CHAPTER 18
Winter was in his seat at Celtic Park by twenty past seven, kick-off still twenty-five minutes away. The old place was pretty full already and the atmosphere was building up nicely. That familiar sense of expectation and togetherness was buzzing through the ground and he liked to be in there in plenty of time to soak it up.
Not Addison though. His mate was doubtless still supping in the Oak, the nearest pub to the stadium and guaranteed to be wall-to-wall packed with sweating bodies trying to fuel themselves for what was to come. The Oak faithful would stream in at the last minute or beyond, pushing apologetically past people in the middle of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, ducking under scarves and stepping on feet. It was always the same and unless Winter dragged him into the Lisbon Lions Lower early then Addison would be one of those guys.
Winter loved European nights at Parkhead and always had. Ever since his Uncle Danny first led him by the hand through crowds of giant drunks to watch Celtic draw 2-2 with Ajax in 1982. McStay, McGrain, Burns, Nicholas, McGarvey, these were his first heroes. Them and Uncle Danny.
It was a couple of minutes before kick-off and everyone was on their feet as the teams trooped out onto the pitch. At the end of the row, fans began stepping back reluctantly as someone pushed by them towards his seat. With a huge grin and regular apologies, he edged along until Winter could feel Addison’s beery breath on his face just as the team went into their pre-match huddle and a huge roar erupted around them.
‘About time,’ Winter remarked.
‘Hey, this is early for me, wee man. Anyway, I’ve had a busy day in case you hadn’t noticed.’
‘You and me both. So what happened this afternoon?’
The referee blew his whistle for the start of the game and another huge, extended shout drowned out any reply that Addison could have made. Instead, he shook his head and leaned in towards Winter as they both sat down.
‘Later. One thing though, I know what this fucker’s game is.’
‘Aye? So what’s that then?’ Winter shouted back, trying to be heard above the noise of the crowd.
The DI just looked down at him, winking and tapping the side of his nose, and then turned back to the game as Celtic immediately launched into an attack down the right wing. People were on their feet around them and the pair were forced to stand as well. Winter was bursting to ask more but knew he wasn’t getting anything until Addison was ready.
There was wave after wave of attacks on the Bulgarian side’s goal but Celtic didn’t manage to score until five minutes before half-time. A cross from the left was met by a header down in front of them and when the ball hit the back of the net, Celtic Park erupted. Everyone was on their feet, Winter and Addison hugged each other and were clapped and bumped into by those around them. Songs soared round the old stadium and minor chaos ruled. The place was still jumping five minutes later when the half-time whistle blew, another mighty roar filling the night sky, and fans began streaming towards the toilets or the food outlets.
There was suddenly a bit of space round them and both men knew they could now talk without having to shout at each other.
‘So what’s happening?’ Winter asked.
Addison hugged himself into his jacket before answering in as low a voice as he could get away with.
‘Nothing good. Is it not your turn to go and get the pies?’
‘Forget your stomach for a minute,’ Winter countered. ‘What’s going on?’
‘If I tell you, then you’ll go for food?’
‘Aye, okay. Spill.’
Addison looked around and moved closer.
‘Looks like the killings at Harthill have made the natives restless and the pantomime on George Square obviously hasn’t helped. Jo-Jo Johnstone’s wee brother Jason was found with both his legs broken and Jo-Jo is spitting blood about it. Two of Tookie Cochrane’s boys were hit by a car and are in the Royal. One of them is in a coma. There’s also a guy supposedly gone missing named Harvey Houston who works at Ally Riddle’s scrapyard. Riddle’s saying he knows nothing but Shirley’s pulling him in tomorrow for a chat.’
‘Christ. Sounds like it’s getting crazy.’
‘Those are just the ones we know about. Fuck knows what else is happening. My guess is that there’s much more that the bastards have swept under the carpet.’
‘A lot going on this afternoon. Have to wonder why I didn’t get a call to photograph any of it.’
‘Oh fuck off. You will get to do your dirty little thing with whatever that twat does next but this is fall-out from it and you’ll just have to get used to someone else pushing the buttons. Cool your jets.’
Addison’s eyes were flashing the way they did when he was pissed off and Winter admitted to himself that he had a point. Much as he wanted to capture every bit of grisly shit that went on in the city, he knew he couldn’t. There was just too much of it.
‘So what happened when you got back to Harthill?’ he asked the DI.
‘The lovely Ms Fitzpatrick said that Strathie and Sturrock had had the shit kicked out of them professionally. Nothing obvious at first sight but abrasions and contusions to the neck, knees and chest. A few blows but well chosen. Lesions to the wrists, duct tape marks on their faces. They’d been bound up good and tight.
‘The bullets are at the lab and we’ll have a match in the morning. They will be from the same gun though. No doubt about it. Be the same with the rounds they found at George Square. The Temple had everyone jumping through hoops. He called for every bit of CCTV he could, on the motorway and in the services. The Harthill cameras picked up the pair running and falling so we were able to work out the direction of the shots and have crawled over every inch in a straight line but got nothing. They’re going to try again tomorrow.’
‘What about the motorway cameras?’
‘Bits and pieces. They’ve got the white van at different times along the road and at a couple of places in town. No shot of it going into Livingstone Tower though.’
‘So have they got any kind of pictures of the driver?’
‘I can’t really say.’
‘What do you mean? You don’t know?’
‘No, I mean I can’t say. Won’t say, if you prefer it that way.’
‘You are fucking kidding me. I’m on the team.’
‘Nope,’ Addison corrected him. ‘You are with the team. Big difference. If you don’t like it you can go back to photographing broken windaes.’
‘Fucksake, Addy. I don’t like it but I don’t suppose I’ve got much choice.’
‘You don’t. I’ll tell you some stuff, some stuff I won’t. Time you went and got those pies.’
‘Wanker.’
‘That’s Detective Inspector Wanker to you. Get me a burger as well, I’m starving.’
Winter told him what he could do with his burger but they both knew he’d buy it even though he was pissed off at him. Winter wanted every bit of info he could get and Addison was his best chance of it. Shit, he thought, if he was going to be this much hard work then Rachel was going to be a fucking nightmare. She was so wrapped up in the secrecy about them being together that she was paranoid about the need-to-know shit. As far as she was concerned, he didn’t need to know. Addison was just enjoying pulling his chain.
Winter made it back before the second half started, his hands filled with two pies, a burger and a couple of Cokes. Addison enthusiastically helped lighten his load.
‘So were you winding me up when you said you couldn’t tell me about having pictures of the van driver?’ Winter asked him.
‘Maybe.’
‘So are you going to tell me?’
‘Nope.’
‘Okay, so what’s his game then?’
‘Eh?’
‘You said you knew what the fucker’s game was.’
‘Oh aye, that.’
‘Aye, you know?’
‘Aye. ’
