On an Outgoing Tide by Caro Ramsay

Author:Caro Ramsay [Caro Ramsay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2020-12-02T22:00:00+00:00

TWELVE

‘Nice wee house,’ said Anderson, pulling into the driveway of Anne McLeod’s cottage. She had been the easiest contact to trace, and the most accessible, living just four miles away, still at the same address and happy to talk. ‘There was no reason for you to come with me. I think I could cope with this on my own. She used to work for Frankie Scanlon, but she has no real connection with Dukes at all.’

‘She could be the writer of the blue file, CS 1? She went on the walks with the family sometimes.’

‘Confidential Source One? She could be.’ Anderson pulled the car to a stop in front of a dark-green front door with a highly polished brass letterbox. There was well-trimmed ivy round the doorframe, a clean black rubber mat sitting squarely at the front of the step. ‘That’s kind of my point. Nobody’s close to Eddie Dukes. There’re the three of them and then nothing. It’s as if the Peacocks were an island and it exploded, leaving nothing behind except this woman. I want to get a feel for what she thought of her boss. She was Frankie’s secretary, so what’s she doing …’ He stopped talking.

‘She’s opening her door – that’s what she’s doing.’

Anne McLeod, a small woman in her sixties, walked around with a bustling efficiency, dusters hanging out of the pockets of her canvas apron, and a black spaniel trotted after her, totally ignoring the strangers at the door. She was the sort of woman who would have a very neat greenhouse.

She gestured that they should follow her into a small cluttered kitchen that smelled of scones and good coffee, as Costello muttered that they were looking for somebody who liked dogs.

‘So you are investigating these rumours as well?’

‘Were you spoken to the first time – the review by Arthur Kelly?’

She nodded.

Costello leaned forward, patting the spaniel on its smooth domed head. ‘I’d like, if possible, for you to give us some idea of Frankie Scanlon the man. I’d like to hear about him first-hand, as a human being.’

‘Do you want to know if I thought he was involved in child abuse in any way? If you do, I can say no. He was a very good police officer, well liked and efficient.’

‘You left your job shortly after he resigned?’ Costello let her voice trail off, leaving an open-ended question. Anderson looked at her, wondering where the hell that came from.

Anne McLeod moved uncomfortably, taking a seat, resting the coffee pot down gently, constructing the answer in her head. ‘I really liked working with Frankie. There’s no way I was going to stay after he left.’

‘Anne, did you have feelings that went beyond the normal for a detective of his rank and the woman who did the typing?’

Anne laughed a little. Two cups appeared and she lifted the coffee pot. Anderson gladly accepted with a nod. Costello declined and was offered tea, which she also declined.

Costello continued. ‘I am very fond of Colin here,

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