Craig Robertson - Random

End up, Reaper locks his jaws on this big bleeding hole in Bandido’s chest and rips it open. Had to see it.

Dunn’s dug is dragged back to his corner. Useless by this time, but this Bandido right, he had to have one last look across the pit at Reaper. Man, its eyes were all glazed over but it still needed to stare down Kirky’s dug. It was still looking at Reaper when Charlie Dunn put a bullet through its brain. Poor dug. Shows the bastards love those beasts though. Enough to put them out of their misery.

Some night though, man. Some fight. Classic.

It was about six weeks after the fight between Bandido and Reaper when Ally got word to go to the Star Bar after hours. The call came with just half an hour’s warning but that was hardly unusual. Fights can be organized months in advance but everything’s got to be kept hush until the last minute. Davie Stewart had left a message on Ally’s mobile saying that Reaper was going for win number four. Ally was beside himself at the thought. Reaper would be just one win away from being a grand champion. Magic.

He was let in to the Star by some shady on the door. He got a nod and headed for the basement.

Down the stairs and there was Kirky. No one else. Just Kirky. Kirky standing with a foot resting on Reaper’s cage. Just Kirky and Reaper.

Ally had been asking Kirky questions. Lots of them. He asked them because I had pushed him to do it. Persuaded him. Conned him into doing it.

He had asked Kirkwood and his boys about The Cutter and if they had any idea who he was. He probed them for anything they might have known.

Ally wasn’t the sharpest tool. I’d known that. It was part of how I was able to get him to think I was so into all the newspaper stuff about The Cutter. Oh and I was buttering him up big style when he came back with answers. I was well impressed with his inside knowledge. I lapped up his stories. Puffed him up and made him keen to come back with more.

And every time I got him to press Kirky and his boys for more info on what they knew about The Cutter and how close they were getting to catching him, I pushed him a step closer to his death. Ally asked too much and didn’t do it with the guile it needed. Kirky saw it for what it was and he wasn’t a happy man. He had brought Ally to his lair and was about to show him the finer arts of Reaper’s fighting skills. First hand.

I imagined Ally joking at first. Thinking he was early for a change. Thinking maybe he’d got a special invite. He’d soon have realized he hadn’t. The look on Kirky’s face would have told him that. Kirky would most probably have let Ally babble on. Let him blurt out his guilt. Except of course, Ally had no guilt to spew. He had nothing to tell that would save him.

Kirky would have stamped on the roof of Reaper’s cage, both to attract Ally’s attention and to rouse and irritate the dog. Ally wasn’t so daft that he wouldn’t have got that message. He’d have been sure what Kirky was threatening. But he’d still have been incapable of telling Kirky that he was the one that killed Spud Tierney and the others. And that was the only thing Kirkwood wanted to hear.

Kirky might have opened that cage but kept a grip on Reaper’s collar. Last chance Ally.

No chance at all.

End up, Kirky would have seen that he had no choice. He’d have let go the dog and it would have been on Ally in a split second. Four stones of fighting machine. Amazingly strong and agile. Reaper would have flown at Ally, knocking him off his feet and going for the throat. Jaws like a vice. Gripping Ally and mauling at his neck. It would have been hungry to please its master.

That dug kept going back for more because it loves big Kirky. And Kirky loves that dug.

Maybe Kirky had only meant to send out another warning, maybe he had hoped Ally would eventually have talked about why he had asked so many questions, maybe he just didn’t give a fuck.

Maybe Reaper was just more than either of them could cope with once he got a hold. You can’t break a pit bull’s grip. Hit it over the head with a baseball bat and still you can’t shake it.

Either way, Ally was never seen again. Word got out of course, no point in doing it otherwise. Win number four for Reaper. A grand champion. Not one bit of Ally McFarland was found. Probably never would be.

I had killed him. Every bit as much as I’d killed Carr, old Billy Hutchison, Tierney and Sinclair. And Wallace Ogilvie.

I had never regretted any of them before. Even in the darkest moments when I looked at myself in the mirror. Even when the demons came calling. I’d done what I had to do for her. This was different though. Ally McFarland was guilty of nothing more than being a daft boy. If it wasn’t for me he’d still be alive.

I sat quiet in front of the television, taking nothing in. All I could hear from the screen was Ally McFarland’s voice. I saw that big black Labrador cross outside our house and all I could think of was Reaper with its jaws locked round Ally’s throat.

Made me think and that wasn’t something I was comfortable with. Made me think about the others, made me look at things. For the first time in nearly seven years I had feelings other than hurt.

Carr. Hutchison. Tierney. Sinclair.

Guilt. Remorse. Penitence. Regret. Shame. Only shades of each but it was there.

All except Wallace Ogilvie, of course.

But there was something else. Fear.

It occurred to me that there was just one thing that Ally could have told Kirky. He could have told him who had got him to ask all the questions. He could have given up my name. But I was fairly sure he hadn’t done that.

After all, I was still breathing.

Still, maybe it suited Kirkwood to wait. To let me wonder. To let me pish my pants. To give him time to conjure up something worse than death for me.

Maybe.

The Herald. Tuesday, 28 April 2010. Page 3.

By Gregg Morrison Detective Sergeant Rachel Narey, the officer who has been leading the hunt for the Glasgow serial killer, has been replaced as the principal officer on the investigation. Strathclyde Police have denied that DS Narey has been removed from the case and have maintained that the officer with overall responsibility for the case was, and remains, Detective Inspector Lewis Robertson. However, they have confirmed that DI Frank Lewington of Nottinghamshire Police has been seconded to the investigation and will assume much of the day-today responsibility for the inquiry. He will be joined by five other officers from Nottingham but all will be answerable to DCI Robertson and beyond that to Strathclyde Chief Constable Andrew Chisholm. A force spokeswoman said that DS Narey will still be a senior member of the investigation team but that the emphasis of her role has shifted and that she will no longer be tied down by the everyday routines of the inquiry. DS Narey was initially the second officer in charge of the so-called Cutter murders but was given lead responsibility after being contacted directly by the killer. It was felt she had established dialogue with him and that it would prove beneficial if she was in charge of the case. A senior source at Strathclyde Police says that it is felt that dialogue has now run its course and is no longer an asset in trying to track the murderer. DI Lewington, in a statement released through Strathclyde Police, said that he was determined to bring a fresh approach to the case and was convinced that the murderer would be caught. ‘I am grateful for the chance to be involved in this investigation and to build upon the excellent work already carried out by my colleagues in Strathclyde. I and the other officers from Nottinghamshire will hopefully bring a fresh set of eyes to the investigation of these horrendous killings. DCI Robertson and DS Narey and their team have worked long and hard to catch the killer and we will do everything we can to take the inquiry on from here. ‘We will be relying heavily on local knowledge but we will also bring a fresh approach and fresh ideas to bear. The people of Glasgow can rest assured that no stone will be left unturned to catch the person responsible.’