The coach bomber, p.11
The Coach Bomber, page 11
‘You, what are you doing?’ The man ahead of her turned and gave a quick look, his brown hair flopping out behind him. He made his way quickly down the rocks. Clarissa continued.
‘I said, you, what are you doing? Stop.’
The man stumbled on down across the loose rocks, and then stood looking at the body. As Clarissa got closer, she watched him bend down, pick the woman’s head up by the hair, and look straight into her face. Clarissa was only a few yards behind him now, and he suddenly hurdled the body and took off along the shoreline.
‘Hope,’ shouted Clarissa, ‘got a runner.’ The man continued to run hard along the shore. Clarissa found herself jumping from rock to rock. Her foot slipped, she felt a sharp pain, but she continued on, focusing on the man ahead. He doubled back heading up the slope and Clarissa fought hard working her way up. You didn’t get this sort of action in the art world. It was all about being a character to someone else.
The man cut back trying to break through the cordon. He threw a punch, putting one of the constables on his backside, but it slowed him. Clarissa was now right behind him, and flung herself forward, wrapping her arms just below his knees, forcing his legs together. The man toppled over and fell hard. She jumped on his back, pulling the arms behind him before applying her cuffs. Sweat was pouring off her, and she breathed deeply.
‘You just stay there, sunshine. You just stay there while I get a little bit of breath back.’ Clarissa shook her hair out behind here then looked up at the face of Macleod peering down.
‘I see you still have it. Well done, Sergeant. Very well done.’ He addressed the man. ‘Who are you, sunshine?’
The man refused to answer, keeping his face to the ground, so Clarissa hauled him to his feet so he was forced to look at Macleod.
‘The Inspector asked you a question. Who are you?’ The man kept his lips shut tight.
‘He’s one of Devine’s,’ said Macleod. ‘I reckon they heard. Sometimes this police force has got too many leakers. Do you know that, sergeant? Somebody out there is passing on when things happen. That’s why he’s here because they don’t know who it is. Somebody is missing, aren’t they? Were you looking for Maggie? Did Devine send you?’ The man remained silent.
‘Get him in the car,’ said Macleod. ‘Take him down the station. Good work, Sergeant. Very good work.’
Clarissa marched the man to the car brought by Hope and Macleod and placed him into the rear. There was no way she could take him in in her little sports car. She instructed a constable to stay with the car and watch the man, before she made her way back to Macleod. She was puffing heavily and felt the morning cold as a slight wind cut across her face.
‘You’re expecting me to get your coffee for that one, are you?’ asked Macleod.
Clarissa looked at him. ‘I’d like to see you do that. I think I’m in better shape than you are, Seoras.’
‘You may well be right.’ Macleod saw the raised eyebrow. ‘Anyway, it appears they’ve taken his trophy and killed her.’
‘Looks that way. Damn pity—gorgeous looking girl,’ said Clarissa.
‘Too good-looking to be involved with that sort of thing. Why do they do it?’ said Macleod. Clarissa shook her head. ‘No, really, why? A girl like that, she could have any husband she wanted, surely.’
‘We all make mistakes, Seoras.’
‘Well, we can’t afford to make too many here. Looks like you’re a prophet.’
‘A prophet?’ asked Clarissa.
‘You said the bomb looked like war. Well, it looks like it’s coming.’
Chapter 14
Macleod stood outside the interview room awaiting his sergeant. Part of him was annoyed she was running late, but in fairness, she’d just been in a rugby tackle with the man. Now that she was back at the station, she needed to freshen up. It was better Clarissa was ready for this interview than appear dishevelled and not with it. The murder investigation team was a different place from the other departments and Macleod had years of experience.
He always felt that he could put his game face on in an instant. With his newest recruit, albeit she had significant time within the force, he was prepared to cut a little slack. Clarissa appeared, having changed, and was now wearing a smart pair of black trousers, a red blouse, and a black jacket over the top. It was quite a change from what she normally wore. It struck Macleod that this could possibly be her courtroom appearance.
‘You okay?’ asked Macleod. ‘Ready for this?’
‘You don’t have to babysit me, Seoras. You’re right I’m ready for this. What sort of a guy goes and picks up the head of a young dead woman like that, just to try and clock who she is?’
Macleod had ascertained the man’s name from various records. Thomas Anderson was a lowlife within Devine’s group. Now Macleod intended to squeeze him as much as possible to find out what was really going on between the rival gangs.
Clarissa opened the door and ushered her boss through first, keen to make sure that the man inside knew who was calling the shots. Macleod didn’t wait for Clarissa, instead sitting down at the single table opposite the man on the other side. After he let Clarissa do the formalities while switching on the tape, Macleod sat back allowing her to take the opening lines.
‘Thomas Anderson, I found myself called out to the body of a woman underneath the Kessock Bridge and while there, you snuck up close, taking a look at her. Do you have a fetish for naked dead women?’ asked Clarissa. ‘Or, is there some other way you can explain your presence?’
The man looked sheepish. Macleod enjoyed the tactic that Clarissa was using. Depending on who was on the other side of the table, if he had any sort of decency inside him regarding women, to put a woman on the opposite side, challenging that decency usually unsettled him.
‘I was just there to make sure who it was.’
‘To make sure who it was?’ asked Clarissa. ‘Why did you think it was anyone that you would know? Why would you look at a police cordon, walk into it, and examine the dead woman? You could’ve come to us. Asked us. Maybe given us an idea of who it was you were searching for because clearly then you were searching for someone. People don’t pass by under the Kessock Bridge like that.’
The man’s eyes started to flit around the room. Clarissa continued, ‘So, tell me, why were you there? What had you out at that time of the morning? Just checking up on your handiwork?’
The man reared. Macleod almost laughed because anyone with an ounce of sense would query why anyone would check up on their handiwork after having killed someone.
‘I didn’t touch her. She’s a friend.’
‘What sort of friend? Clearly, somebody was doing friendly things with her. We can check you know. Check who’s been doing things. Things left behind. Semen. Body hair. If you were at her, if you abused her before she died, even if it wasn’t you who killed her, we’ll find you, you know that. Especially now you’ve been arrested for interfering with a crime scene. We have your DNA. We can check through.’
‘But I didn’t touch her. I’m on her side.’
‘What do you mean, “on her side?”’ asked Clarissa. ‘What side does she sit on?’
The man choked, realising he’d made a mistake. ‘I was just checking for someone. She’s not my girl.’
‘Whose girl is she?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘You don’t know. So, you know she’s on some side, but you’ve no idea whose girl she is. You were checking up for this person you don’t know.’
Macleod leaned forward. ‘We know you work for Devine. We know that’s Devine’s girl. All hell is about to break loose, and you need to start talking, sunshine, or I am throwing you under the bus.’
Macleod sat back, turned briefly to Clarissa, and gave a small nod.
‘As my Inspector says, you’re going under the bus with this one. I suspect your DNA is going to be on her. I reckon you know her a lot better than some people think.’
‘Maybe, but I didn’t do that sort of thing with her.’
‘What sort of thing?’ asked Clarissa.
‘You know, she’s not my girl. I’m not making love to her. I’m not taking her to bed. She’s not my plaything.’
‘So, whose plaything, is she?’ asked Clarissa. The man looked across at Macleod and back to Clarissa. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘She’s Devine’s girl. He has a wife, but it won’t be any news to her if you tell her. The wife and the kids, that’s for show. This is his playtime. If we’re honest, this is the one he actually loves.’
Macleod leaned forward. ‘So, why were you checking up on her? Why were you going looking? What’s happened?’ Again, Macleod sat back.
‘She went missing.’
‘From where and when?’ asked Clarissa.
‘She just went missing, okay? She’s meant to be in her flat. Devine calls. She’s not there. Well, he’s a suspicious thing. Thinks she might be cheating on him because he always thinks that. She never has. She’s never put one foot out of line. I think she actually did like him. He says to me, “Go check,” because I run her places. If she’s meeting him, I bring her. I make sure the Mrs isn’t about, or wherever else he’s going to, and I get her there. So, he says to me, “Go find out,” because he trusts me with her.’
‘What did you find?’
‘I went to her flat in town. It’s one of the posh ones towards the centre of town, up the top floor of this suite of flats. Knocked the door. Nothing. Well, Devine has given me a key because if she isn’t doing things, isn’t behaving, I’m allowed to go in, check nothing’s wrong.
‘So, you’re what, a keeper? A guard?’
‘Just a friendly person watching out for her.’
‘Well, you didn’t watch that well, did you?’ said Macleod. ‘I can’t imagine Devine’s going to be impressed with you.’
The Inspector knew he’d hit the nail on the head as he watched the man begin to shake.
‘You don’t have to go out again,’ said Clarissa. ‘We can put you away somewhere, work a bit with you, helps us with our inquiries. You’ll get charged with interfering with a crime scene and nothing else. We can get that commuted down, do something with that and you disappear, because as you say, he’s not going to be happy with you.’
‘Were you meant to be watching her? asked Macleod, slightly suspicious.
‘Yes. He’s been edgy,’ said Thomas Anderson, ‘very edgy since that bomb went off.’
‘Eamon was one of his boys, wasn’t he?’ asked Clarissa.
‘Wasn’t just one of his boys, but on the way up. Look, you can get me on the move, can’t you?’
‘I can get this tampering with a crime scene put to one side,’ said Macleod, ‘then you’re on your own. You understand that? On your own, but that’s only if I’m happy that you’ve told me everything and I want to let you leave. At the moment, you’re telling me stuff that I know.’ Macleod sat back again.
‘The thing was with McGinty, he was on the move, working his way up, not liked by a lot within our group. Put a few guys noses out of joint and handy with his fists if you got in the way. McGinty pummelled you. Devine liked that though because McGinty was very loyal to him, but the man was fierce.’
‘You must have been used to fierce people though?’ said Clarissa. ‘Must be used to people who are happy to go the extra distance, use a bit of GBH and that.’
‘Well, yes,’ said Thomas. ‘You have to be able to handle yourself, but he was beyond that. He was talking to this guy one day, had a proper fallout. The guy hadn’t done what he should have done, but McGinty turns around, has it ready to go with him. Pummels him and the guy is lying there, blood coming out of his nose. Suddenly McGinty’s son is outside the door and his Missus is out asking where he is because McGinty had them in another room while he was sorting this guy out.
‘He calls the son in and I kid you not, he lifts him up by the throat, holding him up against the wall lecturing all of us, telling us that as much as he loves his little tyke, he says if he ever betrayed him, he would finish him. The kid is up there practically wetting himself. In fact, he did. The kid pissed his pants. It was wrong. What kind of a person does that? The wife standing there, not able to say a word. Something else. Well the guys didn’t like him after that, even ones that were trying to get along with him, but I’ll tell you something, we didn’t cross him.
‘Then this bomb goes off, taking out McGinty, the boss’s star man. Well, the boss wasn’t happy, was he?’
‘So, what did he do?’
‘Shook some people down, got the word out, trying to find out what was going on. He got a tip—someone called it in. He never said who it was, but they reckoned Frank Egg knew who the bomber was.’
‘What happened to Egg?’ asked Clarissa, acting as if she didn’t know.
‘I heard they roughed him up, but they didn’t get anything out of him. Solid to the last, he was. I don’t know where he is though. I didn’t get told about that.’
Macleod leaned forward. ‘You don’t think it could have been one of your guys not happy with such a cruel man stepping ahead of them. You have to have worked for him for a long time, wouldn’t you? You wouldn’t feel safe. Did you feel safe, Thomas?’
The man shook his head. ‘No, but none of us were daft enough to do that. It’s a bomb. You don’t turn and blow someone up with a bomb when they’re inside the organization. No. All those other people gone too. Now this sounds more like Egg’s gang. Say what you like about Devine, but don’t bring the public into it. He only messes about with those who mess him about. The other lot couldn’t care less. You could be somebody just standing there, you see something happen, or be next to somebody who owes him something, next thing your legs are gone, or he’s whacked you. Bomb is more their style. Devine’s right; that other lot would blow everybody up.’
Macleod leaned forward again this time his arms on the table, hands interlocked, and stared at Anderson. ‘As it’s started, is this going to continue?’
‘You think,’ said Anderson. ‘They’ve just killed his bird? She was special to him. He’ll be livid. He will hunt down every single one of them and when he starts that, you know what they’ll do. There you go. I’ve told you what I know. Now, let me go, because I’m getting out of here.’
‘Where?’ asked Clarissa. ‘Just exactly where are you going?’
‘Norway, Sweden. I don’t know. Bolivia. Anywhere away from here. This is all going to kick off. As soon as I saw her face there, I knew it was all going to kick off. Yes, I saw you coming for me, but I wasn’t just running from you, I was running. I was going to get in my car, and I was just going to drive south and when I hit that channel, I was going to go on a ferry and keep going, because this is going to explode, but can you blame me? Bombs? A bomb taking people out, disposing of them.
‘I mean, Frank Egg, I didn’t like him. I hated the bastard, but we didn’t do that, you know? Not like that. Devine said he was going to make a public example of him. From what I heard, they hung him from a lamppost. What’s that got us? Maggie Brown, dead. From what you said, I take it they gave her a seeing to beforehand. He’ll think that’s been them all. He’ll think she’s been taken amongst them all and well, you know.’
Macleod felt a shiver from Clarissa, but she held her face, not giving away any emotion despite what had been done to a fellow woman.
‘What about the bomb?’ asked Macleod. ‘Where do you get that sort of a bomb?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Thomas. ‘I have no idea. I don’t do bombs. Look, he never sent me to kill anyone or rough people up. Don’t get me wrong, Inspector. In my time, I’ve seen them go and break people’s legs, but I have never been to see an actual murder. I’ve heard them do some. I know it’s happened, but they were extreme cases. People you couldn’t really trust. People that would drop you in a minute. People that gave them no way out. You keep it as clean as you can. That way you don’t bring attention because what’s important? The money. The money is what’s important to these guys. This is no mafia. We’re not protecting any community or that. It’s all about the money, and it’s not good business when you just dispatch people and bring a lot of heat on you. Always better to threaten.’
‘I heard,’ said Clarissa, ‘that your boss was threatening the coach company.’
‘That’d be right,’ said Thomas, ‘but again that was low level. We didn’t attack any of the drivers. It’s public transport, isn’t it? Suddenly the government gets involved—much more heat. People can travel safely on a bus. Don’t touch the drivers. No. Just a quiet bit of damage here and there. Looking for a low level of money coming in.’
‘It wasn’t Devine planting a bomb on them? Trying to turn attention away from him when they realized it’s gone too hot.’
‘Devine’s no mug,’ said Thomas. ‘The coach company low-level steady income, that’s what he’s looking for. Bit of extortion here and there. Help fund the business. Nothing more and nothing less. He isn’t into bombs. He isn’t into mass murder. It’s not him or at least it wasn’t him. Now they’ve taken out his beloved. Oh, God knows what’s going to happen.’
Macleod nodded to Clarissa, who ended the tape with the appropriate words and the pair left the interview room. Once outside, Clarissa turned to Macleod. ‘What do you reckon then, boss?’
‘I think it’s time we get to the bottom of this because if neither of these sides planted this, we’re going to have a gang war over nothing. If they did, we need to put an end to it quick.’
Chapter 15
Upon leaving the interview room, Macleod had gone straight to his desk and called the DCI. Half an hour later, he was sitting in a large conference room with heads of other departments and the DCI was opening the meeting. After a brief introduction, the DCI handed over to Macleod, who spent the next half hour detailing out the case and the fact he was ready for a gang war. Fielding various questions, he advised that all units should be on the highest of alerts and asked the drugs division to start putting out more feelers to find out what was happening on the street.
