It had been a shitty day, and DS Brian Stewart would be glad when he was at home with the first of many beers. He was sick of the job. In truth, he’d never enjoyed it. The only good thing to ever have come from it was the extra cash that lined his pockets whenever he was told to do something that wasn’t in his job description, and even then he hated it. The stress was becoming too much to bear, and after all the shit with Black and that young lassie going missing from the station a few weeks back, Brian was beginning to wonder if it wouldn’t be best to step back from the job altogether.
‘Have a good couple of days off, Brian,’ his partner, DS Sarah Carntyne, called from across the car park.
He plastered a smile across his face and nodded in her direction. ‘Aye, you too, Sarah.’ He didn’t mean a single word. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Sarah. He didn’t particularly like anyone.
Brian climbed into his car and pulled out of the space before heading home to Helensburgh. The journey took just under an hour, giving him time to think about the reasons he hadn’t heard from Donnie since that girl had run away from the station. All sorts of things had gone through his head, some worse than others. Maybe the bigwigs from Europe had got a hold of him due to his fuck-up. If that was the case, then surely Brian would be next. And surely he’d have been contacted by now. Maybe Donnie had been arrested. Again, Brian would know about that; he’d have heard about it.
He turned the radio up to drown out his thoughts. He didn’t want to think about what would happen to him if Donnie decided that he needed to be dealt with for losing Louise. There were so many ways Donnie could punish him. At the same time, Donnie would be in trouble with his own bosses for losing potential profit.
Pulling up to his house, he sighed as he looked up at the darkened windows. Home alone, again. It had been months since his wife had left him with the kids. She blamed his job, and deep down he knew that was the reason she left; however he wasn’t stupid. She was able to use that as a way of masking the fact that she’d been having an affair. The guy was welcome to her, the bitch that she was.
Stepping out of the car, Brian walked up to his door and, just as he put his key in the lock and pushed it open, a hard blow caught him on the side of the head and he was sent crashing to the floor in the hallway.
The pain in his head exploded like a bomb, and as he tried to get to his feet, another blow came, this time across the back between his shoulder blades.
‘What the fuck?’ Brian called out as he crawled away from his attacker. Spinning his body around so he could look up, perhaps catch a glimpse of their face, he froze when he saw his attackers. Six men, balaclavas over their heads stood above him.
‘Take whatever you want,’ Brian said, his head throbbing and his heart thumping. He didn’t want to appear pathetic, but also, he didn’t want to die.
‘Like you and Donnie Black did, you mean? And the rest of the bent polis he was paying?’ one of them said. Brian couldn’t make out which of the men spoke.
‘What are you talking about? Please, just…’ but he trailed off. What could he say? It was obvious they knew everything, whoever they were.
‘You know exactly what we’re talking about, DS Stewart. You helped Donnie Black plan out the kidnaps. Made sure that there would be no police around in the places he needed to be cleared. You went to the ports and paid off the staff to turn a blind eye.’
The words were delivered on the end of a steel toecap boot to the ribs, while the rest of his masked attackers ransacked his home. Thank fuck Elaine and the kids weren’t there.
Brian was unable to call out for mercy as he took his beating. He wondered what would happen to Donnie, unless they’d got to him first. He knew he should have got out sooner, but Donnie had him over a barrel. That one night he bought drugs from Donnie and then paid for sex from one of Donnie’s prostitutes had sent his life spiralling. He’d threatened to expose him to his wife and his bosses if he didn’t do what Donnie said.
‘You’re going to wish you were dead by the time all this comes out, Brian,’ his attacker said as he delivered the last blow – a boot connecting with his jaw, and his face felt like it had exploded.
‘We have Donnie’s phone. It’s got very interesting reading material on it. Texts between you both, as well as other officers. Arrangements for trading girls from Scotland to Amsterdam. It’s fucking disgusting. Well, just so you know, Donnie Black is no longer trading with the scum from Amsterdam. Your dirty money will stop and you’re going to have to get used to the fact that your mates from the station might well be slapping the cuffs on you very soon. An old detective in the jail, ha, the inmates are going to fucking love that.’
A shower of saliva rained down over him, before one of the other men laughed loudly and said, ‘Have fun reading the breaking news articles. We’re going to have fun exposing you lot. Nonce fuckers, the lot of you.’
Brian lay on the floor as the group of men left, their parting words echoing in his head. Donnie was no longer trading; he knew what that meant. Donnie was dead. He was very surprised they hadn’t done him in while they had the chance.
They were right. Brian was already wishing for death.