Dyed in the Wool (27 page)

"Okay." Cullen scratched the stubble on his neck. He nodded at Anderson. "Have you got a timeline for the use of the weapon?"

"Just about, aye. Gordon Beveridge's prints are the oldest, meaning he was first to use the weapon."

"Aye."

"And most likely to have brought the knife, right?"

"Right."

"Who did he use it on?"

"Don't know the first victim."

Cullen sighed. "Who used it next? Aitken or the partial?"

"Aitken."

"And the second victim?"

"Looks like Beveridge's DNA is the second and Crossan's is the third."

"So, Aitken must have killed Beveridge. Why?"

Anderson shrugged. "Not my department."

Wilkinson frowned. "Repeat for me, Curran. Slowly."

"We've got Gordon Beveridge stabbing someone unknown. Next, it looks like Aitken stabs Beveridge. Then our partial killed Liam Crossan."

"With you now."

"Good." Cullen stroked his chin. "Why was Aitken even there?"

Wilkinson shrugged. "No idea."

Cullen put it together. He clicked his finger and pointed at Wilkinson. "We've now got evidence proving Aitken was there. Could Souness have been as well?"

"Hang on, lad." Wilkinson held up his hands. "What are you saying?"

"You've got two known victims plus a third unknown one. Souness died of stab wounds."

"This is my case, Curran."

Cullen folded his arms. "It could be the same one."

"No chance." Wilkinson wagged a finger. "I'm not letting this slip."

Cullen looked over at Anderson. "Can you run a DNA match against Kenny Souness?"

Wilkinson screwed his face up. "He died in his flat, Curran."

"He might have died there, but he could have been stabbed at the quarry."

Wilkinson crumpled back against the door, rubbing his eyes. "How bloody long is a DNA check going to take?"

"Depends on the server load. It can be bloody temperamental." Anderson clicked and tapped his keyboard, filling in forms and selecting values from a couple of pop-up lists. "All the DNA's in the system now. I've had a bloody week to prep all this stuff while you lot have done a circle jerk."

Wilkinson shook his head. "Do it."

Anderson clicked the mouse. The progress bar jolted to the right.

Wilkinson leaned against the desk. "This is quick."

"It just does that to start with." Anderson made a circular motion with the mouse pointer, circling round the progress bar. "I've asked them to try and even the time out. After a while, you just get used to it."

"How long's this going to take?"

"Not much longer."

The bar leapt ten per cent.

"Should I go and get a coffee?" Wilkinson narrowed his eyes.

"Soya latte, cheers." Anderson sat down at the desk.

Wilkinson sniffed before leaving the room.

Anderson looked around at Cullen. "You going to just loiter there? Not sure Wilko can manage to get three coffees all on his own."

"I've seen monkeys do amazing things at the zoo."

Anderson grinned as the progress bar jumped to just over halfway. "Is there some political angle I'm not getting here?"

Cullen nodded. "He thinks Cargill's trying to take over his case?"

"Makes a difference from Bain being his enemy, I suppose." Anderson stroked his beard. "Is there any truth in it?"

"Of course there is. They're all playing games."

"Fuck's sake."

The door burst open and Wilkinson entered, carrying a tray with three coffees. "You like a chai latte, don't you, Curran?"

"Are you kidding me?"

"Of course. Black Americano."

"Cheers, Paul." Anderson took a sip through the lid. The machine beeped as the bar reached full. "Here we go."

Wilkinson leaned forward. "Have you got something?"

"There's a positive DNA match." Anderson tapped the screen. "The same knife was used to kill Crossan, Beveridge and Souness."

Cullen turned to Wilkinson. "We're working the same case."

*
*
*

"Clear out." Wilkinson marched into the meeting room occupied by some of his DCs. "Go on."

They left.

Cullen sat at the opposite end of the oval table from Wilkinson. Methven, Cargill, Bain and Sharon spread themselves around it.

"Thanks for joining us at such short notice." Wilkinson took a sip of coffee. "Curran, can you take us through this?"

"Sure." Cullen cleared his throat. "Right. We've completed the DNA analysis and most of the fingerprints."

Sharon folded her arms. "Most of?"

"There's a partial." Cullen licked his lips. "Anderson's going to take some time confirming that."

"Okay."

"It looks like Souness was killed using the same knife as DI Wilkinson's victims."

"Jesus Christ." Cargill pinched her nose. "How?"

"There's more, ma'am. Aitken's prints were all over it, too."

"So we're working the same case, then?"

Wilkinson nodded. "It'd appear so, aye."

Sharon frowned. "DI Wilkinson, when I spoke to you about this last Thursday, you told us there was no link between what happened in the quarry and the stabbings."

"That's true. Neither Kenneth Souness nor Alexander Aitken had any overt links with football hooligan groups."

"Let me get this straight." Cargill folded her arms. "The knife was used for three murders, namely Liam Crossan, Gordon Beveridge and Kenny Souness?"

"Correct."

"And there are two distinct prints on the handle of the knife, namely Gordon Beveridge and Alexander Aitken?"

"Plus a partial which doesn't match the patterns of the other two."

"Okay." Cargill bit her lip. "The initial priority is to establish a clear chain of command. We can't go on running these as two cases."

"I own this." Wilkinson took a sip of coffee.

Cargill leaned back in her chair. "I think we need to formally discuss this with DCI Turnbull and whoever you report to. I'm conscious of the fact that it won't be a quick activity. That said, we absolutely need clear guidance on the ground now."

"The initial priority is to determine whose prints are on that knife." Wilkinson glared at her. "That's going to take some bloody time. I don't think you and I arguing about who owns this bloody case is getting us anywhere."

"Agreed." Cargill smiled, revealing yellow teeth. "However, the only officer you've brought to the table is one of mine, namely DC Cullen. While the gears of bureaucracy grind away, let's agree amongst ourselves that you'll join my management team and we'll merge this into a single case. Okay?"

Cullen expected to hear further argument - I'm not working for a bloody DI.

Wilkinson ground his teeth. "Fine."

Cargill's thin tongue licked her top lip. "Good. Now that's settled, let's focus on realigning priorities across the piece. Effectively, we have some disjointed strands we need to tie together."

Cullen glanced at Sharon. What on earth had she seen in Cargill?

Cargill looked at Cullen - he looked away long enough for her to shift her gaze. "For instance, what happened to Alexander Aitken between his fingerprints getting onto the knife and him being found by the shale bing?"

She looked over at Sharon. "What happened to Kenny Souness between being stabbed and DS McNeill and DC Cullen finding him last Wednesday night? Whose is the third fingerprint on the knife?"

She paused. "We need to tie the chain of events at Ginty's Quarry together - who killed Beveridge and Crossan and why? I want us to mobilise with five strands to the investigation." She pointed at Holdsworth. "Paul, can you get DS Holdsworth to merge the cases on HOLMES?"

Wilkinson winced. "That's not easy. It'll need two full-time officers for two whole days to do that."

"It needs to be done today, I'll give you three."

"That's not how it works."

"I don't care. We need to pool resources on this and we need it centralised and done by the book. I'm sure you'll appreciate I'm not trying to pull a fast one here and instil some cowboy alternative process."

"Fine." Wilkinson furiously scribbled notes on his A4 pad.

Cargill nodded. "Now, in terms of the investigation priorities, we've four major streams. First, DI Wilkinson, can you progress with the investigation at the quarry? I want a clear timeline of events by close of play and I want your staff to relocate there."

"Okay." Wilkinson sat back in his seat and finished his coffee, crumpling the cup in his meaty fist. "One thing to bear in mind is this fight was organised. We need to trap that. I've got Charlie Kidd investigating on Schoolbook."

Bain frowned. "Did you just say Schoolbook?"

Wilkinson grinned. "You're welcome to go back there."

"Wouldn't touch it with a fuckin' bargepole."

Cargill gave Holdsworth a stern look. "We clearly need to look at resource allocation, but I want us to plough on as quickly as possible. I don't want to lose any momentum. Paul, I assume you've got a deputy who can take on operational management of this?"

Wilkinson looked at Cullen. "Well, there's DC Curran."

"Apart from DC Cullen." Cargill stressed the L's.

"Aye, I'll look into it."

"Good. Next, I want a clear timeline from before Aitken arrived at the quarry right through to when he was murdered. There are huge gaps - we haven't even placed him at the quarry, for instance. I want every single hole plugged." Cargill looked at Methven. "Can I ask you to lead this?"

"Sure thing." Methven raised his eyebrows and smiled.

"Excellent." Cargill looked at Bain. "DI Bain, can you take the lead on Souness? We need a similar timeline from before the quarry to Souness dying and then to him being found. DS McNeill has been leading this, but I want you to formally take over."

"Will do." Bain stroked at his moustache. "It is pretty much just a case of him getting stabbed then dying at home, though."

"Still needs to be closed off." Cargill tapped her fingers on the desk. "Which leaves us with the forensic search. Brian, can you and DS Irvine lead on that?"

"Aye, will do."

"Okay." Cargill got to her feet. "Let's get back to work. I want the four leads to stay with me and we can allocate resource accordingly. I'll need DS Holdsworth as well."

Cullen frowned. "What about me?"

"First, you could get DS Holdsworth in here." Cargill smiled. "You can work with DS Irvine."

Cullen sighed. "Yes, ma'am." He'd be lucky to get away without another complaint. At least he'd avoided Sharon.

Cullen typed the last words of his interview notes from the sessions with Miller and Richardson. He emailed the copy to Holdsworth for inclusion in the case files and printed out two copies. The clock in the bottom right corner of the screen read 15.04.

He shut the lid on the laptop and looked across the Incident Room, far busier than he'd seen for days.

Wilkinson was nearby, sitting with one of his officers, a woman in her late twenties. He caught Cullen's eye and headed over, sitting at the adjacent desk. "I hope most of the energy isn't being expended on merging the cases, rather than catching the murderers."

"Tell me about it." Cullen nodded. "Did that go as you hoped?"

"Hardly." Wilkinson checked his watch. "Got a catch-up with my DCI in half an hour. Hopefully he'll extricate me from this."

"Best of luck."

"I'll need it." Wilkinson patted Cullen's shoulder. "How's the forensics going?"

"We're waiting on Anderson." Cullen nodded over at Irvine, deep in conversation with Bain. "Need to spend time with DS Irvine to work out what he's planning to do."

Wilkinson looked over. "He's going to get to second base with Bain by the looks of things."

Cullen laughed. "I've thought of going over and giving them some abuse, but I just couldn't be arsed with it."

"Good idea."

"How's the Aitken timeline going?"

Wilkinson sighed. "Still don't know anything about how the lad ended up there. The trail from his office last Tuesday to his body being found at the bottom of a shale bing is colder than an Edinburgh winter."

"It's just the wind, sir. It's not that bad really."

"I'll remind you of that in January."

"Did they get anything on the lock-up in Ravencraig?"

"I've got that DS Rarity going round the owners and users of the garages, but nobody's come up with anything. Or, if they have, they're not telling me."

"All comes down to the forensics, I suppose."

Wilkinson nodded. "Always does. We've got four victims, two potential killers and an unidentified third suspect. We need to connect the bloody dots."

"It's all just guesswork at the moment."

"We need a witness. One who'll talk. Dean Richardson was there. Derek Miller too, no matter how much the little shit denies it."

"You been in with them again?"

"Chance would be a fine thing."

Cullen's mobile rang - unknown number. "Sorry, better take this."

"Cullen, it's James Anderson."

"How can I help?"

"Can't get hold of DS Irvine. Tried his moby but no dice. Could you get your arse down here?"

"I've got about three arses I could bring down."

"Irvine, Bain and Wilkinson?" Anderson paused. "That's not me saying you're not an arse, by the way."

Cullen laughed. "What have you got for us?"

"Just got to ninety per cent on the match for that partial fingerprint. By the time the four arsemen of the apocalypse get down here, it should be finished."

"Be there in a minute." Cullen ended the call and nodded at Wilkinson. "We're up. Come on." He headed over to Irvine and Bain. "Fingerprints are back."

Bain frowned. "Right. Good."

Cullen led them out into the stairwell before clattering down the steps.

By the time they'd got to the Scenes of Crime office, Bain was in the lead. He held the door open for Cullen, the others nowhere to be seen, before scowling at Anderson. "This better fuckin' be good."

"It's all part of the magic of Crime Scene Investigation." Anderson tapped at his screen. "Ninety-eight per cent."

Bain pulled over a chair. "Thought you'd have some fuckin' whizz-bang thing showing it flicking through fingerprints as it went."