A Cold Killing (Rosie Gilmour) (17 page)

Rosie was ten minutes early, but Ruby was already inside the café waiting for her. From her distraught phone call last night she knew something bad had happened, but she hadn’t wanted to push Ruby. Afterwards, Rosie had been awake half the night, fretting over what the problem could be, worried something had happened to Judy. Her gut niggled with guilt that she’d placed Ruby in danger by getting her to agree to give her an inside track on the investigation.

‘You all right?’ Rosie slid into the booth and sat opposite Ruby. ‘I was worried about you.’

Ruby shook her head, dark shadows beneath puffy eyes.

‘Oh, God.’ She wiped her nose with the back of her hand as her eyes filled with tears. ‘Look at the state of me . . . Give me a minute.’

Rosie waved the waitress over and ordered a skinny latte, and Ruby nodded for the same. Then Rosie watched as Ruby tried to compose herself.

‘Listen, Rosie. Something bad happened last night. Something really fucked up.’

‘What? To you?’

Ruby shook her head.

‘No.’ She took a cigarette out and lit up. ‘No. Not me. That bastard Tam Dunn. I met him last night . . . I was with Tony. We were invited for dinner at Santino’s – it’s Tony’s restaurant. We were in a private room off Tony’s office, having dinner.’

Rosie nodded.

Ruby pressed her fingers to her mouth.

‘Oh Christ! That bastard killed a girl there last night. Kicked her to death. A hooker. Just a wee lassie.’

‘Jesus!’ Rosie whispered. ‘Who? Tony? Tam Dunn? Who kicked the girl to death?’

‘Tam Dunn. I can’t believe it. I can’t fucking believe it happened. Right in front of my eyes. The poor girl’s face was kicked to a pulp.’ She broke down.

‘Jesus almighty, Ruby.’ Rosie reached across and touched her wrist. ‘Listen. Take a minute. This is awful . . .’

The waitress returned, interrupting the moment, and glanced at Ruby crying into a tissue. She put the coffees down and turned on her heel. She would have gossip for the woman behind the counter who stood watching the scene unfold. Rosie’s journalist instinct was desperate to push for more details, but she held back.

‘Sorry about the state I’m in,’ Ruby said. ‘I don’t do falling to pieces, and I won’t. I won’t go to pieces. Ever. But this . . . this just got to me. I can’t get the picture of the girl out of my head.’

‘What happened?’

She listened as Ruby described what happened.

‘It’s hard for me to even say it. I still can’t believe I saw it. The girl was on the floor and there was blood everywhere. Tam Dunn was booting her face in.’ She winced, closing her eyes. ‘Fuck. I can still hear the sound of the boot hitting the flesh and the noise it made. Blood and bone everywhere, his boots just bouncing off her face. The wee lassie’s head was being kicked like a football, and then he stamped on her. Dunn was like a fucking madman. He
is
a madman. A total fucking psycho.’

‘Jesus,’ was all Rosie could say. ‘Where was Tony? Did he just stand by and watch this?’

‘No.’ Ruby shook her head and swallowed. ‘I went out of the room to go to the loo, because I couldn’t stand watching the girl and Tam. She was a hooker. They were going to have sex right in front of me, so I went onto the balcony and had a fag. Tony must have gone out after that. I’m not sure. Then I walked in and saw what was happening, and then a second later he came in behind me. He was raging, really shocked. I know he’s a nutter, too, because I’ve seen him do bad things, but even he was stunned by this. I mean, Rosie, you’d need to have seen this. It was unbelievable. That poor wee girl.’

‘Who is she? A hooker, you said?’

‘Yeah. Eastern European. Illegal. Working in the sauna. That’s what Tony says. He just got a couple of the bouncers up from the door and told them to deal with it. But there was this other wee kid in the corner – her friend. Another Eastern European . . . she was sobbing and terrified. Tony gave her money and told the boys to take her home. He said he would look after her if she kept her mouth shut.’

‘My God! What did you do? You must have been terrified yourself.’

‘I was. Dunn looked completely mental. He was slavering at the mouth and his eyes were crazy. He was all coked up. Seems there was something about him not being able to get it up with the girl, and he suddenly went berserk. I screamed at him to stop when I came in, and I was giving pelters to Tony, because he was just treating the whole thing like someone had spilled a fucking drink on the carpet. I was told to shut the fuck up. I couldn’t say anything.’ Her eyes filled up. ‘Couldn’t do a bloody thing. I felt completely useless.’ Her voice cracked with emotion.

‘What about the other girl?’

‘Don’t know. I had to rush to the toilet and throw up. The bouncers were taking her home.’

Rosie puffed.

‘They’ll have bumped her off, Ruby. She saw too much.’

‘I know.’

They sat in silence, Rosie trying to work out what to do. If she went to the cops it would blow their investigation. But how could she go to the police anyway? What with? There would be evidence all over the private room, but she couldn’t tell the police without putting Ruby up as a witness.

After a while Ruby spoke.

‘You know what happened to my mother, don’t you? And Judy?’ She sighed, gazing beyond Rosie. ‘I think that’s why I’m in this state. I’ve seen it before. The night they set fire to our house, Rab Jackson and that bastard Malky – they battered my mammy and raped my sister. They dragged Judy out of the room from below the bed where we were hiding. And they raped her. I saw it through the keyhole in the door. Terrified. But I couldn’t do anything to save her. Same as last night.’ She put her face in her hands. ‘Oh, I’m sorry . . . I’m telling you all this about myself when a wee girl is dead . . . But the truth is, I’ve never really got over what happened to my ma and Judy.’ She sniffed. ‘I never speak about it, but it’s always there. It’s been what my whole life is about. That’s why I’m the way I am. That’s why I ended up working for Rab Jackson.’

She paused, and they looked each other in the eye but said nothing. It didn’t need saying, and it didn’t need asking. Right now, Rosie didn’t want to know. She reached across and touched Ruby’s arm.

‘I’m so sorry that happened to you, Ruby. Christ! It must have been so hard for you.’

Ruby nodded.

‘Thanks.’

‘So what do we do now?’ Rosie asked.

‘Well, I can’t go to the cops. That’s for sure.’

‘But we can’t just let him get away with it. He’s killed a young girl, and the other one is probably history by now. We
have
to tell the cops. You
have
to go the cops, Ruby. That’s my gut instinct.’

‘No way. No way can I do that. I can’t afford to have them digging around my life. I can’t. We have to find another way.’

Rosie puffed again.

‘I know what you mean. Look. You know we’re working on the story of Dunn being involved in the illegal arms dealing. I’m heading to London today with the guys who are working with me on the story. If we can get him done on this, then he’ll be jailed. But the bastard should swing for what he did to that girl.’

‘I just don’t know what to do.’ Ruby looked at her watch. ‘I have to get moving, Rosie. I’m going down to see Judy, and I’ve got to go in case she’s expecting me. I think she is. At least, I have to believe that.’

‘It’s okay. But you need to keep in touch. You must be careful. Call me later.’

Ruby stood up.

‘I will. But I can’t go to police. Not right now. I’ve got too much at stake.’

‘Hey, Rosie. You just about ready to roll? I’m all packed up.’ Matt closed the boot of the sleek black Audi in the car park of the
Post
. ‘We’re travelling in style in this baby, since I’m supposed to be the chauffeur.’

‘Yeah,’ Rosie said. ‘But first I’ve got a quick meeting with McGuire. Urgent stuff. Why don’t you pick up Adrian and have a coffee and we’ll meet back here at midday?’

He looked at her. ‘Everything all right?’

‘Yeah. Great. I’ll text when I’m ready.’

‘Fine. I’m choking to get stuck into this. I’ve got all the surveillance gear, and we’ll have a dry run before we use it tomorrow.’

‘Fine. We’ll do it in the hotel tonight.’

She headed towards the revolving doors.

*

‘What’s happening, Gilmour? I had to cancel a meeting upstairs for this. Don’t tell me you’re in the shit. My ulcer’s been giving me gip this morning.’ McGuire was on his feet as Rosie came into his office.

‘No. Nothing like that. We’re all ready to drive south. But I need to talk to you. Something happened last night, Mick. Bad. I’ve just had a meeting with Ruby. She’s in a right state.’

‘Well, don’t keep me hanging about.’

Rosie took a deep breath.

‘Okay. Subbed down, it’s this: Ruby was at Santino’s last night having dinner in a private room with Tony Devlin and Tam Dunn. And Dunn kicked a young prostitute to death. Right in front of her.’

McGuire looked at her as though she was mad.

‘Shit! You’re not joking?’’

Rosie shook her head.

‘Nope. Straight up. A young Eastern European girl. Brought into the dinner party with her pal for a bit of rumpy, and the next thing is Dunn goes apeshit over something – apparently, he couldn’t get it up. Then he batters the girl to death.’

‘Who’s telling you this? Ruby?’

‘Yes. She was there. She’d gone out to the balcony and came back to find the girl on the floor with Dunn kicking seven shades of shit out of her. Blood everywhere.’

‘In the name of Christ! What did Ruby do? Get the cops?’

‘Are you kidding? What do you think, Mick? She’s been hiding from the cops for weeks. She
can’t
call the cops.’

‘She has to.’

‘She won’t.’

He bit the inside of his jaw.

‘Right, give me chapter and verse of what she told you.’

Rosie described the scene as Ruby told it. He listened, shaking his head in disbelief and disgust.

‘What a fucking animal! I take it you believe her?’

‘Absolutely. She wouldn’t make that up.’

‘Then we need to take it somewhere. This changes things. We can’t be in possession of information like this – about a murder – and not tell the police. We just can’t. You know that, Rosie.’

‘I hear what you’re saying, and I agree. But what do we tell them? The first thing they’re going to ask is who told us. We can’t say Ruby told us. Then it could get crazy. We’ve been down this road before.’

‘But not like this. Not with murder.’

‘It may be two murders,’ Rosie said. ‘The other girl who was with her. Tony told the bouncers to take her home. But I’d be surprised if she’s still alive. She saw too much.’

‘Christ! Right, let’s think about this. How could we tell this to the police without getting ourselves in all sorts of shit? We could just say it was an anonymous tip. They could go to Tony’s place and have a look. There must be blood everywhere . . .’

‘It doesn’t matter what we tell them, Mick, it could still come back to us. And there’s no way I’m handing Ruby over to them.’

‘I know. I wouldn’t expect you to.’ He shook his head then glanced at the clock on the wall. ‘Look. I’ve got a conference. We’ll talk about this later. But we have to do something.’

‘I’m going down to London – remember? To see Tam Dunn with Adrian. He’s posing as an arms customer from Bosnia looking to buy from J B Solutions, and I’m his personal assistant in the UK.’

‘Okay. I forgot about that for a minute.’

‘I think I should still go.’

McGuire thought for a couple of seconds.

‘Yes. We have to get Dunn on the arms deals. But this is a lot bigger. And if it was dangerous before, then it’s a lot worse now. This bastard sounds like he could flip at any time.’

‘I’ve got Adrian with me, and we’ve got a good plan.’

‘What if you get rumbled?’

‘Let’s not even think about that. We’ll be careful.’

‘Okay. Well, you’ll want to be in and out as fast as you can.’

‘Sure.’ Rosie headed for the door.

‘But we need to do something about that poor girl who got murdered. And soon.’

‘I’m going to talk to somebody. A contact. See where I can go with it. I’ll let you know later.’

‘You’d better let me know. Every move, Rosie.’ He reached into his drawer and took a card of tablets out, popping one into his mouth. ‘Now look what you’ve done.’

*

In Matt’s hotel room, Rosie and Adrian watched as Matt put the recording and filming equipment together. The camera was tiny, but they had used it before when filming inside the UVF secret headquarters in Glasgow. The wire was standard. He fitted both to Adrian and they did a test. It worked.

Over dinner Rosie told them of Ruby’s account of the murder. Matt sat stunned, but Adrian’s eyes just looked dark, as though he was already thinking ahead.

‘So.’ Rosie looked at Adrian. ‘This is the kind of psycho we’re dealing with. I feel like we’re going into the lion’s den.’

‘He is not a lion,’ Adrian said. ‘He is a coward. He’s nothing.’

After Matt went to bed, Rosie and Adrian sat drinking the last of the wine.

‘I’m worried about tomorrow, Adrian, and I don’t mind admitting it.’

He shrugged.

‘Is normal to be nervous.’

‘You? How do you feel?’

He sighed, ran a hand through his hair.

‘I am all right. Not nervous. Not worried. But I am always thinking of the things that can happen, maybe if he has a few people around. He is a bad piece of work. So we must be careful.’

Rosie wanted to ask if Adrian would be carrying a gun, but she decided it would be better not to know.

‘I think we should get some sleep. It’s getting late.’ Rosie stood up.

Their rooms were on different floors, and they stood in awkward silence in the lift. When it pinged for the third floor, Rosie turned to him.

‘Goodnight, Adrian.’

He bent over and kissed her on the lips, taking her face in his hands.

‘Goodnight, Rosie. And don’t worry for tomorrow. It will be fine. Trust me.’