Candles and Roses by Alex Walters Read Free Book Online Page B

If it’s not too intrusive, can I ask when you last saw your daughter?’
    McKay was trying to decipher Scott’s expression. It wasn’t grief, or even quite surprise. It was something that felt wrong in the context, some emotion with no place here, but McKay couldn’t quite pin it down.
    After a moment, Mrs Scott said: ‘There’s no point in lying to you, Mr McKay. We’ve haven’t seen her in a good few years. She was a rather—difficult girl.’
    ‘That’s one way of putting it,’ Scott said. ‘She was a nightmare. Especially after Emma passed on.’
    ‘Ronnie—’
    ‘Well, it’s true, isn’t it? While she was here, she made our lives a complete misery.’
    McKay nodded, unsure how to respond. ‘I’m sorry to broach this just at the moment, but we’ll need one or both of you to identify the body, I’m afraid. We’ll take every step to ensure it’s not too distressing.’
    Mrs Scott looked up as she absorbed his words. ‘Is there any doubt, then?’
    ‘I’m afraid not, Mrs Scott. We identified her through her DNA and fingerprints. But, if it’s possible, we need a relative to confirm for the records.’
    ‘DNA and fingerprints?’ Mr Scott said. ‘She had a police record then?’
    ‘A minor one,’ Horton said. ‘From some years ago.’
    ‘I see.’ Mr Scott looked as if he didn’t believe this. ‘I’m not surprised. She was a bad one.’ His wife looked as if about to interrupt him again, but he went on. ‘I’m only telling the truth, Megs. These people need to know.’ He looked up at McKay. ‘You said it was complicated?’
    ‘We believe she was murdered, Mr Scott. Her body was discovered—well, relatively close to here. We don’t yet know the circumstances of her death.’
    Mrs Scott was staring at him. ‘It’s that body, isn’t it? At Munlochy. That was our Katy. My God—’
    It was inevitable they would join the dots. The finding of the body had been widely reported in the local media despite the best efforts of Grant and the media team to keep it low-key. The details had not yet been made public. ‘Yes, I’m afraid so.’
    Scott looked disbelieving. ‘But why would she be up here?’ he said. ‘She hasn’t been back in years. It’s the last place she wanted to be.’
    And the last place she’d ended up, McKay thought. ‘You were telling me about when you’d last seen your daughter, Mr Scott.’
    ‘Not for years,’ Scott said bluntly. ‘I mean, real years. Ten, at least.’
    ‘Did you have a falling-out?’
    ‘No more than usual. We argued constantly while she was living here. I never knew what we did wrong. We’d brought her up in a good, Christian lifestyle—’
    Well, there’s your answer, McKay thought. What sort of child would want that? He looked around the room, spotting the large leather-bound Bible on the shelf below the television set. ‘I’m sure you did.’ He paused, his mind tracking back over the previous conversation. ‘You mentioned an—Emma?’
    ‘Our first daughter,’ Mrs Scott said. ‘We lost her too.’
    ‘I’m sorry,’ McKay said. McKay knew what it was like to lose a daughter. He couldn’t imagine what it must be like to have lost two. ‘I didn’t realise.’
    Mrs Scott looked at her husband as if seeking his permission to speak. After a moment, Scott said: ‘It was cancer. Leukaemia. She’d never been a healthy child, and it was diagnosed too late.’
    ‘She and Katy had been close,’ Mrs Scott said. ‘It hit her hard.’
    ‘God’s judgement,’ Scott said bluntly. ‘Ours not to reason why. But we tried to look after Katy. Tried to do our best for her. We never had a lot of money, but what we had we spent on her. She threw it back in our faces.’
    ‘In what way?’
    ‘Everything,’ Scott said. ‘Drink, boys, even drugs, I think, though we never caught her at that. We caught her at most other things. We tried everything.’
    ‘Why did she leave finally?’ McKay asked. He caught Horton’s eye, recognising