‘That’s not poor judgement is it?’ asked Hanlon, leaning her head down. Their mouths met again hungrily, and she ran her hands over McCleod’s amazingly curved, soft body, feeling her respond to her touch.
When they were finished, McCleod was lying in the crook of her arm. Hanlon felt warm, drowsy and content. She stroked the other woman’s long, fine hair and stared up at the ceiling, one of the few places that wasn’t untidy. It felt wonderful to be sharing a bed with someone. She brought her mind back to duty and resumed where she had left off earlier.
‘Big Jim is involved, even if innocently, in the deaths of two women. What was the post-mortem report on Franca, by the way?’
‘Death by drowning… she had enough cocaine in her to fell a horse as well. It’s not entirely surprising she fell off the jetty.’
‘So that’s going down as an accident too?’
‘Yes,’ McCleod said.
Hmm, thought Hanlon acidly. Funny that. I wonder why Murdo Campbell wants to close down any investigation that might involve the Mackinnon Arms. As if I didn’t know.
‘Anyway. Back to Murdo. Kai has a connection in the police—’
‘According to a Paisley publican!’ McCleod’s voice was scornful. ‘Murdo is a pain in the arse, but I cannot believe he’s on the take. You’re havering!’
Hanlon noticed that McCleod’s accent got stronger when she was cross. She delivered the last nail in the coffin as far as Campbell’s innocence went. The events of earlier that day up in the hills.
‘And today, I saw Murdo meet with Kai…’
She explained how she had followed the bar manager to the croft, the conversation that she had overheard.
McCleod’s face grew more and more sombre. She could ignore Manny’s claims about a policeman on the take, she could ignore a sex party, but this couldn’t be explained away.
‘Jesus,’ muttered McCleod, ‘it looks like you might be right… I would never have believed it of Murdo, never… He’s so clean-cut.’
‘Clean-cut!’ Hanlon said. ‘He hangs out at Big Jim’s sex parties!’
‘It just goes to show how little you know people,’ McCleod said sorrowfully. Hanlon shrugged.
‘I never liked him,’ she said.
‘I did,’ countered McCleod. ‘And I knew him,’ then she softly added, ‘or thought I did. I just can’t imagine him at a sex party…’
‘Anyway, this next meeting prior to the drugs delivery. The meeting is on Thursday – hopefully they’ll discuss where and how. The delivery, which is Friday, is your chance to make arrests. I know it’ll be tricky going behind his back…’
‘Tricky? It’ll be a nightmare… Can you imagine that conversation with the Assistant Chief Constable?’ She shook her head.
‘Could you not hide a recording device in the bothy?’ Hanlon said. ‘He’s meeting Kai there on Thursday, we know that. Then we would know for sure what was happening.’
‘No, I could not,’ said McCleod, ‘you should know that, not on this evidence, which is all pretty circumstantial.’ She sat up in bed and took a large mouthful of wine. ‘And if you think I’m going to my superiors with this… It’s career suicide. They won’t just want to shoot the messenger, they’ll want to fucking eviscerate me. I’ll be posted to Tiree.’
‘What if,’ Hanlon said slowly, ‘what if I recorded their conversation? Three kilos of cocaine are coming ashore on Jura soon, Catriona, three kilos. Three thousand grams at, say, fifty to seventy pounds a gram, maybe double that if the coke is pure and it can be heavily cut. It’s not a little coke deal in a back alley.’
‘Go on,’ McCleod said thoughtfully.
‘Well,’ said Hanlon, ‘I’ll place the recording device, pick it up in the evening, and tell you the gist of it. Then you can go to your superiors, a tip-off from a reliable informant, you’ll think of something… and organise a bust, bypassing Murdo.’
‘Well…’ McCleod said thoughtfully, ‘It can’t do any harm. It doesn’t leave much time…’
Hanlon was getting annoyed. ‘Jesus, you can’t have everything. Besides, it won’t require much in the way of resources; maybe a boat, maybe a helicopter.’
McCleod nodded. ‘Well, we’ll see.’
Hanlon continued, ‘Kai will talk if you lean on him. His lawyer will advise he cooperate. Murdo doesn’t strike me as a frightening man. Kai won’t be shit scared of consequences if he rats him out, I’m sure, in return for reduced charges.’
‘What if they don’t go into details at the meeting?’ McCleod said.
Hanlon was beginning to get annoyed by all these objections, McCleod’s pessimism.
‘They’re meeting specifically to discuss details. They don’t want to risk phones or e-mails. Good old-fashioned, untraceable, deniable conversations. They’re not going up into the hills for a picnic.’ She looked into McCleod’s narrow brown eyes. ‘And OK, let’s say they say nothing of any use, they talk about the weather, or fishing, or sex, or football, well, we’re none the worse off, are we? You’ll just have to keep an eye on your corrupt boss until he gives you another chance. Or Kai attacks another woman.’
‘OK, OK.’ McCleod said, ‘We’ll do it your way. But I still find it hard to believe that Murdo Campbell is on the take. Although, from what you say, it is beginning to look that way.’
‘What other explanation can you give, then?’ She drank some more wine.
‘Good point. So, what do you think exactly has been happening?’
Hanlon ignored the question. Instead, she asked, ‘Can you find out who the arresting officer for Kai’s Paisley busts were?’
‘Surely,’ McCleod said.
She got her laptop from where it lay on the floor under the denim jacket and some socks, the one Hanlon had stepped on earlier, and switched it on. Fortunately, it was still working.
‘I’ll e-mail a friend of mine in Paisley Area Command. He can find out.’
‘Anyway,’ Hanlon said while McCleod’s fingers ran over the keyboard, ‘here’s what I think happened. I think that Kai was dealing coke in Paisley and got chased out by Tam and his
