Water of Death (49 page)

“Stop there!” Hilda shouted when I was ten yards from them. “Empty your pockets and lift up your shirt. Slowly!”

All I had on me was my mobile, my Council authorisation and my notebook.

“Right,” Hilda said when she saw I was clean. “Use that phone to get Nasmyth 05 in here.” She gave me a sharp smile. “And I want that Katharine woman as well.”

I felt my stomach flip then saw the flash in Sophia's eyes. She was still bent over, Hilda's arm round her neck. The flask had gone now, replaced by the auxiliary knife. The point was against her side.

“In the meantime, let's get comfortable,” Hilda said. “You, senior fuckhead, get your blouse off.” She loosened her grip and allowed Sophia to stand up, keeping the knifepoint close to her midriff.

Sophia pursed her lips then did as she was told. When she'd removed her blouse, Hilda made her turn round and examined her bust under the good-quality bra.

“Great tits, don't you think, Citizen Dalrymple?” she said. “Stand still now. Both of you.” She put the knife between her teeth and quickly tied Sophia's arms behind her back with the arms of the blouse. The knot was so tight that Sophia's shoulders were forced back, making her chest jut out.

“Aye, very nice,” Hilda said, the knife back in her hand and peering at Sophia again.

I was finding it difficult to look my ex-lover in the eye, or anywhere else for that matter, so I concentrated on her assailant.

“What are we going to talk about then, Allie?”

There was a laugh then suddenly Sophia was shoved to the ground. “Stay there, bitch.” Alexander Kennedy turned to me, a loose smile on his face, and pulled the grey wig off. His own hair was as closely cut as the witness in the Colonies and the nursing auxiliary who saw him had reported. “When did you work that out, smart fuck?”

“Too late,” I said, shaking my head. “Far too late. I should have put it all together sooner but your sister distracted me.” I decided to play tough with him. “She killed herself, you know, Allie. Took a three-storey dive in the hostel and smashed her head open.”

His face clenched in a spasm then the sick smile came back. “You were careless. I heard you whisper that Agnes was dead last night. You sure you didn't push her, Citizen Dalrymple?” He squatted down beside Sophia and ran the knifepoint down from her neck to the space between her breasts.

It looked like I'd goaded him far enough. “She tried to throw me over first.”

He laughed harshly.

“But the guard interrupted her.”

He breathed in hard. “Agnes,” he said in a low voice, then leered up at me. “Agnes? Allie?” he said in the voice he'd affected as Hilda. “Allie! Agnes!” He laughed again. “Christ, you're so fucking thick.”

I kneeled down as well, trying to think of a way to stop him doing damage with the knife. “You didn't answer my question, Allie. What are we going to talk about?” I looked round, hearing the sound of footsteps at the other end of the hall.

“Let's wait till our friends arrive, shall we?” he said, putting the knife blade against Sophia's throat.

I watched as Katharine and the Edlott controller approached, both of them staring at the tableau we formed.

“Here you are, Nicky,” Allie said to Nasmyth 05. “I was sure you'd want to see me one last time.”

The fat man's lips quivered. He drew the back of his hand across his forehead, keeping his eyes off me.

“And here you are, Katharine,” Allie went on. “I was sure you'd like to see how Hilda ended up.”

“To hell with you,” Katharine said, eyes hard as stone. “You don't scare me.”

Allie laughed. “No, I don't scare you. But I've made you and your boyfriend here look like class-one morons.” Sophia quivered as he spoke and looked down. He gave her a quick glance. “Oh, aye. Have you got something going with Citizen Dalrymple too, beautiful?” He smiled at me mockingly. “Oh dear, how complicated. Maybe I can simplify things.” He moved the knife down to her chest again.

“Allie, don't,” Nasmyth 05 gasped. “Please don't. I can help you get out of here.”

“Shut up, Nicky,” the killer said. He turned his gaze back to me. “Don't you want to know the details of how I took the piss out of you, Dalrymple? I'll bet you do.”

So that was it. He wanted to show off. Fair enough. The longer I kept him here, the more likely I'd be able to work out how to nail the bastard. Not that I had much of a track record of accomplishing that so far in the case. But I wasn't going to let him have it all his own way.

“Maybe you can just fill in the gaps, Allie,” I said, giving him my version of a psychotic smile. “Let's see. You used to spend your time terrorising the other peabrains on the south side and doing shitty little smuggling deals outside the city line.”

He looked at me without blinking.

“Then you met this sleazeball.” I grabbed the Edlott controller's arm. “As well as playing with your dick, he put you to work.” I was flying on empty now but I wanted to find out how involved the fat man was.

“Very good,” Allie drawled. “And what kind of work was that, citizen?”

He wasn't giving me any free gifts. I took a guess, not a particularly wild one given Allie Kennedy's background. “Grass trafficking?”

“And this week's winner of the lottery is Quintilian Dalrymple,” Allie announced with an ironic laugh. “Lottery's right, isn't it?” he said, his face hardening. “You're guessing. If you'd worked that out before, Nicky would have had his balls removed.”

I shrugged. “You gave us other things to think about, Allie.” I turned to the Edlott controller. “You should have talked when you had the chance. Now you're mine.”

The auxiliary kept his eyes off me, his hands twisting convulsively.

“Leave Nicky alone,” Allie Kennedy warned. “This is my show.”

I hardly heard what he said. Things had finally fallen into place. “That's what this is all about, isn't it? Illicit drugs.” I smacked the palm of my hand against my forehead. “I might have fucking known.” I saw the fat man glance up at Allie. “You were forcing the lottery-winners to move dope around the city, weren't you, Nasmyth 05? They can get about much more freely than everyone else. And Frankie Thomson was in charge. He wasn't an old waster, he was running the grass trade on the ground.”

Allie's slack smile was back. “Very good, citizen,” he said, nodding.

More pennies dropped. “The grass trafficking was organised in advance,” I said, grabbing the auxiliary again. “Frankie Thomson, Napier 25 as he used to be, gave financial input when you were planning Edlott. You set up the lottery with a built-in drugs scam.”

“We never thought  . . .” Nasmyth 05 stammered, “ . . . we never thought it would end in murder.”

Allie Kennedy laughed. “That wasn't all you never thought.”

“Frankie Thomson deliberately got himself demoted by man-handling that tourist woman,” I said, trying not to lose my line of thought. “And you weeded the files to cover his tracks.” I let go of the Edlott controller's arm and pushed him away.

“All done?” Allie asked snidely. “Now you can get back to me.”

I nodded slowly. “Right. One day – or more likely night – you came across four smugglers at Redhall Mill. They had the bright idea of putting nicotine, which they'd probably got hold of in Glasgow, into Edinburgh people's whisky. They wanted a way into the drugs trade and they wanted to cause a bit of chaos for the Council first. They'd gone to the lengths of printing labels for the Ultimate Usquebaugh. And they had full packs of heavy-duty grass known as Ibrox Gold which was bound to go down well with punters here.”

“The ultimate water of life and the ultimate grass,” Allie said, giving a bitter laugh. “What more could an Edinburgh citizen want? You're doing all right so far, smart fuck. The four smugglers wanted a piece of the marijuana clubs.”

“Uh-huh. So you volunteered to be their local agent.” I stared at him accusingly. “And you picked the victims. Including your own father.”

Allie Kennedy shrugged. “They didn't care who I took out. They just wanted to get the guardians shitting in their pants.”

I nodded. “But you had other ideas, didn't you? You saw the chance to shaft Nasmyth 05 and set yourself up as a major player.”

“What?” Nasmyth 05 sounded more shocked than Caesar when Brutus spiked him. “It's not true, Allie. You didn't have anything to do with the poisonings.”

“Why do you think I asked you to find out where this fuck's father lived?” the poisoner said.

Nasmyth 05 went into a state of collapse. He staggered back then sat down on the marble with a heavy slap. “No, no,” he moaned. “Not you, Allie, not you.”

Allie Kennedy gave an empty laugh. “Yes, me, Nicky. The smugglers were very happy to take my advice. And I wanted to get rid of Frankie so I could run his network.”

I nodded. “The smugglers wanted someone with a marijuana club connection. And they wanted the body to be left by the Water of Leith to hint that the water supply could be got at whenever they wanted.”

“You're not so thick after all, are you?” Allie said with a hollow laugh. “So tell me why I did for my old man.”

I glanced at Sophia. She was lying with her eyes half-closed, her face turned away from her assailant. “Take the knife off her,” I said. “None of us is going to jump you.”

“Keep talking, Dalrymple,” he said threateningly. “I'll do what I like with the knife.”

“All right, all right.” I stood up and tried to shake the pins and needles out of my legs. I could feel Katharine's eyes on me but I kept mine away from her. I didn't want Allie to get any ideas about trussing her up like Sophia. Then I suddenly thought of his mother. What the hell had he done with her? “Where's Hilda, Allie?”

“Don't fuck with me!” he screamed, standing up and kicking Sophia hard in the stomach. “Tell me why I killed my father.”

I had to take a chance. It looked like he'd done for Hilda too, and Agnes must have known about it. “I don't know, Allie. Had he been refusing to handle dope?”

“Aye.” Allie Kennedy's expression became even deadlier. “That wasn't all the sick bastard did though.”

I remembered his father's file and the fact that the grown-up children were still living in the family flat. I'd put it down to them being unusually close but maybe their ties were a lot less healthy than that. There was no point in being reticent when Allie was holding a knife to Sophia. “Did your parents abuse you?'

There was a long silence. He stared at me, biting his lip, then finally looked across at Nasmyth 05. “Is he right, Nicky? You know, don't you? It never got into any of our files but I told you about it.”

The Edlott controller's breathing was shallow. “Yes, Allie, yes. Your father and mother made you and Agnes do terrible things.”

“Terrible things?” Allie laughed. “They weren't much different from what you do to me, Nicky.”

Nasmyth 05's head had dropped. “Yes, but you're an adult, you were willing  . . .”

“Was I?” Allie asked, an empty smile spreading across his face. “Was I really? You'll never know.”

“How long have you been cross-dressing?” I asked.

“It seems like a lifetime,” Allie said lightly. “It was a way of escaping when I was a kid. I never had much in the way of a beard and I experimented with make-up for years. Not that the crap from the Supply Directorate deserves to be called make-up. I got good stuff on the black market. Depilatories that don't burn your skin off, for a start.”

There was a movement on the floor. “He tried to kill your father in the retirement home, Quint,” Sophia said, turning her head to glare at me. “He killed your friend Ray. Why are you even talking to him?”

Allie kicked her viciously again then crouched down beside her. “Shut up, bitch, or you get to die sooner than I planned.”

“Take him, Quint!” Sophia screamed. “Don't worry about me.”

I leaned forward on to the balls of my feet but then I saw Allie's dead eyes. They locked on to mine, issuing a clear challenge. My breath rasped in my throat and I felt the heat in the airless hall smother me. I couldn't do it.

“Sit down, citizen,” he said with a hoarse laugh. “Sit down, both of you. We're not finished yet. And you,” he said, punching Sophia twice in the mouth, “shut your face.” Blood flowered on her lips.

Katharine sank down but only after she'd given Allie the eye again. She wasn't being a great help.

“Go on then,” the poisoner said, looking at me. “Tell me what else I did.”

“The senior guardian's right,” I said. “You had a go at killing my father to distract me from your trail.”

He nodded, grinning like a child who'd won a game.

“And this fat shite found out for you which retirement home he was in,” I continued, glancing at the auxiliary. I would be dealing with him later – if there
was
any later for him and me. “How did you get past the nursing auxiliary?”

He laughed. “Simple. I used to be a postman. I put on my uniform and slipped in after the main delivery. No one noticed me.”

“You were wasting your time,” I said. “My old man's okay.”

“It kept you off my back for a bit,” Allie said, raising his shoulders. “What do you care? Your father was luckier than the others.”

Bastard. He didn't care how many people he killed. “So were you. You weren't inside the millhouse when the smugglers were taken out by a Fisheries Guard unit.”

“Fuck knows what those animals were doing at the mill,” Allie said, anger finally reappearing on his face.

I wasn't going to tell him about the books and antiquities at Craiglockhart if Nasmyth 05 hadn't. But I did want to know what had happened to Ray. “You managed to stash some bottles of the Ultimate Usquebaugh before the attack. But you were spotted by one of the attackers—”