“What?” Elizabeth stared at Cruz in wide-eyed amazement, then smiled, her fingers tightening around Quinn’s. “Oh, my God!”
Relief washed through Quinn.
Thank you, Corbray and Tower.
Malik grinned. “It’s hard to enforce a rule that your boss breaks.”
Then it was time for Elizabeth to get ready for her debriefing with Smith.
They showered together then dressed and rode the lift to the ground floor where Smith met them and took them upstairs to his office.
He sat across from them. “I’m so glad to see you alive and well, Ms. Shields.”
“Thank you—and thanks for your help.”
Elizabeth gave him the story again, this time from her perspective, explaining how they’d put the pieces together.
Quinn couldn’t have done this without her.
“If you’re looking for teens who were victims of this, I’d talk with Nicola MacDonald—Clive MacDonald’s daughter. I’m pretty sure Whitehall either paid her or bullied her into having an abortion. That’s why her father went to Holyrood and threatened Whitehall’s life.”
“Interesting.” Smith looked up from his notes. “When they raided Whitehall’s office this morning, they found drugs and child pornography. They’ve charged him for that, as well as for ordering Lewis to kill Jack Murray. I imagine they’ll file more charges when they get a good overview of what was happening at that house.”
“There was a video on Jack’s phone, right?” Elizabeth asked.
Smith opened his laptop. “Videos, images, recorded conversations, license plate numbers, notes. Whitehall won’t be the only man in prison when this investigation is over. Jack gathered evidence the entire time he worked there—until Lewis found out.”
Smith turned his computer to face them, pulled up a video, clicked play.
From an upstairs window, Jack filmed four men loading a girl’s body into the boot of a car. The camera moved in, got the license plate number, then the men’s faces, and the girl’s, her vacant eyes staring at nothing.
“Katie Cameron,” Elizabeth said.
“Yes. A damned tragedy.”
“Lewis.” It turned Quinn’s stomach to see what the bastard had become. “He’s the one tellin’ them what to do.”
Then Lewis looked up at the window, seemed to notice Jack.
The hair on Quinn’s nape rose. “That’s why they killed him. Lewis caught him and wanted to silence him.”
That was the end of the video.
“Lewis wanted to silence him—and get that phone,” Elizabeth said. “But why would Jack meet Lewis in the middle of the night when he knew Lewis had seen him?”
Now that Quinn knew what had happened, he understood. “Jack thought of Lewis as a friend. He couldnae imagine that Lewis would kill him in cold blood.”
Smith closed his laptop. “Jack Murray died a hero.”
* * *
That afternoon,they picked up a squirming Labrador retriever puppy and drove with her and a car full of puppy things to Paisley to see Ava and Hannah.
“It looks like you’ve brought trouble,” Hannah said, eyeing the puppy.
“Who’s this?” Ava took the puppy into her arms. “Aren’t you sweet?”
Quinn explained. “Jack bought her from a breeder as a surprise for you and the girls. He was killed afore she was weaned. We found out about this from his phone records and went to get her for you.”