Into the Dark

by Stuart Johnstone

  ‘That’s putting it mildly, but yes. She’d met someone else and I’d been too busy with work to put the pieces together. Some investigator, right?’

  ‘Ouch. Well, I’ve been there – on both sides of it at one time or another. Never easy. So, she broke your heart and left you bitter and sworn off women for life?’

  There was another pause as the food arrived.

  ‘Karen is happy, as far as I’m aware. She has a little one now. I loved her at one time and so there’s no grudge. I’m happy for her.’

  ‘Liar,’ Marcella said through her napkin, her mouth not yet empty and she winked at me. I laughed and started on my own food. ‘So, nobody since then? Not even casual?’ she asked.

  ‘There was someone last year, bit of a whirlwind thing while I was working up north.’

  ‘Didn’t last?’

  I shrugged and tried to formulate my thoughts on it. ‘Mhairi is a lovely woman and I’m glad I met her but, I don’t know, it sort of blew itself out over the space of a few months. Hot and heavy for a while, but then I started to notice that we didn’t have an awful lot to talk about.’

  ‘I’ve been there too,’ she said. ‘Something you can’t know until you’ve given it a try.’

  ‘Is that what happened with your current ex?’

  She pointed the chip she was holding at me. ‘Well turned around, Mr Colyear. If I didn’t already know you were a cop, I’d have just figured you out. And yes I suppose so, that’s part of it, at least. We were together for four years, first three were great. Then he got into a sort of hump. He got made redundant and then didn’t work particularly hard trying to find something else. He lost interest in most things, including me. I stuck with it as long as possible, but then I’d had enough. Since he doesn’t have a job and nowhere else to go, I didn’t feel like I could just put him out of the flat. He says he’s figuring something out, but I’ve heard that too many times.’

  ‘Sounds complicated.’

  ‘You betcha. At least you’re informed.’

  ‘I appreciate it,’ and I did. I’d be kidding myself if I thought you could get to my age without accumulating a little, or often a lot, of baggage and as things went, this wasn’t the worst.

  We finished our meal and walked back towards the city centre, the noise and the crowds. A check of my watch told me it was getting close to two. I walked with her to the bottom of the Royal Mile towards the Pleasance. I left her at traffic lights where we hugged and she kissed me. Not like the night we met, but there was enough in it to know I could call her again.

  I felt I had a little time to play with, so I continued on past the parliament building, a slightly bonkers construction, but there was something about the intentional avoidance of the austere about it that I liked. Two pairs of armed police patrolled the outside and I felt sorry for them; how boring must that be? Though they’d probably say the same about a community sergeant working out of Drylaw.

  Morgan had spent the past two days working with Vikram while I’d been off. He’d chapped at my door before muster, holding a crime report in his hand and looking like a boy about to show his parents the A he’d earned at school. Vikram stood behind him, a little fatherly pride in his face. They’d tidied up a theft at the local supermarket, having recognised the shoplifter on CCTV as a local scrote. Vikram was quick to point out that Morgan had taken the interview and it had led to an admission, or at least some sense of resignation, from the suspect and he’d accepted his guilt.

  ‘That’s good work, Morgan. How did it feel?’

  ‘It was magic. Really felt like I’d done something right.’

  I felt a pang of guilt. I realised this was coming from his little error with Colander McStay. I should have made more of an effort to assure him that it really hadn’t mattered.

  ‘Two drug possession cases last night too,’ said Vikram, sounding more fatherly by the moment.

  ‘That’s great. Where did they come from?’

  ‘We went to the chippy last night for our dinner,’ Morgan said. ‘There’s a bunch of lads outside, bold as brass, passing round a joint. A few ran off, but we rounded up four of them and found a decent lump of weed on the two older ones.’

  ‘I showed Morgan how to use the presumptive test kits. We’ll write up the reports today.’

  ‘That’s great, really. Morgan, I’ll see you at muster.’ He took the hint and left me with Vikram for a moment. ‘Fatherhood must be honing those nurturing skills,’ I said as the door was pulled over.

  ‘He just needs showing where to direct that enthusiasm. He’s actually good to work with. There’s no bravado about him, no swagger like you see with some recruits. Makes him easy to teach.’

  ‘I think you’re doing yourself a disservice. Teaching is not an easy skill. Listen, how would you feel if we sort you out as a tutor constable? It looks good on your record if you ever fancy your stripes down the line. There’s a bit of training involved, but nothing you can’t handle.’

  ‘Yeah. I mean, sure. Though I wasn’t angling for anything—’

  ‘I know. Part of my job is to see and develop potential and besides, I’ve been a bit distracted with a few things lately, I haven’t been devoting the time to him I should be. Between the two of us maybe we’ll pull him kicking and screaming through his probation. Agreed?’

  ‘Yeah. Agreed.’

  For a moment I thought he was going to reach across the table and shake my hand, but instead he shuffled awkwardly from the room saying thanks too many times.

  I was printing off the last few days’ incident lists to chat through with the team when my door opened. If it was Vikram back with more gratitude I might have withdrawn the offer, but it was Alyson. She looked beyond tired. Her eyes seemed shrunken, as though I’d always seen her with glasses on and now she’d suddenly taken them off.

  ‘What did you just say to that guy to put that kind of smile on his face?’ she said.

  ‘Eh?’

  ‘I just passed a guy in the hall, I’m assuming he came from here, doing a decent impression of the Cheshire cat.’

  ‘Oh, nothing. A microscopic promotion of sorts.’

  ‘You can do that?’

  ‘Not exactly, but I can get the ball rolling for him. Anyway, what are you doing here?’

  ‘Put the kettle on and I’ll tell you.’

  ‘I can’t, Aly, some of us have work to do. I need to muster the troops.’ I stood and gathered the printed sheets.

  ‘Muster? You’re going to alert them to another shopping trolley in the river, or how Mrs Jenkins’ lawn is being ruined by her neighbour’s cat always shitting in it?’

  ‘Well, that cat’s not going to arrest itself. I’ll be ten minutes, which gives you enough time to find the kettle.’

  To my shock and awe, Aly had done just that. A cup of tea sat waiting for me on my desk when I returned, though she was sat in my chair. I perched myself on the edge of the desk and drank.

  ‘Hey, is it tonight you’ve got that date?’ she said.

  I hushed her and closed the door over. ‘It was earlier today.’

  ‘Why the secrecy? You’re embarrassed that your team know you’re human?’

  ‘No, it’s not that, it’s just a little awkward with Morgan … and anyway, don’t you have a serial killer to catch?’

  ‘Oh, if my boss heard you use that word …’ she sucked air through her teeth and shook her head.

  ‘Well, it’s what the papers are calling it now. It’s all over the place.’

  ‘That’s sort of why I’m here. I needed a little breather. There were a couple of menial tasks on the action lists and I offered to tidy them up. I just needed to be out of that office.’

  ‘So, you thought you’d come skive with me?’

  ‘Now you’re getting it. First thing is real coffee, though. How does anyone drink this shit?’ It looked like she’d found Mandy’s box of instant-cappuccino sachets. They were better than regular instant coffee, but not much. She pushed the cup aw
ay from her and intertwined her fingers like a cartoon nemesis. ‘How did the date go?’ She even had an evil half-smile for the full effect.

  ‘It went fine. It was just lunch.’

  ‘What did you talk about?’

  ‘You, most of the afternoon.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘No, you bloody narcissist. Right, come on then, I really do have some work I need to get to, so coffee and then I’m sending you off on your lonesome.’

  ‘Fine,’ she said, vacating my chair with a sigh.

  ‘How are you? Really?’ I said as we got in the car and pulled out of the station. ‘It must be pretty bad for you to need some time out.’

  ‘I’m just tired. If I could take a few days off I’m sure I’d feel a lot better, but it’s just not possible right now. Coffee first, then I’ll tell you about it.’

  Maxine’s Cafe was on Silverknowes Road, just a few minutes away. I’d stopped in there a few times and thought the coffee was pretty good, but I was no connoisseur like Aly. I suggested we sit in, but she said she’d prefer to stay in the car.

  She lifted the lid on her takeaway cup, gave it a sniff and drank. There were no comments or nose wrinkling, so I guessed it had passed the test. I drove on with no destination in mind.

  ‘I guess the press getting their hands on this connection puts a lot of pressure on?’

  ‘You’ve no idea. I think Kate’s only just holding on by a thread. You should see people in the office hiding from her, it’s becoming toxic.’

  ‘I’d guessed things had become difficult. I haven’t seen you this past week. I wasn’t even sure if you were still staying.’

  ‘Some nights. But others I’ve just felt like I needed my own bed and there was one where I worked all night and then shut my eyes in my car, only to come round six hours later and go straight back to work. The place is chaos again and Kate’s at risk of losing charge – as soon as the news stories broke, the upper tier started asking a lot of questions, like why the fuck were we working out of a few small rooms in Leith. They threw bodies at it. Staff Kate didn’t want. The official line is the enquiry team is based at Fettes Headquarters, but really that’s just where Kate has sent anyone who’s come in lately and gave them all the shite tasks. As it stands, we still have a relatively small team at Leith, but she’ll only get away with that as long as she has something to report back.’

  ‘You need to look after yourself, Aly. Any breakthroughs?’

  ‘We thought we had – thanks to you, actually – but we’re not so sure now.’

  ‘Me? What do you mean?’

  ‘That chat we had. I’d been thinking about it and I decided to go interview the Bradley boy’s grandfather. It threw up a link to priests. We crunched the info for days but there’s nothing we can find to link to our particular priest. Kate went from ecstatic to dejected and is now verging on homicidal.’

  ‘Sounds tough, but I tell you, I’d love to be working that case.’

  ‘No, you only think you do, trust me.’

  ‘Maybe. Anyway, I can’t really take credit for that lead, even if it does turn out to be a dead end. I think I got the idea from our man at the nursing home.’

  ‘Nonsense, it was your chain of thought, not some spooky old man.’

  ‘Shit,’ I said. I looked around, not quite sure where we currently were.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Our spooky old man, I think today’s his birthday.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘His eightieth birthday.’

  ‘Yeah, he’s old.’

  ‘Oh, come on, eightieth! That’s a big deal. I promised myself I’d go see him when it came around.’

  ‘You’re talking about going now, aren’t you?’ Her head rolled on her shoulder towards me, one eyebrow raised.

  ‘In and out in ten minutes. Promise.’

  ‘Uh-huh,’ she said, rolling her head back to the window.

  I stopped at a Co-op for a bottle of whisky. I didn’t know if he drank it, or whether the staff would let him have it if he did, but it seemed appropriate. I don’t know much about the stuff but recognised one bottle with a good reputation. When the guy behind the till rang up the Glenmorangie, I nearly fell over. I wasn’t too proud to ask for a cheaper option.

  There was an ambulance parked at the rear of the care home so I stopped on the street. At the door Vicky and Michelle were helping Mimi out the ambulance and into a wheelchair, but she was having none of it. ‘Buckin-noway-bastard-chair-fucknasos-buck-basas.’

  ‘OK fine then, Mimi, but take Michelle’s arm and go get yourself some cake, hen.’

  ‘Everything all right?’ I said.

  ‘Hi, yes. Mimi had a fall in the shower this morning. I didn’t think anything was broken, but we sent her down to the hospital to get her arm checked anyway. That’s her just getting dropped back. Thanks guys,’ Vicky said to the two paramedics. They closed over the back door of the ambulance and gave her a wave before reversing out.

  ‘You mentioned cake. Is that for Martin? Am I right in thinking it’s his birthday?’ I said.

  ‘It is his birthday. You’ve stopped by to see him?’

  ‘I have. I just wanted to drop a little something in for him, if that’s OK?’ I suddenly realised I’d left the bottle in the car, but Alyson appeared just then, holding it.

  The news pushed a grin onto Vicky’s, still painful looking, face. Her lip was healing, but a substantial scab still remained. There didn’t appear to be any fresh injuries. ‘Come on in,’ she said and took the bottle from Alyson as she pushed it out to her.

  ‘You remember Al—eh, DC Kane?’

  ‘Sure, I do. Come on in. He’ll be fair chuffed to see you. Now, we don’t normally allow residents the hard stuff, but I’m sure I can sneak him a wee snifter at some point.’

  Most of the residents were gathered in the day room. A few wore paper hats and the television was turned to some music channel playing hits from the sixties.

  ‘Martin’s by the window, why don’t you go sit with him. There’s spare chairs behind the door. Can I bring you something to drink?’

  ‘We’re fine, thanks, Vicky. We’re in and out in ten minutes I’m afraid,’ said Alyson, though she was looking at me. We each took a plastic chair and made our way across the room.

  ‘What happened to her?’ Alyson asked.

  ‘It’s, eh … I’ll tell you later,’ I said and drew my chair up to Martin’s leg. I could tell immediately that the lights were on, but nobody was at home. His face hung in that way I saw the first time I met him. His paper hat sat at an angle on his white hair and the elastic looked a little tight under his chin. His eyes stared off to some spot in the middle of the room.

  I patted his hand and spoke to him nonetheless. ‘Happy birthday, Martin. Can I help you with that?’ a slice of cake sat on the windowsill by his head, half eaten, and a plastic fork jammed straight up in its centre. I removed the hat and nudged the loaded fork at his bottom lip. He opened his mouth. ‘It looks pretty good, chocolate and what is that? Raspberry?’ he chewed. Alyson sat staring at her phone.

  Vicky appeared with two more paper plates with cake and plastic forks. I accepted mine, but Alyson muttered a ‘no thanks’ without even glancing up.

  ‘How has he been?’ I asked.

  She smiled, though it was thin. ‘He’s OK. Aren’t you, Martin? He’s lost a bit of weight lately but there’s nothing obviously wrong. Just the dementia progressing, I suppose. Your Alan called this morning, didn’t he? We arranged a video call and he at least got to wish his dad a happy birthday.’

  ‘Well, that’s something. Martin, I brought you a bottle of something, perhaps later Vicky will let you have a little. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the rest of your birthday,’ I said and laid down the cake he was no longer interested in. ‘We better get going,’ I said to Vicky, but she wasn’t listening. Her eyes were to the window. I became increasingly aware of the sound of a growling exhaust from outside.

  Michelle came into th
e room at something of a jog, her face dark with concern. ‘Vic,’ she said.

  ‘It’s OK, Michelle. Eh, thanks for popping in,’ she said to Alyson and myself. Aly had put down her phone, aware of the tension forming.

  ‘Vic, if you don’t tell them I will. I’m sorry, but something needs to be done,’ said Michelle.

  ‘Vicky, what’s going on?’ I said.

  ‘It’s nothing. It’s fine,’ she said and as her mouth stretched and her eyes closed it was clear it was far from fine. Tears started to roll down her cheeks.

  I took her shoulders gently. ‘I’m guessing that’s Darren outside. Have there been more incidents?’ I asked.

  Vicky couldn’t talk, but Michelle could. ‘That’s him all right. After the last time she broke it off, went to stay at her mum’s. Since then he’s been coming around here, trying to speak to her. Sometimes he just sits out there for hours. Vic won’t let me call the police, but I tell you what, I’m glad you’re here. This has to stop, Vic. You know that.’

  Alyson was now on her feet, her fists on her hips. ‘So, this is what? An ex-husband, boyfriend, whatever, outside – harassing you? And he did this to your face?’

  ‘Not just that,’ said Michelle. ‘It’s been going on a few years. Barely a week goes by when she’s not coming to work with some new cut or bruise.’

  ‘Oh, no. No, no, no,’ said Alyson.

  ‘Aly, where you going? Hey, wait a minute,’ I said, but she was striding for the door.

  ‘No, please don’t, he can be …’ said Vicky though the tears. Alyson was already gone.

  I let go of Vicky and went to the window. ‘Oh shit,’ I whispered and started running.

  ‘Oh God. Has he hurt her?’ said Vicky, but that wasn’t the concern, not in slightest.

  I fumbled at the entrance as I looked for the button to release the door. When I wrenched it open, I had a close-up view of what I’d seen from the window.

  Alyson was raining punches through the driver window. Her elbow shot back and forth like a piston and she was snarling ‘fucker!’ through clenched teeth with each blow. I sprinted outside and grabbed her by the shoulder. She got one more strike in before I could prise her away from the blue Subaru. Blue on the outside, but now red inside. The window started to squeak its way up, but not before I got a good look at a stunned Darren. His nose was a mess across his already swollen face. Streaks of blood covered his white T-shirt and I could even see spots on the windshield. He stared at me with wide eyes for a moment before putting the car in gear and skidding out of the carpark.