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‘No, should I?’
‘Maybe not. Prison liaison officer for Saughton?’
‘Of course. Grey-haired old fella.’
‘I think he’s a similar age to you.’
‘Shite, hard paper-round?’
‘Whatever. He called not long ago with some disturbing news.’
‘What?’
‘Ex–Detective Sergeant Jack Slattery was murdered in his cell just a few hours ago.’
‘What?’ Max’s gut lurched.
‘That was my reaction.’
‘Shit.’
‘Shit, indeed. Apparently, he was found in his cell during lockdown with blunt force trauma to the nappa and someone had cut his throat with a tuna can lid. He was barely alive, so they did the whole first-aid thing, and rushed him off to healthcare, got an IV into him, but he died in the ambulance on his way to hospital.’
‘Any suspects?’
‘Aye. Clear as day. Looks like a big nasty lifer called Galbraith did it. No attempts to be sneaky for CCTV on the landing, and hewas found a few minutes after covered in blood. Turbo team took him out, but he didn’t resist. He just smiled his way through it all and has just said that he killed him because he was a pig.’
Max sat there on the bed, his heart pounding like a drum. This had to be connected to Hardie. It just had to. ‘Any links to what we’ve been conveniently sidelined from by the powers that be?’
‘If you mean Hardie, then no. Well, they know basically bugger all at the moment. It’s only that Pete is a mate that we’ve heard about it at all.’
‘Does Ross know?’
‘I bet he doesn’t. He was off intending to keep Mrs F happy for the rest of the week.’
Max began to scratch at his scalp, which was still sticky and damp as he attempted to get his brain to operate. Jack Slattery, ex-cop and fixer for both Tam Hardies. A man with fingers in every pie possible before his incarceration, and a man with a major grudge against Max, in the same way that the Hardie family did. The memory of the confrontation with Slattery behind his house, the revolver pushed into his face, swam into Max’s mind. Could there be a link?
‘Max?’ said Janie.
‘Yeah, still here, just trying to organise my thoughts. It has to be connected, don’t you think?’
‘Well, as an ex-cop, Slattery would have always been something of a target. You could make the observation that this was almost inevitable, right?’
‘Yeah, but he was Hardie’s man. He was Hardie’s tame ex-cop, so I can’t see that. It just seems far too convenient, timing-wise.’
‘But why, Max? Let’s say that Hardie is planning to bust out of jail, why would he want Slattery dead?’ said Janie, her voice hesitant, and Max could almost hear the cogs turning.
‘I don’t know, but maybe there’s something else at work here.Maybe someone wanted Slattery dead because of what he knows, not because of who he was, and maybe it isn’t Hardie.’
‘Then who?’
‘Janie, I have no bloody idea. I’m gonna call Ross.’
‘Is that wise?’
‘Well, if it’s connected, he needs to know. At the very least it should be flagged to the team who are taking Hardie out tomorrow.’
‘Okay, I’ve asked Pete to keep me in the loop.’
