Girls Of The Dark (6 page)

Chapter 13

T
he DCI was absolutely seething. Dani was awaiting the first round of interviews for the superintendent position, but she just couldn’t concentrate. Her vision had gone blurry with anger.

              To make matters worse, she could see DCS Douglas strutting about the personnel floor, as if he owned the place. Dani desperately hoped he wouldn’t be in the room with them. Heaven forbid the man was actually on the panel itself.

              It turned out he wasn’t, but the meeting still hadn’t gone particularly well in Dani’s view. She’d not felt as confident as usual. Her eyes kept darting to the windows in the partition wall, trying to catch a glimpse of her superior officer, wondering what the hell he was up to whilst she was safely out of the way.

              As soon as the interview was over, Dani dived for the lift, which carried her straight down to the serious crime floor.

              The DCS was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps her concerns had been misplaced.

              Phil took a step towards her, a supportive smile on his face. ‘How did it go, Ma’am?’

              ‘I’m not sure. You know what these things are like.’

              Phil did know. He’d passed the detective inspector exams the previous month but was now being subjected to a series of tough interviews and training days. Phil Boag hadn’t shown much interest in promotion in the past, but his two daughters were getting older. Sorcha was at university now and Georgie in the sixth form at Newton High School. Since splitting from his ambitious wife, Phil had been able to concentrate on his own career a bit more.

              ‘Is Andy around?’

              ‘I’ve not seen him yet, Ma’am. He’s been working on something with Alice for the last few days. She might have a better idea of where he is.’

              ‘Thanks, Phil. Ring me when he gets in, will you?’

*

Dani remained at her desk until the sun was fading to a deep auburn over the city’s skyline. She was determined to be bang up-to-date with her paperwork. The DCI had sifted systematically through the reports of all their cases going back five years. For some reason, she sensed that Douglas might be trying to dig the dirt on her and the team. She wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of being able to find anything.

              When there was a knock at the door, Dani was so engrossed in the files that she jumped. ‘Come in!’ She hollered.

              ‘This is what you get up to in the Serious Crime Unit. God, it’s sexier than I thought.’

              ‘James.’ Dani got up from behind the desk, moving round to plant a kiss on his lips. ‘I wasn’t expecting you. Has something happened?’

              ‘You coppers always think the worst.’ He slipped his arms around her waist. ‘I had a meeting with a client whose office is in Cadogan Street, remember? I said I’d pick you up at seven and take you out for dinner.’

              ‘Damn. Sorry, I forgot. This interview business has got me rattled.’

              James crinkled his tanned brow. ‘We can go straight home if it’s been a tough day. I really don’t mind.’

              Dani shook her head. ‘No, it will be good to have an evening off. I’ve been staring at reports all afternoon.’

              He pulled her closer. ‘You need to relax more.’ He nuzzled his face into her neck. ‘I meant it when I said you looked sexy at your desk. Do those blinds close?’

              Dani laughed. ‘We’re in the middle of the Police Scotland Headquarters!’

              James leant across and twisted the cord on the blinds at each window, allowing them to drop to the sill with a sharp clatter. ‘There’s absolutely no one here. The lights were off when I got out of the lift. I nearly tripped over a wheelie chair.’

              Dani returned his urgent kisses, ushering him over to the small sofa that only just fitted along the far wall of the tiny room. James pulled his shirt off over his head and Dani undid the buttons on her blouse. She had to admit, there was something very exciting and elicit about doing this here.

              There wasn’t enough room to lie flat. Dani climbed on top of James’ lap and unzipped his trousers. She hitched up her skirt and manoeuvred herself onto his erection so that within seconds, she was rising and falling to a gently mounting tempo. A file sitting on the cabinet jammed next to the sofa fell to the floor, cascading loose sheets across the carpet.

              James rested his hands on Dani’s hips, pulling her firmly to him until he sighed heavily, letting out a groan as his head fell back against the cushions. She leaned forward and placed a kiss on his sweaty forehead, allowing the bare, glistening skin of their upper bodies to lightly touch.

              ‘Bloody hell. That was good. I’m going to be dropping by your office more often.’

              Dani let out a throaty chuckle, resting her face against his cheek. ‘I had some emotional tension to work out.’

              James was about say more when they heard a faint knock at the door.

              Dani twisted her body round, rapidly doing up the buttons on her blouse.

              ‘Danielle? Are you in there? It’s DCS Douglas.’

              ‘
Shit
!’ Dani rasped under her breath. ‘Just a second, sir!’

              They sprang to their feet. James pulled on his shirt and ran a hand through his hair before helping Dani to pick up the papers strewn across the floor. James plonked down onto the seat in front of the desk just as Dani flicked the lock and wrenched open the door.

              Douglas stood for a moment on the threshold, his inscrutable gaze slowly taking in the scene.

              ‘Please come in, sir. This is my lawyer, Mr Irving. He’s been looking over the prospective employment contracts the panel gave the applicants this morning. He arrived
after
seven pm, so our discussions have occurred purely in my
own
time.’

              James put out his hand and beamed broadly. ‘Very pleased to meet you, DCS Douglas.’

              The Detective Chief Superintendent allowed his eyes to flit between them suspiciously. He eventually returned the handshake. ‘You’ve found nothing untoward in that contract, I hope?’

              ‘It’s all perfectly straightforward. A couple of clauses might need re-wording. I’ll be contacting your legal department about it.’

              Dani remained standing, not feeling inclined to invite the DCS to sit down. ‘Was it anything urgent, sir?’

              ‘Oh, not really. I just wanted to find out how the interview went.’ Douglas cleared his throat.

              For an awful moment, Dani thought he might actually be blushing. ‘It went as well as can be expected. We get the de-brief in a couple of days.’

              ‘I’m as much in the dark as you are. I just wanted you to know that I’ve put in a good word for you with the DCC. The work I’ve seen from your team so far has been impressive.’

              ‘Thank you. I appreciate that.’

              Douglas hesitated for a second, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. ‘Well, I’ll let you get on.’

              Dani flung the door wide. ‘Good evening, sir. Thanks for dropping by.’

              Almost as an afterthought, the DCS twisted his head. ‘It was a pleasure to meet you, Mr Irving. Please don’t keep DCI Bevan too late with all this legal talk. She’s my star officer.’

              ‘I won’t.’ James waited until the man had got into the lift to say, ‘Jesus, that guy’s done something to seriously piss you off.’

              ‘He’s trying to get Andy the sack.’ Dani screwed up her face. ‘Do you know what? As ‘Dour’ Douglas turned away from you, I could have sworn the guy had a massive smirk on his face.’

              James stood up and took her hand. ‘Then you must have been mistaken. Because you’ve told me dozens of times that he wouldn’t even crack a smile for his own mother.’

              Dani shook her head, as if trying to rid her mind of any trace of the DCS. ‘I don’t want to talk about work anymore. Let’s go and find somewhere really expensive to eat. I’m absolutely bloody famished.’

Chapter 14

C
alder had spent the previous day knocking on doors in Anniesland, trying to find a resident who saw the man Kathleen Nevin identified as leaving the Kerrs’ place on the night they died. He hadn’t had much luck.

              Andy stepped out of the lift and headed straight for his workstation. Phil Boag was breathing down his neck to get a result on a series of arson attacks committed on commercial car lots to the east of the city. He sat down and dug the file out of the mountain of paperwork on his desk. He was determined to work through it by the end of play. He didn’t want the DCS to be able to catch him out on any loose ends.

              As predicted, Phil made a bee-line for him. ‘Andy. The DCI has been looking for you. And how are things progressing on the Royston Road Garage fire? Are the tech results back in?’

              ‘Yes sir, they e-mailed them to me last night. The focal point of the blaze was the boot of one of the cars in the lot. They found large concentrations of thermite, which apparently burns at very high temperatures. It would have smouldered slowly to begin with and then exploded in very intense bursts of heat. The fire was so hot, it engulfed the nearby vehicles. They were packed in tight.’

              ‘The fire was caused by an incendiary device?’ Phil pulled up a chair, looking puzzled.

              ‘It seems so. The techs reckon it was constructed using over-the-counter fireworks. They contain a thermite mixture, like a black powder. The chemical has a high boiling point and is as cheap as chips to buy.’

              Phil scratched his head. ‘It’s bonfire night in less than a week. You can buy fireworks by the bucket load in just about every corner shop in Glasgow.’

              ‘Aye. It doesn’t get us any closer to finding a culprit. The techs think that even a kid could’ve put the device together.’

              ‘How did they get it into the boot? Were the car keys used?’

              Andy shrugged his shoulders. ‘There wasn’t enough of the vehicle left to be able to tell if the boot had been forced open. But the manager admitted that they sometimes forget to lock all the cars. They’re jammed in close together and most couldn’t be driven out without moving the others, so they don’t get into too much of a sweat about it.’

              ‘What about the insurance. Does the owner benefit from the compensation money?’

              ‘It was the first thing we looked into. The insurance only pays out scrap value on the cars. The fact they’ve admitted to leaving them unlocked at night means the whole policy might be invalid. The guy claims he’s ruined. The other garages that’ve had fires tell a similar story. Insurance pay-outs don’t make people rich - that’s only on TV.’

              ‘So, you’ll be focussing your inquiries on disgruntled employees, folk who’ve been sacked, upset neighbours – that kind of thing?’ Phil stood up.

              ‘We’ve already made a start, sir. Dan has been going through their personnel files.’

              ‘Good. Just drop in to see the boss for a second before you get started, would you?’

              ‘DCS Douglas?’

              Phil furrowed his brow. ‘
DCI Bevan
.’

              ‘Oh, aye, of course. I’ll do it now.’

*

‘Andy, come in and take a seat.’ Dani glanced up from her screen. She pushed a cardboard take out coffee cup towards him. ‘I got you this on the way in. It’s probably cold now.’

              Calder lifted it up and took a sip. It was barely lukewarm but reassuringly bitter and sweet. ‘It’s perfect, Ma’am.’

              Dani folded her arms across her chest. ‘Has Douglas spoken to you again?’

              ‘Not yet. I got the feeling he thought he’d made his point perfectly clear the last time.’

              ‘What are you going to do?’

              ‘There’s not much I
can
do. I’ll have to submit my name for the sergeants’ exams in the New Year.’

              ‘It’s the DCS who has to sign off on it. I’ll approve your application, of course, but the final decision is his.’

              ‘If Douglas really wants to get rid of me, he’ll find a way.’

              Dani pursed her lips. ‘So the DCS wants to be the new broom, eh? Getting shot of anyone not seen to be on the fast track. To be honest, I didn’t think he was the type. I had him down as old school.’

              ‘It might be coming from above. Nicholson never liked me much, but he wouldn’t have gone against your decisions. The old guv believed in letting his senior officers run their own team. Perhaps Nicholson actually made an effort to protect us from upstairs meddling.’

              Dani smiled. ‘I didn’t think I’d ever hear you speaking wistfully about Angus Nicholson. His health has really improved, by the way. Eleanor says they’re spending a lot of time back in Dornoch. They may retire there permanently.’

              Andy grunted. ‘I’d better dust off my golf clubs. I might be joining them soon enough.’

              The DCI’s smile faded. ‘Not if I can help it.’ She leant forward. ‘I’m prepared to do what I can to keep you in the serious crime unit, but you’ve got to be honest with me. I’ve been trawling through all our case notes covering the past five years. I don’t want Douglas gathering any ammunition against us. But if there’s stuff going on I don’t know about, I can’t stop him from hanging you out to dry. Besides, I happen to know you hate golf.’

              Calder took another swig from the cup. This time the contents were stone cold. ‘Actually, Alice and I have still been digging around into the Lisa Abbot case. We felt that Douglas was premature in kicking the investigation into the long grass.’

              ‘And that’s what you were doing yesterday?’

              ‘Aye.’ He shifted about awkwardly, surprised that his actions were so transparent.

              Dani sat back in the chair and clasped her hands together, resting them in her lap. ‘Come on then. Tell me exactly what you’ve found out.’