Stuart MacBride - A Song for the Dying

I gave him a smile and a little wave.

Then Wee Free McFee’s voice rasped in my ear. ‘ What? ’

‘We’ve just arrested someone.’

A small pause, then: ‘ Who. ’

‘We’re not allowed to say, yet. But he had trophies from the victims in his car. I just wanted you to know before it was on the news.’

‘ Where’s Jessica? ’

‘That’s what we’re trying to find out.’

Clunks and rattles came down the line, as if Wee Free was grabbing something. ‘ You get that bastard and you take him somewhere nice and quiet. And I will- ’

‘We can’t. It’s not the wild west, Mr McFee. There’s not going to be a lynching party. We’ve got him, and we’ll break him.’ Deep breath. ‘But it might take a bit of time.’

Rain rattled the naked beech trees.

I shifted my feet. ‘Hello? You still there?’

‘ You thought I’d be so grateful you’d caught him that I’d just let you have your fat mate back, didn’t you? Just like that? OK, which bit would you like — how about that ear I promised you? ’

‘I just need more time.’

‘ Tick-tock, tick-tock. You find my daughter, or I start slicing. ’

‘… completely unacceptable.’ Superintendent Knight jabbed a finger into the boardroom table. ‘That poor little lad’s mother, is devastated .’

I stared at him.

He tugged at the tails of his dress uniform jacket, stretching the gap between the buttons. ‘Clearly the Lateral Investigative and Review Unit is unfit for purpose, and-’

‘Oh really ?’ Jacobson was on his feet, fists pressed against the polished wood. ‘I don’t know if you noticed, but LIRU just delivered the Inside Man into custody! If that’s not fit for purpose, what is?’

Alice sat at the far end of the table, hunched over a sheaf of paper, twiddling with her hair. Ignoring everyone.

Knight puffed out his chest. ‘That doesn’t excuse the revolting lack of common sense displayed in leaving a known paedophile alone with a small child! For God’s sake, Simon, what were you thinking leaving someone like him,’ the finger jabbed at me this time, ‘in charge of a team?’

‘He’s-’

‘At the very least they should have had a police officer with them. Someone who could follow bloody operational procedures!’

Jacobson bared his teeth. ‘Charlie Pearce’s death-’

‘Was entirely preventable!’

Silence.

Alice looked up from her papers. ‘I can understand your need to lash out, Superintendent Knight, it’s a perfectly normal psychological defence, but counter projective identification isn’t healthy.’

He blinked at her. ‘What?’ Then threw his hands in the air. ‘You see, this is exactly what I was talking about!’

‘Your anger over what happened to Charlie Pearce helps reduce the anxiety you feel about hiring Dr Docherty to consult on murders and abductions he was actually responsible for. Going on the offensive, instead of accepting the blame for your actions.’

Knight opened his mouth a couple of times. Pink rushed up his neck and into his cheeks. Burned at the tips of his ears. ‘I hardly think that’s the same thing.’

Jacobson grinned. ‘Oh, I think the high heedjins will think it is. Actually, they’ll probably think it’s a lot worse.’

‘That’s not-’

‘Alice was standing up to Docherty, questioning his judgement, and there you were: backing him up and shouting her down.’

‘That’s a gross misrepresentation of-’

‘Hold on.’ I dunked the head of my cane off the tabletop a couple of times. ‘What was it you said about Frederic Docherty being what a professional forensic psychologist looked like? Then something about amateur outfits and Police Scotland not tolerating incompetence?’

Knight shut his mouth. Licked his lips. Took a deep breath. Then marched to the end of the table and stuck his hand out for shaking. ‘I owe you an apology, Dr McDonald … Alice. Obviously Docherty had everyone fooled. I would never have involved him if there’d been the slightest hint of malfeasance.’

Alice put down her highlighter pen and took his hand. Which was big of her. I’d have snapped the thing off and rammed it down his throat. She nodded as they shook. ‘Thank you.’

‘He’s been manipulating the investigation ever since the beginning. Even Henry Forrester was taken in by him. Really, no one could’ve known.’

My unofficial phone chimed in my pocket. Text message.

Boxer — reel name Angus Boyle

Flat 812, Millbank West, Kingsmeath

And a mobile number. Noel Maxwell wasn’t quite as big a waste of skin as he looked.

Ness stepped back into the room and slipped her mobile into her pocket. ‘That was Manchester. The lipstick, earrings, and underwear in Docherty’s suitcase are from a series of rape-murders they’ve had on their books for six years.’ She perched on the edge of the meeting table, next to the triangular conference-call unit, and looked me up and down. ‘Seems you and Dr McDonald were right about him.’

‘Has he said where Jessica McFee is?’

‘Docherty’s still in with his solicitor, being schooled in the art of “no comment”.’

I printed the details from Noel’s text in clear biro letters on one of the conference pads. Tore the sheet off and handed it to her. ‘Angus Boyle, AKA: Boxer, works as a nurse up at CHI. We think he’s the one who sold Docherty the drugs.’

Ness took a deep breath, head on one side as she read the address and phone number. ‘Will he say that in court?’

‘Might if you cut him a deal.’

She narrowed her eyes and squinted at me for a couple of beats. ‘Thank you, Mr Henderson. Looks like the stories about you might actually have been true.’

Alice stood up straight. ‘I’d like to advise on the interview.’

That got her a thin smile. ‘Ah, yes…’ Ness glanced at Jacobson. ‘It’s not that we don’t think you’d do a terrific job, but you’re too close. And his defence will use the fact you kicked him in the balls to question your judgement and our impartiality.’

‘But he’s manipulative, he knows what you’re going to ask him, he can make it sound like-’

‘Thank you, Doctor, but we have to be beyond reproach on this. I’m not letting some slimy weasel lawyer get him off on a technicality.’

‘Oh…’ Her shoulders drooped.

I limped over to the window. The blockade of lenses and microphones was growing thicker. ‘OLDCASTLE DIVISION CATCH THE INSIDE MAN’ would be all over the news tonight, and in every paper tomorrow.

Assuming Docherty was capable of doing the decent thing and putting his hand up to it.

I turned my back on the press. ‘What about DNA?’

Knight grimaced. ‘He’s had access to every crime scene since the third victim, and every bit of evidence we’ve ever gathered. He’s even attended the post mortems. Finding his DNA’s not worth the spit it’s in.’

‘Then you stick him in a room with nice thick soundproof walls, and you give me twenty minutes with an extension lead.’

Ness pinched the bridge of her nose. ‘Mr Henderson, which part of “by the book” are you having trouble with?’

‘The part that ends up with Jessica McFee dead.’

And with her, Shifty.

A knock at the door, then Rhona stuck her head into the room and waved at Ness. ‘Boss? Docherty’s solicitor says he’s ready to make a statement. You want me to put it on the thing?’ She pointed at the flatscreen TV mounted on the side wall.

‘I want to hear this in person. Superintendent Knight?’

Knight rolled his shoulders. ‘I don’t trust myself to be in the same room with the little bastard right now.’