BEING IN the office when you wanted to be out in Challaid getting things done felt grim, but if there was nothing left to do then there was nowhere left to go. It seemed no progress could be made until the police came up with more information regarding Will Dent. If they could prove that he and he alone was guilty of killing Ruby-Mae Short and that he alone was behind Freya’s disappearance then it was over. If they found evidence of others being involved then there might still be work to do. For now all Darian and Sholto could do was sit around and wait, maybe make a couple of phone calls along the way to pass some time.
Darian messaged Vinny to ask if he had heard anything just as Vinny was messaging him with the same question. Having six different police districts in the city with more history of competing with each other than working together meant information tended to flow more slowly between them than impatient people could stand, and those caught in the vice of a criminal investigation tended to be reasonably impatient. Sholto, having lived inside the machine, was used to the drag of waiting for another station to remember the existence of the telephone.
There used to be a lot more police stations in the city, local knowledge covering smaller patches. About fifteen years ago they reduced it to six, one in each major district, but that’s misleading. Dockside in Whisper Hill and Second Station in Earmam just deal with local policing because there’s plenty hot stuff there to handle. Bakers Moor station handles its local patch plus the anti-organized crime unit, which operates city-wide. The other three stations, Bank, Cnocaid and Piper Station up in Barton, all have multiple city-wide units working out of them, there being fewer local issues to occupy their time.
Sholto said, “There are four stations involved in this, so that’s going to turn it into a crawl. Bank where Dent died, Bakers Moor because Dent’s flat is there, Dockside leading the Short investigation, Cnocaid hunting Freya. If they start sniffing at Simon Sutherland again that’ll bring Piper Station into it. We have to wait for them all to talk to each other before they talk to us and half the occupants of those places operate with their mouths sewn shut. The fact it concerns Vinny, one of their own, that might speed it up.”
Darian nodded noncommittally, both because he couldn’t believe any force could be so slow in this day and age and because he wasn’t convinced even Vinny’s involvement would quicken the pace. That was Sholto trying to throw the hangdog a bone.
The knock on the door caught them both by surprise. The one good thing about the heavy wooden stairs was that no one, or almost no one, could sneak up on them because the office door was right at the top and every step echoed off the bare walls. They both jumped in their chairs and Sholto got out of his and opened it, hoping to find someone as likable and helpful as DC Vicario and instead being confronted by the sight of Bran Kennedy. The chief officer of Raven Investigators had not come alone, because Daniel doesn’t wander into the lions’ den by himself if there are others he can force to go with him. There were two young men tucked in behind him, ready to throw their bulked-up muscle around should tempers be roused. He had taken two with him because he knew Sholto would only have Darian by his side and Kennedy liked the comfort that superior numbers brought.
Sholto said, “What do you want? Here to try and bully us or buy our silence? I’d be more receptive to buying than bullying but you can stick your money up your fat nose as well.”
Kennedy smiled and said, “Oh, Sholto, don’t leave someone who brings good news standing out on the doorstep. Invite me in.”
“You a vampire that needs an invite to cross the threshold? All the stories of ghouls at the standing stones and a monster at the mouth of the loch but you’re one I would believe in.”
Kennedy chuckled as Sholto stepped aside to let him in but Darian could see and hear the stiff acting behind the mirth. “I’ve come to share some news with you. I do this as an investigator, because I believe in doing what needs to be done to get to the truth of the matter.”
Darian was on high alert for a lie to follow as Sholto said, “What the hell yarn are you spinning now?”
“The Sutherland case. It’s not our case anymore. I’ve stopped working for Harold Sutherland, stopped reporting to him, stopped gathering information on his behalf. The bank still has its own security department but they’re far more concerned about financial goings-on than life or death. That whole place isn’t concerned about personal or personnel issues, just political and financial stuff. When Britain voted out of the EU they were having kittens because their value took a big dip being right next door, but some little dead girl doesn’t rock them one way or the other. I don’t like that. We were the ones Sutherland had poking around in all this and we’re done with it.”
Sholto looked at Darian and the frown they shared showed neither was willing to believe in this sudden outburst of moral standards. Sholto said, “Raven Investigators ended their relationship with the Sutherland Bank.”
Kennedy smiled and said, “It’s more complicated than that, Sholto my boy, you know it always is. I’m sure the big chief on his throne down at Edinburgh HQ has already been on the blower to some chinless wonder on East Sutherland Square making sure the bank knows there’s still a lot we can do for them. Just won’t be working with Harold Sutherland anymore, that’s all.”
Sholto said, “Don’t bring me a red rose and not kiss me at the end of the night. Tell me why you walked out on Harold Sutherland. It must be significant.”
“I already told you, Sholto, I’m an investigator. Just because you’re a tin-pot operation in this little hovel with one childlike acolyte and we’re a professional outfit with a real office and staff doesn’t mean you have some sort of moral high ground. Honesty matters to the successful as much as it does to you. If we’re working with someone who would rather protect family interests than do what’s right then I’m not willing to work for them, and the bosses down south, who have an even nicer office than I do so you’ll hate them even more, agree. Now, that’s all I’m going to say because I have no more words that would stand up in front of any of our city’s talented and logical judges. I’ve already said more than I should and I’m leaving now. Good luck, Sholto, and believe it or not I really do mean that. What happened to the Short girl, and maybe the other one, no one at Raven takes that lightly.”
Kennedy turned and left, and his silent companions, looking disappointed at the lack of violence that had been waiting for them on Cage Street, followed. The door closed and the men who had ghosted up the stairs clattered their way back down, the game over. Sholto looked at Darian with neither sure how to react.
Sholto went first, saying, “He walked out on Harold Sutherland. Bloody hell, what reason could he have for shooting himself in the wallet like that?”
“He said Sutherland was protecting family interests rather than doing the right thing.”
“He did, aye. Family interests.”