by Ed James
Muir shook it, avoiding eye contact. "Thanks."
"Very well." Fletcher got to his feet. "I want to arrange an interview with PC Bain at the earliest convenience. Could you organise for a solicitor and a representative from the Scottish Police Federation to be present?"
"We will."
"Meanwhile, DS Muir and I will familiarise ourselves with the detailed case file."
They got up and left, Wilkinson following them out.
Cargill collapsed back in her seat. "He always gets to me."
Cullen frowned. "Have you got previous?"
"We worked together at St Leonard's for a few years. He was an inspector on the uniform side and I was a DS. We never quite agreed on anything, put it that way, but I learned how to play him." Cargill got to her feet. "I want you to inform DI Bain that he's now formally off the case."
What? A DC sacking a DI? "I'm not su-"
"Are you telling me you're not up to the task?"
"No."
CHAPTER 46
Cullen went into the cubicle and smashed his fist into the wall above the toilet. He did it again. And again.
Blood on his knuckles. Blood pumping.
He walked over to the sink and splashed water over his face. She was seriously asking a DC to tell a DI he was off the case?
He counted to ten as he walked back to the Incident Room.
Sacking Bain.
Fucking hell.
He inhaled deeply through his nostrils and entered the room. It was half empty - most officers must be out looking for further evidence.
Holdsworth was sitting at a laptop, furiously typing.
"Bryan." Cullen hovered by this desk.
Holdsworth slowly turned around. "What is it? I'm flat out here pulling together a dashboard for DCI Turnbull's weekly status meeting."
"Have you seen DI Bain?"
"Yes, he went down to the forensics lab with DS Irvine."
"Cheers."
Cullen heart thudded harder as he headed to the stairs, descending to the Scenes of Crime office on the ground floor of the station. A lump in his throat - the confrontation getting closer.
Anderson sat in the SOCO's office, staring at a computer screen. "Brian, just accept it."
Bain scowled. "It doesn't make sense."
Cullen frowned. "What doesn't?"
"Ah, Sundance, knew you'd fuckin' pitch up."
"We've got five tyre tracks." Irvine flashed up a photo. "We were bloody lucky. It pissed down all afternoon on Thursday, washing the tracks away. Anderson got his plaster of Paris out and did a big stretch of the path."
Cullen took the photo and checked it, unable to determine anything. "Impressive."
"I'm not just some tube that turns up at crime scenes to dust for fingerprints. I've got more qualifications than you three put together."
Bain scowled. "If you've got a single Higher you're doing better than us."
"I've got an Ordinary Degree." Cullen folded his arms.
"Ooooh." Irvine minced. "Been back to CC Bloom's again?"
Cullen scowled at him. "I never tire of that. Keep doing it."
"We reckon there's three vehicles going up and down." Irvine put another bit of gum in his mouth. "Obviously the one Aitken was in only went up."
"Right." Cullen tried to put the facts together in his head. "Could it be one going up and down twice?"
Anderson turned the monitor back and peered at it. "I've got different wear patterns on the sets of tyres. Looks like two separate vehicles."
Kieron Bain was First Attending Officer. Cullen clicked his fingers. "One of them was Kieron's police Range Rover, right?"
"We know this, Sundance." Bain rubbed his face. "The silly sod drove up to the top of the bing when he got there before realising the car was at the bottom."
Cullen scribbled it down in his notebook.
"What are you fuckin' doing?"
"Writing that down. It's called a note. It helps you remember something that might be useful later."
"Cheeky little bastard." Bain scowled.
Cullen looked at Anderson. "What you're saying is there's a mystery third Range Rover, correct?"
Anderson nodded. "Could be that, aye. Can't tell from this."
"This is going to be another CCTV job, right?"
Irvine laughed. "Aye and I hope it's you that has to do it."
Cullen frowned. "The alternative is Kieron went up and down twice."
Bain got in Cullen's face. "Shut the fuck up, Sundance."
"We need to take this to Cargill."
"Grassing to fuckin' teacher." Bain rested his forehead against Cullen's.
Cullen swallowed hard, the butterflies in his stomach flapping again. "I need to speak to you."
"There's no secrets here. Out with it."
"In private."
Bain stepped back and laughed. He grinned at Anderson and Irvine. "He does this every so often. He's got to take me aside and tell me how much he loves me."
"Come on." Cullen led him out into the long corridor and took a look around. It was quiet for once. He took a deep breath and decided just to spit it out. "You're on suspension."
Bain stared at him. "You fuckin' what?"
"DI Cargill has placed you on suspension. She asked me to tell you."
"You got a fuckin' camera recording this?"
"No, it's the truth."
Bain shook his head. "Why?"
"I must have impressed her or something."
"No, you fuckin' tube! Why the fuck am I suspended?"
"Your son's the prime suspect in one of the murders."
Bain flared his nostrils. "Fuck this and fuck you. My boy's innocent. Turnbull's getting a fuckin' visit."
"You should get home."
"Fuck off, Sundance."
Cullen held up his hands. "I've done my bit."
"Aye, a million fuckin' times over."
***
"Say that again?" Cargill looked up from the paperwork in front of her, head resting on her hand, her mouth muffled by the heel.
"Bain's going to speak to DCI Turnbull." Cullen sat alongside her. "He was complaining about being told by a DC."
"Thanks for doing that." Cargill sat back in her chair and stretched out. "How was Bain?"
"The usual. I've managed to desensitise myself to his swearing."
Cargill laughed. "I don't get what he's up to."
"You know his marriage broke up, right?"
"I'd heard whispers, Jim thought something was amiss."
Cullen nodded. "I've got some information on the forensics."
"Tell DS Methven."
"You want to hear this."
Cargill sighed. "Okay, go ahead."
"Last Thursday, when we were at the bing, I had a look at the tyre tracks leading up the mound. Anderson tells me the wear marks most likely point to three individual vehicles, but he's only matched one of them."
"Which one?"
"The car Xander Aitken drove up in." Cullen showed her the tyre analysis. "Kieron Bain drove up in a police Range Rover as FAO."
"This doesn't sound good." Cargill rubbed her eyebrows. "Which leaves us with a third Range Rover that we need to trace?"
"That or Kieron went up and down twice."
"Is that possible?"
"It's not been ruled out."
"Okay. This is good stuff, Cullen. I can see why Jim calls you a rising star."
Cullen blushed. "Thanks."
Cargill raised an eyebrow. "You just need to eliminate that little cowboy streak of yours."
"Believe me, I'm trying to."
"What do you want to do?"
"Have we done footprint analysis at the top of the bing?"
Cullen frowned. "I don't know. I can check, if you want?"
"No, it's fine, I'll allocate Sharon McNeill to it."
"What about me?"
Cargill looked across the Incident Room - Muir and Fletcher had a table in the far corner and were poring over their copy of
the case file. "I want you to man mark Muir. He's done nothing so far, but he's interviewing Kieron Bain at eleven. I've been summoned to DCS Whitehead's office in Fettes with Fletcher and Turnbull, so I won't be able to attend."
"Will do."
There was a commotion from the entrance of the Incident Room. James Anderson was having a shouting match with DS Holdsworth.
Anderson looked into the room. "Where is he?"
Holdsworth pointed over at Cullen. "With DI Cargill."
Anderson marched over. "Where've you put it?"
"Put what?"
"The knife. It's gone."
Cullen raised his eyebrows. "I've got absolutely nothing to do with it. I came straight here to brief DI Cargill."
"Well somebody's pinched it. I need to run some other checks on the fucking thing."
Cullen put his head in his hands. "Irvine and Bain were in there with you."
CHAPTER 47
"We've got this eleven o'clock interview, haven't we?" Muir stood over Cullen.
Cullen shook his head, looking across the busy Incident Room. "Cargill's called an emergency briefing."
"What about?"
"You'll find out." Cullen tapped his nose.
"I'm not in the mood for games here."
Cargill entered the Incident Room. "Come on, can you all gather round please?"
Fletcher and Turnbull joined her at the front.
Cargill waited for a semblance of order before starting. "This is not an easy announcement so I'll just get on with it. You'll all be aware that PC Kieron Bain is the prime suspect in the murder of Liam Crossan. As you'll know, PC Bain is the son of DI Brian Bain, the Deputy SIO on this case. DI Bain appears to have tampered with evidence. The murder weapon has disappeared from the Scenes of Crime lab downstairs. DI Bain and DS Irvine were both in attendance when the knife is believed to have gone missing." Her eyes flicked around the room. "Both officers have been placed under house arrest."
The noise level cut to zero. The faces were utterly shocked. Cullen could hear the traffic outside.
Cargill cast her gaze across the room. "They may be acting together or independently. There's a distinct possibility they've hampered other aspects of this investigation. To that end, Superintendent Fletcher will be leading a thorough review of the case. I appreciate this is frustrating, especially as we're so close to solving it, but we need to make sure this is a clean conviction."
Cargill left the room, Turnbull and Fletcher following.
Cullen looked around, noticing a few familiar faces covered with looks of bewilderment.
Wilkinson tapped him on the shoulder. "None of my bloody Blackburn links came through."
Cullen frowned. "Blackburn Teddy, right?"
"Right. Had six of my lads going through contacts. Nobody knows anything about it. That's a shithole by the way, even worse than the one in bloody Lancashire."
Cullen smiled. "I thought Yorkshiremen were supposed to spit when you said that."
"I bloody feel like it." Wilkinson bellowed with laughter. "I need to speak to Charlie Kidd."
"I'm not stopping you."
"That's the thing. I don't understand that stuff half as well as you. Come upstairs with me."
"Much as I'd love to, I've got to man mark Muir. We're supposed to interview PC Bain."
"Wait here." Wilkinson dragged him over to Muir, sitting with Holdsworth. "Can you wait for Cullen to get back before you interview Kieron?"
Muir sighed. "I suppose I can."
"Excellent." Wilkinson tugged at Cullen's jacket. "Come on." He led upstairs. "I think that's Bain finally got his comeuppance."
"You think?"
"I've thought it before but he's always manages to wriggle out of it. House arrest is pretty bloody serious."
"I suppose so."
Wilkinson pushed open the door to the Forensic Investigations floor and marched over to Kidd's desk. "What are you doing here?"
Buxton looked up from his phone. "Crys- sorry, DS Methven asked me to help."
"And are you?"
"Not really." Kidd folded his arms.
"Put your phone away, Constable." Wilkinson pulled up a seat. "How's it going, Charlie?"
Kidd stretched out and yawned. "Getting there."
Cullen sat on the edge of the desk. "Where's there?"
Kidd sat back and started playing with his ponytail. "We've finally managed to get a link between the chat room and the core database."
"Thought this was supposed to be a piece of piss, Charlie? You've been at it for days."
"It's not easy. I've tried about a hundred different things and I've finally just managed to find a couple of tables hidden behind a firewall which might fix it."
Wilkinson shook his head. "I can't believe this site is legal."
"Me neither. Aitchison says they comply with all information security laws, but it sounds like bollocks."
"There could be anything going on in this chat room." Wilkinson scowled. "Football hooligans are the tip of the iceberg. Paedophiles, people trafficking, you name it."
"They regularly scan for that sort of activity using a set of keywords. I've been looking into it for that Tony boy who works for you."
"Right. We've not got any convictions yet." Wilkinson pointed at the screen. "So what are you pair actually doing?"
"Executing the join."
"It's taking this amount of time?"
"There's five hundred million users on there. You're lucky it's at all possible. I've had to nick about ten per cent of their data centre's resources to do it."
Wilkinson looked over at Buxton. "What were you up to on your phone?"
"Nothing."
"Come on."
Buxton shrugged. "Just looking at Twitter. Joey Barton was getting into a stupid argument with someone."
"Figures." Wilkinson frowned. "Who does he play for now?"
"Marseille. He's on loan from QPR. It was a dodge to get out of the three-month ban he got, I think."
Cullen pointed at Buxton's phone. "What's Turnbull been up to?"
Wilkinson glared at him. "What are you talking about?"
"He's been forced to tweet. Show him, Simon."
Buxton laughed. "He's been talking about how senior officers need to 'drink from the fire hydrant'."
"What does that even mean?" Wilkinson laughed.
"Me neither."
Kidd's machine beeped. He sat bolt upright. "Here we go."
Cullen leaned forward. "What is it?"
"That query's just returned. We've had to join across eight different systems and recreate their surrogate keys. Been a total nightmare."
"What can you tell me?"
Kidd tapped the screen. "We don't have a match for Blackburn Teddy."
"All this bloody time for nothing?" Wilkinson smacked his hand off the desk. "How come?"
"Blackburn Teddy hasn't got an account on Schoolbook."
Cullen frowned. "You said you thought it was Tommy Aitken."
Wilkinson looked away. "Believe me, we've pressed him hard on this. He's not even got a mobile, let alone a computer. It's not him."
"So he's not being held in connection with this any more?"
"Correct. He's still going to get done for assaulting Hugh Nichol. He's not going to drop the charges, even though Aitken was clearly under distress. Lot of bad blood there."
"Right, so we know nothing, then?"
"Not quite." Kidd tapped at the screen. "We've found Gorgie Billy."
"Who is it?"
"Someone called Kieron Bain."
CHAPTER 48
Cullen opened the door to the interview room.
Methven was in full flow. "I wish you'd lose this 'no comment' nonsense. It's getting both of us nowhere."
Kieron smirked. "No comment."
Cullen waved over. "Sarge, a word?"
"Very well." Methven narrowed his eyes as he paused the interview. He led DS Muir outside into the corridor, slamming the door behind him. "What is i
t?"
Cullen nodded at the door. "Kieron Bain organised the fight at Ginty's Quarry."
"Sodding hell."
"That's a good thing, isn't it?"
"Yes, I suppose so." Methven rubbed his forehead. "What do you want to do?"
"Let me in there."
Muir held up his hands. "I'm staying."
Methven looked over at Wilkinson. "Does Alison know?"
Wilkinson shook his head. "Haven't seen her."
Methven took a deep breath. "Let's you and I go and speak to her while Cullen and Muir interview Kieron."
Wilkinson folded his arms. "Why?"
"We need to manage upwards, Paul. That's why."
Wilkinson grinned. "Right, but I'm pulling rank here, okay?"
"Very well."
Cullen put his hand on the interview room door. "We okay to progress?"
"Go for it." Methven led Wilkinson away.
Cullen sat down at the table and pressed started the recorder. "Interview recommenced. Present are DC Scott Cullen, DS Simon Muir, PC Kieron Bain and Alistair Reynolds. For the record, Mr Bain has foregone the right to a Police Federation rep."
Muir gestured for Cullen to lead.
Cullen leaned across the table. "Kieron, DS Muir here represents the Professional Standards and Ethics department. Do you know what they do?"
"I know what they do."
"Then you'll know you're in deep trouble."
Kieron shrugged. "Okay."
"There are a couple of other things DS Muir's helping us investigate. First, some of the evidence against you has disappeared from the Forensics Lab."
"I've no idea what you are talking about."
"The knife with your fingerprints on was misappropriated this morning. Do you know who stole it?"
"No."
"Was it your father?"
Kieron's eyes shot up again. "I've no idea. If it was him, he hasn't told me. I've no idea who stole it."
Cullen stared at him for a few seconds. "Second, did you have anything to do with the disappearance and murder of Alexander Aitken?"
"You know I was FAO when the car turned up."
"I know. You were also involved when we traced the car to the lock-ups on the outskirts of Ravencraig. They were conveniently on fire."
"What are you saying?"
"That's a lot of coincidences. You were involved when the car was stolen and when the body was found."
