‘Wee message for your lord and master.’ Reuben waved a huge hand, taking in the part-built houses. ‘Keep it legitimate and we’ll all get on fine. Disrespect,’ he paused to kick the man lying at his feet, ‘well, that’s gonnae land us all in a world of shite. We clear?’
Mr Big-and-Bald folded his huge arms across his chest, saying nothing.
Reuben slammed the Transit’s side door. ‘Fair enough.’ Then he clambered back behind the wheel and cranked the engine. The van’s tyres span in the mud before they finally grabbed traction. He drove off, slowly. Not so much as a jaunty wave.
Logan watched him go, staring after the van like everyone else. And then Big-and-Bald nudged the man lying on the ground with his foot.
‘Get this fucker out of here.’ He turned and strode off towards the site office, snapping his fingers, ‘Mauser, heel!’
The huge black dog raised its snout, sniffed, then turned and loped after its master.
DI Steel took the last gasp from her cigarette and ground the butt out against the nearest chunk of pink Rockwool. ‘Think we’d better go pay baldy a visit, don’t you?’ She stepped out into the rain.
The site office was divided into cubicles by chest-high partitions, each one covered with pinned-up spreadsheets. A large architectural plan covered one wall, ‘Camberwick Green’ in all its proposed glory.
The office was tidy: no mounds of grubby paperwork, no piles of half-read tabloids, no Turner-Prize-winning installations of discarded polystyrene cups. Just laptops, graphics tablets, printers, and something classical playing from a portable stereo. All overlaid with the dirty stench of wet dog.
A kettle sat on a wee table opposite the door, curling steam into the tidy room. Someone was making tea – blue jumper on over a shirt and tie, carefully arranged comb-over, ridiculous little beard, as if he’d drawn around his chin with a magic marker.
He looked up as Logan thumped the door closed behind them.
‘Are you here about the drainage?’
Steel sniffed. ‘I look like a fucking plumber?’
Frown. ‘There’s no need to—’
‘Steve Polmont.’
Big-and-Bald stood up from behind one of the partitions, a hands-free headset stuffed in his ear. ‘There a problem here?’ Up close he reeked of aftershave, a cloying musky smell with chemical overtones.
Steel perched on the edge of a desk. ‘Polmont had an arrangement with our employer. But he’s no’ been keeping his end up. Know what I mean?’
Jumper-and-Tie went back to making the tea. ‘Well, I don’t see how that concerns us, Miss…?’
‘We’re talking three big ones here.’
‘Ah…’ He stuck a teaspoon in and swirled the bags around for a bit. ‘You should really be taking this up with Mr … Polmont, was it?’
‘Where is he?’
Milk. Sugar. ‘Andy, do we have a Mr Polmont working for us?’
The big man shook his head. ‘He was that sticky-fingered sparky, did a runner.’
‘Ah, yes…’ Jumper-and-Tie handed a mug to his colleague. ‘There was a problem with missing electrical equipment. Wire, cabling, junction boxes, that kind of thing. Mr Polmont made himself scarce before we could contact the police. Sorry we can’t be of further help.’
The inspector nodded. ‘He got any wages outstanding? Something he could be putting against his debt?’
‘I really think anything outstanding should go to pay for the equipment he stole, don’t you?’
‘Nah, that’s no’ going to—’
‘Think it’s time for you to leave, yeah?’ Big-and-Bald, AKA: Andy, came round the corner, towering over Steel, that huge scary dog trotting behind him, claws making skittering noises on the linoleum floor. ‘Got a buildin’ site to run here.’
She looked up at Andy. Then round at Logan. Raised an eyebrow.
I’m the boss, you’re the hired muscle…
Logan stared at the huge slab of a man. Screw that.
He stuck out his hand for Andy to shake. ‘No hard feelings.’
The big man paused for a second, then took it, his thick fingers dwarfing Logan’s, squeezing, a vice made of flesh and bone. Logan grabbed the hand with his left, digging his nails in. ‘Woa, easy, Tiger!’
Andy grinned. ‘You have a nice day now, Officer.’
‘You’re a big, sodding, wet, Jessie bastard, you know that, don’t you?’ Steel stomped to a halt at the Fiat’s rusty passenger door. ‘Couldn’t throw your weight around for two bloody minutes!’
‘Did you see the size of him?’ Logan stopped behind her, both hands held up like a surgeon, waiting for a nurse to glove him up. ‘He’d’ve torn my head off and crapped down the stump. Anyway, he knew we were police.’
‘You’re such a girl.’ She nodded her head at the car. ‘Well? Unlock the sodding thing; bloody freezing.’
Logan stuck one hip out. ‘Keys are in my front trouser pocket.’
She glanced down. ‘So?’
‘You’re going to have to drive.’
Her top lip curled. ‘Aye, that’ll be shining. Detective Inspector, mind? You drive, I … passenge.’
‘Can’t. Did the hostage trick when I shook with Baldy Andy. You need to bag my hands till we get back to the station.’
Steel took another look at his trousers. ‘I’m no’ going digging about in your breeks, what if you get a stiffy?’
‘Just … don’t flatter yourself, OK?’
‘Bloody hell.’ Logan had one last bash at getting a cigarette out of the packet, then gave up. ‘Can you…?’
Steel shifted down and the Fiat whined around the outside of a massive tractor hauling a trailer full of cattle down the dual carriageway. ‘You’re like a wee kid.’ She took the pack from his slippery plastic-bagged hands, tapped one out against the steering wheel, stuck it between her teeth, and lit it with the car’s cigarette lighter. The edges of her scarlet lips cracked out like spider veins as she sooked. Then she held it out – a bright-red print on the filter – so Logan could sit forwards and pluck it from between her fingers with his mouth.
It tasted of burning perfume and Vaseline.
‘Thanks.’
Steel went back to squinting into the rain, windscreen wipers squealing and groaning across the pockmarked glass. ‘Either Polmont’s buggered off, or he’s dead.’
‘And if he was stealing electrical supplies from Malk the Knife, doesn’t matter where he runs to. Sooner or later…’
‘Silly bugger.’
‘You know,’ Logan tried to take the cigarette out of his mouth to tap the ash off, but couldn’t work the clear plastic bags into a position that wouldn’t burn a hole in them, ‘if you were going to kill someone for nicking your electrical wiring, there’s plenty of places to bury the body on a building site: mechanical diggers, concrete…’
‘Aye.’ Steel reached over and took the fag from Logan’s mouth, flicked the ash out of the open window,