LITMIR.BIZ

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three years before he left: two women in their late seventies. No men.’

      Steel nodded. ‘Good. Means we’ll no’ have a bunch of angry relatives sniffing about causing trouble.’ Another bite, then a scoof of tea. ‘Next: Erica Piotrowski?’

      Logan went rooting through the folder and pulled out a stack of forms covered in scuffed yellow Post-it notes. ‘Trial date’s been set for three weeks next Tuesday. She’s still sticking to her story, but the PF thinks she’ll cop to aggravated assault if we give her the option.’

      ‘Sod that. She went after her next-door-neighbour with a carving knife, I’m no’ settling for anything less than attempted murder.’ Steel pursed her lips and swivelled back and forth in her office chair for a minute. ‘Anything else?’

      Logan slapped the papers out on her desk, one at a time. ‘Forensics found trace fibres when they did the rape kit on Laura McEwan, and they think they’ve got enough DNA for a match if we can get them a suspect. Fingerprints have come back on the Oldmeldrum Post Office job. Looks like our friend Mr Maclean is up to his old tricks again.’

      ‘Get him picked up.’ The inspector crammed the last two inches of bread and bacon into her mouth then lobbed its tinfoil wrapper into the bin. Mumbling, ‘She shoots, she scores!’

      ‘No need – Traffic arrested him for drink driving last night. Out celebrating his “windfall”.’ Logan stuck the final sheet on her desk.

      ‘Last but not least, another batch of counterfeit twenties turned up. That private bank on Albyn Terrace called yesterday to say someone tried to deposit four and half grand’s worth.’

      She pursed her lips and went, ‘Hmmm…’ for a while. ‘And what did DI Beardy want?’

      ‘Me to do his sodding job for him.’

      ‘All right, settle down, settle down.’ Detective Chief Inspector Finnie had the kind of face normally found under a wet rock: wide rubbery lips, floppy Hugh Grant hairstyle, beady little eyes. He stood at the front of the new CID office, with his back to the whiteboards, waiting for silence.

      Logan wheeled his office chair out from the walled-off section reserved for detective sergeants, and settled down next to Steel while she fiddled with her phone.

      The large room smelled of fresh paint, fresh coffee, and second-hand curry. It wasn’t even as if they could open a window: there weren’t any. But it was still a lot better than the cramped hovel they used to work in upstairs. The middle of the office was divided up into six cubicles, each lined with beech-veneer desks – arranged so the constables could sit back to back – separated by low walls of purple fabric.

      Nine fifteen and the whole CID dayshift was there – eighteen detective constables, four detective sergeants, three detective inspectors – fidgeting as Finnie took them through the usual day-to-day morning briefing. Waiting for him to get to the reason they’d all been allowed to slob about in the office for the last two and a quarter hours, drinking coffee and moaning about the football.

      ‘Next up.’ Finnie checked his notes. ‘You’ll have seen in our illustrious local press that we’ve got a special visitor staying with us for the foreseeable future.’ He held up a copy of that morning’s Aberdeen Examiner, the headline ‘SEX-BEAST TO SETTLE IN NORTH EAST’ stretching above a blurry photo of a man in a shell suit. Richard Knox.

      ‘Aye,’ said someone at the back, ‘like we don’t have enough perverts of our own to deal with.’

      ‘I’m sorry,’ Finnie turned a blistering smile on the room, ‘did I give the impression this briefing was open to audience participation? Did I? Because I don’t remember doing that.’

      No one spoke.

      ‘Let’s try and behave like professionals, shall we children? For a change?’

      He turned and pointed to the large figure sitting at the front of the room. ‘This is Detective Superintendent Danby from Northumbria Police, the man who put Knox away in the first place. DSI Danby has kindly agreed to come up here, brief us, and help liaise with Sacro. Superintendent?’

      Danby levered himself to his feet, turned, and nodded at everyone. ‘Right, Richard Knox…’ The DSI’s big bass voice filled the CID room just as easily as it had the patrol car. He picked up a long, black remote control and pointed it at the huge plasma TV bolted to the back wall between the little kitchen recess and the lockers.

      Everyone swivelled around in their chairs.

      Knox’s face appeared on the screen, staring out at them with a black eye and a swollen lip. It was an old photo, from back when Knox had more hair, but other than that he was still the same weedy-looking rodent.

      ‘Richard Albert Knox was convicted of the illegal imprisonment and rape of a sixty-eight-year-old man suffering from dementia.’ Danby pressed the button on the remote again, and an old man’s torso filled the screen, covered in bruises, scabs and bite marks. ‘William Brucklay was held for three days and subjected to repeated, violent sexual assaults. Chained up in the basement, beaten, abused, forced to eat dog food. A sixty-eight-year-old man… You know what I’m saying?’

      Danby paused for a moment. ‘At the trial, Knox claimed the victim was a willing sexual partner who liked a bit of rough. Judge gave him ten years.’

      Another click, and Knox’s face was back, grinning in front of a bland concrete slab of a building. ‘He was out in less than seven, released on licence, and he’s been living under twenty-four-hour supervision ever since. We know Knox was responsible for at least six other attacks on older men before we caught him, but we couldn’t prove it.’

      Danby pressed something else and the TV screen went blank. ‘Don’t be fooled by the weedy-strip-of-piss-God-is-my-co-pilot exterior – Richard Knox is a violent sexual predator who gets off on other people’s pain.’

      There was a moment’s silence, then the same voice as before piped up from the back: ‘So why the hell are we getting lumbered with him?’

      ‘He’s served his time.’ Danby folded his huge arms. ‘We’ve got no legal right to restrict his movements any more. If it was up to me he’d be stuck in a little dark hole for the rest of his natural, you know what I’m saying? But as of three months ago he can go wherever he likes.’

      One of the uniformed PCs stuck up a hand. ‘Yeah, but why Aberdeen?’

      ‘Because blood’s thicker than water.’

       5

      ‘Hold on, maybe this’ll help…’ PC Guthrie yanked open the curtains, unleashing a cloud of dust. Pale grey morning light oozed in through the grubby bay window. If anything, it just made the place look worse.

      Once upon a time the velvet curtains were probably a rich red, but now they were the colour of dried blood. The wallpaper was a collection of faded roses and vines, the room’s corners infested with the familiar black spider webs of mildew. Standard lamps with tasselled edging, a sagging couch, a nest of tables, a mantelpiece weighed down with dusty porcelain figurines.

      The sour taint of ancient cat pee.

      Steel wrinkled her nose. ‘No’ exactly Better Homes and Gardens, is it?’

      Logan had to agree. The whole place looked like the contents of a bring and buy sale, circa 1975. ‘Could do with a bit of a clean.’

      Richard Knox stood in the middle of the worn carpet, one hand on the back of a rickety armchair, and smiled. ‘I think it’s perfect…’

      It was a rundown detached house in Cornhill, with an overgrown front garden, sagging gutters, moss-covered roof, and peeling paintwork.

      A pair of black-and-white photographs hung on the wall above

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