The Blood Tree Read online

  “Cool it, guardsman,” I said. “Anyway, what’s the big deal? You’ve got the tracking monitor. As long as I’ve got my steel toe-caps on, you know where I am. If nothing happens we’ll meet back here at midnight, okay?”

  They stared at me then nodded reluctantly.

  “This is not a plan made in heaven, Quint,” Davie said as I got up to go.

  I put my arm round Katharine and kissed her on the lips. She pushed me away gently, her brow furrowed.

  “Well, what kind of plan do you expect from an atheist?” I asked as I departed.

  When I pushed the street-door open, I bumped into a couple of exhausted-looking guys in sweat-stained clothes. Ewan and Peter, no doubt. I hoped Katharine had remembered to change the sheets.

  I decided to go straight to the City Chambers. Unfortunately the sentry at the main entrance knew exactly who I was and what to do. Handcuffs were applied before I could blink. I was hauled up to the fourth floor and shoved into the corner office.

  Hel Hyslop looked up from her desk. “Quint. Where in God’s name have you been?”

  “Hell,” I said, sitting down in the prisoner’s chair. Haggs was leaning against the wall with a cigarette clamped between his lips. He was looking pretty demonic himself.

  “Tell me where you’ve been this minute,” she said, her voice low and threatening.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?” I said.

  Haggs jerked forward, the butt dropping from his lips and bouncing off his green jacket on its way to the floor. “You’re fucking right we would,” he said. “Wait till I put those shackles on you, scumbag.”

  “Leave it, Tam,” Hyslop said with a shake of her head. “Just tell me where you were last night, Quint.”

  “I told you,” I said. “I’ve been to hell.” As Haggs took another step forward, I hit them with it. “I met Broadsword there.”

  That stopped the sergeant in his tracks.

  Hel looked at me uncomprehendingly. “What happened?”

  I told her, editing out the part played by Katharine and Davie.

  “How the fuck did you really get away?” Tam demanded when I finished. “I can’t see a puny shite like you fighting that monster off for long.”

  I shrugged. “I told you, I was lucky. A car stopped on the road and caught us in its lights. The bogeyman got stage fright.”

  I didn’t know if they were going to buy that so I hit them with another fabrication. “The interesting thing was that Broadsword headed for the Rennie after he left me.”

  That got them going all right. They were very interested in linking Professor Rennie to the killings.

  “So,” I said, looking at them encouragingly, “now you’ll be able to get a warrant for the Baby Factory, won’t you?”

  Suddenly Hyslop and Haggs had lost interest in me. Big Tam stood up straight and brushed the ash from his front.

  “I don’t think that would be a very good idea, do you, inspector?”

  I turned round, recognising the understated voice immediately.

  Andrew Duart was wearing a charcoal-grey suit which must have been been cut by a master tailor. The imperious way he was regarding us made it clear who the master was here.

  Hyslop gave me a look that said “Keep quiet”. Then she gave the first secretary an update of the investigation and a potted version of what had happened to me.

  Duart gave me a cold smile. “How exciting, Quint. Though one wonders what you were doing out and about at night on your own.” He turned his bloodless lips towards Hel. “Remove the handcuffs from our Edinburgh friend. Of course, this changes nothing. There is no evidence to justify a warrant. All we’d do by applying for one would be to alert the professor’s lawyers.” He put a limp hand on my shoulder. “Good work, though. You must keep at it. I am determined to cut this cancer out of Kelvingrove.” He smiled again, proud of his metaphor. “Find a more – how shall I put it? – a more subtle way of gaining entry to the institute.”

  I moved to shake his hand off. “One that doesn’t incriminate your executive, you mean,” I said.

  He didn’t favour that with a reply or a smile; just turned on his heel and left.

  I looked back at Hyslop and Haggs. They weren’t at all happy.

  “Don’t worry,” I said as Tam unlocked the cuffs. “I’ve got an idea about the Rennie.”

  Hel’s face took on a suspicious expression. “What is it?”

  “I’ll tell you in detail,” I said, my eyes focusing on her waist.

  She glanced down. “What are you—”

  “But it’ll cost you one of those,” I interrupted, pointing at her belt.

  “One of those what?” the inspector asked dubiously.

  “One pistol, holding bad guys at bay for the use of,” I replied, dropping into Supply Directorate syntax.

  Their eyes opened so wide that for a moment I thought a shrub brandishing a mallet had crept up behind me.

  Chapter Seventeen

  We spent the rest of the morning planning the programme for the night. After a venison pie from the canteen at lunchtime, I ran through the murder victims’ original files – the thought had struck me that maybe Hyslop had sent over edited highlights to my hotel room. Apparently not. I also wanted to see if we’d missed any link between the Baby Factory and the Macbeth cult. Again, nothing doing – the names of all the performers who’d been arrested were run through the computerised archive and no connections showed. Brilliant. There hadn’t been any more sightings of Broadsword or his side-kicks either, despite every police officer in the city having their descriptions. My money was on them lurking in the depths of the Rennie.

  I called the infirmary and asked to speak to Leadbelly. The nurse was away for a couple of minutes then came back to the phone.

  “Em . . . he doesn’t want to talk to you,” she said.

  I was taken by surprise. “You gave him my name?”

  “Yes, Mister Dalrymple. Like I say, he doesn’t want to speak to you. Or to anyone else, he gave me to understand.”

  “Strange. How’s he getting on?”

  “As well as can be expected. We’re still waiting for the results of the brain scan and there’s some damage to his larynx but otherwise, okay so far.”

  “And there’s a guard outside his room?”

  “Oh yes.” Her tone suggested she could have lived without a cop in her hair.

  I thanked her and put the phone down. By his own admission, Leadbelly had no friends in Glasgow. So why was he refusing to talk to someone from his home town? He knew he could trust me. I was sure he was hiding something and I considered going round to squeeze it out of him. Then a wave of exhaustion broke over me. That changed my priorities.

  “I need to get some sleep,” I said to Hel. “In the next five minutes.”

  “Where were you all night?” she asked. “I checked with the hotel.”

  “Taking in the Glasgow nightlife,” I replied. “I needed a drink or twelve after Broadsword made contact.”

  She looked at me doubtfully then got back to her paperwork.

  “I can catch a cab to the St Vincent if you and your team are too busy,” I offered.

  “No chance, pal,” Haggs said, pulling on his jacket. “I’m coming with you.” He leered at me. “And I’m locking you in personally.”

  I shrugged. “As long as you’re on the other side of the door, I don’t care what you do, Tam.”

  As we headed downstairs it struck me that there had been no further communication from Andrew Duart. Just as well. If he found out what we’d set up for later on, he’d do serious damage to his limited-edition boxer shorts.

  I waved a fond goodbye to Haggs in the corridor and heard the key turn in the lock. Before I headed for the bath, I looked down at the street. A dark blue Super Llama was parked near the corner. Just as I was about to accuse Katharine and Davie of major incompetence in carrying out surveillance from such an obvious location, the vehicle pulled out and disappeared. It probably wasn’t them
– there were more expensive cars in Glasgow than Edinburgh had bicycles.

  Before I hit the sheets, I picked up my left boot again. The bug was still bothering me. I thought about it then called room service and asked for a steak. I was more interested in the knife that came with it but I ganneted the meal all the same. Then I used the knife to prise out the tiny device that had been buried deep in the heel. Something told me that keeping it loose in my pocket would increase my options.

  Then I fell backwards and slept the sleep of the completely shagged out.

  Hyslop and Haggs turned up at half-eleven that night.

  “Everything ready?” I asked.

  The inspector nodded. “They’re all standing by.”

  I laced up my boots, hoping that the damage to one of the heels wasn’t too obvious.

  Haggs was standing at the door. “Come on then, dickhead. It’s time.”

  “Aren’t you forgetting something?” I turned to Hel and raised my eyebrows.

  Her lips were a straight line. “No, I remembered.” She put her hand in her pocket. “I hope you don’t make me regret this, Quint.”

  I stared at the minuscule gun she held out to me. “What exactly is that?”

  “It’s a Vietnamese five-millimetre,” Big Tam said, making no attempt to disguise the sneer in his voice. “They call it the Ladykiller in the nightclubs.”

  I glared at Hel. “You expect that to scare off Broadsword?” I took the weapon and weighed it up. Featherlight was heavy compared with this.

  She smiled briefly. “There’s nothing wrong with its stopping power. Just make sure you aim at a major organ.”

  “Great.” I didn’t tell Davie and Katharine about my plan to lay hands on a gun because for Edinburgh citizens, most auxiliaries included, firearms are the work of the devil. I needn’t have worried. If they saw this specimen, they’d burst out laughing. As would the bogeyman and his pals.

  “Sorry,” Hel said as we headed out. “It’s the best I can do. My job would be on the line if you were issued with a police weapon. I found the Ladykiller in the confiscations locker.”

  “You’re not worried I might use it on you?”

  She opened her jacket. “Feel this.”

  “Sometimes you say the nicest things, inspector.” I touched her left breast. It was protected by a bulletproof vest.

  “Expecting trouble?”

  “Oh yes, Quint.” Hyslop’s expression was sombre. “Trouble’s definitely on the menu tonight.”

  I felt the flimsy gun shift in my pocket. Next to it was the bug. I sincerely hoped Katharine and Davie were still picking up a signal.

  The crowds were out in force in the city centre, but I wasn’t paying attention to them. I’d begun to get very apprehensive about what was about to go down. If I’d been on my own in the Llama with Hyslop I might have tried to instigate a rethink. The thought of how Haggs would react to that put me off.

  Hel spent most of the trip to Kelvingrove on her mobile to the other units. Unfortunately they all seemed to be very much on the ball – appropriate enough in a city that was football-crazy.

  “Okay,” the sergeant said as he pulled up in a side-street near the Rennie, “we’re in position.” He glanced at me. “Ready to be heroic, are you?”

  “Oh aye, Tam.” I grinned at him provocatively. “How about you?”

  Hel terminated a call. “Shut up, you two,” she said. “This operation is complex enough without you behaving like five-year-olds.”

  I was trying to imagine how much experience she had of small children when her mobile rang again.

  She listened for a few seconds then checked her watch. “Right,” she said, “I’m switching to VHF.” She handed me her phone and picked up the radio mike. “All units, all units, this is control officer, code 45. Initiating Operation Aardvark.”

  Hel was following the movement of her second hand. “Panzer to roll in X minus ten . . . X minus five, four, three, two, one. Roll!”

  All we needed now was some rock. The vehicle codenamed Panzer was about to provide that as well.

  We were parked round a corner so we couldn’t see the petrol tanker as it crashed through the perimeter fence of the Baby Factory. We heard it all right. The Llama’s windows were open and the roar of the truck’s powerful engine as it revved carried clearly through the still night air. Then came a noise like a sledgehammer going through a plywood panel, followed by the scream of brakes and the single, deadening smash of steel running into a brick wall.

  “You’re on, Quint,” Hyslop said, nudging me and smiling with slightly more warmth than she usually managed. “Don’t forget – use my mobile to call us in as soon as you find anything conclusive. Good luck.”

  I nodded and climbed out.

  Haggs leaned across. “No shooting the suspects, okay, Embra shite?”

  I gave him the finger and ran down the street at medium pace, wondering what the hell I was doing. The Major Crime Squad sets up a series of major crimes then sits back and lets me do the dirty work. Even Edinburgh guardians wouldn’t come up with something that devious.

  I looked cautiously round the corner and down the main road. The petrol tanker had done a massive amount of damage to the security fence and its nose was crushed against the Rennie’s wall about twenty yards away from the main entrance. The driver had clambered out and was talking animatedly to a couple of the institute’s staff. He’d be telling them that he had a full load of petrol and that his safety monitor was flashing “Danger” in capital red letters. In reality the tank had been fully vented and filled with water, but no one was likely to check that out in the near future. If everything went according to plan, the institute would be evacuated and I would have a free run for the next few hours.

  I turned to the left. There was a double red flash from a torch in an area of darkness where the fence curved away. I ran towards the light.

  “Okay, everything’s ready for you.” A guy wearing black clothes and a balaclava shone a narrow beam on the ladder that had been set up against the fence. “We cut the power here the second the wire was taken out,” he said. “The cameras are down and one of my team is waiting for you at the window over . . .” he flashed the light once through the fence, illuminating a crouching figure “. . . there. Go, go, go.”

  I went, went, went. Up the ladder, on to the ground and straight across the grass before I lost my bearing on the special forces operative.

  “Here,” came a loud whisper as I collided with the wall. It was a woman. “I’ve forced the window. The alarm didn’t engage. You’re okay.” She pulled the window open.

  “Wrong,” I muttered. “You’re okay. I’m on my own.” I caught a glimpse of her eyes as she shone her torch on the window-frame. They looked sympathetic. I was sure that, unlike Hyslop and Haggs, she’d have come along if I’d asked for her help. I resisted the urge. This was definitely a job for me alone.

  “Remember the set-up?” she said, handing me a torch. “We’ll be waiting in the bushes beyond the fence if you run into trouble. Three flashes if all’s clear, two if you’ve got unwelcome company.”

  I nodded, hoping that Davie and Katharine would steer clear of that area. If things went as planned I’d be walking nonchalantly out the front door, but it’s as well to have a fallback option. I climbed through the window into the room. It was pitch dark so I risked a flash of light. No sign of anyone. I turned the torch on full beam. The place seemed to be a storage depot, the walls lined with shelves which were stacked with boxes and bottles. Hyslop had tried to find a general layout of the building but – surprise, surprise – the archive copy had disappeared, so I was going to have to follow my nose. At least I’d been provided with a smart swipe card that was supposed to open every door in the place. Now was the time to test that out.

  I located the security panel and ran the card down it. The door clicked and swung open. I stuck my head out gingerly. A long corridor with plenty of doors leading off it, dim overhead lights glowing – an
emergency generator must have kicked in – and no people tramping up and down. I took a deep breath and slipped out on to the cork-tiled floor. There was a chemical smell in the air, a cross between formaldehyde and something worse. That didn’t make me feel any happier. In the distance I could hear a piercing, repeated alarm siren but down here it had been completely disabled. I hoped I wasn’t about to run into any staff with impaired hearing.

  Moving down the passageway, I checked the panels on each door. Most of them weren’t interesting – Maintenance Office, Staff Toilet, Boiler Room, that kind of thing. What I was after was the Rennie’s archive, but I’d take a look at anything to do with research or that might explain the Baby Factory nickname.

  There was a muffled thud further down the corridor and I flattened myself against the wall, feeling in my pocket for the Ladykiller. The prospect of waving that at a potential assailant wasn’t helping my heart-rate. I waited, the sweat trickling down my arms. Nothing. I couldn’t see very far in the dull light, but it seemed that whoever made the noise had headed in the other direction.

  I continued past the door. To the left was a notice saying “Doctors’ Rest Room”; there was a window set into the wall by that door and I risked a flash of the torch. Chairs, a couple of beds with the covers thrown back, a table with an electric kettle. The usual chaos left by medics. But what were doctors doing in a research institute? Looking after babies?

  I went on. The next door on the right stopped me in my tracks. Red and white striped tape ran all round the upper panel and the sign said “Secure Unit – Entry Only With Authorised Security Personnel In Attendance”. That really got me going. Then I read the smaller writing underneath. “Danger – Unstable Subjects – In Case of Security Breach Apply Code A+++”, it proclaimed. Christ, what did that mean? There was only one way to find out.

  I took the Ladykiller in my left hand and moved the smart card towards the electronic panel. Then I realised that the door was half an inch ajar. So much for Code alpha triple plus. I pushed gently and the door swung open further. Total darkness. I stepped in, tried to get control of my breathing and switched on my torch.