Faith - Lesley Pearse [187]
‘Do sit down, Mr Macgregor.’ Calder indicated a dark blue leather club chair and sat down behind his desk. ‘Mr Goldsmith said you had an interest in the affairs of Mrs Davies. I hadn’t known until I received his call that she had died.’
Stuart’s hackles rose, for that was clearly a lie. The murder had been in the nationals and local papers. During the trial it had been front-page news.
‘Murdered, Mr Calder. You must be one of the few people in Edinburgh who didn’t know about it.’
‘I may have read about it but not connected it with one of my clients. I do have a great many and some of them I have only met once or twice.’
Stuart nodded as if that was a good enough explanation. He didn’t like Calder, who had the pinched nose and lips of a mean-spirited man, but he liked him even less for implying he couldn’t remember Jackie. No one ever forgot her. Her looks and personality were the kind that stayed in men’s minds. ‘I understand you handled the sale of Brodie Farm for her?’
‘Yes, that’s right, I did, though I had forgotten it entirely until Mr Goldsmith rang me. It was a long time ago now. I was just getting started in my practice then. Is there some problem with the deeds? I believe Mrs Davies kept them, rather than giving them to me for safekeeping.’
‘No, there’s no problem with them as far as I know. I’m sure Goldsmith informed you that he is collating new evidence for an appeal for Laura Brannigan. We’ve been informed by a witness that Mrs Davies had a deed of gift drawn up, in which she intended to give the farm to Brannigan.’
‘Yes, that’s correct.’ Calder nodded. ‘I tried to dissuade her. It is always foolhardy giving away property, even to members of your own family. Clearly I succeeded, for she didn’t return it signed and witnessed.’
‘Did she tell you why not?’
‘No. But that’s not unusual. And of course I don’t chase clients up about such things. It is their right to change their minds.’
Stuart was dying to point out that Calder’s memory appeared to be selective. He’d said he didn’t remember Jackie yet he had no problem recalling she hadn’t returned the signed deed. But he decided not to make any comment; after all, the man wasn’t being obstructive.
‘How did Mrs Davies come to you? Was she recommended by another client of yours, or what? I mean, Portobello isn’t just around the corner from Fife.’
‘I think it must have been a recommendation,’ Calder said, not looking at Stuart. ‘But I really can’t remember now.’
‘Would it have been Mr Robert Fielding by any chance?’
Calder hesitated. ‘That name doesn’t ring a bell,’ he said, then picked up his pen and fiddled with it nervously.
Stuart’s anger flared up again and he found it hard to restrain himself from leaning across the desk and grabbing the man by the throat. ‘That’s odd considering he was in your office just twenty minutes ago,’ he said instead. ‘And I met him a week or so ago and he claimed he helped Mrs Davies obtain Brodie Farm.’
Calder blushed. It showed clearly as his complexion was naturally very pale.
‘Oh, you mean Robbie,’ he exclaimed. ‘I never think of him as Robert. Yes, of course he was here, but I couldn’t say if it was he who recommended Mrs Davies to come to me. It was far too long ago.’
Stuart had had enough of this selective memory lark. ‘Mr Calder, if you can’t be straight with me, I shall have to make a complaint to the Law Society,’ he said with steel in his voice. ‘You are likely to be called as a witness to Laura Brannigan’s affairs at her appeal, so I advise you to tell me the truth now.’
‘I don’t know what you mean,’ the man said indignantly, but he looked alarmed. ‘I have told you that I handled the sale