The Man in the Bottle (Thane & Moss Book 6) by Bill Knox

Author:Bill Knox [Knox, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zertex Crime
Published: 2024-07-30T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

By early evening, Thane was back in the city. The police car had eaten the distance on the long, arrow-straight dual carriageway of the new Stirling-Glasgow road, and they were travelling in past the high skyscraper flats of Glasgow’s growing new skyline—the city’s answer to its legacy of old, damp, rat-ridden tenement slums—at the same time as the homeward rush of end-of-day traffic was just beginning to get under way.

His driver took the car straight into the parking yard at Police Headquarters, stopped, and waited hopefully.

‘That’s all for a spell,’ nodded Thane, then thumbed towards the packages on the rear seat. ‘But take these up to the Scientific Bureau before you disappear. Tell ’em I’ll be along soon.’

Policy dictated his first call—on Buddha Ilford. But the city’s CID boss was out. The duty man at the Central CID bar wasn’t sure where or why, only that it involved a runaway bank cashier and that Chief Superintendent Ilford wouldn’t be back for a couple of hours.

‘You know the old man.’ He winked. ‘Every now and again he gets off his backside, takes over a job, and goes out into the big, bad world.’

Thane had experienced it before. Buddha’s brief excursions back to working detection formed a type of safety valve, one the CID boss claimed helped keep him sane in the face of his usual round of desk-bound activities. Sometimes, though, the disappearance could be awkward for the divisional men. Either they were looking for him in a hurry, or Buddha would turn up out of the blue and catch them on the hop.

‘When he comes in, I’d like to know.’

‘You will.’ The duty man turned back to monitor the radio, which was beginning to brisken with messages to the mobile units.

As Thane left, the first of the night shift squads were beginning to drift in… Friday night was pay night, and they’d have a busy evening once the pubs closed at nine-thirty and their customers scattered around the streets.

‘Chief Inspector…’ The hail came as he crossed the street again to the main Headquarters building. He slowed to let the hurrying figure of Detective Sergeant MacLeod catch up with him. The Millside sergeant puffed a little after his sprint. ‘Didn’t expect to see you here, sir!’

‘Makes a change from chasing my tail up north,’ Thane told him. ‘Anything happening in the division?’

‘Nothing desperate,’ said MacLeod thankfully. ‘I’m along to have a word with the Records office—three complaints of a con man working a television maintenance racket came in today, and I thought they could maybe match the method on the MO files and give us a lead.’

‘What about Vince Bruce?’

The sergeant shook his head. The young housebreaker was still on the run. ‘But brother Donny has admitted five other break-ins,’ he volunteered. ‘We’ve recovered some of the stuff.’

‘Donny’s share?’ Thane was unimpressed. ‘Vince always keeps the best. He’s the one I want.’ He rattled the coins in his trouser pocket and remembered his other interest. ‘Any word from Sam Newton?’

‘Millside’s pitch-and-toss expert?’ MacLeod gave an involuntary twinkle.

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