Dark Blood

you think? Knox has to be escalatin’, right? First his Sacro handler and now the old boy. Two in two days.’

‘I’m not giving you a quote, Colin.’

‘Aw, come on, man. I’ll make it, “sources close to the investigation” if you like?’

Logan put the paper back on the tabletop. ‘Tell me about Jimmy Evans and I’ll think about it.’

‘The son’s up visitin’ from Sunderland with his wife — they come back from some party, and there’s the old man in the back garden, wanderin’ in the snow, wearing nothing but his jim-jams. They bundle him into the car and drive him straight to A amp;E. Son emails me from the waiting room, cos he’d seen my stuff in the papers.’

‘They didn’t search the house?’

‘Laz, if your dad was workin’ on a dose of hypothermia with his face all battered, would you?’

46

‘I’m not your enemy, Logan.’ The Chief Inspector took a sip of tea, peering at him over the rim of the mug.

‘All I’m saying is I should be out there, searching the house.’

‘Oh, I’m sure DI Steel can manage without you for an hour or so.’ Chief Inspector Young — filling in while Professional Standards’ arch bastard Superintendent Napier was off at a conference somewhere — smiled. He had broad shoulders; short hair greying at the temples; big meaty fists, the knuckles criss-crossed with scar tissue; and small, dark eyes, surrounded by starburst wrinkles. The kind of man you’d want standing in front of you on crowd control, or forcing entry into a drug dealer’s flat.

The Professional Standards Unit wasn’t exactly Logan’s favourite part of Force Headquarters, which was a shame, considering how often he had to visit. Young shared his office with another chief inspector, who’d excused himself as soon as Logan arrived — giving them a bit of privacy for the bit where Chief Inspector Young bent Logan over the desk and, as Biohazard Bob so gleefully put it, proceeded without the aid of lubricant.

Young nodded at the photocopied complaint sitting in the middle of the desk. ‘And you never visited Douglas Walker at his home?’

Logan stared at him. ‘I only interviewed Walker twice. Both times, right here. With all due respect, sir, this is bollocks.’

‘You do know I can just check the custody log?’

‘Good — check it.’

Young glanced down at his notes. ‘His lawyer claims this was part of an “orchestrated campaign of harassment” that started when you dragged Walker into the station under false pretences.’

‘Not this again…’ Logan dragged the bagged notebook from his pocket and peeled it open. The bitter-sharp scent of bile crept out into the room.

Chief Inspector Young recoiled slightly in his seat. ‘What is that smell?’

‘It…kind of fell in some sick.’ The pages were all stuck together on one side, so Logan stole the silver letter opener from the room’s other desk and started flicking them apart, setting a little avalanche of pale yellow flakes free.

Sunday 31^st January:

Attended caravan in steading development. Questioned Danny Saunders and fiancee Stacy Gardner in relation to armed robbery at Henderson’s Jewellers…

‘Sergeant I really don’t think that’s necessary. We-’ ‘Hold on…’ He snicked a few more sheets loose.

Saturday 30^th January:

Attended incident at Richard Knox’s house — Knox agitated and destroying his possessions. No charges made.

A couple more and he had the declaration Walker had signed: the one saying he was coming into the station voluntarily.

‘Look. All done by the book.’ Logan held the notebook out.

Young backed away from the desk slightly. ‘Any chance you can put that back in its bag?’

Logan did, then swept the little pile of yellow flakes left behind into the bin. ‘I showed Walker’s lawyer everything at the time. He’s just chancing his arm.’

The chief inspector sat back in his leather chair, eyes creased, mouth working silently on something. ‘You know, DCI Finnie has asked if we would consider taking you on secondment to Professional Standards.’

Logan stared back. And he’d thought the frog-faced bastard had been joking. ‘Did he?’

‘You look horrified.’

‘Thank you, sir.’

‘…and he said Finnie wants to palm me off on the rubber-heelers!’ Logan shifted his shoulder, keeping the phone clamped to his ear as he washed the flakes of dried sick off his hands. The smell was getting worse as they rehydrated.

DI Steel made wet chomping noises in his ear for a moment. ‘IB found some decent prints on the window and the bedpost, if we’re lucky they’ll match.’

‘Why the hell would anyone want to join Professional Bloody Standards!’

‘Chase up the lab, OK? I want a definite on the bite marks and saliva by close of play.’

‘First thing I’d do is investigate that sarcastic bastard Finnie.’ ‘Are you even listening?’

‘What? Yeah: bite marks and saliva. Anything else?’

‘Victim’s house is on the south-east corner of Cove, down its own wee driveway. Nothing behind it but fields and the North Sea. I want a fingertip search: hundred metre radius.’

Logan frowned. ‘Does this whole thing sound…off to you?’

‘And tell them to do it properly this time, no fuck- ups.’

‘Knox drugs his Sacro handlers, beats the crap out of them, gets past the surveillance team…Then stops off on the way down the road so he can torture and rape an old man in Cove? Like it’s a service station and he fancies a burger?’ Logan hauled the plug out of the sink, letting the water gurgle away. ‘Do you think he’s the one who snatched Danby?’

He could hear her chewing again. ‘Want to say yes, but…How’s a weedy wee shite like that get the jump on someone like Danby, never mind carry him down the stairs?’

‘So he had help. Would explain where he got the Rohypnol from. Half the heavies in Tyneside are after Mental Mikey’s millions, maybe this is Knox’s price? Help him get revenge on the guy who put him away, and then disappear?’

‘Aye, maybe…’ Pause. ‘Listen, get onto Northumbria Police, I want to know what Danby’s been working on, just in case it’s no’ got anything to do with our wee rapist chum. And while you’re doing the rounds: chase up Lothian and Borders. Andrew Connelly must’ve shown his baldy head somewhere by now. Just cos everything’s going to shite, doesn’t mean I’m letting that big bald bastard get away with what he did to Steve Polmont.’

Biohazard Bob was hunched over a pile of paperwork in the Wee Hoose. He looked up as Logan entered, then went back to his forms. ‘Shut the bloody door.’