‘It sounds like Eddie and Soraya have been closing the book on anyone who could give evidence against them and her brothers.’
‘Exactly. These are dangerous people: they’re armed and on the run, we assume, with their kid. I only hope they know when the game’s up, for his sake. Those photos we took from their place: you’ve had them distributed?’
‘Yes, but they still may be hard to catch. They left their passports behind them at their flat; that has to mean they’re travelling with forgeries. If they pick a really busy place to exit through, and change their appearance . . .’
‘They can change theirs, but disguising the wee boy will be more difficult.’
‘It may be too late already. They could have been on their way out of the country by the time we found Big Ming’s body. His place isn’t that far from Edinburgh airport. DVLA told me that Charnwood drives a blue Escort: I’ve circulated the number with the photographs and I’m having the airport car park checked.’
‘Of course, but even if it’s there it could take the best part of a day to find it.’
‘True.’ Wilding sighed. ‘I’m sorry, boss,’ he said.
‘What for?’
‘We should have been where we are now three days ago.’
‘That’s not your fault. I know you did your best to keep the inquiry on the right lines.’
‘I could have come to you when I saw how it was going.’ McIlhenney smiled and shook his head. ‘No, you couldn’t, Ray. Two or three days into a new job, with a new DCI, and you go behind his back to complain about him? I don’t think so. If it’s anyone’s fault it’s big Bob’s, for sticking him down here without thinking it through.’
It was Wilding’s turn to grin. ‘Are you going to tell him that?’
‘No, I am not, and neither is Mario. But he’d figure it out for himself if he knew what’s been happening. Actually I suspect he has already: it was him that suggested I move Stevie Steele down here. Strictly within these walls, Bandit wasn’t moved off the Drugs Squad as a reward for outstanding results. He was shifted because he took too high a profile in achieving them. He’s a very visible copper, is Mr Mackenzie; he can’t help it. Short-term, in the right situation, that can be valuable. But long-term, in a job that calls for a low profile, it’s not.’
‘So how’s the long-term going to be in this office?’
‘That, my friend, is going to be up to him.’
Fifty-nine
‘I’m so glad you could make it tonight,’ said Alex, ‘even if it’s only for a drink in the Traverse Bar. You’ve made an honest woman out of me.’
‘Hey, come on,’ Gina protested. ‘You may not be a criminal lawyer but even you should know that an alibi doesn’t count if it’s fixed up after the event.’
‘Maybe not but I don’t like to think of myself as telling out and out porkers.’
‘Speaking of which, what’s he like, this guy Guy?’
‘He’s a Mr Smooth: he looks the part, I have to admit, even if he is carrying a bit of flab. The trouble is, he knows it.’
‘That doesn’t make him a bad person.’
‘He isn’t a bad person. It’s just that he has this smugness about him that infuriates me sooner or later, but as soon as it does, and I let him know, like I did this morning, he has this way of making you feel sorry, and you wind up apologising for saying what you really think.’
‘Ahem. You said “this morning”?’
Alex smiled awkwardly and shrugged. ‘Well . . .’
‘Hussy.’ Gina chuckled throatily.
‘No! It’s not as if we hadn’t been there before. I slept with him a couple of times when I was in London.’
‘I see. So now he gets himself a stopover in Edinburgh, consults his palm-top, and says, “Let’s see, who’s a likely bet around here? Ah, good old Alex.” That’s how it was?’
‘Lexy.’
‘What?’
‘He calls me Lexy.’
‘As in Sexy Lexy? And you let him?’
‘Let’s say I humoured him for a while. But you’re right: that’s how it was, or at least that’s how it turned out. If I’m being really honest, it started off the other way round. I was needing some uncomplicated male company in the flat after these bloody calls, and he was handy, so I pulled him, or let him pull me. Oh, what the fuck? It doesn’t matter.’
‘So how was it for you anyway, darling? Or need I ask, since you’ve fixed this emergency alibi to avoid seeing him again?’
Alex sniffed. ‘A girl does not discuss these things. Suffice it to say that all morning I found myself thinking about the remark by a divorced lady, who said that having sex with her ex was like being fallen on by a large Victorian wardrobe with the key still in the lock.’
‘So, on a scale of one to ten?’
‘One and a half: he rates the extra half point because at least it didn’t last long.’
‘But you said it was the third time.’
‘These things fade in the memory. Listen, if you doubt my rating and want to check him out for yourself, he’s in the George. But be sure you take your own Durex.’
Gina looked at her, poker-faced. ‘What’s his room number?’
The two women dissolved into laughter. ‘Thanks, pal,’ said Alex, when hers had subsided. ‘You’ve cheered me up. Guy left me feeling like a bit of a tart this morning, especially when the hunk next door saw him go.’ She sipped her tomato juice. ‘But,’ she continued, ‘I didn’t want to see you just to give myself a pep-up and a veneer of honesty.’
‘Or to give me a hot tip for the George?’
‘Not even that. No, there’s something I want to ask you. Remember that cousin of yours?’
‘Which cousin? I’ve got ten of the buggers.’
‘That particular cousin: when I was splitting up with Andy and living with you, the one I . . . found solace with.’
‘Solace? Is that what you called it? Young Raymond thought all his Christmas Days had come at once. God, girl, what is this? You don’t talk about your sex life much, but when you do, it all comes out. What is it? Has your disappointing experience overnight made you want to look for better? As I remember you had a pretty fine time with him too.’
‘Maybe I did,’ Alex admitted, ‘but that’s in the past. I’ve got no urge to rekindle anything there: I was wondering what he’s doing with himself these days, that’s all.’
‘I’m damned if I know. Raymond is the black sheep of the Weston family; he makes me glad that I’m a Reed, not one of them. You may have thought he was a cuddly big chap, but he’s not. He’s been in and out of trouble for the last few years. That shouldn’t surprise you either: his first bit of bother landed you in trouble with your dad, when he named you as proof that he couldn’t have been where the police said he was. The worst, though, was when he and a pal were arrested for making Ecstasy. Raymond wound up being a Crown witness, although he was up to his neck in it; the other lad got seven years. There was talk that his father, my uncle Nolan, fixed it with a friend of his in the Crown Office.
‘Last I heard of him he had wangled himself a job as a trainee fund manager somewhere, but that he gave it up after a few months. I’m not surprised: I wouldn’t let the skinny bastard anywhere near my funds, I’ll tell you. So why your sudden interest in him, if you don’t want to shag him?’
Alex looked at her friend. ‘It’s to do with these calls,’ she said. ‘I had one the night before last. After a while, the guy said, “You hurt me, Alex.” Ever since then I’ve been thinking of men I’ve hurt in my time. I keep coming back to him.’
‘How did you hurt him?’
‘I did, Gina. I had my fling with him to get back at Andy, because I felt he was turning into my jailer, laying
