Flesh House

'Always thought of myself as team player.' 'Yeah, well, the public likes lone wolves better. More romantic.' Logan pulled the window closed, then did the same with the back door. Stopping with his fingers resting on the handle, looking back at the bleach-stained kitchen. All the way up the walls. Not just all over the floor. A slow grin spread across Logan's face: he finally knew what had been bugging him about the Leith crime scene.

30

DI Steel leaned back against the working surface and ground her cigarette out in the sink. 'It doesn't prove anything.' 'Look.' Logan pointed at the bleach marks above the tiled splashback. 'There was blood all the way up the walls. Four streaks.' He wrapped his hand around an imaginary knife, raised it high, then stabbed the inspector four times. 'Each time the knife comes out it sprays blood in an arc up the walls.' 'Aye, it was in the SOC report.' She shook her head. 'Jesus ... I do read these things you know!' 'None of the other crime scenes have that kind of stabbingblood-pattern.' 'So she fought back, it's--' 'Alec, you got the footage you shot this morning at the Stephens'? I need to see the kitchen.' Alec went through his pockets, pulling out HDV tapes and reading the labels. He found what he was looking for, swapped out the one in the camera and fiddled with the buttons. 'I don't see what this has to do with--' 'Got it.' Alec flipped the camera's little screen around and pressed play. 'See?' Logan pointed at the picture,'There's blood all over the floor, none on the walls or ceiling. I've been through every crime scene photo since 1985 and when he kills them onsite it's always the same - floor soaked, blood splashed to about knee high, fine spray on the units. No marks up the walls.' 'Oh come off it. Leith saw the bloody Flesher!' 'Yeah, and lived to tell the tale. This guy has enough time to turn the kitchen into a butcher's shop as he hacks up Valerie Leith, but doesn't get round to killing the husband? Does that sound like the Flesher to you?' Steel sucked a breath in between her teeth, face creased into an unhappy grimace. 'But the husband saw him!' Logan held up the copy of Smoak With Blood he'd found in the Leiths' bedroom. 'It's all in here. The MO, the costume, the fact he leaves bits of meat behind. Best selling book in Aberdeen since we raided that butcher's shop. You got any idea how many Margaret Thatcher fright masks were bought last week? Hundreds.' 'Stop. Back the What-the-Fuck bus up right now. You are no' making this bastarding case any more complicated than it already is. Understand?' 'Plus I called the lab - they did a rush job on that slab of meat we found at the Stephen house this morning. It was a bit of Duncan Inglis. If the Flesher's still got slices of him knocking around, how come Valerie Leith ends up in her own freezer?' The inspector took another look around the kitchen: the bleached-out walls and ceiling. 'Oh bloody hell ... Fine.