The interpreter was slumped on the other side of the table, sweat darkening the armpits of her blouse as she repeated yet another phrase Logan was getting sick of.
‘He says he doesn’t know anything.’
Steel slammed her fist down on the chipped Formica tabletop. ‘Stop sodding about – I want to know who he’s working for!’
The interpreter sighed and tried again, ‘Zapytać: dla kogo pracujesz?’
The thickset man with the flattened nose shrugged and replied in bunged-up Polish. His face was one big bruise today, crisscrossed with sticking plasters. It wasn’t a good look.
‘He’s not working for anyone. He’s in Aberdeen visiting his cousin.’
‘Then why did we catch him brawling outside a known hangout for lowlife scumbags? Why have I got a drug dealer downstairs in the cells telling me Lumpy here tried to recruit him? Who – is – he – working – for?’
‘Which question do you want to ask first?’
‘Oh for God’s sake. We know the bastard can speak English—’
A knock at the door.
DCI Finnie marched into the room without waiting for an invitation. ‘Inspector, a word please.’
The interpreter waited until Steel was out of the room before asking Logan if she was always this bad. ‘Doesn’t she like Polish people?’
‘Not when they lie to her, no.’
‘You’ve got to understand it from their point of view,’ the interpreter nodded at the prisoner. ‘Polish police were a nightmare under the Communists. They were enforcers for the regime, they’d make people disappear. And they weren’t much better after independence: corrupt and lazy. So no one trusts the police anymore, and you can’t really blame them, can you?’
‘I can when they…’ Logan trailed off into silence, listening to the raised voices coming through the door.
The interpreter looked puzzled. ‘What?’
‘Shhhhhhh!’ He held his hand up for silence. It was Steel and DCI Finnie, having a stand-up row in the corridor outside.
Steel: ‘No way! I am not—’
Finnie: ‘That wasn’t a request, Inspector, it was an order.’
Steel: ‘I’m in the middle of—’
Finnie: ‘You’re interfering with an ongoing investigation.’
Steel: ‘I’m doing my bloody job!’
Finnie: ‘Not any more you’re not. And if you’ve got a problem with that you can take it up with the DCS.’
An angry silence.
Steel: ‘Fine. Laughing Boy in there’s all yours.’ She yanked the door open and glowered at Logan. ‘Pack it up. We’ve been pulled off the case.’
Logan shifted in the driver’s seat, ruffled his copy of the Aberdeen Examiner, and said, ‘Four across: “Forbid forever, like.” “B”, something, something, “I”, something, something.’
Steel looked up from an in-depth analysis of her own cleavage. ‘You know what,’ she said, flicking a tiny avalanche of cigarette ash out of the passenger window, ‘I think I’ve finally found one of these damn things that fits.’ She tugged at her bra strap, making the contents jiggle.
Logan went back to his paper – there was no way he was getting drawn into another conversation about the Detective Inspector’s underwear. Five minutes to eleven on a Friday morning and the sun was dappling its way through the trees, sending little flecks of light dancing across the speed-bumps outside Sunnybank Primary School. ‘How long do we have to keep doing this?’
‘Till we catch the bastard.’ Steel gave up on her boobs and lounged back in her seat. ‘Anyway, what you whinging about? Three days sitting on your arse in the sunshine, reading the paper and eating ice-lollies. You rather be running around after DCI Frog-Face?’
She had a point.
‘No, we lounge about here till four, sod off home for the weekend and back again on Monday for another glorious week of doing bugger all.’ The inspector took a long drag on her cigarette and blew, fogging the windscreen with second-hand smoke. ‘Not like we got anything better to do, is it? Bloody Finnie…’
Here we go again.
‘I mean, who the hell does he think he is? “Stop interviewing that prisoner,”’ she said, doing a less than flattering impersonation of the Detective Chief Inspector, ‘“You’re interfering with an ongoing investigation.” Ongoing investigation my sharny arse. Bastard just wants all the sodding glory for himself.’
She snorted. ‘And can you believe he let Derek McSpotty walk with a caution? We caught the wee bastard red-handed kicking the crap out of someone, resisting arrest, and being a lying junky tosspot. “You have to see the bigger picture, Inspector.”’ She smoked furiously for a moment. ‘I’ll show Finnie the bigger picture with the toe of my bloody boot.’
‘What do you want to do for lunch today? We could grab a sandwich, or—’
‘Kebab.’ The inspector finished her cigarette and dumped the stub into an open can of Pepsi, swirling it around in the warm, flat liquid. ‘That place in Sandilands. And while we’re there we can accidentally nip next door to the Turf ’n Track. Have another wee chat with Simon McLeod.’
‘But Finnie—’
‘Finnie can pucker up and kiss my perky bumhole. Since that wee riot on Tuesday we’ve had five Polish blokes in A&E with their kneecaps smashed. Someone took a claw hammer to them.’ She struck a pose, tapping the side of her forehead. ‘Now who do we know with form for battering people with a claw hammer? Think, think, think…’
‘OK, OK, I get it: Colin McLeod. But Finnie—’
‘What is he, your boyfriend or something?’
‘Why do you have to make everything—’
The school bell jangled through the warm, lazy air – eleven o’clock on the dot. Time for morning break.
‘We’re on.’
Screams and shouts echoed out of the school, then a stampede of five-to-seven-year-olds dressed in the standard grey-and-blue primary uniform burst out into the sunshine, hell bent on cramming as much fun as possible into their fifteen minutes of freedom.
‘Anything?’ asked Steel.
Logan checked the street. ‘Nope. Looks like… wait a minute… Blue Toyota Yaris: there, just pulling up. You see it?’
The inspector shuffled forward in her seat, peering through the windscreen at the little mud-spattered car. The driver got out and wandered over to the playground fence. Beige cardigan, grey hair, feral moustache.
‘About sodding time.’ Steel clambered her way into the warm morning, and sauntered down the road with her hands in her pockets.
Logan locked up and followed her, nipping across the road at the last minute so he could come round on the guy’s blind side.
Not that the man in the beige cardigan would have noticed, he was far too busy smiling at a little girl through the railings. Blonde hair, pigtails, big blue eyes.