Deception aka Sanctum

Harvey let the walking stick drop to the ground, the end of it hitting the nasty nylon carpet with a loud thunk that reverberated through the house, reminding us that we were alone.

My talking seemed to have calmed him a little, so I rambled on. “I’m sure you can imagine how many questions I must have about what happened to my wife. I’m pretty much in the dark about everything that went on. I thought she was going to the supermarket and then suddenly she’s arrested in Durness for a gruesome murder. I don’t even know anything about her job or what happened there with Gow and Do

It had exactly the effect I wanted it to: he shouted at me.

“I did not get her sacked. No one got her sacked. She stole Gow’s files from the hospital. She was caught on videotape putting the files into her bag. That’s why she got the sack.” He leaned back against a mock-Georgian liquor cabinet and panted for breath.

I couldn’t breathe. My mind raced over all the cozy nights we had spent together since her dismissal speculating about Sinclair’s motives: whether he was jealous of her professionally, whether he was a misogynist. I was flattered that Susie’d included me in a discussion about another man’s misogyny. It blinded me to her bald-faced lies. She had known it would. It was so unfair. I’d tried hard to be a good husband and she’d just stood there and lied to me.

I nodded at the liquor cabinet. “Please, can I have a drink, please, Harvey, please?”

Harvey led me by the arm to a chair and sat me down, handing me a tissue. Then he gave me a glass of a nice malt whiskey to sip. I was glad it was only Harvey I cried in front of. I said I was sorry, it wasn’t his fault, not his problem at all, but I needed to know some things. He got himself a big drink and sat down opposite me, on the other side of the marble fireplace.

“I’m sorry for all that’s happened,” he said. “I like Susan very much. Before all this started she was irreproachably professional. She was a good friend to me as well.” He looked up at the photos on the mantelpiece. “My wife and I separated last year, and Susan talked me through it. I don’t think I could have survived it without her. That’s why I felt so bad in the court. I didn’t want to give evidence against her, but they forced me to.”

I said I thought he had seemed a bit ambivalent, and he nodded. “I couldn’t look at her in that dock without thinking about all the help she’d been to me. I felt awful about it all.” His voice cracked, and I looked up. He was staring absently at his glass, looking vacant and old. A dark opening gaped in his trousers. He still hadn’t noticed. “They made me give evidence against her. I liked Susan.” He was talking about her as if she were dead.

“What about Gow? Did you like him?”

He snorted joylessly. “He was a psychopath.”

“Did Susie spend a lot of time with him?”

He put his glass down and looked straight at me, saddened by what he had to say. “An inordinate amount of time,” he said softly. “Inordinate. Hours at a time. We questioned her about it. Sinclair knew there was something wrong. He brought it up at a case conference, and she got very defensive. Said she was concerned about the wedding and wanted to make sure nothing was going to happen. Sinclair said that if she thought there was a security risk, she should report it immediately. It wasn’t that at all, we all knew that. We all knew and none of us did anything about it. If we had done something, none of this would have happened. Sinclair wanted to ask Do

“How would Do

“Eh?”

“What would the point be in Sinky speaking to Do

“Well, Susan spent a lot of time with Do

I shook my head. There was very little I did know.

“Yes, Susan spent a lot of time with Do

I shrugged. I could hardly admit to myself that Susie was a liar, much less to a stranger.

“The files Susie took from the office?” continued Tucker. “They should be returned. They’re Prison Department property. You haven’t come across them?” He took a drink, watching me over the rim of his glass.

“Tell me what it is you’re looking for, and I’ll keep my eyes open.”

“A disk with a table of Gow’s correspondents over the past two years. Susan deleted all the copies, but I was rather hoping she kept one on a disk. We were writing an article together. Because of the Human Rights Act, we’re not supposed to read prisoners’ mail anymore. We won’t be able to collate that sort of information ever again. It could be a unique bit of research.”

It would have been Susie’s idea, we both knew that. She’d have read ahead and anticipated the change in the law, thought about it, and drawn up the research outline, and Harvey was hoping to get all the credit now that Susie was in prison.

“I’ll look out for it,” I said, swirling the last of my drink and swallowing it.

“Please phone me if you find it. It’s Prison Department property.”

I don’t think he had anything to do with that research at all.

Tucker watched me drive away. I think he wanted to make sure I actually left. He stood on the step of his dark, empty home and saw me off like a visiting relative, waving for too long, making sure I was out of sight before he went back in.

I stopped the car around the corner and dropped my head to the steering wheel, concentrating on breathing in and out. My head was bursting. My chest ached. I opened the car door and threw up into the street.

They’ve been right about her all along. They were right and I was wrong.

chapter twelve

A TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE DAY. I’M SITTING HERE IN FRONT OF THE computer with this document from Gow’s files, and I can’t even be bothered to read it:

Box 1 Document 3 Note of Circumstances 1994

1. This note of circumstances represents the Secretary of State’s understanding of the circumstances surrounding the offense for which Mr. Gow is serving a life sentence. The information in it has been obtained from a number of sources. If Mr. Gow disagrees with any of the details in the note, he should record the disagreement on the form provided for written representations.

CONVICTION AND SENTENCE

2. At the High Court, Glasgow, on March 4, 1994, Mr. Andrew Alfred Gow was convicted of murder by a unanimous verdict and given five consecutive life sentences. There was no appeal against conviction.

INDICTMENT

3. The indictment bore that Mr. Andrew Gow did:

3.1 On March 23, 1993, while acting along with people or person unknown, assault Mrs. Elizabeth MacCorronah, then residing at Flat 3/1, 6 Ochil Place, Milton, Glasgow, push her bodily, repeatedly punch her on the head and body, knock her to the ground, forcibly detain her in motor vehicle registered number B513 DSF, and abduct her from Mitchell Road, Anderston, Glasgow, and there, or elsewhere in Scotland, repeatedly strike her on the head and body with a hammer or similar instrument, repeatedly strike or slash her in the chest with a knife or similar instrument, all to her severe injury, and in Ferry Road, Yorkhill Quay, Glasgow, did remove said Elizabeth MacCorronah from that motor vehicle and abandon her there, whereby she died of her injuries there, and did murder her.