Stuart MacBride - Birthdays for the dead

I nodded. OK. Flying from Aberdeen or Edinburgh?

Gillis s smile grew wider. Funny you should ask that

Can you slow down, please? Dr McDonald tightened her grip on the grab handle above the passenger door, knuckles white. Eyes screwed tightly shut.

I changed down, burying the accelerator pedal into the Renault s carpet. Yes, it was childish, but she d started it. Outside the car windows, a residential road blurred past, skeletal trees raking the grey sky. Drizzle misted the glass. Thought you were supposed to be a psychologist.

I am, and it s not my fault air travel terrifies me, I know it might seem illogical, statistically you re more likely to be killed by an electric toaster than die in a plane crash in the UK that s why I never make toast but I can t She gave a little squeal as I swung the car around onto Strathmore Avenue. Please! Can you slow

You ve no idea how fast we re going: you ve got your eyes closed.

I can feel it!

My phone rang. Hold on I pulled the thing from my pocket and thumbed the green button. What?

A man s voice: We ve got another one

Dr McDonald snatched the phone out of my hand. No, no, no! She held it to her ear, listening for a moment. No, I will not put him on: he s driving, are you trying to cause an accident, I don t want to die, why do you want me to die, are you some sort of psychopath that you want random passengers to die in car crashes, is that your idea of fun?

I stuck my hand out. Give me the phone back.

She switched the thing to her other ear, out of reach. No, I told you: he s driving.

Give me the bloody phone!

She slapped my hand away. Uh-huh Hold on. She looked across from the passenger seat. It s someone called Matt, he says to tell you you re a rotten bastard. Back to the phone again. Yes, I told him Uh-huh Uh-huh I don t know.

Matt who?

When are we going to be back in Oldcastle?

Who the hell is Matt?

He says, while you ve been poofing about in Dundee, the ground-penetrating radar s turned up what looks like a third set of remains She tilted her head to one side, frowning as she listened. No, I m not telling Constable Henderson that Because it s unnecessarily rude, that s why.

Well, at least that explained who Matt was: the head of Oldcastle s Scenes Examination Branch always did have a mouth like a sewer.

Another body.

Don t let it be Rebecca. Let her lie quiet and safe in the ground until I get my hands on the bastard who tortured her to death. Please.

I threw the car into a right. Ask him if they ve ID d the second body yet.

Constable Henderson wants to know if you ve ID d Uh-huh No I ll tell him. She looked at me. He says you owe him twenty pounds, and

For God s sake: did they get a bloody ID or not?

Left onto another street of prison-block tenements.

He says they re still excavating the remains. She held a hand over the mouthpiece. Apparently the Procurator Fiscal insisted on putting some forensic archaeologist in charge of the dig, and he s turning everything into a big production.

I took the next left, then left again into a cul-de-sac with three-storey blocks of flats on one side and grey bungalows on the other. Just after ten on a wintery Monday morning and most of the homes were in darkness. Here and there the occasional window glowed in the drizzly gloom.

Sodding hell. We ve got company.

A grey Transit van, with the SKY News Logo emblazoned down the side, sat at the kerb, its roof bristling with antennae and a satellite dish. It was the only outside broadcast unit in sight, the other vehicles were the usual crappy assortment of Fiats, Vauxhalls, and Fords beloved of tabloid and broadsheet reporters.

I parked in front of the L-shaped block at the end of the road the one with a uniformed PC standing outside in the rain, crossed arms resting on her swollen belly. A light above the main door made her fluorescent-yellow jacket glisten.

I hauled on the handbrake, then killed the engine. Stuck out my hand. Phone.

Dr McDonald dropped the mobile into my palm, as if she didn t want to risk her fingers actually touching me.

Matt: tell Archaeology Boy to get his finger out. This is a murder investigation, not a fucking slumber party.

But

I hung up and slipped the phone back in my pocket. How can you be afraid of flying?

It s not natural. And I m not afraid of flying. She undid her seatbelt and followed me out into the drizzle. I m afraid of crashing. Which is completely logical, when you think about it, it s a survival mechanism, perfectly rational, everyone should be afraid of crashing, what s strange is not being afraid, you: you re the one who s strange.

I stared at her. Yeah, I m the one who s strange.

We had to show our IDs to the rain-soaked lump standing guard outside the small block of flats. A dark fringe poked out from underneath her bowler, plastered to her forehead by the drizzle, her chubby face stretched into a permafrost frown.

I nodded back towards the clump of journalists. None of them had bothered to get out of their nice warm cars. One had rolled down their window to stick a telephoto lens out, but other than that it was a hotbed of apathy. Giving you any trouble?

The constable bared her top teeth. Like you wouldnae believe. You going up?

No, we were going to stand out here in the drizzle, bonding. I looked up at the redbrick building. The McMillans in?

Yeah. But watch yourself, they ve got a journo up there. She stood to one side. And we re no exactly flavour of the day.

When are we ever? I held the door open and ushered Dr McDonald inside.

She just stared at me. Erm

This was your idea, remember? I wanted to go back to Oldcastle, but no, you said

Can t you go first?

Fine. The stairwell smelled of musky perfume and frying onions. A collection of pot plants was expiring on the first landing, the carpet beginning to go bald at the edge of each tread. The sound of a television turned up too loud.

My shoes scrunched on the steps, as if someone had put sand down to stop the carpet getting too slippery. The second landing was a lot like the first more dying pot plants, a couple of plain doors painted reddish-brown, a stack of unopened Yellow Pages sitting on the windowsill still in their clear plastic wrappers.

Dr McDonald s voice echoed through the stairwell from somewhere below. Is it safe to come up?

Safe? I looked around at the mouldy pot plants.

No, the whole place is full of rabid Ninjas. Pause.

Of course it s bloody safe! I grabbed the balustrade and hauled myself up to the top floor.

A pair of doors led off to separate flats: a welcome mat sat outside one of them, a grubby brown rectangle on the gritty carpet. The word McMillan was hand-painted in wobbly childish lettering on a wooden plaque above the bell.

I leaned against the wall and waited.

Three minutes later, Dr McDonald poked her head around the corner, looking up at me. You don t have to be so sarcastic, you know, it s not like I m trying to annoy you, I just have certain concerns with unfamiliar enclosed spaces.

It was a miracle she was allowed out unsupervised.

I knocked on the door.

It was opened by a police officer wearing the white shirt-and-tie outfit that every beat cop had abandoned years ago in favour of Darth-Vader-black. His long nose was speckled with spider-veins, his dark eyes spaced wide on a narrow forehead. A set of silver sergeant s bars shone on his black epaulettes as he had a good look at Dr McDonald, then turned and sniffed at me. You Henderson? Let s see some ID.

Officious little prick. I flashed my warrant card again. You Family Liaison?

A nod. Cool: thanks. Sorry, but the amount of bloody journos trying to wangle their way up here kidding on they live in the flats, or they re relatives, friends of the family He hooked a thumb over his shoulder. Parents are in the lounge with some tabloid gimp.