Faith - Lesley Pearse [217]
Laura smiled. She did remember the bit about the cottage and how she used to fall asleep thinking about how pretty it would be.
‘Ivy was round here the evening Mr Goldsmith rang to tell me about the court hearing,’ Meggie went on. ‘We were talking afterwards about all you’d been through, and Ivy said she thought you were almost at the magic box, and you’d soon get your wish. Will it still be the cottage by a river, Laura? Or will it be to have Stuart back?’
17
‘Come on now, Charlie boy.’ Detective Inspector Ian Donaldson leaned closer to Charles across the interview table. ‘Belle’s told us you killed Jackie Davies. You were savage because she was going to give Brannigan the farm and turn you out of Kirkmay House. But I don’t suppose you meant to kill her, whatever Belle says.’
‘Belle said I killed her?’ Charles exclaimed, his eyes wide with shock. ‘Why, the lying bitch!’
Donaldson looked sideways at PC Price, the second officer in the room, and winked surreptitiously so Charles’s lawyer wouldn’t see.
When Charles and his wife were first arrested Charles had called James Rafferty, a lawyer who was a golfing partner of his. Rafferty came into the police station with another lawyer friend for Belle. The two lawyers had lengthy interviews with their clients and were present during the initial questioning by the police.
Both Belle and Charles stubbornly refused to admit anything, even though the hall carpet at Kirkmay House was splattered with Stuart Macgregor’s blood, and when his car was eventually found in Edinburgh, clear imprints of both their sets of fingerprints were inside it.
Rafferty and his friend bowed out of defending them rather smartly after the first court appearance when both Belle and Charles were remanded in custody. Setting aside the fact that it was obviously a case they could never win, and that further investigations by the police were likely to result in still more serious charges, it was generally thought that Rafferty was concerned about his image. Being seen as a friend of the accused was not to his liking.
Charles’s young and inexperienced replacement lawyer, Colin Urquhart, was clearly out of his depth, not just with the seriousness of the charge, but with his client. Charles had blustered and roared at him because Rafferty had departed. He wouldn’t talk to Urquhart, yet kept on demanding that he get him out of prison.
Sandra Ferguson had been appointed to defend Belle now, and her task was proving equally difficult because Belle was hysterical and uncooperative.
Each time the police came to question Charles at the men’s prison they found that he appeared to be shrinking, physically and mentally. Today he looked as if he hadn’t slept for a week, his eyes had deep shadows beneath them, and he was gradually losing his concentration.
Urquhart too appeared to be wilting. He kept wiping perspiration from his thin pale face, and seemed intimidated by Donaldson who was old enough to be his father, a good nine inches taller, and twice his size in girth. He had made a spirited effort to guide his client through the police questioning at first, but he had gradually faded out. Maybe it was because he knew Belle had committed the crime, not Charles, and that if he let him make a statement to that end, perhaps he could go home.
Donaldson was taking full advantage of the situation. Belle had steadfastly pretended complete ignorance of the murder of her sister and there was no real hard evidence to prove she did it. She certainly hadn’t claimed Charles was responsible. But she had stated that it was he who stabbed Stuart Macgregor and that against