McRae 2 - Dying Light

by Stuart MacBride

  41

  Brendan 'Chib' Sutherland's driving became a lot less erratic when he hit Union Grove. The silver Mercedes slowed until it was well below the speed limit, almost as if the driver was looking for something. PC Steve slowed down as well, keeping the distance between the two cars constant. A siren was sounding from somewhere up ahead. Then they saw the orange glow in the sky. Something was burning. The Mercedes jerked to a halt in the middle of the road and a figure lurched out from the pavement, bent over, limping, a sagging holdall in his hands. He clambered into the car, there was a short pause, and then Chib drove off. 'Damn . . .' Logan dug out his mobile and dialled Jackie's number. Worried. She'd been following the Gimp and now there he was, looking as if he'd been in a fight, and there was no sign of either Jackie or Rennie. 'Come on, pick up the bloody phone!' Twelve rings later it cut to voicemail and he cursed, hung up and hit redial. Steve was still on Chib's tail, following him up Union Grove towards the junction with Holburn Street. 'Holy shite!' He stared agog out of the windscreen: up ahead flames leapt from a tenement rooftop, neon-yellow sparks spiralling into the night, a pall of thick, black smoke spreading like a bruise

  across the sky - the top two floors were ablaze. Chib drove calmly past. Logan swore again as Jackie's recorded message told him she was just too damn special to come to the phone right now, so leave a message. Hang up. Redial. He grabbed the radio off PC Steve's shoulder, clicked it on and demanded to be put through to WPC Watson, only to be told to wait his turn: she'd called in from a serious fire and wasn't answering her radio any more. Log n shouted, 'Stop the car!' and PC Steve slammed on the breaks. Logan wrenched open the door and sprinted towards the burning building, shouting for Jackie at the top of his lungs. The howl of sirens was getting stronger. A small knot of people were gathered around a fallen figure on the pavement, one of them performing CPR, while others cried and moaned. 'JACKIE?' A grubby, soot-stained face looked up at him. It was DC Rennie; he was the one doing the mouth-to-mouth. The victim was a middle-aged woman in an oversize Aberdeen University T-shirt, the fabric riding up to show off a pair of grey pants and a mealie-pudding stomach. 'Over there,' he said, pointing to a figure hunched by the front of the building, while embers fell from the sky like incandescent snow. 'Jackie?' She was bent over the still body of a golden retriever lying on its side with a pool of something dark oozing slowly out of its head, gently stroking its fur. A spark drifted down, landing on the dog's flank, producing the bitter smell of burning hair. Logan dropped down beside her, gently touching her arm. 'Jackie? Are you OK?' Her face was filthy, and so was her once-white uniform shirt. She didn't look up at him, just brushed the smouldering ember away. 'He wriggled when Rennie was lowering him out of the window,' was all she said. A newish-looking double mattress lay on the ground less than two feet away.

  'Come on,' he said, helping her to her feet. 'It's not safe.' She gazed back at the dog as he led her out to the pavement, only snapping back to earth when Alpha Three Six screeched to a halt right in front of her. A huge neon-orange fire engine was next, disgorging its occupants and reams of equipment out into the road, the braying honk of another engine not far behind. 'He got away!' she shouted over the din. 'It was Chib's mate. He covered the whole place in petrol!' A fireman charged past, spooling out a length of hose behind him. 'He got away!' 'I know: Chib picked him up. We were following him and--' 'You can't let him get away! The bastards'll do a runner!' She grabbed him by the collar and dragged him towards PC Steve's fusty old Fiat, abandoning Rennie to deal with the fire scene. 'You,' she shouted, jumping in beside Steve while Logan clambered into the back. 'Drive!' Steve put his foot down and the car raced to the end of the street, passing an ambulance going just as fast the other way. 'Left or right?' Logan had no idea and said so. 'OK,' said Steve, squinting in concentration. 'Right. . .' He raced out into the box junction, heading down Holburn Street. A pair of red tail-lights glowed in the distance; no sign of any other vehicle. Steve put his foot down. The Mercedes was almost at the Garthdee roundabout, doing a sensible thirty miles an hour, when they caught up with it. Steve sped past on the wrong side of the road - the Fiat's ancient engine sounding like an angry hairdryer - and slammed on the breaks. The car squealed round in a fairground pirouette, stopping sideways on as the Mercedes screeched and juddered to a halt, its ABS kicking in, leaving Morse-code trails of rubber behind. Jackie was first out of the car, with Logan and Steve close behind. She swung her truncheon like a baseball bat at the windscreen, shattering a vast spider's web into the glass. She was reaching back for another swing when the passenger door

  exploded open and the Gimp leapt out. There was something in his hands - Logan got as far as shouting, 'GUN!' before a harsh crack rang out and PC Steve went down like he'd been hit by a bus. Screaming. Logan and Jackie hit the deck. Another shot dug a hole out of the tarmac by Logan's leg and he scrabbled backwards, getting the tiny Fiat between him and the shooter. Another shot clanged into the bonnet and a fourth into the bodywork, all punctuated by PC Steve's high-pitched wailing. A squeal of rubber and the Merc shot backwards, paused and roared forwards, sending up a cloud of grey smoke, nearly flattening Jackie on the way past. A final bark from the gun, forcing Logan to scramble out of the way, and the car was gone. Its brake lights flashed hard on and it slithered sideways into the Garthdee roundabout, rear alloy wheels bouncing off the barrier in a flurry of sparks, before the Mercedes fishtailed out onto the Bridge of Dee and raced away into the night. PC Steve was lying on his back in the middle of the road, already white as a sheet, a huge dark stain spreading out from the right side of his chest, blood bubbles popping and frothing from between his lips. Jackie ran over to him, peered at the hole in his chest, swore silently, then leaned on it hard: trying to staunch the bleeding. Logan called for an ambulance. If they were lucky he'd still be alive by the time it got here. Jackie looked up from Steve's pale face. 'What the fuck just happened?' The constable's screaming had died away to shallow, gasping pants, each one bringing up more blood to spill down his chin. Logan knelt down next to Jackie. 'How is he?' She stared at him, dark red soaking its way up her sleeve. 'How the hell do you think he is?' Steve moaned and a cascade of blood rolled down the sides of his face. She tried to wipe the worst of it off, but more kept coming.

  'Conic on Steve: don't you dare fucking die on me! II you leave me stuck with that bastard Simon Rennie, I'll kill you!' 'Did you . . .' Logan drifted to a halt then swore, 'What?' 'I just figured it out. All of this: it's a turf war. Malk the Knife making his play for Aberdeen. He sends Chib up here to break into the local market - they find out Karl Pearson's a dealer so they grab him and torture the poor bastard until he gives up his mates. Then the Gimp burns them alive. Same with Kennedy's Grandmother.' He pointed up Holborn Street where the sky glowed a fiery orange. 'They try to scare her off, but it doesn't work, so she's next. Christ knows where the second house fits in - maybe they're in on the deal, so they get burnt too. Chib and his mate have been getting rid of the competition.' He pulled out his mobile and called Control, telling them to get a couple of patrol cars down here pronto. Jackie shifted her grip on Steve's heaving chest, trying to find purchase on the blood-slicked fabric. 'Where the hell's that ambulance?' 'They'll be here soon. Everything will be OK,' he lied, trying to sound confident - this whole thing was a complete fucking disaster. 'How's he doing?' 'You're doing great, aren't you Steve?' The jollity was as forced as the smile. Steve just shuddered and bled. The wailing cry of an ambulance made Logan's head snap round. 'About bloody time!' He grabbed one of Steve's cold, blood-soaked, trembling hands. 'Come on, not long now: you'll be fine.' But Steve's eyes were unfocused and his breathing was becoming more laboured and painful. The bloody froth wasn't just coming out of his mouth any more: it was bubbling out between Jackie's fingers.

  42

  The ambulance's cold blue light swept the tarmac, reflecting back off the windows of parked cars and houses lining the bottom end of Holburn Street. Curtains had been twitching ever since
the first shot rang out, but now the residents stood with them fully open, silhouetted against their bedroom lights, staring down at the car and the ambulance and the dying policeman. Jackie sat on the bonnet of the bullet-pockmarked Fiat, slapping a paramedic's hand away as he waved a finger back and forth in front of her face, trying to figure out if she had concussion or not. 'I'm fine! Leave me the fuck alone.' Steve was being hurriedly strapped into a stretcher, drips going into his arm, oxygen mask on his face, a huge wad of compression bandages sticking up from his chest. They hefted him into the back of the ambulance, then the doors slammed shut, the siren yowled into life and the driver put his foot down, taking the quickest route to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. Logan was still on the phone to FHQ, getting them to set up roadblocks on every road south from Aberdeen. Chib would ditch the car first chance he got - a silver Mercedes

  with a smashed front windscreen was hardly inconspicuous - so the teams were to look for two tall men with Edinburgh accents, one with short blond hair, the other with long dark hair and a moustache. Both to be considered armed and extremely dangerous. That done he hung up and dialled DI Insch's number - not wanting to face Steel right now. He wanted backup from someone that actually trusted him. 'Any luck?' asked Jackie as Logan finished the call. 'Not happy about being woken up at half two in the morning, but he's on his way.' Logan rubbed at his face with tired hands. The adrenaline rush of being shot at was ebbing away, leaving him exhausted and feeling sick. 'He's going to call the Chief Constable and let him know about Steve.' God it was going to be a mess: another policeman shot on the streets of Aberdeen - there would have to be press conferences, briefings, meetings, updates, more meetings . . . none of which would help PC Steve Jacobs. 'What did the ambulance crew say?' 'Not much. Lot of swearing . . .' She hung her head and sighed. 'Bastard.' Logan had to agree. 'What we need to . . .' He drifted to a halt, as a fresh siren cut through the night. 'Here we go.' Alpha Two Seven pulled up on the other side of the road and a pair of uniformed constables clambered out, wanting to know what had happened. They stared in silence at the blood slick on the tarmac, while Logan brought them up to speed then ordered them to seal off the street and call for an IB team. The whole scene would need to be bagged and tagged. News was travelling fast. Another three patrol cars arrived in as many minutes, the police men and women looking pale and shocked as they heard about PC Steve. All except for WPC Buchan who wore a superior 'I told you so' expression, muttering to anyone who'd listen that this was just like

  what happened to PC Maitland and wasn't it a HUGH coincidence that DS McRae was in charge both times? But Logan was too tired and too pissed off not to bite: 'You! Get your arse over here NOW!' WPC Buchan straightened up and marched across the road, standing in close with cold, ugly eyes. 'Yes . . . Sergeant? Logan prodded her in the shoulder, speaking through gritted teeth. 'You got something to say? Have you, Constable? Come on then, let's hear it! Nice and loud so everyone can hear what you've got to say.' She stared up at him, her whole face tightening around her scrunched-up mouth. Logan let the pause grow before lowering his voice to a growl. 'Just because your boyfriend is screwing around behind your back you will not take your shit out on me. Understand?' She went bright red. 'That's got nothing . . . he's not. . . I--' 'Steve Jacobs is my friend and I've got enough to worry about trying to catch the bastard that shot him without having to deal with YOU!' 'But I--' 'Get your arse back in that patrol car and keep it there.' WPC Buchan spun around, looking for support, but suddenly everyone was busy doing something else, anything else. She turned back to find Logan looming over her. 'I am ordering you off my crime scene. Constable. You can expect a written complaint about your behaviour and attitude.' He leaned forward so their faces were almost touching. 'Now get out of my sight.'

  'What do you mean there's no sign of them? There has to be!' Logan marched back and forth across the road, not paying any attention to his surroundings, forcing the IB team to scuttle around him as they photographed ejected shell casings and bloodstains. 'Are they stopping every car?'

  The harassed woman on the other end of the phone said yes they were, and searching every boot too because, believe it or not, they had actually done this kind of thing before! Logan apologized and hung up. They were getting nowhere fast. Every major road was blocked, and most of the little side routes too. Not an easy task in farming country where minor roads criss-crossed the landscape, knitting tiny clusters of farm and residential buildings together. There were hundreds of possible routes south, as long as you knew where you were going. But the chances of a big-city Edinburgh boy like Chib being familiar with the road layout of Lower Deeside were slim. He would be a dual carriageway kind of guy. 'Where the hell are they?' Logan stopped pacing and stood looking down at Jackie - curled up in the passenger seat of an empty patrol car, mouth open, snoring softly. She was filthy, her face black with soot, smears of Steve's blood on her cheeks, more on her uniform, an egg-sized lump above her left eye where she'd banged her head on the wall. Logan sighed: there wasn't anything else they could do tonight. The roadblocks would either catch Chib and his mate or they wouldn't. And if they made it as far as Edinburgh, Lothian and Borders Police would pick the pair of them up and return them to Aberdeen for questioning and trial. Chib had screwed up big time: he'd been involved in the shooting of a police officer and left witnesses. Not even Malk the Knife could make that disappear.

  'What the hell happened?' Chib was shouting, gripping the steering wheel in both hands, trembling with rage. 'I give you one simple fucking task . . .' He let go of the wheel and slapped the cowering figure in the passenger seat who squealed in pain. 'Where the fuck did the police come from?' 'I don't know, I don't know!' Greg wrapped his arms

  around his head, crying, but Chib hit him again anyway, knowing he'd feel bad about it afterwards. He always did. Swearing, he dragged the van into a quiet-looking cul-de sac and killed the engine, sitting in furious silence as it pinged and clunked. He'd really loved that Mercedes, but by now it was little more than a burning hulk, abandoned and torched on a dirt track on the South Deeside Road. Gritting his teeth, Chib took a deep, deep breath and counted to ten. This wasn't Greg's fault. . . 'OK,' he said at last. I'm sorry I hit you. That was wrong of me. I was upset, but I shouldn't have taken it out on you.' He reached over and patted his passenger on the arm. 'Now, can you tell me what happened?' Greg shifted in his seat, wiping his runny nose on the back of his sleeve. 1 was ... I was in the house and everything was going great: I did the old woman's front door with the screws and I poured in the petrol and I heard something on the stairs! There was two of them and they shouted at me and I tried to get away, but one of them hit me in the knee and it really hurt and she was all over me and hitting and kicking and biting and I kicked her back and ran away and set fire to the stairs and ran outside and called you . . .' Chib patted him on the knee. 'You did good, Greg, you did good.' And Greg's whole face lit up, happy that Chib wasn't angry at him any more. 'How did they know you were there? Did they follow you to the building?' 1 looked! I did! But there wasn't anyone I could see.' Chib scowled. It was that bastard DS McRae again - he'd recognized him jumping out of the car, just before that grubby bitch broke the Merc's windscreen. Bloody DS McRae. A small smile fluttered across his lips. The police would expect him to go south: get out of Aberdeen and back to his home turf as quickly as possible. But instead they were going to head north, go up round Inverness then down the west coast, past Oban, through Glasgow and back to Edinburgh. If he

  put his foot down they could be back home before the pubs shut tomorrow. But there was something he wanted to do first.

  Get even.

  43

  DI Insch turned up looking like someone had dragged him out of bed at half two in the morning. He listened in silence as Logan took him through everything from the time Jackie called the fire in, to the current status of the roadblocks. Insch popped a Liquorice Allsort in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully, the IB spotlights shining off his huge, bald head. 'Right,
' he said at last. 'Bugger off home out of it.' He pointed at Jackie snoozing away in the front of the patrol car. 'And take Rip Van Winkle with you. We'll meet again at twelve hundred hours tomorrow. There'll need to be an enquiry into the shooting.' Another Allsort disappeared. 'They're going to want to know what you were all doing out here.' Logan blushed. 'Ah, yes, well, you see--' Insch stopped him with a hand, face cold and impassive. 'No. I don't want to know. But you'd better pray all your stories fit together. Maitland was shot in the line of duty: but if this was some half-arsed unofficial operation, you're screwed.'

  A patrol car dropped them off in Union Grove so they could take the pool car Jackie had been driving back to the station. There wasn't much left of Grandma Kennedy's building: the