Stuart Macbride - Blind Eye

The constable opened a part-glazed door into the main building, and shouted, 'Anyone home?'

A disembodied voice replied, 'Hello? I'm in the kitchen.'

Logan followed Karim into a large room dominated by a big wooden table and units that had seen better days. Possibly during the Crimean War.

There was a man sitting at the table, in front of an open laptop. Early forties; bouffant hair starting to grey at the temples; thin, blue cardigan over a black priest shirt; glasses. 'Constable! How nice to see you again. Did you manage to catch him?'

He stuck out his hand, and Karim shook it, smiling.

'Not yet, Father.'

'Oh, that's a pity… Still, I'm sure you're all doing your best.' He half rose from his seat and offered Logan a handshake too. 'Have we met?'

'DS McRae. Are you Father Burnett?'

'Guilty as charged. Now why don't you both grab a pew and we can have a chat.' Logan and PC Karim sat, listening to the kettle grumbling its way to a boil while Father Burnett went hunting through the fridge.

'Trouble is, we've got an open-door policy, and people will insist on leaving the milk out. Ah, excellent…' The priest emerged with a plastic carton of semi-skimmed. 'Where was I?'

Logan pointed at a framed photo on the kitchen wall: it was Father Burnett, in full vestments, standing in front of Sacred Heart, Torry.

'Right, right. Well, it's been in pretty poor repair for years, but we've finally got the money together to have the place done up properly. So, while it's closed for refurbishment, I came down here to lend a hand. Be four months next Friday.'

Teabags, hot water, milk. He waggled a mug at Logan. 'That about the right colour for you?'

'Perfect. What about your congregation?'

'Ah, therein lies a tale…' He brought the teas back to the table, followed by a tin of Marks & Spencer fancy biscuits. 'Last year we started doing Mass in Polish, twice a week — thought it would make our European friends feel more at home, if they could attend services in their native language. Help them integrate. Trouble is, pretty soon they'd only go to the Polish Masses, so instead of helping them get to know the locals we ended up with a segregated Catholic community that didn't mix at all.'

He slurped his tea. 'Long story short, when we shut Sacred Heart for refurbishment, we thought we'd give it another go. We do the Mass half in English and half in Polish, four times a week.'

'Working?'

'So far. We're packed to the rafters. Literally. You'd think more people would go to the Cathedral, but… well, their loss is our gain.' Father Burnett helped himself to a chocolate biscuit. 'Parishioner of mine brings in a tin every week. Just between you and me, I think they're the spoils of shoplifting, but she's in her eighties, so what can you do?' He offered the tin around again. 'But I'm guessing you didn't come here to talk about Polish integration and pilfered biscuits?'

'Actually,' said Logan, 'we sort of did. Since the Poles started coming to Mass here, have you noticed anyone who's stopped turning up? Someone who used to go to Sacred Heart all the time?'

Frown. 'Can't say that I have.'

'Lives with his mother? Father's dead? Probably used to work in a bar, or a hotel, or on a building site?'

Father Burnett put his tea down. 'What's this about?'

'You've heard of Oedipus?'

'Greek tragedy: murdered his father and slept with his mum — a bit like Fraserburgh-'

Karim sat up in his chair. 'Hey!'

'No offence. Then he gouged his own eyes out with a spoon.'

Logan pulled out a set of photographs, laying them on the table. Each one showed a victim's face, the eyes hollow, scar-ringed sockets. 'I think whoever did this was an active member of Sacred Heart.'

The priest stared at the pictures, then crossed himself. 'Dear God…'

'Has anyone said anything. You know, in confession?'

That got Logan a stern stare. 'The confession is sacrosanct, Sergeant. I couldn't tell you, even if I wanted to.'

Logan picked up a photo at random. 'Luboslaw Frankowski drank himself to death six weeks after this was taken. His health visitor was off sick for a fortnight. When she got back, Luboslaw had been dead for nine days. Alone in his flat in the middle of June… The smell was unbelievable.'

Father Burnett winced. Then sighed. 'I know it's hard to accept, but I can't break the confidentiality of the confession.'

'So if someone came in here, told you he'd blinded seven people then set fire to the sockets… you'd give him what: three Hail Marys and absolve him of all blame?'

'Well,' the priest put the lid back on the biscuits, 'I'd do my best to convince them to go to the police and hand themselves in. But it's immaterial, because no one's confessed to anything like this. And while I couldn't tell you if they had, I can tell you that they haven't.'

A buzzing noise sounded in the hall and Father Burnett glanced up at the CCTV monitor sitting on top of the fridge — a view of the courtyard outside, slowly panning from left to right. 'We get a lot of people peeing in the courtyard after the pubs shut…'

The top of a bald head came into view, standing at the front door.

Father Burnett scraped his chair back and stood. 'Would you excuse me for a minute?'

Logan waited until he heard the front door open and the mumble of muffled conversation, then turned to PC Karim. 'You believe him?'

'Don't see why not. He's a nice enough bloke. Last time I was here, it was a break-in. Someone kicked in a connecting door from the choir loft and ransacked the place. Caught the Father in the bath. Poor sod had to talk his way out of it wearing nothing but bubbles and a smile. Anyway, he's a priest: you can trust him.'

'Thousands of choirboys might beg to differ on that one.' Logan wandered over to the window and looked out on a walled garden. Rose trees at the bottom, a baptismal font in the middle, and a snowdrift of empty carrier bags in the corner. 'If Oedipus really was a member of Sacred Heart, why doesn't Father Burnett recognize the des cription?'

'Too vague?'

'Sorry about that.' The priest was back, a brown paper bag in his hands. He unloaded a collection of glass jars and stacked them in one of the cupboards. 'Golabki: stuffed cabbage leaves. I love this stuff — got a taste for it when I worked in Krakow. Mr Woloskowski brings me some every time his nephew comes to visit.'

Father Burnett closed the cupboard door. 'They're good people, Sergeant. They come over here looking for a better life for their families, they work hard — and yes, I know some of them like to get a bit drunk and rowdy — but deep down… Look if someone's targeting them I want to help. OK?'

'OK.'

Father Burnett gently shepherded them out into the hall. 'I'll put the word out at Mass this evening. See if we can't rustle up some information for you.'

He stopped at the threshold and shook both of their hands again. But he held on to Logan's. 'I know this probably isn't my place, but I do actually know who you are. I read about you and the Flesher case last year.'

Logan opened his mouth to protest, but the priest carried on regardless, 'And I know you probably don't want to hear it, and you're obviously not a Catholic, but if you ever want to talk, please: you have my number.' By the time they got back to the station, the briefing room was empty, just a whiff of stale coffee and cheesy feet to show it had been packed with CID and uniform less than fifteen minutes before. Logan abandoned PC Karim at the main desk and headed up to Finnie's office. Might as well get it over with…

Pirie was there, scribbling things on a whiteboard already crowded with photos, diagrams, and notes: Operation Oedipus in all its going-nowhere glory.

Finnie looked up from a report as Logan closed the door.