Part 22 (2/2)

'Well, if you get done for the attack on Alex Cattanach then we'd better hope that your grandad can get you concurrent sentences.'

'I can see why you're thinking of seeing what Moses can find out, Lav, but he's wrapped up in his own troubles. Can't you find out if Roddie's been up to anything and just fix it yourself?'

She stared at me, knowing what I was really asking.

'That's a tall order even for me, Brodie. I've spoken to some of my friends and we're working on it, actually, but nothing's concrete yet.'

Lavender's 'friends' were a group of computer nerds that she'd met on a course called 'How to build a fire- wall'. This course was for would-be security experts but the first thing they were taught was how to tear a fire-wall down. I'm not sure Lavender, like many of her fellow students, bothered to stay for the rest of the course.

'So,' I said. 'Have you found out anything about Tymar Productions?'

'I started by looking at the way Alex worked and she is absolutely b.l.o.o.d.y certain that we are at it. I asked myself why?' Lavender liked to do full justice to her stories. I just had to sit back and be patient.

'Cattanach was appointed Chief Accountant to the Law Society in 1999. It was a surprising appointment because she was young and female. Alex made a pledge to weed out bent solicitors. The first thing she did was to increase the frequency of the routine inspections. That meant she sent her teams of investigators into offices without warning to go through their books. Nineteen solicitors were charged with fraud as a result. We had a routine inspection so what did she find that worried her? I think the fact that we are losing money as a result of Kailash and Roddie set her alarms off.'

'I was hoping you'd have better news have you got any sweeties in your bag to sugar the pill?'

She threw a rumpled paper bag of aniseed b.a.l.l.s at me.

'Will you let me finish? Cattanach's golden rule is: if the firm is not doing well, the partners will turn a blind eye to money laundering. Who am I to say she's wrong? I then spoke to Kailash about Tymar Productions. She knows that Roddie set this group up. It's an offsh.o.r.e company registered in Cyprus with a Swiss bank account.'

'So, where are you at the moment?' I asked, not letting on that I knew this already.

'I'm trying to get the client details of the Credit Suisse, but it's easier to get into a nun's knickers than this lot.'

I nodded. I had faith that, given enough time, Lavender would get to the bottom of it. The question was could I buy her that time? I didn't really want to know the answer to the question after that. I thought that the ostrich approach was eminently sensible, but knew that I had to ask.

'What's happening with the mandates?'

Lavender drew breath. A good sign, because she had a tendency to hold her breath when she was tense. I immediately relaxed.

'I spoke to Moses yesterday morning. I told him not to worry, I was just calling because I was worried about him the word on the street is that he can't hack things just now. I said I didn't mind the fact that the Angels were going elsewhere I was just vexed for him.'

'Devious when did the phone calls start coming?'

'By eleven thirty most of them had phoned begging to come back ... and they'd already called Bridget.'

The phone rang before I could congratulate her.

'It's for you David Ross' wife,' she told me.

It meant nothing. I shrugged my shoulders.

Lavender started scribbling on a piece of paper.

Donna Diamond's wife she's outside the office.

'Tell her I'll be right down,' I shouted as I ran down the stairs.

Maybe my luck was turning after all.

Chapter Thirty-Two.

'Do you fancy a buffalo burger?'

Marjorie shook her head at my offer. 'I've gone right off food since they found him I mean, since they found Donna.'

'You don't mind if I go ahead, do you?'

As soon as I'd got the burger in my hand, it was gone.

'Thanks very much how did you know I'd be hungry?' Joe said as he grabbed it.

'What are you doing here? Apart from nicking my food?' I asked.

'Marjorie asked me to come,' he told me.

I threw an evil look in his direction. It bounced right back.

'She was afraid to meet you by herself I can't think why,' he said in a lower voice.

'I asked Joe here because he makes me feel safe,' Majorie said, practically nuzzling up to him. Joe towered over her, his dark blue and red Ferguson kilt swinging gently in the breeze. He had no right to wear any kilt really, being of Irish descent, but he had chosen the modern Ferguson tartan because he liked the colours and the pattern. It was all vanity to tell the truth. His antique badger-fur sporran was more effective than sticking a sock down his Y-fronts.

b.i.t.c.hiness bubbled up inside me, even though Marjorie was about a hundred and dog plain. I didn't like the way she was proprietarily hanging on to his arm. I wanted to say, 'So you still like a man in a skirt?', but thankfully I managed to control myself by biting down hard on my remaining burger.

'Have you told Brodie yet what you mentioned to me on the phone, Marjorie?'

So, they'd been having chummy wee chats now? I knew that I had more to bother about than that, but it still niggled me.

'No, Joe I told you in confidence and you suggested that I tell her. It was your idea, not mine.'

Widowhood wasn't bringing out the best in Marjorie, and I didn't feel sympathetic enough not to ask what was bothering her. 'You seem to have some problem with me whatever I've done to cause this, I'm sorry,' I lied. I was only trying to make a stab at amends because my hunch told me that she knew something. She had some information I needed and, unless I could gain her confidence, there was no way I was getting it. Even her pensioner l.u.s.t for Joe looked unlikely to overcome her caginess with me.

'My husband has just been found murdered up Calton Hill, Miss McLennan.'

Husband? It was hard to think of Donna Diamond as anyone's husband.

'I can see what you're thinking.' Marjorie must have been a good mind-reader then. 'How could I still love that freak as a husband?'

Did she think portraying me in a bad light would give her a better chance with Joe? I was getting less and less keen on the grieving widow with every pa.s.sing minute. In fact, she was downright creepy her husband, wife, partner, pal, whatever, had just been found slaughtered, and her main concern was getting up Joe's kilt.

'I liked Donna,' I said, trying to take the wind out of her sails. 'I'd certainly never think of her as a ”freak” and I'm very sorry for your loss.'

An elderly woman struggling with a box of organic vegetables barged past me, knocking me into Joe. Marjorie didn't look pleased. Under other circ.u.mstances this would be funny; I'd often joked with him that he was the pensioner's toy-boy.

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