It was Alec, standing on the top step. 'Sorry I'm late,' he said, sticking his hands in his pockets,'you ready to go?' 'Where?' Alec looked puzzled. 'We're going for a pint with ex-DSI Brooks, remember? You and me; Oldmeldrum? Meeting Insch and Brooks? Remember?' 'Oh for God's ... You still want to go, after everything--' 'I'm a professional: the Ob Doc comes first.' He frowned at Logan. 'Don't tell me you're bailing!' 'Well--' 'You can't! You promised!' 'No I didn't. And in case you didn't notice, I got clobbered in the face today.' 'I got pushed in pish. Twice!' 'That's not my fault--' 'You bloody did it the second time.' 'Saving your arse.' The cameraman frowned, obviously trying to think up his comeback. 'Yeah? Well ... I lied for you.' 'No, you lied for Insch.' 'Fuck ...' He tried on a winsome smile. 'I promise I won't let them make a tit out of you when we do the voiceover for the series.' There was a stunned silence. 'What?' 'When they do the voiceover, they usually want someone to come across ... well ... you know what can happen when people start editing stuff. Amazing how you can make one thing look like another.' 'This blackmail?' Alec grinned. 'Coercion. Maybe. At a push ... please?' Logan closed his eyes, swore, then went inside and fetched his coat.
16
Ken Wiseman was not a happy man. Hadn't been for many, many years. It wasn't his fault: life conspired to fuck him over at every available opportunity. Good things would happen to other people, but nothing good ever happened to him. Because life was a bastard and it hated him. Some days it was all he could do to fuck it right back. Everything had been OK for a while. Calm. Back to normal ... and then it all started to unravel again. Just like it had last time. Taking a human being apart ... the chunks of meat ... the spiral into darkness.
