The Bloody, Bloody Banks by Andrew Raymond

Author:Andrew Raymond [Raymond, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-30T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Lomond didn’t wait for the others when they reached 109 Gartland Avenue. He wasn’t about to sit around in a matter of threat-to-life.

There were sirens somewhere nearby from the uniform response that had been called in, but Lomond didn’t want some new PC going through the door first and getting in harm’s way. Ruth’s operational procedures might not have agreed, but Lomond saw it as his responsibility to deal with whatever the Taxman had done to Lee Vickery.

Lomond ran to the tenement door which was unlocked, the latch pushed up. He paused momentarily. The Taxman’s work? he wondered.

There was no time to consider it further.

Donna chased after him, the pair taking two stairs at a time until they were at the second-floor landing.

The moment Willie’s car reached the address, Willie, Pardeep, and Jason all piled out and followed them inside, eager to protect their gaffer and colleague.

When DS Erskine pulled up behind their abandoned cars on the deep pavement, Ruth made no move to rush inside.

When Jane did, Ruth put out a hand to give her pause. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Going in,’ Jane replied.

‘They don’t need more bodies up there.’ Ruth got out the car casually, leaning on the roof as she took her phone out.

Her adrenaline pumping from the race across the city, Jane paced about, eyes hunting for what window would have been Lee Vickery’s flat.

She told Foster and Lambie, ‘We should be up there.’

The two DCs shrugged impotently. They weren’t about to ignore their DCI for someone only two years older than them, and made a DS less than four months ago.

Upstairs, Lomond and Donna were creeping quietly towards Vickery’s flat.

Lomond tapped Donna on the side, then pointed to the heavy-duty silver tape running along the foot of the door frame.

Donna gestured to the two other doors on the landing. ‘Neighbours?’

Lomond shook his head. ‘They’re both “to let”. There were signs outside.’

In the rush, Donna hadn’t noticed them.

Lomond peeled the tape away slowly. The rancid smell hit them as soon as there was a gap under the door.

He tried the door handle. Softly. Then pushed it.

The door opened. It had been left unlocked.

The smell gathered force like a tsunami wave when they entered the hallway. It was dingy and dark. All the doors closed. Chunks missing around the bottom of them where they’d been booted over the years, or had furniture thrown at them. A junkie’s flat suffers a lot more than a regular citizen’s.

Following the smell, Lomond put his forearm to his nose. He pushed the bedroom door open and recoiled from the scene in front of them.

Not because of any gratuitous blood or violence on display. As murder scenes went, it was one of the quietest Lomond had encountered. What affected him was the arrangement of the body, and what had been done to it.

Lomond took out a small torch from his inside jacket pocket. The leap from darkness to harsh white light was jarring to their eyes.

He grimaced as he lowered his arm. ‘It’s just like baby Tyler,’ he croaked.

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