A Deviant Breed (21 page)

‘I had the team back after work.’

‘Team?’ Elspeth repeated, scanning the room.

‘The others aren’t long gone,’ he explained, pouring her a glass and offering it.

‘And I was just about to leave.’

‘Yes – the haste, the coat, I got that.’  Elspeth took the glass from him and raised it to both of them in turn.

‘Good night, sir – Elspeth, nice to meet you.’

‘And you too, do call again – perhaps when I’m home next time, so that we can become better acquainted,’ she called after her.  Dunbar saw her to the door in silence. Tyler dare not look back even after she heard it close.  When he rejoined his wife she had reclined on the two-seater sofa, shoes off, feet up.

‘Why didn’t you call me?’ he asked, reaching for the wine.

‘Wanted to surprise you – and what a surprise.  She’s – well, what can I say?  Drop-dead-gorgeous.’

‘A looker,’ he agreed, topping up his glass.

‘Are you sleeping with her?’

He fixed her angrily.  ‘For God’s sake, Ellie – I thought we didn’t do this?’ It was both irritating yet comforting in a strange way.  She did care or she wouldn’t have asked.  He just wished she’d not act so blasé and show a little passion.

‘Me too, but I’ve never caught you in
flagrante delicto
before.’

He eyed her over his wine glass with no intention of qualifying her accusation with a response.

‘So are you?’ And please don’t tell me you don’t fancy her.  A blind man couldn’t help but fall for those charms.’

‘Her looks are irrelevant – it takes two and even if I had it in mind, it doesn’t follow that she’s interested.’

Elspeth smirked and sipped her wine. ‘Poor, Alec – you never notice the way women look at you, do you?  Every woman in that wine bar looked that night.  It’s why
I
had to have you.’

He shrugged, it was old ground and, if he was being honest, he did occasionally notice – but had not where Briony was concerned.

‘I could have warmed my hands on her face.’

‘She was embarrassed because of your – too-cool-to-rant routine.’

‘Would you rather I caused a scene?’

He shook his head, recalling the endless rows he had endured with Maggie
but
never once had Maggie given him cause to doubt how much she had loved him.

‘Just wondered is all, darling – I doubt many men could resist.’

‘Those vows we took, Ellie – I live by them.’

‘You’re an atheist, that’s like having your fingers crossed behind your back as you say them.’

‘It was a civil wedding – there wasn’t a minister but it doesn’t mean the oath I took held any less meaning for me.’

‘It’s all right – I wouldn’t blame you, darling, I just –’

‘I won’t cheat on you, Ellie.  If I ever get it into my head to have sex with anyone else, I’ll tell you first,’ he snapped.

‘
Fine!
But it would be the last conversation we ever had.’

Dunbar drained his glass and headed for the kitchen.  She was home; there would be no leaving the mess until morning.

‘Gordon Monaghan sends his regards,’ he said, as he exited the room.

‘Don’t tell me he dodged the noose again?’ she called after him.  When no answer came she followed. Dunbar was filling the recycling bins with empty cans.

‘How is he?’

‘Same as ever – still breathing unfortunately.’

‘He’s not all bad, Alec.  A strutting game-cock macho act, he’s a Godsend at any charity fundraiser.’

‘You only ever dealt with
him
– I deal with his victims.  Just tonight we were discussing a guy who is missing three digits ‘cos he owes money to a loan shark, Doc puts the squeeze on.  Called it an outbreak of leprosy.  Thinks he’s funny.’

Elspeth giggled and he fumed. ‘Oh come on, Alec, it is funny.  Sick! – but funny.’

***

He drained his coffee, scooped his coat off the breakfast bar and met Elspeth as she entered swiping her iPad feverishly and wearing only a silk nightshirt. 

She looked up and smiled seductively. ‘See you later.’

‘No desperately urgent meetings to dash off to?’

‘Conference call at five to nine but – so far so good.’

He wrapped his arms around her. ‘Lunch at Henderson’s?’

She frowned and felt his brow. ‘In the middle of a big case?  Are you unwell?’

‘I don’t get to see you that often,’ he complained.

‘Lunch, yes!
But not with you, I’m meeting Kitty Campbell.’ He gave an exaggerated shudder. ‘Don’t be horrid, poor love’s practically bipolar.  I blame Fergus; he’s the most selfish pig on the planet.’

‘Now
he is
horrible. Dinner?’ he asked.  She nodded. ‘Yes dinner?  Or yes, Fergus is horrible?’

‘Both!  Seven? – I’ll get into domestic-goddess mode and cook.’  He gave her a wide-eyed look and she dug him in the ribs, as he kissed her on the forehead.  She did that annoying, “
mwa- mwa”
thing as he edged past her, but after last night, he could forgive her.

‘You can even invite your pretty inspector.  I’ll try and make amends for last night.’

He stopped in the hallway and looked back at her.  ‘She’s nae
my
inspector
– she’s,
an inspector
.  I’ll be home by seven.’

‘The earlier the better – and let me know how many I’m catering for,’ she replied, already fixated by her gadget again.  He closed the door behind him and hopped down the steps.  Perhaps he should let her catch him in the company of Briony more often.  They had enjoyed their most passionate night in an age, and it had begun before they had even reached the bedroom.  Elspeth only ever had sex in bed, at least since they got married, but she had pounced on him halfway up the stairs.  The bed never featured at all.  It even carried on in the shower.  Fear of competition, or just to demonstrate what he would be missing were he so foolish as to stray?  He could not sure, but it had certainly spiced up the evening.

***

To his surprise, everyone but Falk was at their stations when Dunbar breezed in.  He checked his watch and nodded approvingly.

‘Anything in those logs from the roadblocks, Neil?’

‘Nahh’, school run mums an’ commuters mostly,’ DS Conroy responded, without looking up.

‘Falk not in?’

‘Early doors, boss. Passed me in the pool car as I arrived,’ DC Donald replied.

Dunbar looked around; Tyler was studiously fixed on her monitor and purposely avoided acknowledging him.  He smiled and went over to her desk. ‘Anything?’

She looked up, met his warm gaze and squeezed her eyes tight shut, then looked at him and chewed her lip before asking, ‘What must she have thought?’

Elspeth was right, she is beautiful.  ‘She thought you very beautiful, Briony.’

She felt her cheeks flush again. ‘Sir, I –’

‘It’s fine.  She likes to play the unflappable, corporate fixer.  She’s a lot sweeter than she at first appears.  In fact she wondered if you would like to join us for dinner tonight?’

Tyler was stunned, ‘Err’, not sure if I –’

‘No big deal, if you have other plans that’s fine.’

‘Raincheck?’ she suggested with a cringe.

‘Some other time then,’ he replied, quietly relieved he turned to go.

‘My Big Issue contact finally got back to me full of apologies for taking so long.’

He stopped. ‘Oh yeah?’

‘Kenneth Edward Murray, sixty-three, a former psychiatric nurse at Heathlands Secure Unit, near Wishaw.  It closed in 2004. Some of its former patients were dispersed to other facilities, some into the community.  Joined the Dumfries and Galloway Care in the Community Team.  Worked at various community placements in the area but lost his job after a tribunal, and appeal, for gross misconduct.  That in turn led to divorce and eventually homelessness it seems.  Dropped off the radar fifteen months ago and hasn’t been seen since, but had been frequenting a Big Issue sponsored hostel in Penicuik.’

‘Gross misconduct?’

‘Inappropriate relations with female patients on the scheme. Reading between the lines he was having sex with vulnerable female clients – very vulnerable clients, that’s what they call them now that they’re not confined to padded cells.’

‘And Wilson Farish was a paedophile according to Archie. Tentative link?’

‘Crossed my mind.’

‘Medical records – DNA?’

‘Working on it,’ she replied.  He nodded his approval. ‘You will tell Elspeth I –’

‘Don’t worry about it – she’s cool.’  He went through to his office.

‘Tell me about it – definitely caught a chill,’ she said, under her breath.

***

Falk tapped on his door. Dunbar looked up from his screen and waved him in.  He appeared both pleased with himself and tense at the same time and was carrying an evidence bag.  Falk placed it on Dunbar’s desk.

‘I’ve got Doc in the traps,’ he announced.

Dunbar froze and fixed him. ‘For what?’

Falk eyed the evidence bag.  Dunbar picked it up and held it at eye level.  It contained a bloodied finger, cut from somebody’s hand, just below the knuckle.

‘Found it under my wiper blade this mornin’.  Literally givin’ me the finger, the cocky bastard!’ he snarled.

‘And you’ve locked him up?’

‘Too fuckin’ right I have!  My kids could have found that.’

Dunbar sent his chair spinning away on its casters as he leapt to his feet. ‘We’re in the middle of a multiple murder enquiry and you let yourself get sucked into one of his sick little games?’ he snapped.

‘He’s the one playin’ games, boss, not me.’

‘
And your grounds for arrest?’

‘You heard him!’ Falk waggled the bag. ‘Lenders cuts – a wee bit o’ pruning, he –’

‘That’s it!?  He makes a wisecrack about leprosy in Gowrie, you find that and – what!?’

‘What’s that if it’s no’ hard evidence?’ Falk protested.

‘Takin’ the piss, that’s what I call it.’  Dunbar dumped the bag back down.  ‘Have you got proof that Doc put it there?’ He never gave Falk chance to answer. ‘No you haven’t – and you won’t ever come up with any.  Jesus, Falk, I thought you were smarter than this.’

Falk bristled and looked around self-consciously.  The whole office had fallen silent.  Everyone got suddenly busy, as the tough Glaswegian sergeant scanned the room. 

He turned back to argue his case with his boss. ‘He put it there!’

‘No way!  He’ll have done the cutting for sure but one o’ his numpties will have put it there. 
But!
  Knowing that and proving it are two very different things.’

‘It’ll be one of Chick Pea’s.’

Dunbar silenced him with a weary groan. ‘Christ Almighty, Falk!  Doc Monaghan’s many things, but stupid isn’t one of them.  I’d bet my pension that’s not one o’ Chick Pea Little’s missing fingers.’

‘I’ll find out whose it is then.’

‘
Ach!
Good luck with that.  Have ye ever known anybody dare grass him up?  In twenty years on the job, I haven’t.’

‘I’ll check the hospitals and –’

‘The Braur Glen enquiry takes precedence over this, Sergeant.  So you’ll ask someone from Division to do that.’  Dunbar dragged his seat back to his desk and sat. ‘You pissed him off last night, Falk.  He knows, just like we all know, that you could take him, whether he was tooled up or not.’  Dunbar snatched up the bag and waved it at his sergeant.  ‘Pissin’ him off cost some poor bugger a digit.’

‘Worth it though, just te see that twat in the cells again.’

Dunbar glared at him. ‘Tell that to the owner o’ this.’  Dunbar was more disappointed than angry.  ‘
Annnd,
he’ll no’ be in there long.  He never is.  I take it his brief’s on the way?’

‘Rennie himself.’

Dunbar reeled away and stood up again. ‘
Perfect!
  Can’t shake off that bootneck habit of takin’ the shot the minute the enemy gets in your cross-hairs, can you?  You’re not a soldier anymore, mon an’ Gordon Monaghan’s nae a quick skirmish.  He’s a whole bloody campaign on his own.’ He picked up the evidence bag and tossed it back to Falk. ‘Get this away for fingerprints, then, have them send it over to Donnie at the path lab, while I go an’ sort
your
mess out.’

‘But –’

‘Nae buts, Falk.  He walks – just like you knew he would the moment you snapped the cuffs on him this morning.  Who did you take with ye?’

‘A couple of uniforms.’

‘Who wouldnae dare argue with ye!  Well done, Falk.  Those poor bastards’ll be on the receivin’ end of the inevitable complaint as well now.’

‘
What!?
He cannae complain, he as good as –’

‘He baited the hook and you bit!’ Dunbar cut in again. ‘Unlawful arrest – and coming off the back of a brief spell on remand,
and
a very recent not guilty result – police harassment no doubt.  That’s what that snake Rennie will hit us with, and with that smug bastard’s clout, policing standards will have nae option but to follow it up.’