Blood Lines Part 33

DC Malone walked up the stairs to the witness room.

'You've got a b.l.o.o.d.y cheek,' snapped Bancho. 'History? That you sold Fishy down the river and want to do the same to me?'

'Firstly, I'd like to say I'm sorry.'

'Sorry? Do you think that's enough for ruining a fifteen-year career? I joined the police as a cadet straight from school; I don't think "sorry" quite cuts it.'

'You're not making it easy for me, Duncan.'

'Not making it easy? For you? You have got a b.l.o.o.d.y nerve, Brodie.'

'I want to ask for an adjournment today tell the Fiscal you don't oppose.'

'Why should I?'

'Because someone planted those jewels on Bernard Carpenter, and I've just remembered you're the kind of cop who wouldn't approve of it.'

'You've pushed me too far this time, Brodie, I swear. I still intend to do you for Alex Cattanach's attack.'

'Just speak to the Fiscal. I'm going to say I'm ill.'

I ran back in and the case was called first on the roll in Court Nine before Sheriff Harrison.

'Bernard Carpenter?'

I spoke up. 'I appear on behalf of Bernard Carpenter. I seek to adjourn this case on the grounds that the defence agent is too ill to proceed to trial I understand that the Fiscal has no objections.'

The baby-faced boy representing the Crown was only too delighted to get rid of this hot potato and quickly nodded his a.s.sent. Bernard looked nonplussed. He wasn't important I didn't have to explain myself to him at the moment.

'Before you rush off, Miss MacGregor, I'd like a word with you,' said Harrison. 'If you are well enough?' he added with a smirk.

'Court!'

The sheriff clerk shouted as Sheriff Harrison left the bench. We all stood up and I made moves to follow him to his chambers. Was he going to ask me what was wrong with me? I needed to get moving fast; maybe I should tell him I had a.n.a.l leakage a friend of mine always threatened to write notes to her son's teachers saying that was what he had if he ever tried to wing a day off school. At least I'd embarra.s.s him; I'd bet my feet wouldn't touch the ground.

I closed the door behind me. The room was well sound-proofed and my feet moved silently across the thick red carpet. Harrison's wig lay in the corner of the desk and he looked oddly human, younger than I had remembered. I was also uncomfortably aware that I owed him a favour after the Tanya Hayder case.

'I heard poor Miss Hayder died in that rehab you fought so hard to get her into.'

I nodded at him.

'Sometimes we should be careful what we wish for if the poor wretch had ended up in Cornton Vale it's likely she would be alive today, ready to shoplift on her release. Don't misunderstand me; I am not laying Miss Hayder's death at your door, it was her wishes I was referring to. Still, let's move on to other matters, no less difficult.'

He looked down at his desk and shuffled his papers. I got the impression that no matter how much he needed to say what was on his mind, he didn't want to say it.

'Mmmm ... yes, well, the thing is ... I have a daughter. A rather brilliant, rather wayward daughter. She has just finished at Edinburgh University. Much to my surprise she managed to qualify in law, summa c.u.m laude.'

'You must be very proud,' I told him, pretty sure I was on safe ground with that response.

He looked at me over his half-moon gla.s.ses. For some reason I felt sorry for him.

'You'd think that until you meet her. Anyway, I'm sure you know from your own experience that after graduation the first thing to deal with is, erm, the future. By now she is desirous of obtaining a traineeship.'

'With her degree, the top Edinburgh and London firms will be queuing up to take her,' I said.

He shook his head.

'No. No, they will not. In any event, Louisa has decided that she wants you she has developed a rather close relationship with her Professor of Pathology.'

'Patch?' I interrupted. I would have to have a word with him. I bet he put her up to it. Still, I was intrigued to meet the girl. She must be quite something if Patch was recommending her to me.

'If you don't mind I will call her in now,' said Sheriff Harrison, deciding that the discussion was behind us.

It didn't really matter what the snotty posh girl was like, I was stuck with her for two years because I owed her daddy a favour. Why she wanted to be my trainee was beyond me. Patch must have waxed lyrical about my abilities, and her father must have kept quiet about what he thought about me.

'Louisa! Come in now, darling, I know that you're listening at the door.'

There are very few people who make you forget what you were doing the instant that you met them. But I will never forget my first impression of Louisa Harrison. It could have been her bright pink, extremely unattractive hair, wispy to the point of thinness and hanging in a rat's tail down her back. It could have been the fact that she had her leather jacket on, which she must have thought was de rigueur office-wear at Lothian and St Clair. Or possibly it was the fact that she was one of the smallest, most misshapen people I had ever seen. I wasn't aware that I was staring until she spoke. Her voice was high and squeaky.

'Osteogenesis imperfecta,' she informed me. 'Brittle bones. And imperfectly formed ones at that. That's why I look like Quasimodo's sister.'

Her tone was chirpy and matter of fact.

Sheriff Harrison shrugged his shoulders. It seemed that she was my problem now.

'Oh, right. Your father says that you're keen to do your traineeship with me?'

She didn't answer; she wasn't going to give me any help.

'So, when do you want to start?'

'How about right now?' She was keen enough to answer that one. 'That's why I'm wearing my leathers.'

'I don't have a helmet for you,' I said, trying to get rid of her, whilst being pretty d.a.m.n impressed that she had brought her own leathers and knew so much about my devotion to the bike. I couldn't use the excuse of not feeling well to someone who had obviously gone through so much pain in her life.

'Don't worry. I've got my own.'

I gained the distinct impression that Louisa Harrison was used to dealing with people who tried to fob her off.

'You two girls have fun,' shouted Sheriff Harrison as he ran back in to court.

'It's not been easy for him,' Louisa said wisely.

I already had the feeling it wasn't going to be easy for me.

'How did you get friendly with Patch?' I asked as we made our way to the bike.

'At an Elvis convention,' she told me.

It was one of the last answers I wanted to hear.

'The thing is, Louisa, I've got something very difficult to deal with this afternoon.'

Her eyes sparkled. 'Is something "going down"?' she asked, obviously hoping that was exactly the case. 'You won't even notice me.'

'What? With that hair?' I replied.

'You'd be surprised how invisible a crippled girl is. By the way, I found this in my dad's chambers.'

She stretched out her rather beautiful hands towards me. In her palm lay a single white stone.

'You must have dropped it.'

I knew we were going to be all right.

Chapter Forty-Six.

'I think he's about to make his move,' Joe said.

Moses shouted in the background, 'I know he is!'

They had both been following Robert Girvan and I'd received a phone call from them just as I'd left the court with Louisa. Joe had given me instructions and I'd made my way towards the Rag Doll as fast as I could. At the pub, I turned left and headed up to the high-rise council flats, the same estate where Joe and I had been brought up.

I joined them in their hiding place beside the seven-foot metal bins that lay at the bottom of the rubbish chutes. It was stinking. Some of the bags had burst open potato peelings and some less acceptable things lay on the ground. In the corner I could see a mouse nibbling on a rotting apple core.

'This is Louisa,' I said pointedly to Joe and Moses as I introduced them. To my shame neither of them stared at her, just nodded matter-of-factly.

'I'm Brodie's new trainee.' The pride in her voice was unmistakable.

'What did you do wrong that you ended up with Brodie?' Joe asked.

'I met Patch at an Elvis convention and he said she was great.' Moses groaned, and I knew he was cursing the addition of another of the King's chosen ones. 'Christ, you're stuck with Brodie, but we're stuck with another b.l.o.o.d.y Elvis freak.'

I winced at the use of the word 'freak', but that was my problem, not theirs. Louisa settled herself down amongst the stinky nappies as if she had been born to it.

'Couldn't you have found a nicer place to hide?' I asked them.

'You don't hear Louisa complaining, and she's closer to the stink than the rest of us; no offence, Louisa,' Moses added.

'None taken, Moses.'

Louisa had obviously had all our biographies from Patch and was acting as if she had landed amongst the X-Men. It was rather sweet and I only prayed I could keep myself out of jail long enough for her to finish her traineeship.

Robert Girvan finally turned up. After carefully checking that no one was watching he lifted up the metal door of a garage.

'Here we go,' said Glasgow Joe. 'Here's our man or woman, I should say. Tell you what, Brodie, once I've finished with him he won't have to put on a woman's voice; he'll be f.u.c.kin' squeaking his b.o.l.l.o.c.ks off for the rest of his natural ...'

I had told Joe and Moses about my initial suspicions regarding the p.o.r.n video. They had jumped on it as a good enough reason to beat Girvan up, given half the chance. I had asked them to call me as soon as they had arrived at the location I wasn't looking forward to telling them that they only knew half the story, though.

Girvan was dressed in his suit; no doubt he had just left Bridget's office to make this appointment. He carried a large sports hold-all, so he must have been intending to go to the gym after he left here.

'I thought you said that Duncan Bancho was keeping a low profile on this one?' Joe pointed to the garage, where an unmarked police car had just pulled up. He could spot them as easily as if they had flashing lights and a siren going.

'Brodie?' he carried on. 'Why's Bancho here?'

'He's not,' I answered as Peggy Malone got out of the car. I wasn't surprised. Although she was in civvies she stuck to a uniform, her skirt hugging her round hips and, as usual, her blouse looking as if it had shrunk in the wash. She couldn't help wiggling and jiggling as she threw her arms around Robert Girvan.

'That's a lie for a start,' whispered Louisa.

'What do you mean?' I asked.

'Everything about her is wrong look at her body language. She pulled out of that embrace as if he burned her. She's using him; in fact, I'd say she manipulates a lot of people. Before you ask how I know, I'm not ashamed to admit I manipulate to get my own way. If I waited like a good girl for what I wanted, I'd still be in the queue long after the shop had shut. I admire a fellow artist, though I wouldn't like to tangle with her.'

My phone vibrated.

'It's Duncan the cat has left the house and I'm hoping she's at the trap. We're just round the corner. Can I come over?' said a voice.

'Only if you stop using that silly code stuff. Hurry up.'

No sooner had I closed my phone than two cop cars sped up from either direction, effectively blocking off the garage entrance. We ran out to join Duncan and his boys in blue.

Duncan shouted at Robert Girvan and Peggy Malone to stand still. She looked around, saw the rest of us, and made a split-second decision. She obviously thought she could still walk out of this. She ran out and threw her arms around Duncan.

'I'm sorry for working this one on my own,' she said breathlessly as she clung on to his hand. She was too concerned about saving her own skin to even bother about all of the potential witnesses around her.

'I would have cut you in on this, Duncan, I just wasn't sure where it was going.'

Bancho stared at Peggy as if he had never seen her in his life.

'Margaret Malone I'm arresting you for the murder of Tanya Hayder and the attempted murder of Alex Cattanach. You do not have to say anything, but anything you do say will be taken down and may be used against you in a court of law.' He coughed. It was always hard arresting a fellow cop, but one you had been s.h.a.gging was bound to be particularly difficult.

'Take her in and book her.'

'No comments!' Bancho shouted at Jack Deans, who strolled up behind us. As usual, Jack paid him no attention.

'Do you have any comments, Detective Constable Malone?' he bawled at the police car as it sped off.

Robert Girvan was still pinned against the wall by an officer whilst his colleague opened the hold-all. Instead of dirty jock straps it was overflowing with used bank notes.

'Book him and get him out of here quick,' said Bancho. Jack's arrival had hastened the departure of the police.

'I owe you one, Brodie,' Bancho said.