A common man, p.9
A Common Man, page 9
‘Well, don’t worry about it at the moment,’ said Ross. ‘I’ll be all right tonight. What happened with you though?’
‘Well, I thought I saw a man with a Labrador. I thought I saw Nathan Mackie. I watched from a distance and then he’s onto the islands. When I went onto the islands, there are these other people there. I emerged onto the path from the undergrowth and got cut off and attacked. They hit my head and I blacked out. Then I’m told that you got me out of the water. You were hanging onto me.’
‘Yes, I was. I saw them throw you in. Had a bit of a scuffle getting in after you. I managed to get a life ring and jumped in. I hung on to you, got your hands attached to it, hung on at the side and some old bloke went and got our backup down to us.’
‘You called backup?’
‘I checked if you got through and what was coming because suddenly, you weren’t speaking to me. We got you though. We got you.’
‘Give me a minute,’ said Hope. He shifted himself off the bed, walked up and leaned over her. Hope removed her bare arms from underneath the covers, wrapped them around his neck, pulling him close and kissed him on the cheek. She then hugged him tight and he could hear the tears coming.
‘You saved me. Thank you. I was gone. Thank you.’
Ross was in a rather uncomfortable position and didn’t know what to say, merely remaining bent over until Hope released him. As she did so, he saw the tears in the eyes and the smile on her face.
‘You’d do the same for me,’ said Ross. He straightened up and readjusted his tie. ‘You need to get off to the hospital. Don’t worry about anything until the morning. I’ll talk to John and get him there. Only when he’s picked you up and they’ve said you’re okay, you start to think about this again. I’ll phone in for some of the extras we pull in at times. I’ll sort it. It’s not that big a deal. It’s just a crime scene. It’s not like there’s a body to pick up.’
Hope looked up solemnly at Ross. ‘I think there will be. I think they’ve already done it. Just that things they said seem very final. I don’t think I was someone interrupting them. I think I might have been there to discover a body.’
‘Well, they haven’t found anything on the islands. I checked. They’re still being searched and I’ll look after the search as well; don’t you worry about that. You get off. I’ll try and call Clarissa when I get a chance. Update the boss.’
Hope nodded, put her arms back in underneath the covers and started to slip off to sleep.
Ross exited the back of the ambulance, thanked the paramedics again, telling them they were free to leave whenever they wanted, and he marched over towards Sergeant Maughan dealing with the situation. As he got close, he saw her talk quickly into her radio comms. As she glanced up, she saw him and waved him over quickly.
‘Get in the car, Ross. They’ve found something.’
Ross jumped into the back of a marked police car and was driven along at speed down to the far end of the river where there was a blue flashing light and an ambulance arriving as well. Ross jumped out, followed Maughan to the riverbank but kept a distance while the paramedics attended to what looked like a body. After a few minutes, one of the paramedics stood up and shook his head.
‘He’s gone. Long dead. Looking at him, I don’t think he drowned. I think he was killed before, but I’ll leave that up to your forensics to establish. But he’s not alive.’
Ross took out his phone, found a photograph he had of Nathan Mackie as someone shone a torch in the man’s face. Ross realised it was the same person.
‘Okay, Sergeant Maughan, this is the person that Sergeant McGrath was looking for. I suggest you corner the area off. I’ll contact Jona. Better seal off what’s around. I suggest you fan out, see if anyone’s about, but I’d tell them to be careful. These people are killers. They appear to even be killing their own.’
Maughan looked over at him grimly, nodded, turned away, and started to bark orders through a radio. Ross stepped back from the body up onto the roadside, looking down towards the river. From the bushes, he heard something, and he turned towards the sound, hearing a whimper but it wasn’t human. He saw a dog on the riverbank, a Labrador. The animal was wounded but Ross couldn’t tell how badly. He turned and shouted up to Maughan, ‘Get a vet down here ASAP, please. I think I found his dog.’
Ross sat down beside the dog, taking off his jacket and putting it over the animal. It didn’t seem to be moving. He rubbed his hand behind its neck and across up behind its ears. He looked back over at its owner. Inside the anger was mounting. That could have been Hope, he thought. That could have been Hope.
Chapter 12
The green sports car pulled off the motorway heading into the north of Glasgow. As happened in Glasgow, they passed from a poor area to rather posh area in a matter of a few streets. Macleod remembered how areas were distinct, yet so close to each other. Taking a wrong turn or wandering into a bad area was the easiest thing to do. It was one of the things he liked about Glasgow; in some ways, it was an equaliser. You all get on the same bus after all, passing through each area.
He watched Clarissa take two lefts and then a right and consult her phone again, which was navigating to the house they wanted. She stopped down the street, some distance away from a large house at the end with a pair of iron gates. Macleod could see several men around the gates and knew they must have arrived at the correct place.
‘Let me take this,’ said Macleod. ‘This was my world. It’s never been yours. They don’t operate the same as the art world, I would believe. They can be a lot colder, a lot more barbaric.’
‘Did you get a lot of these when you were back down here?’
‘Oh yes,’ said Macleod. ‘Got a lot of gangland killings. These guys here don’t like me, really don’t like me, and that’s fair enough because I don’t like them either, but I need them. Otherwise, I wouldn’t come within a hundred miles of this place. Not unless I was on a case.’
Clarissa looked at him, slightly worried and watched him pull his hoodie up, dragging it around his face. She thought that was the cue to drive forward and plonk the car up in front of the main driveway with the iron gates beyond. A rather sour-faced individual with a sharp jaw and chin almost growled at her. She leaned over the side of the door. ‘Wondering if you guys could help me,’ said Clarissa politely.
‘No problem, hen, but by the way, sod off.’
‘I think you’ll want to talk,’ said Clarissa.
‘Which part of sod off didn’t you hear, hen? Not a place for a woman like you. Go on, get.’
Clarissa glared at the man, and then sat back in the car. Macleod pulled down his hoodie, simply turned and stared at the man. He saw him take a step back almost in shock. Then he waved over to another man by the gate. He came over to the car.
‘What the hell are you doing here? Didn’t think you’d have the cheek to show your face around here. It’s not a safe place for a piece of turd like yourself.’
Macleod didn’t flinch, instead he flicked his eyes towards the man and then simply said, ‘I’m here to see the boss. Get me the boss.’
‘Hey,’ said the other guy, ‘you don’t go around making demands like that.’
‘Use your brains. I’m here to see the boss. You think I’d be here if it wasn’t important?’
‘Yes, you might be here to bust him now, mightn’t you? You can get lost.’
‘To bust him?’ said Macleod. ‘It’s no wonder he gives you gate duty. If I was here to bust him, there’d be cars, lots of squad cars down here. Plenty of them, now get on that intercom and tell your boss, Macleod’s here and he wants to speak.’
‘What if the boss says no?’ asked the other man.
‘Your boss won’t say no,’ said Macleod. ‘That’s why he’s the brains of the outfit. Now hurry up and get, before I let this woman beside me loose.’
The two men looked at each other for a moment, then looked at Clarissa, who simply gave them an evil smile. There was no way Macleod was ever going to put her into that danger. There was no way he’d ever put her up against them. But it didn’t do any harm in their thinking that if things came to it, they’d have to give her a wide steer.
Macleod sat in silence as he watched the man approach the gate intercom. He called for a moment and then stood waiting, tapping his feet. Of course, the boss wasn’t on the end of that line. They’d have to go and get him, but he’d come running up in the end. Macleod was sure of that.
There was a momentary hesitation from the man at the intercom when the voice spoke to him and then he marched over to the little green sports car and waved at those on the gate to start to open them.
‘He says he wants to make sure it’s you. Drive the sports car up. Stick your face in the camera.’
‘Tell him it was the Wrath of God he offended, not me. Tell him he brought it all down on himself.’
The man looked a little bit worried for a moment and said to Macleod, ‘No, you need to go to the intercom. The boss has asked you to go and put your face in the camera.’
Macleod opened the car door, stepped out. ‘With me, sunshine,’ he said, and walked towards the video camera. As he approached it, the other man stood close beside them and Macleod grabbed him by the ear, pulling him up to the camera and jabbing his thumb in up underneath his ribs. ‘Tell him what I said.’
The man struggled to breathe, but then he said, ‘God, wrath, offended. Not fault.’ Macleod shoved him away, the man breathing heavily, trying to recover. Macleod looked over at the video camera.
‘I’m coming in. I need to talk with you.’
He didn’t wait for a reply. Marching over to the sports car, he told Clarissa to drive. She did so and began the long winding driveway up to the high house on the hill. He saw her looking over, watching his hands shaking like crazy.
‘Good show,’ said Clarissa. ‘It was a good show. What about inside?’
‘Leave the talking to me; we don’t want to get into any nonsense here. This guy’s a killer. It’ll be a heck of a risk we’re undertaking at the moment. They won’t lay a finger on you or me because he knows what I can do. He also knows you’re well-liked in the force, so they’ll come after him.’
Clarissa gave a laugh. ‘Now you’re just making things up.’
‘Seriously though,’ said Macleod, ‘best behaviour. Don’t react quickly. Don’t take offense. I’ll tell you if all hell’s broke loose, and we may need to do something.’
Closing his eyes, he gave a brief prayer and opened them as Clarissa pulled the car up to large steps before the house. There were large marble pillars and the door opened. Macleod saw a man coming through he recognised. Gleary’s henchman. They had crossed paths before.
‘Ricardo,’ said Macleod. ‘Well, he sent you to guide me in. That’s very kind of him. How long did you spend in there?’
‘Ten years for you, you bastard,’ said the man. ‘Ten damn years, and he makes me walk you in. I should knife you where you stand.’
‘You’re not that bright though, are you? You don’t know when and where, how to do it. You shouldn’t let people squeal on you.’
‘I shouldn’t have worked with people you run rings around, more like. Get out of the car.’
‘Lady’s present,’ said Macleod.
The henchman looked over. ‘What the hell is that?’
‘I warn you, she bites,’ said Macleod.
They got out of the car and closed the door. ‘With me, Urquhart,’ he said, using her second name because Clarissa sounded all too friendly. The henchman didn’t look back, but led them through a large set of double doors to a rather elaborate hallway, then into a study with wood panelling and pictures of family. There was a settee on the far side and henchman simply pointed at it.
‘I won’t ask you if you want a drink. I take it you still don’t touch the stuff.’
‘Devil’s Brew,’ said Macleod. ‘Devil’s Brew. And she’s driving.’
The pair were then left inside. Clarissa wanted to speak, but Macleod put his hand up. He whispered softly, ‘They’re probably watching us wondering why we’re here. It’s what they do. But look, this one’s got a window to the outside. There’s a video camera up the corner. That’s all good.’
‘Why?’ asked Clarissa.
‘If we’ve got video and a window to the outside, it’s not a kill room.’
‘A what?’
‘A kill room. If you’re going to kill somebody, you don’t want to put it on video. You don’t want to have somebody pop up at the window and see you do it either. You do it in a room that’s in the middle of the house, one which people can then come in and clean. This is not a kill room. It’s going well.’
‘Did you think we might have ended up in one?’
‘Can never be sure,’ said Macleod, ‘but I’d be telling you to do something by now if we had.’
The door opened and an old man strolled into the room. He had grey hair, slicked onto his head by some gel. His eyes had large bags underneath and he looked weary. He had a belly on him hanging down over his belt and he seemed to half shuffle instead of walk.
‘How the hell are you still going?’ asked the man. ‘What’s this? You dare to walk into my house after what you did to me.’
‘You did it to yourself, or rather your family did. If you had just buried them. You had to just simply dispatch them, but no, you had to torture, and you had to torture in a fancy way. Wasn’t difficult to trace.’
‘What the hell do you want, Macleod? Anyway, I see they’ve kicked you out. I see you got that one wrong. You made a bollocks of that, didn’t you?’
‘You watch the telly, you read the papers, do you?’ said Macleod. ‘Well, problem is, I didn’t make a mess of it. They’ve made a mess of it.’
The man stared at him, and he shook his head. ‘What the hell is that to do with me?’
‘We took on a case in which three kids died. Symbols carved on them. Satanic symbols, symbols from other cultures, meaning death. One of the mothers was killed as well, but by accident. We were hunting down child killers. We took a long-lost soul into custody and he hung himself and they said, ‘There’s our man.’ It’s not. The knives are still out on the go. Knives. Knives I think you transported. Knives that are used to kill children.
‘You always told me children were never involved. You always told me you wouldn’t do that. When you took Nickles down, you waited until his son was out of the building. You’re a right bastard,’ said Macleod, ‘you’re an evil man in a lot of ways, but you don’t let that happen to children.’
Macleod stood up and pointed to the wall. There was a picture there of extended family and the old man was in the middle.
‘Look at all the kids around there. Your grandkids, your great-grandkids, a lot of them.’
Macleod saw the anger in the man’s face. ‘It’s not me,’ he said, ‘I don’t go in for that sort of thing. I didn’t know they’re being used for kids. Are you sure it’s the knives we moved?’
Macleod pointed to Clarissa. ‘She worked in that line, good on the artistic side of things. She found them. We traced them and they come from you.’
‘Well, it wasn’t me that moved them,’ he said. ‘It’s my niece. You make me wonder who she was dealing with. She’s modern. You know, it’s not like we were, Macleod. Rob a bank, that’s the money in your hand. Now you’ve got to move the drugs. Now you’ve got to extort here or there, wherever. Lot of people, child traffic, and that nonsense. It’s not proper crime. There’s nothing honourable in it.’
‘I never saw the honour in any of it,’ said Macleod.
The man almost raged at him, but then he turned and marched over to whiskey counter with two crystal glasses. He poured the drink into both of them. He knocked the one back, gave a gasp, the burning sensation in his throat, and then he held the other one in front of Macleod.
‘This is for the one you can’t have.’ He downed it as well.
‘Where is she?’ Macleod asked. ‘Where’s this niece?’
The man looked over at Macleod. ‘They kicked you out. They kicked you out. Who the hell didn’t listen to you and kicked you out? They did that once down here. Do you remember? You almost had me. You almost had me, and they wouldn’t listen to you. I’ll bet you hated them that day.’
Macleod’s face didn’t flinch. ‘Where is she? I’ll tell them. I’ll tell them all. I’ll tell them all that Gleary facilitated the deaths of children, tortured children, Satanic marks cut onto the backs of children. Who knows what else they’ll do to them.’
Gleary looked at him, pushed a hand through his greying hair, thin as it was across the top of his head. ‘I’ll take you to her,’ said Gleary. ‘We’ll go, and we’ll have a chat. We’ll find out who your knives belong to, and you can sort them out, but you leave her alone.’
‘As long as she’s not the one wielding the knife,’ said Macleod, ‘that’ll work for me.’
‘She’s not wielding the knife. She wouldn’t know how to. That’s the trouble these days. They’re all into this nonsense and they don’t know how to use the old, good, simple tools of the trade. You don’t know what it’s like trying to get good staff today, Macleod. You have no idea. Now come on. And you leave her here.’
‘Why?’ asked Macleod.
‘Security. I don’t want you pulling any fast ones on me.’
‘I don’t have a police force behind me,’ said Macleod. ‘I’m here talking to the man, out of all people, who probably hates me the most, who’d probably like to take a spade, dig a hole, and put me in it. I’m here for one reason. To stop more of these kids dying and I know you’ll go for that.’
The man turned and looked at Clarissa. ‘Whatever happened to the other one? Every time I see you in the press, six foot, with a body that rocks, and red hair, and you bring me this. I mean, she’s nearly older than you, Macleod.’
‘You may be right,’ said Macleod. ‘But the other one, she doesn’t bite the way this one does.’ He gave a half turn and saw the faint smile on Clarissa’s face.
