Scowl. ‘What, you want to swap tips?’
Logan ignored that. ‘He’s probably off on a bender somewhere. That’s why you can’t get him — too pissed to answer the phone.’
‘Oh, don’t be so-’
‘This is another wild bloody goose chase, isn’t it?’
‘Just shut up and drive.’
Logan put his foot down and the manky Fiat rumbled and rattled up to fifty along the dual carriageway.
All the way out to Balmedie the fields were a soggy patchwork of green-brown, bordered by pale-grey drystane dykes. The occasional flock of sheep breathing clouds of steam into the cold, damp air. And then they got to the signs saying, ‘WORKS ENTRANCE AHEAD’, ‘SLOW VEHICLES TURNING’, ‘NO ACCESS TO BEACH’.
It hadn’t taken the local press long to nickname Donald Trump’s development ‘Trumpton’. A vast swathe of coast was due to disappear under the bulldozers: two golf courses, five hundred houses, a four-star hotel, and nearly a thousand holiday villas. Which kind of put McLennan Homes’ four hundred semi-detacheds into perspective.
Three hundred yards further on a huge billboard sat at the side of the road — ‘MCLENNAN HOMES, BUILDING A BETTER TOMORROW FOR YOU’. Photo of a smiling nuclear family holding hands and staring mistily off into the distance. Very aspirational. Or it would have been if someone hadn’t spraypainted a big blue penis onto one of the kids.
Logan slowed the car. According to the sat-nav, Steel’s map coordinates were off to the left. The Fiat juddered to a halt on the grass verge.
He peered across and through the passenger window at the site entrance — a high chainlink fence, the gates held open with dented oil drums. ‘SITE PATROLLED BY GUARD DOGS’, ‘NO ENTRY TO UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL’, ‘DANGER OF DEATH’, ‘WARNING: RAZOR WIRE’. A rutted mud track led away into Malk the Knife’s development.
Logan checked the sat-nav again. ‘You sure you got those coordinates right?’
‘Course I’m sure.’ She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. ‘Maybe they’ve got caravans for people living on site?’
‘Maybe…’
Logan eased the car through the gates. The muddy track bumped and slithered under the Fiat’s wheels, taking them closer to the rumble of heavy machinery, the beep-beep-beep of something backing up.
Steel pointed through the windscreen. ‘Over there.’
He pulled up beside a long Portakabin with ‘SITE OFFICE’ stencilled on the side, trying to aim for a bit that didn’t look like the battle of the Somme.
‘Right.’ Steel flicked her cigarette butt out of the window. ‘If anyone asks, you and me are debt collectors. I’m the boss, you’re the hired muscle. Still a chance we can salvage this cock-up, so no telling anyone you’re a cop, understand?’
She pulled the sat-nav off the windscreen and they clambered out into the drizzle.
‘Which way?’
She frowned at the little screen, trying to shield it from the rain with her coat, then did a slow three-sixty. Stopped. And pointed out across the churned-up earth.
No caravans, no Portakabins, not so much as a three-man tent.
Steel took a step forwards, but Logan grabbed her arm.
‘Maybe we should call for a search team. IB. Pathologist. If Polmont’s-’
‘Don’t be so wet.’ She shook herself free and stomped off into the mud.
Logan swore, then followed her.
The going was tough, thick clogs of brown-black earth sucking at his shoes, dirty water oozing in through the lace holes, soaking into his socks. And then his foot disappeared into a puddle, right up to the shin. ‘Fuck…’ Cold and wet, the trouser leg sticking to his skin. He limped after Steel, cursing all the way.
She came to a halt about two hundred yards from the high chainlink fence that surrounded the site, then turned around a few times. The earth here was firmer — still covered in weeds and grass, the vegetation looking pale and unhealthy.
Logan squelched up beside her. ‘Hope you’re bloody happy, my feet are-’
‘Where the hell is he?’ She turned around again, then peered at the sat-nav.
‘-socks are sodden and my trousers are all covered in-’
‘Will you shut up moaning about your bloody feet! He’s supposed to be
Logan snatched the sat-nav from her — the display read, ‘YOU HAVE REACHED YOUR DESTINATION’.
Welcome to the middle of nowhere.
‘Well, at least we know he’s not stuck in some shallow grave.’
Steel grabbed the sat-nav back. ‘Oh yeah, tell me Sherlock, how-’
‘Look at the ground. It’s not been disturbed.’ He pointed at the little black rectangle in Steel’s hands. ‘What are those accurate to, ten, fifteen feet? And the GSM’s about a hundred…’
Logan looked out across the tufts of yellowy grass and dark-green weeds. ‘Give him a ring.’
‘What?’
‘Call him on his mobile.’
She did, standing there with her phone clamped to her ear. ‘It’s ringing…’
Logan stood as still as he could, ears straining. A faint metallic warble was coming from somewhere over to his left. He turned and marched towards it, but the sound of his squelching through the waterlogged grass was loud enough to block it out. And then the warbling stopped.
Steel pointed at the mobile in her hand. ‘Voicemail.’
‘Call him again.’
This time Logan crept across the uneven ground, the ringing getting louder with every careful step.
‘Voicemail again.’
He found it on the third go: a scuffed and battered Nokia lying in a patch of greasy nettles at the edge of a burn. He snapped on a pair of blue nitrile gloves and picked the phone up, just as it stopped ringing. The casing had been broken at one point, then stuck back together with black electrical tape.
Steel appeared at his shoulder. ‘Is it his?’
Logan stared at her. ‘It rang when you called it, what do you think?’
Scowl. ‘I’ll do the sarcasm, thank you very much.’ She stuck out a hand. ‘Gimmie.’
‘Gloves.’
‘I’ll bloody “gloves” you in a minute. Give me the damn phone.’
She went stabbing through the phone’s menu with her thumbs. ‘See what he’s got listed as home…It’s an Aberdeen number.’ She pressed another button, and stuck the phone to her ear. Listened for a bit. ‘No answer. So he’s no’ here, and he’s no’ at home.’
‘Probably still pissed.’ Logan offered her an evidence bag, but she just stuck the phone in her pocket and marched back towards the building site.
Logan shook his soggy foot and squelched after her.
The rain was beginning to pick up, the thin, leeching drizzle giving way to pattering globs of ice-cold water that kicked ripples across the dirty puddles.
Logan followed Steel down an embryonic street: bare foundations on one side, part-built homes on the other. Wooden skeletons, with blue plastic sheeting stretched between the uprights. A couple were being skinned with pale orange brick, a radio blaring out
Further down, half a dozen looked nearly finished — some even had doors and windows. The one at the far end had a big ‘SHOW HOME’ sign out front, a garage twice the size of the others, and a slightly surreal-looking bright green lawn. No way that could be natural. Probably Astroturf or something like that. A pair of gardeners were planting shrubs and trees around it, hacking out holes in the rubble with a pickaxe.
Bugger that for a job.
Logan stopped in the middle of the muddy street. ‘Where do you want to start?’
