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‘Where … where are you taking me?’ she said, her voice trailing off to barely more than a whisper.
He said nothing, just stared at her for a full ten seconds before raising the phone and pointing it towards her. He nodded, almost imperceptibly over her left shoulder. She became aware of another looming presence behind her and she turned to look, a sick feeling rising in her churning stomach.
There was a sudden crackle and a rustle and then she felt a plastic bag being pulled over her face and cinched tight. She tried to scream, but as she inhaled, the plastic was sucked into her mouth and she retched, vomit exploding from her. With nowhere to go the thick mucus went up her nose as she breathed in, the panic rising. She tried to cough, but the thick plastic allowed nothing to escape, and she felt the vomit in her lungs, just as her vision began to cloud again.
The final thing she saw, through the clear plastic bag, were those sad eyes, a phone to his ear as he surveyed her with little interest. She stopped struggling, defeated.
‘It’s done, she’ll no’ be found,’ were the last words she heard as the blackness swept over her like a warm, enveloping blanket.
1
Now
LEO HAMILTON STAREDacross the table at his client, Davie Hardie, in the legal visits room at Shotts prison. The high-ceilinged room was echoey and depressing, with scuffed walls and peeling cream paint, flecks of which were scattered on the dusty linoleum floor. Davie picked at a fissure in the scratched Formica table top as Leo felt some degree of shock at what he’d just heard from his client. He’d acted for the Hardie family for many years, thought he knew all the dark secrets, but he didn’t know this one.
‘Are you sure about this, Davie?’ Leo asked, feeling a flutter of nerves in his belly. What Davie had imparted was something that he’d never expected to hear in his twenty-year association with the Hardie family. In the past, instructions had always come from Tam Hardie Senior, then after his death, Tam Junior. He’d had very little to do with either Davie or his older brother, Frankie, but as Tam Junior had disappeared without trace after being sprung from Saughton a couple of years ago, he guessed that he now took his instructions from whoever delivered them. His firm still had a sizeable amount of money on account from the Hardie legal trust, so he was duty bound to act on his client’s behalf.
‘Aye, of course I’m fucking sure. I’m only a couple of years into a twelve stretch.’ Davie’s face was hard and grim, and Leo could sense the bitterness.
‘Not gonna lie, Davie, you were lucky to only get twelve. I’m nota bragging man, but keeping you out of the murders your big brother was convicted of was a work of legal genius.’
This was at least very true. Tam Junior had been convicted of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to murder in revenge attacks after his father had been murdered in that remote Caithness graveyard. Keeping the two brothers out of that had been his finest hour, professionally speaking.
‘Aye, you did good work, and were paid for it well, so I need you to excel yourself this time, Leo. The chances of me getting out of this shite-hole in the next ten years are remote to say the least. No way will any Hardie get out of jail early, will they?’ Davie sat back in his chair and rubbed his face, before fixing Leo with a firm stare. ‘Look, I know stuff that the cops will want to hear, Leo. I can clear up a big murder from years ago that the cops don’t even know happened. They just think it’s a missing person, but it’s not and I know all the details.’ An amused look overtook his lean, sharp features.
Leo narrowed his eyes. ‘Go on.’
‘Pa made it happen, and I know where the body was got rid of. Trust me, this is fucking dynamite stuff.’
‘What do you want in return? I can’t see the cops wanting to do you any favours, Davie. As you rightly pointed out, you’re a Hardie.’ He produced a gold pen from his pocket and poised it over the legal pad that was on the table.
‘This is big, Leo. Bigger than anything they could fucking imagine. Someone went missing years ago, and said individual was put in the ground by someone working for my late Pa. He sorted it as a favour for one of his acorns that has since grown into a massive, huge great oak-fucking-tree.’
Leo felt his stomach tense a little. Davie wasn’t given to hyperbole. ‘Like how big?’
‘Put it this way, it makes the bent cops Max Craigie brought down look like fucking traffic wardens. Make the call and tell them Davie Hardie wants to do a deal. But I want out of this bogging shite-hole.’
‘I’ll need to know more if I’m to approach the cops.’
‘Not yet, Leo. I need an agreement before I blether about that, but it’ll shake Scotland to its foundations.’
‘What does Frankie think of this?’
There was a long, frigid pause in the grim room. ‘He doesn’t know about it, yet.’
‘Are you going to tell him?’
‘Aye, I will. But not yet, if he wants to come on board, we can both get the same deal.’
‘And if he doesn’t come on board?’
‘Cross that bridge when we get to it, but I’m getting out of this bloody place, Frankie or no Frankie.’
‘Davie, you could give them Lord Lucan and you’d not get out of here, you must know that. We managed to keep you and your brother out of all the murders, and your brother’s stupid obsession with Max Craigie, but you still got twelve years for serious drug offences. You won’t get parole for some time yet. The earliest I can imagine you even being considered is another four to five, and even then, it’s debatable.’
Davie looked up from the table, and a slow smile spread across his face. ‘Aye, but if I give them something big, showing cooperation like, and regretting my former life, I could get a transfer, eh?’
‘Well, possibly, but they’d need a lot of convincing. Where?’
