The wee lad drooped.
Suppose all this horror wasn’t really his fault.
Tuftywasn’t the one who’d given Darryl Merickson the excuse he needed to kill someone.
No,thatwas all on Logan.
‘Yeah, OK. Off you go.’
‘Woot!’ The wee loon scampered away, through the doors and up the stairs, like Cthulhu hearing Tara sing.
Logan let a heavy sigh slump out into the custody suite, then tromped after him.
The incident room for Operation ‘Find Natasha Agapova’ had grown a thick lining of file boxes – piled almost head-high, all bearing varying thicknesses of dust. Towers of paperwork were heaped up against it, along with stacks and stacks of old newspapers. As if Steel and her team had decided to try the hoarding lifestyle.
No idea where the rest of them had got to, but she was the only one here. With her feet up on the desk. Schlurping away at her newly acquired NorrelTech mug, chomping on a bacon roll while she perused an old copy of theScottish Daily Post. Peaked cap still rammed on tight enough to curl the tops of her ears over.
Completely oblivious to the fact Logan had just walked into her grubby lair.
He knocked on the table. ‘“This what they call working now, is it?”’
She didn’t look up. ‘Aye.’
Why did he even bother?
Logan had a quick squint at the whiteboards, with their coating of scribbled actions and arrows and photos and notes. ‘Have your baboons found anything useful?’
Munch, munch, munch. ‘ThereasonI’m reading this right-wing crap-wank, is it’s all connected. You think Spencer Findlater and Charles MacGarioch burned that hotel full ofmigrants for a giggle? Sod-all happens in a vacuum.’ Poking the paper. ‘These bastards spend their lives shoving hate-and-fear-mongering bollocks down everyone’s throats: migrants are stealing yourjobs, migrants are raping yourwomen, migrants are grooming yourkids. Eating the dogs and the cats of the people who live here...’ Slurp. ‘And when morons like Spencer Findlater and Charles MacGarioch decide to do something about it, the tabloids clutch their pearls and it’s all “violent mobs don’t represent British values!” Then they gorightback to mongering the same shite all over again.’
‘She said, cynically.’ Logan pointed at the board. ‘What about our organised-crime angle? Get anything out of SOCT?’
‘Oh aye. Had to do a bit of wheedling, but seems our boy Adrian Shearsmith’s been dangling his hook in adirtypond full of Russian sharks. And you know whatnicepeople they are.’
Logan lifted the top off a file box – moreScottish Daily Posts: ‘CIVIL SERVANTS BLOCKING BREXIT BENEFITS’, ‘MIGRANT INVASION OVERWHELMING NHS’, ‘EU PLOT TO FLOOD OUR BORDERS WITH MIGRANT CHAOS’.
Lovely.
He put the lid back on. ‘So maybe these Russian mobsters kidnapped his ex-wife for a bit of leverage?’
That got a laugh. ‘You kidding? Wasn’t what you’d call an amicable divorce. Unless your idea of “amicable” is a cage-fight with rusty chainsaws.’
Logan tried another box, flipping through the newspapers inside. All the headlines were much the same: ‘Migrants, paedos, crime, crime, murder, migrants, migrants, rape, lefty judges, paedos, migrants, blame the EU, murder, ECHR, migrants, drugs, paedos...’ He puffed out his cheeks. ‘Why do people read this crap? Is the world not bad enough withoutsome knuckle-dragging “journalist” titmaking-upstuff to be scared of?’
He tossed the last paper back in the box.
This time theScottish Daily Posthad plastered its front page with: ‘PAEDO PETER THE SUPPLY TEACHER’ above a photo of a youngish bloke in an anorak and glasses – eyes wide, mouth pinched – caught by surprise outside what looked like school gates, with the subheading ‘SICKOWORMSHISWAYINTOCITYSCHOOLSTOBEWITHGIRLSASYOUNGAS5’.
Yes, well...maybe the outrage wasn’tentirelyfabricated.
He parked his bum against the table.
Sighed at the ceiling tiles.
Steel looked up from her paper. ‘Do us a favour and sod off somewhere else, eh? You’re putting me off my butty.’
He flipped back a copy: ‘AULD REEKIE RAPIST IS “FAMILY PRIEST”’. Frowned at the photograph: an avuncular bloke in a dog-collar and cassock, christening someone’s baby. ‘Wonder how many people she’s outed over the years? Agapova. All the sex offenders, politicians, and conmen...’
‘Then give her a medal, OK? Just do it somewhere else.’