Against the Clock John Carson (thriller books to read TXT) 📖

Lucan, ya wank? Get tae fuck and stop wastin’ my fuckin’ time.’ He slammed the phone down and turned to the others. ‘See? Piece of pish.’

Miller looked at Harry. ‘To answer your question – magic, Harry. Wee Annie is toddling about now and Emma is growing up so fast in front of my eyes. How’s Alex doing?’

‘Having a hard time of it, to be honest. Her mood swings are somewhere between axe murderer and circus chainsaw juggler. I’m in the middle and either tool causing my demise is fine by her.’

Miller laughed. ‘Kim was like that. Alex will be back to normal soon. She’s not got too long, has she?’

‘No. Couple of months. Eleven weeks or so, something like that.’

‘Women are funny, aren’t they?’

Lillian looked round from the kettle. ‘I hope you meant that in a good way, sir,’ she said, her Irish brogue now even more pronounced. Harry had noticed that when her back was up, the accent came out thick and strong.

‘Of course I did.’

‘You’re going to get your coffee gobbed in now,’ Harry whispered.

‘I not only have eyes in the back of my head, DCI McNeil,’ she said, ‘but I have perfect hearing.’

Harry cleared his throat. ‘Where’ve those files got to?’ he said, and a few seconds later, the fax machine spat them out.

‘Right,’ he said, picking up the papers. ‘Ashley Kirby, aged seventeen, and Simone Santana, aged fifteen.’ He looked at Miller. ‘That’s a strange name for somebody living in Scotland.’

‘Her father’s from Barbados.’

‘Right.’ He sat down at a desk and Miller and Dunbar sat as well. Stewart sat at a computer, almost daring the phone to ring. The other CID officer was talking on the phone.

‘It says here the two missing girls were last seen at the Gyle Shopping Centre, getting on a bus.’

‘Are they on CCTV?’ Dunbar asked.

Miller shook his head. ‘There are two main cameras on either end of the horseshoe-shaped façade, each one covering the opposite side, but after the girls leave the main entrance, there are buses everywhere. Double-deckers, blocking the view,’ he said. ‘I don’t know if you’ve been to the Gyle Centre, sir, but outside the main doors there’s a canopy running the length of the façade, so it hides people until they step out from under it. The girls weren’t seen after they left the main entrance at the front of the building. We checked with Lothian Buses, but none of the CCTV cameras on the buses that were there at the time had the girls coming on.’

‘What about taxis?’

‘There’s a taxi rank in the middle, but a call to all the cab companies proved fruitless.’

‘They could have got in a car with somebody,’ Harry said. ‘I’m assuming the trams have CCTV?’

‘They do,’ Miller answered. ‘The stop is just up from the main entrance, but again, they didn’t hop on a tram. Also, there are CCTV cameras at Morrisons supermarket, and if the girls had walked through the underpass to the Edinburgh Gateway railway station and tram stop, we would have seen them. CCTV was checked at the station, and nothing.’

‘They leave the shopping centre and what?’ Stewart said. ‘Maybe they bumped into somebody they knew. Some young bastard with a car. Maybe he got them into it and suggested they go somewhere for a bit of how’s your father. They objected and he killed them.’

‘I’m assuming their phone records were checked,’ Dunbar said.

‘Yes, sir. The last time their phones pinged was at the Gyle Centre. No calls or texts were made or received after they left.’

‘That’s strange,’ Harry said. ‘What girl doesn’t have her phone attached to her hand?’

‘None of them,’ Lillian said, bringing the mugs of coffee over. ‘Not in my experience anyway.’

‘Thanks, Lillian,’ Harry said, taking a sip of the coffee.

‘The only way I can see those girls giving up their phones is by force,’ she added, bringing more mugs across.

‘Cheers,’ Stewart said, looking across at the table where the kettle sat, in case there were any stray doughnuts lying about. Foosty or not, he would have given one a good skelping.

‘These girls leave the centre and then bump into somebody they know, and he manages to get their phones off them. Both of them. And there’s no struggle that we’re aware of. No reports anyway. How the hell did he do it?’ Dunbar said.

‘I’m going to have a drive over to Dalgety Bay and talk to this Dougal Dixon, the bus driver who left abruptly halfway through his shift,’ Harry said. ‘Lillian? You fancy a wee drive?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Anybody else?’

‘Aye, me,’ Stewart said, just as the young detective came back in with his KFC. ‘Better take a pool car. I have a feeling that a seat is going to get some greasy fingers wiped on it.’

He stood up with his bucket of chicken.

‘Right, we’ll get off,’ Harry said as Lillian grabbed her jacket. Then, in a whisper, he said to Dunbar, ‘Well, that backfired. Next time, get your hand up sooner.’

Dunbar grinned. ‘See you later.’

Twenty-Six

‘That’s a nice accent you have there, Detective Sergeant. Where do you come from?’ Stewart said.

‘Comely Bank.’

‘Is that in the south or Northern Ireland?’

‘No, I mean Comely Bank near Stockbridge.’

‘Where’s that then? My geography is all over the place.’ Stewart was already on his second chicken breast by the time they hit Queensferry Road. ‘And just remember before you take the piss again that I’ll be writing a report on who contributed well to this case. Harry is already getting an A-plus. You, ya cheeky wee madam, are already on a hiding to nothing.’

‘Cork,’ Lillian said. ‘I thought you meant where do I live here, sir.’

‘Do you think all of us weegies have sawdust between our ears?’ he said, looking at her from the back seat.

Harry focused on driving the pool car and didn’t make eye contact with either of them.

‘No, sir, not at all. Just got my wires crossed for a minute.’

Stewart licked his fingers, which Harry saw as a pointless exercise as the DSup was about to pick