Skinner's festival

55

Skinner was passing Shawhead, on the drive back to Edinburgh, when Brian Mackie's call came through.

'Boss, this is incredible. I thought you'd want to know right away. The lab boys ran a quick test on a sample of Macdairmid's heroin. Their report's just arrived. That stuff is lethal. First of all it's so pure that your average addict would off himself with just one fix. And, as if that wasn't enough, there's something else in there too. They haven't isolated it yet, but it seems to act as a catalyst to turn the heroin into pure poison. That's what Macdairmid was going to spread all over Glasgow.'

'Holy Christ, Brian! Look, don't let anyone say anything about it to our man. I want to break that piece of news myself.

'What about his sister? She saying anything since her arrest?'

'She can't stop crying. She says she knows nothing about anything – but how many times have we heard that before? She swears she hadn't a clue about the heroin. She says she thought she was picking up hot cash from Libya to fund some left-wing newspaper, and that the briefcase she brought with her was just a dummy for a swop, weighted down to make it look authentic.'

'What about the messenger?'

'He definitely isn't saying anything. He tried to pull a gun on Captain Arrow. The wee man hit him so hard he smashed his voicebox. He'd have died if Sarah hadn't been with the emergency team outside. She did an emergency tracheotomy. She kept him alive, but she reckons he might never speak again. He's in intensive care.'

'OK, Brian, thanks. Be back soon.'

Next, from the car, he called Six, then Joe Doherty, who for once had been spending a weekend at home. When he broke the news, it was the first time that Skinner had ever heard Doherty rattled.

'Christ, Bob! You really mean that? Giminez is running poisoned smack? I gotta feed that back to the Bureau and the DBA. Suppose he's doing that in the States as well. You any idea how many people you could kill with a case full of poison?'

'As many as there are needles to go round, my friend. Good luck.'