Let it Bleed by Ian Rankin

Author:Ian Rankin [Rankin, Ian]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Detective Stories, Crime, Police Procedural, Fiction, Police, Serial murders, Rebus; Inspector (Fictitious character), Edinburgh (Scotland), Scottish fiction, English fiction, Inspector (Fictitious character), Rebus, English, Scottish author, Mystery
ISBN: 9780752804019
Publisher: Orion Press
Published: 1995-07-31T22:00:00+00:00

23

He drove to the Ox, where Doc and Salty stood in their allotted places. Room was made for Rebus, and Doc ordered him a pint.‘Oh what blessed company,’ Rebus said, lifting the glass. He turned to Salty Dougary. ‘I was out at Gyle Park West the other day.’

‘In your professional capacity?’

‘Sort of. What can you tell me about the place?’

‘It’s an industrial estate. I work there. What else is there to know?’

‘The businesses there, would they have dealings with Scottish Enterprise?’

Salty nodded. ‘LEEL,’ he said. ‘Our boss at Deltona is mad keen on “worker participation”, which means once a week we have to sit in the canteen for twenty minutes listening to him rattle on about client satisfaction, inward investment, productivity and the like. He’s always on about LEEL.’

‘So Deltona has had money from LEEL?’

‘John, everyone on that estate has had help of some kind: relocation incentives, start-up incentives, retraining incentives, you name it.’ He raised his glass. ‘God bless Scottish Enterprise.’

‘Why the interest?’ Dr Klasser asked. This was not their usual level of conversation.

‘It could be peripheral to a case I’m working on.’ Except that there was no case and he wasn’t supposed to be working.

‘Well, keep your paws off Deltona,’ Salty Dougary warned.

Rebus smiled. ‘Ever heard of Mensung?’ he asked.

‘Don’t they measure your intelligence?’

There was a snort from down the bar. ‘They’d only need a six-inch ruler to measure yours, Salty.’

Salty laughed, so the speaker would know he wasn’t amused. Rebus was still looking at him. ‘To be honest,’ Salty told him, ‘it does ring a bell, way at the back of the old brainpan. I think it was a company.’

‘On the estate?’

Dougary shrugged. The barman was taking a phone call. His eyes met Rebus’s.

‘For you, John.’ He brought the telephone over. Rebus had another question for Salty.

‘What about LABarum, ever heard of that?’

‘What is this, “Mastermind”?’

Rebus took the receiver from the barman. ‘Hello?’

‘Is that you, John?’

Rebus recognised the voice - but it couldn’t be, not calling him by his first name.

‘Is that you, Flower?’

‘Yes.’

DI Alister Flower - the Little Weed - calling Rebus ‘John’. Something was wrong.

‘What’s up?’

‘Just wondered if you could drop into the station for a chat.’

‘A chat? Will you have the tea and biscuits ready?’

Flower laughed like he hadn’t heard a better one all day. Rebus was more than curious.

‘When?’ he asked.

‘Whenever you like.’

Rebus said he’d be there in half an hour.

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