And the two of them dissolved in saving laughter.
12
Maggie - September 1997
Duncan was home!
Maggie had been thinking about asking Yvonne, after all, if she and Isla could stay at the farm, but now there was no need. Nick had worked out that CCTV outside a shop in Hawick could have caught Duncan’s car driving past, and sure enough, CCTV had captured a clear image of Duncan in the car, time-stamped 20:38 – and Hawick was half an hour’s drive from The Phoenix Centre in Langholm, even if Duncan had taken the most direct route possible. The police had found Dean’s body at 20:55, and the time of death had been estimated to be between 20:25 and 20:50. Dean would have died within minutes of being stabbed, so there was no sequence of events that could possibly place Duncan at The Phoenix Centre committing the murder.
The icing on the cake was that several locals had come forward to say that the so-called altercation between Duncan and Dean outside the newsagent had just been Dean kicking off and Duncan trying to calm him down and defend himself.
The authorities had had no option but to release him.
‘The hero of the hour!’ went Duncan as he dumped his holdall in the hall, throwing an arm round Nick, who went beetroot but insisted, ‘The plods would have got there eventually. I just sped the process up a bit.’
‘I don’t know that they would have. They weren’t looking at any alternative scenarios after they found out about that altercation I had with Dean in the street.’
‘Well, but they’ll have to now, won’t they?’ Nick looked at Maggie. ‘They’ll have to start thinking who else, maybe someone with a history of violence, could have been in the vicinity at the relevant time.’
‘Well, yes, hopefully they’ll find out who did it.’ Duncan took Isla from Maggie and lowered his face to hers, breathing her in. ‘Ah, it’s good to be home!’ He beamed at Nick. ‘You know what I’ve really missed? Our early morning runs. How about going for a run with your old man now? I’ve been hitting the gym while I’ve been behind bars, I have to warn you.’
‘Uh, yeah, but from the look of that belly you’ve also been hitting the baked goods section of the cafeteria pretty hard.’ Nick grinned. ‘All right, old man. Back here in five?’
‘Oof, give me ten.’
Upstairs in their room, Maggie trailed Duncan from the wardrobe to the chest of drawers to the en suite, as he threw off the clothes he was wearing, had a piss and pulled on shorts and a T-shirt. As he went on about how glad he was to be back, not saying much about what it had been like in prison, Maggie psyched herself up for what she had to tell him. She’d decided not to say anything about what Nick had done, or her suspicions about Dean’s death, while he was inside. There was nothing he could do about it other than worry himself to death. But now she needed to speak.
Before she had a chance, as he sat on the bed to tie the laces of his running shoes, he said, ‘I think there’s maybe an issue with Nick.’
Hallelujah!
But Maggie made her face serious. ‘Aye,’ she went, rocking Isla in her arms. ‘I think there is.’
‘I’ve been spending too much time with this little one.’ He smiled at Isla. ‘Irresistible as she is, I think I’ve maybe been neglecting Nick a bit. Making him feel . . . overlooked? That was the impression I had when he came to visit me in Dumfries. He said it was good to get uninterrupted time with me.’ He shook his head. ‘What kind of crap father needs to get put inside and made to sit at a table in the visitors’ room to spend quality time, as they call it, with his son?’
‘That’s blethers!’ Maggie puffed. ‘You’ve always spent loads of time with Nick.’
‘Not since Isla was born.’
‘Well, obviously no parent can spend as much time with their first child once a second one comes along. If Nick wasn’t so fucking self-centred, he’d realise that and not guilt-trip you about it.’
‘He wasn’t . . .’ Duncan frowned. ‘Nick isn’t “self-centred”！’
‘If only that was all that was wrong with him!’ Maggie put Isla down in her cot and sat down next to Duncan on the bed. She turned her right hand over so he could see the burn. ‘Nick did this. And my leg’s burnt too. He superheated a mug and gave it to me on a tray. Fucking boiling tea tsunami. Missed Isla by inches, and I had to go to A&E. I didn’t tell you about it because I didn’t want you worrying.’