A few seconds later, Michael Smith appeared, in an apron and a white trilby, frowning. ‘What the fuck’s up wi’ . . .’ He stopped in mid-sentence as he saw Pye and Haddock. ‘Aw no! Gie’s a break.’
‘Dino’s dead,’ his friend said, bluntly. ‘Him and Singer.’
‘What?’ he gasped, mouth agape.
‘It’s just been on the radio. They were found last night, shot dead in a car, up in the Pentlands. Dino didn’t have a car that I know of, but I’ve got a hell of a feeling that there was one parked out the back of this place yesterday afternoon.’
Jagger flared up and took a step forward, his loose lips pouting. ‘Aye, well?’ he snarled. ‘He’s ma mate, so . . .’ Drizzle met him halfway, with a headbutt that landed above his left eye; he howled and reeled back, his hands going to his face.
‘You half-witted twat,’ Harbison snapped. ‘You knew the guy was wanted for taking that kid. We are on probation, both of us. If you get caught helping him, here, in this place, that lands me in it as well.’
‘Did you guys see that?’ Jagger wailed, as he straightened up. A trickle of blood came from a cut on his eyebrow.
‘No,’ Pye told him, ‘and if he banjoes you again we won’t see that either. So tell us: what time was he here?’
‘The back of five,’ he confessed. ‘Like Drizzle said, he came in the back door, him and Anna. There wis a white motor parked ootside. He was scared, ken; they both were, but Dino was kackin’ himself. I asked him if it was right, that he’d kilt that lassie.’
‘What did he say?’ Haddock asked.
‘He said that she was alive when he put her in the motor, and that the boot was padded, wi’ an air hole in it. He said that he ran intae some guy in the Fort Kinnaird car park. The fella came for him, big bloke, hard lookin’, so he legged it.’
‘So why did he come here?’
‘For cash,’ Jagger said. ‘He told me that he’d gone back tae North Berwick, to get his old man’s car and pick up dough frae his flat, but that he bumped in tae polis. Wis that youse?’
Pye nodded. ‘Take us on from there.’
‘He told me he’d got away then caught the train tae Musselburgh. He’d taken his sister’s motor frae the uni, where it’s parked durin’ the day, and then picked up Singer.’
‘Why did he do that?’ the DCI asked. ‘Why did he involve her?’
‘Ah don’t now. Ah never asked him. Mibbe he didnae want tae leave her behind. He wis daft on her, man.’
‘Did you give him money?’
‘Aye. A kept a tenner for masel’, and gave him the rest o’ what Ah had on me, about thirty-five quid. Ah gave him ma bank card too. Ah told him he could have three hundred quid out of that and post it back to me. He said that if Ah wanted, I could take thae fish out ma granny’s freezer, deliver them tae the Chinese in Broxburn and keep the money. He gie’d me the address, ken.’
‘And you gave him and Anna venison burgers, for the road.’
‘Aye. An’ a box o’ crisps and a case o’ Vimto.’
‘Did he say where they were going?’
‘As far away as they fuckin’ could. But he said he had tae meet a bloke. The guy owed him more cash.’
‘But he came to you for money as well?’ Haddock exclaimed.
‘He said they were goin’ tae need all the dough he could raise. He said if they could, they were going tae get on a car ferry and head for Holland and then Poland.’
‘Did he have a passport?’
‘Ah dinnae ken.’ Jagger shrugged. ‘Like Ah said, he was crappin’ himsel’, no’ thinkin’ straight.’
‘And Singer, Anna, how was she?’
‘Like Ah said, she was feart too, but no’ as bad as Dino. She was under control.’ His eyes widened. ‘Aye, that’s right. Ah remember noo; she said she had her passport and that when they got tae the ferry, she was goin’ tae hide Jagger in the boot, just like he hid the kid. She reckoned that once they got tae Holland she’d be able tae use her credit card.’
‘You’re a couple of bastards, you and Dino,’ Drizzle growled. ‘Anna was a nice kid. What the hell she was doing with you bum holes I’ll never know.’
‘Ah, fuck you,’ Jagger sighed. He looked at Pye. ‘So what happens now?’ he asked. ‘Ah’ve told yis what Ah know.’
‘This is what’s going to happen,’ the DCI said, smiling. ‘This is the bit I like. Do the honours, Sauce.’
‘My pleasure, gaffer. Michael Smith, he began ‘I am detaining you under Section Fourteen of the Criminal Procedure, Scotland, Act, nineteen ninety-five, because I suspect you of having committed an offence punishable by imprisonment, namely giving assistance to a person or persons you knew to be fugitives to escape from the police.
‘The reasons for my suspicions,’ he continued, ‘are the facts that on your own admission, the suspects were here yesterday afternoon after you knew that one of them was wanted by the police in connection with a serious crime, and were given financial assistance by you.
‘You will be detained to enable further investigations to be carried out regarding the offence and as to whether or not you should be reported for prosecution. You will be taken to a police station where you will be informed of your further rights in respect of detention.’
The DS stopped, then added, ‘It’s a bit of a mouthful, but it means you’re lifted, Jagger. When you’re sitting in the remand wing in Saughton, I want you to think on this. If you’d done the right thing by the dead child and called us when Dino and Singer turned up here, they’d still be alive, and you wouldn’t be locked up. I hope you choke on your porridge, pal.’
Thirty-One
‘Is this really a holiday resort?’ Haddock asked, as he drove carefully through the narrow, crowded streets of the seaside town.
‘Absolutely,’ Pye assured him. ‘In the old days they called this the “Biarritz of the North”. It’s still popular. You’re thinking like a young single man, Sauce.’
‘I’m not single! We’re a couple.’
‘No, you’re a Dinky: as in, Dual Income No Kids. It’s the same as being single, in most ways. When you think of a holiday, you think of getting on a plane and getting off somewhere twenty degrees warmer. When you think of a beach it has to be so bloody hot underfoot that you can’t walk on it.’
The DS grinned. ‘That just about sums it up, I’ll admit.’
‘Then wait till you’re like Ruth and me, with Junior to look after. We did it once, the package holiday thing. Nightmare. Getting him on and off the plane, to the hotel, never taking our eyes off him while he was crawling about near the pool, finding something he could eat without him spitting it out.
‘Ever since then we’ve rented a cottage. Next summer we’re going to CenterParcs in the Lake District. If it’s warm at the weekends and we fancy the beach, we take him to North Berwick, or over to Fife. Elie’s nice, or would be if it had more facilities.’
‘We’ll bear all that in mind,’ Haddock said, ‘in five years’ time, or maybe in ten. Meanwhile, in this place there isn’t even a yellow line we can park on.’
‘Go back to the police station,’ the DCI suggested. Haddock was about to take his advice when a space opened up for him, as a Volvo estate pulled out. ‘See? Patience.’
‘Not my strongest suit,’ Haddock grumbled. ‘Don’t we have DCs who could be doing this job?’
‘Yes, but it’s one for us. I want to see Dino’s flat, not hear about it second hand. The boy Jagger can stew in the cells at Fettes until we’re ready for him.’
‘Are we going to charge him?’
‘Too bloody right we are. I’ve already told the depute fiscal as much. He may have talked to us eventually, but what you told him was spot on. His help and his silence sent them to their deaths.’
‘He could say he confessed under duress.’
‘The only possible duress was applied by Drizzle’s forehead, and that was part of an altercation. Sauce,’ he said, ‘the Crown Office might decide eventually not to prosecute because he wasn’t under caution when he told his story, but he’s going to be charged and stuck up in court before anyone’s had a chance to think too deeply about it. Apart from anything else, he’s media fodder. It’ll be reported as a positive development.’