The van took off gracelessly into the exhaust-filled air astern of the boat then dropped like a cow doing a belly flop.
Into the Water of Leith. Or death.
Chapter Eighteen
I was in luck. The heavily scratched windscreen flew out in one piece the second the van hit the water. I was winded by the impact but I managed to scramble out of the gap before the vehicle started to sink. I found myself crouching on the foundering bonnet, looking up at the row of gun-toting head-bangers along the boat’s rail. The words “frying pan” and “fire” sprang to mind.
“You’d better throw the wanker a line.” I couldn’t see Dirty Harry but his rough tones were easy enough to recognise.
The Fisheries Guard vessel’s engines were gunned as the skipper held its position in the middle of the narrow dock. I choked in the acrid fumes as I grabbed the rope and was dragged through the scummy water. That was all the help they gave me. I had to heave myself up to the rail and collapse over it under my own steam. Then the muzzle of a well-oiled Uzi was jammed into my neck.
“On your feet, knobsucker. The chief wants to talk to you.”
It seemed like a good idea to comply with the hard-bitten crewman’s order. I was shoved up to the wheelhouse, my wet boots skidding on the steps.
Katharine moved back from the door. “Are you all right, Quint?” she asked. There was concern in her voice but she avoided looking at me. She didn’t seem to have been harmed. Doubt suddenly laid into me like a pre-Enlightenment mugger. Surely she wasn’t part of Dirty Harry’s operation?
That fear didn’t last long.
“Shut it, woman,” the big man snarled, turning his good eye on her. Katharine stared back at him with undisguised loathing. “The two of you are seconds away from a watery grave.”
“Christ, Harry, make up your mind,” I said. “You just saved me from one of those.”
He ignored that as he concentrated on spinning the wheel and ratcheting up the engine revs. The boat moved forward surprisingly smoothly. Despite looking like a wreck that had just been dredged from the sea bottom, it had been well maintained. Shouts came from the quayside and I looked out of the wheelhouse. A line of crewmen and dock workers were waving their arms slowly, their faces sombre. I remembered scenes in old war films showing U-boats being cheered out of port.
“Do they always look this joyful when you go on patrol?” I asked the captain.
Dirty Harry glanced at me then let out a string of sardonic laughs. “We’re not going on patrol, citizen smart fucker,” he said, his face hardening. “We’re heading for the other side of the North Sea.” He eased the engine controls higher. “And we’re not coming back.”
I watched as the buildings of Leith began to shrink in the distance. Harry steered east after we cleared the rocks round the harbour entrance. The juddering all over the boat suggested that maximum safe speed had been reached. I tried to talk to Katharine a couple of times but the skipper made it clear that was contrary to the ship’s code of conduct by putting his hand on the haft of his auxiliary knife. So I was forced to suffer in silence as Arthur’s Seat and the Castle Rock came into perspective in the Big Heat’s hazy air and then began to fade away. Shit, this was not going the way I expected.
“Look, Harry,” I said, going up to the piratical figure at the wheel. “I don’t think this is a very good idea.”
“Is that right, you fucking scumbag?” he roared. Getting up Dirty Harry’s nose wasn’t a very good idea either. “You fucked up our fucking treasure-trove, you forced us to desert and you came close to putting a van through my hull. I don’t think you’re an expert on good fucking ideas, pal.”
I shrugged. “Personally, I think you’re in the clear.” I looked at him steadily, making him shoot an inquisitive glance at me. “Okay, so going along with Ray when he asked you to dig out the cellar in Craiglockhart was against regulations, but it’s not necessarily a demotion offence.”
I kept my eyes off Katharine. I was going to have to try a high-risk strategy to get us off the boat. If I wasn’t careful, I would end up with her knife in my chest.
“I mean, disposing of those headbangers in the mill was a major service to the city,” I said.
I felt Katharine go tense at my side. As I thought, she wanted more than a pound of flesh from the killer of her friend Peter Bryson. Fortunately she didn’t act hastily.
Harry nodded slowly. “I might have fucking known. The genius has worked it out.” Then he looked at me fiercely. “Have you found out who killed Ray? I want that fucker’s heart.”
Jesus, I was surrounded by avenging angels. I shook my head. “Not yet I haven’t. But if you let me off this rustbucket I’ll find the bastard.”
His expression loosened slightly. “Aye, you were a mate of his too, weren’t you?”
“I was. So how about it? Will you let Katharine and me go?”
He stared ahead. “Convince me it’s worth my while, citizen.”
I shivered and wrapped my arms round my upper body. It was cool out on the estuary and my sodden clothes had dripped what looked like gallons on to the wooden deck. I made the depressing discovery that my mobile had not come with me out of the van. Katharine was standing as still as a statue, her eyes locked on Harry. I needed to use my rhetorical skills to get us off the Fisheries Guard’s version of the Titanic before she leaped at the big man and tore his remaining eye out.
“Like I say, Harry, the Council will look favourably on the fact that you dealt with the people responsible for the poisonings. What happened? Did you come across them by accident?”
He looked at me suspiciously, letting me know he’d spotted that I was pumping him. Then he nodded. “Aye. A pair of my lads saw one of them near Craiglockhart and followed him back to the old mill.”
“You went back there later, didn’t you? And when you discovered the bottles of the Ultimate Usquebaugh you beat the hell out of them.”
“Aye. They were headcases. We heard them talking about how they were going to put poison in drinking-water tanks. They didn’t care how many people died until the Council gave them a cut of the tourist revenues.” He grinned humourlessly. “Killing them was a pleasure.”
“Killing you will be a pleasure,” Katharine said, stepping towards Harry. “I knew one of those guys.”
The big man didn’t care. “They were all shites,” he said emphatically. “All of them except the woman. She was well out of her depth. I heard the three men laughing about how the guardians would crap themselves when citizens and tourists started dying.”
Katharine took a step back. It looked like her feelings for Peter Bryson were in the process of changing.
“Lucky for you that the woman who survived went into a coma,” I said. “She could have identified you as auxiliaries.”
He snorted. “You think we went about dressed in guard uniforms when we were out there? We changed back into them when we crossed the city line.”
“Which you did when there were guard personnel on duty who knew you and turned a blind eye,” I said, thinking on the hoof. “You still wore auxiliary boots in the mill house though. That made me wonder. What about Ray? Was he with you on the attack?”
“Aye, the stupid bugger. He insisted on coming along. I don’t know what he thought he could do with one arm. He’d have been better off sticking with his books.”
“Did he see someone else there?” I’d remembered that Katharine wasn’t sure if there were three or four men.
Harry turned to me. “How the fuck do you know that?”
“I’m a class act,” I said, laughing till I saw the way he was looking at me. “This could be important, Harry. What did Ray see?”
“Said he saw,” he corrected. “He said he saw another guy peering in the window when we hit the fuckers.”
“Did he say what he looked like, this guy?”
The skipper raised his shoulders. “Said he was youngish, thin build, with very short hair. And a manic look in his eyes. He was on
ly there for a few seconds but he spooked Ray completely. We had a scout around outside for him but there was no sign. Jesus.” He turned to me, his face racked with unlikely anguish. “Do you think he was the fucker who killed Ray?”
“I think so. Have you ever heard of a citizen called Alexander Kennedy?”
He nodded. “The name rings a bell. Wasn’t there an all-barracks out for him?”
“Yeah. But you haven’t heard of him apart from that?”
“No. Was he in with those arseholes?”
“I think so.” I stared at him again. “He’s still on the loose, Harry. And I think he’s got more of the poisoned whisky. You have to take me back. I can catch the bastard. He probably killed Ray, for Christ’s sake. And he might kill dozens of other innocent people.”
He glanced at me, squinting through his good eye then slowly nodding his head. “All right. But we’re still getting out of this cesspit of a city. That’s what Ray and I agreed with the arse-bandit in the Culture Directorate and that’s what I’m going to do with my boys.” He cut the revs. “There’s something you’d better have a look at before you go, citizen smartarse.”
That sounded interesting.
Harry pushed the wheelhouse window open. “Andy,” he shouted, “bring one of those packs up here.”
Christ, the packs that Katharine saw Bryson and his mates carrying. I’d forgotten all about them.
A seaman in an oil-drenched shirt came up the steps and dumped a good-quality backpack down. I hadn’t seen one like that since I went hillwalking when I was a kid. It was definitely not the kind of article provided by the Supply Directorate.
“Take the wheel, Andy.” Dirty Harry strode over and thrust a hand into the pack. “This’ll get us started up over the water.” He pulled out a transparent plastic bag stuffed with dry, greenish-brown shredded leaves. “This stuff is dynamite and there’s plenty of it.”
“Been sampling it, have you?”
“Going to shop me to the Council, citizen?” Harry laughed. “You tell them what you like, son. I’ll be far away. This is a serious bit of gear. I heard the fuckers call it ‘Ibrox Gold’. The gang bosses over in Glasgow must have been cultivating some new, extra-knockout varieties.”
I leaned back against the bulkhead. How did the grass fit in with the rest of the case? The poisoners must have been intending to move it into the city and it was a reasonable assumption that Allie Kennedy was their contact. But did the deal start and end with him, or was Nasmyth 05 in on it? Was Billy in on it? And if they were, did that mean they knew about the Ultimate Usquebaugh?
Harry took the wheel back from his man. “We’ve got a load of old books and statues from Craiglockhart down below as well. Now all we’ve got to do is get as far away from Auld fucking Reekie as we can. After we’ve dropped you two.”
I nodded, looking at Katharine. She was standing against the wheelhouse wall, her face blank. Harry was talking about Edinburgh the way she’d often done in the past. Was she really serious about coming back to live in the city with me?
The big man spun the wheel and the boat came round, carving a frothing furrow in the sparkling waters of the firth. The crewmen at the rails looked up impassively, none of them questioning their chief’s change of course. Even rebels are obedient in Enlightenment Edinburgh.
“Time you got your clothes wet again, citizen six brains,” Dirty Harry said, peering through his binoculars. “The port’s full of my former colleagues in the guard.”
I stared at the crowd on the quay in the sunlight. I could make out Davie’s large frame.
“Can you swim, woman?” the skipper demanded of Katharine.
“Even if I couldn’t, I’d still jump to get off this rat-shit hulk,” she said, her eyes flashing.
“Given up the idea of killing me then?” Harry roared. “I like your spirit, woman. You should stay with us. I’d make it worth your while.”
“You’d wake up with your dick behind your ear if you tried.”
He was still laughing as he cut the revs completely. The boat bobbed on the water about a hundred yards away from the outermost sea wall.
“Think you can make it?” Harry asked. “Not that I care. This is as close as I’m going.”
“Come on, Quint.” Katharine went down the companionway.
“I can fix it for you, Harry,” I said. “The books and the antiquities are no big deal.”
“Jump, you fucker,” he said, a scowl spreading across his scarred face. “Jump. I’ve had my fill of this pit. Just crucify whoever killed Ray. And say goodbye to Davie for me.”
“All right, big man.” I went down to the deck and stood next to Katharine, then looked back up at him. Time to fly a kite. “What did you do with the bottles of the Ultimate Usquebaugh you kept, Harry?”
He shook his head. “Christ, you don’t miss a thing, do you? Don’t worry, we smashed them up. Down in the port. I had this idea of using them to settle some old scores in the Council.” He laughed bitterly. “Not even guardians deserve to die like that.”
“How many bottles were there?”
He shrugged. “Can’t remember exactly. Around twenty.”
I nodded. So Allie Kennedy or whoever else sent the ultimatum didn’t have much nicotine-tainted stock left – unless there was another cache.
“Jump!” Dirty Harry yelled. “Or shall I get the boys to toss you over?”
I looked at Katharine. “Ready?”
“Aye, ready,” she said.
So we jumped.
The water in the estuary was much colder than it was in the dock. I forced myself to move my arms and legs regularly, trying not to lose my breath. Katharine forged ahead in a smooth breaststroke, her hair darker now it was wet.
“You didn’t get hit at Craiglockhart?” I asked, getting a mouthful of very salty water.
“No. I’d have cut some of them but I looked round to see what they were doing to you and they managed to get my knife off me. Bastards. Is your head okay? I heard they locked you in the cellar.”
“I wasn’t there too long. Harry called Davie and told him where I was.”
She looked round at me. “I suppose I’m going to be grabbed by the guard now.”
“No chance. You’re in the clear as far as I’m concerned.” I heaved for breath, glad that the harbour wall was getting close.
“Do you think you can convince your girlfriend of that?” Katharine asked.
I let that go unanswered, and not just because I was short of breath. I remembered the doubts about Katharine that had gripped me more than once, the last time as recently as on the boat. I decided not to say anything about those.
We got to the outer mole. Fortunately there was a steel ladder on the steep sea wall. I let Katharine go first. Water cascaded from her clothes, which then stuck to her limbs and torso. If I hadn’t been so knackered, I might have got excited. As it was, I wallowed in the shallows till she reached the top then hauled myself out with difficulty. That was enough bathing for one day.
As I pulled myself over the parapet at the top, I was met by Davie’s face. He was not amused.
“Why the fuck did you enter the port on your own, you lunatic?” He looked out to sea. “Where’s Harry going?”
“On a world tour.” I collapsed over the wall and sat gasping. “He said goodbye.” Katharine was sitting breathing easily and running her hands through her hair. “It’s all right. I got some hot information from him.”
“Just as well,” Davie said, eyeing Katharine suspiciously. “There’s been another message to the Council.”
Davie pulled away from the port area, glancing in his mirror at Katharine and me in the back of the Land-Rover as we changed into the dry clothes that a Fisheries Guard auxiliary had given us. Hamilton had called and told us to get to the castle pronto for a meeting with him and the senior guardian.
“We should have sent the other boats to bring Harry back, Quint,” he said, shaking his head. “The public order guardian’s going to be
very unhappy.”
“Tough,” I said, sticking my head through a T-shirt with a harpoon logo. Davie’s jaw had dropped when I’d told him the big man’s crew were the ones who killed the people in the mill house. “Even if the other crews agreed, Harry’s guys wouldn’t let themselves be taken alive. Anyway, the guardian’s got other things to worry about.”
“Like rioting all over the city if the drinking-water’s poisoned,” Katharine said. Her hair was tousled, the lighter colour returning now that it was drying.
“What are we going to do with her?” Davie said, glancing over his shoulder. “If we’re taking her with us, she’ll have to be cuffed.”
“For fuck’s sake, Davie, she’s clean.” I looked at Katharine. “Aren’t you?”
She raised her middle finger and bent over to tie the laces of a battered pair of auxiliary boots.
“Uh-huh,” Davie muttered. “You’d better be right, Quint. By the way, what happened to that van you took from Nasmyth Barracks?”
“Ah.” I busied myself with the buttons on my fly. “It’s in the car wash.”
“What?”
“They should be able to pull it out of the dock. The brakes need an overhaul.”
Davie let out a long sigh. He’d never thought much of my abilities behind the wheel. I was glad I hadn’t disappointed him.
You could tell someone had hit the Council’s spot. The esplanade was like a dodgems ring on a Saturday night in the time before the Enlightenment deemed fairgrounds trivial – which contemporary citizen diversions like Edlott aren’t, of course. Davie managed to get up to the castle gate without being shunted.
“What about me?” Katharine asked. “Am I supposed to sit here and sweat to death?”
I shook my head. “No. You’re coming with us.” I was almost convinced that Sophia hadn’t known anything about Nasmyth 05’s scam with Billy and Ray – let alone anything about Harry’s bloodbath – but I wanted to make absolutely sure. Parading Katharine in front of the senior guardian would definitely bring out the worst in her and, if jealousy was all it was about, I could live with that.
Water of Death Page 32
