Logan McRae Crime Series Books 4-6: Flesh House, Blind Eye, Dark Blood. Stuart MacBride

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СКАЧАТЬ as Logan and Faulds pushed through the back doors.

      ‘This is going to be so cool!’ he said, following them to a pool car speckled with rust and seagull droppings. ‘Can I ride with you guys? I’ve got a great idea for a travelling shot, all the way through Torry and up to the Battery, we—’

      ‘Sorry, Alec.’ Logan wrenched open the driver’s door. ‘We’ve got to go pick up Insch.’

      ‘But …’ The cameraman looked at his watch, his colleagues, back to Logan and then at his watch again. ‘But isn’t he all the way out—’

      ‘Yes, that’s why we can’t hang around talking to—’

      ‘Shite …’ Alec clambered into the back seat. ‘Come on then, let’s roll!’

      Logan put his foot down – the dual carriageway flashing past as they took the quick route through Bucksburn, past the airport, and out into the countryside, Bennachie looming vast and purple in the distance.

      ‘So …’ Faulds watched the fields go by. ‘I was talking to DI Steel this morning.’ He left a pause, but Logan didn’t have a clue what he was talking about.

      ‘That’s nice.’

      The Chief Constable pointed at Logan’s bruised face. ‘She says your girlfriend beat you up.’

      Gossipy old cow. ‘Ex-girlfriend. And she didn’t beat me up. It was an accident.’ Lie. ‘Do you really think Wiseman’s going to be stupid enough to show up?’

      ‘Don’t change the subject.’

      ‘There’s nothing to tell, OK? We broke up. End of story.’

      Alec peered through from the back. ‘I dumped this girl once – law student – two weeks later she lets herself into my flat with a spare set of keys and craps in the bed. Then she covers it with the duvet and fucks off. Course, I come back steaming that night, with a quantity surveyor called Daphne. We tear each other’s clothes off and jump into bed… Fucking horrible it was. Went everywhere.’

      An embarrassed silence settled into the car.

      ‘What? I was just saying, OK?’ Alec slumped back into his seat. ‘Honestly, some people would find that kinky. I used to know this guy—’

      Faulds turned and stared at him. ‘Better leave it there, Alec. Don’t want to spoil the magic.’

      In the end Wiseman had to stuff a dishtowel in the fat bastard’s mouth to get him to shut up. Insch didn’t look well, sat there, strapped to his armchair, face all covered with bruises and tears and snot. Trembling and furious.

      Wiseman glanced at the clock – the telly people were expecting him at two – he had to get a shift on. ‘Well, Fatso, I’ve got to go. It’s been fun, but tempus fugit, and all that.’ He grabbed Insch’s nose and pinched the nostrils shut, watching him struggle for oxygen. He could kill him with two fingers. Just like that… But it would be a waste.

      He let go and Insch dragged a shuddering breath in through his podgy nose. ‘But before I leave,’ Wiseman wiped his fingers on the fat bastard’s shirt, ‘have to decide what to do with you.’ He picked up the boning knife and rested the point on that disgusting, huge stomach. ‘I could open you up like the fat fucking piggy you are, gut you right here. Would you like that, Fat Boy?’

      Insch glared at him, furious hissing noises coming from his flared nostrils.

      ‘Thought so. But know what I’m going to do instead? I’m going to hurt you.’ He slammed his fist into the bastard’s face, rocking that angry scarlet head back on its huge pink neck. ‘Made an appointment with the BBC – stupid bastards actually think I’m going to turn up, when I know the whole place will be swarming with cops.’ He smiled. ‘You know where I’ll be while they’re looking the other way, Fat Boy?’

      Wiseman went upstairs and came back carrying a wriggling piglet with blonde pigtails, tied hand and foot.

      The little girl took one look at her parents, and froze. He dumped her on the floor at Daddy’s feet. ‘Three daughters. That’s one for you, one for me, and one for the pot.’ Wiseman picked up the frying pan again, and poured the last of the fat and gravy over Insch’s head. ‘She was tasty, wasn’t she?’

      The bitch moaned and wailed behind her gag, but the fat man looked ready for murder.

      ‘What will I do with my one? Hmm?’ Bending down to stroke the piglet’s hair. ‘What will I do with my little girl?’ He looked up into Insch’s terrified face, then backhanded him again. ‘Not that, you fucking pervert. I’m going to sell her. Get a lot of money for specialist livestock this sweet.’ Wiseman winked. ‘According to the paedos in Peterhead, they’re easier to train if no one knows you’ve got them. No Social Services, no “concerned parents”. You can do whatever you like.’

      Insch shouted something behind the gag, thrashing back and forth, straining against the duct-tape, making the armchair creak. Wiseman picked up the girl and slung her over his shoulder. ‘She’s going to make some dirty old bastard very, very happy. And all because you fucked with me, Fatty. All because of you.’ He turned and smiled at Insch’s wife. ‘You think about that next time he wants to put his dick in you.’

      He could still hear them struggling as he closed and locked the front door. Throwing Brooks off the roof had been a bit of a letdown. He’d expected it to be a lot more satisfying, but it was over too quickly.

      This was going to hurt that fat bastard till the day he died.

       23

      Logan slowed down as they reached the outskirts of Oldmeldrum. ‘How we doing for time?’

      Faulds scowled. ‘Badly.’

      ‘Not my fault there was a tractor.’ He threaded the car through the village centre, making for Insch’s house. ‘Anyway, if we stick the siren on all the way back we can—’ There was a familiar-looking Range Rover up ahead. It only stayed in vision for a second, and then it was hidden by the curve in the road.

      ‘What?’

      ‘I think that was Insch …’ Logan pulled up outside the inspector’s house. Where the muck-encrusted four-by-four should have been, there was just a patch of oily gravel. ‘Someone must’ve got through on the phone. Told him it was going down at two.’

      ‘Are you telling me we came all this way for nothing?’

      ‘We can still catch him.’ Logan ignored the thirty limit all the way up to the T-junction. The Range Rover was just visible, driving along the A947 back towards Aberdeen. Logan followed it.

      ‘What if it’s not even his car?’

      Logan accelerated, closing the gap. There were two vehicles between them and the four-by-four: a blue Audi and a tatty Daihatsu 4Trak, Logan peered past them at the car in front. ‘No … it’s definitely Insch’s.’

      ‘Well, flash your lights, or something.’

      Alec СКАЧАТЬ