Screen Savers

Chapter 38

Any visitor to Glasgow who wants to judge the priority given to police-community relations on the public policy agenda need only look at the headquarters of the Strathclyde force. The red-brick monstrosity in Pitt Street isn’t just the ugliest building in the city, it’s the most forbidding.

I’d have felt mildly uncomfortable stepping through its dark doorway under any circumstances, but after my experience in Perth the day before, it took an effort of will to step up to the desk and ask for Detective Inspector Dylan. Mike seemed to realise this right away, as soon as he met me there. It was as if he was trying to cheer me up; he was beaming and whistling. . very badly, as usual. . an old tune from South Pacific.

He walked me, not to his office, but to the canteen. I was pleased to see that we were the only people there. ‘What’s up, Oz?’ he asked, as he brought two coffees and two rolls, stuffed with square, sliced Lorne sausage, across to our table. I’d told him when I called that it was his turn to lay on breakfast. ‘I thought this would be the last place you’d want to come today. I like the Horseshoe, too.’

‘It’s safer here,’ I told him. ‘Nobody’s going to lace the brown sauce with powdered glass.’

‘That’s true. I wouldn’t trust the probationers not to piss in the coffee urn, though. I’ll give you a tip. If you ever eat in a jail make sure it’s with the prisoners, not the staff.’

I treated him to the Blackstone scowl. Until recently it had been a rare sight; now I was afraid that I was becoming too good at it. ‘I’d have been eating in one today, if your Perth colleague Bell had had his way. Thanks, by the way, for your help in getting me out of that.’

‘No problem. I’m looking forward to your wedding, remember. I fancy a night at Gleneagles, on you.’ He paused. ‘Keep that to yourself, though, Oz. My boss would not be chuffed if he knew I used my SB position to lean on another force, especially since I was telling the guy porkies.’

‘My lips to God’s ear alone,’ I promised.

‘I sort of pity the poor bastard,’ Dylan murmured, with a half smile. ‘I’ll bet he thought he’d got a serial nutter on his hands. He sounded like the sort of polis who keeps the press cuttings on his investigations. If the case against you had held up he’d have filled a whole bloody jotter with them.’

‘I’m sorry I ruined his day,’ I answered. ‘But he didn’t do a hell of a lot for mine.’

‘I suppose not,’ Mike mumbled through a mouthful of peppery sausage. ‘What do you want to talk to me about, then? You were mysterious on the phone last night.’

While he ate, I filled him in on my conspiracy theory. By the time I had finished, so had he.

‘Are you trying to tell me that when Susie’s car blew up that was meant for you?’ he asked, wiping his mouth. ‘Do you think the wrong car was booby-trapped?’

‘No. This guy’s been watching me like a hawk. He knows what Prim and I drive. I’m saying he’s after my close friends and family, but always when they’re with me. I’m guessing that he may have been after making me suffer long-term, like being banged up for life.’

‘But why send those letters to Susie?’

It was my turn to attack the rolls, so he had to wait for an answer. ‘To start us off on a false trail?’ I suggested.

‘Think about it. Susie gets the letters, then you and she are cremated in her motor. Tragic, but no one links it to me. Then Noosh Turkel gets shot right alongside me up in Aberdeen. A big coincidence, sure, but it’s different forces who investigate, so they won’t make the connection.

‘Then my wee nephew’s shoved down a twelve-foot drop; potentially fatal, and I’m there. I report it, and I kick up hell’s delight with the police, so they remember my name.

‘Next day, someone poisons my future father-in-law and I’m the obvious and only suspect. And as soon as the first copper feeds my name into a computer, all that stuff pops out.

‘And, apart from the fatalities, that’s exactly what happened.’

It was Mike’s turn to watch me eat. When I had finished, it was his turn to quiz me. ‘Are you telling me that I’ve had a Special Branch operation, phone taps the lot, watching the wrong man?’

‘Yes, I suppose I am. Stephen Donn doesn’t know me from Adam, far less have a grudge against me.’

‘Jesus! So who do you reckon could hate you this much?’

‘What about Ricky Ross?’

Dylan gasped, audibly. ‘Ricky?’ His old boss in Edinburgh; disgraced and kicked off the force for reasons not unconnected with Prim and me. He seemed to do me the courtesy of thinking about it. ‘Ricky?’ he said again. ‘He hates your guts, that’s for sure, and he’s tough. If someone in a balaclava hauled you up close and kicked your head in, he’s just about the first guy I’d look for. But I worked for him; I know him, I think, reasonably well.

‘If he was really minded to, and he thought he could get away with it, he might just be capable of coming straight for you and killing you. But he wouldn’t touch anyone else. He wouldn’t kill me just to set you up, or your wee nephew, or anyone else.’

He frowned. ‘But there’s something you’ve missed, isn’t there?’

‘That’s right,’ I agreed. ‘London. That connects to me too, and I need to find out how.’

‘Maybe I can help you. Wait here.’ He stood and walked out of the canteen, leaving me alone for more than five minutes. When he came back he was carrying a folder.

‘Remember I said I was going to have someone check the hospitals in London? Well I did, and they came up with something. I wasn’t going to do anything about it, since I thought that incident was closed, but. . Do you see anyone in here you recognise?’

He handed me the folder. I opened it and a face looked out at me; it was the sort of portrait they take full face and profile, with a number hung round your neck. The last time I’d seen the subject he’d been in more than a bit of pain. There was another photograph below it; the man with the sore throat.

‘I see you recognise them. In that case. .’ He took a piece of paper, torn from a notebook, from his pocket, and handed it across to me. ‘Those are their names, and that’s the pub where they drink, and where they were probably paid by the man who sent them to do you.

‘They’re a couple of small-timers, with small-time form. They work as collectors for a loan shark, mainly.’ He looked at me. ‘Listen Oz, I can’t get involved any more than I have down there. You could always make a belated complaint to the local police, I suppose, but you’d need to be careful. You might have trouble explaining the guy’s broken arm.’

‘That’s all right,’ I assured him. ‘I know how I’m going to handle it.’

‘Be careful, then. These are rough people; you might not be so lucky next time.’

‘Don’t worry, luck won’t come into it.’ I picked up my coffee, but the mug was cold so I decided I didn’t fancy it any more. ‘What about the other incidents? When I tried to sell my theory to Bell, he thought I was daft.’

‘He would. You probably are. But I’ll grant you, the idea that different people would make unprovoked attacks on your nephew and Prim’s Dad within three days stretches credibility a bit. There are open investigations on these incidents as it is, and thanks to Bell — you have to give him credit for something — the CID in Fife and Tayside, and in Aberdeen for that matter, will be comparing notes from now on. That’s as much as the police can do. From your point of view, you’re right to keep to yourself as much as you can. I can put a discreet watch on you, just in case, and I will.’

Mike smiled. As I looked at him, it struck me that maybe he wasn’t quite as bad a detective as I’d always thought. ‘There’s one part of your theory I don’t buy, though,’ he said.

‘Stephen Donn. He did have a reason to threaten Susie, and he’s been behaving oddly, no mistake. Those photos didn’t vanish on their own.

‘He’s up to something, and the Amsterdam connection makes me think it might be drugs. That’s part of our remit now, so it gives me an excuse to keep looking for him.’

I shrugged my shoulders. ‘Just you do that, pal,’ I told him. ‘But I’ll be looking for someone else — starting in London.’