There wasn’t really anything to say to that, so Logan escorted Elizabeth back to the miserable lump of manky Portakabins for another round of pointless meetings.
As if he didn’t get enough of that at work...
Dr Buchan – the aforementioned ‘prick’ – had a whole room all to himself. The walls were painted a scuffed yellow, the carpet tiles blotched with stains and worn down to the adhesive in places. A trio of shelving racks played host to the cheaper kinds of musical instrument: recorders, little metal chime blocks, a couple of tambourines, and a whole bunch of triangles. There was even a battered old upright piano, the floor sagging beneath it. But to be fair, the ceiling sagged in the opposite corner, so it all sort of evened out.
Humphrey was right – this whole place needed redecorating with a bulldozer.
‘Hold on a minute.’ Dr Buchan perched on the piano’s deflated stool, wearing a semiquaver pin in his tartan tie.A towering skeleton of a man, with surgeon’s fingers and a bandage on his right wrist. Thin glasses, high forehead. And a nose designed for looking down. ‘Do youseriouslymean to tell me that youdon’t have a pianoin the house? I thought you were one of our more...affluent parents.’
Tara frowned. ‘Well, we’ve never really—’
‘Because it doesn’t have to be aSteinway, even a decent Blüthner upright would do.’ He rubbed at his bandage. ‘You can’t expect Elizabeth to master an instrument if she can’t practise at home.’ Dr Buchan’s face soured even further. ‘God knows I’m wasting my time with most of the children here, but it would be nice if parents wouldoccasionallymeet me halfway.’ That nose cranked upwards a couple more inches. ‘Music isn’t “nothing” – a merebagatelleto fritter away your time on – it’slifeitself! It’s—’
Logan’s phone burst into ‘Space Oddity’.
Oh, thank God for that. Tufty might’ve been a daft little spud, but he knew how to pick his moments.
Dr Buchan sharpened the edge on his withering teacher’s voice: ‘We do encourage visitors toswitch offtheir mobile devicesbeforeentering school premises, Mr McRae.’
‘Police business.’ He pulled out his phone, and marched from the room, back into the reception area, as David Bowie warbled on.
The Guillotine Knitting Club had disappeared, taking her crummy box of crappy badges with her. But even that hadn’t made the place any less miserable.
Logan poked the green button. ‘What?’
‘Is everything OK, Sarge? Only we’ve been sitting out here for ages and Sergeant Rennie’s getting all fidgety. He’s pacing up and down the car park as we speak.’Tufty’s voice went all whispery.‘I think he does need to has a wee.’
Logan wandered over to the nearest window, looking outat the dismal playground. ‘Could be worse: you could be sat in here, listening to some wank-faced prick lecture you about how you’re crap parents because you don’t have a grand piano in every room.’
‘I’ve been going over DCI Rutherford’s files, and—’
‘How did you get those?’
‘You had them all piled up on your desk, Sarge. I had a good snoot through, back at the ranch. Before you picked me and Sergeant Rennie up?’Nosey wee sod.‘Anyway, being a most excellent sidekick, I has worked up an online calendar for all his meetings and reviews and assessments and court appearances and stuff. Only I suppose you can’t really do his court appearances, as they’ll probably want to ask questions about the cases and you weren’t involved in those, so we should probably request a continuation on anything where we don’t want the accused going free.’
Fair point.
‘Thank you.’
‘So, just to let you know: you’ve got another MAPPA meeting tomorrow morning about the protest, a case review for the people-smuggling thing, another one for Operation Hedgehog, then the car-thefts thing, the break-ins-at-all-those-sports-shops thing, the drugs-coming-in-in-Lithuanian-teddy-bears thing, and Professional Standards want a word about The Dastardly Queen Of Ultimate Sticky.’
Of course they did.
Logan closed his eyes and massaged his forehead. ‘What’s Steel done now?’
‘Inappropriate language of a sexual nature to female co-workers and canteen staff.’
To be honest: knowing her, it could be worse.
‘OK: tell Rennie to tie a knot in it, and I’ll be with you soon as I can.’ He checked his watch. ‘Call it fifteen minutes.’
He hung up. And, as he already had his phone out, it would be daft not to at leastcheckhis messages.
SPUDGUN:
In place at Wallace Tower.
Got Sporky and Guthrie hiding in bushes with binoculars and popcorn.