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‘I do. There were three people who were there when the lassie was killed, and I know who they all are. The mannie who drove the van is called Mitch, but he’s gone straight, and is a builder in Newcastle. Billy Watson was the one who put the plastic bag over her head, but he got on the skag and died of an overdose a few years ago. Droopy is on the out, still in the same line of work.’
‘Droopy?’
‘Aye, Droopy, because he looks like that cartoon dog with a sad face. Once I’m out of here, and my parole date is sorted I’ll give them the lot. My pa always kept proof when he did favours for his acorns, and I know exactly where it is.’
‘What type of proof?’
Leo scratched at his forearm, before continuing. ‘The best kind. It’s on film. Pa always wanted proof when he subbed a job out, so it was filmed by Droopy and sent to Jack. Jack then gave it to Pa, who downloaded it onto an SD card.’
‘How’s that tie it to the main man?’
A long, slow smile stretched across Davie’s face. ‘Pa was a careful man, and he knew everyone in Glasgow who mattered. He knew exactly which hotel, and even which bloody room that the man took Beata to for their “liaisons”.’ Davie mimed quotation marks with his fingers, and took a sip of water from the plastic cup on the table.
‘Tam Hardie was a smart man, Davie.’ Leo nodded approvingly, but a huge part of him wasn’t sorry that Tam Hardie Senior was no longer with them. Leo had his own skeletons, and it was likely that Tam knew all about them.
‘Aye, Pa loved having leverage over people, whether they were with him or against him. He was very careful, and very organised, and always thought long term.’
Leo shook his head in grim admiration. They didn’t make them like Tam Hardie any more. ‘Aye, he was a canny bugger, your dad. So, who’s the main man?’
‘Not yet, Leo. Not even for you, it’s too big. This man will paymassive money to make this go away, and I’m keeping my powder dry, as Pa used to say.’
‘Okay, but I need to give the cops enough to motivate them.’
‘Give them the bare minimum for now, no names apart from the dead girl. That’ll be enough to whet appetites and to get things moving.’
‘Okay, I’ll make a call, but it’ll need to be of the highest public interest for the cops to bite.’
‘They’ll bite. Put it this way, Leo, when word gets out who it was, it’ll be on the front page of every newspaper in the fucking country.’
2
LEO HAMILTON WASstill feeling uneasy as he left Shotts prison and walked to his waiting BMW in the car park. The sky was as dark as flint, and it looked like snow could be coming. He shivered as he removed his heavy wool coat, threw it onto the back seat of the car and eased his considerable bulk behind the wheel, settling into the plush leather.
Davie Hardie’s dealing with cops was an anathema, even when in jail with years left to serve. He wondered for just a moment what Tam Senior, God rest his wicked soul, would think of it. He also couldn’t help but wonder what Frankie would think. Should he tell him? He clicked his tongue as he considered the ramifications. On the one hand, there was the Hardie family honour that had been so important over the many years he had worked for them, but then there was the two hundred grand stuck in his client account, placed there a few years ago by Tam Senior. It had crossed his mind to do something with it a few times, but as Tam Junior was still missing, the prospect of incurring his wrath by stealing from him made Leo shudder. The description of what he’d done to Turkish Joe had removed any doubts as to whether he was a chip off the old block. A smile stretched across his face. That was two hundred thousand that could easily be burnt through with complex immunity negotiations, briefing counsel, maybe some private investigator fees. It was an easy choice. He’d let Davie tell his brother and deal with the consequences. Business had slowed down since his bestclient had died, and then his heir had disappeared in very strange circumstances.
He scrolled through his phone, looking for a name from the past, his thoughts racing. The meeting with Davie had been unexpected and frankly quite odd. He wasn’t the hard-faced enforcer that he’d been when Tam Senior was running the show. The rumours of what Davie Hardie was capable of had been frankly terrifying, but he looked like a spent force now. He was different. His eyes had none of the old fire in them, and he was half the man he’d been before DS Max Craigie had brought the whole house of cards crashing down.
Leo looked at his phone and opened an internet search engine. He typed in ‘Beata Dabrowski’ and took in the six-year-old news reports detailing her disappearance. ‘Sex worker goes missing in Glasgow. Friends worried for thirty-year-old Polish woman not seen for a week’, read the BBC News headline, which was accompanied by a professional photograph of a strikingly attractive dark-haired woman, with a beaming smile. What was notable was the absence of coverage beyond the initial reports. A young woman goes missing in the centre of Glasgow and it caused barely a ripple.
Leo sighed as he found the contact he was looking for. He’d dealt with him on a few occasions, and he’d been useful in making one or two situations with the Hardies become a little more manageable. He wasn’t corrupt, but he was ‘approachable’, if he felt that it would advance his cause. He pressed the dial button on his phone and listened to the ring tone in his ear.
‘DCS Wakefield speaking,’ came the resonant voice.
‘Miles, it’s Leo Hamilton.’
‘Leo? Why are you calling?’ The voice tightened.
‘Davie Hardie, he wants to do a deal, and it’s a big one.’
‘A Hardie wants to do a deal?’ Wakefield sounded shocked. ‘I’m not sure that there’s much we can do for Hardie. Let’s not forget, they were convicted of conspiracy to import huge quantities of drugs. They did well not to get twenty years.’
‘I know. Unexpected, but he’s ready to name names. A missing person from six years ago isn’t missing, she’s very dead. Mr Hardie knows where she is, and who put her in the ground, and he wants to do a deal. He wants immunity for any part he may have played, which I understand is that he knows it happened and hasn’t grassed. He wants a guarantee on his parole date, and he also wants to move to Castle Huntly for the rest of his sentence.’
‘You know I can’t make these deals, right?’
‘I know. Make some calls, okay.’
‘I’ll need to know more.’
