‘Good to be back.’
Marie thought he seemed rather apprehensive. Understandable, she guessed, although he seemed to function very well on the streets, going by yesterday’s unauthorised escapade. She told herself to stop trying to understand Carter McLean.
The next fifteen minutes were taken up with a report on the previous night’s activities in the town. Marie really wasn’t too interested. She half listened in case a name came up that might be useful.
Then it was Jackman’s turn, and the Suzanne Holland investigation.
‘As some of you know, DS McLean and the late Tom Holland were friends, so we are grateful to him for joining us, and perhaps filling in some of the gaps in our knowledge about Suzanne Holland.’ He looked towards Carter. ‘He has already given us a possible identity for the mystery man who was seen in the area on the night Suzanne disappeared. So I suggest we make our priority the search for this Ralph Dolan. Max? Anything on him since yesterday?’
Max stood up. ‘I’ve confirmed his name, sir. It’s Ralph Edward Doolan. The spelling confused me at first, but so far I’ve had no luck in tracking him down. He was last living at an address in Nottingham, but he’s since moved with no forwarding address.’
‘Do we know anything about him? What he does for a living? Has he ever been in trouble?’
Robbie raised a hand. ‘We checked the PNC and found nothing, sir.’
Jackman looked at Carter. ‘Anything at all that you can tell us about him?’
Carter told them about Tom Holland’s suspicions that the man was too interested in his half-sister, and what he himself had observed. ‘I have no idea where he worked or what he did.’
Robbie raised a hand. ‘So it would be reasonable to believe, if this man is Doolan, that he could have had a legitimate reason for visiting his sister that evening?’
Jackman shrugged. ‘He could, but we don’t know that. Did he go there purely to see her? Or to abduct her? Kill her? Did they argue and things got out of hand?’
‘Or did he discover her body?’ said Marie. ‘But if that were the case, why not just dial 999?’
‘And who was with him?’ added Carter. ‘You say he was talking to another man?’
‘Alan Pitt saw Doolan clearly, but not the man he was with. He stayed in the shadows.’
‘Sir?’ Marie said.
Jackman looked to Marie and raised an eyebrow.
‘It’s Alan Pitt, our witness. How can he be so certain, not only of the description, but of the date too? After all, it was eighteen months ago.’
‘Ah. Well, knowing how unreliable witness statements can be, I did ask him that question.’ Jackman exhaled. ‘He told me that the date is etched in his brain because it was the day the hospital gave him his diagnosis and he knew for certain he had cancer. He said he was in a state of shock, but still tried to carry on as normal — walking his dog and so on. He said he was totally absorbed in his own problems, and hearing the men’s voices made him jump. He wanted to speak to them, but they sounded pretty angry, maybe arguing, so he backed off. He said he felt quite disturbed, and for a moment he thought Ponytail was his cousin.’ Jackman paused. ‘I think that’s sufficient reason to remember that night and what he saw.’
‘But it was at night.’
‘If there’s no cloud cover, go out late tonight, Marie. It’s a full moon. I’m betting you’d spot a ponytail and designer glasses without artificial light.’
Marie smiled. ‘Fair enough. You’ve answered my query. Poor guy.’
Jackman beckoned to Carter. ‘Come up here and tell us anything you think might be helpful about your friend Tom, and Suzanne.’
Marie watched Carter amble towards the front of the room. This was the deep end they’d been trying to avoid all these months. Would he sink, or swim?
‘Tom was my best mate. We went to school together and we remained friends afterwards. The only thing I ever recall disagreeing with him about was when he told me he was going to marry Suzanne Cash.’ He swallowed, but carried on. ‘I’d heard rumours that she was, well, an easy lay. And I thought Tom deserved better. But,’ he shrugged, ‘Tom was adamant that he knew all about her past and it didn’t matter. He said she had changed. She loved him, and that was that. And for the first year they were together I had to agree. Everyone said she was the perfect partner, with eyes only for Tom. And then they got married.’
Marie recalled Carter saying that he hardly knew the woman. She asked, ‘Were you his best man?’
Carter flashed her an odd look. ‘They married in a registry office, with no guests. They used council workers as witnesses and there were no photographs. Tom said that was how they wanted it — no fuss.’ He sighed. ‘I stopped spending so much time at his place after that. We still met, went out, did stuff and worked on our boat, but I rarely went to their home.’
‘You still had reservations about her?’ asked Jackman.
‘I just couldn’t take to her, end of. So I stayed away. And, well, being a copper I made a few discreet enquiries about her first marriage. I found out roughly the same as Robbie did, although I had no proof. It isn’t a pleasant story.’
Robbie gave a grunt of assent.
‘Then after another year went by, Tom got kind of quiet, but he wouldn’t say what was wrong. He swore everything in the garden was rosy, but I didn’t believe him. You know when someone says, “I’m fine!” too often? You know damn well they are lying.’
Like you, thought Marie, and nodded.
‘And that’s all I can tell you. Nothing concrete, but an undercurrent strong enough to sweep away a herd of cows.’
‘Do you know what they rowed about, Carter?’ asked Jackman. ‘It must have been serious, since he packed a bag and went to Ray’s house.’
‘And why Ray?’ Marie added. ‘You were his best buddy. Why not stay with you?’
‘I was off on a stakeout the night he had the row. And I think he knew I disliked her, though he never bad-mouthed her, not once. Maybe he didn’t want to tell me what had happened.’
‘And he never told you?’ Max sounded surprised. ‘We blokes usually like to chew over things like that with our mates.’
‘Not if we are embarrassed, or know we are in the wrong,’ said Carter.
‘Mmm, good point.’
‘I’d have thought Ray would have said something to you,’ Jackman mused.
‘He told me it would blow over. Storm in a teacup.’ Carter pulled a face. ‘Ray was pretty blunt, bless him. He said I’d probably open my big gob and make things worse.’ He gave a little laugh. ‘So even on our way to the stag do, it wasn’t spoken about.’