Authors: George McCartney
The heavens opened as Guy and Jack pulled into the car park at Mortonhall Crematorium in Edinburgh, for Henry Dunn's funeral service. Guy quickly retrieved a golf umbrella from the boot of the Lexus, along with a small tasteful
lily
wreath, and the pair then hurried towards the main building.
Guy left his wreath in the chapel vestibule, beside two others which had been deposited earlier. Jack smiled to himself when he saw a card pinned to the wreath, clearly written by Henry's ex-wife, which was splendidly curt and to the point, proclaiming
Sorry I can't make it, Henry. You were definitely one of a kind.
‘Thank God for that,' muttered Jack to himself as they went inside.
The funeral chapel was almost deserted, apart from three middle-aged women and one older scruffily dressed man, who may or may not have been sitting inside simply to shelter from the rain. After a brief anonymous service which, wisely, did not dwell on the years immediately preceding Henry Dunn's demise, his coffin disappeared behind the curtain, as Freddie Mercury and Queen began blasting out
"Another One Bites the Dust."
Pure class right till the end, Henry, thought Jack.
As they stood outside the chapel, Jack and Guy shuffled awkwardly, in the manner of all mourners, whilst wondering if it was possible to decently slip away before being compelled to embrace tearful female relatives or, even worse, having to speak to the minister.
One of the three women who had attended the funeral service then approached and said, 'I'm hoping one of you gentlemen is Jack Davidson.'
Offering his hand Jack said, 'yes, I'm Jack Davidson and this is Guy Brodie.'
'My name’s Helen Jamieson. I'm Henry's older sister and his only living relative, apart from his ex-wife. He spoke quite a lot about both of you the last time I saw him.'
Guy was the first to offer his condolences. 'I'm so sorry about what happened, Mrs Jamieson. None of us saw it coming, did we Jack?'
'No it was a complete shock.'
Guy’s eyes began to tear up as he continued, 'we were close friends for over thirty years, ever since we met at school, and I just can't get my head round the fact that he won't be coming into the office tomorrow morning as usual, to tell me another one of his awful jokes.'
The trio smiled wanly and nodded, each with their own memories of Henry. When the polite conversation dried up and it became obvious that Helen Jamieson wanted to speak privately to Jack, Guy awkwardly embraced Henry's sister, said goodbye and headed off towards the car park.
'I'm really sorry we have to meet under these circumstances,' said Jack. 'But I honestly don't remember Henry ever mentioning that he had a sister.'
'Well that was Henry. He was my only brother and I loved him dearly, but the phrase
it's all about me
could quite easily have been created just for him.'
To fill the awkward silence Jack said, 'but it was terrible, you know, for a life to end that way.'
'Henry wouldn't have killed himself, Mr Davidson,' said Helen Jamieson with absolute certainty. 'I know him better than anyone else and he was far too much of a coward to do that, no matter how desperate he was. He always thought he could talk himself out of any jam he landed in and, believe me, there were plenty of them over the years. He could be a complete idiot at times, especially where gambling was concerned.'
'I know he enjoyed an occasional bet,' said Jack, breaking some kind of world record for understatement.
'He lost his wife and then his flat and car because of the constant gambling. It's a terrible addiction, Mr Davidson, when it takes hold of somebody like that. I was always nagging him about it and we had fallen out as a result. I hadn't spoken to him for a year or more and then a week ago he phoned up out of the blue. He said things were starting to look up and that all of his problems would soon be over. Henry was always a terrible liar and would say anything to get what he wanted. But I suppose for once he wasn't lying when he said
that
.'
Henry's sister wiped a tear from the corner of her eyes before continuing, 'I suggested we get together for a coffee. So I met him at a café in the centre of town last Thursday and we had a nice chat, just catching up on our news. I'm so glad that I got to see him one last time before … you know.' More tears.
'How did he seem to you that day?' said Jack.
'Well I really didn't want to fall out with him again, so I didn't start quizzing him about his gambling. But he seemed quite cheerful and he told me he was staying at Guy Brodie's fancy house in the New Town and was hoping to wipe the slate clean and make a fresh start. I didn't dare to ask what was written on his slate, but I have a pretty good idea. Then, just as he was getting up to leave, he did something really strange. He took an envelope out of his jacket pocket and said that if anything was to happen to him, I should give it to you at his funeral. How weird is that?'
Helen Jamieson then reached into her handbag and handed over a sealed envelope, with
FAO Jack Davidson
written on the front.
'At the time I thought it was just typical of Henry. You know, making a big melodrama out of some kind of minor problem in his life. But obviously, looking back on it, he must have suspected that his life was in real danger.'
'Look I've no idea what's in this letter, but it's probably the very last thing Henry wrote. So we could read it together, if you would like to do that,' said Jack.
Helen Jamieson paused before replying. 'No, I don't think so. This letter is obviously meant for you and whatever he's written won't make any difference to anything now. My wee brother's dead and all I have left of him now are memories. I think I'll just try and concentrate on remembering the good times, when we were kids growing up together, and let go of all the other stuff that happened later.'
'I understand,' said Jack. 'And if there's anything in the letter that I think should be passed on to the police, I'll take care of it. I was a cop myself a long time ago.'
'Yes, I'm sure Henry must have mentioned that to me. He said the two of you had worked on several jobs together and you were one of the few people he still trusted.'
'I wasn't really a close friend of Henry,' said Jack, once again choosing his words carefully. 'But I had got to know him a lot better over the last couple of weeks, and what happened came as a tremendous shock to everyone.'
Helen Jamieson looked around and realised they were the only two people left standing outside the chapel. 'Anyway thanks for coming along to the service, Mr Davidson. As you can see there wasn't much of a turnout for Henry. But they say that's what always happens with gamblers, isn't it? They alienate all of their friends and family and usually end up dying alone and broke, with somebody else paying for their funeral.'
Jack said goodbye to Henry’s sister, before walking back to the car park and climbing into the passenger seat of the Lexus. He told Guy about the background to the letter and then opened it.
Jack
If you're reading this, I guess that means I'm dead. But to be honest, I'm surprised that I lived this long with some of the crazy stuff I've done. I do know one thing though, there will be a few tears shed by the bookies in Edinburgh when word gets around that I've popped my clogs.
You probably know by now that I've been a complete fool and, because of my obsession with gambling, I've managed to fuck up every decent relationship I've ever had in my life. I lost my wife first of all and then my best friend. And now the joke's really on me, because I've lost my life as well. That's quite a losing treble, I think you'll agree, Jack.
On top of that, you and Annie were both nearly killed because of this stupid mess that I've been caught up in. I didn't know anything about the ambush down Easter Road. As far as I know, it wasn't pre-planned and, if I'd known things were going to get that heavy, I swear I would have warned you. It's important to me that you believe that.
I don't suppose anyone cares but, for the record, Maxie Glenn had me killed. He's a nasty evil bastard and he's had me by the balls for almost three months. The word is that Maxie controls most of the coke and Ecstasy coming into Edinburgh and the east of Scotland.
Anyway, I don't know how the bastard did it, but somehow Maxie managed to pay off all of my gambling debts and then he had me dragged out of a betting shop by three of his goons and brought blindfolded to some place that he owns. It was terrifying and I couldn't see a thing, but I remember there was a bare concrete floor and a kind of echoing sound when anyone spoke. I'm pretty sure that it was a garage, because it had that distinctive smell. You know, a mixture of paint, grease, oily rags, lingering farts and sweaty boiler suits.
They sat me down in a chair and duct taped my arms and legs so I couldn't move. Maxie had just started talking to me, when another one of his crew turned up. He had kept Maxie waiting for over an hour, apparently, and then tried to make some excuse why the week's takings for drug sales on the north side of the city had come up short. Big mistake, twice over. Maxie exploded and began beating the shit out of the poor guy and had to be hauled off before he killed him. I could only hear the thuds and screams and I was bloody terrified I was going to be next.
So, he's definitely not a man to be crossed, Jack. His younger smarter brother, Raymond, is the lawyer who is supposed to be part of the consortium backing Guy. I'm pretty sure he's the one who launders the dirty money from the family drug business into legit investments and that's the reason they wanted to muscle in and take over a big property deal like
Westlink
.
When Maxie finished his workout, he came and sat down opposite me and made me an offer I couldn't refuse. I had pissed my pants by this time and was shaking like a leaf, so I would have agreed to absolutely anything.
The deal was, if I passed him inside information on the
Westlink
development and helped to sabotage Guy's plans, then my slate would be wiped clean. It probably wouldn't have happened but, you know me Jack, always the sucker for a long shot. Anyway, I was backed into a corner and stupidly agreed to a deal with the devil. So from then on anytime I got a text or email from Maxie, asking for the latest info on
Westlink
, he would send the heavies round to pick me up and bring me back to the garage, always blindfolded.
I stupidly thought that you and Annie would just sit around, take the wages from Guy and have a nice holiday here in Edinburgh, without getting involved. I should have known better, shouldn't I? But hey, that's the story of my life.
Okay, I’ve got to go now Jack. So remember, don’t shed any tears for me, because I don’t deserve them. But I reckon it’s better to have lived fast and died young, than never to have lived at all, right?
Oh, I nearly forgot. Give all my love to Annie (I wish)
Your pal Henry
Guy Brodie read the letter for himself, then sighed and handed it back to Jack. 'Well that certainly explains a lot. We should pass this onto the police, as evidence of the Glenn brothers direct involvement in Henry’s death.'
'Yes, but not just yet. I'm sure what Henry's written is one hundred per cent true. But looking at it from the police perspective, it's just a series of wild claims and allegations made by a desperate, possibly suicidal, man. And I would be astonished if the cops didn't already know about the Glenn brothers’ drug operation. They'll be biding their time, gathering intelligence and trying to find some really solid evidence before making a decisive move against them.'
They drove in silence for several more minutes before Jack said, 'I know that our deal with you is almost finished, Guy, and we're getting ready to pack up and head back to Glasgow. But after reading Henry's letter, I can't just let this thing go without at least trying to get something on the Glenn brothers.'
'You've read my mind, Jack. I was just going to ask if you and Annie would consider staying on at Moray Place for a bit longer, to see if you can come up with anything that would help the police to nail those bastards.'
'Okay, let's give it a week or so and, if I haven't got anything by then, well at least we can say we did our best for Henry.'
'Agreed, Jack. But you must promise me that you and Annie won't take any more unnecessary risks. Losing Henry like that was bad enough, but I don't want to have it on my conscience that anyone else gets hurt. And as you say, the police will catch up with the Glenn brothers eventually.'
Jack took out his mobile and called Annie. 'There's been a change of plan, kiddo. You can put the cases away for a bit longer and tell Jamie that we're going to be staying on in Edinburgh. I'll explain everything when I get back.'
When he arrived at Moray Place, Jack got together with Annie and Jamie and let them both read Henry's farewell letter.
When she finished reading, Annie looked up at Jack and said with certainty, 'we're not done here yet, boss, are we?’
'No, Annie. There's unfinished business to take care of, before we can go back to Glasgow. Henry’s letter is a real game changer, because now we have solid intelligence to work with. I’ve agreed with Guy that we’ll spend another week here in Edinburgh, to see if we can find any evidence to help put the Glenn brothers away.’
‘Yeah, but the clock’s ticking and if we only have a few days, how do we even get started?’
‘Maxie’s the one we need to concentrate on. So the first thing is to find out where he lives, then we can start following him around.’
‘I don’t suppose he’ll show up on the Electoral Roll, or an online directory enquiry search?’ said Annie.
‘No way. A guy like Maxie will have made plenty of enemies over the years, so he certainly won’t make it easy for them to find him. He’s probably got more than one address as well, which makes it even harder. But if the threat level is low, he might have a favourite pad that he uses most of the time.’
‘On the way back from the funeral, I asked Guy what more he remembered about Maxie, apart from the investors’ meeting where he didn’t say a word. He recalled the only other time he’s met him face to face. Maxie was dropping his brother Raymond off at a meeting to discuss
Westlink,
just as Guy was going inside the building.
‘So Guy made the effort to stop and say hello and actually had a brief conversation with him. Maxie’s pretty hard to miss, apparently, because of his size. He used to be a professional heavy-weight boxer, although not a very good one. But he was a trier and kept getting back up every time he was knocked down. So his face got messed up pretty bad, before he eventually retired and found his true calling as a drug dealer. Probably more useful just at the moment is knowing what type of car he drives. It's a new Lexus, similar to Guy's, but with a purple flake paint job. That's what got the two of them chatting, you know, comparing notes about their cars.'
Jamie said, 'that’s useful, Jack, but surely we're no further forward, because we still don't know where he lives. I mean we can't just drive around Edinburgh all day, hoping to bump into him by chance.'
'That’s right, but Guy also remembered Maxie boasting that he could drive his new car from his home, near Milton Road East, all the way across town to the airport on battery power alone.’
Annie started to get excited at that point. ‘Okay, so we don't have his
exact
address but, if we drove around the Milton Road East area in the middle of the night, we might be able to find the Lexus parked outside his house. It's quite a rare car anyway, and probably even rarer in this purple flake colour. We can check out the map and come up with a search plan.’
She fired up her MacBook and began looking at Milton Road East, on Google Maps. 'This might actually work, because the majority of the houses in the area seem to be bungalows and most people probably park in their driveways, or on the street right outside their homes.'
‘Okay, we need to get organised,’ said Jack. ‘Guy said we could borrow his car for the next few days, but we can’t take a chance that Maxie might recognise it. So let's not make life difficult for ourselves. If we can get hold of a couple of anonymous little vans from a local hire company that would be ideal, Annie. Oh, and make sure that they’re different colours.’
‘Why?’
‘Duh … because there’s no point in switching between two identical white vans when you’re tailing someone, right?’
‘I knew that. Okay, I'm on it,' said Annie.
As Annie was busy arranging the online van hire, Jamie asked Jack, ‘if we could somehow track down this workshop or garage, where Henry used to meet up with Maxie, then that could be the key to all of this.’
‘Absolutely, Jamie, because I think the Glenn brother’s drug money probably goes through there. We have no way of knowing for sure, but probably once a week Maxie is vulnerable and exposed, just for an hour or two, when he’s sitting with a pile of dirty cash in his possession.’
‘You really think he would risk doing that?’ asked Jamie.
‘Look, the Glenn brothers have managed to stay out of jail so far by being smart and well organised. So they're probably always at least two or three steps removed from having any actual contact with any drugs, or their customers. But dealing with the money is a whole different story. Remember what Henry said in the letter, about Maxie losing the plot and attacking the guy whose takings were short? I reckon he won't trust anyone else in the gang with the weekly cashing-up process, in case he gets ripped off.'
‘Take it from me, it will be a pretty slick operation with the gang members who control different areas of the city dropping off their takings for the week. Then the money will be quickly counted and a trusted member of the gang will probably drive south and do a courier run, spreading the money around their contacts and getting it into the legitimate banking system as fast as possible.’
‘So once we get hold of the vans we can start to search the Milton Road East area. If reckon if we began around midnight and worked till three or four, that should do it because, from memory, I don't think it's a huge area to cover.’
‘Jeez, so we’ve got a few long shifts ahead of us,’ said Annie. ‘Because even if we do manage to find where he lives, then we have to start following him around.’
‘I know, but it’s only for a few days and there’s no way round it,’ said Jack. ‘Oh and while I remember, we’ll need hands-free kits installed in both vans, so you and Jamie can keep in touch and co-ordinate when to switch the vans over, to avoid being spotted.’
‘I can organise the hands-free kits, as soon as we pick up the hire vans,’ said Jamie.
Two hours later they had possession of the hire vans, a white Fiat Doblo and a red Peugot Bipper.
'So how will we organise tonight’s search?’ asked Jamie, as they ate Chinese takeaway in the kitchen back at Moray Place.
'Actually there's no point in all three of us going, and I can't drive anyway,' said Jack with a broad smile. 'So why don't you and Annie take a van each and fly solo on this one, while the old guy gets his beauty sleep. Don't look at me like that, Annie, this is called delegation and using all available resources to achieve the desired objective in the most efficient manner, okay?'
'Bullshit, it's called pulling rank and being old and pathetic.'