Hour Of Darkness

Twenty-Eight

‘What the hell are we doing here, Lottie?’ Dan Provan complained, as he watched the screen. ‘He’s not in fuckin’ Ireland. A cop wouldn’t run away to Ireland; he’d know it’s too well watched.’

‘This one would know that,’ his inspector agreed, ‘because he’s ex-Strathclyde, but they might not realise that in Edinburgh. The man Wilding’s coordinating this search, and he asked us to check the Troon CCTV. That’s what we’re doing. Anyway, the job’s nearly done; this is the last possible crossing he could have taken within the time frame.’

The little DS grunted, then fell silent as they viewed the lines of cars boarding the high-speed ferry, bound for the Northern Irish port of Cairnryan.

‘Nothing,’ he declared, as the recording ended. ‘You can tell your Edinburgh pal that he’s just wasted half a day of our time.’

‘I won’t be putting it that way,’ Lottie Mann said, ‘but whatever, it’s behind us now. Chances are he’s not in this part of the world at all.’

‘That’s not what the chief’s mysterious consultant psychologist thinks. . and the chief seems to have bought into the idea.’

‘That fact was not lost on me.’

‘So what’s our next port of call?’

‘Nowhere tonight, for I’ve got to get home for my wee Jakey. But tomorrow we should look as close to home as we can. For a start, we’ll talk to Human Resources, or we’ll get Sandra Bulloch to talk to them, and see if we can get a look at Mackenzie’s personnel file.’

‘Won’t they throw the usual data protection shite at us?’

‘They might try, but we’re on a potential murder inquiry and that should override any objections.’

‘Okay, but like ye’ said, that’s only for openers, and the chances are there’ll be nothing on it that takes us beyond where we’re at the now. I think we’ll need to dig a good bit deeper. While you’re waitin’ for that file, I’ll speak to somebody I know that might have worked with the Bandit. I know that most people thought he was a bampot, but this fella might be able to help. The Mackenzie I remember, ye’d no choice but to listen to the sod, so he might have let something useful slip sometime or other.’

‘Discretion, Dan,’ Lottie warned.

‘The guy I’ll talk to, that’s his middle name.’