‘Paddy Corr died this morning.’
She nodded slowly, taking in the implications. ‘Okay. Did he say anything about Isla?’
‘Not a peep. If he knew anything, he took it with him,’ Ravi replied. ‘Marie asked if we had any news. I told her we hadn’t.’
‘How did she take it?’
‘I think it’s what she expected. She’s got the wee boy to look after. Might be easier with Paddy gone.’
‘I’ll ask Marie to let us know about the funeral,’ Murdo said.
‘Are you planning on going?’ Ravi said.
‘Oh, aye.’ Murdo nodded. ‘It’s worth making sure that bastard is definitely in the ground, no mistake.’
Chapter 25
The next morning Shona headed to the office late, stopping off at the hospital to get an update from the ward sister on the way. Becca was doing well, but still had spells of confusion and tiredness associated with the concussion. This was entirely normal. She’d need physio for her broken arm. They would keep her a few more days. Shona and Rob had orbited their daughter, taking turns to be at her bedside. They kept their distance from each other, pulled in opposing directions by the demands of Shona’s work and Rob’s B&B guests. When he’d suggested it wasn’t fair to cancel them, Shona had quickly agreed. It would keep Rob busy and out of her way. Her disappointment and embarrassment at having her husband hauled from the pub by her sergeant still stung.
The CID office was buzzing
and DC Kate Irving, looking smart and composed in a navy trouser suit and pale shirt, led a chorus of good mornings. She brought Shona a coffee in her Charles Rennie Mackintosh mug and said she had an update from the social services hub when Shona was ready.
‘You can tell me now.’ Shona took a sip of coffee and pointed to the seat opposite her. ‘How did you get on?’
Kate crossed her long legs and opened her notebook. ‘Well, there’s nothing to indicate Wazir’s claims about child trafficking are true. They haven’t dealt with any out-of-area children, beyond placing a brother and sister from Glasgow with a local couple.’
‘Okay, that’s good to know, but it may be a new operation that isn’t on anyone’s radar yet. We need to keep it in mind, in case it becomes a potential line of enquiry. Situations like this, children at risk, it’s important we all work together. It’s why the multi-agency hub was set up in the first place.’
Kate nodded. ‘How solid is this intelligence?’
Shona wrapped her hands around her cup. ‘Uncorroborated,’ she conceded. ‘It may even be a fabrication by Wazir to misdirect us.’
‘And we don’t know anything about Sami Raseem’s mental state other than it was fragile and he made at least one suicide attempt,’ Kate added.
‘True. God knows what he saw in Syria or while he was being trafficked himself.’ Shona shivered, partly from thoughts of Sami’s plight and partly from chilliness. She’d walked from the overheated hospital back to the car park without her coat and was paying the price. Even after nearly two years back in Scotland she’d still occasionally associate the late September sunshine with its counterpart in London and forget about the nippy wind and the ten-degree difference in temperature. She pulled the charcoal grey pashmina that hung over the back of her chair around her shoulders.
‘What did Wazir think was happening to the children?’ Kate turned over a new page in her notebook.
‘He claims he didn’t know, but it was something bad enough to tip Sami over the edge. As he told you, they were both in the grip of an organised gang Wazir’s too scared to inform on. The baby milk scheme was a method of escape. I think we have to conclude that we’re talking about sexually motivated crime, but where’s the evidence?’ Shona thought about her interview with Tony Kirkland. She could ask if Sami had confided in him about a paedophile gang, but if he had then Kirkland would surely have mentioned it when they spoke.
‘Could the children be for unregistered adoption?’ said Kate doubtfully. ‘Or, since Sami came in on a lorry, is it possible the gang were bringing in lone children for families already here? Or on their way here?’
‘Unlikely,’ Shona said. ‘Adoptions would have been travelling with at least one parent. If Sami was reuniting families, he wouldn’t have been so troubled by his own part in it. What else?’ she challenged Kate. ‘What else are children and young people used for?’
‘Well…’ Kate dipped her head, concentrating on her notebook. ‘County lines, drugs, but surely… DCI Baird would have picked up on this?’
She looked uncomfortable, perhaps expecting a reprimand for her lack of progress, but Shona appreciated that she’d volunteered to pursue an avenue that might lead to Sami and Isla’s killers.
‘Maybe they did, but preferred to go after the big fish?’ Shona replied. Baird had shared only enough intelligence with her for her team to mop up the low grade dealers. The children and teenagers put on a cross-country train with a sports bag of cocaine were not the focus of his op.
Kate was nodding now. ‘One of the outreach guys mentioned something. Town gangs renting rural Airbnb properties for a weekend. They bring in the local dealer network, kids mostly, to cut and package the drugs. They have an Xbox and send out for some pizzas, it looks like a family get together. When they’re finished, everyone goes their separate ways. The place is always left clean, I mean forensically spotless, so the owners have no complaints, and no one is any the wiser.’
Shona shifted in her chair. Did Rob know what their guests were up to in their ensuite rooms with all those immaculate, white-tiled surfaces? She couldn’t imagine the retired couples, their bread and butter, getting up to much mischief. Or the middle-class families arriving for the Kirkness Arts Festival next month, but surely that was the point. Make it look like normal activity and nobody batted an eye. ‘What about Isla’s social worker? Any luck with her?’
‘There’s been a fair turnover of staff, but I did speak to a woman called Sarah who’d been assigned to Isla and Ryan. They’ve had minimal contact, no causes for concern. With Marie Corr looking after Isla’s kid, and no problems at school, the family have been low priority. Paddy Corr wasn’t considered a threat, given his state of health and lack of recent convictions.’
‘So, when did Sarah last see Isla and Ryan?’