The Blood Tree Read online

  Hyslop broke off and tried to get a grip on her breathing. It took her a while. Then she continued, still compelled to tell her story. “Tam and I, we replaced John’s usual headbangers and came across in the trawler. John came back with us as well, but you didn’t see him. We kept him and the teenagers in the forward hold.” She smiled weakly. “In case you’re wondering, Tam and John followed us in the other boat that was in the yard last night. I managed to keep in touch with them on my mobile.”

  I was struggling to make sense of this. “You knew Broadsword for years?”

  Hel was looking at Aurora. “Don’t worry, little girl,” she said in a voice that was unlikely to comfort a hardened guardsman, never mind a traumatised child. “We’ll soon be finished here. Then you and I will go on another boat trip.”

  She turned her gaze on Macbeth and nodded grimly when she saw that he was still writhing. “What?” she said, glancing back at me and finding her place again. “Oh yes, John Breck was a family friend when I was a kid. Then he disappeared when he was about twelve. It destroyed his parents and mine – they were very close.” Her voice was hoarse. “That perverted professor had been taking children off the streets for years and using them as subjects in his experiments. Tam’s sister went missing too.” She shook her head. “We found out about a year ago that she died in the institute.”

  “So you and Haggs set out to nail the professor,” I said.

  “Yeah.” Hyslop wiped the sweat from her forehead. “But we could never find any hard evidence. He had the best lawyers on his case. Even when Duart’s people got suspicious about Rennie’s business dealings, nothing came out. And, of course, he made sure he donated plenty to his local ward’s coffers – and to the city’s central funds.”

  I stared at her. “The files Broadsword was taking from the institute last night. The eight Glasgow victims were all ex-employees of the Baby Factory.”

  “We got desperate. We started killing them to put the squeeze on Rennie. But the professor didn’t give a shit. So when we were over here, John decided to try out the angle with the branches. We were sure this bastard was in on his brother’s activities. We reckoned the Birnam Wood branch in the victims’ hands would make them panic when we tried it in Glasgow.” She nodded at me. “The files made you wonder, didn’t they, Quint? We wanted them so that we could construct a more coherent case against Rennie. And to deflect any suspicion away from us. But we didn’t want to make it too obvious until we were ready, so we steered clear of current staff members and kept the full details out of our own files.”

  Katharine looked up from Aurora. “Are you saying that Glasgow police officers were behind nine, no, eleven murders including the two here?” Her face was a picture of horror.

  Hel shrugged. “John – Broadsword – did the actual killing. He was let out of the Rennie a couple of years back to act as Macbeth’s enforcer. The bastards never thought he might turn against them. Or that the failed ocular experiments might have damaged more than his forehead.”

  “But you stood by and let him get on with it,” Katharine insisted. “You covered for him.”

  Hyslop faced up to the accusation. “Yes. I don’t regret the killings. People who made their living from the institute deserved anything they got.”

  “What about the auxiliaries in Edinburgh?” I demanded.

  This time a look of anguish flashed across the inspector’s features. “Yes, well, John had got a taste for that form of mutilation by then. I tried to stop him—”

  “Not very hard,” Katharine interrupted. She looked at Aurora then glared at Hyslop. “You’re disgusting. You connive in murders and now you’re putting a child through a nightmare experience. How can you do it?”

  The words seemed to wound Hel. The gun she was pointing at me shook for a few moments.

  “Things . . . things got out of hand,” she said finally.

  “You’re bloody right they did!” I yelled. “What about Leadbelly? You tried to frame him, didn’t you?”

  She wasn’t looking proud of herself. “We decided to increase the pressure by incriminating a serving member of the Rennie’s security staff.”

  “Which resulted in the poor bugger committing suicide,” I said, shaking my head at her.

  She raised her shoulders ineffectually. “What could I do? I put a guard on him.”

  “Bollocks,” I said. “You’re responsible for Leadbelly’s death as much as you’re responsible for all the others.” I still felt sorry for the former criminal. Even though he’d been a vicious drugs gang member for years, he tried to go straight after he did his time – and he killed himself in the mistaken belief that he’d murdered a pregnant woman. If Leadbelly hadn’t demanded to speak to me, Duart wouldn’t have ordered Hel to kidnap me and I’d never have gone to Glasgow. Then an even more horrifying thought struck me. “Dougal Strachan,” I said. “You sick fuckers. You took him from the boat and executed him near the Rennie, didn’t you?”

  The inspector licked her lips and kept her eyes locked on Macbeth. “John did, yes,” she said after a long pause. “It seemed the most obvious way of putting even more pressure on the professor.” She glanced at me. “And of putting you on his track.”

  I almost went for her, the teenager’s mutilated face flashing repeatedly before me. The only way I managed to restrain myself was to look at Aurora. She was all that mattered now.

  Hyslop straightened her back. “The genetic experiments that went on in the Baby Factory were illegal and immoral,” she said. “We had to find a way to stop them.”

  I still had my eyes on Aurora. She was the result of supposedly immoral and definitely illegal science, but I was very glad she was a living human being. “For Christ’s sake, Hel, it’s not that simple. Even if the professor was responsible for numerous mutilations and deaths, that didn’t give you the right to take the law into your own hands.” I caught her eye. “It doesn’t give you the right to do any more damage to Macbeth, either. No matter what his brother did to John Breck and Tam Haggs’s sister.”

  The king started groaning louder when he heard his name. Hyslop looked past me and turned the automatic on him again. Her aim was unsteady at first but she tightened her grip.

  “No!” Macbeth pleaded. “No!”

  We were all waiting for the shot. It never came. Hel let out a long, exhausted breath and the barrel of the automatic dropped towards the ground. Then she moved towards me and handed the weapon over.

  Davie had the cuffs on her a second after I’d taken hold of it.

  The guard personnel who came down to Drylaw House were all close colleagues of Davie. Until I decided how to handle things with Hamilton and Sophia, I didn’t want any word getting back to the Council. Paramedics had taken Macbeth off to patch up his shoulder. He was lucky. The bullet had gone straight through and appeared to have done only a limited amount of damage. The bodies in the house – Haggs and the unidentified cult follower – were bagged and carried out.

  “What shall we do with Aurora, Quint?” Katharine asked. The little girl still had her arms wrapped tightly around Katharine’s midriff. When I kneeled down and smoothed her hair away from her tear-stained face, she managed to give me a brave smile that almost made me break down.

  “Take one of the Land-Rovers and go back to your place with her,” I said. “I’ll join you later.”

  She nodded. “Come on, darling,” she said, unlatching Aurora’s hands gently. “I’ve got some hot chocolate at home. Would you like that?”

  The child nodded shyly. “I’m hungry too,” she said in a small voice.

  “No problem,” Katharine said. “I’ve even got food.”

  They were both laughing as they climbed into the vehicle. Katharine beckoned me over.

  “You might want to take charge of this,” she said in a low voice, handing me the heavy pistol I’d dropped down the stairwell at Grosvenor Crescent.

  “You picked that up?” I looked at her. “What were you intending to do with it?”<
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  “Shoot your Glaswegian friend as soon as Aurora was out of the way,” she said, giving me a tight smile and pulling the door shut.

  I watched her reverse away. I didn’t doubt for a second that she’d have done what she said.

  Davie had appeared at my side. “The wee lass is beautiful, Quint. Thank God nothing happened to her.”

  I shook my head. “Plenty has happened to her, my friend. How long do you think it’ll take her to get over what she’s seen in the last twenty-four hours?”

  “Kids are better at that kind of thing than we are,” he said, squeezing my arm.

  “Are they?” I said uncertainly. I looked away across the driveway. It was criss-crossed by the headlight beams, which were falling on a large copper beech at the far side of the house. The blood tree, I thought, remembering the branches over the dead auxiliaries and in Broadsword’s hand as he came towards me outside the Rennie.

  “We’ve got Bell 18 in custody,” Davie reported. “She gave herself up a few minutes ago.”

  “Bell 18?” I said. “She’s probably traumatised as well. Get one of your people to look after her.”

  He nodded. “Was she one of Macbeth’s people?”

  “Yup. The cult’s roots had extended to Edinburgh, believe it or not. The first victim was one of them as well.”

  “Why did they kill him?” Davie asked.

  I shrugged. “Broadsword wasn’t exactly full of the milk of human kindness. Neither was Haggs, neither is Hyslop. They needed a victim and he was at hand.”

  “You got that right,” Davie said. “Eventually. By the way, we found a taxi in the bushes too. Haggs must have hijacked it to get down here.”

  “He was a dab hand at taking things that didn’t belong to him.”

  “What about us?” Davie asked. “What do we do now?”

  “I don’t know about you, guardsman,” I said, heading for the Land-Rover that had Hel Hyslop in the back, “but I’m going to the castle to have a serious talk with your boss.”

  From the look on Davie’s face I could see that he wasn’t quite as keen on that as I was. All the same, he came along for the ride.

  I called ahead and told Hamilton to get Sophia over to the castle. He sounded surprised by the tone of my voice, but I broke the connection before he could complain.

  We headed south towards the city centre on streets that were slippery and deserted. Edinburgh citizens either had their noses in Council-approved books at home or were serving the tourists in the bars and clubs. None of them was dumb enough to walk around on a night like this. In the distance the lights of the central zone shone out through the murk. I turned and saw Hyslop studying the city, her jaw slack. She was avoiding my eyes and I didn’t feel much like talking to her.

  “What are you going to do, Quint?” Davie asked dubiously. “The Council—”

  “Never mind the Council,” I interrupted. “The question is how we deal with Hamilton and the other guardians.” I spent the rest of the trip considering that.

  “Keep me out of this,” Davie said when we arrived on the esplanade. He showed no inclination to move from the Land-Rover.

  “Oh no you don’t,” I insisted. “Hamilton threatened you with demotion. We’ve got to sort him out on that once and for all.” I pushed him towards his door. He opened it with a long-suffering look on his face. I let Hel out of the back and led her past the sentries. They didn’t ask for clearance – they’d seen me bring stranger specimens than her into the castle in the past.

  There was no one in the public order guardian’s outer office. I reckoned Hamilton had sent his staff away – he knew there was about to be a showdown. I walked into his sanctum without knocking.

  Lewis and Sophia were sitting at the conference table. The lights were turned low, presumably to save their blushes. I could remember several occasions when the law had been laid down to me around that piece of furniture. Not this time.

  “Would you mind telling us what’s been going on, Dalrymple?” Hamilton demanded with a vain stab at taking command. He peered at Hyslop like she was the plague on two legs, which wasn’t a bad assessment. “I heard an unconfirmed report of gunshots in Grosvenor Crescent.” He glared at Davie. “Why wasn’t I kept fully informed, commander? A dangerous oversight considering you’re already under threat of demotion.”

  I raised my hand. “Let’s get one thing clear from the beginning. You two guardians and your associates are an inch away from being hauled up in front of your peers in the Council – for authorising banned genetic research, conspiracy, illegal foreign trade . . . the list goes on and on.”

  Neither of them said a word.

  “There might be a way to sort this out,” I continued, “but my first condition is that Hume 253 here is absolved of all charges relating to his unapproved trip to Glasgow.” I gave them both the eye. “I presume you agree.”

  Sophia nodded without giving the demand any thought. She was sitting back from the table to allow her swollen abdomen more room. Lewis Hamilton’s response was less immediate but eventually he signalled his acceptance too.

  “Now will you tell us what’s been going on this evening?” he asked impatiently.

  So I did – everything from Billy Geddes’s admission of the safe house’s location to Hel Hyslop’s surrender of her weapon.

  “Has this Glasgow police officer been charged with illegal entry to the city?” Hamilton demanded.

  “The point is to avoid charges being brought against anyone in this room, Lewis,” I said. “Let’s see how you talk yourself out of ten years down the mines before we decide about the inspector.” As far as I was concerned, she could take her chances back in Glasgow, capital punishment notwithstanding.

  “I thought you said she was involved in numerous murders,” Sophia said.

  “Is your own conscience clear?” I said bitterly. “Unauthorised research into genetic engineering has been going on in Edinburgh under your directorate’s partial supervision. How many people have acted as guinea pigs? How many people were permanently damaged?”

  She picked up a glass of water and put it to her lips.

  “How many?” I shouted.

  “I . . . I don’t know,” she replied in a low voice. “We only got directly involved in the last year, after the birth-rate dropped. Godwin was in charge of the details.”

  I stared at her in horror. “The details? Jesus Christ, Sophia, we’re talking about human beings and human genes.” I paused. “Godwin was an animal geneticist originally. Who provided the human genetics expertise?” I was thinking about Aurora. Someone had removed an egg from Caro years ago. “This research has been going on for a long time. Who’s been responsible for it?”

  Sophia glanced at Hamilton. “Dorothy Taylor,” she said. “She was a professor at—”

  “I know who she was,” I said, remembering the name from the list of Genetic Engineering Committee members in the Parliament archive. “So the file data about her having crossed the border years ago was bullshit.”

  Lewis Hamilton nodded reluctantly. “I wasn’t aware what she was doing,” he said. “The request for an amended file entry came from the Medical Directorate in 2009.”

  I shook my head. Scientists had been playing with genes for over fifteen years and keeping it from the full Council. I wish I could say I was surprised, but nothing about the propensity of people in positions of power to corrupt themselves surprised me any more.

  “Why the hell didn’t you just change Council policy about genetic engineering?” I asked. “It’s not as if this is a bloody democracy. You wouldn’t have needed popular support.”

  “Impossible,” Sophia said dismissively. “Many of our colleagues are passionate about the sanctity of human life.”

  “Bullshit,” I said, matching her tone. “You guardians are used to a culture of secrecy and that’s the only way you can live your pathetic lives. You stand by your principles but as soon as things get tough, you sell out as quickly as anyone else.” />
  Hamilton’s cheeks were red. “That is grossly unfair, Dalrymple. Our contacts in Glasgow asked for File Attachment 4.1.116. A large amount of foreign currency was offered, but I refused to hand it over. As far as I’m concerned, animal genes should be kept separate from human ones. This was a step too far.” He glared at me. “Besides, Edinburgh isn’t the only place with a culture of secrecy. This research was kept from the authorities in Glasgow too. So much for democracy.”

  “You should have taken the money, Lewis,” I said. “That way you’d have saved a lot of lives.”

  Hamilton glanced at Sophia then dropped his gaze. It seemed that he’d taken my point.

  “Your contacts in Glasgow?” I asked, going back to what he’d said. “You mean David and Derek Rennie?”

  Lewis nodded. “They were originally from Edinburgh, you know. David Rennie worked at Heriot-Watt in pre-Enlightenment times. He knew Gavin Godwin.”

  That explained Macbeth’s accent.

  I looked at the guardians balefully. “Listen to me. Here’s how it’s going to be. Given the declining birth-rate, Edinburgh needs the benefit of genetic engineering. That much is obvious. If we’re lucky, the city might even fill a temporary gap in the international market now that the main Glasgow facility has gone through enforced meltdown.” I looked at Hel Hyslop but she kept her head bowed.

  “But now everything has to be above board,” I said, turning back to the guardians. “Work out a research proposal, use Billy Geddes to plan the finances and put it to the Council for approval. If they ask for an explanation of what’s been going on, make one up yourselves. I’ve got other things on my mind.” I sat down opposite Sophia. “And make bloody sure there’s an ethics committee, okay?”

  She nodded and looked away. I hadn’t told her about Aurora and I didn’t intend to. She had enough problems of her own concerning reproduction.

  “Who’s the father, Sophia?” I asked in a low voice. “Or does your child come from a test-tube?”