Close to the Bone

tiny video game handset. ‘OK, I’m going to have to ask you to calm down, or I’m going to have to call security.’

‘THEN CALL THEM! If they’d been doing their bloody jobs this wouldn’t happen. This is supposed to be a secure ward!’

‘This is a secure ward.’

‘Oh, it is, is it? ’ Logan grabbed him by the collar and hauled him over to the bed. ‘Look underneath. Go on, LOOK!’

‘OK, OK. . Sheesh. .’ He dropped down on one knee. ‘What am I looking for? ’

‘The bones, you halfwit!’

The nurse reached beneath the bed, fiddled with something, then stood. Agnes Garfield’s talisman lay in the palm of his hand. ‘Is this supposed to be some sort of joke? ’

‘A joke? ’ Logan snatched the bones and held them up, dangling them on the end of their ribbon. ‘Where did they come from? ’

‘The only people who’ve been through here since I got on shift are the nurses, the consultant, and the bloke who fixed the printer. And they’ve all got security badges.’ He folded his massive arms and brought his chin up. ‘So I think you owe me an apology.’

Logan poked him in the chest again. ‘What about the catering staff? The people who came round with lunch? Or did they just magically teleport cauliflower cheese in from the canteen? ’

The nurse took a step back. A frown pulling his features inwards, one hand reaching for the call button. ‘Cauliflower cheese. .? ’ He looked left, then right. ‘Why would they bring food in here? I mean. . it’s the coma care ward. Everyone’s on drips and tubes.’

Logan blinked. Turned to stare at the bed again.

Samantha lay flat on her back, arms over the covers. The breathing tube fixed to the hole in her throat hissed slowly in, and out. A feeding tube in her nose. Both eyes taped shut. Her hair was a faded lacklustre red with eighteen inches of brown roots. Skin the colour of yoghurt, tattoos standing out like graffiti on a church wall.

He cleared his throat. ‘Yes. . It’s. .’

‘Are you feeling OK? ’

‘No. Of course.’ Logan ran a hand over his eyes. Samantha was perfectly still, lying in the same position she’d lain in for the last two years. ‘Look: when did they last clean the room? Agnes Garfield must’ve been in since then. We can pull the security-camera footage.’

The nurse shook his head.

‘What? ’

‘The cleaners mop the floors, empty the bins, wipe down the surfaces, stuff like that. They don’t sod about with all the hydraulic bits and bobs under the bed unless they’re doing a deep clean, or, you know, something’s happened.’ A shrug. ‘Could’ve been there for weeks.’

Three witch’s finger bones, dangling away beneath Samantha’s bed. Working their dark magic. Keeping him from finding Agnes Garfield.

Right.

Logan took a deep breath. Stared at the floor. ‘Look, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-’

‘Yes, well. .’ The nurse nodded. ‘I suppose, if I’m honest. If it was my girlfriend — if she was stuck in here, in a coma for a couple of years — I’d probably be squirrelly about it too.’

44

‘I see. .’ Superintendent Napier steepled his fingers and peered over them at Logan. His hair glowed like the top of a Duracell battery, his long thin nose twitching as he smiled. ‘And you feel this was sufficient reason to ignore our appointment? ’

The Professional Standards office was quiet, just the buzz-click of an oscillating fan stirring the motes of dust drifting through a shaft of sunlight. The other two desks were clean and tidy, their owners disappearing as soon as Logan turned up. Leaving him alone with the Ginger Whinger.

‘I was acting on information received at short notice. What did you want me to do, ignore evidence of a serious crime? ’

‘What I want, Acting Detective Inspector McRae, is for you to turn up when summoned at the appointed time. Not an hour and thirty-four minutes late.’ He patted the ends of each pair of fingers in turn, forward then backwards, slow and methodical. ‘And you’re certain we’ll find cannabis farms at these locations? ’

A little sacrificial offering to confuse the issue.

‘As I can be.’

Unless, of course, Wee Hamish Mowat, or his green-haired minion were lying to him.

‘I see. .’ There was a pause, while Napier stared at Logan like a pathologist examining a dead body. ‘And I understand you took the time to pop past Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.’

‘I discovered one Daniel Fisher on my way to my appointment with you, someone had just shattered both his ankles. I escorted him to hospital, where he informed me Anthony Chung had been responsible for stealing cannabis from the McLeod brothers and set himself up as an independent wholesaler. Then I went to check on Dil. . On Timothy Mair’s condition. His doctor says he’s got a punctured lung, but he should make a full recovery.’ Logan nodded at the sheet of paper, sitting in the middle of Napier’s desk. ‘It’s all in my report.’

‘Ah yes, our unfortunate Trading Standards Officer. Funny you should mention that. .’

Logan paused in the corridor outside his office, fingertips resting on the handle. There were voices inside, muffled by the closed door, but still recognizable.

Rennie: ‘No, really, I’ve got-’

Steel: ‘Pin your lugs back, ’cos I’m no’ saying this twice. You’ve got to make your mark in this world. You’ve got to drag your arse across the carpet of life like a dog with worms.’

Worms?

Rennie: ‘Yeah. . I know it’s a lovely thought, but-’

Steel: ‘Stand back, point at all them streaks and say, “That was me!” You see what I’m saying? ’

Rennie: ‘Erm. .? ’

Nice though it would be to leave them to it, Logan dragged the door open.

Steel stood behind the desk, fake cigarette jutting out between her teeth. She had her hands clamped around Rennie’s shoulders, kneading them like badly behaved bread. He sat in Logan’s chair, eyes pinched, eyebrows up, hands flinching with every taloned squeeze. Mouthing the words, ‘Help me.’

Logan dumped his report on that morning’s fiasco in the middle of his desk. ‘Sorry to interrupt your foreplay, but some of us have work to do.’ He pointed at Rennie. ‘You: bugger off and do something productive for a change.’

A pained smile broke across Rennie’s face. ‘Oh, thank God. .’ He scrambled out of the seat and bolted from the room, leaving the door swinging in his wake.

Logan pushed it shut. ‘Worms? ’

Steel had a quick dig at her underwire. ‘You wanted me to mentor him: I’m mentoring him.’

‘There’s a difference between mentoring someone and traumatizing them.’ Logan sank into the vacated chair and grabbed the first interview transcript from the pile in his inbox: DI Leith’s meetings with the homebuyers who’d been to view the house where Anthony Chung had turned up tortured and dead.

Steel crossed her arms and leaned back against the windowsill. ‘Let me guess, suspended without pay? ’

Logan flicked through the transcript. ‘Slap on the wrists. Apparently Napier thinks it was “irresponsible to involve a civilian in the attempted apprehension of murder suspect known to be violent”.’

‘Aye, well, the copper-topped Nosferatu’s got a point.’

‘What was I supposed to do, let her go? ’