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‘Like a coiled spring, Sarge,’ said Davie with a broad smile.
DC Laithwaite got out of the car, unhooked the twine from the gate and swung it open. PC Clegg eased the van through the gate and brought the vehicle to a stop on a patch of compacted earth. ‘I don’t really want to take the van much further; we’ll get bogged down. Marine guys have a four-by-four, so they’ll be grand,’ said Clegg.
‘We’re fine, we’ll walk from here,’ said Maxwell.
They all got out of the van and began to walk along the edge of a fence that ran alongside the shoreline. After about a hundred metres trudging in the heavy tussock grass, Davie stopped by two small conifer trees right by the water’s edge and looked across the glittering surface. He wiped his face with his free hand and looked out towards the centre of the loch. It was a peaceful scene, almost totally silent other than the whisper of a gentle breeze and the slow, rhythmic whooshing of the nearby wind turbine that spun slowly in the sun.
‘About a hundred yards out. In a direct line with where we are now and she’s weighted down with a big chain, so she’ll be near the bottom. That’s where Beata Dabrowski is.’
20
MAX WAS INthe garden dressed in a thick hoodie and wielding a large wooden-handled axe against a beech log, which he was splitting into sticks for his wood burner that he was going to light as soon as Katie got home. The pile of cut logs was soon reduced to decent-sized burners, ready to keep the kitchen and sitting room warm during the long winter evenings. He was humming along to Radiohead’s ‘Paranoid Android’ as he swung the axe, and the large log split in two. When his phone began to ring, connected to his earphones by Bluetooth, he set down the axe and looked at the screen. Nutmeg sat on the grass, watching him with apparent interest.
‘Barney, what’s up?’ he answered.
‘Ayup, do you want a bit of inside info, on the QT?’ said Barney.
‘Are you working?’
‘Nay, lad. Just a bit bored, in me van parked up at a nice little spot just outside Glasgow, but I thought I’d keep me ear to the ground, if you get me.’
‘Not really.’
‘Well, I know we got warned off the Hardie job, but I thought I’d have a poke about.’
‘Barney, was that wise? Our name is mud right now, and in particular, your name is mud right now with the electricity stealing in front of the DCC.’
‘Well never mind. Hardie is out and about right now, did you know that?’
‘I may have heard a whisper from a mate.’
‘Would that be the same mate who managed to obtain backdoor access to a locked phone a while back?’ said Barney, and Max could hear the smile in his voice. On a previous investigation, Bruce had managed to get a covert access route into a phone that Barney had failed to access. He had been full of curiosity as to how Max had managed it, and had always been frustrated by Max’s reluctance to share.
‘No idea what you mean, Barn. Now what do you know?’
‘They’re at the White Loch by Newton Mearns, leastways DS Maxwell is there, so I reckon that’s where the missing lass is.’
‘Barney, how do you know this?’
‘Monitoring the channel they’re using. Also, marine support are on the way, so it looks like they’re diving for the body.’
‘How have you bypassed the encryption on the Airwave?’
‘The handset I managed to liberate from my former employers can access all channels.’
‘Jesus, Barney.’
‘Ah, don’t fret, man. Just keeping an ear out. They sound pretty excited, like they expect to find something.’
‘How close by are you, Barney?’ said Max, suspicion rising in his chest.
‘I’m parked by a right bonny place by Harelaw Dam.’
‘Barney, that’s right by the White Loch, isn’t it?’
‘Well, not right by it.’
‘How close, then?’
