Page 10 of Better the Devil

But as Taggart’s growl became a frenzied, furious barking, every atom in her body screamed at her to run.

CHAPTER FIVE

He was dead.That much was obvious. If the gaping hole in his throat hadn’t been enough of a clue, the sheer quantity of blood inside the car would’ve been a giveaway.

Not to mention the colour of him. Nothing alive was that colour.

‘Well, I’m not going to keep you hanging on the cause of death,’ Shona said, shining her torch around the inside of the vehicle, before settling on the purple-red meat of the dead man’s injury.

‘Someone opened his throat for him,’ Logan said.

‘Yeah, well, there’s no prizes for figuring that one out, I’m afraid.’

Shona leaned in closer, letting the torchlight push back the shadows, fully exposing the wound. ‘Sharp blade, deep. Straight line across, right to left.’

‘Passenger seat?’ Logan guessed, then he corrected himself before Shona had a chance to. ‘No. Angle would be all wrong.’

He snapped on a pair of gloves, then carefully opened the rear passenger door of the car. A thick tartan blanket, matted with golden dog hair, lay scrunched across the back seats.

‘Killer was sat behind him,’ Logan reasoned. ‘Could’ve hidden under that blanket, and then… What?’

He looked around them, up and down what would, under normal circumstances, be a fairly quiet stretch of road.

‘Waited until the guy parked up in a lay-by in the arse end of nowhere before slitting his throat?’

‘Better that than doing it while he was still driving,’ Shona reasoned. ‘That’s not going to end well for either of them. I mean, look, your man there’s not even wearing his seatbelt. Bit reckless of him.’

Logan glanced into the front, then considered the back seats of the BMW for a few more moments. Finally, he closed the door and clicked his torch off.

‘Aye. Maybe,’ he conceded.

The rain was starting to get heavier. Itplinkedagainst the car’s sunroof and dotted the windscreen. Logan caught the eye of the waiting SOCOs, pointed up, and twirled a finger to suggest they might want to get a shifty on and put the tent up.

The guys in the white paper suits looked over to Geoff Palmer for his orders, but Palmer was too engrossed in conversation with DC Neish to notice. They hurried into action regardless, none of them wanting to find themselves told twice by DCI Logan.

‘Um, evening, sir.’

Logan turned to find Hamza standing beside him, fiddling anxiously with the buttons on the cuffs of his shirt.

‘Sorry I’m late. I got… held up.’

‘Aye, well, you’re here now,’ Logan told him.

‘Woot woo!’ Shona called. It would’ve been a wolf whistle, but she was holding her torch in her mouth, which made things difficult on the whistling front. ‘Looking good,Detective Inspector.’

Hamza flashed her a smile. It wasn’t enough to wash away the terror in his eyes. ‘Oh. Thanks!’

‘Congratulations on the promotion. It was well deserved,’ she continued, mangling the words so badly around the butt of the torch that Hamza just nodded back at her.

She took the torch out of her mouth, clicked it off, then raised a hand like she was about to lean on the car. A panicky shout from one of the nearby SOCOs stopped her before she could compromise any forensic evidence.

‘Ooh, shite, sorry,’ she said, jumping back. ‘That’s me for now. I’ve got enough to call it.’

She left them to their tent construction and approached Hamza and Jack, pulling off her gloves on the way.

‘I remember you doing your first post-mortem with me, back in the day,’ she said, shaking her head wistfully and shooting a look in Logan’s direction. ‘God, they grow up so fast, don’t they?’

Logan smirked. ‘Aye, well, now’s his chance to prove it. What do you think, Detective Inspector?’