‘I killed Tulloch,’ said Finnie again. ‘Your mother stuck a knife in his back but he was still alive, still breathing, moving – I finished him like they showed us. I sorted everything, you see, for all of us.’

Darry turned towards Valentine. ‘What’s he going on about, it said in the paper you had charged Mum?’

‘That should never have happened, son.’ The DI held out a hand, stepped forward. ‘Come on, he’s confessed now, you can get your mum back.’

Darry dropped the pistol to the stone floor – Valentine was close enough to lunge and retrieve the Luger. He backed away again, turned and removed the magazine. As he stuck the gun in his belt he faced Darry and Jade again and motioned them to the door.

The brother and sister moved together, gripping each other separately, but somehow as part of the same crawling mass of limbs. They were both wounded and hurt but they’d survived. As CS Martin rushed in the doorway, disrupting the moment, Valentine shifted his perspective, he knew Jade and Darry would be all right, they had each other.

‘Right, Finnie, on your feet,’ said the DI.

Grant Finnie turned around and placed his hands on the back of his head – the move seemed practised like he had been in preparation for this moment for some time. ‘He’s better dead, you know,’ he said.

Valentine longed to agree but the words evaded him. He’d sworn to remove murderers from society, no matter how much he agreed with this one’s cause, it wasn’t his job to sympathise, or even try to understand him. He grabbed Finnie’s wrists and led him towards the door. Outside DS McNeil was waiting with handcuffs to lead Finnie away to the Land Rover that had just arrived, lights flashing. As Valentine handed him over, he made no struggle, just slopped off behind the DS, head bowed.

‘Are you OK, Jade?’ said Valentine.

She nodded through her tears, she was still clinging to her brother; CS Martin stood nearby, offering a comforting hug that appeared out of character.

‘What’s going to happen to us now?’ said Jade.

‘Hard to say. There’ll be questions, lots of them, but the first step is to get you checked out by a doctor.’

‘There’s money in there, Finnie brought it. It was for me, to go away and get it taken away.’

Darry looked up at the DI, spoke: ‘What’ll happen to her?’

‘It’s not for me to say, but your sister will be taken care of, Darry, you don’t need to worry about that. She’s a victim in all of this, we’ll look after her, there’s systems in place to make everything as stress-free as possible for her.’ Valentine eased them towards the car. ‘Come on, it’s getting dark, let’s get inside and get some warmth into the pair of you, we don’t need to clear this mess up tonight.’

As CS Martin led Darry and Jade up the path at the side of the bothy she summoned Valentine with a backward nod. ‘Bob, I just took a call from Ally, the MoD chucked a fit when he told them about the case. I’d say there’s a better than good shot at reopening the murder allegations against Tulloch from Afghanistan.’

‘Shame it’s come too late for the whistle-blower, not to mention Jade and Darry.’

‘Still, it’s something.’

‘Almost justice.’

More police cars were arriving, DS McCormack was in the same Astra she’d left in earlier. She stood on the edge of the bothy looking at Valentine as he retrieved the holdall containing the money Finnie had taken from Leask at the Meat Hangers. The sky was dark but luminous behind the DS as she called out, ‘Are you all right, Bob?’

‘Why wouldn’t I be?’

‘We had a running commentary on the radio from McNeil.’

‘Oh, right.’ He drew level with McCormack.

‘I was worried about you.’

Valentine let down the bag, it rested between them on the shaley path towards the glen. ‘This weighs a ton, must be a fair amount of cash in there.’

‘Are you tempted to run away with it?’

‘I wouldn’t get very far.’

‘Is that because you’re getting on a bit?’ She suppressed a laugh.

‘No,’ he said. ‘It’s because we’ve missed the last ferry home.’

‘Well, that means Dino’s budget’s going to get another battering tonight.’

‘I’d say you’re right once again, Sylvia.’

Copyright

First published 2015

by Black & White Publishing Ltd

29 Ocean Drive, Edinburgh EH6 6JL

www.blackandwhitepublishing.com

This electronic edition published in 2015

ISBN: 978 1 84502 974 6 in EPub format

ISBN: 978 1 84502 964 7 in paperback format

Copyright © Tony Black 2015

The right of Tony Black to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Ebook compilation by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay