Stuart MacBride - Shatter the Bones

TOM shrugs. Then SYLVESTER points over his shoulder, ‘Throwing up.’

‘Oh for Christ’s sake.’ She nods. ‘Get him.’

‘But-’

‘ Now !’

Robots, arguing. ‘OK, OK…’ SYLVESTER hurries out, feet scuffing on the floor.

‘Get her on the table.’

TOM grabs her by the collar and waistband of her jammies and hauls her off the ground. ‘Wriggle and I’ll bloody drop you on your head, understand?’

She stays very still. ‘Good girl.’

Good Little Girl.

Thump — TOM dumps her on the table. Holds her there with a heavy hand in the middle of her back.

WILLIAM, the lady monster, stands over her. ‘Stop crying. If you behave yourself it’ll all be over soon.’

The door clunks.

Jenny blinks away the tears. It’s SYLVESTER, back with another monster. This one has ‘COLIN’ written on his chest. He’s carrying a little plastic box.

WILLAM doesn’t look at him. ‘Get on with it.’

COLIN clears his throat. ‘I… Erm… Look, it’s just… I mean, do we have to? Can we not just send the papers another photo or something?’

‘You saw what they’re saying on the news.’

‘But I’ve never done… She’s just a little girl.’

‘I know what she is. Now do your bloody job. Or do you want me to tell David you won’t? Is that really what you want?’

‘But I-’

WILLIAM grabs him by the front of his crumply white suit. ‘What fucking good are you if you can’t do a simple bloody procedure?’

‘But amputating isn’t just… There’s the risk of infection, MRSA, septicaemia, blood clots, shock, what if-’

‘Pull — your — fucking — weight.’

She lets go and he steps back. Stares down at his blue feet. Then nods.

‘You need to roll up her sleeve.’

Fire bites her shoulders as TOM twists her arm, dragging her jammie sleeve up to her armpit.

Please no. Please no. Please no.

COLIN puts the plastic box down on the table. Opens it. She can see shiny sharp things sparkling inside. Then he takes out a tiny jar and a jaggy needle. He goes back in for a little foil packet, tears it open and pulls out a little tissue. Wipes it against the inside of her elbow, it makes the skin go all cold.

Then he fills up the jaggy needle. ‘I’m sorry…’

A hard scratchy feeling, then a stabbing pain, like being stung by a bee.

Another wipe. ‘We need to give it a minute.’

She blinks.

The bee sting doesn’t hurt any more. ‘I still don’t think-’

‘No one’s asking you to think , Colin.’

Blink. Blink.

She’s in the playground on the roundabout, spinning faster and faster, round and round, trees and houses and monsters whooshing past. Blurry plastic faces, muzzy booming Cybermen voices. Fuzzy warmth spreading between her ears.

She blinks, but her eyes won’t open again.

‘So why did she have your name written on her?’ Chief Inspector Young sat back in his seat and surveyed Logan over the expanse of his desk. The Professional Standards office was empty, except for the two of them: three desks; framed diplomas and handshake photos on the walls; a case of legal textbooks and policing manuals; and the clinging reek of spearmint.

Young had rolled up his sleeves, exposing a pair of huge hairy arms. But then he was big all over, like a rugby player or a professional boxer. Or a mob enforcer. Pale scar tissue made ripples across his knuckles. Definitely not the sort of man you’d want to fuck with.

Logan puffed out his cheeks. ‘Best guess? Someone thought she wouldn’t remember who to ask for otherwise. But the idiots didn’t even write it upside down so she could read it. Mind you, given how off her face she was…’

The Chief Inspector drummed his fingertips on the desktop, the tendons and muscles dancing beneath the fur of his forearms. ‘And tell me, Sergeant, why did she think you’d hand the drugs over to her?’

‘Because she’s an idiot too?’ Logan shrugged. ‘She’s convinced the people her boyfriend bought the stuff from are going to hurt him if he doesn’t come up with the money. What else is she going to do?’

‘Hmm…’ Young stopped making thumpitta-thumpitta noises on the desktop. ‘And have you put anything in place?’

‘Well, Shuggie’s wanted on drugs charges from the Thursday morning raid, and it’s pretty obvious he’s still in contact with Trisha. So I’ve advised DI McPherson to put her under surveil-lance.’ Another shrug. ‘It’s his case.’

‘I suppose … there’s always hope.’ Young started drumming again. ‘We’ve not seen you up here for a while, Logan. I think Superintendent Napier’s missing you.’

‘Really, sir?’ He glanced over his shoulder at the Arch Bastard’s desk. All neat and tidy, everything carefully arranged in straight lines.

The Chief Inspector looked off into the middle distance. ‘Tell me … how’s Acting Detective Inspector MacDonald getting on?’

Silence.

Logan shifted in his seat. ‘In what way, sir?’

‘Is he settling in all right? Getting on with his colleagues? Can be very stressful, suddenly moving up from DS to DI like that.’ Young wouldn’t make eye contact.

‘I’m sure he’s coping fine.’

‘Good. Good.’ A pause. ‘What with the McGregor case and everything…?’

‘Fine. Couldn’t be better. Doing a great job.’

Another pause.

‘Well, then I’ll let you get back to your sex offenders.’

Dodgy Pete’s wasn’t exactly what you’d call a watering hole for the bright young things. More a hospice: palliative care for alcoholics on their way to a booze-soaked oblivion. But it was a two-minute walk from the Munro House Hotel, and that was good enough for Steel.

The scuffed linoleum made sticky noises, trying to hold onto the soles of Logan’s shoes as he followed her over to the bar. It was busy in here for a change: a dozen people scattered in pairs about the low room, staring up at a widescreen TV mounted on the wall. The Aberdeen versus VfB Stuttgart live from Germany: two-nil to the home team.

The barman was huddled at the far end of the long hard-wood bar, holding a muttered conversation with a thin girl in cargo pants and a camouflage hoodie. There was something laid out on the surface between them, but Logan didn’t have time to see what it was before she snatched it up and stuffed it into the black rucksack at her feet.

Steel thumped her hand down on the bar and clambered onto a stool — the red vinyl held together with grey duct tape. ‘Hoy, Pete, stop perving up that young sex-pot and make with the drinkies.’

The huge man sniffed. Then turned and lumbered over, a red Aberdeen University sweatshirt stretched to ripping point over his belly. Pete ran a hand through his Santa-on-an-off-day beard, and squinted at the three of them. ‘Usual?’

Steel nodded. ‘And a couple brace of Grouse too.’

‘You paying for these?’

The inspector stuck out her bottom lip. ‘Pete, I’m shocked. Are you suggesting Grampian’s finest come in here looking for freebies?’

‘Bloody right I am.’ He grabbed a couple of pint glasses from under the counter, stuck one under the Stella tap, the other under the Deuchar’s IPA. Then sniffed in Rennie’s direction. ‘What about the sunburnt wee loon?’

The constable stuck out his chest. ‘I’ll have a pint of-’

‘He’ll have a Diet Coke.’ Steel pulled out her fake cigarette. ‘Driving, remember?’

‘But Guv-’

‘Give him a packet of prawn cocktail too.’

Dodgy Pete stuck the pint of IPA onto a curling cardboard coaster, then picked up a couple of short glasses and clunked a double shot in each from the Grouse whisky optic, making a great show of waiting till the little plastic container filled all the way up each time. ‘Anything else?’