The manager ran a hand over the shiny top of his head. 'I don't know…I'll have to ask Head Office…'
'Fine. Let's go do that.'
Head Office said sorry, but no: if he wanted access to their customers' records he'd have to make a formal request in writing or get a court order. They had to abide by the Data Protection Act. There could be no exceptions.
Logan told them about the little girl's body in the bin-bag.
Head Office changed their minds.
Five minutes later Logan was outside clutching an A4 sheet of paper on which was printed a name, address and total number of Clubcard points earned since September.
8
Norman Chalmers lived in a tightly-packed, three-storey tenement off Rosemount Place. The long one-way street curved away to the right, the dirty grey buildings looming over the crowded road cutting the sky until it was nothing more than a thin strip of angry clouds, tainted orange by the streetlights. Cars were parked along the kerb, jammed in nose to tail, the only break formed by the massive, communal wheelie-bins, chained together in pairs, each one big enough to hold a week's rubbish for six households.
The endless rain drummed off the roof of the CID pool car as WPC Watson cursed her way around the block, yet again, looking for a parking spot.
Logan watched as the building slid by for the third time, ignoring WPC Watson's murmured swearing. Number seventeen looked no different to the rest of the tenement block. Three storeys of unadorned granite blocks, streaked with rust from the decaying drainpipes. Light seeped out through the curtained windows, the muffled sound of after-work television just audible under the downpour.
On the fourth time around Logan told her to give up and double park in front of Chalmers's flat.
Watson jumped out into the wet night, splashing between two parked cars to the pavement, the rain bouncing off her peaked cap. Logan followed, cursing as a puddle engulfed his shoe. He squelched his way to the tenement door: a dark-brown, featureless slab of wood set back behind an elaborate architrave, though the carved woodwork was so heavily coated in years of paint that little detail remained. A steady stream of water splattered off the pavement to their left, the downpipe from the guttering cracked halfway up.
Watson squeezed the transmit button on her radio, producing a faint hiss of static and a click. 'Ready to go?' she said, her voice low.
'Roger that. Exit from the street is secure.'
Logan looked up to see Bravo Seven One idling at the far end of the curving street. Bravo Eight One confirmed that they were ready too, watching the Rosemount Place end, making sure no one was going to do a runner. Bucksburn station had loaned Logan two patrol cars and a handful of uniforms with local knowledge. The officers in the cars were doing a lot better than the ones on foot.
'Check.'
The new voice sounded cold and miserable. It would be either PC Milligan or Barnett. They'd drawn the short straw. The road backed onto another curved avenue of tenements, the back gardens sharing a high dividing wall. So the poor sods had to clamber over the back wall from the adjoining street. In the dark and the mud. In the pouring rain.
'We're in position.'
Watson looked at Logan expectantly.
The building didn't have an intercom, but there was a row of three bells on either side of the doorway, the buttons clarted round the edges with more brown paint. Little labels sulked beneath them, each one giving the name of the occupant. 'Norman Chalmers' was written in blue biro on a square of bloated cardboard sellotaped over the name of the previous owner. Top floor right. Logan stepped back and looked up at the building. The lights were on.
'OK.' He leaned forward and rang the middle buzzer, the one marked 'Anderson'. Two minutes later the door was opened by a nervous man in his mid to late twenties, big hair and heavy features, with a large bruise riding high on his cheekbone. He was still dressed from work: a cheap grey suit, the trousers all shiny at the knee, and a rumpled yellow shirt. In fact most of him looked rumpled. His face went pale when he saw WPC Watson's uniform.
'Mr Anderson?' said Logan, stepping forward and sticking his foot in the door. Just in case.
'Er…yes?' The man had a strong Edinburgh accent, the vowels going up and down in the middle. 'Is there a problem, officer?' He backed off into the airlock, his scuffed shoes clicking on the brown-and-cream tiles.
Logan smiled reassuringly. 'Nothing for you to worry about, sir,' he said, following the nervous young man into the building. 'We need to speak to one of your neighbours, but his bell doesn't seem to be working.' Which was a lie.
A weak smile spread across Mr Anderson's face. 'Oh…OK. Yeah.'
Logan paused. 'If you don't mind my saying so, that's a nasty bruise you've got there.'
Anderson's hand fluttered up to the swollen, purple-and-green skin.
'I…I walked into a door.' But he couldn't look Logan in the eye as he said it.
They followed Mr Anderson up the stairs, thanking him for his help as he disappeared inside his first floor flat.
'He was hell of a nervous,' said Watson when the door latch clicked shut, the deadbolt was driven home, and the chain rattled into position. 'Think he's up to something?'
Logan nodded. 'Everyone's up to something,' he said. 'And did you see that bruise? Walked into a door, my foot. Someone's belted him one.'
She stared at the door. 'Too scared to report it?'
'Probably. But, it's not our problem.'
The faded stair-carpet gave out at the middle floor; from here on up it was bare wooden boards that creaked and groaned as they climbed. There were three doors on the top landing. One would lead up to the communal attic, one to the other top floor flat; but the third belonged to Norman Chalmers.
It was painted dark blue and a brass number six had been fixed just below the peephole. WPC Watson flattened herself against the door, keeping herself and her uniform out of the line of sight.
Logan knocked lightly, just as a nervous downstairs neighbour might if he wanted to borrow a cupful of creme fraiche, or an avocado.
There was a creak, the roar of a television set, and then the sound of a deadbolt being drawn back. A key being turned in the lock.
The door was opened by a man in his early thirties with long hair, a squint nose and neatly trimmed beard. 'Hello…' was as far as he got.
WPC Watson lunged for him, grabbed his arm and showed him a way nature never intended it to bend.
'What the…hey!'
She forced him back into the flat.
'Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! You're breaking my arm!'
Watson pulled out a pair of handcuffs. 'Norman Chalmers?' she asked, slapping the cold metal bracelets into place.
'I haven't done anything!'
Logan stepped into the small entrance hall, squeezing past WPC Watson and her wriggling captive so that he could get the door closed. The tiny triangular entrance hall offered three panelledpine doors and an open doorway leading to a galley kitchen looking more like a rubber dinghy than a galley.
Everything was painted in eye-wateringly bright colours.
'Now then, Mr Chalmers,' said Logan, opening a door at random and discovering a compact bathroom in luminous green. 'Why don't we go sit down and have a nice little chat?' He tried another door, this time revealing a large orange lounge with a brown corduroy couch, a fake gas-fire, home cinema system and a computer. The walls were covered with film posters and a huge rack of DVDs.
