Understanding the situation, she frowned and nodded. ‘There is a staff room,’ she said. ‘I will take you there, and make sure you are not disturbed.’
She led them into the unit, turning right at the end of the corridor, into another, which ended in a green door with a keypad entry, marked ‘Staff only’. She punched in a code. ‘There you are; you can lock it from the inside. I’ll tell the senior nurse that you are here, and you can advise him when you go.’
‘What have you been told, Mrs Rainey?’ Pye asked, as soon as he and the aunt were alone and seated.
‘The person who called said that Grete had been involved in an incident, that was how she put it, and that she had been taken to the emergency unit in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. I went there at once, but they sent me here. The surgeon tells me Grete’s life is in great danger. What has happened, sir? And where is our Zena? Is she safe? For her daddy is away.’
The DCI took a deep breath. Slowly and carefully, he took her through the events of the day, stage by stage, pausing at times to allow the woman to absorb the story she was being told. Twice he asked her if she wanted him to pause, but she refused, her expression grim as she held herself together. He finished with a summary of the pathologist’s findings.
‘And the monster who did this?’ Ingrid Rainey asked icily when he had finished; her mouth quivered and her eyes were moist, but her voice was strong and controlled. ‘Have you caught him?’
‘No,’ Pye admitted, ‘but we believe we’ve identified at least one person involved. We’ve alerted ports and airports as a matter of course, and if we don’t arrest him by the end of this day we’ll issue a public appeal, name, photograph, everything.’
‘Be sure you do arrest him,’ she hissed. ‘My poor girls.’
He nodded. ‘Guys like me,’ he murmured, ‘we’re trained not to become emotionally involved in our investigations. But I’m a father, my boss is a father and the man who found Zena, he is as well, so trust me, none of us will rest until this man is convicted. We have to be painstaking in everything we do, and we have to be very cautious in our public statements so as not to infringe the suspect’s legal rights, but trust me, we are breathing down his neck.’
‘As far as I am concerned,’ the aunt snapped, ‘this person has no rights.’
‘But the law says he does. Mrs Rainey,’ he went on, ‘this is a terrible thing for you to have to cope with. Are you all right? Is there someone who can be with you?’
‘No,’ she replied, ‘there is not. My husband and I are no longer together; he is in London with another woman, and welcome to her as long as he keeps paying me what he promised in our settlement. My sister Tora, my twin, Grete’s mother, she died seven years ago.
‘We are Norwegian; Tora and I came to Edinburgh as engineering students, over thirty years ago. We never returned. I married Innes, my husband, and gave up my career. Tora, she worked for an Edinburgh company, until she had Grete. She took time out, but went back when the child was old enough to be left.’
‘And Grete’s father?’ Pye inquired.
Ingrid Rainey pursed her lips. ‘He was never a major part of her life. Tora married John Regal when she became pregnant, but soon came to regret it. She threw him out when Grete was five. The man was involved in criminality of some sort, but I never knew what.’
Pye leaned forward on his chair. ‘But he’s still alive, yes?’
‘I have not heard that he is dead.’
‘Then where is he? She’s still his daughter and Olivia . . . Zena . . . was his granddaughter.’
‘I do not know,’ she admitted. ‘Grete never mentions him; I do not believe he has ever seen Zena.’
‘What can you tell me about Lieutenant Gates?’
‘David is an engineer, as I was. He is a naval officer, as you know, but I have never been encouraged to ask about his work.’
‘He’s a specialist?’ the DCI murmured. ‘I didn’t know that. Does he have family? Apart from John Regal, does Zena have grandparents?’
Mrs Rainey nodded. ‘Yes, she does . . . or rather she did, the poor little darling. Their names are Richard and Julia, and they live in Dirleton.’