by Ed James
"This is Bain and Graham's gig, though."
"I sodding well know that," said Methven. "At least someone else's bollocks got kicked for once."
CHAPTER 93
Bain had a white plaster stuck across his nose as he led the briefing. The table was indeed round, surrounded by more than twenty officers.
"We need to find this boy and quickly," said Bain. "If he's gone to ground then we might be a bit stuck here." He snorted. "Roberts has killed two people. The motive is a bit opaque to me just now, but from the way the boy bolted when Cullen ploughed in, we can clearly assume he's guilty. We just need some evidence."
Graham frowned as he tapped his propelling pencil against a pad of paper. "Are you saying we have no evidence?"
Bain held his hands up. "We've got enough to prove we're on the right track. That's what I'm saying here."
"It looks like Roberts stole a song from The Invisibles," said Cullen. "James Strang was the singer in the band. Roberts and Strang were good friends at the time, but they fell out over that. We know The Invisibles were offered a record deal. Roberts somehow managed to exert pressure and it was withdrawn. The next we know, Strang confronted Roberts in Edinburgh. Roberts must have killed Strang and hid the body away in the abandoned streets under the Old Town."
Cullen's phone rang. He got it out of his pocket and checked the display - Buxton.
Bain scowled at him. "Turn that fuckin' thing off."
Cullen flicked the ringer off. "Sorry."
Graham glared at Bain. "How does this tie to our drugs killing?"
"The drugs angle is a red herring," said Methven.
"I'm sorry?" Graham scowled at Methven.
"Roberts killed Hughes," said Cullen. "As DI Methven says, the drugs thing is a red herring. Hughes had a dossier of evidence suggesting Roberts killed Strang and he was going to confront him about it."
"And he didn't bring it to our attention?" said Graham.
"Hughes didn't trust the police," said Cullen.
"I can see why." Graham narrowed his eyes at Bain. "I thought you had actual evidence?"
Bain cleared his throat. "We managed to close down a hydroponics lab."
"That conviction better stick," said Graham, "otherwise how your testicles feel just now will seem like a dream."
"We've got a musicologist in trying to prove the two songs in question are related, sir. Obviously, if DC Cullen hadn't let Mr Roberts go his mummy and daddy wouldn't have had to come through."
"He stole your car," said Cullen.
"Shut it," said Bain.
"Brian, please keep this professional for once," said Cargill.
"I am professional, Alison," said Bain.
"Please desist," said Graham. "Where are we with the investigation now?"
Bain looked at McCrea. "What have we got, Sergeant?"
"Cullen was doing some brainstorming earlier," said McCrea. "Where did you get to?"
Cullen glared at him. "Standard stuff. Friends, family, workmates. I don't know much about Roberts, really. I doubt many of us do. His family, for example."
"Does anyone here actually have any bloody information?" said Graham.
Nobody answered him.
Graham sighed heavily and looked at Cullen. "Constable, what else have you got?"
"His friends and workmates will heavily overlap," said Cullen. "The guys in the band will be his best mates, though they'll probably hate each other by now. Either way, they should be able to give us a lead." He walked to the whiteboard and started drawing. "The band is as follows. Neeraj Patel on guitar, Jenny Stone on bass and Brian Hogg on drums."
"Right," said Bain, "so we need someone with tact and diplomacy on the Patel boy. By that, I mean none of your blunderbuss antics, Sundance."
"Are you insinuating one of my officers is racist?" said Cargill.
"Don't want it to become an issue," said Bain. "DC Cullen is known to cut corners."
"I like to think of it as getting results," said Cullen.
"Any more and you can go back to Texas, John Wayne," said Bain.
"Original," said Cullen.
Bain stared at the notepad in front of him. "You and McCrea can do the rhythm section. That's the bass player and drummer."
"I know what it is," said Cullen.
"Is there a manager?" said Bain.
McCrea held his phone up. "Aye. Boy called Billy Mahonie."
"That's not his name," said Bain.
McCrea tapped his phone. "What it says here."
"That's a fuckin' band, you fud," said Bain.
"Well, we'd better let your tact and diplomacy deal with that one," said Cullen.
"Won't get an argument from me," said Bain. He stared at Cargill and Methven. "You pair all right to sit and fiddle with your phones while young Scotty takes his swimming lessons?"
"Will you just sodding grow up?" said Methven. "Your ineptitude in sending no uniform backup has got Police Scotland into this calamity."
"Oh aye?" said Bain. "You've got an extra fuckin' stripe and you think you're Billy big balls now, do you?"
Cargill ground her teeth. "In terms of keeping this investigation progressing, Colin will liaise with the team tracking down Mr Roberts' family. I will work with Superintendent Graham to ensure a level of professional supervision and we will report to Superintendent Turnbull and DCS Soutar accordingly. It's just a shame your superior officer is in Majorca this week, Brian."
"I'm more than capable of handling the role," said Bain.
"As DCI Cargill alluded to there," said Graham, "we need teams hunting down this boy's friends and family. I've just had approval from DCS Soutar to allocate forty additional officers to this case, so we can get door-to-doors running in Edinburgh, Glasgow and anywhere else we need to."
"DI Methven might appreciate doing his liaising back through there," said Bain. "Anything else?" Silence. He looked at Graham. "Any closing words, sir?"
Graham cleared his throat. "This is a complete disaster. I can only reiterate the words used by DCS Soutar. If this is a failure, Police Scotland will fail. Officers from the Met will be brought in to shore this up. I do not have to stress how important that is, do I?"
He made eye contact with each of them. "Now, I wouldn't be sitting here if I didn't think we can do this. We have a famous figure on the run. It shouldn't be too hard to find him. That is the minimum I expect from the remainder of the day. I want him in custody otherwise there will be an escalation to DCS Soutar, by which point the investigation will be out of our hands. Am I clear?"
There were no dissenting voices and the meeting broke up. Cullen, Methven and Cargill went off to one side of the meeting room, keeping a distance from the others.
"Bain has got even worse since he's come through here," said Cargill.
"Tell me about it," said Methven. "Good luck in getting some form of escalation to his superior officer."
"I will see what I can do," said Cargill. She looked at Cullen. "Are you okay, Constable?"
Cullen still felt shell shocked. "I'll survive. His bullets just bounce off me, you know that."
Cargill smiled. "I'll make sure they stop being fired. The man is a bully. I need you to keep in touch, okay? I don't want you going off the radar again."
Cullen knew he had to change.
CHAPTER 94
Cullen and McCrea secured an interview room while some uniformed officers brought Brian Hogg, Expect Delays' drummer, in from his West End flat.
The bass player was proving difficult to track down.
"Mr Hogg," said Cullen, "can you tell us how you know Mike Roberts?"
Hogg scowled. "We're in a band together." He leaned across the desk. "You might have heard, but we supported U2 last night at Hampden."
Cullen tried to keep his voice level. "I meant, how did you first meet him?"
"We were friends at uni," said Hogg.
"Edinburgh?"
"Aye."
Cullen reappraised him. The boy looked like he'd been
in one too many scrums and would fit right in with the rugger buggers at Edinburgh.
"We did history together," said Hogg. "We both liked Jesus & Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Velvet Underground, that sort of thing."
"They're old bands," said McCrea.
Hogg shrugged. "They're classics, man. They're no pish like the Beatles or the Stones, the proper true classics. The Stooges and the MC5 as well, man. Zeppelin, too."
"Go on," said Cullen.
"Anyway, we both did our degrees but we got fed up with it by the time we finished. Don't know how, but Mikey ended up with a double first in history and English. I got a third. Boy is a genius."
"And you formed Expect Delays during this time?" said Cullen.
"Aye, we did," said Hogg. "We played loads of gigs, mainly in Edinburgh and Glasgow, though Glasgow was always much better. Dundee and Aberdeen. Stirling. After uni, we got our first tour supporting Razorlight. Our manager just totally blagged it."
"And that's Billy Mahonie, right?" said Cullen.
"Aye," said Hogg. "His name's Billy McIlhone. He took his professional name from the character in Police Academy."
Cullen jotted it down. So far, nothing pushed them any further forward but he supposed having his real name was something resembling progress. "What happened next?"
"Well, Billy got us a single out on a wee label," said Hogg. "Worth a fortune now, man. I've still got ten copies myself." He laughed. "I'd filled my bedroom at my parents' house with boxes of them. Seems pretty funny now."
"How much are they worth these days?" said McCrea.
"You can get a hundred quid for it on vinyl," said Hogg. "We never re-recorded either of the tunes. We started doing well off the back of that single. Got played on Zane Lowe on Radio 1 then we got a proper deal."
"And you all lived happily ever after?" said McCrea.
Hogg rubbed his neck. "We hit a bit of a dry spell for about a year. Then we did Where Has He Gone? and it went into the top five. Totally changed things around for us. We were going to be dropped, but that got us a new deal. Some boy off X-Factor did a cover of it as well. Mind there was that campaign to get our version to number one? Didn't work, but we had over eight hundred thousand downloads in a month. We don't really need to work again, man."
"Did you know James Strang," said Cullen, "also known as Jimi Danger?"
"Him." Hogg leaned on his elbow, chin resting on his hand. "What do you want to know?"
"His body was found last week in Edinburgh," said Cullen. "We have reason to believe Mr Roberts murdered him."
Hogg raised his eyebrows, his eyes blinking repeatedly. "Mikey?" he said, his voice shrill. "Are you mental?"
"We understand Mr Strang may have had a couple of grievances with Mr Roberts," said Cullen. "First, he believed your hit single, Where Has He Gone? was stolen from him."
"What a load of shite," said Hogg.
"We have a musicologist in to prove your song and Goneaway by The Invisibles are the same piece of music," said Cullen.
"Or disprove, more like." Hogg leaned back in his chair and brushed his long fringe over his forehead. "Jimi Strang was a total wanker. He was jealous of our success. I saw their last gig. The boy had totally lost it, man. You know that Morrissey song, We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful? That's Jimi to a T."
"It's enough Mr Strang believed it," said Cullen. "Isn't it?"
"Why would Mikey kill him, though?" said Hogg. "Doesn't make any sense."
"To keep Mr Strang quiet?" said Cullen. "You just said yourself you never need to work again off the back of one song. How big would the lawsuit have been, do you think?"
Hogg didn't respond, instead tugging at his fringe again.
"Mr Strang was also under the impression that Mr Roberts personally ruined a record deal they'd been offered," said Cullen.
"I've never heard that one," said Hogg. "I knew a couple of labels were sniffing around them but that's not the same thing as a contract being on the table, you know? Jimi could be a bit delusional at times." He took his glasses off. "Look, don't get me wrong, I liked the boy when I first met him but he just didn't operate by the same rules as the rest of us."
"So, you heard nothing to that effect, then?" said Cullen.
Hogg replaced his glasses. "No."
"We need to trace Mr Roberts' friends and family," said McCrea. "Is there anyone else who could assist our investigation?"
"Would need a long hard think about it, man."
Cullen stared at the drummer, suspecting he was playing for time. "Any brothers or sisters that would go to gigs?"
"Only child, man," said Hogg. "You boys have clearly not done your homework."
"What about his parents?" said Cullen.
"Think they live in Edinburgh," said Hogg. "He used to live up in Angus somewhere."
"Angus?" said Cullen.
"Aye," said Hogg, "that's how Mike got to know the boy Strang."
Cullen's heart thudded. "Was it Dalhousie?"
"Aye, that's the place," said Hogg.
CHAPTER 95
Cullen and McCrea returned to the Incident Room at the same time as Bain. Cargill was on the phone, immediately ending the call when she saw them.
"Well, I managed to avoid an international incident but we're no further forward," said Bain. "I hope you pair got somewhere."
Cullen nodded. "We got a couple of nuggets. He doubts our theory to say the least, but then he seems to hero-worship Roberts. Billy Mahonie's real name is William McIlhone."
"You pair are incisive," said Bain. "That would help us, except for the fact we've got him on his way in." He rubbed his top lip. "What's the other nugget?"
Cullen rested his hand on his hip. "Looks like Roberts grew up in Dalhousie."
"Another sheep shagger," said Bain. "Fuckin' great."
"That's how he met Strang," said Cullen. "They seem to have kept in touch after his parents moved to Edinburgh and then met up again at university. Hogg reckons Roberts' parents still live near the city."
"I'll get someone to look into that," said Cargill. "See what I can dig up."
"You keeping yourself out of mischief?" said Bain.
"Brian," said Cargill, "remember I am your superior officer and your behaviour has been escalated to Superintendent Turnbull."
"Like I care," said Bain. "I'm fuckin' invincible. I'm like a vampire, sweetheart, you can't kill me."
"I'd happily put a stake through your heart," said Cargill.
"Very funny." Bain looked at McCrea, who was fiddling with his phone. "Right, you pair. The glimmer twins. What now?"
"We've got to find the bassist," said Cullen. "She's missing."
"If there's another fuckin' body on this case, Sundance," said Bain, "I swear you'll be joining them."
"Enough," said Cargill.
McCrea looked up from his mobile. "Uniform have just found her. She's on her way in now."
"I've seen this lassie in the papers, Sundance," said Bain. "Keep it in your trousers for once."
Cargill's expression spoke volumes.
CHAPTER 96
Rather than sitting on their arses while Jenny Stone was brought to the station, Cargill drove Cullen to get fresh coffee from the Asda by Ibrox. When they returned, Stone still hadn't been transferred in.
Graham pulled Cargill into a conference room, Turnbull's dulcet tones booming out of the phone in the middle of the table.
Cullen went back to the Incident Room and called Methven, beginning to regret it as the DI started prattling on.
"So, you've got nothing?" said Cullen.
"You wouldn't believe how many sodding Roberts there are in the Lothians," said Methven. "We've got people up at the university going through old records. Someone in the Met is away speaking to his record label. His lawyer should be brought in through there. I seriously hope you're getting somewhere."
"Hardly," said Cullen.
"ADC Buxton has finally finished looking into Strang's flatmates," said Methv
en. "Seven of them over five years. Not a single one spoke to Strang about anything other than who stole the cornflakes."
"Right."
"Look, I've got to go," said Methven. "If you see Alison, get her to call me, okay?"
"Will do," said Cullen. "Looks like she'll be in there for the duration, though."
Cullen finished the last of his Americano then went through the notes he'd taken in the interview with Hogg. He found a note to check the emails he'd received from Kidd. He found the original email from Strang to Hughes, relieved to have a trail behind it and not just Audrey Strang's fantasies.
McCrea appeared, his phone clutched to his head. "They've just brought that Jenny Stone in. You ready?"
"Aye."
McCrea led him down the corridor to the back of the station.
Jenny Stone looked bored as she sat in the interview room. Cullen had never seen a photo of her. He didn't have to think hard to see why she was in the band and he doubted it was her prowess on the bass. She had the classic rock chick look - dyed blonde hair, tight skirt, red leather jacket, her tight blouse revealing a black bra and lots of cleavage.
McCrea led Cullen back outside and shut the door behind him. "That's what she wore at the gig last night."
Cullen nodded. "How was it?"
"Fucking amazing," said McCrea. "Expect Delays were okay, but U2 were just off the planet. What a light show they've got."
"How do you want to play this?" said Cullen.
McCrea just shrugged. "The things I would do to her," he said, looking through the window in the door.
"Hopefully asking questions is one of them." Cullen pushed past him into the interview room.
McCrea sat down and started the interview, setting the digital recorder going.
"Do I need to get my lawyer in?" Jenny's voice was smoker deep.
"Unless you've done something you shouldn't have," said Cullen, "then no."
He noticed McCrea was practically drooling.
"We're looking for Mike Roberts," said McCrea.
"Why?" said Jenny. "What's he done now?"
"We have reason to believe he was responsible for the deaths of Alex Hughes and James Strang," said McCrea.
