Never Somewhere Else (30 page)

His
thoughts were broken as he felt a thump on the bench beside him. From the corner of his eye Lorimer could see a child of about seven perched on the bench, swinging his legs. Noticing the boy’s sticky hands clutching the edge of the seat and his sweetie-reddened mouth, he moved instinctively aside. The boy didn’t seem to notice, absorbed in his own study of the Rembrandt.

‘Hey, mister,’ the child asked, turning to Lorimer. ‘Is he a sojer?’

Hiding a smile, Lorimer replied, ‘That’s right, son. He’s called
Man in Armour
.’

The wee boy looked back at the picture, considering.

‘And did he kill anyone, like?’

Lorimer’s eyebrows shot up, then he followed the child’s gaze to the grave face of the knight. What was the boy seeing? The shield? The knight staring towards a shadowy sword clutched in one gauntlet-clad hand? He was only an artist’s model, Lorimer knew; some fellow got up in cloak and armour for Rembrandt’s studio. He could tell the child all this and more besides. Yet no one knew who the man in the armour really was.

‘Here, Billy. What have I told you about talking to strangers? No offence, pal.’

A young woman in jeans and cropped top was pulling the child off the bench and making an apologetic face at Lorimer. He watched them as they made their way towards the door, the child protesting as he was escorted firmly from the room. As Billy turned for one last wistful look at the famous painting, Lorimer was painfully reminded of another small boy who had talked to a stranger and another man who had dressed up to play a part.

Lorimer
stood up to leave but turned back to look at the helmeted figure, feeling suddenly cheered by the wee boy’s fleeting interest in his favourite painting.

Billy, he felt sure, would be back.

I would
like to thank the following for their time and help in researching this novel: Strathclyde Police, particularly Superintendent Ronnie Beattie and former Superintendent Val Grysbek, PC Kirsty McCartney and PC Mairi McMillan of the Female and Child Unit, Greenock, and the Street Liaison Group, Cranhill; Professor Peter Vanezis and the staff at the University of Glasgow Department of Forensic Medicine, particularly Dr Black and Dr Cassidy; the late Mr Fenton Maxwell, Supervisor, and the staff at Glasgow City Mortuary; Dr W. Rodgers, former head of Forensic Science, Pitt Street, Glasgow; the staff of the High Court of Judiciary, Glasgow; James Freeman, Iain Wilson and Ian Hossack of the
Herald
newspaper, Glasgow; Ian Johnston, Director of Postgraduate Studies, Glasgow School of Art; Eric Thorburn, photographer; Sturrocks Wigs, Glasgow; James Margey, hair stylist.

Also available as a Sphere paperback

THE RIVERMAN

Alex Gray

The riverman’s
job is to navigate the swirling currents of the Clyde, pulling rubbish from Glasgow’s great river. But occasionally he is required to do something more shocking – such as lifting out corpses.

The day he pulls the lifeless body of a man from the river, it looks like a case of accidental death. But DCI William Lorimer of the Glasgow Police is not convinced. And when he digs deeper, he begins to discover that this case is as explosive they come …

Featuring the most dynamic new Scottish detective since Rebus,
The Riverman
is a page-turning thriller steeped in the history and atmosphere of Glasgow.

‘Well-written, well-plotted and full of edgy Glasgow atmosphere … Chief Inspector Lorimer is a beguiling creation’ Marcel Berlins,
The Times

Crime

978-0-7515-3873-1