Chapter 10
EDINBURGH
A uniformed officer turned towards a gravestone, bent his head around it and threw up, making retching noises that would put a cat to shame if they were both in a furball-throwing competition.
‘Fuck me,’ he said, forgetting for a moment he had an audience. He looked up to see other Uniforms watching him, while the detectives looked down at what was once a recognisable human being. Watching a puking probationer was no new thing for them.
The form that had been lying under the gravestone was dressed in female clothes, but gender identity would have to wait until it was on a stainless steel table in the mortuary.
Brodie for the moment assumed it was a woman, partly because Gabriel Kane had said it was, but Brodie had long ago learned never to assume anything.
Like the bastard was telling them the truth.
She wore a summer dress, faded yellow with some indistinguishable flowers on it.
Long ago, it might have looked pretty, but now it resembled a dirty rag with only a hint of its original colour.
Dark hair was at the top of the form, but any facial features had been ruined by the massive weight that had fallen on top of it.
Arms and legs protruded from the dirty clothing, barely recognisable as human limbs.
The thing that Brodie was staring at was the black book that had been crushed into her chest. A Bible. A gold cross was embossed on the front cover. No other marking was needed to explain what it was.
‘Why the Bible?’ Brodie asked Kane, who stood transfixed, looking like he was reliving every second of killing her.
Stains were on the dress, mixed in with the dirt.
Not that the front of the gravestone had dirt on it when it had been tipped over.
It was marble and was still in remarkable condition.
But Brodie saw that a very shallow grave had been dug into the original grave so, when the stone came down, it would be lying flat, just like the other stones around it.
‘She was a religious woman. I thought it fitting,’ Kane said. He looked away from the corpse and smiled at Brodie. ‘Quid pro quo, Liam. You have your victim, now I want to go home.’
Brodie was starting to feel the heat get to him. Claustrophobia circling the wagons. He wanted to loosen his tie but Cross frowned upon that sort of hooligan behaviour.
‘Did you hear what I said, Liam?’ Kane said.
Brodie slowly looked at Kane and he fought to keep his voice steady. To keep the rage caged inside of him. ‘I heard you. You’ll go when I say you can go, Dr Kane.’
‘Gabriel.’ Kane smiled.
‘Have you forgotten something?’ Brodie said.
‘Have I? I’m not sure.’ Kane smiled, keeping the game going for as long as he wanted it to. Then he laughed. ‘Marianne Taylor.’ He locked eyes with Brodie. ‘We’ll talk further.’
Brodie remained silent. The deal was finished now.
Kane would get whatever it was he wanted.
And since he had all he needed, this time he had requested access to Netflix, and a book of poetry.
The condition where Brodie and Kane were on first-name terms was over.
For the time being. Kane always had a way of coming round full circle.
‘Right, get that piece of shite out of here and get the forensics team in here,’ Cross said.
Kane kept looking at Brodie, but the big detective saw the older man’s smile slip.
‘I do hope that remark wasn’t addressed to me, detective superintendent?’ Kane said. He kept his eyes focused on Brodie.
Cross stepped across to Kane and stood in front of him. ‘Get a bit of fun out of doing that, did you?’ He moved his head sideways towards the corpse.
‘You know, I might tire of revealing where my victims are buried. I might just stop. Unless you start showing me respect.’
Brodie watched Cross’s face slowly change.
His boss never lost his cool, not that Brodie could remember.
The crow’s feet were a little more pronounced now, the wrinkles on his forehead a little bit deeper, but years of working with the lowest of the low had conditioned him to remain calm.
‘This little relationship we’ve got going on is like a seesaw; I step off and you fall flat on your arse.
I make one phone call, and all the nice things you have in there, all the little privileges and niceties, will be gone in a heartbeat.
I’m the spokesman on the ground, and I’m the one who the big brass talk to about you.
I need a little respect from you, doctor.
If I call you a piece of shite now and again, well, you’re going to have to get on board with my little eccentricities. Do you understand what I’m saying?’
Kane smiled, like they’d been telling each other dirty jokes. ‘Why, of course, Mr Cross, sir. My apologies, sir. I won’t speak out of turn again, sir.’
Brodie knew the doctor was taking the piss out of Cross while making it look like he was being subservient, and no doubt Cross knew it too, but Kane was attempting to let the detective superintendent save face.
Cross nodded to the guards and they took Kane back to the van.
‘This bloody place stinks,’ Cross said, walking over to Brodie and Lucy. ‘And I don’t mean the dead body. This place honks of rotting vegetation.’
‘It’s not taken care of, that’s probably why, sir,’ Lucy said.
‘Or maybe it’s just that fucker,’ Cross said, nodding through the archway where Kane was taken. ‘I have another idea of how we could get him to tell us where his victims are buried; it involves a car battery and pair of jump leads.’
‘That might also involve you losing your pension too, sir,’ Brodie said.
‘Sometimes I think, fuck it, Liam. Walk away from all of this.’
Brodie stood, looking his boss in the eyes. ‘You’re not walking away from this. Not when you’ve put so many years into this job. You’re going to get what you deserve from this.’
Cross smiled a wry smile. ‘Kane thinks I should get what I deserve, too, but I think you and him are on a different track.’
‘Fuck him, sir. Let’s just concentrate on getting this lady back to her family so they can give her a decent burial. If she has any family, that is.’
‘I know that’s the main thing,’ Cross said, ‘but he’s such a smug bastard.’
‘He is,’ Lucy said. ‘He couldn’t stand to forget who his victim was. That wouldn’t fit in with his narcissistic personality. Now he thinks he has the upper hand.’
‘He always will, as long as there are other victims out there,’ Brodie said. He had one last look over at the victim as the pathologist walked in. Then he walked back to his car.