Close to the Bone. Stuart MacBride

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СКАЧАТЬ wearing identical tracksuits, but it wasn’t far off it, the tops pulled on over hoodies and baseball caps. One slammed into the wall, twisted round a couple of times, then sprinted straight towards Logan.

      More squeaking as he scrabbled to a halt, eyes wide, staring at the huge constable. ‘Shite!’ And he was off again – accelerating the other way, following his mates.

      Constable Pies lumbered into a run, giving chase.

      Logan shoved open the ward door. The other uniform was feeling his way along the wall, one hand clutched tightly over his groin, sweat running down his pale face.

      Chalmers appeared behind him, the front of her suit spattered with something brown.

      Logan jabbed a finger at the PC. ‘You: get back there and secure the prisoner.’ Then glared at Chalmers. ‘Don’t just stand there dripping, get after them!’

      The trail of destruction wasn’t that hard to follow – overturned carts, little old men shaking their walking sticks and bellowing obscenities, little old ladies shouting far worse.

      Off in the distance, a pair of double doors boomed against the walls. More swearing.

      DS Chalmers stuck her elbows out and her chin in, sprinting after them.

      Logan skipped to a halt, then turned and charged through into the stairwell again, taking the steps two and three at a time before bursting out on the lower level. Where it was nice and quiet.

      There were only two ways out of Aberdeen Royal Infirmary from here: double back towards the exit onto the side road opposite the auditorium, or keep going and out past Nuclear Medicine. Unless they just popped out through a fire door…

      Too late to worry about that now.

      He hurtled along the deserted corridor, passing empty beds and wheelchairs. An abandoned lunch pod.

      An intern flattened himself against the wall, clutching a huge brown X-ray envelope to his chest, as Logan sprinted past.

      Up the stairs at the end, heart pounding in his ears. Through the doors at the top and— PREGNANT LADY, PREGNANT LADY!

      Logan’s shoes skidded on the patchwork of flooring and duct tape, stopping him just short of a wheelchair full of red-faced, teeth-gritted, soon-to-be motherhood, one leg encased in plaster to the hip. The man pushing the chair turned as Logan battered past, setting the shiny ‘CONGRATULATIONS!’ balloons spinning and bumping into each other.

      ‘Watch where you’re bloody going!’

      And then BOOM – the door from the main wards smashed open and one of the tracksuit hoodies flailed into view, arms and legs windmilling as he tried to dodge a porter pushing a trolley heaped with metal bowls and trays. It didn’t work. The hoodie careened straight into him, the pair of them landing in a tangle of limbs as the trolley’s contents clanged and clattered across the cracked floor.

      Then he was up on his feet again, lunging for the exit.

      Only Logan got there first.

      He slammed into the hoodie’s side, sending them both crashing into the automatic doors before they could open. They hit the rubber matting in a tangle of arms and legs.

      ‘Gerroffus, gerroffus!’

      The door hissed open.

      ‘Police!’ Logan grabbed a handful of hood and hauled. ‘Hold still, you wee shite…’

      ‘Aaaagh, gerroffus!’

      Something thumped into Logan’s side. The hoodie put his head down and threw another punch.

      Right in the armpit. Buggering hell, that stung.

      Logan let go of the hood and snatched at the other arm – fumbling till he got a good hold on the wrist, then bent it over on itself, forcing the palm towards the forearm and keeping it there.

      ‘AAAAAAAAAGH! GERROFFUS!’

      Another bang and the door burst open again: another tracksuit hoodie. This one hurdled the porter’s overturned trolley, clearing it by at least two feet, going like the hounds of hell were snapping at his heels.

      BOOM – DS Chalmers charged through after him. Mouth open, sharp little teeth bared. ‘COME BACK HERE!’

      Hoodie Number One landed another punch. ‘Gerroffus!’

      Logan gave the wrist one final twist… And something inside went ‘pop’.

      A moment’s stillness, then he exploded, screaming, legs thrashing.

      His mate leapt over them and out through the door into the sunlight. Chalmers wasn’t quite so lucky. A flailing leg caught her mid-leap and she went crashing to the ground, face first. Hoodie Number Two didn’t look back, didn’t slow down, just kept on running.

      Chalmers lay where she was, groaning.

      ‘Gerroffus, gerroffus, gerroffus.’ The wee sod was losing a bit of energy and volume now. The words punctuated by little sobs.

      Logan dragged the cuffs from his pocket and forced one end on over the hoodie’s misshapen wrist. Got a squeal for his troubles. Did the same with the other one, fastening both hands behind the guy’s back.

      Then Logan struggled to his feet, reached down, and helped Chalmers stand. ‘Nice swan dive.’

      She glowered at him. ‘I would’ve got him, if you hadn’t tripped me!’ Fresh dots of red welled up on her skinned chin.

      He hauled the crying hoodie upright. ‘Blame Laughing Boy here.’

      She turned her head and spat a frothy blob of red on the rubber matting. ‘Bit my tongue…’

      DS Chalmers limped in, clutching an icepack to her chin. ‘How’d you get there before us anyway?’

      The ward was broken up into rooms of four beds a piece. Clunky screen things on flexible arms sat above the headboards, flickering adverts at them promising a glorious world of entertainment for any patient willing to pay for it.

      Guy Ferguson had the bed by the window, propped up on a cliff-face of pillows, blinking slowly in the sunlight. His arms disappeared into what looked like shoe boxes covered in gauze bandages. Shiny metallic ‘GET WELL SOON’ balloons were anchored to the rail at the foot of the bed, glittering in the sunshine, trailing coils of ribbon like poisonous jellyfish. Grapes, lads’ mags, and bottles of Lucozade cluttered the bedside cabinet.

      His acne had cleared up since the mugshot, leaving his cheeks and forehead a moonscape of pockmarks. The eyebrows were even thicker, but the bumfluff moustache hadn’t improved any.

      Logan sat back in his padded seat, and pointed Chalmers at the empty plastic chair on the other side of the bed. ‘One of the benefits of spending a lot of time in hospital: you get to know all the shortcuts.’

      ‘Oh.’ She sank into the chair, winced, then slumped slightly. ‘I’ve put in a lookout request for our missing hoodie; the other two are on their way back to the station.’

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