Dead And Buried

Sixteen

‘Have we got that E-fit yet?’ asked Bandit Mackenzie, scowling irritably at Ray Wilding across the mobile crime-scene headquarters that had been parked in the lane behind Starr’s house.

‘Not yet, sir. Big Ming is not the easiest man to deal with: he lives on his own wee planet. I’m not sure we’re going to get anything meaningful. Maybe we should just put out a statement saying that we’re looking for a number of people, one of whom has a bad hand injury.’

‘We’ll do that, Sergeant, but I want that image to go with it. Not tomorrow, not the day after, but now, within the hour. Get on to the office and bloody tell them that, will you!’

‘Will do, sir.’ He made to pick up the phone, then stopped. ‘I’m still not happy, though, that we’re going about this the right way.’

‘Oh, yes? What would you do differently?’

‘I’d look into the victim a bit more deeply than we’re doing just now. The way things stand at the moment we know sod all about him, other than that he was a bookie, and now he’s dead. Whoever did that to him was very angry with him. Maybe your assumption is right, but maybe it wasn’t Frodo fucking Baggins and some mates, come back to take revenge.’

‘Who? Christ, you told me we didn’t have an ID on this bloke.’

‘That was a joke, sir. Lord of the Rings: remember the end?’ Mackenzie looked blank but angry. ‘Sorry, you don’t. Anyway, what if it wasn’t them? Shouldn’t we be trying to explore every line of enquiry we can find, and doesn’t that begin by trying to find out everything we can about Gary Starr’s life, business and private?’

‘Now you listen to me, Ray,’ the chief inspector hissed. ‘Gwennie Dell, my old sergeant through in Strathclyde, has put in for a move, and she could be on her way through here. I could have her in your chair on Monday just by asking. So don’t you try to tell me how to do my fucking job, okay!’

Wilding stood his ground, glaring back at him. ‘First of all, sir, you couldn’t do that. DS Dell is coming through here, but she’s been approved for a posting to the Drugs Squad, working with the new commander. That was one of the last pieces of business across my desk yesterday afternoon, when I was in the head of CID’s office. You may have got to work with her if you were still there, but not now. Second of all, I’m not trying to tell you how to do your job, I’m asking you to let me do mine the way I think it should be done.’

‘You are? Well, get fucking on with it, Ray.’ Mackenzie snatched up his coat from the back of his chair and headed for the door. ‘I’m off to rescue what I can of my Saturday night.’