Cold granite

21

This time Roadkill's 'appropriate adult' was a rundown man in his early fifties, thinning on top and sporting a ridiculous little moustache. Lloyd Turner: an ex-schoolteacher at Hazlehead Academy who'd recently lost his wife and wanted something to take his mind off being alone all the time. He sat at the table next to Bernard Duncan Philips, facing the combined scowls of Detective Inspector Insch and DS Logan McRae.

The small room smelled. Not just the usual, inexplicable whiff of cheesy feet, but the stale sweat and rotting animal odour that Roadkill exuded. The bruises Logan had seen last night had blossomed. Dark purple and green spread over the prisoner's face, disappearing into his matted beard. His hands fluttered on the tabletop, the skin dirty, the nails black. The only clean thing about him was the white paper boiler suit the Identification Bureau had given him when they'd taken his clothes away for forensic examination.

Logan and Insch had spent three hours getting exactly nowhere. The only thing they could get out of Roadkill was that someone was stealing all his precious dead things. They'd tried being nice; they'd tried being nasty. They'd tried getting the ex-teacher with the moustache to talk to him, to explain the seriousness of the situation. Nothing.

DI Insch rocked back in his seat, making the plastic creak. 'Right,' he said with a sigh. 'Let's try this again shall we?'

Everyone round the table grimaced, except for Roadkill. He just went on humming. Abide with bloody me. It was beginning to drive Logan mad.

The teacher put up his hand. 'I'm sorry, Inspector. I think it's quite clear Bernard is not in any fit state to be interrogated.' He cast a sideways glance at the smelly man sitting next to him. 'His mental state is a matter of record. He needs help, not incarceration.'

Insch slammed his chair forward. 'And the kiddies lying dead in the morgue need to be safe and sound at home, not killed by a twisted weirdo!' He crossed his arms, straining the seams on his shirt, making himself look even bigger. 'I want to know where Peter Lumley is, and how many other little kiddies he's killed.'

'Inspector, I understand that you're only doing your job, but Bernard isn't in any fit state to answer questions. Look at him!'

They did. His hands were like wounded birds, flapping away on top of the table. His gaze was far and distant. He wasn't even in the same room as them.

Logan glanced at the clock on the wall. Seven-twenty. Past the time when Roadkill started asking for his medicine yesterday. 'Sir,' he said to Insch, 'can I have a word with you outside?'

They walked to the coffee machine, passing an array of interested faces. The word was all round the station, on the radio, and probably the evening news. The Aberdeen Child-killer was behind bars. Now all they had to do was get him to talk.

'What's on your mind, Sergeant?' asked Insch, punching in the number for white coffee, extra sugar.

'We're going to get nothing out of Roadkill tonight, sir. He's schizophrenic. He needs to take his medication. Even if we got a confession out of him it'd get ripped to shreds in court. Mentally ill suspect, denied medication, confesses after a three-hour interrogation? What would you do?'

Insch blew across the top of his plastic cup of coffee and sipped experimentally at the liquid. When he spoke at last it was with the voice of a very tired man. 'You're right of course.' He sat the coffee down on the nearest table and hunted through his pockets for something sweet. In the end Logan had to offer him one of his extra strong mints.

'Thanks. I've been thinking the same thing for the last hour. Just didn't want to let it go. Just in case.' He sighed. 'Just in case Peter Lumley's still alive somewhere.'

It was wishful thinking and they both knew it. Peter Lumley was dead. They just hadn't found his body yet.

'What about the crime scene?' asked Logan.

'What about it?'

'The dead girl we found might not be the only one in the pile.' The next bit was what had been causing him trouble since the farmhouse. 'And then there's David Reid. He was abandoned. The MO just doesn't fit. Roadkill's a collector. He wouldn't just leave the body lying out like that.'

'Maybe he likes them rotted before he hoards them.'

'If it is him, he cut the genitals off David Reid. They'll be at the farm somewhere.'

Insch screwed up his face. 'Shite. We're going to have to go through every last carcase he's got out there looking for it. Talk about your proverbial needle in a haystack.' He mashed his features with a pair of tired hands. 'Right.' He took a deep breath and straightened his back. The authority had returned to his voice. 'We're going to have to do this the hard way. If we can't get a confession out of Philips we'll tie him to the bodies. The little girl we found at his home; no problem there. And there must be something linking him to David Reid and Peter Lumley. I want you to get a dozen uniform question everyone where the children were last seen. Get me a witness. We're not letting the bastard get away again.'

*

That night Logan's dreams were full of rotting children. They ran through the flat, wanting to play. One sat on the living room floor, little chunks of skin falling onto the polished floorboards, bashing away at a xylophone Logan had been given for his fourth birthday. Clank and clink and boing, a cacophony that was more like a phone ringing than music.

And that's when he woke up.

Logan staggered through to the lounge and grabbed the ringing phone from its cradle. 'What?' he demanded.

'An' a merry Christmas to you too.' Colin Miller.

'Oh God…' Logan tried to rub some life into his face. 'It's half-six! What is it with you and mornings?'

'You found another body.'

Logan shuffled to the window and looked for Miller's expensive automobile in the darkened street. There was no sign of it. At least that meant he was to be spared a visit from the cheerful fairy this morning.

'And?'

There was a pause on the other end of the phone. 'And you arrested Bernard Philips. Roadkill.'

Stunned, Logan let the curtain fall back. 'How the hell did you know that?' There was nothing in the press pack to identify who'd been arrested, just the normal: 'a suspect has been taken into custody and a report sent to the Procurator Fiscal'.

'You know how: it's ma job. Poor wee thing, rottin' away in that pile of crap…I want the inside track, Laz. I've still got stuff on Geordie Stephenson you don't know. Everybody wins.'

Logan couldn't believe his ears. 'You've got a bloody cheek after what you did to DI Insch yesterday!'

'Laz, that's just business. He screwed you over and I took him down a couple of pegs. Did I write one bad word about you? Did I?'

'That's not the point.'

'Ah, loyalty. Like it. Good quality in an officer of the law.'

'You made him look like an idiot.'

'Tell you what: I lay off the pantomime dame and you and me has a chat over breakfast?'

'I can't do that. I need to get Insch to clear anything I say, OK?'

There was another pause.

'You gotta be careful what you do with your loyalty, Laz. Sometimes it can do you more harm than good.'

'What? What the hell is that supposed to mean?'

'Take a look at the morning's paper, Laz. See whether or not you need a friend in the press.'

Logan settled the phone back in its cradle and stood in the darkness of the lounge, shivering. There was no way he could just go back to bed now. Not until he knew what Miller had done. What the morning paper contained.

Half past six. His own copy wouldn't be delivered for another hour and a bit. So he dressed quickly and slid his way through the ankle-deep snow up to the Castlegate and the nearest newsagent.

It was a small shop, the kind that tried anything once. The walls were festooned with shelves: books, pots, pans, light bulbs, tins of kidney beans…Logan found what he was looking for on the floor by the counter – a thick bundle of fresh papers, still wrapped in protective plastic to keep the snow from soaking into the newsprint.

The proprietor, a stocky man with three fingers missing on his left hand, a greying beard and a gold tooth grunted a good morning as he slit the plastic open. 'Jeezuz,' he said, picking a paper off the top of the pile, holding it up so Logan could see the front page. 'They had the bastard an' they let him go! Can you fuckin' believe that?'

There were four photographs, slap bang in the middle of the page: David Reid, Peter Lumley, DI Insch and Bernard Duncan Philips. Roadkill was out of focus, bent over a shovel full of squashed rabbit, his wheelie-bin sitting next to him on the road. The two boys smiled out from school photographs. Insch was in full panto get-up.

Above the lot the headline screamed 'HOUSE OF HORROR: DEAD GIRL FOUND IN PILE OF ROTTING ANIMALS!' and underneath that 'Killer Released From Police Custody Only Hours Earlier'. Colin Miller strikes again.

'Buncha fuckin' clowns: that's what they are. Tell you: five minutes alone with this sick bastard. That'll do me. Got fuckin' grandchildren that age.'

Logan paid for his paper and left without saying a word.

It had started to snow again. Thick white flakes drifted down from the dark sky, the clouds lit dark-orange, reflecting back the streetlights. All the way up Union Street the twelve days of Christmas glittered and sparkled, but Logan didn't see any of it. He stood outside the newsagent, reading by the light of the shop window.

There was an in-depth exposeof Roadkill's life – the schizophrenia, the two-year stay in Cornhill, the dead mother, the collection of dead bodies. Miller had even managed to get hold of some of the crowd that attacked Roadkill outside the primary school gates. The quotes were full of bravado and righteous indignation. The police had treated them like criminals for attacking that sicko, when all the time there was a dead girl lying in that pile of filth!

Logan winced as he read how the police had Roadkill in custody, but DI Insch, recently seen strutting about on stage while children were being abducted, murdered and violated, had ordered his release. Against the advice of local police hero DS Logan 'Lazarus' McRae.

Logan groaned. Bloody Colin Miller! Probably thought he was doing him a favour, making him look like the voice of reason, but Insch would blow a gasket. It would look as if Logan had gone to the Press and Journal with the story. As if he was stabbing the inspector in the back. Peter Lumley's stepfather was waiting for him when he pushed through the front doors to Force Headquarters. The man looked as if he hadn't slept for a month and his breath would have made wallpaper curdle: stale beer and whisky. He'd seen the papers. He knew they'd arrested someone.

Logan took him into an interview room and listened as he'd ranted and raved. Roadkill knew where his son was. The police had to make him talk! If they couldn't, he would! They had to find Peter!

Slowly Logan calmed him down, explained that the man they had in custody might not have anything to do with Peter going missing. That the police were doing everything they could to find his son. That he should go home and get some sleep. In the end it was fatigue that made him consent to a lift home in a patrol car.

By the time the working day had begun Logan was feeling terrible. There was a knot in his stomach, and not just the scar tissue. Half past eight and there was still no sign of Insch. There was a shit-storm brewing and Logan was going to be right in the middle of it.

The morning briefing came and went, Logan handing out the assignments, getting the teams together. One lot to go question every householder within a mile of the children's last known position, both pre-and post mortem. Had they seen this man – Roadkill – hanging around? Another lot to go through the records for anything and everything relating to Bernard Duncan Philips. And last, by far the largest team, would get the nastiest job of all: digging through a ton of rotting animal corpses, looking for a severed penis. This wasn't a job for the council's sanitation department any more. This was a murder enquiry.

No one asked where DI Insch was, or said a single word about the front page spread in this morning's P amp;J. But Logan knew they'd all read it. There was an undercurrent of hostility in the room. They'd jumped to the conclusion Logan knew they would: that he'd gone to the press and screwed over Insch.

WPC Watson wouldn't even meet his eyes.

When the briefing was over and everyone had shuffled out, Logan tracked down DI Steel. She was sitting in her office, feet up on the desk, smoking a fag and drinking coffee, a copy of the morning paper spread over the clutter on her desk. She looked up as Logan knocked and entered, saluting him with her mug.

'Morning, Lazarus,' she said. 'You looking for your next victim?'

'I didn't do it! I know what it looks like, but I didn't do it!'

'Aye, aye. Shut the door and park your arse.' She pointed at the rickety chair on the other side of her desk.

Logan did as he was told, politely refusing the offer of a cigarette.

'If you did go to the press with this,' she poked the paper, 'you're either so fucking stupid you can't breathe unsupervised, or you've got some serious political ambitions. You ambitious, Mr Local Police Hero?'

'What?'

'I know you're not stupid, Lazarus,' she said, waving her fag in the air. 'Speaking to the press would always come back and bite you on the arse. But this could kill DI Insch's career. With him out the way, and the press on your side, you're a shoe-in for his job. The rank and file will hate you, but if you can live with that, you keep going up the tree. Next stop Chief Inspector.' She even gave him a salute.

'I swear I didn't speak to anyone! I wanted to let Roadkill go too; there was no evidence against him. I even gave him a lift home!'

'So how come this reporter's polishing your arse with one hand and spanking Insch with the other?'

'I…I don't know.' Liar. 'He thinks we're friends. I've only spoken to him half a dozen times. And DI Insch cleared every word.' Big fat liar. 'I don't think he likes the inspector.' At least that bit was true.

'I can relate to that. Lots of people don't like Inschy. Me? I like him. He's big. You see an arse like that: you've got something to sink your teeth into.'

Logan tried not to form a mental picture.

DI Steel took a deep drag on her cigarette, letting the smoke hiss out through a happy smile. 'You spoken to him yet?'

'What, DI Insch?' Logan hung his head. 'No. Not yet.'

'Hmm…Well he was in early. I saw his four-wheel-drive girl-mobile in the car park this morning. Probably hatching a plot with the upper brass: getting you transferred to the Gorbals.' She sat and smiled and for the life of him Logan couldn't tell if she was joking.

'I was hoping that maybe you could speak to him-'

The smile turned into a laugh.

'Want me to ask him if he fancies you?'

Logan could feel the colour running up his neck to his cheeks. He knew what DI Steel was like. Had he actually come in here expecting her to be sympathetic and supportive? Maybe he really was too stupid to breathe unsupervised. 'I'm sorry,' he said, picking himself out of his seat. 'I should get back to work.'

She stopped him only when the door was swinging closed. 'He's going to be fucking pissed off. Maybe not at you, maybe at this Miller bloke, but he's going to be pissed off. Be prepared to be shouted at. And if he won't listen to you, maybe have to think omelettes and eggs. Just because you didn't start this doesn't mean you can't play it out.'

Logan stopped. 'Play it out?'

'Ambition, Mr Hero. Like it or not you could still end up sitting in his seat. You don't have to like the way it came about, but you might make DI because of this.' She lit another cigarette from the smouldering remains of the last one, before flipping the dogend into her coffee. It gave a short hiss as she winked at him. 'Think about it.'

Logan did. All the way down to his mini incident room. The WPC was back on the phone, taking names and statements. With Roadkill's arrest all over the papers and the television news, everyone and their maiden aunt was coming forward with information. Murdered kiddie, officer? No problem: I saw her getting into a Corporation dustcart. Bold as brass with this bloke from the papers…

The health authorities had started responding to his request for information on little girls with TB in the last four years as well. The list of possibles was small, but it would get bigger as the day wore on.

Logan scanned the names, most of which had already been scored out by his WPC. They weren't interested in any child that wouldn't be between three and a half and five by now. They'd know who she was by the end of the day.

He was expecting the call, but it still made his innards clench: report to the superintendent's office. Time to get his arse chewed out for something he didn't do. Other than lie to Colin Miller. And DI Insch.

'I'm just going out for a walk,' he told the WPC on the phones. 'I may be some time.'

The super's office was like a furnace. Logan stood to attention in front of the wide oak desk with both hands clasped behind his back. DI Insch was sitting in a mock-leather, mock-comfortable visitor's chair. He didn't look at Logan as he entered and took up his position. But Inspector Napier, from Professional Standards, stared at him as if he was a science experiment gone wrong.

Behind the desk sat a serious-looking man with a bullet head and not a lot of hair. He was wearing his dress uniform. All buttoned up. Not a good sign.

'Sergeant McRae.' The voice was larger than the man, filling the room with portent. 'You know why you're here.' It wasn't a question; there was a copy of that morning's Press and Journal on the desk. Neatly lined up with the blotter and the keyboard.

'Yes, sir.'

'Do you have anything to say?'

They were going to fire him. Six days back on the job and they were going to throw him out on his scarred backside. He should have kept his head down and stayed off on the sick. Goodbye pension. 'Yes, sir. I want it known that DI Insch has always had my complete support. I didn't give this story to Colin Miller and I didn't tell anyone that I disagreed with DI Insch's decision to release Road…Mr Philips. Because it was the right decision, at the time.'

The superintendent settled back in his chair, fingers steepled in front of his round face. 'You have been speaking to Miller though, haven't you, Sergeant?'

'Yes, sir. He called me at half-six this morning wanting details of Mr Philips's arrest.'

DI Insch scrunched in his seat. 'How the hell did he know we'd arrested Roadkill? It wasn't public bloody knowledge! I'll tell you this-'

The superintendent held up his hand and Insch fell silent. 'When I challenged him he said it was his job to know,' said Logan, falling into policeman-giving-evidence mode. 'This isn't the first time he's had knowledge he shouldn't have. He knew when we found David Reid's body. He knew the killer had mutilated and violated the corpse. He knew the girl's body we found was decomposed. He has someone on the inside.'

On the other side of the desk an eyebrow was raised, but not a word was spoken. The DI-Insch-patented-interview-technique. Only Logan wasn't in any mood to play.

'And it's not me! There's no way I would tell a reporter I disagreed with my superior's decision to release a suspect! Miller wants a friend in here and he thinks he can get that if he "helps" me. This is all about selling papers!'

The superintendent let the silence stretch.

'If you want my resignation, sir-'

'This isn't a disciplinary hearing, Sergeant. If it was you'd have a federation representative with you.' He paused and glanced at Insch and Napier before turning back to Logan. 'You can wait in the reception area outside while we discuss this matter further. We'll call you back when we have reached our decision.'

Someone had poured freezing-cold concrete into Logan's innards. 'Yes, sir.' He marched out of the room, shoulders back, head up, and closed the door behind him. They were going to fire him. That or transfer him out of Aberdeen. Find some crappy backwater in Teuchter-land and make him serve out his days pounding the beat, or worse: school-liaison work.

Finally he was summoned back into the room by the hook-nosed, ginger-haired inspector from Professional Standards. Logan stood to attention in front of the super's desk and waited for the axe to fall.

'Sergeant,' said the superintendent, picking up the newspaper off his desk, folding it in half and dropping it neatly into the bin. 'You will be pleased to hear that we believe you.'

Logan couldn't help noticing the sour expression on Inspector Napier's face. Not everyone appeared to agree with the verdict.

The superintendent settled back in his seat and examined Logan. 'DI Insch tells me you're a good officer. And so does DI Steel. Not someone who would go to the media with this kind of thing. I have respect for my senior officers. If they tell me you're not a…' He paused and offered a practised smile. 'If they tell me you wouldn't go to the papers without authorization, I'm prepared to believe them. However…'

Logan straightened his back and waited for a transfer out to the sticks.

'However, we can't let something like this go unanswered. I can tell the world we're standing behind DI Insch one hundred percent. Which we are. But that's not going to make this all go away. These stories: the pantomime, releasing Philips less than a day before a dead girl is discovered at his home…' He raised a hand before DI Insch could do more than open his mouth. 'I am not, personally, of the opinion that the inspector has done anything wrong. But these stories are highly damaging to the Force's reputation. Every second edition in the country has got some rehashed version of Miller's story. The Sun, Daily Mail, Mirror, Independent, Guardian, Scotsman: hell, even The Times! Telling the world that Grampian Police are incompetent idiots.' He shifted uncomfortably in his chair and straightened out his uniform. 'Lothian and Borders have been on the phone to the Chief Constable again. They say they have resources experienced in this kind of investigation. That they would welcome the opportunity to "assist" us.' He scowled. 'We have to be seen to be doing something. The public are baying for blood; but I am not prepared to give them DI Insch.' He took a deep breath. 'There is one other approach we can take. And that's to engage this Colin Miller. He seems to have developed a rapport with you, Sergeant. I want you to speak to him. Get him back on board.'

Logan risked a look at DI Insch. His face was like thunder. Napier looked as if his head was about to explode.

'Sir?'

'If this trouble with the press continues, if the bad publicity keeps coming, we will have no alternative: DI Insch will be suspended on full pay, pending an examination of his conduct. We will be forced to hand the child murder investigations over to Lothian and Borders Police.'

'But…but, sir: that's not right!' Logan's eyes darted between the superintendent and the inspector. 'DI Insch is the best person for this job! This isn't his fault!'

The man behind the desk nodded his head and smiled at DI Insch. 'You were right. Loyalty. Let's make sure it doesn't come to that then, Sergeant. I want this leak found. Whoever's been feeding Miller information, I want it stopped.'

Insch growled. 'Oh don't you worry, sir. When I find the guilty party I will make sure they never speak to anyone ever again.'

Napier stiffened in his seat. 'Just make sure you stay within the rules, Inspector,' he said, clearly annoyed that Insch had usurped his responsibility for finding the mole. 'I want a formal disciplinary hearing and a dismissal from the force. No comeback. No shortcuts. Understood?'

Insch nodded, but his eyes were like coals in his angry pink face.

The superintendent smiled. 'Excellent. We can make this all go away. We just need a conviction. Philips is in custody. We know he's the killer. All we have to do is get forensic evidence and witnesses. You've got that in hand.' He stood up behind his desk.

'You'll see. Two weeks from now this will all be over and we'll be all back to normal. Everything will be fine.'

Wrong.