mirror of
https://gitlab.silvrtree.co.uk/martind2000/booksnew.git
synced 2025-01-11 10:45:08 +00:00
264 lines
14 KiB
HTML
264 lines
14 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
|
|
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
|
|
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
|
|
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">
|
|
<head>
|
|
<meta name="generator" content=
|
|
"HTML Tidy for Windows (vers 14 February 2006), see www.w3.org" />
|
|
<title>Chapter 23</title>
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="imperaWeb.css" />
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" type=
|
|
"application/vnd.adobe-page-template+xml" href=
|
|
"page-template.xpgt" />
|
|
</head>
|
|
<body>
|
|
<div id="text">
|
|
<div class="section" id="xhtmldocuments">
|
|
<h2>23</h2>
|
|
<p>The station was awash with light when Jack got there. One of the
|
|
patrol cars shot out of the exit, blue light flashing, though its
|
|
siren was switched off. Jack parked quickly, went in the back door,
|
|
and headed straight for the washroom where he splashed cold water
|
|
on his face until he felt as if he could face people again.</p>
|
|
<p>"You look as if you've got flu," Bobby Thomson said when he
|
|
leaned over the desk. "Your eyes are all red."</p>
|
|
<p>"Must be an allergy," Jack replied, forcing a grin. "Pollen or
|
|
something." Policemen didn't cry, and if they ever did, other
|
|
policemen were the last folk to understand. "What's happening
|
|
now?"</p>
|
|
<p>"I was about to call you. You must be a mind-reader or
|
|
something."</p>
|
|
<p>"What?" Bobby Thomson's words immediately brought back a picture
|
|
of Lorna Breck's earnest and gentle face.</p>
|
|
<p>"You coming in tonight. There's been another one"</p>
|
|
<p>"What a snatch?"</p>
|
|
<p>"No. Some nutter's been smeared by the mail train. Looks like a
|
|
suicide. There's an ambulance heading round to the station, but the
|
|
word is it's a hamburger job."</p>
|
|
<p>"Bobby," Jack said, with mock severity. "A bit of decorum." The
|
|
sergeant grinned. He'd seen it all in thirty years.</p>
|
|
<p>The station was two minutes away, and it was quicker to walk
|
|
than drive. As he turned out of the rear entrance of the station,
|
|
Jack could see the electric wink of the emergency cars. He crossed
|
|
the road, walked quickly to the old tunnel entrance and headed up
|
|
the ramp.</p>
|
|
<p>Bobby Thomson had been right. It was indeed a hamburger job.
|
|
Jack hoped that there was enough left of the body on the line to
|
|
make identification possible, though it did not look as if it would
|
|
be easy.</p>
|
|
<p>The ambulance teams were down on the tracks. One policeman was
|
|
retching drily over the bannister of the exit-slope. He turned
|
|
round and Jack recognised young Gordon Pirie who'd thrown up down
|
|
at the Castle when they'd found Annie Eastwood's corpse and had to
|
|
be given a day off duty. He wasn't having a pleasant introduction
|
|
to policing.</p>
|
|
<p>"Two witnesses," the rookie's partner said. "Sandra Mitchell and
|
|
Walter Dickson. They said the man jumped in front of the train.
|
|
They're still in the Horse Bar. Somebody's coming to take them
|
|
round to the station for statements. Driver didn't see a thing.
|
|
They're sending down a replacement to take the engine away when
|
|
we're finished. Looks like it'll need a good hose down."</p>
|
|
<p>Jack strode to the edge of the platform. Somebody had rigged a
|
|
light and the white beam picked out everything in detail. The
|
|
broken, slumped figure did not look like a man. The coat was spread
|
|
out on either side, with a wide rip from hem to shoulder, and it
|
|
glistened wetly under the lights. What Jack assumed to be a leg was
|
|
pointed in the wrong direction, slanted over the man's chest, one
|
|
shoeless foot resting on his shoulder. The face was a ruin of white
|
|
bone and dark blood.</p>
|
|
<p>"Bet his name's O'Day," Jack said. One of the men on the track
|
|
turned up from the body.</p>
|
|
<p>"Don't think so sir. We've got his wallet. Says he's a Derek
|
|
Elliot. He's that bloke who runs the estate agents, according to
|
|
his cards."</p>
|
|
<p>Instantly Jack recalled what Andy Toye had said. The words on
|
|
the wall could have been an anagram. Andy had that kind of
|
|
lateral-thinking mind. He'd suggested he should be looking for
|
|
people whose names began with the two missing letters, although the
|
|
professor had been quick to point out it was only an idea.</p>
|
|
<p>"Elliot," Jack said through clenched teeth.</p>
|
|
<p>If Andy Toye was right, the next man <em>had</em> to be
|
|
O'Day.</p>
|
|
<p>The policemen on the track, helped by the ambulance team,
|
|
managed get the mess of the body into a bag, and hauled it onto the
|
|
platform just as Ralph Slater came running breathlessly up the
|
|
subway ramp.</p>
|
|
<p>"Sorry, chief. Just got the call." he said, gasping. He was
|
|
toting his black scene-of-crimes equipment case.</p>
|
|
<p>"I think we got the sixth one?"</p>
|
|
<p>"Huh?"</p>
|
|
<p>"From the Herkik case," Jack said softly, keeping it between
|
|
them. "Looks like he took a dive in front of the Mallaig
|
|
express."</p>
|
|
<p>"Did a human Garfield?" Ralph asked. Jack grimaced.</p>
|
|
<p>"Got that one from John McColl," Ralph said, grinning. "He's got
|
|
a way with words. Despite himself, Jack felt a smile struggle
|
|
through at the visual image the phrase conjured up.</p>
|
|
<p>"I'll speak to the driver. You confirm the I.D. and get prints."
|
|
he turned away then came back to Ralph. "That might help," he said,
|
|
pointing down at the dirty concrete close to the station wall. The
|
|
young policeman was just levering himself upright when he turned
|
|
and saw where Jack was pointing. Immediately he doubled over the
|
|
safety barrier, sides convulsing in spastic heaves.</p>
|
|
<p>"He'll turn himself inside out," Ralph said. He walked forward
|
|
and picked up the hand which still lay palm up.</p>
|
|
<p>"Remarkable," Ralph called over. "His watch is still going."</p>
|
|
<p>The young policeman moaned sickly.</p>
|
|
<p>Tom Middleton had nothing helpful to say. His face had lost all
|
|
its colour and he'd the look of a man who's woken up to find a
|
|
corpse and a bloodstained knife lying beside him. Anybody would
|
|
have thought he'd made the train jump the tracks and had gone,
|
|
hauling on the steam whistle, chasing after the man to grind him
|
|
under the wheels. He kept shaking his head as if denying what had
|
|
happened. One of the ambulancemen gave him something to drink and
|
|
the engine driver spilled most of it on the way to his mouth.</p>
|
|
<p>"I saw him before he hit but I didn't know what it was," the man
|
|
said. "It was only something black. Honest, I couldn't have stopped
|
|
it. Damned thing takes three hundred yards at only thirty."</p>
|
|
<p>"Did he jump?" on the policeman was asking.</p>
|
|
<p>"Must have. Never saw anybody else. The whole train's in a mess.
|
|
I thought he might have still been stuck there, but he must have
|
|
gone under."</p>
|
|
<p>The driver kept shaking his head in disbelief while the
|
|
policeman took notes, then he seemed to come round a little and he
|
|
grabbed the other man by the sleeve of his tunic.</p>
|
|
<p>"I've only got three weeks to go before I retire. I never had an
|
|
accident in forty year, not one. I got certificates to prove
|
|
it."</p>
|
|
<p>"Yes sir," the policeman said patiently, easing his arm away,
|
|
but Tom grabbed it and pulled it close, unaware of what he was
|
|
doing.</p>
|
|
<p>"So why did the bastard pick <em>my</em> train?"</p>
|
|
<p>"I can't honestly say," the constable said civilly. He didn't
|
|
take offence, at least not while his superiors were watching.</p>
|
|
<p>Jack pulled his coat tight against the cold and went down the
|
|
subway, crossed the road and into to the Horse Bar where a young
|
|
woman constable sat with her arm round a younger girl who was
|
|
snuffling into a crumpled tissue. Beside her, a boy of eighteen or
|
|
so with short cut hair slicked back with gel, was staring into the
|
|
far distance just above the table.</p>
|
|
<p>He sat down and introduced himself. The boy nodded dumbly. The
|
|
girl sobbed steadily, and for a second he was reminded of Lorna
|
|
Breck, only an hour before. "Give us some coffees across here," he
|
|
called out to the barman who was leaning against the gantry,
|
|
boredly cleaning a glass.</p>
|
|
<p>"We're shut," the skinny fellow called back. His hair was as
|
|
black as Jack's, but it hung down in lank strings over his
|
|
forehead.</p>
|
|
<p>Jack got up and walked to the bar. He put both hands on the
|
|
surface and leaned across, towering over the man.</p>
|
|
<p>"I've got no time for any lip, and I'm in no mood for backchat,"
|
|
he said, staring down into the barman's eyes. "Get some coffees.
|
|
Now. And make it snappy." The man nodded. Jack went back to the
|
|
seated group. The small man man shrugged and hit the button on the
|
|
coffee maker.</p>
|
|
<p>The boy was quite lucid when he spoke, but his voice had the
|
|
shaky hesitation which is quite normal in people who are in
|
|
shock.</p>
|
|
<p>"I thought he was drunk," he said. "He came along the platform,
|
|
mumbling away. He looked as if he was on drugs. All starey-eyed and
|
|
that. He came right up to us and I pushed him away. He was scaring
|
|
Sandra."</p>
|
|
<p>"You pushed him?"</p>
|
|
<p>"Yes. But not hard. He was saying something."</p>
|
|
<p>"Like what?"</p>
|
|
<p>"He kept swearing. Saying 'bastard'."</p>
|
|
<p>"At you?"</p>
|
|
<p>"I don't think so. I think he was talking to himself. Then he
|
|
said he didn't want to do it."</p>
|
|
<p>"That was exactly it?" Jack asked. The boy nodded.</p>
|
|
<p>" 'Bastard was in me,' that's what he said an' all. Said he was
|
|
dirty now."</p>
|
|
<p>Jack took a note of that. It didn't make much sense, but it
|
|
seemed important.</p>
|
|
<p>"Than what?"</p>
|
|
<p>"Then he shoved past us. The train was just coming into the
|
|
station. He didn't even stop, he ran out and jumped right in front
|
|
of it. Jeez-o, you should have seen it. He went right up in the air
|
|
and a bit of him came off. His hand. I saw it. Then he went down
|
|
and the wheels went right over him. Sandra here just fainted. I had
|
|
to carry her down."</p>
|
|
<p>The barman brought the coffee across and set them down with a
|
|
surly clatter. Jack spooned sugar into the four cups and shoved two
|
|
of them across to the girl and the woman constable who nodded her
|
|
head and gave him a grateful smile. Walter picked up and started to
|
|
sip.</p>
|
|
<p>"What's that wee dog called in Charley Brown?" he asked
|
|
vaguely.</p>
|
|
<p>"Snoopy," the policewoman said.</p>
|
|
<p>"That was it. He was wearing a Snoopy watch, with the wee bird
|
|
walking round the edges. It was still going. Even when his hand was
|
|
off, it was still going."</p>
|
|
<p>Big tears welled up in the boy's eyes and the girl started to
|
|
cry again, great racking sobs that looked as if they would take a
|
|
while to subside. The woman pulled her close, letting her lean
|
|
against her uniform and patted her shoulder comfortingly.</p>
|
|
<p>The mangled and eviscerated body was finally carried own to the
|
|
ambulance. The ticket collector asked Ralph what he should do about
|
|
the mess on the lines.</p>
|
|
<p>"Put some sand down," was the only advice he could offer.</p>
|
|
<p>Back at the station mortuary, Ralph had the grizzly job of
|
|
taking prints from the fingers of the dead man, including the five
|
|
on the hand, now a pale grey, still in its sleeve. By the time Jack
|
|
came back, it was getting on to two in the morning, and by then
|
|
Ralph could confirm that yes, the suicide had laid prints all over
|
|
Marta Herkik's table.</p>
|
|
<p>"So now we have to find O'Day," Jack said. Send a team of people
|
|
round to this guy's place. Usual statements from relatives and
|
|
search the house for anything that will give us another
|
|
connection."</p>
|
|
<p>"Do you know what's going on?"</p>
|
|
<p>"I'm getting close," Jack admitted.</p>
|
|
<p>"Want to let me in on it?"</p>
|
|
<p>Jack looked down at Ralph, who, at six feet was a few inches
|
|
shorter, though in his old tweed jacket and thick herringbone coat
|
|
he looked almost as broad.</p>
|
|
<p>"I do, but I can't. You'd never believe me."</p>
|
|
<p>Ralph gave him a searching look. "I suppose it's got something
|
|
to do with the Breck girl? Is she starting to talk sense?"</p>
|
|
<p>"She might be, but whether it really makes sense is anybody's
|
|
guess."</p>
|
|
<p>Jack walked off and went to his office where he stood staring at
|
|
a map of the town. After a while, he picked up the internal phone
|
|
and dialled Bobby Thomson's number. There were sixteen men on night
|
|
duty, plus the ones who were still out on the beat, and Jack
|
|
realised, that wasn't enough. He'd get operations to call them with
|
|
instructions, and in the morning he'd fax a request to headquarters
|
|
in for extra men. The policemen trooped in to the operations room
|
|
and after a scuffling of chairs, sat attentively.</p>
|
|
<p>"I've a feeling it might strike tonight," he said. He did have a
|
|
feeling that it would, though he had an even nastier feeling,
|
|
worse, a near-certainly, that it had already struck, after
|
|
listening to Lorna Breck's anguished voice on the telephone.</p>
|
|
<p>"I need extra work on specific areas tonight," he told the
|
|
group. "Forget about padlock rattling on River Street and the rest
|
|
of the shops. If there's anybody breaking in to places, then it's
|
|
their lucky night. We'll catch them another time."</p>
|
|
<p>He approached the large-scale map, showing the streets and
|
|
vennels and alleys of the old centre of town.</p>
|
|
<p>"Concentrate on these areas," he said, ringing them one by
|
|
one.</p>
|
|
<p>"Latta Court and the nearby blocks. The Town Hall. Castlebank
|
|
Church. The Distillery." each of the spots was punctuated by a
|
|
quick, almost savage circling motion of his hand. "Places where
|
|
people come and go at night. Anywhere high. This bastard
|
|
<em>climbs."</em></p>
|
|
<p>He turned round to face the men. They all gazed back.</p>
|
|
<p>"He doesn't like to leave traces, so he climbs up things. That's
|
|
where we'll catch him. I don't want you guys racing around with the
|
|
lights and sirens on. We'll have to do this softly-softly."</p>
|
|
<p>When he'd finished, the men stood up and shuffled out and onto
|
|
the streets.</p>
|
|
<p>Jack sat for another half an hour, trying to puzzle out, from
|
|
the description Lorna Breck had given him, where the next killings
|
|
would be, or had been. It would have been much better, despite her
|
|
lilting highland accent which softened out her words, if she'd been
|
|
a local girl. Then she'd know.</p>
|
|
<p>At the moment, nobody knew.</p>
|
|
<p>Jack cleared his desk and went home to bed, almost too tired to
|
|
think.</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</div>
|
|
</body>
|
|
</html>
|