Against the Clock by John Carson (best mobile ebook reader TXT) 📕

him. ‘No. I mean, what could I do? Sit down with the one of the boys at lunchtime, talk about football and throw something into the conversation like, “Oh aye, and by the way, there’s some fucking mutant hanging about in here after dark”? That would have gone down well.’

‘What happened after the first time you saw her?’ Stewart asked.

‘I thought I was seeing things. Maybe my eyes were overtired. I left the engine running because it was chilly outside, and besides, the miserable old bastard who owns the place always wants the buses inside. They can’t be locked and he doesn’t want anybody creeping about after dark, touching his buses. If only he knew. But there she was, at the side of the shed. I thought I was seeing things at first, but then she moved again. That got a fucking spurt on, let me tell you. I went inside by the Judas gate, opened the garage door and got that bus right inside. There’s only inches to spare either side, and when you put the headlights out, the place is in darkness. You have to go back round and press a button to bring the garage door down. Then you have to walk along in the dark to the interior door that leads into the wee office where we leave our stuff. Shiting a brick, I was. I grabbed a broom, just in case.’

‘You would have swept the floor with her,’ Stewart said, and nobody knew if he was joking or not.

‘I saw her again a few nights later. Then, when I’d been there for about a week, I saw her inside the garage.’

‘Did she say anything to you?’ Harry asked.

‘No. She just made a noise and ran away through to the back.’

‘Did you follow her?’ Lillian said. ‘Or is that a silly question?’

‘I like your sense of humour, that’s for sure,’ Dixon replied. ‘Follow? Aye, maybe with a hunting rifle. That thing was seriously messed-up, facially. There’s something going on there. Something not right.’

‘Who do you think it is?’ Lillian asked.

‘I didn’t think to make introductions. I mean, please excuse my lack of social skills, but I wasn’t going to hang around and ask her if she fancied going to the pictures one night.’

‘I meant, you didn’t hear anybody else talk about her?’

‘Nope. If they did see her, then they were keeping quiet about it, just like me.’

‘You never heard Mike Morton talk about it?’

‘All he said is, we should never go in the workshop because of all the chemicals that are stored there. If we wanted cleaning stuff, he would get it for us. He’s a dodgy bastard, and make no mistake. He’s hiding something there.’

‘What line of work are you in now?’ Harry asked.

‘Hospital porter.’

‘Were you working today?’

‘I was. I can give you my supervisor’s number; he’ll confirm it. Six until two. I did this job years ago, and I’ve seen some sights, but nothing like the woman in the garage.’

Dixon scribbled a number down on a piece of paper, and Lillian took it and contacted his supervisor. In a matter of minutes she’d confirmed Dixon’s alibi.

‘Right, Mr Dixon, we’ll be off. You’ve been very helpful,’ Stewart said, not complaining about the lack of tea cakes. The man might have rubbed them about his baws before wrapping them back up again anyway.

‘What do you think?’ Stewart said once they were back in the car, firing the empty KFC bucket out of the window. ‘Fucking smell was giving me the boak already,’ he said. ‘I like the stuff, but this scrapper of a car is bogging.’

‘Just something Dixon said about being a porter; “I’ve seen worse,” he said. Burn victims. What if his ghost is a burn victim?’ Lillian said.

Twenty-Eight

Harry was knackered. He excused himself and went into the corridor.

‘Hello?’ Alex said, answering after the third ring.

‘Hello to you too. How are you doing?’

‘I’m fine. I’m at Katie’s house with her and Chance. And Sparky of course. Any sign of any of you coming home?’

‘Not right now. Did you see Percy Purcell on the news, giving a statement about the wee girl who’s gone missing?’

‘I did. What a shame. I’m glad we’re erring on the side of caution and getting the public to look out for her.’

‘Me too. It might not be a snatching. She might have wandered off and, God forbid, somehow ended up in the Forth.’

‘You don’t think that, though, do you?’

‘Not at all. I think there were perverts down there, and one of them took her. We’ve asked the public to hand in any photos they took or let us download them from their phones. See if we can see any known offenders. We have CID going to talk to any of them living in a two-mile radius, then we can widen the net.’

‘I rub my belly, knowing our wee baby is in there, safe and sound, but he or she has to come out one day and then be part of this shitty world where grown men and women take children.’

‘Try not to get yourself upset, Alex. I’ll be home as soon as I can, but I can’t give you a time.’

‘I know.’

‘See you later. Love you.’

Harry disconnected and walked back into the incident room. ‘Where’s Stewart?’ he asked Dunbar.

‘Going to have a chinwag with Percy Purcell. They go way back.’

‘Sir!’ Eve Bell said, holding up a piece of paper. ‘We had a phone call from somebody who lives down in Joppa. They might have seen something relating to the Sandra Robertson case.’

‘Like what?’ Harry asked.

‘Like the killer.’

‘Aw, that’s fucking magic,’ Lenny Smith said to his wife. Cathy was unperturbed.

‘I had to. There’s a wee lassie missing now.’

‘Aye, but callin’ the polis? That’s like…’

‘Like what?’

‘I don’t know. It doesn’t seem right, inviting them into our hoose. Sam will be shitting himself.’

‘I’ve already called them. He’s on his way over.’

‘Christ, what’s he going to think?’

‘He’s going to think we’re helping to track down somebody who killed a lassie. And left