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<h2>3</h2>
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<p>“She just fell down,” Carol Padden said. “I
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was right at the front of the shop. It sounded dreadful, just a
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terrible thud and all her breath came out.”</p>
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<p>David Harper nodded. He was sipping a cup of tea in the back
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shop, his fourth of the morning and he knew he should refuse any
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other offers or he’d start to choke. Either that or
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he’d be jangling by nightfall.</p>
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<p>“And that’s when you and your friend, what’s
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her name, Jeanette, went out to help?”</p>
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<p>“Yes. But there was nothing we could do.”</p>
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<p>“Did you see anybody with the woman?”</p>
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<p>The girl shook her head. “No. She was on her own.
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I’m sure of that.”</p>
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<p>It was going to be a slog, David knew. The uniforms had already
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been round asking the questions and had got nowhere. Normally the
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beat teams who patrolled the Waterside Mall and the whole of the
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shopping centre of the town would be enough, but he’d been
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sent along to lend his weight and that was odd enough. It was just
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a sudden death. No suspicious circumstances. A middle-aged woman
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who had upped and died in public. A Jane Doe. Ordinarily , she was
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of no great account in the scheme of things. People died when they
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got to their time and the world still turned and it wasn’t a
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job for a detective sergeant to be wasting his time on.</p>
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<p>The nameless woman had spun round, fallen and died of natural
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causes.</p>
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<p>Except that the natural causes were a puzzle.</p>
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<p>There had been something wrong with her that the experts at St
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Enoch’s hospital couldn’t figure out and that’s
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why he’d been sent out to root around. David didn’t
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know what it was that they’d discovered. Nobody knew, or at
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least nobody was saying, not yet. He’d find out in time, that
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was for certain.</p>
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<p>“We need a name and an address,” Donal Bulloch said.
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He was the CID head for the city centre division and everybody said
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he’d be the Chief before long. “Don’t ask me why,
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for I don’t know yet. Professor Hartley tells me there are
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some anomalies they’re having a problem with.”</p>
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<p>“Is she infectious? Contagious?”</p>
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<p>“Your guess is as good as mine, David. They don’t
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know yet. No, only kidding. They don’t believe she’s
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infectious but they think she might have picked something up from
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somewhere, and they want to find out what. Hartley says
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there’s something in her blood they haven’t come across
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before. Anyway, if they’re puzzled, then I’m puzzled
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and we’d better get a handle on this. The beat boys have come
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up with nothing at all, so you can do me a favour and get a name
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and address and a background I can give the sawbones. If you need
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help, just shout and you’ll get it, okay?”</p>
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<p>David shrugged. It was a beat job, door knocking and asking
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questions and he had better things to do. The previous
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night’s grab had in itself been an interruption to something
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more important, but he’d worked it because it had come down
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his own line from a good source. He’d been spending most of
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the week with the team on the Tollcross post office raid, sifting
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through all the statements, and the scene of crime evidence,
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piecing together the clues, building them up bit by bit, and
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he’d felt the pattern emerging. It was a talent he had and
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his bosses knew it. Now they’d taken him off the team when he
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was getting that little tickle of certainty and they’d asked
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him to check out a sudden death in the mall.</p>
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<p>Bulloch looked at him. “Good collar the other
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night.” David nodded appreciation.</p>
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<p>“Is that a bruise there?” the boss asked, pointing
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to a mark just under David’s hairline. He smirked. Kenny Lang
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had been charged with police assault and they could have jacked
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that up to attempted murder, but there was no point. He was just a
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small timer who panicked. He would not try to run a policeman down
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again, not ever. Bulloch grinned. The bruise was familiar. Anybody
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on the force recognised the imprint of a Glasgow kiss.</p>
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<p>“How is Lamont?”</p>
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<p>“She’s got bruised ribs. A bit sore. She’s
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getting checked out later so she’ll be back tomorrow
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probably.”</p>
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<p>“Good. Take her out with you if she’s free.
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She’s got promise.”</p>
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<p>The dead woman had to be important. David he had figured that
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out already. They wanted to find out who the woman was, where she
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came from, and from the sound of it, what had killed her. Down in
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the mall, David sipped his tea.</p>
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<p>“Had you ever seen her before? Maybe she’s bought
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something before?</p>
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<p>Carol Padden shook her head. “I don’t think so. She
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didn’t look like she used Body Shop. Didn’t smell like
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it either.”</p>
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<p>“Smell?”</p>
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<p>“Horrible. Really disgusting. Like she hadn’t washed
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for ages. It was really weird. Would make you sick. But it was
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worse than that. It was, like, sick. No, <em>wrong.</em> It just
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smelled all wrong. It made me think of nightmares. I don’t
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know why. When I smelt her everything went dark for a minute and I
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thought I was going to faint, but I was dead scared as well, like I
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was in some kind of danger. For a minute everything looked really
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different, all the people crowding in. But I think it was just
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because I got such a fright seeing the woman fall like that. I
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never saw anybody dying before. She was making a terrible noise in
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her throat as if she couldn’t breathe and she was trying to
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say something, but I couldn’t hear it.” Carol’s
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eyes were focused on the distance, in her memory.</p>
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<p>“The woman from Rolling Stock. I’ve seen her before.
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She tried to give her restitution.”</p>
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<p>“Resuscitation?”</p>
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<p>“Yes. That. Pressing down on her chest. And she grabbed
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her hand and said something about a baby. That’s what it
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sounded like. But she never had a baby. I think it must have been
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something else.”</p>
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<p>Jenny McGill was more positive.</p>
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<p>“Definitely she said baby. Clear as daylight. She grabbed
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a hold of my arm, look, there’s the bruises to show you. I
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thought the bones were going to crack and it gave me a right scare
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I can tell you.”</p>
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<p>Jenny rubbed at her wrist where the bruises were purpling up
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well. “Get the baby was what she said. Get <em>my</em> baby.
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But she was so far gone I think she was delirious, or hallucinating
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or something. I tried by best to give her heart massage, but it was
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no good. She was dying. I could hear her heart running riot in
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there. The only thing that will stop that are the electrical
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pads.”</p>
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<p>“You seem well up on it.”</p>
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<p>“I did two years night school in first aid. I’ve got
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certificates.”</p>
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<p>“Somebody mentioned she didn’t smell very
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clean,” David said. Jenny’s eyes widened.</p>
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<p>“You can say that again. Worse than unclean. When I got
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home I soaked myself for hours. It was awful. If I hadn’t
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been all worked up with her dying right there in front of
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everybody, I’d have been sick. But it was more than just
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somebody that’s not been washing herself. Some of these
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buskers could do with a scrub with carbolic, but this was a lot
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worse than that. It was a rotten smell. I don’t know, like
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the way you’d imagine gangrene smelled. Or something gone
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off. It just didn’t smell natural. When I got close to her it
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was really bad. Made me feel all shivery inside and I could feel
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myself get all hot and clammy. I nearly threw up. For a minute I
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nearly passed out. She’s not diseased or anything, is she? I
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haven’t caught anything off her, have I?”</p>
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<p>“No, I think it’s all right. We just have to find
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out who she is.” He took her address and phone number. He
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still didn’t know what was puzzling the medical men at St
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Enoch’s, but if there was some sort of disease, then
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they’d want to find everybody who’d been in
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contact.</p>
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<p>“Had you ever seen her before?”</p>
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<p>Jenny shrugged. “Maybe. There was something familiar about
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her, but when you work in here, right on the main walk in the mall,
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you see hundreds of faces, thousands of them every day. I probably
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saw her passing, but I don’t think she was a customer.
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Somebody in the other shops might know.”</p>
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<p>She leaned forward. “Do you want a cup of tea?”</p>
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<p>David’s bladder told him he didn’t.</p>
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<p>It was late that afternoon before paramedic Phil Coulter and his
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partner got off duty. David went through it again with them. Phil
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was reluctant to talk at first, but James Bradley started
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describing what happened and that got Phil going.</p>
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<p>“Swear to God, she scared the living daylights out of me.
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Twice I knew she was dead and then she came back to life. I told
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Brendan Quayle, he’s the resident on casualty, and he looked
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at me as if I was daft. But it’s true. She had no heartbeat
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at all, but she fell off the trolley and started crawling away.
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Ten, maybe twenty seconds before she dropped. Like a puppet with
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its strings cut. When we got her back, on again, there was no sign
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of life.”</p>
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<p>“That’s true,” James agreed. “I checked
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the pulse in her neck and there was nothing.”</p>
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<p>“But it was in the ambulance that she really scared the
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life out of me,” Phil continued. “Jim was driving and I
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was in the back. I gave her two hits with the pads, juiced right up
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to four hundred, and I got nothing but a flat line and a punch
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right in the balls.”</p>
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<p>David raised his eyebrows. “She attacked you?”</p>
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<p>“Galvanic jerk, that was all, but I won’t be having
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any fun for a day or two.”</p>
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<p>“Only way he’ll get a woman to feel him up,”
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James mocked. “I prefer to get them drunk, myself. Nothing
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better than a Carlsberg leg-opener. Works every time.”</p>
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<p>Phil ignored him, though his mouth twitched in a half smile and
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David could tell that they were pretty close as partners.
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They’d seen a lot together, and probably saved many a life in
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the process.</p>
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<p>“I gave her adrenaline, injected straight into the heart
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muscle, and sometimes that kicks everything up again, but nothing
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happened. Not for a minute, maybe two. Then she comes round, opens
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her eyes and stares right at me. I can tell you now it gave me a
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real fright. It wasn’t right. I’ve seen corpses come
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back to life before, but this was different. It was as if she was
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dead, but there was something making her keep going.”</p>
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<p>“I’ve told him that’s a lot of crap,”
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James butted in. “We probably missed the
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heartbeat.”</p>
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<p>Phil shook his head. “There was nothing. The ECG was dead.
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But there was something trying to keep her alive. Like willpower,
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or some sort of after-death thing, maybe even after-life. Whatever
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it was, she opened her eyes and looked right at me and started
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babbling on about a baby.”</p>
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<p>“A baby?” David asked, for the third time that
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day.</p>
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<p>“That’s what she said, and her voice sounded awful.
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Like it was coming from down a well. Honest, she was dead, but she
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was still talking. She was dead, but she crawled off that trolley
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and along the floor in the mall. I know what I’m talking
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about, sergeant.”</p>
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<p>“And what do the doctors say?”</p>
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<p>“They say there must have been something we missed.
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There’s no trouble or anything. Prof. Hartley, the
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consultant, he’s given the okay to everything we did.
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Can’t fault us on procedure, but I know there’s
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something wrong. And now you’re round asking questions and
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that makes me even more convinced.”</p>
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<p>David shrugged. “Just trying to find out who she
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was.”</p>
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<p>“Something else though.” Phil stopped and looked at
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James who seemed to think for a second, then gave a small nod.</p>
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<p>“When we got back later, they’d taken her out of the
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crash and down to the mortuary and after that they got her out of
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there. One of the nurses says she was up in microbiology, and that
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doesn’t normally happen. The crash cubicle was sealed off for
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a while, though nobody knew why. So now I known there was something
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funny going on.”</p>
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<p>“If there was anything dangerous, they’d have let us
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know,” James said. “We’d have been the first to
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be called in for checks. If they haven’t done that, then it
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can’t be infectious.”</p>
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<p>“I don’t know what it was,” Phil replied.
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“All I know is that she was trying to talk to me, and she was
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bloody dead. I’ll never forget that, swear to God.”</p>
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<p>David found a bathroom and got rid of the tea before deciding to
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go back to the mall. The ambulance drivers were a long shot, and
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there was an even longer shot back in the central concourse, but he
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thought it might be worth a try. What Jenny McGill and Phil Coulter
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had told him was odd enough to make him think.</p>
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<p>It wasn’t just the scare the paramedic had got that
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niggled at him. Maybe he had seen plenty of things, but there was
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always one more surprise round the corner. David himself had been
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in on the Toby Cannel capture after the Waterside bank raid that
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had happened only a block away from the mall in October. Toby had
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not come quietly. He’d fired three rounds and then he’d
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taken six shots, two of them through the heart and he’d kept
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on running, a hundred yards or more down the alley with exit holes
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the size of fists in his back. A seventh shot had shattered the
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thigh bone and Toby had crashed and rolled and yet he’d still
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tried to get up. When David and big Jock Lewis had reached him he
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was trying to get to his feet, spraying blood like a pig on a
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shambles-hook and swearing to Christ that he’d kill them all.
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It had taken three of them to get him down and take the gun from
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him and Toby had fought like a madman. He had collapsed ten minutes
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later and a post mortem showed that the shots had shattered his
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spine and completely destroyed the left ventricle of his heart and
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that he couldn’t have walked a yard, never mind run a
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hundred, and he couldn’t have fought three big policemen.
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That’s what the pathologist had said, but it had happened.
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David was sure something similar had taken place here. Some people
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just didn’t die so easily. Some had a hold on life that you
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had to pry off with a crowbar.</p>
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<p>David knew it wasn’t just the scare they’d had that
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niggled and itched at him. It was not just the scare, nor the
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unexplained resurrection. It was the baby.</p>
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<p>Both Jenny and Phil had mentioned the baby. The dying woman had
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been trying to tell them something. Even young Carol Padden had
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thought she heard the word, though she couldn’t be sure.</p>
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<p>A <em>baby</em>.</p>
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<p>That didn’t seem to make much sense, but it could mean
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anything. The unknown woman could have been remembering something
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from her past, and that, David knew was not an uncommon event in
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close proximity to death. She could have been minding a baby for
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someone, and had possibly come out to the shops for a quick errand,
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though that too seemed unlikely. The only houses in a quarter of a
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mile were in the Merchant City where the old offices had been
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converted into flats for young lawyers and media folk. The dead
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woman was not among their ranks, that was certain.</p>
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<p>Back at the mall, the choristers were still twisting their heads
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mechanically as they sang Jingle bells and David wondered how the
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shop assistants stood the constant barrage of fake merriment. The
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incessant noise only reminded him of how close Christmas was and
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that he’d better find a spare half hour to get his shopping
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done. June would already have his gifts wrapped and ribboned, a
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sweater, same as last year and the year before. Two shirts. After
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shave and talc. He needed a new zoom lens for his camera to get up
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on the hill lochs to take shots of the snow geese flighting in, but
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he knew he’d have to buy that for himself. June faintly
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disapproved of his weekend trips. Down in the mall, the shoppers
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browsed and the choirboys urged them on. David wished he’d
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done his festive buying in the summer and got it over with.
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Christmas was not his favourite time of the year.</p>
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<p>John Barclay, known to his former colleagues as Jab, thanks to
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his middle name of Anthony, and the fact that he had been a fair
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boxer in his day, had an office on the first floor, built on to a
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corner and with windows on either side which gave him a vantage
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down the entire main section of the mall. He welcomed David with a
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brusque, but friendly handshake and offered him a seasonal whisky
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which made a change from the tea. David sipped the malt slowly,
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savouring the peaty backtaste.</p>
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<p>“So there is life after the D-Division,” David said.
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Jab grinned and raised his glass.</p>
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<p>“Could be worse.” He said. “Full pension and
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criminal injuries and I walked straight in to this. There is a God
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and he smiles warmly down on me, for which I am eternally in his
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debt.”</p>
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<p>“How’s the hip?” Barclay had taken a crowbar
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blow that had shattered the bone when he’d tried to arrest a
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hit-and-run driver who turned out to be a thief on his way home
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from a job on a jeweller’s safe. David and he had worked
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together on a couple of cases.</p>
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<p>“Still gives me gyp, but I’m not on my feet all day
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long, like some folk.” He smiled over the lip of his glass
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and gave David a wink.</p>
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<p>“Surprised they sent CID out on this. Looks like a natural
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causes job.”</p>
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<p>“That’s most likely. They just want a
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name.”</p>
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<p>“Can’t help you here,” Jab said, “But
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I’ve got the tape from yesterday. I’ve been over it a
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couple of times and I’ve record-protected it so it
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won’t wipe.”</p>
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<p>“Can I see it now?”</p>
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<p>“Sure. I thought you’d want to.” The office
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had a bank of monitors, all of them flickering that blue-grey
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colour that security screens emit. They covered every angle,
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showing all the store fronts. Some of the larger departments had
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their own security cameras which fed here too. Barclay used a
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remote to fire up a set in the corner. It clicked twice and the
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screen came alive. At the top end, the day, date and time showed in
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white numerals and letters. The seconds scrolled up mesmerically.
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The ex-policeman leaned forward and pointed.</p>
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<p>“There she is. Coming out on the left.”</p>
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<p>David watched. On screen the woman came angling across the
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concourse, past the escalators and the bench seats where throngs of
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teenagers gathered in a crowd. She moved slowly along, tired and
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shabby looking, shoulders hunched. Past the glassy observation
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elevator she stopped and leaned against one of columns that
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supported the high roof. Off to the left, the little plastic
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choirboys swung their heads from side to side.</p>
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<p>“She’s carrying something,” David said. He
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moved closer. The woman had a white carrier bag in one hand. When
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she turned slightly, it was clear that she held a smaller handbag
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which had been hidden by the other one.</p>
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<p>“Mothercare,” Barclay said.</p>
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<p><em>A baby...</em></p>
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<p>On screen, the woman, tall and angular, spare and skinny-shanked
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but strangely buxom, paused and bent down as if she was out of
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breath. “Watch this now,” Jab told David.</p>
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<p>The woman convulsed. There was no other way to describe it. Her
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head and shoulders had lowered, as if she was crumpling to the
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floor. Her face must have been only feet from the tiles and then
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suddenly she snapped straight back up again. David had seen the
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motion before, a couple of times, but only in brawls. It looked
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exactly as if she’d been punched in the belly, making her
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swing down, and then kicked in the face, throwing her back up
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again.</p>
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<p>“Heart attack,” Barclay said. “Seen it happen
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before. I’d stake my ex-career on it.”</p>
|
|
<p>“Big gambler,” David murmured, but his attention was
|
|
on the motion on the screen. “Can we get sound?”</p>
|
|
<p>“What do you think this is? Universal Studios?”</p>
|
|
<p>The woman’s hands jerked up. The carrier bag flopped
|
|
against the pillar. The handbag went spinning away to the left and
|
|
out of sight. She stumbled forward, tottering from side to side
|
|
into the clear space between Rolling Stock and Body Shop. Her arms
|
|
raised right up to the side in a crucifixion pose and she spun
|
|
slowly. For an instant, she stopped, one hand came clamping in
|
|
against her chest and the other went down to grab at her belly. Her
|
|
head went back until she seemed to be staring right up at the roof
|
|
and she fell like a sack, hitting the floor with obvious force. The
|
|
picture fuzzed out right at that moment, as if a sudden discharge
|
|
of electricity had jammed the reception, then it came back on
|
|
again. The shape on the floor jerked violently, the back arching
|
|
right up from the tiles. Despite the poor resolution of the
|
|
distance, they could see her mouth wide open in a silent
|
|
scream.</p>
|
|
<p>People passing by just looked at her, in that curious but
|
|
uninvolved way. A pair of boys almost fell over the skinny, splayed
|
|
legs and swerved to avoid the obstruction.</p>
|
|
<p>“Heartless little bastards,” Jab muttered.</p>
|
|
<p>Jeanette and Carol came hurrying over from Body Shop. The taller
|
|
girl held back, but the other one went right down, obviously trying
|
|
to help. A small crowd began to form. The red-head - her hair
|
|
looked fair in monochrome - pushed her way back to the shop. Jenny
|
|
McGill came from the other direction. The two men watched as she
|
|
opened the blouse and bent to listen, then saw her shoulders heave
|
|
as she tried the heart massage procedure.</p>
|
|
<p>The movement at the edge of the screen caught David’s eye.
|
|
A small woman in a grey coat bent forward at the side of the
|
|
pillar, slowly and casually picked up the Mothercare bag and
|
|
stuffed it inside a shopping bag of her own. She turned and
|
|
disappeared. David asked Barclay to rewind the scene and when it
|
|
came back on, with Jenny McGill desperately thumping at the
|
|
woman’s chest, he pointed out the slick snatch.</p>
|
|
<p>“Bloody ghoul,” Barclay said.</p>
|
|
<p>“Do you know her?”</p>
|
|
<p>The ex-cop shook his head. “One of millions. Just an
|
|
opportunist.”</p>
|
|
<p>“But we know the woman was in Mothercare. I can check
|
|
there. Maybe find out what she bought.”</p>
|
|
<p>He turned, thinking. Something was nagging at him. The
|
|
Mothercare bag wouldn’t necessarily give any clue about the
|
|
woman’s identity. But there had been another bag. David
|
|
looked back at the screen. He reached forward and pointed to the
|
|
left of the screen where the walkway took a dog-leg turn towards
|
|
the west entrance.</p>
|
|
<p>“Her handbag went flying over there. Can we find out where
|
|
it went?”</p>
|
|
<p>“I never saw that,” Barclay conceded. “I only
|
|
thought the main action was important. The tape might have been
|
|
wiped already. I can have a look. It could take some
|
|
time.”</p>
|
|
<p>“If you don’t mind,” David said. He knew he
|
|
could instruct the other man to give him everything, but it was
|
|
better to play it nice and soft.</p>
|
|
<p>“Sure,” Jab said agreeably. He poured out two more
|
|
scotch whiskies in the heavy handed way that Scots men do, despite
|
|
the fact that David had hardly touched the first one. He crossed to
|
|
a tall cabinet, opened the door and showed David the stack of
|
|
tapes. There were dozens of them.</p>
|
|
<p>“Got them colour marked,” Barclay said, “so it
|
|
might be quicker.” He checked with a small chart taped to the
|
|
back of the cabinet door, and brought out about a dozen video
|
|
cassettes each bearing a red sticker. He put the first one in the
|
|
machine, let it run for a few moments, then ejected it. It took
|
|
five more tries before he sat back.</p>
|
|
<p>“I think we could be in luck.” He thumbed the fast
|
|
forward, let the tape whirr for several minutes, pressed play. It
|
|
took him several tries, running the cassette back and forth until
|
|
they got close.</p>
|
|
<p>“There,” David said. There were a number of people
|
|
in the picture, two coming out of a confectioners shop and the
|
|
others standing in front of the chemists. As one, they turned to
|
|
face the right of the picture. Over by the wall, there was a line
|
|
of supermarket trolleys. Two women started to move closer to the
|
|
camera, foreshortening as they approached, then walked out of
|
|
sight.</p>
|
|
<p>“They were in the crowd,” David said. “The one
|
|
with the hat was there.”</p>
|
|
<p>They watched the scene. Right at the far edge of the picture,
|
|
the small woman in the grey coat moved towards the pillar.</p>
|
|
<p>A sudden blur flashed across the screen.</p>
|
|
<p>“That’s it,” David said. Barclay stopped the
|
|
picture and the screen jittered to a blur. He rewound for several
|
|
seconds and replayed the scene. It wasn’t pin-sharp, but it
|
|
was the handbag. It came flying in from the right, hit the ground
|
|
and skidded on the smooth tiles. They watched it slide right to the
|
|
far wall and hit against the wheels of the trolley. It lay there,
|
|
black and shapeless but still clearly a bulky handbag. For more
|
|
than a minute nothing happened.</p>
|
|
<p>Then a girl walked into the picture. She was thin and dark
|
|
haired, wearing jeans and a long flapping coat. She looked over her
|
|
shoulder, turned to watch down the length of the concourse, then
|
|
very quickly she stooped and lifted the bag from the floor.
|
|
Cleverly she kept walking, not opening the bag to check of the
|
|
contents. She put the strap across her shoulder, held her head up
|
|
and walked casually towards the exit. She just looked like a girl
|
|
out shopping.</p>
|
|
<p>“Carrie McFall,” both men said almost exactly at the
|
|
same time.</p>
|
|
<p>“Theft by finding,” Barclay said. “She
|
|
won’t be handing it in to the station.”</p>
|
|
<p>“I’d better find her. If she’s still got the
|
|
bag, it’ll be a miracle, but I’ve worked longer odds
|
|
than that.”</p>
|
|
<p>He turned to the mall’s security chief. “If I
|
|
don’t get anything, I’ll have to come back and go
|
|
through all of these tapes.” His own sentence surprised him
|
|
because it just sprung to his mind and was spoken before he’d
|
|
even thought about it, but it was out and it was right. Sometimes
|
|
he was lucky enough to get a hunch and he’d worked them long
|
|
enough to go with the flow.</p>
|
|
<p>“Jeez David, that could take a while. And I need them, to
|
|
keep these cameras running.”</p>
|
|
<p>David shrugged. The sudden intuition was buzzing at the back of
|
|
his head. “You know how it is. I’ll make it as short as
|
|
possible, but don’t wipe any of them.”</p>
|
|
<p>“Come on man. The firm’ll go crazy if I lay out on
|
|
new ones. You know what the guards get paid an hour here? The
|
|
company doesn’t exactly throw money around.”</p>
|
|
<p>“Have to insist Jab, and I’m really sorry, but Donal
|
|
Bulloch put me on this one, and neither of us wants to give that
|
|
big highlandman a bad time or he’ll do our arms and our
|
|
legs.” The importance of saving all the tapes was somehow
|
|
sharp and clear. “So let’s not fiddle with big
|
|
Donal’s evidence. Eh?”</p>
|
|
<p>He didn’t like doing it to Barclay, especially when he was
|
|
ex-job, but it had to be done. It was just a little lean, nothing
|
|
heavy. Jab looked him in the eye, realised the score, and gave in
|
|
gracefully.</p>
|
|
<p>“I suppose you’re right. Donal’s done me a
|
|
good turn in the past. Couldn’t let him down.” He
|
|
grinned to let David know there were no hard feelings, turned and
|
|
locked the cabinet door. “Want another?” he asked,
|
|
indicating the bottle. David shook his head. He hadn’t
|
|
touched the second one. Barclay saw him to the door, limping hard
|
|
on his left side where the hip had smashed, as if he was still in
|
|
some pain.</p>
|
|
<p>“I’ll be back quick as I can. Thanks for the
|
|
hospitality, and the help. Once I find young Carrie I’ll give
|
|
you a call and we can all stand down.”</p>
|
|
<p>“Make it fast then,” Jab urged. “This is a
|
|
nice little number. I’d hate to lose it.”</p>
|
|
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