by Tony Black
The folder in his lap called to him, but something else called louder. Brennan rose, went to the front door. He nodded as two eyes ringed with burst capillaries appeared above the paper. ‘Going for a smoke.’
Nods. The paper rustled again.
Outside the sky was grey, threatening rain. Brennan liked this time of year. Not quite summer, but well out of winter. The extremes of the seasons irked him; you never knew what to wear from one day to the next. If he could pick the weather, he’d go for grey skies and a hint of a chill every time. Sunshine was overrated. The smell of cut grass and barbecues was overrated. When he’d been in uniform, he’d hated the warmer months; they brought out drunks and fly-men robbing lead off the roofs. They were nothing but trouble. Crime was crime but the petty stuff always seemed like a social problem to Brennan. A failure of society, politicians… a waste of his time. The evil ones, the murderers, the cold-blooded killers — they were the ones he wanted off the streets, locked up. At the very least, locked up.
Brennan took out his packet of Silk Cut. His heart sank. He wanted a B amp;H, a strong boy, a lung bleeder, but turning forty called for a few concessions. The days when he’d swap ciggies with Wullie — a Capstans smoker, no less — were well and truly over. He hoped he didn’t bump into Wullie while he was hanging off the end of a Silk Cut — the shame of it. Brennan had a sly laugh to himself as he remembered the old boy; it subsided quickly.
A shaft of light broke free of a bundle of grey cloud and painted a yellow oblong on the station car park. A few patches of spilled diesel were lit in the sun’s rays, little rainbow bubbles illuminated in potholes. Brennan turned his head, drew deep on the cigarette and opened the file.
DC McGuire’s bullet points had been hastily keyed in.
White female, (no age) young.
Found in industrial-sized bin. Blood smears on bin.
Access lane, by tower block. Car park to rear.
Four teens (female/local) at scene.
No statements, girls too upset. Coming in. Calls out to parents.
No time of death, Doc called, on way.
Scene secured, uniform on perimeters. Lab setting up.
Brennan turned over the thin sheaf of paper. There was nothing on the other side. The rest of the pages were blank too, except for some standard forms and a contacts sheet with numbers he already had in his phone. There was nothing he couldn’t have received in a two-minute briefing but the modern obsession with detailing every step dictated the written word. He closed the file; it looked pathetically thin, but he knew by the end of the day it would stretch to several volumes.
The sun disappeared behind another grey cloud, the wet patches in the car park darkened once more. Brennan stubbed his cigarette on the side of the building, flicked it onto the road. The last embers in the tip sizzled on the wet tarmac. As he watched the wind take the filter tip a black Audi pulled into the space opposite him. He recognised the number plate at once. It was new; it wasn’t police. The engine stilled. Driver’s door opened.
Dr Lorraine Fuller wore a brown trouser suit that was fitted and hugged her thin waist. She carried a heavy case — not a doctor’s case; it would be full of paperwork. Brennan made a note of her movements as she clawed her long hair from her eyes, tucked it behind her ear. She looked harassed. She took a coat and another bag, a purse, from the back seat of the Audi, then she noticed Brennan staring at her. Lorraine looked away instantly. There was no smile, greeting; but definite acknowledgement. She pointed the remote locking at the car, turned for the station. She juggled her handbag between hands before deciding on the one it had been in originally. She tucked her coat over the crook of her elbow and walked briskly, heels clacking on the hard ground.
Brennan watched her for a moment or two, then turned his gaze to the door, leaned in and grabbed the handle as she approached. There was a stalled breath’s distance between them as she spoke. ‘I need to see you.’
Brennan looked down. ‘It’s difficult.’
‘Why?’ Her tone was harsh.
‘I’m back on the squad.’
‘I know.’ She let the implication hang.
‘Okay. When?’
‘Soon. I’ll call.’ She moved towards the door. Brennan eased the handle downwards, pulled. As he watched her go inside he thought about their last meeting — it was more than a week ago now, too long. He couldn’t help that, though. Sometimes you needed a break from people; even those close to you.
A squad car sped into the hatched area at the front of the station. DC McGuire hurried himself, got out the passenger’s door with a leg dangling over the tarmac before the car had stopped.
Brennan turned, approached the younger man. ‘Stevie.’
‘Sir.’
He raised the folder. ‘What else you got for me?’
McGuire spoke to his feet. ‘Time of death’s been put at some point last night. We’ll know better when they get her on the slab.’
Brennan didn’t like his phraseology. His mood was already soured by seeing Galloway, and then Lorraine. ‘It’s somebody’s daughter, lad.’
The DC checked himself. ‘Sorry… There’s, eh, something else.’
There always was, thought Brennan. ‘Go on.’
‘The body’s been tampered with.’
Brennan tucked his chin onto his chest, peered from beneath raised eyelids. ‘Sexually?’
‘No, least, we don’t think so… It’s been mutilated, badly mutilated.’ Brennan could see the DC found it difficult. He watched him rub his hands together. Now he talked to his palms. ‘The girl’s been sawn up.’
‘What do you mean?’
A deep breath, slowly exhaled. ‘Her limbs were removed… The legs, below the knee, were severed and bagged.’ He looked into Brennan’s face. ‘We don’t have the arms.’
‘The girl’s arms are missing?’
The DC nodded. ‘They were removed… crudely.’
‘Jesus Christ.’
Brennan turned for the car. ‘He didn’t do her much good.’ He yanked open the passenger’s door, got inside and slammed it shut, lowered the window. McGuire stood still as Brennan barked at him, ‘Get the incident room set up — we’re in the big room.’
‘What about Lauder’s shooting?’
‘Fuck Lauder!.. I want statements from those girls by the time I get back and have the lab primed for an all-nighter. Okay?’
‘Yeah, yeah… Anything else?’
‘Yes. Get a list together of every missing teenage girl in the country… And you report everything that comes in to me first, not the Chief Super. Got that?’
McGuire nodded, but looked unsure; scratched his open palm.
‘Stevie, everything… No matter what she tells you. Got that?’
‘Yeah… Got it, sir.’
‘Good. If you remember this is my investigation, Stevie, then we’ll get on just fine.’
Brennan slapped the dash.
The squad car pulled out, sirens blaring.
Chapter 3
Brennan wondered what was changing faster, the city of Edinburgh, or him within it. As the squad car pulled out of Fettes he grimaced at the queues of traffic clogging up the roads. Medieval cities were never meant for the motor car, but he could remember when getting about the place was a far simpler affair. One-way streets had sprung up everywhere, making every route a circuitous one. Add in the bus lanes, the persistent road works and the full-scale gutting that the recent tram installation had wrought, and driving had become a slow and effective means of torture.
‘Get out the fucking way,’ mouthed the uniform at the wheel.
Brennan twisted his neck — it was enough.
‘Sorry, sir.’
‘Would you prefer to be driving a taxi, son?’
A stall, some lip-biting. ‘No, sir…’
Brennan laughed. ‘Don’t worry, I’m just tugging your chain. These yuppies in their Stockbridge tractors boil my piss too.’
The uniform looked relieved. ‘It�
��s the school-run mums.’
‘Yummy-fucking-mummies… Making their way back home after a latte in Morningside! Bless them, probably busy day ahead. Watching Cash in the Attic and polishing those blond-wood floorboards.’
The constable tapped at the wheel, making an overly showy point of approval. It made Brennan wince. He knew why too: the six months’ enforced psych leave had left him with an intimate knowledge of the daytime television schedules. His forays into DIY had been less successful — his father had always said he didn’t know which end of a hammer to pick up. Andy wasn’t much better. Neither were chips off the old block, but at least his younger brother had kept the family firm going for a while. It wasn’t his fault there was nothing left to show of it. Andy couldn’t be blamed for that. Could Brennan, though? He sometimes wondered; he knew his father did.
Brennan had a lot to think about right now. These times came and went. He knew they were cyclical. When Sophie was born he’d gone through a similar phase: thinking, evaluating. Life suddenly had more import, a lot that had went before was meaningless. Fifteen years later it was the other way around; nothing seemed to matter. What had changed? Was it him; was it the world? He dredged up some long-distilled lines from a philosopher about the ages of man, and viewing life and experience differently with maturity. What seemed valuable, important, was rendered worthless with the passage of time. He almost laughed at the vacuity of his younger self. But was he any better now? Experience was the name a man gave to his mistakes. Someone had said that too.
‘Take the bus lane.’ Brennan pointed at the windscreen. The harshness of his voice surprised him. There was a lot in there, inside him, that he found surprising now.
‘Yes, sir.’
The police Astra sped past the lines of traffic. A young woman on the street put her hands up to her ears. Brennan knew the older ones didn’t bother — their hearing had atrophied to the stage where the sirens didn’t bother them… It was another one of those observations that the job afforded you. Very few were worth noting.
The driver was too quick into the Crewe Toll roundabout. Brennan felt some movement on the back tyres as the car spun onto Ferry Road. He felt himself automatically gripping the door handle, his right foot pumping an imaginary brake pedal. ‘Try and get us there in one piece, eh.’
‘Sorry, sir.’
‘And stop apologising. You’re far too free with your apologies… Don’t mind me, I’m a full-time prick. I point out everyone’s flaws in this job.’
The main artery road was stocked with ancient figures: they were the occupants of Peter Howson paintings. Huge-knuckled working men; hard drinkers and working girls. Smokers puffed freely, flicked dowps into the gutter. Every one of them shook their head at the sight of the speeding police car. They were filth round here. The fun-stoppers. The Rozzers. No one welcomed them; there was no red-carpet treatment coming their way down this end of town. It didn’t bother Brennan. He’d long since lost the need to be liked — in any way — and certainly not for being a police officer. There had been a time, at the deathly dull dinner parties his wife used to hold for her circle, where spouses had tried to intellectualise their view of the police for him. ‘I wouldn’t like to live in a society without police,’ one pot-bellied middle manager had remarked, ‘for all the same reasons I wouldn’t like to live in Somalia.’
Brennan remembered the remark, and the smirk the tosser had topped the statement with; it was glib bullshit. The lot of it was glib bullshit. It was a job. A necessary evil.
The scene darkened down Pennywell Road. Ginger kids, barely school age, with the arse hanging out of their trousers shot the V-sign. A few tried to spit in the car’s direction. Brennan had known stones to be thrown; he was unfazed. There were middle-aged women in baffies and housecoats stood on the road, leaning over gardens and jabbering. They’d obviously clocked the police activity; the talk would be of drugs raids, whose man was being taken in, how the force victimised them. Each syllable of the schemie’s chat would be punctuated by puffs on Superkings; the sight of them was as regular as the street furniture. As harrowing as the bust couch or the rusting scooters in the overgrown gardens. Brennan could have painted the scene from memory. He knew there were liberal thinkers — what Wullie called the Guardian — reading classes — who would gasp and deride the deprivation, but not him. This was a breeding ground for crime, a dumping ground for the dispossessed and the dafties. It was a dangerous place; no question.
Brennan shook his head, sighed, ‘Another poor lassie’s met her end. How many’s that?’
The constable shrugged, looked like he was wondering who the DI was speaking to.
Brennan looked ahead through the windscreen, to the point on the road where the Scenes of Crime Officers had set up. The title of an old song played to him, ‘Another Girl, Another Planet’… He thanked Christ his daughter was being raised on the other side of town — no child here had a chance.
‘Pull up in front of the SOCOs,’ said Brennan. ‘Don’t want them accusing us of blocking access to their wee gang hut.’
The driver eased through the gears, slowly, and put the car in at the kerb. A small crowd had formed in the street; some uniforms paced a thin cordon. The crowd looked subdued. At once Brennan knew the word had got out.
‘Look at them,’ he said to the constable.
‘What?’
‘Their faces… They know.’
The younger man stared out of the window. His expression seemed to mirror the sad mix of hurt and shame. Grief swayed through the assembled bodies; Brennan knew this wasn’t a good sign. A community in hurt was a community in trouble, and trouble he could well do without.
The constable put on his cap, followed Brennan out to the pavement. The SOCOs paced from a small laneway, into their white van that looked like a mobile library. Brennan watched their faces for signs, giveaways, but they portrayed nothing. They never did. Two uniforms greeted the DI. One was speaking into the radio clipped onto his Kevlar vest but he stopped when he saw the detective. ‘Morning, sir.’
Brennan nodded. ‘We got the doc on site?’
‘He’s been and gone.’
‘Fucking hell. Already? Has he a holiday booked?’
The constable rubbed his cheek, tried to speak but couldn’t seem to find the right words.
‘Never mind,’ said Brennan. ‘Let’s get going.’
As he paced for the lane he was T-boned by a young woman with a digital recorder in her hand. She had just ducked under the blue-and-white tape and definitely wasn’t messing about. ‘Are you the investigating officer?’ she said.
Brennan looked at her then glanced to the uniforms. They pushed in front of her and grabbed her arms.
‘Get off me!’
‘Sorry about this, sir.’
Brennan watched the scene. The woman was early twenties, fresh-faced. She was also too eager for her own good.
‘Do you have an ID for the victim?’
She already had too much information.
‘Do you have any suspects on the girl’s death?’
Brennan felt a flush of heat in his chest; he clenched his jaw. The woman prised an arm free of the uniforms, pushed out the recorder’s mic. Brennan lifted a hand, covered the small, silver-coloured device. ‘You seem to know more than me, love.’
She tutted, near spat, ‘I’m not your love!’
Brennan smiled at her and walked away. Over his shoulder he said, ‘Got that right.’
A SOCO approached as he walked to the lane. ‘Morning, sir.’
‘Is it?’
The man dropped his brows. ‘Sir?’
Brennan stopped, nodding back to the scene he’d just left. ‘How did the fucking press latch onto this so soon?’
Now he raised his brows. ‘The press?’
‘That’s not a welcoming party from the News.’
The SOCO looked past Brennan. The young reporter was being escorted beyond the taped-off area. ‘Never seen her before.’
‘Get a good look. Sure you’ll be seeing a lot more of her. Trust me, I’m a good judge of character.’
The SOCO had no reply. He handed Brennan a pair of blue covers for his shoes.
‘Got some gloves?’ said the detective.
A shrug, shake of the head.
‘Typical. Come on then, let’s do this.’
Brennan strode past the officer, made for the lane. As he passed, the SOCO spoke out, ‘I should warn you, sir, it’s not a pretty sight.’
Brennan turned. ‘It never is, lad.’
Chapter 4
Devlin McArdle rubbed an open palm over his smooth head. The razor sting ignited with his touch but the satisfaction he felt with the close crop cancelled it out.
‘Nice one, just the job,’ he said.
The barber smiled, leaned in and brushed at McArdle’s shoulders. A few strands of stubble fell to the floor. McArdle turned down the corners of his mouth, pushed away the barber’s hand. ‘That’s enough, that’s enough.’ As he rose from the chair, the black robe was removed in one swift pull. He strode to the till, said, ‘How much?’
A shake of the head. ‘No charge, sir.’ The barber made a small cross over his heart. ‘Not for you, sir.’
McArdle smiled. It was only a small curl of the lip; he didn’t look used to it, and stopped it almost as quickly as it appeared. As he turned for the door he saw a thin man waiting outside for him. He was tugging nervously at the cord on his jogging trousers. There was a tic queuing on his eyelid and he brushed at it with a speed that looked unnatural. Jumpy, the man was jumpy. Even more than usual, if that was possible. His whole demeanour said trouble — he was either in some kind of bother, or about to be.
