The unburied dead

Ring the bell, wait for the explosion. Wish I'd brought my truncheon.

Ring the bell again. Can picture the old man inside, tutting and cursing, swearing at his missus. If he knew it was me he probably wouldn't even answer; then I'd get the chance to break the door in, wave a piece of paper at him pretending it's a warrant, and ransack the place. Might do that anyway.

Door opens. Hold out the badge.

'Detective Sergeant Hutton, CID. We spoke on Saturday.'

He looks at me with rude curiosity. That well-practiced who the fuck are you? stare which might just work with a constable with no testicles questioning a member of the public for the first time.

'About your neighbour, Crow.'

Lets out a long breath. 'Och aye, that eejit,' he says.

'Aye, that eejit. You seen him recently?'

Shakes his head.

'I told you before, did I no'? He fucked off. And I wish you'd do the same. Fucking polis.'

He starts to close the door. Pissed me off just a little too much. Put my foot across the line, hand to the door.

'Listen you old git, you either answer my questions properly this time, or I'll get a warrant and a team from CTIS and we'll come down here and rip your fucking house to shreds.'

He hesitates. The cry comes from the living room — ' What the fuck are you doing, you stupid eejit. Close the fucking door!' — g lances over his shoulder, then comes out onto the front step, closing the door behind him.

'Right, what do you need, 'cause I'm watching the tele?'

It worked. Some people realise you're bullshitting and threats don't get you anywhere. Some don't.

'No shite now, or you're in trouble. I need to know the last time you saw Crow, exactly what he said when he called you, if he'd had any visitors, anything. Think about it, take your time, I need to know everything.'

'What's that useless bastard been up to, then?'

'It doesn't matter. Just answer the questions, please.' Bit of civility never did anyone any harm. The urbane officer, that's me.

He breathes out; big sigh. Wants to show what a huge favour he's doing me.

'Me and the missus don't sleep so good, you know? Me with the sciatica, and her with the arthritis. Right bastard that sciatica, I'll tell you, and they doctors don't know shite, so they don't.' Patience. 'So we're quite often awake in the middle of the night, you know. Saturday morning, I don't know what time it was, maybe one o'clock, something like that, I hears a noise, you know. Something going on next door.'

'What kind of noise?'

'I don't know, do I? I wasn't in there, was I, you stupid bastard? So, whatever. I hears the door slam and I looks out the window. Seen him drive off up the road.'

'Which way?'

'Up yon. Loch Fyne way, you know.'

Right. Getting somewhere. Didn't head back to Glasgow.

'So when did he call you?'

'In the morning sometime. Can't remember exactly when, you know. Eight o'clock or something like that. Maybe earlier. Bastard got me out of my bed.'

'What did he say?'

Shakes his head, sucks his teeth. I hate this guy. But then, I hate most of the people I have to question.

'No' much. Says he was going away for a few weeks, could I look after the place. I mean, what a load of shite. That bastard couldn't look after his own prick.'

'OK. How'd he sound?'

'How did he sound? Fucking hell.' Looks over his shoulder at the closed door, a wistful glance. ' Lethal Weapon 3 's on, you know,' he says.

'Come on, Gramps, it's shite. You're involved in the real thing here. Much more interesting.'

He thinks about this.

'So how did he sound?' I repeat.

'I don't know. I didn't speak to him much, you know, but he sounded a bit different. Hard to describe. With a cold, or breathless or something. Ach, I'm no' one of they psychiatrist bastards, one of they educated bastards. I'm a working man. Forty year in the postal trade.'

'That'll explain the sciatica.'

'Aye, it does, but d'you think the Post Office wants to know about it? Do they fuck, mate.'

Nod, look sympathetic. The New Policeman.

'Anything else you can tell me?'

'Aye, there is. My bollocks are getting frozen off. Can I go back inside now?'

Sometimes you just know when you've reached the limit of all you're going to get.

'Aye, right, on you go.'

He grunts some sort of base insult or other and slams the door. Away back to Mel Gibson, you sad bastard.

Turn away from the door just as Taylor emerges from Crow's place. Looks none too happy, but he rarely does.

'Get anywhere?' I ask.

He shrugs his shoulders.

'Spoke to three people. Julia, the ex. Hasn't heard a thing from the guy in five or six years. Says that if we find him we've to remind him of his alimony responsibilities.'

'Some chance.'

'Aye. The other two, don't know who the hell they were. Wouldn't say, but we can check up on them. Just a couple of shady sleazoids that Crow does his dirty work with, I suspect. They both sounded pissed off at the mention of his name. I'd guess he owes them money, and neither of them knows where he is. What about you?'

That's police work for you. Hours of crap for little reward. Point in the direction of the Rest and be Thankful.

'Left at about one in the morning and went that way.'

He looks into the snow, along the road which runs beside Loch Long, then rises up the hill away from the loch, giving way to turn-offs which offer at least three choices of what route to take. The snow is already thick on the road and hardly a car has passed along it since we arrived. Only a fool would head up into the hills on a night like this; particularly when the man we're following went five days ago, and his trail will be colder than the water in the loch we're standing at the head of.

'You're going to follow him, aren't you?' I say.

He grunts and looks at me as if I'm an idiot.

'Get out of here, Hutton, it was five days ago for God's sake.'

Oh. 'What then?'

'You're going to go and interview some more of the neighbours, while I go back inside and watch the tele. Lethal Weapon 3 's on.'

Bloody marvellous. The usual division of labour.

'And Hutton,' he says, 'brush the snow off your hair. You look like an idiot.'

41

Get back into the house half an hour later. Frozen to the bone, in need of a hot drink. Or alcohol. Find Taylor with his feet up watching one of those shows on the execrable BBC3 with a name like Too Young To Kill Your Mum or Under 10 And Pregnant.

'Anything?' he says.

'They all thought he was a creep. Some of them had stories to tell, but nothing relevant.'

He grunts a reply, keeps watching the TV.

'What about you?' I say. 'You find out who the bad guys were in Lethal Weapon 3?'

'You might be surprised to hear I've been working.'

'Shocked.'

'Put a call through to all the stations in the surrounding area. Asked them to go out looking for Crow's car, call if they found anything.'

'I'll bet you were popular.'

'Just used my natural authority.'

Have a picture of fifteen desk cops trudging out into the snow, cursing him with extravagantly colourful words of dissent.

'So what if he drove outwith the surrounding area?'

He looks at me. 'We do it tomorrow. But if it's nearby we can go looking for it tonight. So we sit and wait. Give them an hour or two. Told them to call in with nil returns. Fine, he could be anywhere, but if his car's in one of the smaller towns out west here, then we might get him.'

Fair point. Might work.

'Couldn't we go and sit in a bar somewhere?'

'Don't be a girl, Hutton. Park your arse. There's some warm McEwan's beside the settee.'