Blood Lines (37 page)

I had told Joe and Moses about my initial suspicions regarding the porn video. They had jumped on it as a good enough reason to beat Girvan up, given half the chance. I had asked them to call me as soon as they had arrived at the location – I wasn’t looking forward to telling them that they only knew half the story, though.

Girvan was dressed in his suit; no doubt he had just left Bridget’s office to make this appointment. He carried a large sports hold-all, so he must have been intending to go to the gym after he left here.

‘I thought you said that Duncan Bancho was keeping a low profile on this one?’ Joe pointed to the garage, where an unmarked police car had just pulled up. He could spot them as easily as if they had flashing lights and a siren going.

‘Brodie?’ he carried on. ‘Why’s Bancho here?’

‘He’s not,’ I answered as Peggy Malone got out of the car. I wasn’t surprised. Although she was in civvies she stuck to a uniform, her skirt hugging her round hips and, as usual, her blouse looking as if it had shrunk in the wash. She couldn’t help wiggling and jiggling as she threw her arms around Robert Girvan.

‘That’s a lie for a start,’ whispered Louisa.

‘What do you mean?’ I asked.

‘Everything about her is wrong – look at her body language. She pulled out of that embrace as if he burned her. She’s using him; in fact, I’d say she manipulates a lot of people. Before you ask how I know, I’m not ashamed to admit I manipulate to get my own way. If I waited like a good girl for what I wanted, I’d still be in the queue long after the shop had shut. I admire a fellow artist, though I wouldn’t like to tangle with her.’

My phone vibrated.

‘It’s Duncan – the cat has left the house and I’m hoping she’s at the trap. We’re just round the corner. Can I come over?’ said a voice.

‘Only if you stop using that silly code stuff. Hurry up.’

No sooner had I closed my phone than two cop cars sped up from either direction, effectively blocking off the garage entrance. We ran out to join Duncan and his boys in blue.

Duncan shouted at Robert Girvan and Peggy Malone to stand still. She looked around, saw the rest of us, and made a split-second decision. She obviously thought she could still walk out of this. She ran out and threw her arms around Duncan.

‘I’m sorry for working this one on my own,’ she said breathlessly as she clung on to his hand. She was too concerned about saving her own skin to even bother about all of the potential witnesses around her.

‘I would have cut you in on this, Duncan, I just wasn’t sure where it was going.’

Bancho stared at Peggy as if he had never seen her in his life.

‘Margaret Malone – I’m arresting you for the murder of Tanya Hayder and the attempted murder of Alex Cattanach. You do not have to say anything, but anything you do say will be taken down and may be used against you in a court of law.’ He coughed. It was always hard arresting a fellow cop, but one you had been shagging was bound to be particularly difficult.

‘Take her in and book her.’

‘No comments!’ Bancho shouted at Jack Deans, who strolled up behind us. As usual, Jack paid him no attention.

‘Do you have any comments, Detective Constable Malone?’ he bawled at the police car as it sped off.

Robert Girvan was still pinned against the wall by an officer whilst his colleague opened the hold-all. Instead of dirty jock straps it was overflowing with used bank notes.

‘Book him and get him out of here quick,’ said Bancho. Jack’s arrival had hastened the departure of the police.

‘I owe you one, Brodie,’ Bancho said.

‘No hard feelings?’ I asked.

He waited before replying. ‘No, none – maybe now I’ll get the promotion you keep stopping.’ I waved to him as he disappeared, but couldn’t help wondering where my apology was.

‘Okay, I admit I was wrong about him,’ I said, whilst Joe tried not to look smug. He put his arm around me possessively as Jack Deans walked towards us.

‘I’m off to do my usual hanging around police stations hoping to get a scoop; and praying the defence lawyer won’t attack me,’ he said. A secret smile passed between us; we both knew the moment he was referring to. One night, outside St Leonard’s police station, he had been waiting in the rain for me. I was pissed off at having to represent Kailash and I’d clipped his dodgy knee with my briefcase. I still maintained it had been an accident, but neither of us believed it.

‘Before you go, Jack – how did you know to come here?’

‘Joe tipped me off.’

‘That was big of him.’ I looked quizzically at Joe, who was pretending not to listen.

‘Not really. The Big Man suggested that this was my ticket back to the big-time. I think he wants rid of me.’

‘And are you going?’

My heart already knew the answer.

‘I’d stay if I thought you would make it worth my while – but as long as Joe’s on the scene no one else has a chance, Brodie. It’s time you faced up to that too. Don’t throw it away. If he messes up again, call me. I’ll come running. That’s a promise.’

He took me in his arms and kissed me, before saying: ‘She’s all yours now, Joe. Mess up, and I’ll be back.’

Jack Deans walked slowly down the road towards Leith Links and out of my life.

For the moment.

Chapter Forty-Seven

Louisa had chosen the music and she was up dancing.

There was generally only a selection of pole-dancing classics and some ancient-sounding 1970s stuff here, so I couldn’t quite identify what it was – but she seemed to be having a good time. The Rag Doll was heaving but the regulars had made a very small space that served as a dance floor. Everyone was there: Grandad, Kailash, Joe, Lavender, Eddie and Malcolm. Even McCoy had come down for the night when he’d heard the news.

A lot of drink had been swallowed since DI Bancho had gone back to the police station. We were waiting on him and Patch to arrive so that we could complete the whole picture. In the meantime, Joe placed a laden tray on the table.

‘I’m sorry, Kailash,’ he said, ‘the Rag Doll doesn’t stretch to Hendrick’s and cucumber. You’ll have to put up with old lemon and tonic like everybody else.’

Kailash stared at him.

‘When will you learn that I am not like everyone else and neither is my daughter. You might not like it, but she’s mine. It really is a perfect case of nature over nurture – and if you can’t accept that, then you’d better give Jack Deans a call.’

I grabbed my whisky and pretended I hadn’t heard.

‘I’m proud of you, Brodie,’ my grandad said. ‘It was a hard one to get out of, but you’re as slippery as an eel and you managed it without my help. Explain to me again about Tymar Productions?’

‘It started before Tymar,’ I began. ‘It really began with the video. The camerawoman was Peggy Malone. I think I’d become so used to slippery genders that I didn’t even believe I’d heard a woman’s voice when I had. When Roddie told us that Robert Girvan had stolen my identity for Tymar, I started to wonder if it was him behind the video too.

‘Peggy knew Bridget Nicholson from way back; they’d been involved in a lesbian club for professional women in the late Nineties. Peggy always had that over Bridget. Peggy wasn’t bothered about promotion, she was in dependently wealthy, so she never cared that anyone could blackmail her. Especially since she’d always had more on them. She was the one who forced Bridget to take part in the video.’

I sipped on the golden water and let it warm my throat. It had been, as Grandad had said, a close call for me. Even speaking about it made my throat constrict – whisky was my answer to the globus hystericus.

‘Bridget introduced Peggy to Cattanach when they started seeing each other, and Alex fell head-over-heels for the cop. Peggy was the reason that they split up. She was insatiable, which is why she was never really bothered about whether she went with a man or a woman. As long as she was in control, she was happy. Staid Alex Cattanach was never going to be enough for her. It must have seemed like a godsend when McCoy contacted her about the video; only the video was meant to be used against Bridget.’

‘But Alex Cattanach had no interest in Bridget Nicholson by that time?’

I raised my glass in salute to my grandad. He caught on fast.

‘Correct. Alex Cattanach wanted to settle down with Peggy Malone, and she thought the video would bind them. She hadn’t even noticed that Peggy had a certain side to her, she was so blinded by lust. Cattanach eventually worked out what was going on with Tymar and her principles would not allow me to take the blame. That’s when Peggy attacked her.’

‘So when we were up at the MacPherson gathering, Alex Cattanach had gone up to Ruthven barracks to be betrothed – but in fact her lover almost murdered her?’

‘She’s a weird bitch, but she hides it well,’ I said in my own defence.

‘She couldn’t hide it from me,’ Louisa shouted above the din of the pub. Did her disability come with superhuman hearing?

‘Alex wasn’t pointing the finger at me by writing my name on the walls,’ I went on. ‘She was trying to exonerate me. I suppose I’ll have to forgive her rubbish tactics in view of her mental state.’

The door swung open and Moses entered. Patch walked in behind him. Louisa rushed up and hugged Patch; not even I did that. It was the first time that Patch had ever been inside the Rag Doll and, in deference to Patch’s strict religious views, Joe pulled the nearly naked dancer from the stage.

Moses had gone to the lab to wait on the results of the toxicology tests and he was clearly excited.

Patch waved a piece of paper. ‘It’s conclusive. There are traces of heroin on the notes in the hold-all and on the bag itself. Peggy and Robert had muscled in on Moses’ network of dealers.’

‘I only do recreational stuff, nothing hard,’ interrupted Moses as Grandad raised a disapproving eyebrow. I guess it did seem a little odd that a bunch of people involved in the law were all feeling sorry for Moses because his drug ring had been taken over.

‘I figure that Peggy saw that she could make money from Moses by pretending to be Duncan Bancho,’ I said.

‘The Angels spoke to the guy over the net – how were we supposed to know it was his fancy piece?’ Moses tried to defend himself for giving me plainly wrong information.

I took over again. ‘The closer Peggy got, the more she saw an opportunity. She had a ready supply of dealers given all the scum she dealt with at work; all she needed was the drug, which she brought in from Pakistan. Her mistake was busting Tanya Hayder. Tanya told me that a cop was buying prostitutes for drug runners. I assumed it was a man. Her client paid her in smack, but she knew he wasn’t kosher because she’s serviced a lot of trawler men. The hands and the smell weren’t right.’

‘How do you fit in?’ asked Patch.

‘The money needed to be laundered. Bridget introduced Robert Girvan to Peggy when she thought they were going to be partners. Peggy spotted Robert’s weaknesses and exploited them both. It was Roddie’s hatred of me that brought me into the equation.’

‘What are you going to do about him?’ Kailash asked.

‘He’d get a slap on the wrist and struck off for selling my identity; it would do the firm more harm than good,’ I had to admit.

‘So he walks?’ Joe asked.

I nodded.

‘Bridget Nicholson – what’s going to happen to her?’

‘She’ll never be a judge, but I don’t see any good coming out of persecuting her further; besides, I’m not sure exactly which crime she has committed.’

‘Girvan? I take it he’s going away for a long time?’ Eddie asked.

I nodded again.

‘Good,’ Eddie continued. ‘You’ll be needing an assistant – with a view to partnership, mind. I need to get a bit more organised, a bit more settled.’ Oddly, Eddie was the only one who hadn’t touched alcohol all night. It would take more than one night to impress me, however, although he wasn’t usually so assertive.

‘I’d like you all to raise your glasses!’ I thought it was a bit premature of him – I hadn’t given him a job yet. Eddie stood up, beaming. He seemed incredibly excited about the prospect of being my new assistant, even if it was only happening in his mind.

He hushed the pub.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, I would like you all to drink a toast to the future.’

I smiled. He wasn’t a bad guy and I did like a bit of attention.

Eddie smiled at Lavender who was nursing a drink – maybe she was joining him on the wagon.

‘To the future Mrs Gibb!’ Eddie announced, as Lavender looked on, happy enough to burst.

The deal was sealed.

I don’t think anything that had happened in the last few weeks surprised me quite as much as what was going on here. As I kissed Lavender I felt her bubbling over with joy. She pulled Eddie over beside her and whispered something to him.

‘Ladies and gentlemen – again!’ he shouted. ‘Just one more toast, then I’ll leave you all to enjoy the night …’ Bless him, he hadn’t forgotten me after all.

‘Raise your glasses, please, not only to myself and my beautiful wife-to-be, but to the forthcoming baby Gibb. Here’s hoping he or she gets their mother’s looks
and
brains.’ Lavender patted her belly proudly as Eddie put his hand over hers.

Bloody hell.

This was turning into some night.

As Joe put his arms around me, high on it all, I answered my mobile.

‘Is that Brodie McLennan? It’s Desk Sergeant Munro from St Leonard’s police station here.’

Sighing, I told him that I knew where he was stationed – just as he knew I had picked up my own phone. Some things never change, and this man was one of them.

‘I’m calling to advise you, Miss McLennan, that we are about to arrest Marjorie Diamond for the murder of her husband, Donna Diamond.’ He broke off for a second to curse with his fellow reception officers about the intricacy of it all.

‘Anyway,’ he went on, ‘whoever she is – was – the wife – woman – has asked for you. And DI Bancho has said that you should be kept informed of everything anyway. Get here as soon as possible because we want to process her quickly.’

‘Of course you do. You always do. There’s probably some game on telly tonight. Haven’t you heard? I’ve had quite a busy day myself, Sergeant Munro.’