Broken Skin

18

There was no way he was going to get through all of Fettes’ porn collection by ten on his own, so Logan grabbed Rickards and commandeered a tiny room full of abandoned box-files and evidence bags. It had nicotine-yellow ceiling tiles, peeling magnolia paint on the walls, and a fluorescent light that buzzed and flickered, but it was the only place free. Now all they needed was something to watch the DVDs on.

‘Got an idea …’ Rickards disappeared off, leaving Logan in the cramped and messy space.

Swearing quietly to himself, Logan started stacking things in the corner. By the time the constable returned he’d cleared enough space to work in.

‘Don’t tell anyone, OK?’ said Rickards, dumping an archive box on the tabletop. ‘Sergeant Mitchell thinks I’m taking them upstairs for more fingerprint tests.’ Inside there were new-looking laptops and one of those little photo printers.

Logan was impressed. ‘Where did-’

‘Part of that brothel raid. They were doing live internet sex shows with their punters.’ He started plugging things in. ‘We can take screen-grabs from Fettes’ porn films and print them out.’ The machinery whirred and beeped into life, and the constable nodded happily.

‘Not as daft as you look then.’ Logan selected one of Fettes’ DVDs at random.

Rickards grinned. ‘Thank God for that, eh?’

By ten o’clock they had a small stack of printed-out porn stars. It’d been easy enough to whiz through the films on fast forward, pausing every time a new face appeared, taking a screen shot, printing it out, then cranking up the speed again. Not surprisingly a lot of the same people popped up in nearly every film, but three of them actually bore a vague resemblance to the e-fit. If you squinted and ignored the whole goatee beard thing.

Logan made sure they all had the names of their films scribbled on the back then went off in search of Insch.

Rob Macintyre’s football salary had bought him a large granite house in one of the more exclusive streets off the swankier end of Great Western Road, and a brand new silver Porsche 911 to park outside it, reflecting back the gunmetal skies. According to the DMV computers the twenty-one-year-old also had a Merc and an Audi estate. All with personalized number plates. Logan got the feeling Macintyre was probably spending money as fast as he earned it. Playing Aberdeen’s ‘look at my car — see how successful I am!’ game.

Insch’s muck-encrusted Range Rover looked decidedly out of place. The inspector sat in the driver’s seat, staring up at the house, crunching his way through a packet of Polo mints. ‘You see what they said in the paper this morning?’

‘Same as usual: you’d think they’d get tired of kicking us by now.’ P amp;J front page headline: POLICE CAN’T CATCH 8-YEAR OLD KILLER! Colin Miller again, banging on about how Grampian Police couldn’t find their backsides with both hands, let alone Sean Morrison. Even for Miller it was vitriolic stuff.

Logan cracked his window open, trying to let some fresh air in. The whole car stank of wet dog. ‘What the hell are we supposed to do — search the whole city by hand? Just because he’s eight, doesn’t mean he’s…’ A scowl had settled onto the inspector’s face. ‘What?’

‘Not your missing bloody child: the Dundee rape!’ He shook his head and lumbered out of the car. ‘Well, come on then — we don’t have all day. Mr Macintyre has kindly granted us a whole twenty minutes of his time and I don’t want to waste it sitting here listening to you whine!’

A surprisingly pretty brunette let them into Macintyre’s home — she had a distracting amount of cleavage on display, a gold and ruby pendant nestling between her breasts, an engagement ring the size of a gobstopper, and legs like a poledancer’s. A stereotypical footballer’s wife in training. She couldn’t have been much more than four months pregnant — the bulge artfully framed by her low-slung trousers, cropped, low-cut T-shirt and open blouse, a ruby-pierced bellybutton sparkling invitingly. ‘I don’t know why you can’t just leave him alone!’ she said, marching down the hall ahead of them. ‘He’s never harmed anyone! You should be out catching real crooks, not harassing my Robert …’

Inside, the place was like an Ikea advert: all minimalist lines and pale wood, arty photographs, prints, seashells and strange little glass things in wooden frames. Nothing looked real, as if the whole house had been bought from a catalogue in one go, rather than built up over the years. It was soulless. Logan had been expecting more bling.

Macintyre was sitting in the front room, feet up on the coffee table, can of coke in one hand and a phone in the other, chatting away in broad Aberdonian. Macintyre’s fiancee growled, ‘Feet!’ at him and he snatched them back to the carpet as if he’d been scalded, covered the mouthpiece and apologized to his beloved. Logan had never actually met the man before, only seen him in court, on television, or on the pitch at Pittodrie. For a moment he tried picturing the ugly wee sod pinning that poor woman from Dundee to the ground while he carved up her face.

If it was him, then Jackie was right: the footballer needed a stiff bloody kicking. He watched as Macintyre went back to his phone call, laughing — not a care in the world. And there, to see things remained that way, was Sandy Moir-Farquharson, standing with his back to a huge tropical fish tank, wearing an expression that made Logan want to check the soles of his shoes in case he’d trodden in something.

‘Ah,’ said Insch, ‘Mr Far-Quar-Son,’ pronouncing the lawyer’s name wrongly in a childish attempt to wind the man up, ‘Macintyre didn’t tell us you’d be here. How nice to see you.’

The lawyer sniffed. ‘Spare me your amateur theatrics, Insch, I’m not in the mood. You are here because my client wants to make sure you don’t jump to any of your usual idiotic conclusions about this Dundee attack. You are not here to interrogate, belittle or browbeat Mr Macintyre, is that clear?’

The inspector’s face darkened, ‘You don’t tell me how to question a suspect!’

‘Please, try and get this through your swollen, shiny pink head: Mr Macintyre is — not — a — suspect. Your last pathetic attempt to fit up my client was thrown out of court, remember? And furthermore-’

A clatter at the door and Macintyre’s mother backed in, wheeling a hostess trolley with tea things and little cakes on it.

‘Now, now,’ said Macintyre, the words long, flat and Doric, as his mum handed out the cups and saucers. ‘Gie the mannie a break, he’s only deein’ his joab.’ Without the phone clamped to his lug Logan could see Macintyre’s ruby earstud twinkling away, red like his fiancee’s pendant, the colour of AFC. The colour of fresh blood. And for the first time, Logan got the feeling Macintyre was laying it on a bit thick — playing the good-natured, parochial Teuchter for the nasty policemen. Macintyre pointed Insch at an expensive-looking couch. ‘Yoooo ask away Inspector, I’ll dee ma best ta help ye.’

Hissing Sid didn’t look too happy about it, but he didn’t say anything as DI Insch sat, pulled a sheet of newsprint from his jacket pocket and laid it on the spotless coffee table in the middle of the room, smoothing it out so that the headline was facing the footballer: COPYCAT RAPIST STRIKES IN DUNDEE! ‘I’d like to know where you were on Friday night.’

‘Easy — I wis with Ashley, wizn’t I, baby?’

Logan watched her right hand flutter to the gold chain round her neck, the one with the shiny red ruby dangling from it. She nodded. ‘Yes, he was with me all night.’ Then she dazzled them with her smile. ‘Snored like a bandsaw too.’

‘Dinna listen tae her,’ said Macintyre. ‘I dinna snore!’

‘Yes you do, you-’

Insch cut in across this charming domestic scene. ‘Where? Where did you spend the night?’

‘In bed.’ — Macintyre.

‘In town.’ — Ashley, both speaking at the same time. She blushed and threw a pillow at her husband to be. ‘We went out for a couple of pints, got a takeaway and spent the rest of the night here.’

‘That’s right,’ said the mother, bringing round the Bakewell tarts and Tunnock’s tea cakes. ‘I wis here when they came back.’

Insch stared at her. ‘Don’t tell me he still lives at home with his mum.’

‘I live with him. This is my Robby’s hoose, bought it outright: nae mortgage. How many sons can dae that?’

Insch made them tell him which pub they’d gone to, and which carryout as well. Logan wrote it all down, knowing he was probably going to get lumbered with checking their alibis.

‘And if that’s all, Inspector,’ said the lawyer, ‘I think my client has been generous enough with his time. If you have any further questions you will submit them to me in writing and I will pass them on.’

‘Oh you think so, do you?’ Insch pulled himself from the couch’s leathery embrace and loomed over the lawyer, using his bulk to intimidate the man. Moir-Farquharson didn’t even flinch.

‘Any attempt on your part to contact my client directly will be treated as harassment. Given your recent behaviour I don’t think we’ll have any trouble getting a court order. Do you?’

The explosion happened in the car outside — DI Insch railing and swearing with the doors closed and the windows rolled up, while Logan stood outside on the pavement, not looking forward to the trip back to the station. Finally Insch calmed down, doing the same pulse-taking, deep-breathing exercise Logan had seen last night in the theatre. And then the passenger door popped open and Insch told him to get into the car: they didn’t have all day.

The traffic was unusually heavy for a Sunday morning, and the inspector kept up a muttered, murderous commentary as he threaded the car back towards the station.

‘Er …’ said Logan, ‘are you OK, sir?’

Insch turned a baleful eye on him and said no he bloody well wasn’t. Then there was an uncomfortable silence. Logan tried a different tack.

‘Fettes’s collection — we’ve got three possible matches from the DVDs.’

A grim smile slid onto the inspector’s fat features. ‘Have we now? Names?’

‘All made-up, porn-star ones.’ He pulled the three glossy photo-style printouts from his pocket and handed them over. ‘We’d have to ask the guy who directs the things.’

Insch clamped the screen grabs against the steering wheel, glancing at them as he drove. ‘You see,’ he thrust the pictures back at Logan, suddenly in a much better mood. ‘I’m on the case less than twenty-four hours and we’re already making progress.’ He pulled the car round, following Logan’s directions to ClarkRig Training Systems Ltd. ‘Check the side pocket will you, should be some toffees in there …’

Zander Clark’s mum was polishing the reception desk when Logan and Insch walked in. ‘Wow,’ she said, staring at the inspector, ‘you’re a big one, aren’t you?’

‘Is your son in?’ asked Logan, before she got them all into trouble.

‘Eh? Oh … yes, yes. We don’t normally work Sundays, but he gets a bit obsessed when he’s working on something new. You go right on through.’ She pointed at a dark blue door leading off the reception area. ‘They’re filming though, so shhhhh!’

The indoor studio was long and wide, the sort of place you could park four or five double-decker buses in and still have room for a pipe band. They’d built a film set in here — what looked like a small section of an oil rig’s accommodation block — three cabins with bunk beds, a shower and a stretch of corridor, all with powerful television lights hanging overhead. Only Logan was pretty certain they weren’t shooting a safety film. Not unless it was ‘how to avoid catching sexually transmitted diseases from Viking lesbians’.

Both Logan and Insch stood frozen to the spot, watching as a man in dirty orange overalls walked in on two bleached blondes — hair in pigtails, unfeasibly round breasts — making friends with a double-ended rubber willy and some lubricant. A bloke with a Steadicam walked around the newcomer, stopping just behind him, focusing on the bed and the Viking ladies.

‘Aaaaaand, cut!’ Zander Clark, stood up from behind a monitor and marched onto the set. ‘Brian, that was perfect. Claire, Gemma: I still need more energy from you, darlings.’ He plonked himself down onto the bed next to them. ‘Remember — this is you celebrating life! You’ve been in the ice caves of Ragnarok for five hundred years, but now you’re out: you’re free!’

The girls exchanged a look. ‘Aye, well,’ said one, ‘it’s no’ easy celebratin’ life wi’ a dildo up yer-’

‘Ragnarok,’ said Insch, his deep bass rumble echoing off the bare warehouse walls, ‘is an event, not a place.’

The sound man looked up, saw them standing there, then bonked the director on the shoulder with his boom mike. ‘You got visitors.’

‘Oh for goodness’ sake!’ Zander threw his hands in the air. ‘This is a closed set! You’re not supposed to be in here!’ He stopped and stared at Logan. ‘Do I know you?’

Insch nodded. ‘Show the nice man your warrant card, Sergeant.’

Zander snapped his fingers. ‘Of course — you were with that inspector woman, weren’t you: ugly, wrinkled old boot, thought erotic films were beneath her. You here about my break-in this time?’ The director stuck out his hand to Insch. ‘Zander Clark, with a Z.’ Logan had been right: the director wasn’t quite as big as the inspector, but it was close. Without the beard, hair and glasses they’d be very fat, pink, peas in a pod.

Insch took his hand and squeezed, making the man wince. ‘We need to talk to you about some of your employees.’

‘Oh, right …’ Zander retrieved his hand and stuck it under his arm, before turning and shouting back at the set, ‘Take ten, people. You’re doing great today!’ He sounded a lot more convincing than Insch had last night with his theatre crowd. ‘Honestly,’ said Zander, dropping his voice as the ladies on the bed unplugged themselves and climbed into fluffy pink dressing gowns, ‘it’s like juggling cats some days.’

Insch nodded. ‘I know what you mean. And I’ll bet half of them can’t remember their bloody lines either.’

Zander smiled, hooked his arm through Insch’s and led him over to a trestle table with thermos flasks, pastries and sandwiches on it. ‘God, if I had a pound for every time I’ve had to re-shoot a scene because of that! The only things they get even vaguely right are “ooh” and “ahh” and “harder!” Try getting them to say anything more complicated and you’re at it all day. Are you in the arts, Inspector?’

‘Local stuff. Mostly musicals. A bit of pantomime, I-’

‘That’s it!’ He slapped Insch on the back. ‘I knew I’d seen you somewhere before: two years ago — Aladdin. You were Evil Uncle Abanaza. Brilliant.’

‘Well, I wouldn’t-’

‘Just you stop right there! You brought an emotional resonance to the role, and that’s not easy with the little buggers in the audience shouting, “He’s behind you!” the whole time.’

Logan wandered off before they could start discussing motivation and method acting: panto versus porn.

The cast and crew had split up: the sound, camera, make-up and lighting people hanging out in one of the fake cabins while the actors went round the back to smoke cigarettes and talk about EastEnders. He tried them first. ‘Excuse me.’

The Viking ladies turned to him in unison. Up close it was easy to see the layers of foundation hiding bad skin, the slightly squint features. Pale, plain women done up to look like something they weren’t. And Mr Orange Boiler Suit wasn’t exactly an oil painting either. ‘Sorry, darlin’,’ said Gemma, flicking a chunk of ash off the end of her fag, ‘we’re kinda workin’ right now, so we canna do the whole fan thing. OK?’

Logan pulled out his warrant card again. ‘Coincidence: I’m working too.’

The girls took a step back, but Mr Boiler Suit squared his shoulders — he couldn’t have been much over five foot three, but Logan supposed ‘height’ wasn’t the measurement they’d hired him for. Not standing up anyway. Boiler Suit scowled. ‘You heard her, we’re working!’ He flexed his muscles and gave Logan his best hard-man impersonation. ‘Now clear off out of it!’

Logan stared at him, until the man looked away, then shuffled backwards to stand with the Vikings. ‘You recognize any of these men?’ Logan handed over the three screenshots from Jason’s porn collection.

‘Hey,’ said the man, peering at one, then flipping it over, reading the film name off the back, ‘this is me! Wow … Claire, you remember Cumlamity Jane?’

Claire groaned. ‘Fastest Dildo In The West: couldnae walk straight for a week!’ Boiler Suit handed over the printout and she laughed. ‘You used to be such a porker, Brian!’

Logan checked the e-fit — without the extra weight round the face he looked nothing like the man in the picture. But Logan asked him where he was the night Fettes died anyway.

‘Eurodisney. Two weeks with the girlfriend and her kid. Pissed down the whole time.’ It’d be easy enough to check.

‘And what about the other two?’

Gemma ID’d the man in From Rubber With Love: ‘Frank Garvie — I think he’s somethin’ in computers now … Oh and this een,’ she held up the last printout, ‘Mat McEwan, he’s deid. Took an overdose at Christmas. Shame, he was nice.’

Logan thanked them for their time, then went and asked the camera crew the same questions, just in case, but the stars seemed to be telling the truth. Insch and Zander were laughing about something when Logan got back to the food table, both of them drinking coffee and stuffing their faces with Danish pastries. ‘You see,’ said the director in a shower of pastry flakes, ‘it’s all about challenging expectations. It doesn’t have to just be sex, sex, sex — there should be a real emotional message to it as well. It has to have some heart! That’s why I don’t do gonzo films. No freak sex, nothing that degrades women, no violence,’ another bite, ‘OK, there’s a bit of spanking in the bondage stuff, but it’s all safe, consensual, and straight.’

Insch opened his mouth, but Logan butted in before he could say anything. ‘What about James Bondage: the nun with the strap-on?’

‘Oh, please, that’s straight. Kinky, but straight. I don’t do gay porn.’

‘No? What about the two girls then? Your Vikings.’

Zander smiled indulgently, patting Logan on the shoulder. ‘Girl-on-girl isn’t gay, it’s erotic.’

‘Yes … well … I’ve identified the guys from Fettes’s porn collection: one’s dead, one’s here, and the other quit the business about a year ago.’

Zander peered at the screenshot. ‘Oh, Frank. Yes… got performance anxiety after a while. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was floppy. Works for an IT company in the Bridge of Don now. Used to do our website. I’ve got his business card around here somewhere if it helps?’ Insch told him that it would, and the director led them back through to the reception area, copying Garvie’s home and work addresses down onto a compliments slip. ‘Look, I’ve got to get back to it, but before you go,’ Zander rummaged about in a cardboard box under the desk, coming out with a DVD. ‘Crocodildo Dundee, my masterpiece. I’d really like to know what you think. It’s so nice to actually talk to someone about the art for a change.’

He showed them to the front door, shook Insch’s hand, then did the same with Logan, winking as he did. ‘Remember, Sergeant: kinky, but straight.’