Broken Skin lm-3

by Stuart MacBride

  A lid of dove-grey had settled over the town, leeching the colour out of everything, the pale granite buildings merging with the monochrome sky. Rickards made it all the way from the station to School Hill before he started complaining about all the jokes he’d had to put up with since that first Jason Fettes briefing. Logan tuned him out, watching the pedestrians and traffic, looking for an eight-year-old boy in an AFC hooded top.

  Rickards was still moaning when they pulled onto King’s Gate, parking uphill from the Morrison house in order to find a space.

  ‘Look on the bright side,’ Logan told him, ‘at least everyone thinks they’re just taking the piss. Imagine what would happen if they actually knew you were in the scene.’

  The constable scowled at him. ‘I am not!’

  ‘Oh come off it — you really expect me to believe you recognized Jason Fettes’s backside after catching a glimpse of it on a seized DVD? You must have seen it dozens of times to remember it that clearly.’ He unclipped his seatbelt and climbed out into the grey morning. Yesterday’s spectacular view was gone; all the elements were still there, but they were dull and cold. The sea was the colour of clay, a dark smudge beneath a darker horizon. Sooner or later it was going to pee with rain.

  Rickards scrambled out after him. ‘I …’ the constable blushed, then shuffled nervously, not making eye-contact. ‘You … you didn’t tell anyone, did you?’

  ‘Of course I didn’t! You can dress up in rubber and spank each other till you’re blue in the face, far as I’m concerned it’s nobody’s business but your own.’

  ‘Wish I’d never come forward with that bloody ID …’

  Logan stopped and stared at him. ‘You really mean that?’

  He sighed. ‘No. Fettes didn’t deserve to be an unidentified body.’

  ‘No one does.’

  The crowd of journalists outside the Morrison place had grown since yesterday — there were even a couple of outside-broadcast vans, their satellite dishes brushing the skeletal beech trees that lined the road. A clot of protestors had formed around the gate, some had even made their own placards: SHAME! JUSTICE FOR JERRY! and KIDS SHOULDN’T KILL! They should have looked indignant and self-righteous, but instead they just looked cold, huddled around a thermos of tea, complaining about the weather. They mustered up a bit of shouting and posturing when Logan and Rickards appeared, playing up for the assembled media. Logan got the constable to cut a path for him, ignoring the cameras and microphones being jammed in his face. Keeping up a constant stream of ‘no comment’ until they were safely inside the house.

  Mr Morrison was in the darkened lounge, looking five years older than he had yesterday. Dark circles lurked beneath his eyes, his face pale and fish-like. As soon as the Family Liaison officer showed them through he was on his feet, wringing his hands. ‘Is … have they …’ unable to ask the question.

  ‘We haven’t found him yet,’ said Logan, motioning for the man to sit in one of his own armchairs, before sending PC Rickards off to make the tea. ‘I just need to ask a couple of follow-up questions.’

  ‘Do they …’ a nervous cough, ‘do they think he’ll still be OK?’

  ‘We hope so, Mr Morrison. From what I can tell Sean’s a resourceful wee boy.’ That seemed to calm his father a bit, but not much. ‘We spoke to his headmaster yesterday: he says Sean started causing problems six months ago.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘But you led us to believe that he’d never been in trouble before.’

  ‘Ah, yes …’ Mr Morrison stared down at his hands. ‘You see, his mother … well, she worships the ground Sean walks on. She … well, we’ve probably spoiled him a little, but …’ he shrugged.

  ‘Six months ago. What happened?’

  ‘September? He stole another boy’s bag.’ Morrison stared at the drawn curtains, shutting out the thin daylight and photographer’s lenses. ‘He’d never done anything like that before…’ A sigh. ‘Then he punched someone. Stole some dinner money. Started playing truant. We nearly ended up in court. Lucky he didn’t get expelled.’

  Logan settled onto the couch. ‘He ever tell you why?’

  The man laughed, short and bitter. ‘No. Well they don’t, do they? Parents are always the last to know. One minute they’re fine and the next you’re having to apologize to some distraught mother because your kid’s just bitten theirs. Came back from Guildford and he was like a different wee boy …’

  ‘Guildford?’

  ‘Well, we — I mean Gwen and I — went to Guildford. Gwen’s dad was going in for a double bypass. Her mum was a mess. We didn’t want Sean to come in case, you know … in case the surgery went wrong.’

  Rickards came through with the tea, plonking three mugs down on the coffee table. He hadn’t managed to rustle up any biscuits. ‘So,’ Logan helped himself to a mug, ‘who did Sean stay with when you were away?’

  Mr Morrison opened and closed his mouth a few times, then said he didn’t really know. It’d been one of Sean’s classmates. ‘Gwen will know, but she’s asleep … the doctor gave her something to help-’

  ‘It’s important, sir.’

  ‘Yes,’ he pulled himself out of his chair, and went back to wringing his hands again, ‘yes, of course. I’ll go … ask.’

  The name didn’t match any of those on Sean’s list of ‘friends’ — according to Mrs Morrison, Sean hadn’t spoken to the boy for months; he used to visit all the time, but they’d not seen him since they got back from visiting her mother and father. ‘But you know what boys are like,’ she’d said, sounding groggy, full of sedatives, ‘one minute they’re the best of friends, the next they’ve forgotten each other exists.’ She still had the address, though, which was how Logan and Rickards ended up outside a large granite box of a house on Hamilton Place. A wee boy could have run down here in seven or eight minutes.

  ‘Uh huh,’ said Logan, staring up at the place, his mobile phone clamped to his ear, ‘how many?’

  ‘Mother, father and three children: boy and two girls.’

  ‘Anyone got any priors?’

  There was a pause as the voice from Control checked with the PNC. ‘Nope …Well, the father was done for drink driving seven years ago, but nothing since.’

  ‘OK, thanks for-’

  ‘They did report a series of break-ins starting five months ago… Oh, and some vandalism in September, October … right the way through till Christmas. Broken windows, paint on the doors, that kind of thing. Hangon and I’ll cross-reference it…’ A longer pause, and this time Logan could swear he heard crisps being surreptitiously crunched. ‘Unlucky: looks like it was just them. No other reported incidents of vandalism in Hamilton Place. Couple of stolen bikes down the other end and-’

  ‘That’s fine. Thanks,’ said Logan before he was given the complete criminal history of the street. He stuck the phone back in his pocket. Just after ten on a Saturday morning — if they were lucky, the whole family would still be at home.

  The front door was opened by a balding man in his mid-thirties. A little older than Sean Morrison’s dad and a lot heavier round the middle. He took one look at Rickards standing there on his doorstep, and said, ‘About bloody time you showed up: we called Thursday!’

  Logan couldn’t help himself. ‘Thursday?’

  ‘Thursday! The window! Don’t you lot even speak to each other? Or did they just send you out to arse about and waste our time like the last ones? Well?’

  Typical: Control was getting ready to list every crime and misdemeanour in the area going back to 1906, but they couldn’t tell him there was an open call at the address he was asking about in the first place. ‘We’re not here about the window, Mr Whyte; we’re here about Sean Morrison.’

  And at that the bald man’s face clouded over. ‘We have nothing to say about that little b … about him.’

  ‘He was your son…’ Logan checked his notes, ‘Ewan’s friend, wasn’t he?’

  ‘That was a long time ago.’ Mr Whyte stepped back as the firs
t specks of rain began to fall, making tiny water blisters on the bright-blue door.

  ‘Right up till six months ago.’

  ‘About that.’

  ‘Same time you started reporting acts of vandalism?’

  He started easing the door closed. ‘Look, I’ve told you we don’t want to talk about that Morrison child. Ewan hasn’t had anything to do with him for months. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go-’

  ‘This will only take a moment, sir.’ Logan stuck his foot in the crack, keeping the door from shutting. ‘And you wouldn’t want people to think you refused to help us catch Sean Morrison, would you? It might look like you were protecting him.’

  Whyte scowled and swore, but he let them in.

  15

  Mr Whyte scuttled about the living room, picking up toys and colouring books and piling them on the coffee table, obviously flustered at being outmanoeuvred. Logan let his gaze wander around the room: eclectic ornaments; an upright piano; photos of various sea-and-sand holidays. A large dining room lay through an open archway with a conservatory tacked onto the back, littered with stuffed animals and bits of brightly coloured plastic. Through the glass he could see a remarkably well-tended garden complete with koi pond and waterfall. Very flash. An old man was out in the drizzle, taking a pair of pruning shears to a massive clump of honeysuckle, cutting it back to the bone. Which was not an image Logan wanted to dwell on.

  Whyte ran out of things to stack on top of one another, and said, ‘I suppose you expect a cup of tea,’ with enough distaste for Logan to suspect that it would arrive with spit in it. A Jackie Watson special.

  ‘Actually, sir, I think we’re fine. Why don’t you and I talk about Sean Morrison?’

  The man sank into a floral-patterned armchair. ‘He’s been nothing but trouble. I knew he’d end up hurting someone! That poor old man … you should bring back flogging.’

  Logan nodded. ‘Next time the Crown Office asks, I’ll be sure to let them know. He wasn’t trouble to start with though, was he?’

  Whyte shifted in his seat. ‘I always knew-’

  ‘Then why did you let him stay here when his parents went down to Guildford last September?’

  ‘Yes … well … he was a lot better behaved then.’

  ‘But not after.’

  ‘Look, I’ve no idea, OK? He was fine one day and the next he was all sullen and wouldn’t do anything. We tried taking him bowling, carting, the pictures, even bloody LaserQuest. And all he’d do was mope about and sulk.’

  ‘While he was staying here?’

  ‘Of course while he was staying here. He just kept getting worse; three weeks we had him and it was a nightmare.’ He checked his watch. ‘Look, is this going to take long? I’ve got to get the girls ready for ballet.’

  ‘Why did he change?’

  ‘How should I know?’ sounding a bit defensive. ‘Like I say, he was fine one minute, and the next: boom. Something must have happened at school — a bully, or a teacher, or maybe he did really badly in a test.’ He stood, running his hands through what was left of his hair. ‘Look, I’m really going to have to go. If the girls aren’t there for the start of the lesson they send them home. You don’t even get a refund.’

  ‘OK, I’d like to speak to your wife, if she’s about.’

  ‘She takes Ewan to five-a-side football on Saturdays.’ He turned and shouted up the stairs, telling his ‘little princesses’ to get their tutus down here or they were going to be late. A stampede of tiny elephant feet rumbled down from the first floor, bringing two little girls in pink ballet costumes and duffel coats with it. They were only five, jumping up and down while their dad tried to coax them into their Wellington boots.

  The girls took one look at Rickards, squealed, and hid behind their father’s legs, peering out at the strange policeman in their house. ‘Don’t take it personally,’ said Whyte, shooing his ballerinas towards the front door, ‘they don’t like men in uniform — you should see what they’re like with the postman. Come on girls, last one in the car’s a stinky!’

  ‘Well,’ said Logan, handing Mr Whyte a Grampian Police business card, ‘if you can think of anything else, let me know. And I’ll need to speak to your wife and son too.’

  ‘Yes, yes, OK fine.’ He stuffed the card in his pocket without looking at it, then hurried them out into the rain. ‘Molly, darling, put your seatbelt on properly, or the nasty policeman will arrest you!’

  ‘It’s the kid, isn’t it?’ said Rickards as the Whytes’ car reversed out of the drive, both little girls staring at him as if he’d grown horns. ‘Doing all the vandalism.’

  Logan nodded. ‘Bit of a sodding coincidence if it isn’t … and I’ll bet Whyte knows it too. Which makes you wonder why Sean Morrison’s dad played dumb: Whyte would have been round there like a shot, shouting the odds. Only natural.’

  ‘Doesn’t want to admit his kid’s a horrible wee bastard?’

  ‘Bit late for that, isn’t it?’ They climbed back into the CID pool car, Logan watching the rain make ripples on the wet windscreen, until they were suddenly wheeched away as Rickards started the engine and turned the wipers on.

  ‘Where now?’

  ‘Hold on a minute.’ Logan dug his phone out and called Control again. ‘Those vandalism reports from Whyte: Hamilton Place, did he say he suspected anyone?’

  There was a pause on the other end of the line, the plastic clatter of computer keys, then, ‘No names … fingerprints didn’t turn up anything either — always wore gloves … window … car … fish … window again … No match on anything. Investigating officer thinks it’s got to be someone with a grudge.’

  ‘There’s a surprise. And the last report was on Thursday night?’

  ‘Nine pm.’ The same day Sean Morrison stabbed two people. Logan thanked her and hung up, then sat drumming his fingers on the dashboard.

  ‘Sir?’

  ‘Back in a sec.’ He climbed back out into the rain, leaving Rickards in the car as he made his way down a little path at the side of the Whytes’ house, through a tall gate and into the back garden.

  The koi pond was like pewter, droplets of water making it shimmer. The gardener had finished the pruning; now he was on his knees, digging away at a flowerbed with a small trowel, ignoring the thin rain. ‘Bit early for that, isn’t it?’ asked Logan, walking up and putting on his best friendly smile.

  ‘Never too early to get the garden in order.’ Traces of an Aberdonian accent, but not much.

  Logan pointed up at the house. ‘You work for the Whytes for long?’

  The old man settled back on his haunches, grimaced, and stuck the trowel in the flowerbed, peeling off a pair of mud-crusted gardening gloves. ‘I don’t work for them. I’m Daniel’s father.’ Mr Whyte senior levered himself up to his feet with a grunt.

  ‘You lived here long?’

  ‘Eight months. Ever since my Mary died. The house was too empty without her.’

  Eight months — that explained why he wasn’t on the database as living at the address. ‘So you were here when Sean Morrison stayed?’

  ‘Terrible, isn’t it? He was such a lovely wee boy, I can’t believe he’d hurt anyone.’

  ‘Your son thinks he’s a vicious little monster.’

  The old man gave a sad smile. ‘Yes … well … Sean Morrison is the spitting image of Daniel’s little brother. Daniel was always jealous.’ He sniffed and stared at the pond where a golden shape swam beneath the surface. ‘It was our own fault: Mary and I spoiled Craig. We shouldn’t have, but he was such a beautiful child.’ There was silence in the garden. ‘Mary was never the same after …’ Mr Whyte senior gave an embarrassed cough. ‘Yes, well, no point in dwelling on it now.’

  It might have been the rain misting his eyes, or it might have been a tear. Either way Logan left him to his memories.

  DI Steel was sitting behind her desk when Logan backed into her office carrying two mugs of tea. She had a big wet stain over her left boob and a scowl on her f
ace. ‘Where the hell have you been?’

  ‘You wanted to see me?’ Trying not to stare at the inspector’s damp patch.

  ‘Aye, fifteen minutes ago …’ She threw a sheet of A4 at him: a memo from the Chief Constable himself. Logan read it, muttering along under his breath until he got to the bombshell.

  ‘Oh … Well, it could be worse.’

  ‘How?’ Steel pulled the office window open, then went rummaging for her cigarettes. ‘How could it be worse?’

  ‘Look, I’m sure he’s going to-’

  ‘Why the hell did they have to lump him on my team?’ Cigarettes found, the hunt for a working lighter began. ‘He’s going to be a bloody nightmare!’

  So that was why she’d wanted him to drop everything and rush up to her office: so she could whinge about DI Insch being assigned to ‘facilitate her caseload’. Logan sighed. ‘Well, you could give him those house break-ins to look after, or the Fettes investigation?’

  ‘Are you kidding? You know what he’s like — he’ll try and take over the whole lot. I’ll end up working for him!’ The lighter went, scrrrrrit, scrit, scrit, then she hurled it at the bin in the corner. ‘Fucking thing … If I wanted “help” I’d have asked for it.’ Which was the starting point for a fifteen-minute-long rant ending with, ‘You’ll have to look after him.’

  ‘Me?’ Logan sat bolt upright. ‘Why me? Give him Rennie, or Rickards!’

  But DI Steel just shook her head. ‘Sorry Laz: can’t do that. Rennie’d be like kicking a kitten, and Bondage Boy would enjoy it too much. All that abuse, he’d never get any work done.’ She took a slurp from her mug. ‘So you see: it has to be you. You’re young, you’ll get over it.’

  16

  Detective Inspector Insch wasn’t the sort of person you wanted to get on the wrong side of. Which was unfortunate, because he didn’t seem to have a right side any more. Logan took a deep breath, then knocked on the inspector’s door, having spent an unhappy twenty minutes in the canteen trying to figure out how to keep him busy without actually having to work with him.