by Ed James
‘Sick?’
‘Aye. Took a header off the roof, didn’t I?’
‘You told me you were cleared.’
‘Well, thing is. Dr Yule was inspecting my injuries. Kenny landed on me and it hurts like hell.’
‘Man up, Sundance.’
He winces at the name. ‘Sir, I’m not even on duty today.’
‘You should know that Saturdays aren’t sacrosanct in CID. And I found you kipping under your desk, you drunken idiot.’
‘It’s not that, sir, I—’
‘Christmas party last night. I get it. Blackout. Hungover. Sleepy time.’
‘No, I’m catching a train back home. It’s a mate’s wedding tomorrow.’
‘Oh, right. Can we speak on Monday?’
‘Well, I’m finished up for Christmas now until January. Three weeks off.’
‘Christ. How the hell have you swung that?’
‘All that sick leave I was talking about? The annual leave stacks up if you don’t take it and I can’t roll it forward.’
Christ, Shepherd is a soft bastard.
‘The way you stayed with the doc, the way you protected her, the way you tracked Falconer down. That’s impressive work.’
‘Cheers, sir.’ But he’s looking impatient and ready to bugger off. ‘I was going to check in on Dr Yule.’
I raise a hand. ‘By all means.’
34
Cullen
A few hours ago, Cullen had been kissed to within an inch of his life in this room. He’d never been kissed like that. Not by anyone. Maybe he’d met his match.
Now, he was sitting with Dr Gupta, freaking out about what he might have lost. ‘Will she be okay?’
Gupta nodded his head, spreading out his double chin into at least another couple. ‘She’s going to be fine, aye.’ His west coast accent was sharp like broken glass.
Cullen let the held breath escape his lips. ‘Thank Christ for that.’
‘Nothing to do with any gods or demigods, I’m afraid. All down to you.’
‘Hardly.’
‘If you’d chased after her attacker, Helen would’ve lost the eye. As it is, she’s got a cut. A deep abrasion, mind, but only a cut. And her eye will be okay. ’
‘Seriously?’
‘Totally fine. We’re transferring her to the eye pavilion in the next ten minutes where she will get the best care. Her only risk is infection. Trust me.’
‘Mind if I speak to her?’
‘That will be tricky. Dr Yule is on some severely strong painkillers.’
‘But she’s awake?’
‘Aye.’
‘Please, can—’
‘Go on. But be quick.’
‘Will do.’ Cullen opened the door and stepped into the room.
Helen lay on the bed, the blankets up to her chin. Half her face was covered by a thick gauze. Hard to see anything. Her free eye settled on Cullen, then looked away.
A nurse stood there, hands on hips. Emma? Erica? Either way, it was the one who Cullen had a terrible date with. No doubt spreading more lies about him.
Her name badge read Anna.
Christ.
‘I’ll leave you to it.’ Nurse Anna gave Cullen the frostiest look as she passed. ‘Five minutes and the porter’s taking her to the ambulance.’
‘The eye pavilion isn’t here?’
‘No, Scott. They left it over by the old hospital.’ Anna shook her head and left the room.
Helen wouldn’t make eye contact with him.
‘How are you feeling?’
‘I’m finding it tough not standing by the side of the bed with a clipboard. And it’s tougher being the one in the bed.’
‘Understand that. Like when some wee ned nicked my phone a couple of years ago and I wasn’t a cop any more, just another pissed punter with a nicked mobile.’
‘Right. It’s a bit more serious than that.’
‘I loved that phone.’
‘Scott.’
Cullen huffed down into the visitor’s chair, trying to grin away the failed humour. ‘Dr Gupta said your eye will be okay.’
‘I’m less sure of that than he is.’ She patted the bandage. ‘But I’ll have a hell of a scar.’
Cullen smiled at that, but it soon frosted over. ‘Helen, I keep replaying what happened. I wish there was some way I could’ve stopped it. If he’d slashed me instead of you.’
‘But this is what happened, Scott.’
‘But I got you involved in it.’
‘What?’ She sat up in her bed. ‘No, you didn’t. I’m a doctor in A&E, Scott. My job is to literally be here. Accepting danger is as much part of my job as it is yours.’
Cullen rubbed at the back of his neck. ‘It was my job to secure Falconer, but I didn’t.’
‘No, because you were kissing me in my office.’
‘And what a kiss.’ Cullen raised his eyebrows. ‘I loved it.’
‘Thank you for staying with me. Dave Gupta said if you’d not carried me into the ward, I could’ve lost the eye. Or caught an infection.’
‘I really wish it hadn’t happened.’
‘But it did, Scott.’ She looked at him, her gaze piercing him. ‘When’s your train?’
‘Half six.’
She frowned at the wall. ‘That was an hour ago?’
‘I missed it. Going to drive up later. I needed to see you, Helen.’
She let out a deep breath. ‘Scott, I don’t think you and me is a good idea.’
‘What? Why not?’
‘I just don’t.’
‘Is it the nurses here?’
‘Anna was talking about you. They all do. The thing is, I’ve got trust issues. Maybe that’s being harsh, but you try going out with three different men who were shagging other women behind your back and see how you feel.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that.’
‘Scott, I just can’t handle going out with you. Not with the way you are. Not with the way I am. When I pushed you against the door? Aye, you’re a great kisser, but we both need to work on being better human beings.’
‘Can we try it together?’
‘I don’t think so, Scott.’
Cullen sat there. He could fight. He could charm. He could do any number of things. But maybe admitting defeat, letting her win, maybe that was the right thing to do here. Respect her.
He got to his feet. ‘I’m glad you’re okay, Helen.’
‘No hard feelings?’
‘None.’ Cullen smiled at her. ‘I’ll work on being a better person. And if you change your mind, you’ve got my phone number.’
She smiled and nodded.
Cullen left her to it and wiped the tear from his cheek.
‘You fuckin’ crying there, Sundance?’
Cullen swivelled around and caught Bain’s glare. ‘Dr Yule’s going to be fine.’
‘Aye, so I gather.’ Bain wandered over, hands in pockets. ‘Been wondering if this is the right thing, but sod it. Aye, of course it is. Earlier, when we were driving, what you were saying about your tenure? Well, there’s an opening in my team. Full DC role, tenured for five years, working for Sharon McNeill.’ He grinned wide. ‘Fuck me, I absolutely love Butch as a nickname. Have to call you Sundance, of course.’
Cullen tried to laugh it off. Best practise for a bully; don’t give them the satisfaction.
‘And I’d love to keep Butch and Sundance together as a team. While you have lots to learn, I think you have bags of potential. And you’ll have an ADC working for you too, like you are to that clown Hunter. It’ll give you a chance to develop management skills. Got this wee bastard starting, rough diamond who needs polishing.’
Cullen let the breath escape his lips, nice and slow. All the things he’d asked for, given to him on a plate. ‘But I let Kenny Falconer go.’
‘You’re one of those types, eh?’ Bain shook his head. ‘No, Sundance. Falconer stabbed Elvis with scissors, then knifed a doctor in the eye. You saved her. I can do with that kind
of hero on my team.’
‘I’ll need to think about it.’
‘Well, you’ve got the job if you want it. But I need the answer now.’
Cullen opened his eyes wide. ‘That’s the interview?’
‘Aye. It’s how I roll. Seen how you work, and you seem to be a match for the team. You want it? You got it.’
Cullen nodded as fast and hard as he could. Like saving Helen’s eye, it wasn’t really a choice. ‘I do.’
‘See you in the New Year down in Leith Walk, Sundance.’ Bain clamped a fist around his arm. ‘Maybe one day we’ll fuckin’ catch Kenny Falconer.’
35
Shepherd
Ten years later
Shepherd wound around yet another corner. One of those roads that couldn’t decide which direction it wanted to go in, so took all of them. And giant hills on both sides blocked any view of any landmarks. And the hills all looked the same. No trees, of course, this was the Highlands. Just sheep as far as the eye could see.
He kept an eye on the battery meter, hoping the range on his Tesla would get him there. Seemed okay, but it could dip.
The giant screen lit up as the podcast changed episode.
‘Welcome to the Secret Rozzer podcast.’ The voice was all distorted and mangled. ‘Coming up in this week’s episode, a story about young Sundance waking up under his desk after a work night out. Poor lamb had blacked out. But first, a word from our sponsors.’
Shepherd drove on, but he really couldn’t figure out why they’d put so much of this in the public domain. If you knew it was Cullen they were talking about, you knew he’d been getting no end of grief from his bosses. But it made him wonder what else they had on him.
And it made him relieved that he hadn’t confronted Cullen and Hunter last week. McKeown’s intervention led him down a nice path. Some old faces, some new ones too. But he’d gained so much.
Somehow Cullen had made DI and Shepherd couldn’t fathom why. Maybe there were successful stories he hadn’t heard in his time working around Scotland, away from Edinburgh. Maybe Cullen just knew the right people.
Wait, there was the wind farm, the turbines lazily swatting the thick air around. Next right, but it seemed to take ages to get to anything like it. The car, at least, barely rattled as he took the cattle grid slowly, but Shepherd felt it in his fillings.
A thin path led up between two monstrous hills, the kind you’d see for half the country if they were in the lowlands, but seemed average up here, drowned out by Munros and lesser mountains.
And there it was, nestled between two minor hills. Sundance Acres.
Shepherd pulled in and parked up in one of the three spaces. Not the first Tesla parked there. He grabbed his warrant card and got out to stretch. One thing about driving straight from Edinburgh is it made his whole body ache.
A door rattled open and small feet crunched over pebbles, with larger ones making a bigger dent.
‘You found it, then?’ Bain stood in a silver-grey Mogwai T-shirt, even though it was two-jumpers-and-a-jacket weather. Hands tucked into his jeans pocket. He looked fit and well, clean-shaven for once. He darted forward and scooped up a hyper-active toddler into his arms. ‘Why don’t you go and tell your mummy that our guest’s here?’
The girl squealed and skittered off.
Bain watched her go back inside. ‘Got a super charger if you need it.’ He tapped his own car, a Model X. At least twice the price of Shepherd’s.
‘That’d be fantastic, aye.’ Shepherd caught the nozzle and plugged it in. An hour and he could get going. If they needed that long.
Bain folded his arms across his T-shirt. Didn’t seem to be the sort to have even heard of the band. ‘Nice interior, though. Bit of an upgrade on mine.’ He leaned over to plug in Shepherd’s car. ‘Got to wonder where a cop gets the money for a Model 3.’
‘Want the truth or a lie?’
‘Whatever you’re most comfortable with, Luke.’
‘You must have an inkling.’
‘Oh aye, I do. And it’s why you’ve driven all this way. You’re not DS Luke Shepherd, are you?’
Shepherd smiled. Christ, Bain had been off the force over a year and he knew the deepest secrets. ‘Someone leaking in your boozer?’
‘Got it in one. And it’s DCI Luke Shepherd, right?’
‘Right.’
‘Working for Professional Standards and Ethics.’
‘That’s why I’m here, Brian. Time was, I’d have been investigating you, but now…’
‘Now, you’re looking into what the fuck Scott Cullen and Craig Hunter have been up to.’
‘Possibly.’
‘Well, you’ve come to the right place. Thanks to my little investment back in Edinburgh, I’ve amassed a few massive files on those two.’ Bain straightened himself up and rubbed his hands together. ‘Let’s get started, eh?’
But Shepherd didn’t move. He could just get a few minutes’ charge into the car, enough to get to Inverness, then find a charger there. Be away from the creepy bastard.
No, he needed to know if Bain was on the level. ‘Don’t waste any more of my time, Brian. What’s your smoking gun?’
‘Surprised a man of your means hasn’t found it.’
‘I gather it’s from the Kenny Falconer case?’
‘Partly.’
‘If I remember, you were the one who stood up for them. Told me that you saw Kenny slip, rather than Hunter throwing him.’
‘I backed them up. Trouble was, I backed the wrong horse. That was the beginning of the end for me. I let Cullen onto my team. Kind of like letting a vampire into your house, Luke. Either way, you’re getting blood sucked from your neck. Should maybe have been Team Hunter, eh? But those two got pally again, didn’t they?’
‘Driving up here, to listen what I already knew. I’ve wasted my time, then.’
‘Should’ve listened when I said “partly”, Luke. Got a few angles on those two. Word is that young Yvonne Flockhart is shacked up with Cullen nowadays.’
‘That’s right. Been a couple of years. Why?’
‘Curious thing, the first search Yvonne did that Monday morning she was back at work was for a woman called Carnegie in the Angus area. A teacher. You any idea who that might be?’
Shepherd did, but the worst part was that Bain did now too.
And now Shepherd knew how bad it was going to get for Scott Cullen.
To be concluded in “THE LAST DROP”, coming November 2021.
Afterword
It’s been a while coming and I can only apologise. Well, my heart can. I was on a track to finishing this whole series by Christmas last year, then a spot of heart arrhythmia and bang, no books for a long time.
Anyway, I’m all better now and recovered. And back in this world. This story has lurked in my brain since the first Craig Hunter book, where I needed to figure out why they were such bitter enemies (on one side, anyway). It also gave me an opportunity to explore why Cullen is the, ahem, way he is.
Thanks to Allan Guthrie, James Mackay, Colin Scott and Mare Bate for their help with this book. You’re all the best!
And you. Hope you enjoy this and the wait for the last one isn’t too long.
— Ed
Scottish Borders, 2021
Other Books By Ed James
SCOTT CULLEN MYSTERIES SERIES
Eight novels featuring a detective eager to climb the career ladder, covering Edinburgh and its surrounding counties, and further across Scotland.
GHOST IN THE MACHINE
DEVIL IN THE DETAIL
FIRE IN THE BLOOD
STAB IN THE DARK
COPS & ROBBERS
LIARS & THIEVES
COWBOYS & INDIANS
HEROES & VILLAINS
CULLEN & BAIN SERIES
Four novellas spinning off from the main Cullen series covering the events of the global pandemic in 2020.
CITY OF THE DEAD
WORLD’S END
HELL’S KITCHEN
GORE GLEN
DEAD IN THE WATER
THE LAST DROP
CRAIG HUNTER SERIES
A spin-off series from the Cullen series, with Hunter first featuring in the fifth book, starring an ex-squaddie cop struggling with PTSD, investigating crimes in Scotland and further afield.
MISSING
HUNTED
THE BLACK ISLE
DS VICKY DODDS SERIES
Gritty crime novels set in Dundee and Tayside, featuring a DS juggling being a cop and a single mother.
BLOOD & GUTS (a new prequel coming soon)
TOOTH & CLAW
FLESH & BLOOD
SKIN & BONE (coming 1st May 2021)
DI SIMON FENCHURCH SERIES
Set in East London, will Fenchurch ever find what happened to his daughter, missing for the last ten years?
THE HOPE THAT KILLS
WORTH KILLING FOR
WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU
IN FOR THE KILL
KILL WITH KINDNESS
KILL THE MESSENGER
DEAD MAN’S SHOES
Other Books
Other crime novels, with Senseless set in southern England, and the other three set in Seattle, Washington.
SENSELESS
TELL ME LIES
GONE IN SECONDS
BEFORE SHE WAKES
SCOTT CULLEN WILL RETURN
A dead student found in a bath. A missing killer, hiding more than her location.
When the body of a postgraduate student is found in an ice-cold bath, DI Scott Cullen and his team must hunt for the flat’s tenant.
But she doesn’t want to be found, hiding more than just her location.
Meanwhile, Brian Bain is nearing the endgame in his mission to bring down Cullen, aided and abetted by DS Luke Shepherd, another person who is hiding the truth from Cullen.