Blood Lines Part 34

'No hard feelings?' I asked.

He waited before replying. 'No, none maybe now I'll get the promotion you keep stopping.' I waved to him as he disappeared, but couldn't help wondering where my apology was.

'Okay, I admit I was wrong about him,' I said, whilst Joe tried not to look smug. He put his arm around me possessively as Jack Deans walked towards us.

'I'm off to do my usual hanging around police stations hoping to get a scoop; and praying the defence lawyer won't attack me,' he said. A secret smile pa.s.sed between us; we both knew the moment he was referring to. One night, outside St Leonard's police station, he had been waiting in the rain for me. I was p.i.s.sed off at having to represent Kailash and I'd clipped his dodgy knee with my briefcase. I still maintained it had been an accident, but neither of us believed it.

'Before you go, Jack how did you know to come here?'

'Joe tipped me off.'

'That was big of him.' I looked quizzically at Joe, who was pretending not to listen.

'Not really. The Big Man suggested that this was my ticket back to the big-time. I think he wants rid of me.'

'And are you going?'

My heart already knew the answer.

'I'd stay if I thought you would make it worth my while but as long as Joe's on the scene no one else has a chance, Brodie. It's time you faced up to that too. Don't throw it away. If he messes up again, call me. I'll come running. That's a promise.'

He took me in his arms and kissed me, before saying: 'She's all yours now, Joe. Mess up, and I'll be back.'

Jack Deans walked slowly down the road towards Leith Links and out of my life.

For the moment.

Chapter Forty-Seven.

Louisa had chosen the music and she was up dancing.

There was generally only a selection of pole-dancing cla.s.sics and some ancient-sounding 1970s stuff here, so I couldn't quite identify what it was but she seemed to be having a good time. The Rag Doll was heaving but the regulars had made a very small s.p.a.ce that served as a dance floor. Everyone was there: Grandad, Kailash, Joe, Lavender, Eddie and Malcolm. Even McCoy had come down for the night when he'd heard the news.

A lot of drink had been swallowed since DI Bancho had gone back to the police station. We were waiting on him and Patch to arrive so that we could complete the whole picture. In the meantime, Joe placed a laden tray on the table.

'I'm sorry, Kailash,' he said, 'the Rag Doll doesn't stretch to Hendrick's and cuc.u.mber. You'll have to put up with old lemon and tonic like everybody else.'

Kailash stared at him.

'When will you learn that I am not like everyone else and neither is my daughter. You might not like it, but she's mine. It really is a perfect case of nature over nurture and if you can't accept that, then you'd better give Jack Deans a call.'

I grabbed my whisky and pretended I hadn't heard.

'I'm proud of you, Brodie,' my grandad said. 'It was a hard one to get out of, but you're as slippery as an eel and you managed it without my help. Explain to me again about Tymar Productions?'

'It started before Tymar,' I began. 'It really began with the video. The camerawoman was Peggy Malone. I think I'd become so used to slippery genders that I didn't even believe I'd heard a woman's voice when I had. When Roddie told us that Robert Girvan had stolen my ident.i.ty for Tymar, I started to wonder if it was him behind the video too.

'Peggy knew Bridget Nicholson from way back; they'd been involved in a lesbian club for professional women in the late Nineties. Peggy always had that over Bridget. Peggy wasn't bothered about promotion, she was in dependently wealthy, so she never cared that anyone could blackmail her. Especially since she'd always had more on them. She was the one who forced Bridget to take part in the video.'

I sipped on the golden water and let it warm my throat. It had been, as Grandad had said, a close call for me. Even speaking about it made my throat constrict whisky was my answer to the globus hystericus.

'Bridget introduced Peggy to Cattanach when they started seeing each other, and Alex fell head-over-heels for the cop. Peggy was the reason that they split up. She was insatiable, which is why she was never really bothered about whether she went with a man or a woman. As long as she was in control, she was happy. Staid Alex Cattanach was never going to be enough for her. It must have seemed like a G.o.dsend when McCoy contacted her about the video; only the video was meant to be used against Bridget.'

'But Alex Cattanach had no interest in Bridget Nicholson by that time?'

I raised my gla.s.s in salute to my grandad. He caught on fast.

'Correct. Alex Cattanach wanted to settle down with Peggy Malone, and she thought the video would bind them. She hadn't even noticed that Peggy had a certain side to her, she was so blinded by l.u.s.t. Cattanach eventually worked out what was going on with Tymar and her principles would not allow me to take the blame. That's when Peggy attacked her.'

'So when we were up at the MacPherson gathering, Alex Cattanach had gone up to Ruthven barracks to be betrothed but in fact her lover almost murdered her?'

'She's a weird b.i.t.c.h, but she hides it well,' I said in my own defence.

'She couldn't hide it from me,' Louisa shouted above the din of the pub. Did her disability come with superhuman hearing?

'Alex wasn't pointing the finger at me by writing my name on the walls,' I went on. 'She was trying to exonerate me. I suppose I'll have to forgive her rubbish tactics in view of her mental state.'

The door swung open and Moses entered. Patch walked in behind him. Louisa rushed up and hugged Patch; not even I did that. It was the first time that Patch had ever been inside the Rag Doll and, in deference to Patch's strict religious views, Joe pulled the nearly naked dancer from the stage.

Moses had gone to the lab to wait on the results of the toxicology tests and he was clearly excited.

Patch waved a piece of paper. 'It's conclusive. There are traces of heroin on the notes in the hold-all and on the bag itself. Peggy and Robert had muscled in on Moses' network of dealers.'

'I only do recreational stuff, nothing hard,' interrupted Moses as Grandad raised a disapproving eyebrow. I guess it did seem a little odd that a bunch of people involved in the law were all feeling sorry for Moses because his drug ring had been taken over.

'I figure that Peggy saw that she could make money from Moses by pretending to be Duncan Bancho,' I said.

'The Angels spoke to the guy over the net how were we supposed to know it was his fancy piece?' Moses tried to defend himself for giving me plainly wrong information.

I took over again. 'The closer Peggy got, the more she saw an opportunity. She had a ready supply of dealers given all the sc.u.m she dealt with at work; all she needed was the drug, which she brought in from Pakistan. Her mistake was busting Tanya Hayder. Tanya told me that a cop was buying prost.i.tutes for drug runners. I a.s.sumed it was a man. Her client paid her in smack, but she knew he wasn't kosher because she's serviced a lot of trawler men. The hands and the smell weren't right.'

'How do you fit in?' asked Patch.

'The money needed to be laundered. Bridget introduced Robert Girvan to Peggy when she thought they were going to be partners. Peggy spotted Robert's weaknesses and exploited them both. It was Roddie's hatred of me that brought me into the equation.'

'What are you going to do about him?' Kailash asked.

'He'd get a slap on the wrist and struck off for selling my ident.i.ty; it would do the firm more harm than good,' I had to admit.

'So he walks?' Joe asked.

I nodded.

'Bridget Nicholson what's going to happen to her?'

'She'll never be a judge, but I don't see any good coming out of persecuting her further; besides, I'm not sure exactly which crime she has committed.'

'Girvan? I take it he's going away for a long time?' Eddie asked.

I nodded again.

'Good,' Eddie continued. 'You'll be needing an a.s.sistant with a view to partners.h.i.+p, mind. I need to get a bit more organised, a bit more settled.' Oddly, Eddie was the only one who hadn't touched alcohol all night. It would take more than one night to impress me, however, although he wasn't usually so a.s.sertive.

'I'd like you all to raise your gla.s.ses!' I thought it was a bit premature of him I hadn't given him a job yet. Eddie stood up, beaming. He seemed incredibly excited about the prospect of being my new a.s.sistant, even if it was only happening in his mind.

He hushed the pub.

'Ladies and gentlemen, I would like you all to drink a toast to the future.'

I smiled. He wasn't a bad guy and I did like a bit of attention.

Eddie smiled at Lavender who was nursing a drink maybe she was joining him on the wagon.

'To the future Mrs Gibb!' Eddie announced, as Lavender looked on, happy enough to burst.

The deal was sealed.

I don't think anything that had happened in the last few weeks surprised me quite as much as what was going on here. As I kissed Lavender I felt her bubbling over with joy. She pulled Eddie over beside her and whispered something to him.

'Ladies and gentlemen again!' he shouted. 'Just one more toast, then I'll leave you all to enjoy the night ...' Bless him, he hadn't forgotten me after all.

'Raise your gla.s.ses, please, not only to myself and my beautiful wife-to-be, but to the forthcoming baby Gibb. Here's hoping he or she gets their mother's looks and brains.' Lavender patted her belly proudly as Eddie put his hand over hers.

b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l.

This was turning into some night.

As Joe put his arms around me, high on it all, I answered my mobile.

'Is that Brodie McLennan? It's Desk Sergeant Munro from St Leonard's police station here.'

Sighing, I told him that I knew where he was stationed just as he knew I had picked up my own phone. Some things never change, and this man was one of them.

'I'm calling to advise you, Miss McLennan, that we are about to arrest Marjorie Diamond for the murder of her husband, Donna Diamond.' He broke off for a second to curse with his fellow reception officers about the intricacy of it all.

'Anyway,' he went on, 'whoever she is was the wife woman has asked for you. And DI Bancho has said that you should be kept informed of everything anyway. Get here as soon as possible because we want to process her quickly.'

'Of course you do. You always do. There's probably some game on telly tonight. Haven't you heard? I've had quite a busy day myself, Sergeant Munro.'

'No rest for the wicked, miss, as my old mother used to say. Best get on your bike and get up here p.r.o.nto. She's a screamer ...'

The party was in full swing as I got on Awesome.

I looked back at Joe standing in the light of the pub and knew that all the people who mattered to me were behind him.

It felt odd.

It felt nice.

I hoped it would last.

THE END.

Exclusive author interview.

Q. How did you get the idea for Blood Lines? Did it come to you as a complete story, a character, a theme?

MT: I was jogging past Ruthven Barracks, a fabulous Jacobite ruin when the inspiration for Blood Lines came to me. A top level legal official had been a.s.saulted and the writer's act came into play. I asked myself what if ... The result was Blood Lines; it is so far removed from reality that no-one but me can ever see where the idea came from. The plot lines for the books are inspired by actual legal cases; a group of foreign policemen did take over the drug supply chain in their neighbourhood to supplement their pension they were apprehended.

LW-B: Much of the story came as a direct response to what had happened in Dark Angels the last few lines of that book really paved the way for this one, as they're all about Brodie really, everyone else is just unlucky to be involved.

Q. Do you draw upon your own experiences with family and friends as you create characters and plots?

MT: A writer is the sum total of their experiences so to that extent my family and friends appear in the books. When I was an aspiring writer, I heard an author speaking and she said you cannot write unless you have had an interesting life my life has been filled with events and memorable characters.

LW-B: No, not at all my family and real friends are all very lovely and very normal!

Q. Which character do you feel most connected to and why?

LW-B: Lizzie is my favourite. Her back story and her ability to recreate herself in any situation (and with any man!), is one that I would like to explore. She's a great counter-balance to Brodie.

Q. Who are your literary influences?

LW-B: I'm not sure that I have influences, but I do have preferences. In crime, Cain and Nasaw are constant favourites, but I could read any d.i.c.kens or Zola any time of any day. I am hugely impressed by what Jodi Picoult has done, and, in the last few years, have been blown away by Susanna Clarke, Michel Faber, and Louise Welsh.

Acknowledgements.

From Maria:.

Lots of love to Jenny Brown at Jenny Brown a.s.sociates who is the most amazing agent; your kindness and support has been invaluable.

To the girls at Avon, you are the best team. Special thanks to Maxine Hitchc.o.c.k and Kes.h.i.+ni Naidoo, whose insight into the ma.n.u.script was awe-inspiring. It has been many years since I have been a lawyer and I am grateful for the support given to me by my friends in the legal profession, especially John Mayer, who keeps me on track.

From Linda:.