Dyed in the Wool (4 page)

"You shave yours, don't you?"

"Very funny."

"Not long before you move in, is it?"

"Three months. Just after Christmas, just before Tenerife."

"And you definitely told your flatmates?"

"Last week. Tom can't bitch too much because I've given him a fair amount of notice."

"He'll still bitch, though, right?"

"He hasn't spoken to me since." Cullen laughed. "I just hope the action doesn't stop when you've got me in your nest."

She propped herself up on his chest. "You really think that?"

He laughed. "Of course not."

"You'd better be joking."

"I can't see anything curtailing your sex drive."

She frowned. "Do you think there's something wrong with me?"

"No, I think I'm just too lovely for you to keep your hands off me."

She fell about laughing. "Aye, that's it."

He turned on his side and started stroking her. She'd lost a fair amount of weight in the fourteen months they'd been seeing each other, her slight paunch disappearing. He seemed to have taken it all - despite all the shagging, he'd put on a stone and felt slightly less than sexy. "Our parents seemed to get on well."

"Aye, almost too well. I hope they don't make a habit of it. It was excruciating at times. I'm glad poor Xander Aitken turned up when he did."

He slowly moved over to her, eventually lying on top, his cock not far from danger. "That's not a very nice thing to say."

"Maybe I'm not a very nice girl."

"Time for some discipline then."

Cullen reached over to his side of the bed and grabbed another condom.

Thursday

4th October 2012

Cullen entered the lift and sipped from the Americano, still piping hot, gasping as he felt the inside of his mouth burn. "Bloody hell."

"Oh, you poor lamb." Sharon patted him on the arm, lip pouting, as she pressed the button.

"Very funny."

"You look tired."

"I am. I couldn't stop thinking about work and this counselling."

"Even after all that exertion?"

"Feels like I've torn the foreskin."

She snorted. "Maybe you're allergic to the spermicide in the condoms?"

"Maybe. Look, it's fine. You don't want to go on the pill and I'm cool with that."

"Nothing to do with you being frightened of having children and wanting to maintain control?"

Cullen shrugged. "Maybe. It's just James I worked with in Bathgate, his girlfriend was desperate for kids and he wasn't. One day, she stopped taking the pill and hadn't told him. Too late then."

Sharon pecked him on the cheek. "I'm less desperate for kids than you are, Scott."

The doors opened and Cullen followed her through the first floor of the station to the Incident Room.

Bain stood at the front, ready to hold court, dark rings beneath red eyes as he drank from a can of Red Bull clone. There were over twenty officers in the room by Cullen's reckoning, including a few of the usual faces - DC Angela Caldwell sat off to the side, DC Chantal Jain and Irvine behind her.

Sharon sat next to Caldwell at the edge of the table near the back and Cullen perched alongside.

Acting DC Simon Buxton barged in next to Cullen. "Morning, Sundance."

"I've told you before, not that name."

"Know what they say, Scott, best way to lose a nickname is not to rise to the bait."

"I'll bear that in mind, Budgie."

Buxton rolled his eyes. "Less of that."

"Do you prefer Britpop?"

"Bain can bugger off with that one."

Cullen reached over and patted Buxton's hair, short on top and at the back, the fringe at the front stuck between long side lappers covering his ears. "Paul Weller called and asked for his haircut back."

"Piss off." Buxton held up his phone, an over-sized Samsung. "Just found something you'll love. Turnbull's got a Twitter account."

"You're kidding me. Has Bain got one?"

"Just the boss for now." Buxton laughed. "Think it's some new initiative, using social media to help bring the community together. It was just starting to come in a few months ago - I would have been @LeithWalkPC4 if DCI Turnbull hadn't given me this Acting DC gig." He prodded the screen, before handing the phone to Cullen. "Here you go."

Cullen took the phone and looked at the stream of messages from @LeithWalkDCI, mostly retweets from open crimes posted by PCs on the beat in Edinburgh, Dalkeith, Ravencraig, Galashiels and others.

Buxton took the phone back. "Interesting how it doesn't mention Lothian & Borders. Future proofing."

"Still a good while before we have to deal with Police Scotland."

"You say that, but you were the one moaning about Bain and Turnbull carving out their corner of the empire."

"Yeah, well they are." Cullen took another drink of coffee, cooler now.

Bain cleared his throat. "Right, then, thanks for joining us. We've got two bodies found last night out in West Lothian."

He pressed a button on a clicker and the large screen behind him filled with the image of Aitken from his passport. "First, Alexander Aitken, known as Xander, is potentially death by misadventure, but potentially not - Jimmy Deeley will confirm later on today. He was found in a Range Rover at the bottom of a shale bing near Winchburgh. The car is a clear write-off."

He clicked again - Souness' face appeared. "The other one, Kenny Souness, is clearly murder. The body has a deep knife wound to the stomach and it looks like he bled to death, despite attempts to apply a bandage."

"We know next to nothing about these two, other than they were flatmates." He took another swig from his can. "The only useful information that's come back so far is that the interior of the Range Rover has been dusted for fingerprints. Anderson's team only found the prints of Xander Aitken and Craig Smith, the owner."

Bain flicked the ring pull as he stroked his moustache. "Now, the car was reported stolen on Tuesday. Just over twenty-four hours later, it turns up at the bottom of a bing with a body in it. I want to know what happened to that car."

He looked around the room, locking eyes with a few officers, Cullen among them. "I'm mobilising several strands to the investigation. First, I want the backgrounds of Aitken and Souness checked out. DC Cullen, can you take Aitken? DS McNeill, I want you take Souness."

Both nodded as the rest of the room looked round at them.

"Next, I want this knife looked into. DS Irvine will lead the search for it. Somebody's stabbed this boy and the knife isn't in their flat, so where is it? Also, I want a team going round the flats in that street." He pointed at Jain. "Chantal, I want you to lead the investigation into the stolen Range Rover. Start with this Craig Smith boy and see where you get to."

He stared at Caldwell and Buxton in turn. "Batgirl, Britpop, I want you pair to help DS Holdsworth finish setting up the Incident Room and start getting the case onto HOLMES. Okay?"

Both nodded.

Bain looked round the rest of the room. "All other officers, please report to DS Holdsworth who will allocate your actions. Dismissed."

Cullen finished the coffee then turned to look at Sharon. "Here we go."

"Thought the ice queen was supposed to be back in?"

"Back shift, wasn't it? Gives Bain seven hours to fuck this up before she comes in."

She laughed. "I need some breakfast. You coming?"

"Aye, could do with a roll. I wasn't hungry when I started that coffee but I am now."

"Here, Sundance."

Bain. Shite. What now?

Cullen put his roll down, took a deep breath and turned to face whatever nonsense Bain was going to put his way.

It was Buxton.

"Simon, would you bloody stop doing that?"

"Should have seen your face." Buxton sat down next to Cullen. He nodded at the black mobile on Cullen's desk. "Finally arrived then?"

Cullen picked up his iPhone 5. "Couple of days ago. Had to make sure my flatmate didn't nick it."

"How does it compare to the 4?"

"Better."

"Really? You look a bit disappointed with it."

"It's fine."

"I remember getting the first one. It just blew me away. I think Apple have lost the wow factor, though."

"You think?"

"Makes me think of that argument I lost when I got this." Buxton tossed his Samsung in the air and caught it. "Not a patch on this baby."

"Look at the size of it. It's a phone for the long-sighted. My dad would love it."

"Whatever." Buxton pocketed the phone. "Oh, some boy from the Complaints was after you."

"Muir?"

"Aye. What has Bain done now?"

Cullen laughed. "He's innocent for once."

"I said you'd give him a call."

"Brilliant."

"Should I have told him where to go?"

Cullen sighed. DS Simon Muir of Professional Standards and Ethics. The Complaints. "The boy's a wanker. He sent me a chaser to an email and copied in his boss and Turnbull."

Buxton took a bite of his Lorne sausage roll. "How long have you been ignoring it for?"

"A month."

Buxton laughed.

"I've been busy."

"A likely tale. What was it about?"

"Nothing, really. Just some case last year. Cop booted the fuck out of a suspect."

"That's a relief. I thought it would be about that Keith Miller."

Cullen struggled for breath for a few seconds. "Why do you think that?"

"Heard Bain blaming you for his death."

"Wanker."

Caldwell slammed her tray down, the cup of tea and bowl of porridge bouncing with the impact. "Scott, do you need any help looking into this Aitken guy?"

Cullen shook his head. "Bain told you to work with Holdsworth. I'm not getting in the way."

"That's the problem."

"It's a nice opportunity for you to work closely with him, Angela." Sharon sat down with more grace. "Now you're a full DC, you'll be looking to impress the brass, maybe beat Scott here to a DS position."

Cullen wagged a finger. "That's not funny."

"I complained to Bain before the briefing." Caldwell stirred maple syrup into her porridge. "He said it's a key activity of being a DC which I worked hard to get. Then he told me to shut it."

"I can well imagine." Cullen bit into his roll.

"Were you lot out at the crime scene last night?" Caldwell took a mouthful of porridge.

"Yes." Cullen put the roll down and chewed. "Nothing much to see."

Buxton chuckled. "Other than finding that second body."

"Yeah, well, we shouldn't have been there." Sharon stabbed a fork into her fruit salad. "The warrant hadn't properly come through."

"What did you get up to on your day off yesterday?" Cullen looking over at Caldwell. "Was Bill off too?"

Caldwell made a face. "Don't start. We had a nice day down in Northumberland."

Buxton slurped at his coffee. "Holdsworth caught me in the corridor just before the briefing. He said they've got another DS starting today."

Sharon frowned. "Are you sure?"

Buxton nodded slowly. "Catriona Rarity. She's from Strathclyde. Paisley, I think."

"She'll fit in with Bain, then."

Cullen finished his coffee and loudly crumpled the cup. "Great."

Sharon raised an eyebrow. "Here we go again."

Cullen chewed another mouthful, catching his cheek between his teeth. "I'm being serious here. That's the second new DS in the last few months, after bloody Methven came in. Why am I not in consideration for it?"

Buxton made eyes at Caldwell. "We'd better get downstairs, Angela."

"Oh, right. Aye."

They got up and left them to it.

Sharon pinched her nose. "Scott, we've been over this. Did you speak to Turnbull?"

Cullen didn't say anything for a few seconds. He'd meant to, but he just hadn't managed to find the time. Or pluck up the courage. "No."

"If it's pissing you off that much then you need to speak to him. Irvine or Cargill aren't going to do it for you."

"I've meant to, I'm just shit at that sort of thing."

"Tell me about it. It doesn't stop you moaning about how nobody's making you a DS." She reached over and took his hand. "It took me years to get it, you know that. I had to go speak to DCI Whitehead every fortnight to see if there was anything opening up. I did that for nine months before he started taking it seriously."

"I've been too busy focusing on the cases."

"Scott, if you want to get on, you need to focus on your career a bit more. Community outreach, that sort of thing. I'm sure Turnbull's got some initiatives that he wouldn't mind foisting on an ambitious young DC."

"Great."

"It's good for your profile."

Cullen slouched back in the seat. "It's brown nosing."

She licked her lips. "What's up?"

"Nothing."

"No, there's something else. You keep whining to me about it. Why haven't you spoken to Jim?"

"I can't be arsed."

"That's shite, Scott. You're always going off on some little side quest to show everyone how much of an arse Bain is but you can't be bothered sorting your own career out. Why?"

"You're right." He mopped up brown sauce with the last bit of roll. "I'm maybe frightened of authority. It feels like there's so much riding on me asking that single question. What happens if he says no?"

"What happens if he says yes?"

Cullen smiled. "You're right. But the authority thing… I used to get a doing off a teacher at school. Ridiculous shit. He'd haul me in front of the class and verbally abuse me."

"Maybe he fancied you?"

Cullen struggled to not laugh. "It wasn't good. I think a lot of it comes down to why I only got an ordinary degree. When I was struggling, I didn't go and speak to anyone about it. I had the same sort of thing before I joined the police. My boss was a total wanker, used to belittle me. I didn't give a shit about the work."

"And yet you joined the police?" Sharon had an impish grin on her face.

Cullen raised an eyebrow. "There is that. Maybe I wanted to be that authority figure."

"Well, maybe you can, but you need to tackle it head on. It's no good letting it cripple you, you know that, right?"