Blind Eye

16

A woman with nervous hands and pink-rimmed eyes looked up from her desk and gave a little smile. 'Dr Goulding will see you now.'

Goulding's office was part of Aberdeen University's Psychology Department, a grotesque three-storey concrete and glass sandwich stuck onto the equally unattractive Arts Lecture Theatre. A pair of Seventies-style ugly sisters playing against the fifteenth-century grandeur of King's College.

The room wasn't huge, and wasn't designed for comfort either. Clean lines and chrome-plated furniture dominated: a black leather chair and a matching couch; a glass-topped desk covered in piles of paper and Post-it notes. One wall was solid books, the others peppered with framed diplomas and newspaper clippings.

Dr Goulding was behind the desk, poking away at a computer keyboard and peering at a pair of flat-screen monitors. He didn't look up as Logan entered, just said, 'If you'd like to take a seat I'll be with you in a minute…' in a flat Liverpudlian accent.

Logan squeaked down on the couch and looked out of the small, high window, getting a view of yet another ugly concrete building.

Eventually the psychologist stopped what he was doing and stood. 'Sorry about that.' He stuck out his hand, 'Doctor Dave Goulding.' He had a nose like a can opener, and short, dark, animal-pelt hair.

Logan took the hand and shook it, trying not to stare at the lurid green tie with two huge red dice embroidered on it. 'I know, we met last year? On the Flesher case?'

'We did?' Frown. 'Ah of course, I remember you: Sergeant McRae. The poor chap who had to eat human flesh. Well, we all might have eaten it I suppose, difficult to tell, isn't it? But at least we can pretend we didn't — you know you did.' He let go of Logan's hand. 'How did it taste?'

'It… I…' Cough. 'DCI Finnie wants me to talk to you about the men we saw when Simon McLeod was blinded.'

'Are you seeing anyone?'

Logan moved a little further away. 'Sorry? I mean, I'm flattered, but-'

'I don't mean romantically, I mean therapy.' Goulding settled into the couch's matching black leather chair, crossed his legs and folded his hands over his middle-aged paunch. 'It can't be easy coming to terms with what you went through last year. All that death and blood.'

'Erm… Look, I appreciate the-'

'Do you suffer from insomnia? Interrupted sleep? Night mares? Maybe a bit depressed?'

'Well-'

'It's "Logan", isn't it?'

'Yes, but-'

'I can help you, Logan. I want to help you. It's not healthy to keep this kind of thing bottled up inside.'

'Look, Dr Goulding-'

The psychologist smiled. 'Please, call me Dave.'

'I just want to go over the Oedipus attack, OK? I don't need my head shrunk. I'm fine.'

The psychologist sat and stared at him, expression completely blank. 'How's your relationship with your mother?'

'DI Steel and I were attacked by two men, one of them had an Eastern European accent.'

'Yes…' Goulding played with the lumpy little mole on his cheek. 'I'm a little uncomfortable about that.' He stood and crossed the room to a large whiteboard covered in black scribbled notes, all linked by a dense web of coloured lines. It was flanked by a pair of corkboards, full of Post-its, printouts, and articles clipped from the newspapers. He unpinned one of the sheets of A4, frowned at it for a moment, then handed it to Logan.

It was a photocopy of an early Oedipus note, the writer banging on about how the Polish incomers were stealing God.

'You see,' said Goulding, 'these messages definitely aren't a joint project, they're one man's very personal obsession. Full of rage. The blindings are too. It's possible the eyes are gouged out by two people working together, but when he burns the sockets it's…' Goulding waved a hand about, 'excessive. It's not necessary — they're already blind. It means something to him.'

'Maybe it's a warning?'

'Perhaps. Would you say you feel tired: all the time, often, sometimes, rarely, or almost never?'

'What? Erm, often, it's the shift work. Anyway, we know couples do horrible stuff all the time: Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, Rose and Fred West… Richard and Judy.'

'Not really the same thing, is it? Do you ever keep yourself awake at night, going over things that happen in your life?'

'Can we just stick to the Oedipus case?'

'Looking at the notes and the previous victims, the pattern's clear: we're looking for a single male, probably works in construction, or hotel services, that kind of thing. Mid twenties. Recently unemployed.'

'Yes, but-'

'He blames the turn his life's taken on the Polish workforce coming over and stealing his job. He's likely to have a very harsh super-ego: he's externalizing his own guilt and projecting it onto the people he blinds. His actions are an attempt to redeem himself in the eyes of an absent father figure. Possibly deceased.'

'That's lovely, but it doesn't help us, does it? There were definitely two of them: I saw them. We have a witness.'

'Ah yes… your paedophile.' Goulding crossed his arms and leant back against the cork board. 'Your colleagues would never need to know, if that's what you're worried about? I really think therapy could help you.'

Logan shifted forward in his seat. 'What if Simon McLeod wasn't anything to do with Oedipus? He's not Polish — he's a mid-level gangster. What if it was someone using the attacks as a cover? Someone getting their own back and blaming it on the nut-job in the papers?'

'Ah yes, that well known psychological term: "nut-job".'

'You know what I mean.'

'It would explain why Simon McLeod doesn't fit my victim profile.' Goulding turned and faced the scribble-covered white-board. 'And if we take him out of the picture, it means we're still looking for that white male, early to mid twenties, who lost his father. Probably still lives at home with his mother. But she's emotionally distant…'

The psychologist ran his fingers across the board, just above the surface, as if feeling his web for vibrations. A Liverpudlian spider in a nasty tie, waiting for its prey to reveal itself. 'He's a local lad, we know that from the disposal of the victims — each of them left in an unoccupied building. All in Torry… Did you know there are so many Polish people living in Torry now they're calling it Little Warsaw?'

Goulding traced a line of red boxes, each one detailing a different address. 'Our man knows the territory. He knows where to take them so he won't be disturbed while he carves out their eyes. All that "They're stealing God" stuff means he's very religious, or at least he believes he is…' There was a long pause. 'Fascinating.'

The psychologist stepped back from the board and smiled at Logan. 'Tea, coffee? Might even have some biscuits. Then we can have a chat about you coming to see me on a regular basis.' 'Liver failure.' Doc Fraser was standing in his office, wearing nothing but his vest and pants, skin so white it was almost fluorescent. He looked like a threadbare sock puppet. There wasn't any hair on top of his head, but he more than made up for that with the tufts growing out of his ears. 'Our friend Mr Frankowski drank and drank and drank and drank and died. Stomach contents reeked of whisky. Have to wait for the tox screen to come back, but I'll bet you a fiver his blood's about eighty percent proof. And he'd ingested a serious amount of painkillers and antidepressants.'

Logan stuck the kettle on. 'Suicide?'

'Maybe. Or an accident. Difficult to tell.' The pathologist paused for a good scratch. 'Can't say I'd blame him either way, after what happened to his eyes…'

The kettle rumbled to a boil, and Logan made the tea while Doc Fraser climbed back into his usual corduroy and cardigan ensemble.

'Anything else?'

The pathologist checked his notes. 'Some bruising to the chest, knees, back and shins — not surprising if he's stumbling about blind for the first time in his life. Found a small tumour in his left lung… And you'll be disappointed to hear I couldn't get anything on how his eyes were removed. Like I said, I really need to see a fresh victim.'

Logan handed over the pathologist's tea. 'Soon as he kills one, you'll be the first to know. Otherwise they're all going to the hospital, not the mortuary.' Doc Fraser sniffed. 'Shame… Still, hope springs eternal, eh?' It was a cheery thought. Rush hour was in full swing — the Esplanade nose-to-tail with cars trying to avoid King Street on their way to the Bridge of Don. Logan pulled the pool car up to the kerb, behind DI Steel's little open-topped sports car. Then sat there, looking out on a glorious June evening.

Aberdeen beach glowed beneath the summer sun, the North Sea sparkling with reflected highlights. Down on the sand, a couple meandered along behind a lumbering black Labrador; an old man and a young boy fought with a bright-red kite; a family played in the sand — two little girls shrieking to the water's edge and back again.

The beach was a good twenty foot lower than the road, down a steep grass embankment, across a wide tarmac path, and down another embankment made of big sloping concrete blocks. DI Steel was easy enough to spot. She'd commandeered a bench two hundred yards along the path, and sat there wobbling a bit, swigging from a bottle of eighteen-year-old Macallan.

Logan picked his way down the grass and sat next to her. 'Finnie's looking for you. He's throwing a strop about some progress report.'

She turned and squinted at him. 'Lazar… Laza… Logan! How's my favourite…' she paused for a hiccup. 'Lovely day, eh?' Swinging an unsteady arm around at the scenery. 'Sposed to rain later. How crap is tha… is that?'

Logan picked up the bottle of whisky and gave it a little shake, just over a third left. 'You feeling OK?'

'I'm a bit… a bit drunked.' An ominous gurgling sound came from her stomach. 'Uh-ho… Don'… don' tell anyone, OK?'

'Are you going to be sick?'

'Car keys, car keys…' Steel went rummaging through her handbag, scattering the contents all over the bench. She squinted at the collection of receipts, combs, breath mints, lipstick, Airwave handset, loose change, nicotine gum, and fluff, then picked the keys out of the junk and handed them over. 'Friends don' let… don' let friends drive drunked.'

She hiccupped again. 'Is… how you find me?'

'Your Airwave handset. I got the control room to check the GPS on it.'

'Pfffffffffffffff… Can't even… even disssspear no more. No' like old days… You wanna chip?' The inspector looked around her, frowned, then pointed at three fat seagulls squabbling over a discarded paper bag from Burger King. 'Oh… Have to fight for them.'

'You're absolutely blootered, aren't you?'

'I like seagulls. Everyone… everyone hates them. But they're only… only…' another hiccup, 'you know? What they're supposed to be.' She threw her arms wide, accidentally belting Logan in the chest. 'I am a seagull! SQUAAAAAAAAAAK!'

The three real ones paused in their squabble over the thin ribbons of deep-fried potato and glared at her with beady yellow eyes.

'SQUEEEEAAAAAK!' She took another swig of whisky, swallowed, and shuddered. 'You wan' some?'

'Why don't I take you home?'

She giggled and hit him again. 'No, you… I'm lesbian… but… but if I wasn't… eh?' Hiccup. 'Did I tell you I was a seagull?'

'You might have mentioned it.' He stuck out his hand. 'Come on, Susan will be worried.'

When the tears came, they appeared from nowhere, great hacking sobs accompanied by twin shiny streams from her nose.

Logan took the whisky and popped the cork back in, then hauled the inspector to her feet. He helped her stagger back up the embankment and over to the pool car, safe in the knowledge that she was probably going to be sick in it.

The radio blared into life as he manhandled her into the back: Control calling with an update on some fire in Sandilands. Fire engines in attendance, two unit cars, suspicious circumstances. It wasn't until they mentioned the address that Logan started to pay attention.

Someone had petrol-bombed the Turf 'n Track.

'Bloody hell.' He jumped in behind the wheel. 'Inspector?'

No reply.

He looked in the rear-view mirror. She was fast asleep, head lolling to one side, with the bottle of Macallan clutched to her breast like a little glass baby full of whisky.

Logan pointed the car in the direction of Sandilands, switched the siren on, and put his foot down. The Tuesday afternoon rush hour parted before them like sluggish custard. The Turf 'n Track was surrounded by fluorescent orange and yellow fire engines, spraying thousands of gallons into the dying blaze. A thick pall of black smoke curdled its way into the bright blue sky, stinking of burning plastic and years of cigarette tar. The shops on either side had been evacuated, the patrons and owners loitering behind the police cordon, watching the betting shop burn.

An ambulance sat half on the pavement and half on the road, its blue lights spinning lazily as the paramedics fussed over someone in the back.

Logan abandoned the pool car as close as he could to the scene, checking that DI Steel wasn't going anywhere before locking her in. The rumble of diesel motors was almost deafening as he picked his way through the rivers and puddles covering the car park, past the fire engines, and over to the ambulance, where two uniformed officers were trying to take statements from the coughing witnesses.

Logan beckoned a PC over. 'What's the situation?'

The officer pointed at an old man in a soot-stained cardigan and flat cap. 'They're a bunch of lying bastards. The guys from the newsagents next door say they saw a man wearing a balaclava chuck a petrol bomb in through the front door. But the people in the bookies say that's rubbish. It was a faulty radiator.'

'Yeah?' Logan turned to give the betting shop's clientele another look. Two old men, and a filthy West Highland Terrier in a bright-pink raincoat with little yellow daises on it. 'Who was running the shop — Mrs McLeod, or Creepy Colin?'

'The bidie-in, Hilary Brander.' The officer pointed again at the ambulance and a dishevelled figure sucking on an oxygen mask.

Up close she reeked of smoke, her clothes, face and hair blackened with a thin layer of burnt betting shop. Green eyes ringed with red.

Logan leant against the side of the ambulance. 'So… faulty radiator?'

Hilary didn't even look up. 'I already gave a statement.'

'What happened to Colin and Mrs McLeod?'

'Agnes is looking after the kids. I…' She coughed, wrinkled her nose, then spat something black into a handkerchief. 'What do you want?'

'I want to know who firebombed the shop.'

'I already told them: it was a faulty radiator.' Her Essex accent was getting stronger as she raised her voice. 'Don't you people ever listen?'

Logan turned to look back at the Turf 'n Track's smouldering remains. The blaze seemed to have finally died; the firemen were rolling their hoses up and hefting them back to the engines. 'You know what I think? I think someone's fed up with Colin running around hammering the hell out of people's knees.'

'You should be out there catching whoever blinded my Simon, not harassing his family.'

'I'm not harassing anyone, I'm trying to make sure no one else gets hurt!'

The ridiculous little Westie in the plastic Mac skittered up and started barking at him. Hilary scooped the thing up, called it 'Mummy's little angel', and held it tight. 'Did the nasty man frighten you?'

A big bloke in the standard padded, baggy brown fire fighter's uniform stepped out of the bookies' front door, carrying something in his gloved hands. One of the uniformed constables pointed him in Logan's direction.

'You in charge?' asked the fireman.

'Depends.'

He held out his hand, revealing the neck and top half of a glass bottle. 'Smell that. Found it just inside the shop.'

Logan did as he was told. The familiar sweet-acrid aroma of petrol. He turned to Hilary and the snarling dog. 'Still say it was a faulty radiator?'

'You calling me a liar?'

'Yes. We've got witnesses, we've got evidence, and with a bit of luck, we'll have fingerprints too. So why not give me a break and tell me what happened?'

She told him to go to hell instead.