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

her dumped on the beach like she was a piece of flotsam.’

Jetsom, Lenny was about to say, proud that he was one of the best at the quiz night in their local on a Thursday night, and he was about to explain the difference, but he kept his mouth shut. Cathy was the one who always raised her voice when she got a correct answer and the cheating bastards at the next table would overhear and scribble the answer down. Some of them looked like a bunch of brain-dead mutants who wouldn’t know their own name if it was stitched into their jacket.

The doorbell rang and Cathy answered it, Lenny almost touching cloth. He hated the polis – the way they sneaked around, trying to pin shite on anybody who looked like a good fit-up. He hoped the social wouldn’t take his benefits away for this, although he didn’t think they would. But the bastards might look on finding a body as working and penalise him.

‘Christ, Maggie just told me the fuckin’ polis are on their way,’ Sam said, rushing into Lenny’s living room. ‘Do you think the social called them? I’m no’ fit enough to go to prison. I mean, an ugly bastard like you will be alright, but they’ll ride me like the prison bike.’

‘Cheeky bastard.’

‘We didnae kill that lassie, we just found her,’ Sam said, but Lenny had his eyes wide and slightly shook his head: That’s not what the polis are coming for, numbnuts.

‘Oh.’ Sam looked sheepishly at the two wives as they all stood in the living room.

‘I called them,’ said Cathy, ‘because I got up to go to the lav, then decided I’d make a cup o’ tea, and I saw something outside. But do tell us more about you finding the body.’

‘Look!’ Lenny said, pointing out the living room window. ‘There’s hundreds o’ polis invading the place. Aw shite. Good job, Cathy.’ He hoped she wouldn’t be entertaining the postman while he was inside.

‘Shut your pie hole.’

They stood around as if each of them was trying to come up with some kind of alibi, then the doorbell rang.

Cathy answered it and a flood of suits came in, led by some big bastard.

‘Right, which one of you is Lenny Smith?’

Twenty-Nine

Harry wasn’t going to point fingers, but he made it clear that it wasn’t good form to find a dead body and then just make an anonymous phone call.

‘You might have been able to give us some information,’ he said. ‘Sometimes people remember little details that can help break a case.’

‘Are we under arrest?’ Sam asked.

‘No, not yet. But if we find out you murdered that lassie and dumped her on the beach, I’ll make sure you get a whole life sentence so that the next time you’re on the outside, it will be in a box,’ Calvin Stewart said.

‘Tell us what happened,’ Jimmy Dunbar said.

Lenny and Sam told the story, embellishing how they’d gone out for a jog along the beach. Omitting the part where they felt knackered by the time they got to the first lamppost.

‘Jog?’ Stewart said. ‘I’m sure the speed you two go at, it might not be considered a jog. Maybe a stroll, if you’re lucky.’

‘Anyway,’ Lenny said, biting his tongue, ‘we saw something lying on the beach. We went down to investigate and it was the lassie wrapped in plastic.’

‘Anybody else nearby?’

‘Nope. Just us. We walked up to the phone box and called it in.’

‘And didn’t leave your name,’ Harry said. ‘Why was that?’

‘We didn’t want to get involved. I mean, we’ve all seen the crime shows where some daft bastard goes after a witness and kills them. I don’t know about you, son, but I don’t fancy being wrapped up like a Marks and Sparks chicken sub and dumped on the beach.’

‘What about you?’ Dunbar asked, nodding to Sam.

‘I’m with him. We did the right thing by calling you, but I don’t want to end up in prison, falsely accused of something we didn’t do. We did our civic duty. Far as I’m concerned, we didn’t break the law.’

‘Nobody’s accusing you of anything,’ Stewart said. ‘Yet. So just tell us what you saw. Any suspicious vans or buses parked up?’

‘There wasn’t anything,’ Lenny said. ‘Not when we were there.’

Ronnie Vallance came out of the kitchen with Eve Bell. Harry thought it must have been a tight fit, since Vallance was no lightweight.

‘Mrs Smith saw a minibus parked down at the bus stop when she looked out of the window yesterday morning, sometime after two o’clock,’ he said.

‘Any writing on it?’ Harry asked.

‘She said yes, because the bus was white, but being up this high and with it being dark, she couldn’t make it out. It had blacked-out windows too. And it wasn’t one of those little ones either. This was a larger, squarer one. Her words.’

Harry stepped closer to Lenny and Sam. ‘If you think of anything else, give us a call. You two seem like decent lads. You’re not being a grass, but you could end up being a hero if you remember something and it helps us catch this scumbag.’

‘Aye, nae bother,’ Lenny said.

‘We have officers doing a door-to-door. Hopefully, somebody else might have seen something.’

Sensing there was nothing more to be had out of them, the detectives left.

Back at the station, they slumped down on their chairs at the desks.

‘I think we should call it a night,’ Stewart said. ‘Uniforms and CID are still out at Silverknowes. The search is going to be called off shortly because it’s dark, but everybody will be there again at first light tomorrow. Agreed, Jimmy?’

Dunbar looked at Harry, who nodded. Agreed.

Thirty

Calvin Stewart plonked himself down on the most comfortable chair in Katie’s living room as the others dished out their Chinese meals onto plates.

‘How you feeling, honey?’ Harry said.

‘No’ so bad, sweetheart,’ Dunbar answered with a smile.

‘Listen, pal, I could do a lot better than you.’

‘You already have,’ he said, nodding to Alex.

‘I hate to interrupt what