‘I’m not stopping,’ said Valentine.

The chief super looked up. ‘You sound fairly confident of that, Bob. If I were standing in your boots, I’m not sure I’d be so cocksure.’

He peered beyond her towards the desk, she was indeed going over the case files – his own annotated file from inside his desk. Had she searched his office?

‘If you’re unhappy with the way the case is being conducted then perhaps you might want to let me get on with it so that I can contribute to your clean-up rate.’

She slammed the folder shut, tapped red fingernails on the top and eyed the detective through heavy lids. ‘You’re not the only DI in King Street.’ She rose. ‘I could replace you, like that …’ Her fingers snapped in Valentine’s face.

‘Is this a conversation I should be having with the union rep present, chief?’

‘You could bring along the Prime Minister, Bob, it won’t make a blind bit of difference to what I have to say.’ The castors on her chair squealed as she stepped back from the desk, the chair skidded into the centre of the floor. ‘I’ll see you in my office in ten minutes. Bring any and every scrap of progress you’ve made because I’ll need to be convinced you are the most capable officer to handle this case.’

He knew she was testing him, asserting her rank. He knew, also, that he was about to pay for having challenged her authority too many times lately. The meeting with Major Rutherford, likely, being the offence which caused the most damage. The absurdity of the situation was annoying enough, but the pettiness bit even deeper.

‘I do have other things to do,’ he said.

‘No, Bob. You have nothing else to do, other than what I tell you.’ She crossed her arms, leaned in, ‘And you can call this a wee heads-up – you might want to explain away why I have a complaint on my desk from Ayr Hospital to add to the one from the hospital in Kilmarnock. And while you’re at it, just when were you going to tell me about this?’ She reached into the file and retrieved the post-mortem report on James Tulloch. ‘I found an extra page in your file that wasn’t in mine and it says Tulloch’s spinal column was cut, how did they put it? The wound track, back to front was administered on a horizontal thrust … That’s pretty cleanly and coldly, like he was sitting on the bloody butcher’s block.’

‘I had every intention of …’

She raised a hand. ‘Save it, Bob. My office in ten minutes.’

DS McCormack was the first of the team to arrive after Valentine, almost bumping into the chief super as they met at the doorway. The DS made for the glassed-off office at the back of the incident room where Valentine had stationed himself. He spotted her on the way in, waved her away, but she took no notice.

‘Who stole your toffee?’ were the first words out of her mouth.

‘Is that Glasgow? This isn’t the Francie and Josie Show, you know.’

‘Sometimes I think the only folk in this country who like Glasgow are the Glaswegians.’

‘You could substitute country for planet and not be far wrong.’

McCormack closed the door behind her. ‘Well somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed.’

‘I’m sorry. Had a rough night. Then Dino was in here early doors and it wasn’t to sing me “That’s Amore”.’

‘Erm, I’ll start with the rough night, I think …’

Valentine pushed out his hands, inflated his chest and began a slow exhalation. He started to talk about the picture that Hugh Crosbie had drawn and then he found himself relaying his father’s explanation of how he knew Bert McCrindle and how strange it all seemed to him, but by the time he got to the bit about his dream, and the visit from Bert, strange didn’t seem like a strong enough description. The DI’s head was heavy, bulging with new thoughts, questions, what-ifs.

‘Did you tell Clare?’ said McCormack.

‘How could I not? She was right next to me, got the brunt of my ranting and raving again … anyway, I don’t want to talk about Clare just now.’

‘OK. Do you want to talk about the chief super?’

‘God no. That’s not a choice I have though, the way she feels about me you might be the lead detective on this case soon.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I’ll be lucky to get a job cleaning up after the mounted police outside Ibrox if she chooses to let rip.’

‘I take it she found out about the post-mortem report on Tulloch.’

‘Bingo.’ Valentine leaned back in his chair, turned his arms behind his neck. ‘There’s more too, but I won’t bother you with it right now. Tell me about Phil and Ally’s trip to the far east.’

‘Oh, interesting, to say the least. They spoke to the top brass there, but got zilch. Pleasantries, the good biccies brought out but nothing to write home about.’

‘Well, I wasn’t expecting a smoking gun, Sylvia. Tell me they dug a little deeper.’

‘Yes, of course, there’s more.’ She approached the desk, a note of optimism rising in her voice. ‘They spoke to some squaddies, they knew Tulloch and didn’t sound too fussed to hear he’d died. They were a bit more concerned about Darren Millar’s disappearance, that’s really put the cat amongst the pigeons at the barracks.’

‘Darren was much more popular, then?’

‘For sure. But get this, there’s more. His best friend in the regiment was a bloke called Finnie, who came from, guess where? Ayr.’

‘Why do I know that name?’ said Valentine.

‘Probably because you’ve seen it on Flash Harris’s case files – Finnie worked at the Meat Hangers with Tulloch and they were both in the Royal Highland Fusiliers together.’

‘Jesus, tell me you’ve pulled this Finnie in.’

McCormack shook her head. ‘No, sir. He’s top of Harris’s list at the moment too. Apparently Finnie’s not been seen since the night of the robbery.’

‘And the night of the murder too, don’t forget that, Sylvia.’ Valentine picked up a pencil and started to roll it between his fingers. ‘Has Harris pulled in Norrie Leask yet?’

‘No. That’s the not-so-good news: Leask’s missing.’

‘What do you mean missing?’

‘Nowhere to be found, sir. Not at his address or known haunts, and no one has seen hide nor hair of him.’

‘Well that’s bloody convenient.’ Valentine thrust the pencil down on the desk. ‘Just what the hell is going on here? I’ve got a murdered ex-squaddie, a missing ex-squaddie – make that two of them missing including this Finnie character – and now Ayr’s answer to Arthur Daley and Terry McCann rolled into one has done a bunk.’

McCormack squinted. ‘I think it’s still progress.’

Valentine wasn’t so sure, he checked his watch, his ten minutes were up and he had to go and see the chief super. ‘Where’s Phil and Ally got to? They should be here by now.’

‘They’re still on the east coast, sir.’

‘You’re joking?’

‘They stopped overnight, apparently they’ve got a lead to follow up today.’

Valentine stood up, stepped away from his desk. ‘So on top of everything we’re two men down today.’

‘It could be worse,’ said McCormack.

‘How, just how could it be worse, Sylvia?’

‘We could be three men down.’

‘Just hold that very thought.’ Valentine headed for the door.

32

As he stood in front of the vending machine waiting for his coffee cup to fill, Valentine told himself that he’d had a long career, and it wasn’t without merit. There had been the predictable lows too, and the encounter with CS Martin that awaited him was definitely going to be another of those, but he had a lot to be proud of.

When he’d taken a knife in the heart, and been declared dead, that would have been a good enough reason for many to leave the force but he stayed on. He knew that financially, he really had no option though. And now that they’d moved to a bigger house, and moved his father in with them, those restraints had only tightened. The girls’ demands were growing more costly every year and there’d be university to consider soon. Clare’s spending might have been curtailed for now but that was a result of their huge splurge of late, she would be back to her old ways as soon as the sheen of a new house wore thin. A dull ache started deep inside his chest, somewhere in his damaged heart.