Broken Skin Part 33

He hung his head and closed his eyes. Trying to keep his voice neutral. 'Just had a bad day, OK?'

'You've been ignoring me all week! I left G.o.d knows how many messages on your b.l.o.o.d.y phone!'

And that's when Logan remembered where he'd left his mobile: charging in the CID offices. 'It's not working. I've been on an Airwave thing since yesterday.'

'That's not the point. You've not been around for days you've been avoiding the flat, and don't b.l.o.o.d.y tell me you've not, because you have!'

'Jackie, I-'

'It's because of Macintyre isn't it?'

'I-'

'Not bad enough the little raping f.u.c.k attacks all those women, now he's-'

'Enough!' Logan stuck his head round the side of the shower curtain, water dripping onto the bathroom floor. 'OK? Enough. Leave it. I don't want to talk about-'

'No? Well I do! I'm not putting up with you dragging your pitiful a.r.s.e round the whole time! Get-'

'YOU PUT HIM IN A COMA!' There was silence, just the dull drone of the heater and the spluttering shower. Logan sat on the edge of the bath, with his back against the cool tiles. 'You could have killed him. You made me an accessory after the fact and I'm on the b.l.o.o.d.y investigation! What am I supposed to do?'

She stared back at him through the cloud of steam. 'Did it ever occur to you that I didn't actually do it?'

'Oh come off it. You hated him. You come back, throw everything in the was.h.i.+ng machine, ask me to lie and say you were here all night, and next morning he turns up battered so badly they don't know if he'll ever wake up. Look at your knuckles for G.o.d's sake, they're still bruised.'

Jackie held up her hands, turning them so Logan could see the dark purple patches. 'I got into a fight, OK? I was in a pub and some a.r.s.ehole started going on about how the police should leave Macintyre alone 'cos he was a hero and we're all corrupt f.u.c.kwits and those women were asking for it. He threw something, it got nasty. I think I broke his chin...' Flexing her hands and wincing. 'I'm not proud of it, but I didn't want to get caught. They'd suspend me, or worse, and he started it! I'm not getting chucked off the force 'cos some slope-headed f.u.c.kwit wants to pick a fight.'

Logan looked at her, trying to work out if she was telling the truth or not, searching for the telltale signs, but there weren't any. If it was a lie it was a good one. 'So you never laid a hand on Macintyre?'

'I kicked him in the ribs when I arrested him, yeah, kneed him in the b.a.l.l.s, but I didn't put him in a b.l.o.o.d.y coma, OK? How could you think I would do something like that? I'm a police officer!'

'I...' Logan put his head in his hands. 'It's been a s.h.i.+te week.'

She nodded, slipped off her shoes and clambered into the bathtub with him, fully dressed, her s.h.i.+rt going transparent in the shower, revealing a hideous grey bra. 'Well,' she said, pulling him to his feet and stepping close, 'if you think I'm a dirty cop, you'd better give me a d.a.m.n good wash.' And then there was kissing, full frontal nudity, and soap-on-a-rope.

Seven am Friday and there was no sign of Insch at the morning briefing, so Logan handed out the a.s.signments, hurrying through them, hoping he could be done and out of there before the inspector arrived. Not believing his luck when he managed it.

It was too early to try breaking Deborah Kerr's alibi the IT company she worked for didn't open its doors till nine according to their website so that left Rob Macintyre's mother and fiancee.

Logan opted for the lesser of two evils.

It was strangely silent downstairs in the custody wing, just the m.u.f.fled band-saw sound of someone snoring in one of the male cells, echoing down the short flight of concrete steps to where the women were kept. Ashley was looking rough, hair all skewed, dark bags under her pink eyes, grey face, scarlet nose. She'd obviously had a bad night, done a lot of soul searching and crying. She'd suffered. Which was exactly what Logan was hoping for. She sat upright on her blue plastic mattress, back ramrod straight, not looking at him as he stepped into the sour-smelling cell.

'So,' he said, settling down next to her, 'you had a think about what you saw yesterday?'

She wouldn't look at him. 'When I met Robert he was the coolest guy ever. Twenty years old and rolling in cash. The house, the cars, the clothes, foreign holidays...' She sniffed. 'Course he had his mum with him the whole time, wouldn't let him out of her sight. Strong woman. You know, emotionally? His dad died, and this is like six months after I started seeing Robert, and she didn't cry once. Like a rock. And she liked me. Said I wasn't like all those gold-digging b.i.t.c.hes who tried to get their claws into him before. She hated them, but she was good to me. He was good to me.'

'But he changed, didn't he? Something happened.'

'We were going to have a family. Two boys and a girl.' She lifted her gaze from the wall to the thin window running along just beneath the roof. It was still dark outside, the etched gla.s.s milky grey. She sighed, one hand going to her tiny pregnant b.u.mp. 'Don't suppose that'll happen now.'

'Ashley, you don't have to lie for him any more. He can't hurt you.'

She turned and frowned at him. 'He never hurt me. I'd've broken his b.l.o.o.d.y nose for him if he'd tried. And his mum would've had his b.a.l.l.s!'

Logan took her hand and stared into her bloodshot eyes. Trying again: 'Think about what you saw yesterday. All those women. You-'

'Oh I've been thinking a lot.' And she smiled. It was like watching a wound tear open. 'I'm going to court at four today for this perverting justice c.r.a.p you're trying to pin on me. I'm going to tell them how Robert was a perfect gentleman and you're all b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. Then I'm going to talk to that lawyer who got Robert off and sue you f.u.c.kers for every penny you've got.'

He let go of her hand and stood. 'You do that. It'll be something to keep you busy when you're in prison.' And she actually laughed.

'I'm pregnant, you idiot. They don't send pregnant women to jail. You've got nothing no evidence, no witnesses, nothing. Because my Robert's innocent!'

Mrs Macintyre had fared a lot better than her son's fiancee. They'd put the old woman in a cell on the floor above, at the far end of the corridor, one of two that could be segregated from the rest of the detention area by a set of black, metal bars. She was lying flat on her back, fully dressed, staring up at the advert for Crimestoppers painted on the ceiling. 'Shame,' said Logan, leaning back against the wall, 'you'd've thought she'd be tougher than that.'

Macintyre's mum didn't bother getting up. 'What do you want now?'

'Ashley: one night in the cells and she's telling me all sorts of interesting things about Wee Robby Macintyre.'

'Your mother never wash your mouth out for tellin' lies?' She peeled open an eye and glowered at him. 'Our Ashley's a good quine. She's no' said a thing, 'cos there's nothin' to say.'

'Coma or not, we're going to prosecute him. Everyone's going to know what your boy did. She's given us more than enough to-'

'I will not stand for lies!'

'-make sure that if he ever wakes up, he'll be going straight to jail for thirty years to life-'

'You're nothing but filth!' Macintyre's mum bustled to her feet and marched across the dark green terrazzo floor till she was standing right in front of him.

'-with all the other perverts and rapists and paedophiles-'

She spat in his face.

52.

There was still no sign of Insch, but it didn't make Logan feel any better: whatever the inspector was up to, it just postponed the b.o.l.l.o.c.king he was going to get for last night's fiasco. So when Colin Miller called it was all the excuse he needed to get the h.e.l.l out of FHQ.

A cold wind whipped through the streets, the sky opaque and milky-grey as Logan drove up Schoolhill, making for the maternity hospital. A crowd of nervous fathers-to-be and knackered fathers-already-been cl.u.s.tered just around the corner from the hospital doors, smoking. Miller was on the outskirts, yawning his head off, a cigarette cupped in his hand as if he was trying to hide it. He barely looked at Logan, took one last drag and dropped the b.u.t.t, grinding it into the concrete with his foot. 'Here.' The reporter pulled a thick envelope from his pocket and handed it over.

'What's this?'

'Read it.'

Inside were about two dozen bank statements belonging to Frank Garvie. 'How did you-'

'I didn't. Whoever you got them from it wasnae me.'

Logan flicked through the sheets. Most of Garvie's purchases were online, bits of electronic equipment and gadgets. 'What am I supposed to be looking...' He frowned there was a payment into Garvie's account every month marked BACS, that would be his salary, but there were others, cheques coming in at regular intervals.

Miller unwrapped a packet of extra strong mints and stuffed three in his mouth: crunching. 'Bloke rents out encrypted server s.p.a.ce.'

'Did you-'

'No idea what you're talkin' about.' And the reporter marched back through the doors into the maternity hospital.

Logan called Force Headquarters, looking for Insch, even though he really didn't want to speak to him. Voicemail. He left a vague message and tried DI Steel instead. 'Don't care.' Then there was a chest-rattling cough and some swearing. 'Better off when I was b.l.o.o.d.y smoking... Garvie's no' getting any less dead, is he? And I've got whoever battered Rob b.a.s.t.a.r.ding Macintyre to worry about: search teams are a waste of b.l.o.o.d.y time, door-to-doors are useless and everyone who says they left the nightclub with the wee footballing s.h.i.+te can't remember a thing. Blootered out their faces. And the CC's getting right up my...' she went on for a bit, but Logan had stopped listening. He was scribbling down the cheque numbers paid into Garvie's account. When she finally hung up, he crossed his fingers and dialled the PF's office, hoping to get anyone other than Rachael.

He wasn't lucky. There was an awkward pause, then she said, 'You didn't call.'

b.o.l.l.o.c.ks. He wandered away from the maternity ward, heading back to where he'd parked as the first spits of rain put a dull sheen on the ranks of cars. 'I'm sorry. It's been... Macintyre and Fettes and...' And he was a spineless b.a.s.t.a.r.d who should have phoned up and cancelled.

'Boeuf bourguignon. I had to throw half of it out.'

Idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot. 'I'm really, really sorry.'

Another pause. Then a sigh. 'I've never gone out with a policeman before. Is this what it's like? Never knowing if you'll be there or not?'

Logan closed his eyes and tried not to think about where this was leading. 'Pretty much, yeah.' Tell her. 'I-'

'What do-' She stopped. 'You first.'

'I...' TELL HER! 'I need to ID some people from their cheque numbers.'

He drove back to FHQ, cursing himself all the way. Rachael had forgiven him for not turning up and promised to get back to him as soon as she'd got a warrant together, so now he felt doubly guilty...

The incident room was quiet, just a single uniformed constable, dribbling information into HOLMES as it came in. Apparently the hunt for Rob Macintyre's little red hatchback was running out of steam, they'd searched every street in a two-mile radius from the footballer's house and come up empty. The question was: how did Macintyre's mum know to get rid of the d.a.m.n thing? His fiancee had given a pretty convincing performance this morning, as if she genuinely didn't know what her beloved was up to or didn't want to believe it that left the boot-faced old cow who'd been lying for Robert since the day he was born. It wasn't hard to see her brow-beating Ashley until she toed the party line: 'Yes officer, Robert was with me all night.'

Ashley was the weak link. There had to be a way to break her.

He was still trying to figure out how when Insch stormed into the incident room looking about ready to burst scarlet, puffy face, gritted teeth, angry, piggy eyes. Logan scrambled to his feet. Here it came.

'Well, don't just stand there: get your coat!'

'But... Garvie: I'm waiting on-'

'NOW!'

Logan grabbed his jacket and followed in the huge man's wake as he thundered out of the room and down the stairs. Sergeant Eric Mitch.e.l.l was halfway out of his seat as they marched past, then he caught the expression on Insch's face and sat right down again, keeping his mouth shut.

All the way through the building and out to the rear podium car park, constables, sergeants, ancillary staff and inspectors got the h.e.l.l out of the huge man's way. He marched up to his filthy Range Rover, plipped the locks, then threw the keys to Logan. 'You're driving.'

There was a brand new Magic Tree air freshener hanging from the rear-view mirror. 'Where to?'

'Can you believe that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Finnie? How the h.e.l.l he ever got to be a b.l.o.o.d.y DI...' Insch went hunting in the glove compartment, coming out with a tiny packet of Jelly Tots, shoving them in his mouth one at a time. 'You'd think we were all supposed to be on the same side: solve crime, keep the streets safe, put b.l.o.o.d.y crooks away. But not Finnie, no he has to be the big man.'

Logan knew better than to ask. Instead he started the inspector's car and pointed it in the direction of Mastrick, already having a pretty shrewd idea where the fat man's rant was heading.

'Where does he get off telling the DCS to cancel my lookout request? Not in the interests of his ongoing investigation, my a.r.s.e!' Insch threw the last little disk in his mouth and crushed the packet in his huge fist. 'When I get my hands on him I'll...' The words stopped coming, but the inspector went on trembling with rage, breathing in and out through his nose, doing his calming-down exercises again. It was getting more alarming every time Logan saw it. Never mind thirteen stone, at this rate Insch would be dead long before he lost any of it. 'Right,' said the fat man, when he was finally back to a nearly normal shade of pink, 'we're looking for Jimmy Duff, so get your backside...' he trailed off as Logan pulled up to the kerb, directly opposite the address Ma Stewart had taken them to last time. Where Jimmy Duff was supposed to live. 'Oh ... right.'

Logan went to unclip his seatbelt, but Insch's huge hand covered his own. Holding it in place. 'Well?'

Here it came. 'I called her work this morning, then I checked with the hotel and convention centre in Bristol, and the airport, and-'

'Today, Sergeant!'

'Her alibi looks sound, sir. Sorry.'

Insch nodded, but didn't let go of Logan's hand. Instead he increased the pressure slightly, until Logan's bones started to groan. 'You mean to tell me I p.i.s.sed off the only person in my entire cast who was any b.l.o.o.d.y good because you got it wrong?' The pressure increased again. Now it was actively painful.

'Ah ... yes, sir, sorry, sir!' Logan tried to make his hand go limp, before Insch squeezed the life out of it. 'Do you think you could-'

'If I can't get her back, Sergeant, I'm going to have your b.o.l.l.o.c.ks on a plate. Are we crystal clear on that?' And all the time the inspector's voice never rose above a polite conversational level, his face didn't even go red as he threatened Logan. Which somehow made it even worse.

'Yes, sir!'

'Good.' He let go, then clambered out into the sunny morning, leaving Logan to lock the car. As soon as the fat man's feet hit the pavement his phone started to ring Behold the Lord High Executioner sounding in the cold morning air. He switched it off.

Then the Airwave handset in Logan's pocket started bleeping at him. 'McRae.' He flexed his fingers, trying to get some life back into them as he followed Insch up the path to the front door.

'What the f.u.c.k is wrong with you?'

Logan pulled the thing away from his ear and frowned at the illuminated display, looking to see if he recognized the caller's badge number, as the voice on the other end went into a full-blown rant about teamwork and loyalty and what would happen to them if they didn't turn round and get the h.e.l.l away from that b.l.o.o.d.y house!

'Sir,' he said, tapping Insch on the shoulder before the big man could start pounding on the front door, 'I think it's for you.'

Insch took the handset and mashed the off b.u.t.ton with a huge thumb, pa.s.sed it back, then started knocking so hard it felt as if the whole front of the house was vibrating. 'OPEN UP!'

Logan closed his eyes and swore quietly to himself the inspector might not give a toss about his own career, but Logan really didn't want to get hauled up in front of Professional Standards yet again.

Finally the door opened a crack and a sliver of face peered out at them. 'What?' Not a local accent, somewhere between Manchester and Liverpool.

'Jimmy Duff.'

'Do I look like a f.u.c.king haggis-muncher?'

'Where is he?'

'How should I know?'

Insch pulled a sheet of paper from his inside pocket. 'I've got a warrant here for his arrest. You can hand him over, or I can force entry and have a good look round. Up to you.'