Donnelly held up his palms. ‘Look, our informant stuck his neck out.’
‘What about that bloody woman, Phil? What about Tulloch and Niall Paton? They stuck their necks out too. I need more to go on than a rumour.’
‘We checked the books, I mean the official paperwork. It all ties up, the times. Tulloch and Finnie were in Helmand together at the same time, returned together at the same time, but their departure wasn’t at the same time as the regiment shipped out.’
‘That’s hardly conclusive.’
‘No, but their discharge papers might be. They were booted out the Royal Highland Fusiliers on the same day, and they both hit civvie street without so much as a kind word from the army about their spud-peeling skills.’
37
The incident room was a blur of unfamiliar faces, bodies that were no more than obstacles and a low-level hum that might have been chatter but might also have been the inside of Valentine’s head cracking. He wasn’t in an unfamiliar place, the opposite was true, but it was certainly an uncomfortable place. His booming senses and eddying emotions told him that the return had been instant, round about the time Phil had detailed the results of the east-coast investigation.
‘Sir, can I have a word?’ It was DS McCormack.
‘Not now, Sylvia.’
‘It’s important.’
‘I’m sure it is, but it’ll have to wait.’ Valentine headed for the door and crossed the corridor in loping strides. He tried to increase his pace but the effort didn’t bring the desired results, only made him feel more off balance. He reached out for the wall to steady himself and almost fell against it. He stopped, gathered breath and made the final steps to the door of the gents in an almost drunken stupor.
Inside, the door closed, the atmosphere changed. The sounds changed, the clatter of the incident room was replaced by a still almost hypnotic birr from the strip lights. He heard a voice and at once knew it didn’t belong to anyone that existed on the same plain as him. There might have been actual words, and meaning attached to those, but the DI was too unsettled to allow himself to strain for their meaning. He rushed to the sink and started to splash cold water on his face and neck.
The water was a comfort, eased his rising temperature but failed to shake him from the moment. As Valentine straightened himself before the mirror his vision blurred then receded into darkness. As his sight returned he was holding tight to the skin, staring into the mirror at an image of a face he knew wasn’t his. Somewhat higher than his right shoulder stood Bert McCrindle, fully suited in khaki, a cap perched at an angle above one eye.
‘It’s not right, son,’ he said.
‘What?’
Bert turned to the side, peered through Valentine. As the detective followed his gaze he saw another figure had joined them. At his left shoulder, in the mirror, was a young girl, she had black hair pulled tightly from her face. Although dark-skinned she looked pale, far too pale.
Bert spoke again. ‘It’s not right, son. They buried that girl in a shallow grave.’
‘Who is she?’
As he stared at the girl in the mirror she turned to face Bert. She smiled, almost a bow, but Valentine’s gaze was drawn to the small hole in her temple, a little black point the size of a fingertip that oozed a line of dark blood.
‘Not right to treat another human life like that, son,’ said Bert.
The detective took his gaze from the girl and returned to Bert, as he did so, his blood surged and the strip lights burned hard and bright in his eyes. The intensity lasted only a few seconds before the blackness took over.
‘Bob … Bob … Are you OK?’ A new voice, familiar this time.
‘Where am I?’
DS Donnelly came into focus, leaned down towards Valentine. ‘You’re in your office, here get this down you.’
‘What is it?’
‘Just water. You’ve had a tumble, Eddy there found you on the floor of the gents.’
DS McCormack started to press a cold can of Coke into his forehead. ‘I don’t think you’ve any injuries, there’s no blood or bruising.’
‘Lucky you never whacked your head off the sink,’ said DS Harris. ‘Luckier yet I found you when I did, you could have been there all day.’
Valentine pushed away the can of Coke. ‘I’m grateful for your weak bladder, Eddy.’ He waved away the assembled crowd. ‘Look can you all get back to work, I’ve passed out, it happens, now get over it.’
‘I think you should go home, take the rest of the day off, sir,’ said McCormack.
‘That’ll be right. I’m fine, just been overdoing it lately, not had much sleep.’
Donnelly turned to McAlister and winked.
‘I bloody saw that, Phil.’
‘Sorry, boss. Just being funny.’
‘Just being a dick you mean.’
‘That’s it, that’s what I meant.’
Valentine pushed away his chair and stood up, he took a mouthful of water and followed it with two deep breaths. ‘It’s roasting in here …’
‘I’ll get the window open,’ said McCormack.
‘Wait, what was it you were going to say, when you stopped me on the way out earlier?’
‘Oh, right, just that I ran the Meat Hangers staff through the database and we have a repeat offender, string of convictions for battery and a nice GBH cherry on top.’
Valentine put down the cup, reached over his desk to retrieve his jacket. ‘Right, get moving. We’re going to pay this one a visit … name?’
‘Brogan, sir … Kyle Brogan and he stays in the same part of town as Tulloch did.’
‘Another trip to the badlands. Hope you like the sound of banjos, Sylvia.’
DS Donnelly stepped forward. ‘What about us, boss? Do you want us to get onto Major Tom?’
‘You’re kidding aren’t you? He’d eat you alive. No, you leave that to me, I’ll talk to the chief super when I get back. We need to approach this carefully, the military have a love affair with the Official Secrets Act and if we go in boots first then we’ll likely come out that way too.’
‘Shall I update the super?’
‘No, leave her to me as well. I’ll take care of that personally. I want to know how she’s going to approach it but I also want to see her eyes when I confirm for her that she’s been had by her new Major buddy.’
DS Donnelly started to fiddle with the collar of his shirt. ‘But what if Dino comes in sniffing around, if I hold this back then surely that’s putting us in her bad books again.’
‘I’m never out of her bad books and the way this case is going there’ll be a few more joining me before long. I want you and Ally to get onto the boffins and chase a full report on the Paton kid, what can they tell us about how he died and if there’s any useful forensics on him, preferably not his own.’ Valentine turned away from Donnelly and faced DI Harris. ‘Eddy, welcome on board. I’m sorry it wasn’t in more auspicious circumstances but now we do have you, I’ll be putting you to use right away. I want you to get onto the school, Belmont, and get names of all Niall Paton and Jade Millar’s main associates. I also want to talk to any teachers that they shared and get hold of any others that clocked unusual behaviour from the pair of them in recent weeks. Likewise sports clubs and whatever else kids go in for. Oh, and GPs, and anywhere else they were attending like therapists or what have you, talk to them. I want insights, draw up their profiles.’
‘Christ, that’s a tall order, anything else whilst I’m at it?’ snapped Harris. ‘I could shove a broom up my arse and sweep the stairs too, I suppose.’
‘There will definitely be more, Eddy, I just haven’t thought of it yet.’
38
In the car DS McCormack started her questioning the second the doors had closed. Her face, tight in the jaw, inferred anger but there were other emotions playing in her cracking voice. ‘What the hell was that?’ she said.
‘I don’t know.’ Valentine’s reply sounded meek. ‘Trust me, Sylvia, if I did, I’d let you know chapter and verse.’