Torch

by Lin Anderson

  Rhona ran the footage four times.

  ‘He’s not there,’ Chrissy said at last.

  ‘No he’s not.’

  The fire had started in the early hours of the morning when few people were about the city centre. The crowds were smaller than would be expected for such a spectacular blaze.

  ‘The arsonist must have been disappointed by the turnout,’ Rhona said. ‘No wonder he threatened the New Year celebrations.’

  ‘What?’

  Rhona explained about the letters, without mentioning her place in them.

  Chrissy looked puzzled. ‘You think the two spates of fire raising are connected?’

  ‘Yes. Though I have no real proof. I’m going to take a look through the most recent reports. There might be something I’ve missed.’

  ‘Now?’ Chrissy was incredulous. Four o’clock in the afternoon seemed a bad time to start wading through five detailed forensic reports. ‘I take it Sean’s not in town?’

  ‘A gig in Amsterdam.’

  ‘You should have stayed in Edinburgh with your tasty Italian,’ was Chrissy’s parting shot when she left at five. Rhona hoped that was Chrissy’s idea of a joke and she hadn’t been reading her mind.

  Rhona settled at her desk, resisting the temptation to try and get a hold of Bill Wilson and talk things through with him. If Bill had any sense he would be home with his family for Hogmanay.

  Rhona selected one of the reports thick with the minutiae of death and set to work.

  When her mobile alarm warned her it was quarter to eight, she had already trawled through three reports. Reports she had verified and signed some time in the last six months. The evidence suggested the fires had been started deliberately or were the result of extreme carelessness on the part of the victim, who was either a known or suspected member of the drug scene. There were no suspects for any of them.

  She shelved the reports and locked up.

  Outside her breath met the air in a vaporised cloud. Rhona bunched herself against the cold and headed for the gate. The security guard waved cheerio from the warmth of his box and shouted his good wishes for Hogmanay.

  She decided to leave the car in the university car park. Hillhead underground station was only minutes away. To her left, the gothic towers of the university loomed out of the darkness, the surrounding shrubbery shrouded in shadow. The click of her footsteps on the frosty pavement seemed to echo her rapid heartbeat.

  She was going to see her son for the first time in eighteen years. The memory of the tiny baby she gave up for adoption would be replaced by a young man. Would he look like her or Edward? What if he was like Edward in character? Then they might grow to hate one another, like she and his father had. Rhona found herself slowing down. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea after all.

  Byres Road was busy, early revellers poring in and out of the most popular bars.

  A tall familiar figure stood outside the underground station, causing Rhona to stop in her tracks.

  Three drunks wearing kilts and Scotland tops emerged, singing ‘Flower of Scotland’ and she momentarily lost sight of the figure. Then he re-appeared, threw her a half-smile and turned swiftly in at the underground entrance. A wave of revulsion swept over Rhona. It couldn’t be him. He was dead. It was only a matter of time before it was confirmed. It had to be someone who looked like him. It was that horrible half-smile. That and her own private horror of ever seeing him again.

  She pulled herself together. You can’t see someone who’s dead, she told herself. Not unless you believe in ghosts.

  Her watch said ten past eight. The thought crept into her mind that Liam wasn’t going to show. She waited for another twenty minutes then with a heavy heart sent a ‘Missed you. Please Call’ text message and went home.

  Back in the empty flat she contemplated phoning Sean. She lifted the receiver then replaced it. If she spoke to him now he would know something was wrong and she couldn’t bear to tell him that Liam hadn’t turned up.

  She wandered through the flat, talking to herself, hating the solitude she had once loved. Sharing her flat with Sean had destroyed her ability to be alone. She had never felt lonely in her home before him. Alone yes, lonely never.

  She heard a noise and jumped, her nerves on edge, but it was only the cat come looking for food.

  Once she’d fed it, she listened to the radio while making something for herself. Both Edinburgh and Glasgow were well into their New Year celebrations. Everything was going accordingly to plan. She imagined MacFarlane’s relief... and Sev’s.

  ‘We make a good team,’ he’d said.

  The buzzer went at eleven thirty. She had switched on the television and poured a drink to toast the bells.

  ‘Can I come up?’

  His voice on the intercom sounded lonely and cynical at the same time.

  Rhona pressed the door release and let him in, shocked by the pleasure the sound of his voice had afforded her.

  His eyes were heavily shadowed but there was no smell of alcohol on his breath. She led him through to the sitting room, saying nothing. He took a quick look round, appraising the situation.

  ‘All alone?’

  She nodded.

  ‘Where’s the boyfriend?’

  ‘Amsterdam.’

  He was watching her face, reading the pain.

  ‘What’s up?’ he said softly.

  When she didn’t answer, he took her in his arms and held her close.

  ‘I hate fucking Hogmanay,’ he said.

  She breathed out against him. ‘So do I.’

  The phone rang in the hall.

  ‘Leave it,’ he told her.

  Chapter 26

  Bill Wilson called her early to tell her about the car. Rhona listened, her head still stupid with sleep and too much whisky.

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘I tried to get you late last night, but you weren’t answering. Chrissy came back to the lab, to ask you to go for a drink. She saw your car go up in flames and thought you were in it. She tried to open the door.’

  ‘My God! Is she alright?’

  ‘Burned her hands but otherwise, yes, she’s alright. She’s in the Western Infirmary.’

  ‘I’ll get a taxi there right away. Oh, and Bill... where’s my car?’

  ‘They’ve taken it to the police garage. A team is checking it over.’

  In the sitting room the blanket and pillows she’d given Severino were folded at the end of the couch. An empty whisky bottle and two glasses stared reproachfully back at her from the table, a note beside them. Severino had gone for a walk to clear his head and would phone later.

  Rhona was relieved not to have to face him.

  The receptionist in Accident & Emergency directed her to Ward 3. Chrissy was asleep when she went in. Rhona searched the pale face for burns but it was unmarked. But the hands...

  ‘Oh Chrissy,’ she whispered, distressed.

  Chrissy opened her eyes.

  ‘I thought you were asleep.’

  ‘I have to pretend or that Sister will take my temperature again.’

  Chrissy winced as she tried to pull herself up in bed. ‘What’s going on Rhona?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘If you ask me, someone’s got it in for you.’

  ‘It might have been an accident. We don’t know yet.’

  Chrissy wasn’t convinced. ‘Are you going to examine the car?’

  Rhona nodded. ‘I’m headed there now.’

  Chrissy attempted to get out of bed.

  ‘Where do you think you’re going?’

  ‘With you.’

  ‘Oh no you’re not. You’re staying here until they say you can leave.’

  ‘But... ’

  Rhona held up her hand. ‘No buts.’

  After she’d talked to the SOCO’s and taken a look at the car herself, she’d gone in search of Bill. The car was a mess, but the quick use of a fire extinguisher by the security guard had confined the fire to the front two
seats

  ‘And no evidence of a timing device?’ Bill asked.

  Rhona shook her head.

  ‘But definitely arson?’

  She nodded. ‘The fire started in the passenger compartment. They identified two different sources of ignition.’

  ‘Was there anything that might point to the identity of the arsonist?’

  ‘There was a tin on the driver’s seat with a photograph of me in it and a CD of the Rolling Stones singing “Jumping Jack Flash”.’

  ‘I take it not belonging to you?’

  She nodded. ‘The same song was left on my ansaphone last week.’

  Bill’s voice grew serious. ‘I don’t like this, Rhona.’

  Neither did she.

  ‘Maybe the security cameras can throw some light on it. I’ve got someone ploughing through the footage now.’ Bill looked at her, concerned. ‘Is Sean about?’

  ‘Amsterdam,’ she told him.

  He looked worriedly about her. ‘I’ll get a squad car to drop you home.’

  Rhona conceded to that at least.

  ‘My advice is to stay there,’ Bill told her. ‘I’ll let you know when we have anything.’

  When she got back to the flat, Severino was there. Rhona explained about her car and the tin with her photo and the CD inside, then she pressed the play button on the ansaphone. Mick Jagger’s distinctive voice filled her hall, the thump of base guitar behind it.

  ‘Jumping Jack Flash, the Rolling Stones, 1969 or 70,’ Sev looked worried. ‘That was what was on the CD?’

  ‘Yes.’

  There was a moment’s silence as Severino digested this.

  Then Rhona voiced her fear. ‘The paint scrapings on the sewer wall came from a canister. Maybe he’s planning to use propane.’

  Chapter 27

  DI Wilson headed back to the police office. He’d promised his wife Margaret he would be back by three to serve the elderly relatives their Ne’erday dram. He intended keeping his promise. The empty streets looked like a Sunday with a hangover. A few souls were wandering about looking for the remains of a party but the rest were indoors continuing the celebrations or sleeping it off.

  Janice had been one of the ones to draw the short straw and work Hogmanay. She’d taken the news well. She wasn’t a big drinker anyway. When the team went for a pint after a shift, her limit seemed to be two glasses of wine.

  Janice wasn’t at her desk but there was a large yellow sticky on his. Some guy had phoned and said he knew Dr MacLeod and wanted to speak to the man in charge of the drug murders. When he heard DI Wilson wasn’t there he refused to talk to his DS or anyone else.

  Bill carried his over-milked coffee to his room and sat on his big old leather swivel chair to think.

  ‘So you’re back.’

  Janice made it sound as if he was a kid skiving class. Bill waved the sticky at her.

  ‘Don’t know who it was,’ she said. ‘Sounded jumpy and would only speak to you. Oh and I could hear a dog whining in the background.’

  ‘If he calls back I want it traced.’

  ‘We’re short staffed but I’ll try. And Sir. The report on Meldrum Holdings is ready.’

  Despite being down to three men and a dog, Janice had achieved the impossible. DI Wilson felt suitably chastened.

  The report was ten pages long. Meldrum Holdings were wide ranging in their interests, from construction to financial services to manufacturing. It would need a complicated flow chart to signal where the money came from and where it went. When the local authorities had their own direct services it was easy enough to spot where the money went - down a black hole. Now that the private sector had been brought in for the construction and maintenance of public housing, things were a little less clear. Meldrum Holdings looked as though they were doing a nice job of bulldozing those run down areas. Now if Meldrum Holdings were also doing a nice job of redeveloping the same areas?

  When he left at two, Bill was none the wiser. Linking anyone in Meldrum Holdings to arson in run-down housing estates would be like coming up with the correct string of lottery numbers; and just about as pleasurable.

  On his way home he took a detour, trying to blot out the expression on Margaret’s face when he didn’t arrive home for his meal on time. Minutes later the slip road he’d chosen deposited him in a desert of high rise flats and creeping wasteland. The pub was on a corner, between the bookies and the post office-cum-general store. No one looked at him as he headed for the bar but they all saw him.

  ‘Happy New Year, Sarge.’

  Wee Archie didn’t believe in promotion. If he wasn’t moving up in the world then no one else was.

  ‘Happy New Year, Archie.’

  Bill nodded at the barman and Archie had his half and half pint replenished. Archie had lived in this housing scheme all his life. He’d seen it begin good and end up bad. If anyone knew what was going on here, it would be Archie.

  It took two more shorts before Archie’s brain went into play.

  Chapter 28

  Jaz put down the receiver and stepped out of the phone booth into the wind.

  No trains, no boats, no planes out of Auchenblair on New Year’s Day. He’d tried to hitch but nobody was driving anywhere other than round the corner and Jaz didn’t fancy the hike to the main road for a lorry heading south. So he’d tried phoning. Except there was no MacRae and no MacFarlane and now no DI Wilson around. The lady scientist had been his last chance.

  He wasn’t too happy about Emps either. The dog’s nose was hot and he was whining a lot.

  The hills behind the village were topped with snow and the sky hung heavy with it. He headed for the hotel bar. There was no point holding on to cash for the train now. He would blow it on something to eat and a heat by the fire.

  Amy jumped the two steps from the blue front door and landed right in front of him.

  ‘What happened to Emperor?’

  Emps was licking the wee girl’s hand.

  ‘He got his tail caught in a door.’

  ‘You’ll have to take him to the vet.’

  ‘I will,’ Jaz promised the earnest face, ‘as soon as I get back to Edinburgh.’

  ‘Why don’t you go now?’ Amy examined the seeping stump of tail, a worried look on her face.

  ‘No transport until tomorrow,’ he explained.

  Mrs MacRae had appeared behind Amy at the door.

  Amy ran back up the steps. ‘Mummy, Emps got hurt and he can’t go to the vet until tomorrow. Granny could help him. Couldn’t she Mummy?’

  Mrs MacRae was giving Jaz one of her ‘who the hell are you looks’.

  ‘It’s okay, Amy,’ Jaz was anxious to be away. ‘Emperor’ll be okay.’

  Jaz made to walk on but Mrs MacRae had bent down and was looking at Emps’ tail, or lack of it.

  ‘What if Emperor dies like Bess?’ Amy turned to Jaz. ‘Bess hurt herself on a fence and died when we were out.’ Tears filled her eyes.

  So that’s what they’d told her about the dog.

  ‘Amy, go inside and say goodbye to Jennie. Tell her we’ll see her tomorrow at the party.’

  ‘But mummy... ’

  ‘Go.’

  MacRae’s wife turned to him.

  ‘This dog needs a vet.’

  ‘I’m stuck here until tomorrow,’ Jaz began.

  ‘If you come home with us, my mother will look at him for you.’

  Arguing with Mrs MacRae didn’t look an option. And Emps did need to see a vet. And getting close to MacRae’s wife and kid had been the reason he came here in the first place.

  ‘Okay.’

  Bess’s body had been removed from the front lawn. Jaz tried not to look for bloodstains as he followed Amy up the path. He would insist on waiting outside he decided, his stomach jumping in fright at the sudden thought of MacRae turning up on New Year’s day and finding him sitting in his mother-in-law’s kitchen. Christ! He would end up with more than a hole in his hand.

  Amy was running ahead, throwing open the
door and calling to her Gran to come and see the poor dog.

  Jaz stopped at the door.

  ‘I’ll wait here.’

  ‘Nonsense,’ Mrs MacRae said. ‘You’ll need to hold Emperor while we dress his wound.’

  Emperor was asleep now, knocked out by the antibiotics he’d had pumped into him.

  ‘You’d better leave Emps here tonight.’ Granny was saying, ‘I should keep an eye on him overnight.’ She topped up Jaz’s mug of tea. ‘Where are you staying?’

  Jaz went through half a dozen scenarios in his head in quick succession then decided to opt for the truth, or nearly the truth. ‘I expected to go back today,’ he smiled ruefully, ‘I forgot about the trains.’

  ‘There’s a room over the garage you can have for tonight.’

  Mrs MacRae wasn’t happy about the offer but a quick glance from her mother silenced her.

  ‘It’s not much, but it’s warm and you can see Emperor first thing in the morning.’

  ‘I don’t want to put you to any trouble,’ Jaz said.

  ‘No trouble. The weather’s closing in anyway. You’d have problems going anywhere tonight.’

  The four-paned kitchen window was thick with snow. Amy left her place by Emperor and ran over to the window in delight.

  ‘Can I phone dad and tell him?’

  Jaz’s heart sank. The first thing Amy would do was tell her father that Emperor was in the house. Then it would all be over. The police car would be here in minutes.

  ‘Can I use your toilet?’ Jaz asked quickly. He would have to leave Emps behind but the dog was better off here, the state he was in.

  ‘It’s through the back,’ MacRae’s wife opened the kitchen door for him.

  Jaz listened in from the hall. Christ, the kid was already dialling.. He could feel her impatience as she waited for someone to pick up.