by Ed James
Could it save his life? Would it force him to grow up, settle down and take on responsibility?
He just didn't know.
In the harsh cold of the early morning, he knew he should have talked to Sharon rather than retreating to the cave, which hadn't helped in any way.
He got up, dressed and showered, then drove the short distance to the station, leaving Sharon snoring. He was so tired, he probably should have walked, but he didn't know which city he'd be in that day. A coffee would take the edge off.
In the car park, Cullen spotted Buxton by the panda cars. He did a double-take as he approached - Buxton was peeling stickers off the cars, removing Lothian & Borders and leaving only Police. Rumours had circulated of beat cops having to unstitch the lettering from their clothes to save money, but this beggared belief.
"What are you doing?" said Cullen.
"Order from the top," said Buxton. "Can't outsource it or it'll cost a packet so anyone of constable grade is being press-ganged."
Cullen shook his head in disbelief. Surely there were crimes deserving more attention than stickers.
As he neared, Cullen was almost blown away by the stink of booze. "Watch for any stray fags from the smoking area."
"Eh?"
"The fumes coming off you are likely to catch light," said Cullen.
Buxton reached into his pocket for some mints. "Heavy session yesterday afternoon."
"Smells like a heavy night as well."
"Got home just after eight," said Buxton. "I'll be the first to admit I wasn't exactly sober."
"Or this morning I bet," said Cullen.
"There's that too."
"Best stick to the mints," said Cullen.
Buxton crunched away. "Heard any gossip from the announcement?"
"Nothing," said Cullen. For once, when he got up that morning there were no waiting text messages. "The jungle drums are dead. How long have you been in?"
"Got in at half five," said Buxton. "Seen a few other DCs but no juice yet." He pulled the last sticker off the car, dropping it in the bucket at his feet. "Be interesting to see what transpires, shall we say. What'll happen to you, do you reckon?"
"Hopefully, I'll get made a full DS," said Cullen, not exactly feeling or sounding confident. "God knows they need more."
"Good luck with that," said Buxton. "I'd heard whispers to that effect."
Cullen's heart beat faster. "Who from?"
"Methven was blabbering away on his mobile as he came in," said Buxton. "Don't think he saw me."
"Yeah, he does that," said Cullen. "Did he say anything else?"
"He asked someone what the date was," said Buxton.
Cullen frowned. "First of April."
Buxton laughed. "April Fool, mate."
Cullen clenched his fists. "You twat."
"At least you know you'll still be in SCD," said Buxton.
"Yeah, whatever," said Cullen. "You must be pissed off still being an ADC."
"Better than being on the beat, mate."
Cullen headed up to the canteen, worrying about what the day would hold.
CHAPTER 46
DCI Turnbull's staff briefing was held at seven, before the bulk of the operational briefings.
Cullen sat in the third row, clutching his second coffee of the morning, the first not having quite hit the mark. Looking around, he noticed a few faces from his stint at St Leonard's lurking at the back of the room.
Turnbull cleared his throat and brought them to order. "Briefings such as these are happening, right now, all over Scotland. This is an exciting dawn, the first steps in a brave new direction."
The current Lothian & Borders logo filled the screen behind him. Turnbull clicked a button on the small device he held, making the logo shrink down and move to the top.
Buxton leaned towards Cullen and whispered in his ear. "Death by bloody PowerPoint, mate."
"Tell me about it."
"Brave steps my arse," said Buxton. "It's a load of bollocks. My mate in the Met reckons Turnbull is getting a DCS gig down there."
"He's just a DCI, though," said Cullen.
"Just passing on what I hear."
Cullen didn't know whether to believe it or not.
Turnbull was having difficulty with his clicker. Eventually, two boxes filled the bottom of the screen with arrows splitting out from Lothian & Borders.
"The first big change is that Edinburgh City is now a key division in the Police Scotland East structure, discrete from Lothians & Scottish Borders, now a separate regional division."
He talked for a few minutes about how the move would give more local accountability and national consistency before clicking again. The presentation switched to a busy slide entitled The future of CID..., filled with text in such a small font that Cullen couldn't quite read it.
"The next big change will impact most people in the room," said Turnbull. "CID will be radically overhauled. This is not just a fresh lick of paint, either. There will be those who remain in the first-response CID units in the Divisional areas, but most officers will move into the central Major Investigation Team structure in SCD."
The slides switched and showed a blank page, with Edinburgh MIT Structure appearing at the top. Turnbull clicked and his name flew in from the left, sitting top middle.
Cullen had to read it twice.
Detective Superintendent Jim Turnbull.
Cullen's stomach fluttered again - if Turnbull could be promoted, then surely he could?
"As of this morning, I will be heading up the Edinburgh MIT," said Turnbull. "I will report into DCS Carolyn Soutar, head of the MITs nationwide. The bulk of officers from the Torphichen Street, St Leonard's and Leith Walk CID units will be merging under my command and will be based here in Leith Walk."
Turnbull clicked again. "My number two will be DCI Alison Cargill."
Another promotion.
The next click brought in a row of three names. "DCI Pieters now takes the grade of DI in the new structure alongside DI Alistair Davenport from St Leonard's and Colin Methven from Leith Walk, now a full DI."
Sharon swore under her breath, loud enough for Cullen to hear.
"There is, of course, a vacancy for a fourth DI," said Turnbull.
Cullen turned to face Sharon again - she raised her eyebrows.
Turnbull clicked and names appeared one by one. "At the DS level, we have Bryan Holdsworth in the Admin Officer role, then Sharon McNeill and Catriona Rarity, both from Leith Walk, and Brian McMann from DI Davenport's team. DS McKern will be taking early retirement and-"
Turnbull clicked but nothing happened.
The butterflies in Cullen's stomach were doing somersaults.
Click.
"Finally, DS Bill Lamb from East Lothian will be the fourth DS."
Cullen couldn't believe it.
"Moving on," said Turnbull, "we have the DCs."
The screen changed, now showing a hierarchy of DCs reporting to DSs. Cullen, Chantal and Buxton worked for Rarity now.
Cullen stared open-mouthed at the screen. His extra stripe had gone. No-one had the courtesy to brief him in advance.
Idiot.
He barely took in the rest of the structure. Stuart Murray from Lamb's team was in, alongside another face from Cullen's past, Eva Law.
Turnbull's next slide covered the officers moving to the local CID and was just noise to Cullen. He was publicly humiliated. He looked around the room, trying to see who was pointing at him and laughing.
Idiot.
Why did he think his tenure was going to be made permanent? All the chat with Buxton, how assured he was. He thought he'd arrived.
Naïve.
Turnbull looked around the room, but Cullen felt he received more focus than others.
So much for being a rising star.
"I appreciate this will be disappointing for some of you," said Turnbull, "but all I ask is you behave in a professional manner. These are straitened times and, while you might not get the stripe
s just now, you will get experience that will help in future." His eyes settled on Cullen. "Dismissed."
Cullen got up, ready to head God knows where. Anywhere to hide his shame.
Sharon grabbed his arm. "Breakfast?"
Cullen nodded, realising how desperately he needed to talk.
CHAPTER 47
"Reckon you'll get the DI vacancy?" said Chantal.
Sharon shrugged. "I doubt it. Might be someone from another force."
Cullen was sitting in silence while they prattled, still reeling from shock. There was so much he needed to get out of his head. When Sharon asked if he wanted breakfast, he thought it would be just the pair of them, but then she'd invited Buxton and Chantal along.
Why had no one told him? Was he just a name on a spreadsheet?
Methven must have known beforehand. He'd had at least two opportunities in the previous forty-eight hours to let Cullen know and he'd dodged it.
This was his reward for all the hours he'd put in over the years, letting others take the credit for his results. The only possible explanation was they'd had their hands full with the enforced retirements and making sure the St Leonard's officers were properly briefed, so they avoided formal grievances with HR.
As he watched Sharon talk to Chantal, he just wanted to speak to her. He deeply regretted the way he'd reacted the previous night, clamming up like that.
The baby.
Fuck.
If Cullen believed in a higher power, then this would be a test. He'd changed so much in the two years he'd been a full DC, but in some ways he'd changed so little. His ego pushed him several steps ahead of where his more rational head told him he should be.
He caught himself. He was in his thirties - he needed to act like a grown-up. Forget the promotion until it was formal. Look on the bright side - almost six months as Acting DS would look good on his record, like detachments to murder cases had helped him become a detective.
There might be a trickle-down from the vacant DI position.
"Why have they not put an Acting DI in there?" said Chantal.
"I've no idea," said Sharon.
"Well, I reckon you'll get it," said Chantal.
"I doubt it," said Sharon. "It's got Bill Lamb's name written all over it."
"Crystal Methven did well out of the restructure," said Chantal.
"Of course he did," said Buxton. "He's a sneaky two eight six eight."
"A what?" said Chantal.
Buxton snorted, eyes full of amusement. "Type it on your phone. Like an old Nokia or something."
Chantal fiddled with her fingers. "Aunt?" Something twigged and she burst into laughter. "Oh, that's good."
Cullen folded his arms, making eye contact with Sharon before looking away.
"It's weird seeing Bill Lamb again," said Chantal.
"Was he there?" said Buxton.
Chantal nodded. "Yeah, stood at the back, him and Stuart Murray." She wolf-whistled. "The things I'd let Murray do to me..." She bit her lip and flicked up an eyebrow.
"And then you'd blank him, right?" said Buxton.
Chantal studied her coffee cup, pulling an uncomfortable silence around the table.
"Scott, are you okay?" said Sharon.
Cullen shrugged. "I'll be fine."
"You don't seem it," said Sharon.
"I should have expected it, really. Bill Lamb got my job."
"But it's not your job, though, is it?" said Chantal. "You were just keeping the bench warm."
"Whatever," said Cullen, "I'm just pissed off nobody had the decency to take me aside and brief me beforehand. Don't you think they owe me that?"
"At least you've got a tenure, mate," said Buxton. "Just found mine's up in two months. No chance it'll be renewed."
"You'll be fine," said Cullen.
Buxton sighed. "I doubt it."
Cullen looked over at Sharon, receiving a slight smile. "Sharon, can we-"
"DS McNeill, I need to brief you."
Cullen twisted around. Turnbull towered over them. Lamb stood just behind, rubbing at the back of his neck.
Sharon got up and mouthed "Sorry" at Cullen.
Turnbull disappeared as quickly as he came, the two DSs following him. He didn't even acknowledge Cullen.
Cullen really needed to clear all the shit out of his head.
CHAPTER 48
DS Catriona Rarity was now in charge of the Strang case.
She congregated them in the small Incident Room for a handover from the team. She'd earmarked an hour of Cullen's time afterwards to get a full debrief from him before he reverted to his new demoted role.
Rarity wasn't an officer Cullen knew particularly well. She'd only joined the team in the last six months and hadn't set the world alight as Cullen saw it. Then again, nobody got burnt in the process unlike when he worked his magic. In Cullen's eyes, she was all process and procedure with very little inspiration or leadership. He suspected she was seen as a safe pair of hands.
"We need to speak to everyone Strang knew," said Rarity.
"We've done that," said Cullen.
"What about his parents?"
"Done that, too."
"What about the people he was in a band with?" said Rarity.
"Done that," said Cullen. "We've spoken to two of them, the third one is dead. Strathclyde are investigating his murder. I suppose it'll be the Glasgow South MIT now, but you know what I mean."
Rarity looked like she was finding Cullen's responses difficult. "So, we've hit a wall, is that it?"
"I'm not the DS here," said Cullen. "You tell us."
He immediately regretted it.
Rarity tipped her head up, shaking her shoulder-length hair out. She politely smiled at Chantal and Buxton. "Can I ask you both to leave us for a moment?" she said, a false smile plastered on her face.
They couldn't get out of there quickly enough.
Once they were alone, Rarity fixed her eyes on Cullen. "I thought we got on well. Do you have a problem with me?"
"I was just stating a fact," said Cullen. "I'm sorry if it seemed a bit snippy. You're in charge of this investigation. As of this morning, I'm back on the bottom rung of the ladder. You're now the one who takes vague instructions from DI Methven and then gives me actions to make a mess of. Am I right?"
Rarity hit her hand on the table. "Your attitude stinks."
"My attitude stinks?" said Cullen, eyes wide. "One minute, I'm an Acting DS and then I get demoted."
Rarity sat there for a few seconds, staring at him. "Well, I have to say I'm surprised you had the chance to be an ADS."
"I got it because I get results," said Cullen. "I'm good at what I do."
"We do have a problem, then," said Rarity.
"I'm sorry," said Cullen. "I'll probably take a while to adjust to this. I'm sorry if I'm acting like an arse, but I'm irritated and that's putting it mildly."
Rarity eyed Cullen nervously. "I can understand your frustration, Scott. Surely you'll have had the chance to air your disappointment with Alison?"
"I would if she'd spoken to me," said Cullen.
"I'm sorry?"
"The first I heard I was no longer a sergeant was in that room this morning," said Cullen.
"Oh."
"Oh, indeed," said Cullen.
"In that case, I can only offer my sympathies, Scott. That shouldn't have happened. It's clearly unacceptable. I'll discuss the matter with Alison and Colin and see what reparations we can make."
"Getting my tenure back would help," said Cullen.
"That's not going to happen in the short term," said Rarity. "Any outbursts similar to the one you just gave me are going to undermine any support you might otherwise have in this station."
"Look, I'm sorry," said Cullen. "I don't have any issues working with you. I'm just frustrated I'm not doing your job and with finding out in a conference room."
"I've had very little information from DS Methven on this case, so I'm going to need your help."
; "I'm more than committed to solving the case," said Cullen. "I'll try not to let my disappointment get in the way."
"From what I can tell, the only real lead we've got is in the mortuary in Glasgow," said Rarity. "Correct?"
"That's about the size of it," said Cullen. "Do you want me to go to Glasgow again?"
"The instruction I received from Alison and Colin is that, as your role has changed, the secondment is no longer valid."
"It's hardly a secondment if it's just a day," said Cullen.
Rarity shrugged. "I'm not party to the conversations." She sat and thought for a few seconds. "Strang is from your home town. Is that right?"
"Correct," said Cullen. "He was."
"I see," said Rarity. "Can you go and investigate in Dalhousie, please?"
Cullen struggled to think how he could spend any amount of time in the place. "And do what?"
"What you apparently do best," said Rarity. "Get a result."
Cullen frowned. "Am I being pushed out of the way here?"
"Quite the opposite," said Rarity. "I think we might only have skirted the surface of the investigation in the town."
"That's probably a fair assessment," said Cullen. "I was stuck in Glasgow yesterday."
Rarity nodded. "I'm as uncomfortable as you are about the political games being played here. I can speak to Alison and Colin about the situation."
Cullen was relieved he didn't have to go back to Glasgow and Bain. "Fine."
"DC Jain and I can close off the Edinburgh side of things," said Rarity. "I want you to see what you can dig up. Spend a few hours there, maybe a couple of days."
"It's not the sort of place you can spend even an hour in," said Cullen, smiling.
"Just see what you can do," said Rarity. "It might help you adjust to the new status quo."
CHAPTER 49
Cullen finally managed to find Sharon in the general office area.
"You okay?" she said.
Cullen shook his head, nervously looking around. "I need to talk."
"Finally," said Sharon. She tugged his arm and they went back to the canteen, sitting in the seclusion of bollocking corner.