasgow moll, wanted all over the city. I ken that for a stone-cold fact because there’s nothing in the Glasgow papers about her getting her comeuppance and I’ve asked two west coasters today and they’ve never heard of any Maggie Dickson. So that’s for starters.’

‘Maggie Dickson?’ Sandy echoed in a wondering sort of voice.

‘Aye, me too,’ Helen said. ‘Just the same. It rang a bell but only a faint one. But listen. That’s not all. If she wasn’t this notorious Glasgow villain then why was she not took to the mortuary in the Canongate there? And why was that bigwig, Duncan Pyne, coming in the back way in his fancy car saying his pal from over there was on the job? Why was he there, see? Even if it was true that she was away to Glasgow to be nailed down under a lead lid to make sure she was gone – and it’s not true, Sandy; I swear it’s no’ – why would an Edinburgh judge be at the mortuary back door the same night?’

‘Aye but, Nelly—’

‘Hear me out, like you said you would,’ said Helen. ‘Next: Mrs Sinclair. I told you how it went with her, didn’t I? She was annoyed when we said the body was Fiona. Went straight to the phone and started jabbing at they wee holes as if they’d offended her. But then, when I said Carolyn, she hit the ground in a deid faint. I was that upset and feeling guilty, I never thought on how strange it was for her to do that.’

‘Stranger to be annoyed, if you ask me,’ Sandy said.

‘Strangest of all to be one then the other though.’

‘Right enough,’ Sandy said, over his shoulder. He had filled the kettle so full it would be morning before it boiled but he stood at attention with a cloth over his hand to lift it.

‘But even that’s not the worst thing,’ Helen said. ‘The worst of it all is. . . Oh, Sandy, I don’t even know how to tell you; I cannae account for it except maybe to say that it was the job, and then the hoose, and my mammy putting us out, and not wanting to argue with him in front of the coppers and then all the chasing about, the polis station and those poor girls—’

‘What poor girls are these?’

‘At Torphichen Street. Working girls. I d’ae ken if they were in trouble or just sitting in for a warm.

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