Ken McClure - Eye of the raven

‘ Now you know why,’ said Steven.

‘ Do you know why you were attacked?’ asked Sue.

‘ I think I’m being framed,’ said Steven.

‘ For what?’

‘ An assault on a young woman in an Edinburgh sauna.’

‘ Oh dear,’ said Sue. ‘I’ve heard about these places. Sounds messy. Is it going to make the papers?’

‘ I hope not but there is a chance,’ said Steven.

‘ I just hope it doesn’t make the nationals then,’ said Sue. ‘Jenny thinks you’re the nearest thing we’ve got to Batman when it comes to fighting crime. I take it the police realise that you’ve been set up?’

‘ That could be another problem,’ said Steven.

‘ Oh double dear.’

‘ I’m a bit short of friends all round at the moment.’

‘ Well, you know you can always rely on us,’ said Sue.

‘ I do and I thank you for it.’

‘ When do you think we’ll see you?’

Steven thought for a moment. He thought about the look on the kids’ faces when they woke up and learned that they weren’t going swimming after all. ‘Tonight,’ he said.

‘ But you’re in hospital!’ said Sue.

‘ Not for much longer. I’ll drive down later today and take the kids swimming tomorrow.’

‘ If you’re sure?’

‘ I’m sure.’

Peter McClintock arrived just after eight when Steven was breakfasting on tea and toast.

‘ Well, well, well.’ He said, standing in the doorway for a moment with his arms folded and a smug smile on his lips. ‘You English blokes certainly know how to party.’

‘ Don’t you start,’ complained Steven. ‘I’ve had just about all I can take.’

‘ Looks like it too,’ said McClintock, coming closer to take a look at Steven’s cuts and bruises. ‘So what happened?… Not that I’m going to believe a word of it.’

‘ I left the hotel about six last night to drive down to Dumfriesshire. There was someone waiting for me in the back of the car. Shit! I should have realised when I found it unlocked but I didn’t. He held a chloroform rag over my face. After that I don’t remember anything until I came to in the gutter outside one of Verdi’s sauna parlours.’

‘ Not quite the same story the sauna staff are telling,’ said McClintock.

‘ Come on,’ protested Steven. ‘You know damn well that Verdi is behind this. He was warning me off.’

‘ It’s your word against theirs.’

‘ You do believe me, don’t you?’

McClintock took his time before saying, ‘I’m not the one you have to convince and Verdi’s not the only one you have to worry about right now. Santini smells blood. He figures it’s payback time. The word is he’s going to send the papers up to the Fiscal’s office today with a recommendation that you be formally charged.’

‘ Vindictive little bastard.’

‘ He speaks kindly of you too,’ said McClintock.

Steven told McClintock about the needle mark on his arm. ‘I should get the biochemistry report later today. Do you think you can at least stall him until that comes through?’

McClintock looked doubtful. ‘Santini would like to see you suffer the same sort of embarrassment he reckons you’re putting the local force through. I’m not sure that he’ll listen.’

‘ Even if he knows that I’m not guilty and I’m not.’

McClintock shrugged.

‘ Well, at least I know where I stand,’ said Steven. ‘Do you think your forensic people will go over my car or will I have Sci-Med appoint an independent lab?’

‘ I’ll get on to McDougal this morning unless of course, you still have doubts about our lab’s competence?’

‘ No,’ replied Steven. ‘There’s nothing wrong with McDougal.’

‘ What are they looking for?’

‘ Evidence of chloroform having been used plus anything else they can come up with on the guy who was in the back.’

‘ Is that it?’

‘ Tell me about these saunas,’ said Steven.

‘ Saunas!’ snorted McClintock. ‘Everybody knows they’re knocking shops but it’s council policy to leave them alone. The city prides itself on its liberal policy towards sex for sale. As well as the saunas the whores can work the streets unchallenged in certain designated areas. It suits everyone except the poor buggers who live there but then if you are going to have winners, you have to have losers. That’s the way it goes.’

‘ And Tracy Manson?’

‘ Not known to me but I can ask around if you like.’

‘ Please,’ said Steven.

‘ On thing’s for sure,’ said McClintock as he got up to leave. ‘You certainly got under Verdi’s skin. Makes you wonder why.’

‘ I hope it makes a lot of people wonder why,’ said Steven.

‘ Where’s your car?’

‘ I’m assuming it’s still in the car park at the hotel. If it’s not, I’ve no idea.’

‘ Better give me details,’ said McClintock.

Steven asked McClintock to hand over his jacket and he took out his wallet to find the hire car documents, which he handed over adding, ‘I’ve been told not to leave town.’

‘ Routine,’ said McClintock.

‘ I’m going down to Dumfries to see my kid.’

‘ Naughty boy,’ said McClintock.

‘ Can I expect the cavalry to come calling?’

‘ Leave me a contact number,’ said McClintock. ‘I’ll do my best to head them off at the pass.’

‘ Thanks. I owe you.’

Steven left hospital just after eleven, having been given the all-clear about head injuries and having arranged that the biochemistry report on his blood be e-mailed to him as soon as it became available, with a copy going to Peter McClintock at Fettes Police Headquarters. He took a taxi back to his hotel and saw that his car was not in the car park. He didn’t know if this was because the police had already removed it or whether it hadn’t been there when they’d come for it. He decided not to ask; he’d let them sort it out. He pulled up his collar to hide his facial injuries and looked to the side as he walked through the lobby before going directly to his room where he called down to make arrangements for another car. He called Sci-Med to tell John Macmillan what had been going on.

‘ Anything broken?’ asked Macmillan.

‘ Just my pride,’ replied Steven. ‘But there’s another problem. Chief Superintendent Santini, the man who’s been bending ears in your neck of the woods, sees this as a chance to get back at me for poking around in his dirty linen cupboard. He’s all for prosecuting me for assaulting the sauna girl.’

‘ Damnation,’ said Macmillan. ‘What the hell does he think he’s playing at?’

‘ Who said policemen aren’t human?’ said Steven dryly.

‘ I’ll do what I can to apply pressure from this end,’ said Macmillan.

Looking at his face in the bathroom mirror, Steven decided that he might need some cosmetic help to hide the worst of his bruising otherwise Santini might dig up an additional charge of frightening the horses. He had two black eyes, a stitched cut above one of them and severe swelling under his left cheekbone. His bottom lip was swollen where two of his teeth had gone clean through it. For the moment, he decided that a scarf worn around the lower part of his face — if he could lay hands on one — would suffice. He put on a pair of sunglasses before nipping down to the hotel shop where he found he was able to buy a navy blue scarf and a woollen hat — albeit with Scottish lion rampant motifs on them. Self-consciously wearing his new disguise, he made one other stop at a shop in the nearby Gyle shopping centre where he bought presents for Jenny and Sue’s kids — books on the sea and what lay beneath. The assistant on the till eyed him suspiciously; unable to decide whether he was a film star trying to avoid recognition or a shoplifter on a mission. She asked a series of auxiliary questions involving his postcode and mother’s maiden name before finally accepting his credit card.