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Hardie leant forward, head in hands. ‘No, no, no, no,’ he said over and over again, his voice tight and harsh. ‘This won’t stop, Max. It won’t stop until everyone who knew about the murder of that girl is dead. This is housekeeping. I’ll never be safe, and I had fuck all to do with this, you get me?’ He suddenly looked up, his cheeks stained with wet tears, and his pale face full of fear. The once fearsome Hardie, now reduced to this. A terrified surviving member of a once powerful criminal family.
‘You need to go on record with all of this,’ said Max.
‘Aye, I know, but I need some bloody assurances.’ Hardie’s voice was suddenly firmer and more assertive, his face harder and resolute.
‘Like what?’
‘I need out of this shite-hole now. Like today, okay? Then I’ll want my parole brought forward with no more time in a normal jail. I need out of gen pop for the rest of my bird, then once I’m out, full witness protection, forever. If I get that I’ll come on board fully. I’ll need a decent lawyer, one who won’t grass me up and one who’ll make sure I don’t get screwed by youse lot.’
‘We can arrange that. There’s a list of vetted solicitors who do terrorism cases, I don’t know who they are, but they’re dead straight.’
‘Aye, that’s fine. The other thing is, you and your pal here can do the interviews. I don’t trust any bastard. I don’t like you much,Max. You ruined everything for me and my family, but when all’s said and done, I get it was just your job, and I know for a fact that you’re straight, unlike half of your colleagues.’
Max smirked. ‘I’m flattered.’
‘Fucking don’t be. You’re still the polis, we’re no’ pals,’ Frankie said, scowling.
‘But you still haven’t given us the man at the top. If I’m to get the Crown Office to sign off on deals like that you’ll need to give us chapter and verse.’
‘I don’t know who, but Davie will have known. Pa would have handed over dynamite like that before he died, either to Tam or Davie, so it’ll be somewhere. Also, if you find Droopy, you’ll find this dirty bastard who ordered that poor wee girl killed.’
‘What makes you think Davie would have known, Frankie? You only know all this second hand, so why do you think Davie was more closely involved than he said he was? He claims he had an alibi.’ Max sat back in his chair.
Frankie guffawed harshly. ‘Aye, he would say that, wouldn’t he?’
‘Well, I never spoke to him, but that’s the report I had from those that did.’
‘Aye right. How do you think Davie could point the cops to the exact point on the loch where that lassie was put?’
‘He said he saw film,’ said Janie, looking sideways at Max.
‘Aye, did you know what Davie’s hobby was?’
‘Can’t say I do.’
‘He loved boats, jet skis and RIBs. He knew where that wee lass was put because he was there when she was dropped in the loch from his RIB. Pa farmed out the hit, but Davie was in charge of losing the body. I knew it was happening, but Tam Junior told me to keep out of it and leave it to Davie. It was him, Droopy and Billy who threw her in there.’
There was a long pause in the room, as all three looked at the others in turn. Eventually Max broke the silence. ‘Do you knowanything about the big man at all? Even the smallest detail would be helpful.’
Hardie’s eyes turned to Max, and they were open wide, and displaying no trace of duplicity, no tics, nothing. ‘Not a thing. I may have been the best fighter in the family, but my brothers always excluded me from the business side of it. The only thing I know for sure was that they referred to him as The Ace.’
‘The Ace? What, because he was amazing, or something?’
‘Nah, my pa was a gambler. Loved poker, and was really good at it. He meant Ace, as in “ace in the hole”. A card in his back pocket that could get him out of any trouble, no matter how serious.’
39
‘SO, WHAT DIDyou think of Frankie’s performance?’ said Janie as they approached their Volvo in the car park at Shotts.
‘He’s scared, that’s for sure. The difference in him now and when we last encountered him is stark. I’m minded to believe him. Want me to drive?’ Max nodded at the car.
‘Is the Pope a Scientologist?’ said Janie, blipping at the big car with the key in her hand.
‘I can’t imagine he is.’
‘Then you have your answer. You’re a shite driver,’ said Janie, opening the driver’s door and sliding in behind the wheel of the immaculately clean car.
‘You’re a shite driver,sergeant,’ corrected Max as he climbed into the passenger seat.
