Shatter the Bones

by Stuart MacBride

  THUNK. DAVID swings the bottle like a hammer, right into the back of TOM’s head.

  Don’t bottles break when you hit them on things? Like when the Queen launches a ship and she has to thump the bottle on the ship and it breaks and there’s all this foam everywhere and the ship slides away into the sea.

  ‘Nnnnng...’ TOM wobbles. The silvery tape falls from his hand, hits the floorboards and rolls away.

  DAVID hits him with the bottle again. Thunk.

  TOM’s legs stop working and he falls to the floor. His left foot twitches, the fingers of one purple-gloved hand shaking. Something dark seeps down inside his mask, making the clear plastic go red.

  Jenny scrambles backwards until she bashes into the bedpost, not caring about the burny pain in her feet.

  DAVID puts the bottle on the floor. He goes back to his shopping and pulls out a big black bin-bag. Shakes it so it’s all puffy. Then puts it over TOM’s head. ‘Don’t want to get blood on our nice clean floor, do we?’

  He holds it tight around TOM’s neck for ages and ages, till TOM stops moving. Then he stands and turns to them. ‘And then … there were four.’

  Mummy shakes her head. ‘I just want this to be over with.’

  ‘About that…’ DAVID grabs her hair and drags her off the bed. Mummy screams, hands clawing at him.

  ‘NO!’ Jenny can’t back away any further, the metal bedpost digs into her back. Teddy Gordon smiles up at her with his dead crow eyes. Laughing. She grabs him by the throat and throws him with all her might. ‘DON’T HURT MY MUMMY!’

  Teddy Gordon bounces off DAVID’s chest.

  He looks down at the bear lying on the floor beside TOM. ‘Yeah, cute.’

  DAVID hauls Mummy over onto her stomach, and kneels on her back. Then catches her hands, holding them in one big purple-gloved fist as he wraps her wrists in shiny silver tape.

  ‘GET OFF ME! GET THE FUCK OFF ME!’

  He tears off another bit of tape, and now Mummy only mumbles and hisses.

  Jenny jumps onto the floor and runs at him, her feet stabby and aching and sore. Brave Little Girl… She snatches the bottle off the floor. I name this ship DAVID. She swings it with all her might.

  It bounces off his shoulder.

  He turns to look at her, his head on one side, like next door’s cat watching a bird with a broken wing. ‘Mistake.’ His hand snaps out, thumping down on Jenny’s left foot.

  Something sharp bursts inside her, tearing up her leg, she opens her mouth to scream, but there’s no breath left. She falls, clutching her ankle in both hands, staring as a poppy blooms on the white bandage. The broken thing catches fire. And now she can scream, over and over again. So loud it makes her throat rattle.

  ‘Fuck’s sake. Shut up.’ He grabs her face – stinky rubber fingers clamping her jaw shut – then forces the sticky tape over her mouth. ‘There we go, much better.’

  Mummy wriggles on the floor, eyes small and sparkly, making noises that don’t count as words.

  Tears make everything blurry. Jenny’s bandage drips red. She doesn’t even move when DAVID tapes her wrists together, then does the same with her ankles.

  He stands, towering over them. ‘Like I said: change of plan. Sylvester’s figured out a way to get away with it all. Nine point four million. Completely untraceable. So you’re surplus to fucking requirements, Alison. A liability. Yeah, we could let you go, trust you to keep your trap shut...’ He laughs. ‘A publicity whore like you? Soon as people start forgetting about you, soon as you’re not on the cover of Hello! any more, it’ll be all,’ DAVID throws his arms out wide, ‘“My secret kidnap hell!” Plucky Alison McGregor reveals all!’

  He drops his arms. ‘Not going to happen. Jenny does one last video, and then… Well, I’ll make it quick, OK? I’m not a complete fucking monster after all.’

  Chapter 48

  ‘And what are you going to sing for us?’ The ex-Blue-Peter presenter hunkered down so he was on the same level as the little girl with the curly blonde hair.

  Jenny McGregor looked at him with those big blue eyes of hers. ‘We’re going to sing a song about my Daddy.’

  Logan sat back on the couch, the remote control for the TV balanced on his knee. He’d found a can of Diet Irn-Bru lurking at the back of the fridge. That’s what happened when you got kidnapped – Grampian Police came round and helped themselves to the contents of your kitchen.

  They sure as hell didn’t rescue you.

  Alison McGregor put a hand on her daughter’s shoulder. ‘It’s called Wind Beneath My Wings.’ They were wearing matching costumes, covered in sequins.

  ‘OK, well, good luck.’ Mr Blue Peter turned his smile on the camera. ‘And remember, if you want to vote for Alison and Jenny, we’ll be putting up the number to call at the end of the show.’

  The music swelled and the McGregors walked hand in hand to the front of the stage. A big projection screen sat on one side – the words ‘IN LOVING MEMORY OF JOHN “DODDY” MCGREGOR’ faded up for a couple of bars, then was replaced by the photo they’d used in the papers when his body was transported back from Iraq.

  As they sang, the image changed: Doddy at the beach with Jenny; Doddy sitting on an armoured vehicle, somewhere hot and dusty; Doddy holding a small pink baby… And then the first instrumental break came and Doddy was replaced by a video clip of a pair of injured squaddies, talking about how he’d saved their lives. Then back to the montage for the next verse.

  No wonder Alison and Jenny got the most votes of the entire series. Everyone loved them.

  Logan’s phone went off, the Danse macabre clashing with the saccharine song. He thumbed the power button on the remote, shutting the TV off. ‘McRae.’

  ‘Where are you?’ DI Steel.

  He picked himself off the couch and wandered out into the hall. ‘Alison McGregor’s house.’

  ‘Find anything?’

  ‘No.’ He headed up the stairs, back through into Alison’s bedroom. ‘We’re screwed, aren’t we?’

  ‘Just got off the phone to Tayside.’ A pause. ‘Frank Baker’s turned up. Ninewells Hospital. Made it as far as Dundee before a bunch of neds recognized him.’

  Logan made a little gap in the lace curtains and peered out. The same two old ladies were camped out on the pavement, with their folding chairs and their thermos of tea. Soon it’d be a sea of faces and television cameras, all gathered together to be part of the moment as the deadline expired.

  ‘He OK?’

  ‘What do you think? Be lucky if he lives to see tomorrow.’ Logan let the curtain fall back into place. ‘As if thing’s weren’t...’

  There was a clunk from somewhere downstairs. ‘And is Stupidintendent Green taking responsibility for his cock-up? Is he buggery – apparently it’s all my fault for no’ having Baker under surveillance in the first place.’

  Another clunk. ‘Hold on a minute.’ Logan pressed the mute button... Nothing. Maybe it was the house settling, or something outside, or—

  Clunk.

  There was someone in the house.

  He crept down the stairs and froze at the bottom.

  This time the clunk was a clink, then a scraping sound coming from the kitchen.

  He reached for the handle and turned it slowly, one hand pressed against the door as he eased it open.

  A shadow moved across the floor, then paused. Another clunk.

  He stepped inside.

  A woman was kneeling beside the cooker, a holdall open on the floor beside her. Bleached blonde hair; pink T-shirt; hipster jeans riding about mid-buttock. She was picking her way through one of the kitchen cupboards. ‘Baked beans, baked beans, baked beans… Where’s the caviar and fancy shit?’

  Logan slammed his hand on the working surface. ‘Can I help you?’

  She screamed, jumped, banged her head off the inside of the cupboard, then fell on her backside, clutching her centre parting. The pink T-shirt had ‘LITTLE MISS NAUGHTY’ printed across the front. ‘Ow… Fuck. What did
you do that for?’

  Logan frowned at her. ‘Do I know you?’

  She looked up at him, her eyes going wide, mouth hanging open, chin disappearing into the skin of her neck. ‘No.’

  ‘You’re her, aren’t you? Thingy Wallace, Shona – I interviewed you – you’re not allowed to work with children any more.’

  She blushed. Looked at the floor. ‘Don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  ‘On your feet.’

  ‘I’m supposed to be here. I’m, like, Alison’s best friend and she … asked me to make sure she had, you know, enough food and that for when they let her go.’

  ‘So you’re saying she’s spoken to you since she’s been abducted.’

  ‘Well … erm… It’s…’

  Idiot.

  ‘I was only trying to help!’

  The Police Custody and Security Officer slammed the cell door in Shona Wallace’s face, then held his clipboard out for Logan to sign. ‘They get worse, don’t they?’

  Logan scrawled his name across the custody form, then headed upstairs to the third floor. Elaine Drever wasn’t in her office, so he tried the lab.

  She was standing by the light table in the middle of the room, frowning at a stack of print-outs. ‘What about finger prints?’

  A lumpy young man with a squinty face cricked his jaw from side to side. ‘Doing them next.’

  ‘Thanks, Tim.’ Elaine Drever tucked the report under her arm, then turned and flinched. ‘Sergeant… Sorry I mean, DI McRae…’ She reached out and touched his arm. ‘Logan. How you holding up?’

  ‘Did you find a match yet?’

  The lab phone rang, and Tim shuffled over to answer it. ‘Hold on.’ She crossed to the in-tray perched on top of the fridge-freezer and rifled through some forms. ‘Tim? What happened to that blood sample we got last night? From the hospital? The one for DI McRae?’

  Tim looked up from the phone. ‘The ASAP one? Ben’s running it now.’

  ‘What?’ Logan held up a hand. ‘No – the DNA from the flat door. Did you find a match yet?’

  ‘Oh.’ Elaine checked her watch. ‘We’ve done it a dozen times and it’s still not coming up with anything. And we’re not getting any fibres off the door either. Well, besides ones from the hall carpet, and given how hard the door must’ve hit him… It’s odd: I would have expected to find something.’

  Another glance at her wrist. ‘Sorry, I’ve got to attend a bloody prize-giving at Robert Gordon University. I swear to God, these forensic students get younger every year. It’s like visiting a playschool.’

  ‘Boss?’ Tim clamped his hand over the mouthpiece. ‘We got a hit.’

  Elaine shook her head. ‘Well, it’s just going to have to wait till I get back. Late already.’ She patted Logan on the arm again. ‘Really, we’re doing everything we can.’ And then she was gone.

  ‘Yeah, thanks, Ben.’ Tim hung up. ‘DI McRae?’

  Logan stopped, halfway out the door. ‘That blood sample: it’s a DNA match for the big toe you brought in.’

  He frowned, drumming his fingers on the door frame. The DNA matched... ‘Tim – did you get anything from the tip-off note? The one that said Alison and Jenny were snatched by paedophiles?’

  ‘Don’t think so.’ He hauled a drawer out of a battleship-grey filing cabinet. ‘Here we go...’ A hanging file with an evidence bag and a single sheet of paper. ‘Nope.’

  ‘Nothing at all?’

  ‘No prints, no fibres, no DNA. Sorry, Inspector.’

  ‘...and another four letters of complaint.’ Big Gary placed a stack of paper in the middle of Finnie’s desk. ‘Bloody law students are the worst – getting their eye in for a lifetime selling other buggers’ houses.’

  Finnie picked up the paperwork and dumped it in his pending-tray. Then looked up and scowled at Logan. ‘Two weeks. Two weeks and we’ve managed to do is piss off a bunch of students and get a paedophile hospitalized. Remind me again, Inspector, why do I pay you lot?’

  Logan stepped into the office. ‘Did anyone get anywhere with the ex-police-officer angle?’

  There was a moment’s silence. ‘Tell me, DI McRae, do you really think I’ve got nothing better to do than sit here answering asinine questions? Or might I just have something slightly more important to do today?’

  ‘Sorry, sir.’

  ‘Should think so too.’ He turned in his seat. ‘Anything else, Sergeant McCormack?’

  Big Gary produced a clipboard and held it out. ‘Need you to approve the overtime plan. Acting DI MacDonald’s got half the station down for a green shift: riot patrol.’

  ‘God help us...’ He signed the form.

  ‘Thank you, sir.’ Big Gary squeezed his way out of the room. Logan shut the door. ‘I think we’re being screwed with.’ Finnie didn’t even look up. ‘Inspector, this might surprise you, but I don’t have time to listen to you moaning about Superintendent Green today.’

  ‘The tip-off – the one that had us interviewing every sex offender in Grampian – I think it’s a fake.’

  The head of CID picked the next report from his in-tray. ‘Some people think it’s fun to waste police time, Inspector. Like you’re doing right now.’

  ‘No, I mean it was the kidnappers trying to distract us. The tip-off note’s forensically neutral, just like everything they’ve ever sent us.’ Logan sank into the visitor’s chair. ‘And we found out who the big toe belongs to: five-year-old girl, car accident, they amputated her leg at ARI. It was supposed to be cremated. She’s not dead.’

  A frown. ‘Are you sure it’s not—’

  ‘Just got a DNA match. Whoever they are, they’ve got access to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.’

  Finnie punched a button on his office phone. ‘Acting DI MacDonald – my office, now. And bring everything you have from the hospital investigation.’

  ‘But I’m—’

  ‘Now, Mr. MacDonald.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  Finnie pressed the button again and the phone went silent. I swear to God, these forensic students get younger every year. Logan scooted forward until he was leaning over the desk. ‘It’s a teaching hospital, right? What if they’re all students?’

  Finnie shook his head. ‘MacDonald and McPherson both ruled out—’

  ‘Think about it: the medical student gets them the drugs and amputates Jenny’s toes. The IT student makes the videos and emails untraceable. And the forensic student keeps them all from getting caught.’ Logan pulled out his phone and dialled. ‘Bob?’

  ‘If you’re calling to complain, it wasn’t me, OK?’

  ‘I need to...’ Frown. ‘What wasn’t you?’

  ‘…Nothing.’ A cough. ‘What can I do you for?’

  ‘Did you find the dealer who sold your suicide that morphine?’

  ‘“Stumpy the Dwarven Queen”? No one in Tayside’s ever heard of her. Why the sudden interest in Bruce Sangster?’

  Of course no one had heard of her – she didn’t exist. Craig ‘Arrogant-Patronizing-Prick’ Peterson made her up. That’s why none of Bruce’s friends knew anything about his alleged drug problem. Sangster didn’t buy the morphine, he stole it from the hospital, along with some thiopental sodium and a little girl’s severed leg.

  ‘You still got that list of his friends?’

  ‘…Why?’

  ‘Did you take a note of what courses they were doing?’

  ‘Course I did. Now why do you—’

  ‘I’m looking for someone doing computer science and someone doing forensics.’

  ‘Hold on...’ Some rustling.

  The door to Finnie’s office creaked open and Acting DI Mark MacDonald lurched in, arms loaded down with box files. He took one look at Logan and sniffed.

  ‘Yeah, here we go: three computer scientists; and one Davina Pearce, BSc Hons, Forensic Science with Law. She’s doing Media Studies too.’

  Mark dumped the files on the corner of the desk. ‘That’s everything. But I’ve been through it all dozens of time
s. There’s nothing there.’

  Logan stuck his phone back in his pocket and grinned at Finnie. ‘Bingo.’

  Chapter 49

  Logan climbed out in to the warm evening, mobile phone clamped to his ear. ‘Any luck?’

  The Woolmanhill halls of residence was a lopsided grey canyon of three five-storey buildings set at angles to each other around a lopsided car park, just off the Denburn roundabout.

  Bob gave a big wet sigh. ‘Peterson’s not in.’

  ‘Anyone know where he’s gone?’

  Rennie scanned the intercom entry system next to a freshly-painted stairwell door, then pressed the button for flat six. The intercom buzzed.

  ‘Flatmates say he’s out with his mates: cinema, pizza, pints.’

  ‘Mobile?’

  ‘Went straight to voicemail.’

  A high, singsongy voice crackled out of the speaker. ‘Hel-lo?’ Very girly.

  Rennie pressed the talk button. ‘Yeah, is Davina in? It’s Simon.’

  ‘What would you have us do now, your temporarily-promoted-to-inspectorship?’

  ‘See if he’s got a car, then get onto CCTV: I want every Automatic Number Plate Recognition camera in the north-east looking for him. And find out what he’s been doing for the last two weeks: where he’s been going, who he’s been talking to, that kind of thing.’

  ‘Hi, Simon. Yeah, Davina’s in her room, but she’s sulking.’

  ‘God, you’re not asking for much, are you? See when it’s my go at being DI—’

  ‘Yeah, “the wrath of Bob”. I know.’ Logan killed the connection.

  ‘Oh… Well, can I come up?’ The intercom buzzed again, and when Rennie leant against the door it swung open. ‘Ta.’ He winked at Logan. ‘We have lift-off.’

  A plump young woman opened the door to flat six. She was growing her very own curly brown halo, held in place with a golden scrunchie. She smiled, showing off a mouthful of metalwork. ‘You’re Simon, right? So nice to meet you. I’m Robin, bet Davina’s told you all about me!’

  ‘Yeah, hi. She about?’

  Robin rolled her eyes. ‘God, you know what she’s like; went storming off to her room yesterday, slammed the door, and hasn’t been out since; honestly, it’s like a soap opera in here some weeks; you want a cup of coffee? I’m making anyway, think we’ve got some biscuits too.’ All done in two breaths.