Shadow of the Castle

by Matthew Macleod

  'Fair play man. Doesn't sound like a bad gig. What are the hours like? The jobs any good?'

  'Hit and miss.' was the honest reply. 'Some are exciting, some are boring. Some are rewarding, some are borderline reprehensible.' He saw a bit of confusion across the table. 'I like doing some and I feel bad about doing others. But I don't get to say no.'

  Grant thought carefully. 'If you're doing a job you don't actively hate, you're doing better than most.'

  Luke took a swallow in agreement. Again they sat in silence but it was no longer uncomfortable. It was more a break in conversation between two friends. This time it was Grant who broke the silence.

  'So what do you need to know about Rab? What do you know so far?'

  The glass spun in slow circles between Luke's hands under the careful eyes of the two of them.

  'Nothing that gets me anywhere big man. I know his father's a piece of work.'

  He took the snort from across the table as a form of agreement. It was an agreement that was readily expanded on.

  'Aye, he's something else. Never had time for the guy. Slimy, you know?'

  Slimy was as good a word as any for the Magistrate who cut about in his expensive suits and phoned in his concerns about his missing son. There was a deeper level to his deceit that Luke felt he could unlock if he could just tap into the knowledge and experience inside the shaved head across from him. He opened his unofficial enquiries with an innocuous question.

  'What's Rab like then? Geoff told me a bit but I get the feeling he's not exactly squared me up. Tried to play me the highlight reel when I'm after the behind the scenes.'

  Before making any response, Grant picked up the pen from the table and tucked it firmly behind one cauliflower ear. The request for it to be “off the record” was not exactly subtle but was accepted by Luke through his lack of response other than drinking.

  'Look, he's not a bad gadge. Not at all. He just...' It was now Grant's pint that was spinning slowly between his hands. 'He just overdoes it. So does everyone though, you know? Everyone's had a few too many and made a holy show of themselves right? But he just does it every time. It gets a bit old but there's nothing more sinister to it than that. It's not like he's out topping prozzies or pushing smack to kids or kicking in randoms up the town every weekend. He's just a bit of a liability.'

  With every example of what Rab wasn't doing, Grant had gestured with his pint and the effect had been somewhat lost on Luke as he was fixated on how close the lager was coming to the edge of the glass instead of the points being made. The big man had begun to ramble now and was building up steam.

  'He isn't a radge. You never worry that he's going to bottle some guy for looking at him wrong or get you kicked out because someone's taken his seat. He just goes a bit overboard and instead of apologising when he gets pulled up he'll start yammering on about his money and how important his dad is.'

  Luke was considering all of this carefully. It didn't sound any different from hundreds of other people. In fact, his memory was dredging up varying embarrassing examples of when he'd been informed he'd behaved similarly the morning after. Maybe not the money and parent stuff but the unapologetic self-certainty that comes with a belly full of spirits and a head full of nothing. Grant had stopped talking and spinning his glass, clearly at a good place to stop and waiting on Luke's response.

  'Sounds about right. I've had a few nights like that myself truth be told.' Grant indicated his agreement. 'He a fan of the chemically altered lifestyle as well?'

  The laugh from across the table was sufficient answer by itself but Grant felt it necessary to elaborate anyway.

  'Yup. Hates a bit of something. Anything really.... Not too fussy.'

  As he was making this explanation he turned in his seat and caught the barmaid’s eye. Raising his empty glass and pointing at Luke as well he faced back inwards. Luke was impressed -

  'Didn't realise they did table service here man. Very slick.'

  'Usually it's for the older guys who can't get up to the bar easily but if it's quiet they don't seem to mind.' He winked at Luke. 'Especially not for two handsome young guns like ourselves dragging the average age down a couple of decades.'

  They were both still laughing when the pints appeared and Grant placed a note in the barmaid’s hand before waving off the idea of change. He extracted the pen from behind his ear and threw it onto the notebook before making a childish writing gesture.

  'Better get something useful done here before we just end up scooping.'

  Picking up the pen, Luke underlined the date another two or three times before writing a single bullet point in the left hand margin of the sheet. He was focused entirely on drawing and redrawing the circle, waiting on the information and feeling the effects of the quick drinks working inside his head. He didn't even need to re-read what he had jotted previously because he knew it all inside out already. There was nothing concrete there and he was in desperate need of some sort of direction to work towards.

  'What's the chances of him having been killed by someone?'

  'Not likely in my book.' Grant belched. 'No benefit in it really.'

  'OK, but I was up at a body discovery early this morning that Geoffrey directed me towards...'

  'I don't think that's him.' Grant's interruption left little room for discussion. 'Don't ask me why but I don't reckon it's him. Makes no sense.'

  Luke scribbled a little while taking a sip. He also felt that the body being Rab was an outside possibility but he couldn't work off hunches even if they were in common with another few people.

  'Why not? You know something I don't?'

  Grant was shaking his head before the question even finished. More an indication of his inability to explain his disbelief rather than a firm negative. He was mentally going over the list of people who would want to hurt either Rab or the Magistrate and managed to dismiss almost all of them out of hand for one reason or another. Luke was still speaking.

  'What about the dealers he buys from? He ever get anything on tick or rip anyone off?'

  'Nope, he's a dealer's dream. Cash up front, return business... There's nothing bad about a guy with cash in his pockets and an appetite for destruction from a business point of view.'

  'From a friend’s point of view though?'

  The only reply was a tired exhalation of breath. Luke had written precisely nothing down and placed the pen carefully on top of the paper again. Folding his hands together in front of his glass he fixed his eyes on Grant across the table.

  'You called me man. I'm coming up short every avenue I look down at the moment and I need to get something. I've got a feeling you actually want him found and you know something that'll point me in the right direction.'

  During the pause that followed he studied the bigger man across from him and fancied he could see some cogs turning in his head. There was something that he was contemplating giving him that Luke knew would at least be a nudge in the right direction but he decided not to attempt to influence his decision. Grant made it in an instant anyway.

  'There was one thing that the Magistrate said to me that sounded pretty suspect at the time. More so now given what's happened. In fact...' He took another mouthful of lager. 'In fact he called me this morning to make sure that I hadn't taken him up on his offer without letting him know.'

  'What kind of offer was this?'

  The pen was back in the hand and poised beside the only bullet point so far.

  'A wedge of cash to encourage Rab to disappear.'

  'How much?'

  '£10k'

  Luke let loose a low whistle as he jotted quickly on the paper. The bouncer saved him the hassle of asking the next awkward question.

  'I didn't do it. In fact, I told the slimy git where he could shove his cash.' The intensity with which he was holding Luke's gaze now was enough that he'd have felt obliged to agree with him even if he'd just said that the sky was green. 'Rab's my mate and I'm not the sort of man who'd take any amount of mone
y to send one of my pals elsewhere. Either literally or...'

  'Metaphorically?'

  Grant pointed the glass at him and touched the point of his nose with his free hand. It felt like they were the worst team ever to play charades. He retreated back into a thoughtful silence as Luke wrote a little more before stopping.

  'Any chance he made the same offer to a few folk? Anyone serious enough to misunderstand it and do the deed or stupid enough to follow through?'

  The thoughtful silence continued. Someone had slipped money into the jukebox at some point during their reverie and a country song about a scorned woman and a dog was blasting out dolefully from the ancient speakers.

  'Anyone serious enough to do it would be sensible enough not to.'

  There was a concise sentiment to these brief words that summed it up nicely. The few people that were capable of disappearing someone, those that they would agree were “serious”, would know that no good would come of knocking off Magistrate's son. Even with his implied blessing. And anyone stupid enough to actually think it was a good plan lacked the muscle or ability to carry it off.

  'Well put Grant. Anyone you can think of from the top of your head that would fall outside these categories? Just to ask a few questions, I'm not in the business of busting heads for information.'

  Stroking his chin roughly he eyed the smoke stained ceiling cautiously. It didn't make sense to him that these stains had persisted despite the smoking ban having been in force for so many years. Surely someone would have taken the time at one point during the years that had passed to wipe a cloth over it at least? How long would it have taken? Two minutes?

  'Grant?'

  'What?'

  'Anyone you can point me in the direction of?'

  'He insists on buying his hash from a pair of muppets out Craigmillar. Most of the rest of the stuff he uses he gets hooked up with on a time by time basis, these guys are the only regulars. Reckons they're pals, I dunno.'

  'I'm assuming you disagree.'

  'Nothing against the boys, just seem to be every stoner cliché wrapped up in two bodies. Always beyond blazed. Not a bad bone in their bodies but they can't have more than 5 brain cells left between them.' He drained his pint slowly and then took the notebook from Luke. 'And that's coming from me. Kind of like being called short by a midget eh? This is their names and the address.'

  Luke reached for the notebook but Grant held onto it a moment.

  'I'm not just being nice here Luke; they aren't bad guys. I hear you battered them or kicked them around then you'll be answering to me. Special Forces training or not.'

  They smiled at each other.

  'Understood. You have my word. If I hear anything at all I'll hit you up.'

  With that, he stood up and left the pub with his notebook secured in his pocket. The information about the dealers was pretty weak stuff but finding out that the Magistrate had been offering five figure sums to be rid of his flesh and blood shortly before becoming very concerned with his whereabouts was definitely worth mulling over. There was always the chance that a friend had simply helped him relocate, but the frantic search that Geoffrey had set in motion was indication enough that he was worried this was not the case. Lighting up and beginning the walk up Pilton Drive, his phone rang and he was surprised to hear a hungover sounding Steve on the other end.

  'Aye man. No. Aye, still looking. Nah. Can you no just tell me? No worries, I'll check it out. I'm due you a drink man, be good.'

  Replacing his phone, he carried on up Pilton Drive but now looking to continue on past Fettes and Broughton to the Police Headquarters. Even if he was choosing to be all cloak and dagger about it, Steve wouldn't ever send him on a wild goose chase so it was worth looking into. Two leads in two minutes? His progress rate had just skyrocketed from 0%.

  Chapter 16

  Fluorescent lighting ran across the roof of the lab, reflecting off the chrome and linoleum interior. Everything about it was clinical from the tools lying carefully organised within their trays and slots to the bottles of chemicals sorted neatly in the drawers and on the racks. On a gurney in the centre sat the remains that had been discovered earlier that day having endured the painstaking examinations that had become progressively less methodical as the true nature of what was happening became clearer.

  Sgt Jeffries was entering through the swing doors at the far end of the room, dressed in full protective equipment as per protocol regardless of how unnecessary he felt it now was. He was making every attempt to remain professional because the man accompanying him to view the remains significantly outranked him and had insisted on confirming these finding with his own eyes. Jeffries had his arms held upwards from the elbow and held the door with one covered shoe as the Chief Superintendent entered. Even in their identical outfits the Superintendent managed to cut an imposing figure – he walked tall and maintained an air of confidence despite having close to zero experience in this field. Jeffries had assured him prior that there would be nothing discussed that would not be understandable to the layman and the Chief Superintendent was not a man to attempt to dazzle with technical buzzwords. Jeffries followed him to the gurney and picked up a pair of forceps out of the tray, carefully indicating a number of small but key points that the Superintendent had no trouble following or accepting. Once the brief explanation was concluded, the senior man thanked the Sergeant for his time and left the room, stripping off his face mask and protective hood before even reaching the door. Jeffries watched him leave and turned again to the skeletal remains in front of him.

  The discovery had been surprising but had quickly ruled out almost all sinister situations as unlikely at the very best. The Superintendent's interest in seeing for himself had been surprising but not unheard of. The promise he had made before they suited up to maintain the suitable level of confidentiality was worrying him only because he had voiced his concerns to Steve at the scene. Sighing as he replaced the forceps he could only hope that Steve was sensible enough to keep that information to himself.

  Back in his office the Chief Superintendent was sitting once more behind his desk and thinking carefully with the phone in his hand. Contrary to the popular idiom, no news did not necessarily mean good news when it came to situations like this. Regardless of the fact that this put them back to square one, in some manner it was preferable to this being the route they had to go down. He dialled the Magistrate's number to let him know what he had probably found out already through the numerous people who worked for the Superintendent officially but whose loyalties were to the Magistrate first and foremost. It was picked up almost instantly.

  'Hello? Superintendent?'

  'Yes. How did you know it was me? This number is private.'

  'For most people I imagine it would be.'

  The Magistrate's response was characteristically evasive and the Superintendent was wondering what sort of unofficial and probably illegal set up was installed in that office on the Mound. Even if he had been so inclined he knew that there would be not a single trace of it remaining by the time his men knocked on the door with an official search warrant. With a man like Geoffrey Reid the key was to pick your battles by avoiding them all until you could rout him in the final conflict.

  'I'm not even going to ask Geoffrey. I have some news.'

  The silence on the other end of the phone told him many things at once. Firstly, the Magistrate had been aware of the body’s discovery. That was to be expected – these things can never be kept totally under wraps even from members of the public, far less from a man who has intimate knowledge of the system and contacts within it. It was almost certain that he had had eyes on the scene from the second that the police had showed up – they could even have been the same guys. Given that, the lack of immediate response and questions led him to believe that he was already privy to the additional information that he was going to disclose. In that moment he decided to give him only the basic details. There was no point showing your hand if you were folding anyway.


  'We found a body this morning on Arthur's Seat. Our guys have determined that there is no possibility that it can be Robert's.'

  There was the briefest exhalation from the other end and the relieved tones that started gushing down the line sounded false to the experienced ear of a veteran police officer who had heard thousands of lies and unlikely truths alike over the years.

  'I'm so glad to hear it. I've not been able to sleep since I heard. All the worst scenarios were just running over and over in my head.' He exhaled slow and deep for the benefit of no one. 'Have you got any additional information for me? My own investigations are still ongoing and there doesn't seem to be much in terms of direction.'

  'Nothing to report Geoffrey. Check in with your man, I was assured he's the best.'

  'Certainly. Certainly. Thank you.'

  The line went dead but the Superintendent sat with the receiver to his ear listening to the static then the dial tone then nothing. There was plenty about this situation to make him uneasy and he was trying to get it all straight in his head. The fact that Geoffrey had come storming into the headquarters less than a day after Robert had gone missing was strange. The fact that he knew about the discovery was almost expected but he got the impression that he'd already known the outcome of their investigations before it was officially disclosed to him. The Magistrate’s own sources were clearly being put to work at a frantic pace.

  Despite the fact that they were ostensibly on the same team, he had developed a chronic mistrust of the Magistrate and a deep seated dislike for all aspects of how he conducted himself. There should be no place for a man like that within the system that the Superintendent professed to love and truly did. The unavoidable fact was that the walls were going to come crashing down on Geoffrey Reid at some point, but it just never seemed to have actually happened so far. Carefully, he dialled the Major's number to get his own update.