Stuart MacBride - Shatter the Bones

‘We’re doing her for possession, resisting arrest, and assaulting a police officer.’

The social worker took the clipboard back from Logan, squinted at his signature. ‘Loren McRoy? That not a girl’s name?’

‘Logan, and it’s McRae, not McRoy.’

‘God, your handwriting’s worse than mine. Lucy Woods, nice to meet you.’ She headed towards the stairs. ‘Might as well get it over with.’

‘Trisha? Can you hear me, Trisha? She squatted in front of the stick-thin figure. ‘Trisha? It’s Lucy. I’ve got to take wee Ricky into care while you’re with the police tonight, OK?’

Trisha swung her head around, like a lump of pasty concrete attached to a chain. Pupils like tiny bugs, heavy lids, mouth open, lips connected by little strings of drool. ‘Whmmm?’

‘I said I’ve got to take wee Ricky into care. While you’re in custody?’

A frown crawled slowly across Trisha’s pale face. ‘Who’re…?’

‘Lucy. Lucy Woods? From the social?’

The frown turned into a glacial smile. ‘But I’m comfy here.’

The social worker sighed, looked up at Logan. ‘Heroin?’

‘Probably. They tried to redecorate the toilet with it when we forced entry.’

‘Oh Trisha, you know it’s not good to you. Makes you do bad things.’

Trisha blinked. It seemed to take a lot of effort. ‘Don’t let them take Ricky! Don’t…’ She pointed a bony finger at the PC standing in the corner. ‘He tried to rape me!’

Sigh. ‘How much did you take, Trisha?’

‘He did! He tried to rape me!’

‘That’s a woman, Trisha.’

Frown. ‘Oh…’ A string of drool spiralled its way to her sunken chest. ‘Someone tried to rape me…’

Logan folded his arms. ‘She’s been like this for about an hour. Was fine before that.’

‘Yes, well, it takes a while for drugs to be absorbed by the system, especially if you practice as much as Trisha.’ Lucy Woods sat back on her heels. ‘Might be an idea to get her up to A amp;E for the night, just in case.’

Which was a pain in the arse, but much better than her dying from an overdose in custody. ‘I’ll get someone to run her up.’

‘Good.’ The social worker stood. ‘We’re going to take care of wee Ricky for you, OK Trisha?’

Blink. Blink. She smacked her lips. ‘No…’ Frown. ‘Mum. Mum’ll take him.’ Blink.

‘Your mum? Thought she was still in Craiginches?’

‘Someone raped me…’ And this time, when her eyes closed they didn’t open again.

‘Craiginches?’ Logan watched the social worker shake her head, check Trisha’s pulse, then haul herself to her feet.

‘Where’s the wee lad?’

‘Other bedroom. She going to be OK?’

‘I took over her case when she was thirteen. She’s averaged about two ODs a year since. Better have the hospital pump her stomach too: never know what she’s swallowed.’

Wee Ricky was huddled in the corner of the room, eyes darting back and forth as Logan followed the social worker inside. Clothes lay strewn across the scabby beige carpet, a line of syringes and flame-blackened spoons on the bedside cabinet.

One of the Forced Entry team was leaning back against an ancient-looking sideboard, black crash helmet sitting beside her while she flipped through a copy of Hello! She slapped it down on a pile of celebrity gossip mags.

Even drug dealers and addicts had aspirations. ‘Sarge.’ She nodded at the boy. ‘Watch: he bites.’

The child bared his teeth, a small growling noise coming from his throat, filthy fingers clutching a plastic Buzz Lightyear like a claw-hammer.

‘Ricky?’ Lucy Woods lowered herself down in front of him, waistcoat groaning. ‘You remember me, Ricky?’

The kid stared at her for a moment, then nodded. ‘Good. We’re going to take you to stay with your granny tonight, OK? While your mum’s not feeling well.’

Logan hauled the pool car around onto Abbotswell Crescent and into a labyrinth of blank grey granite houses, silent in the dawn’s pale glow.

Wee Ricky sat in the back with PC Guthrie, the constable looking every bit as wary and worried as the three-year-old.

Lucy Woods tapped on the passenger-side window. ‘How much do you think that lot’s worth then?’

Bunches of flowers wrapped in cellophane made a slick that nearly covered the pavement outside a nondescript semi-detached. Teddy bears were tied to the knee-high fence, along with angels, unicorns, and other assorted cuddly toys. Candles in glass jars flickered among the tributes, their light fading before the rising sun. A banner with, ‘JENNY, WE’LL NEVER STOP BELIEVING!’ was tied to stakes in the front garden. A smattering of the posters they’d given away with the Scottish Sun at the weekend: ‘ALISON AND JENNY? NEVER GIVE UP!’ stuck to walls, stapled to sticks.

A handful of people sat at one end of the display, wrapped up in sleeping bags and heavy parka coats, two of them were still awake, smoking cigarettes and sharing a Thermos. They stopped to stare at the pool car as it drifted by.

One raised a hand, gave a short wave of solidarity, then went back to their vigil.

The social worker nodded back. ‘Course they never had anything like the X-Factor , or Britain’s Got Talent , or Big Brother , when I was young. Could’ve made it if they had. Been properly famous.’ She turned her head as the public display of grief faded from the rearview mirror. ‘That could be me…’

Bloody hell.

Logan glanced at her, then back at the road. Some people should watch what they wish for.

‘You sure this is a good idea?’ Logan looked around the living room, trying to find somewhere even vaguely clean to sit.

The sound of a dog scrabbling at the kitchen door, claws raking the other side of the wood. Deep growls and the occasional outraged bark.

‘I’m not supposed to take a kid into care unless there’s no other option.’ Lucy Woods picked a CD from the littered coffee table, the shiny surface glittering in the overhead light. ‘If we can place them with a member of the family we will. Means the kid doesn’t get dragged through the system.’

‘Yeah, but…’ Logan lifted his foot, but the carpet didn’t want to let go.

‘Trisha’s mum might not be perfect, but at least she’s blood.’ The social worker wrinkled her nose and dropped the CD back into the mess. ‘Fleetwood Mac.’

A voice at the door behind them: ‘What the fuck’s wrong with Fleetwood Mac?’

Lucy Woods snapped on a smile. ‘Hi Helen. He go off to sleep OK?’

‘What she do this time?’ Helen Brown lurched into the room, swigging from a tin of Tennent’s Super, one leg stiff at the knee. Her face was every bit as thin as her daughter’s, the same dark hollows under her bloodshot eyes, the same yellowy teeth spaced wide in pale gums. Pupils the size of pinpricks.

She was wearing a pale-grey long-sleeved T-shirt, tugging the cuffs down every time she looked in Logan’s direction. Probably hiding the trackmarks.

He shifted away from the sticky patch. ‘She’s just helping us with an investigation.’

Trisha’s mum howched, picked up a scummy mug and spat into it. ‘Hooring, or drugs?’

‘I can’t-’

‘You fucks is all the same.’ Another swig of extra-strong lager. ‘Hassling folk doing no harm to no one.’ A dribble of liquid ran down her chin, dripped and made a clay-coloured stain on the long-sleeved T-shirt. ‘Fuck is it to you if she’s making a few quid down the docks? Not like she’s robbing auld wifies’ pensions, is it?’

The social worker cleared her throat. ‘So, Helen, how are you coping? Doing OK?’

‘You fuckers should be out there!’ She jabbed a finger at the closed curtains. ‘Looking for that wee girl and her mum. Not arresting my Trisha for giving someone a blowjob!’