‘Yeah, very funny. Now who the hell is…’ He frowned. ‘Shuggie Webster. It’s you, isn’t it? Next time I-’
The line went dead.
‘Please…’ Trisha Brown slumps back against the radiator. ‘Please…’
Just that little movement sends sharp flashes of pain racing up her left leg, like some fucker’s twisting screws into the broken bone.
Don’t look at it.
But it’s like a car crash, you know? Gotta look. Gotta see the blood and that.
Oh Jesus… The bit between her knee and her ankle is one huge fuck-off bruise, a lump, big as a scotch egg, sticking out the side. She wants to reach out and touch it, or pick at the scabbed bite marks on her ghost-white thighs. But she can’t, not with both hands cuffed above her head. Naked and shackled, on display like meat in a butcher’s shop.
She looks away.
It’s a basement, or a garage, something like that. Boiler for the central heating, big chest freezer. Washing machine. Shelves with tins and shit on them. No windows, just that fucking buzzing strip-light that he never turns off.
Her whole body aches and stings and burns. Cold and hot at the same time. Something deep inside her, torn and bleeding. Dirty.
She blinks back a tear. All that time down Shore Lane, making a bit of cash to keep herself in gear — and her little boy in them wee frozen pizzas he likes so much — and she never felt dirty before. Not like this.
How’s Ricky supposed to manage now? Stuck with his bloody smack-head grandmother. Trisha thumps her head back against the radiator. The cool metal sounds like a muffled bell or something. She does it again. Harder. Grits her teeth. Slamming her head into the thing — at least if she knocks herself out it won’t hurt any more.
It doesn’t work.
‘Maybe I should go off on the sick?’ DS Doreen Taylor stared into her coffee, spreading out the red-and-silver foil wrapper from her Tunnock’s Teacake on the canteen table, smoothing it to a shine with the back of her finger.
‘Ah…’ Bob nodded. ‘Women’s problems, eh?’
She didn’t look up. ‘No. I just don’t know if I can take another day with that sanctimonious git-bag Superintendent Green.’ She sat up straight. ‘There, I said it.’
Logan smiled. ‘“Git-bag”?’
‘Well, he is.’ The foil square was perfectly mirror smooth. She scrumpled it up into ball. ‘You know that Finnie and Bain are worried SOCA are going to take over the McGregor investigation?’
Bob nodded. ‘They’ll be all over us like Gary Glitter in an orphanage.’
‘Don’t be disgusting.’ She dropped the foil ball in his empty mug. ‘And they’ve no intention of taking over. I heard Green talking on his mobile last night — they won’t touch this case with a bargepole. We’ve got nothing to go on: no leads, no witnesses, no forensics. If they move in they’ll be just as stuck as we are.’
‘Ah…’ Logan stuck his mug back on the table. Winced slightly. His right arm ached — one huge mess of blue and purple and green where Shuggie Webster had pounded his fist into it. ‘So when the deadline comes round on Thursday morning, and we’ve got no choice but to hand over the ransom money, they don’t want to be the ones in charge.’
Doreen slumped over her coffee. ‘Exactly: they point the finger at us for messing everything up, we get the blame, and they take over as soon as we get Alison and Jenny back.’
‘Dirty bastards.’ Bob stabbed the table with a finger. ‘We do all the sodding about, and they swoop in and interview the only witnesses we’re likely to get.’ He raised one cheek off his seat, squinted an eye shut, then sighed. ‘Right, I’m off.’
Bob disappeared, giggling.
The smell, when it hit, was like being battered around the head with a mouldy colostomy bag.
Rennie was waiting for Logan in the little makeshift office, sitting at the borrowed desk peering at the laptop’s screen, his fingers rattling across the keys.
‘You better not be messing about on some porn chat site.’ Logan placed a wax-paper cup next to the mouse. ‘Coffee. For not dumping me in it with Professional Standards.’
‘Ooh, thanks, Sarge.’ He creaked the plastic lid off and nodded at a small stack of paper. ‘Been looking up kidnappings — got seven years’ worth so far.’
Logan picked up the PNC printouts and leafed through them. ‘Anything?’
‘Nothing even vaguely like the McGregors. There’s not as many legit kidnappings as you’d think — with proper ransom notes and stuff — most are drug dealers getting nabbed by rivals, a couple of silly sods kidnapping themselves for the attention, and about a dozen tigers.’ He raised an eyebrow. Probably waiting to be asked what a ‘tiger’ was.
Tough.
Logan dumped the pile on the desk. ‘What about older cases?’
‘You know: when you abduct someone’s family, ’cos you want them to help you rob their bank or something?’
‘You want me to take that coffee back?’
‘Just trying to-’
‘Rennie!’
A sigh. ‘I’ve got an appointment with the force historian at ten. She’s got a bunch of stuff booked out for an exhibition she’s putting on.’
‘Good. While you’re there, see if you can’t go back another ten years, just to be on the safe side.’ Whatever shite-storm Napier was whipping up with SOCA, no one was going to accuse Logan of not being thorough.
The constable groaned. ‘Can we not stick this stuff on the back burner for a bit? I mean, I could help you interview Alison’s student mates instead? Maybe we can crack the case: get Alison and Jenny back before Superintendent Soapy-Tit-Wank takes it off us?’ He struck a pose, one hand on his chest, the other reaching out towards the manky ceiling tiles. ‘Rennie and McRae save the day!’ A grin. ‘Hey, that rhymes.’
Logan chewed on the inside of his lip. ‘You want to help interview everyone on Alison McGregor’s course?’
Nod. ‘OK, you can.’
‘Woot!’ Rennnie punched the air. ‘Thanks, Sarge!’
‘Just as soon as you’ve finished digging stuff out of the archives.’
‘Nope.’ Sergeant Eric Mitchell looked up from his computer screen, then ran a finger through his oversized moustache, sunlight glinting off his bald head. ‘Everything’s booked out.’
‘How can everything be booked out?’ Logan tried to peer at the screen, but Eric twisted it away.
‘Finnie’s got everyone off interviewing doctors and vets again, that’s why. Take a bus like normal people. Or get a taxi.’
‘Right. A taxi. You ever tried to claim one of those back on expenses?’
‘So walk.’
‘To Hillhead?’
‘Ahem…’ The voice came from just over Logan’s shoulder. ‘Perchance I can be of assistance, young Logie? I happen to be going that way myself.’
Logan closed his eyes. ‘I’m not sharing a car with you, Bob.’
‘I’ll let you drive?’ Bob jangled a set of keys at him. ‘Come on, what’s the worst that could happen?’
Logan climbed out into the cool morning and slammed the pool car’s door shut. Hauled in a lungful of clean air.
Bob got out of the other side. ‘What? I opened the window, didn’t I?’
‘You need medical help. Or a bloody cork.’
‘Better out than in, as my granny always said.’ He stood and stared up at the soulless collection of Stalin-style concrete apartment blocks, then bit at his top lip. ‘Don’t fancy coming in with me, do you? I fucking hate suicides.’
‘Thought you took the body in yesterday?’
‘Yeah, but…’ He shuffled his shoulders beneath his shiny grey suit jacket. ‘Murder’s different: something horrible happened and we catch whatever sick bastard did it. Make sure the victim gets justice. With suicide, they’re the same person.’ He sniffed. ‘Don’t tell me it’s not creepy. Bloody depressing too.’
The room wasn’t huge, just enough space for a single bed, a built-in wardrobe, a litt
le table and one chair. A pair of bookshelves sat above the desk, full of dog-eared medical textbooks. The obligatory Monet, Klimt, and Star Wars posters. A copy of FHM lay on the floor by the bed. ‘KAREN GETS THEM OUT! IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?’
The little window looked out onto yet another block of student accommodation. Pale and drab and lifeless.
‘Bruce Sangster, twenty-one. Got pissed on Highland Park, then shot himself full of morphine, tied a plastic bag over his head, never woke up again.’ Bob tucked his hands into his armpits. ‘Twenty-one and you go do that to yourself. What a fucking waste.’
Whisky, opiates, and suffocation. It wasn’t a cry for help: whatever Bruce Sangster was running away from he’d made bloody sure it wasn’t going to catch him. How could anyone’s life be so bad they’d just throw it all away?
Bob shuddered. ‘Was going to be a doctor…’
Medical textbooks and lads’ mags weren’t the only reading material in the place. There was a little pile of Heat, Hello!, Now and OK!: ‘ALISON’S SECRET SCHOOLGIRL SHAME: “I WAS A TEENAGE TEARAWAY”, ADMITS BNBS SEMI-FINALIST.’
DI Steel had got it word perfect. Which was worrying.
Logan picked the magazine up and skimmed through all the cheesy smiles, fake tan, flock wallpaper and chandeliers, until he got to Alison McGregor’s photo. She was sitting in her living room, looking off into the middle distance, holding that framed portrait of Doddy in his uniform. Hair: immaculate, make-up: perfect, dressed in a silky top that managed to be respectable and revealing at the same time.
No doubt about it, she was a very attractive woman. Very, very attractive.
The article seemed to be about her admitting she’d done everything Vicious Vikki accused her of. And more. Acting out because her foster parents couldn’t relate to her on an emotional level, whatever the hell that meant. Then she’d met Doddy and discovered she wasn’t a horrible person after all and there was more to life than drinking, smoking, and vandalizing bus shelters. Along came the little miracle that was Jenny growing inside her, then the tragedy of losing Doddy’s parents, a fairytale wedding, the birth…
Tearaway turns her life around, becomes a loving wife and a devoted mum, Doddy dies in Iraq, Alison gets on
Britain’s Next Big Star to honour his memory, and the rest is history.
More shots of Alison and Jenny at home, then… Logan frowned. The next two pages were stuck together. They came apart with a ripping sound, and there was a photo of Alison at the beach, wearing a yellow bikini, smiling at the camera, one hand behind her head, Jenny building a sandcastle at her feet. There were bits of the opposite page stuck to Alison’s stomach chest and face.
Bob appeared at his shoulder. ‘Someone got a bit excited…’ Logan dumped the magazine in the bin. ‘What the hell’s wrong with people?’
‘Give the kid a break. Like you’ve never entertained a fivefingered shuffle over a photo of some half-naked bird.’
‘There was a wee girl in the pic, Bob.’
He curled his top lip. ‘Aye, I’ll give you that.’
Maybe that’s what he’d been running away from? ‘Sangster leave a note?’
‘Yeah, the usual. I’m sorry, I couldn’t take it any more, I’ve let everyone down…’ Bob shook his head, then settled on the edge of the bed. ‘Do you have any idea how often people write exactly the same thing? Their last words on earth, and they’re sorry they let everyone down. How fucked up is that?’ He ran a hand through his hair, until he got to the bald patch at the back. ‘At least I’m not doing the death notice this time, some poor sod in York can tell Bruce’s parents he couldn’t live up to their expectations… I fucking hate suicides.’
Logan looked around the room. ‘So, come on then — why are you here? We’ve got no suspicious circumstances: why aren’t the GED dealing with it?’
‘They are. I’m not here because Bruce’s dead — apparently Finnie doesn’t care about that. What Finnie does care about is where Bruce got the morphine from. Controlled substance. Must be someone dealing on campus.’ Bob raised his chin. ‘So now I’ve got to go tell all of Bruce’s mates he’s dead, and ask them, “Are you a drug dealer?”’ He pulled a sheet of paper from his jacket pocket and passed it over. ‘Got them off his phone and laptop contacts. Don’t fancy helping do you?’
Fat chance.
Logan skimmed the names. ‘Think I did Liam Christie for stealing shop mannequins last year. Silly sod said he was building a plastic army to overthrow our reptilian overlords. Bloody medical students are always the worst…’ He stopped, then pulled a list from his own pocket. Double checked the names and addresses. ‘You’re in luck, Bob — I’m speaking to some of these guys today anyway.’
‘Do us a favour: ask them if they’re doing a bit of dealing to pay their way through university, eh?’
Logan threw Bob’s list back at him. ‘We can sort out what it’s going to cost you later.’
Chapter 31
‘It’s just, like, can the world get any worse?’ Another poky little room — this time plastered with Twilight posters and featuring a life-sized cardboard cut-out of the vampire bloke with the greasy hair. Tanya Marsden dabbed at her pink eyes, sniffed, then worried the paper hanky into tiny scraps with bony fingers. ‘I mean, first Alison, and now poor Bruce. It’s like, the whole university’s been placed under some evil curse…’ She stared at Logan from the depths of a dark, floppy fringe.
‘How well did you know Bruce, Miss Marsden?’
‘Please, call me Tiggy. We used to role play together: AD amp;D, a bunch of us, you know, got a group together in first year. Most of them just drifted away… But Bruce hung in till last Christmas — too much studying to do. I like Bruce. He was a good friend, you know?’
‘And did he ever speak to you about drugs?’
‘For real? No way. Bruce is going to be a doctor…’ She looked down at the shredded paper in her hands. ‘Was going to be a doctor. He was super smart, there’s no way he’d risk getting kicked out of uni.’
‘Did he say anything to you in the last couple of weeks? Anything that might explain why he did it?’
Her shoulders quivered. ‘I should’ve done something. I mean, what’s the point of doing psychology if you can’t even help a friend? He was always working, you know? Always had his head in a textbook, never went to the pub…’ She bit her bottom lip, blinked, then rubbed a hand across her eyes. ‘I’m sorry…’
Logan sat back in the plastic chair and watched her sniff. That was the trouble with psychology students, the little sods were being taught how to manipulate other people. Of course, they didn’t call it that, they called it Neuro-Linguistic Programming, and things like that. The kind of thing Rennie was trying to pull with the sex offenders.
‘So, you knew Alison McGregor, eh? Must’ve been hard for her — single mum, studying, raising a little girl, rehearsing, being on the telly?’
She rolled her eyes and laughed, a short, brittle sound. ‘Oh God, yes. But she was terrific, seriously, like a total inspiration. We were thick as thieves, Alison and me, complete BFFs. Used to crib each other’s lecture notes, if one of us couldn’t make it and that.’
‘Uh-huh.’ Logan wrote the word ‘LIAR’ next to Tanya Marsden’s name in his notebook. Every single student he’d talked to had sworn they were Alison McGregor’s bestest friend. Jumping on the D-lebrity bandwagon and fighting over the seats: look at me, I know the kidnapped woman and her tortured daughter!
‘I can’t believe this happened…’ The tears were back. ‘They’ll let them go, right? Alison and Jenny? I mean, there’s got to be millions in the fund by now — that’s got to be enough.’
‘She was just the best person I’d ever met.’ Jade Shepley sighed. ‘Wow. To just, I mean, imagine what she must be going through.’ She furrowed her brow. Barely nineteen and she was already wearing a twinset-and-pearls, hair cut into a sensible bob, Velma-from-Scooby-Doo glasses.
Her room was decorated with yet another coll
ection of posters: Audrey Hepburn — Breakfast at Tiffany’s; a kitten in a tree — ‘SOMETIMES MONDAY LASTS ALL WEEK’; and a couple advertising am-dram musical productions.
‘It’s such a horrible thing to happen. Poor Alison…’ Jade lent closer and lowered her voice to a whisper. ‘We were best of friends, you know.’
‘Oh no, I can’t think of anyone who’d want to hurt her.’ Phillipa McEwan blinked, bit her bottom lip, stared at her hands. ‘Alison was just the loveliest person in the whole world. She was always popping past to talk about how her day went, or borrow a book or something.’ Posters: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; Zebedee from the Magic Roundabout; Einstein sticking his tongue out. ‘There’s not a day I don’t pray for her.’
‘Actually, she was a complete bitch.’ Stephen Clayton sprawled in the room’s only seat, leaving Logan to stand. Posters: Coldplay; Yoda; U2; David Tennant getting his sonic screwdriver out, with the TARDIS in the background — signed; and the classic Jurassic Park logo. A remote-control Dalek sat on the floor, next to a wastepaper basket overflowing with scrunched up empty Cheesy Wotsits packets.
Clayton cracked open a tin of Red Bull and gulped at it. Belched. Skull-and-crossbones earring, T-shirt with cannabis leaf motif, stud in the nose, blond hair down to the middle of his back.
Ooh, look at me, I’m such a rebel. ‘And why was that?’
Clayton curled his top lip. ‘Why do you think? Always swanning about like she was fucking royalty.’ His voice jumped an octave. ‘“Oh, I’m on TV, I’m so special, so much better than the rest of you ordinary little plebs.” Bitch.’ He brushed the hair from his face. ‘Stuck up, holier than thou, lying, two-faced bitch.’
So predictable. ‘She turned you down.’ Logan tried not to smile. ‘Like she was such a fucking catch with a wee kid in tow. Who wants lumbered with that?’ Another scoof of caffeinated sugar. ‘Was doing her a favour.’
Yeah, you and your grow-your-own-moustache kit. ‘So, this kidnapping thing: you think she deserved what she got?’
Clayton’s face soured. ‘You’re kidding, right? When they let her go she’s going to be worse than ever. Everyone’ll be falling over themselves to lick her arse, like she’s Richard Hammond and Princess Fucking Di all rolled into one. Getting kidnapped was the best thing that ever happened to that manipulative cow.’
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