Chapter 9: First sight

DI Drew MacIntosh rubbed his neck, trying to relieve some of the tension that had built up. A copper for twelve years already, Drew thought had seen just about everything there was to see in Glasgow's underworld. The cases he was trying to solve now were something else however, and they continued to mount up.

He had been given access to the four men who had been found tied-up in the house in Kinfauns Drive, but as he suspected they had clammed-up and had their solicitors at the station in record time. At least they would all be charged with drug offences so Drew knew he would have the last laugh.

At least an early read-out from forensics had given him confirmation that it had been the vigilante who had hit the house. A note had been recovered from the mouth of the dead man, along with some small bags of drugs. He looked at the report one more time and read the words that had been included in the message.

Keep Glasgow's streets clean. Really say no to drugs and say no to drug dealers. The vigilante.

Drew felt it was somewhat ironic that he had got more from the mouth of a dead man than he had from the mouths of the four survivors.

The crime count for this 'vigilante' was mounting. Three dead at the Portcullis, two dead outside Gilchrist's house, William Lorimer dead in Cranhill Street and now one more dead in Bearsden along with four others violently assaulted.

"The bastard's a one man crime wave!" Drew thought to himself.

So far the review of traffic camera footage had not provided any leads but Drew still had twenty officers on the task. His view was the longer things went without a lead the more difficult it would become, so he was desperate for something to break.

He was no stranger to hard times - both at work and in his personal life. He had joined the force after serving in the British army for six years. Having been demoted twice already in his twelve years on the force, for his unorthodox methods (brutally beating suspects), he didn't expect another promotion anytime soon.

A short marriage - lasting five years - had ended in a very messy divorce. The divorce had left him only limited access to his two kids - one of each - and took a serious chunk out of his monthly paycheque.

One thing kept him going though - he lived for his job. He took great satisfaction out of beating the criminals, tracking them down and putting them away.

Drew had no understanding in him for what this vigilante was doing. So far as he was concerned the guy was another criminal - a particularly dangerous one if the body count was anything to go by. MacIntosh saw the crimes the vigilante had committed as almost like a personal challenge to himself and he meant to win in this contest.

That competitive nature, that desire to beat the criminals had kept him on duty for ninety hours per week on average for the past few months. The lack of sleep showed, but Drew knew he would get his reward eventually and so was happy to put in the hours. At 38 he was struggling against the spreading gut of middle age but his mind was as agile as ever and it was that that he was pitting against the criminals.

It was now after 2am and he was thinking about catching a few hours sleep on his cot, but before he could reach it, the phone on his desk rang and he picked it up.

"Drew, looks like I've got another one for you. We've just received an anonymous tip-off. The caller said it was a message from the vigilante and that we should go and check out Reardon's Farm in Darnley."

All thoughts of a few hours sleep disappeared and Drew instantly became more alert.

"Thanks for the heads-up, I'm on my way. Can you make sure dispatch has directions for me?" he asked.

"Will do," the voice on the other end of the line confirmed.

MacIntosh broke the connection and then dialled a number himself. He listened to the phone ringing out for quite a while before it was eventually answered.

"This had better be good!" came the sleepy voice of Kenny MacLean.

"Time to rise and shine, Kenny. It looks like our boy has been busy again tonight. Get ready and I'll swing by to pick you up in fifteen minutes," Drew said.

"Fuck! We have got to catch this guy, Drew. He's seriously denting my sleeping hours. This is getting personal man!"

Drew laughed as he hung up and grabbed his coat on the way out of his office and out to his unmarked car in the station car park.

MacLean was already waiting outside his house when Drew got there and he quickly opened the passenger door and climbed in.

"What have we got?" he asked Drew.

"By the sounds of it, something similar to last night. There was an anonymous call just after 2am telling us to check out Reardon's Farm in Darnley. Some of the local uniforms are already at the scene but there's nothing obvious and I've ordered them to keep back until we get there," Drew replied.

The directions Drew had received were surprisingly straightforward. He joined the M8 motorway and then took the slip road that took him onto the M77. Fifteen minutes later he took the exit for Darnley and a few minutes after that he was pulling up beside three marked police patrol cars.

Both detectives got out of the car and talked to the uniformed officer who had arrived on the scene first. It quickly became clear that Drew's orders had been followed to the letter and no one could give them a clue as to what they were going to find inside the farmhouse.

Drew climbed back into his Ford Mondeo and radioed to find out the ETA of the scene of crime team. The advice he received was that it was still half an hour away, having already been out at another scene that night.

"Half an hour until the forensics bods get here," he said to MacLean, "I suggest you take a careful walk around the outside while I have a look inside. We need to get a feel for what we're dealing with here."

"Okay," replied DI MacLean.

"Kenny, be careful," Drew added.

Both of them pulled on gloves and MacLean retrieved a powerful torch from the trunk of the Mondeo. Drew made for the farmhouse's front door while Kenny walked slowly around the building in a clockwise direction, shining the torch before him to ensure he didn't contaminate any evidence.

MacIntosh bent to pull two plastic 'slippers' over his shoes before stepping into the house. The lights had been left on so he didn't need to worry about possibly spoiling any prints on the lightswitch. He walked close to the walls as he made his way down the hallway towards a partially open door.

Stepping cautiously through the door, Drew immediately took in the two men who were secured and lying on the floor. A third man was unsecured and by the looks of him, dead. A significant quantity of drugs was also laid out and he guessed he had a carbon copy of the hit that had gone down the night before.

Retracing his steps he made his way towards the back of the house. He stopped when he heard coughing sounds coming from the far end of the hallway, then realised they were coming from outside. Moving forward somewhat quicker now, he opened the door in front of him to see Kenny MacLean leaning against the side of the house, vomiting onto the ground.

The light spilling from the door illuminated the scene outside and Drew could see what had affected his partner so badly. There were two more men tied up and taped, one partially lying across what was an obvious corpse. The corpse wasn't tied-up in anyway so far as he could see, which suggested that he had died quickly. The head was a blackened ruin and Drew knew immediately that the man had literally burned to death.

Closer scrutiny showed signs of burn marks on the clothing of the man who was lying on top of the stiff. Drew wondered what that meant, what had happened here.

"Kenny, I told you not to contaminate the scene. What are you, a rookie or something?" Drew asked.

Leaning up against the farmhouse with his head still bowed, MacLean managed to lift one hand and give Drew the finger in reply.

Gavin was able to get to sleep without difficulty, once again his conscience not troubling him despite what he had done. For Fiona it was a different matter. She tossed and turned, worrying about what her brother was doing and most of all worrying about his safety. It was over an hour before she dropped-off into a fitful sleep.

When the forensics team arrived at the farmhouse they took the decision to focus their efforts initially on the inside, leaving the outside until it grew light. A tent was stretched over the unconscious men and the body to protect any evidence in the event it rained - a frequent occurrence in Scotland.

Drew was taking a break, sitting in the Mondeo drinking a cup of coffee supplied from the thermos of one of the uniforms. The radio crackled to life and he reached over to grab the handset. Seconds later he was out of the car and shouting for MacLean.

"Kenny! Kenny! We need to head back to the station pronto!"

DI MacLean had recovered from heaving his guts up, but still looked a little pale. He quickly joined Drew and the Mondeo roared as it raced away from the scene.

"There's been a development on the Subaru," Drew explained once they were on their way. "One of the tapes shows it mobile on Byres Road."

"At last, some bloody luck on this case!" MacLean responded.

Both of them knew that this was a bit of luck. Drew had ordered the examination of the traffic tapes to start from the city centre and work outwards. His reasoning was that if the car had been involved in drug selling - then it would have to be where the marketplace was, where the demand was greatest. His reasoning seemed to have been sound.

There was a definite buzz in the air when they entered the room in the station that had been set up to examine the tapes. In the half-hour it had taken them to get back to Stewart Street, further tapes had been found that showed the Subaru. The excitement reached Drew and Kenny as they were shown the tapes already identified.

"Looks like two men," Kenny said as they watched the first tape.

"I'm betting that they match two of those from Kinfauns Drive," Drew pitched in.

"Fuckin' hell!" came an excited shout from further over in the room.

"What?" Drew and Kenny asked in unison.

"You've got to see this to believe it!" exclaimed an officer who was reviewing another tape.

A crowd of officers crowded round the desk and Drew and Kenny had to force their way through to be able to see what had got the officer so excited.

"Watch this, fuck me, watch this!" the officer exclaimed again as he rewound the tape and hit the play button.

All of them watched as the grainy footage from the traffic camera showed light traffic flowing along Byres Road.

"Here it comes," said the officer.

They could all make out the Subaru on the screen and watched as it pulled over to the kerb, against the direction of traffic.

Suddenly a figure could be seen approaching the car and then leaping into the back seat. Just as quickly the figure was back out and it dashed to the driver's door. The trunk on the Subaru popped open and the figure appeared again, running to a shop doorway and then back to drop something into the trunk. The whole scene had taken seconds and they then watched as the car pulled away and was eventually out of range of the camera.

"What just happened?" asked one of the crowd of officers.

"I'm not sure but there were two men in the car when it pulled up and it looks like he took them both out in a couple of seconds," someone said.

"Play it again," ordered Drew.

He was sure that he had just had his first glimpse of the vigilante, his first glimpse of his target.

"Come to daddy!" he thought, a grin reaching his face.

Drew marked the time on his watch as the Subaru pulled over to the kerb on the screen once more. It was no easier to make out what had happened even on the second viewing, but Drew was able to say it had taken exactly 18 seconds from the figure appearing from the shop doorway to the car driving off.

"Okay. It's too grainy and there's not enough light to make it all out. Get this enhanced as quickly as possible," Drew ordered. "You. Work backward on the tapes from this camera. It looked like he came from that shop doorway, I want the tape that shows him going into it."

Drew was prepared to wait a while for the next sequence to be found, but it turned out it was on the very next tape - only fifteen minutes before the Subaru had pulled over to the kerb according to the time signature on the tape.

Once again officers crowded round the desk to watch the sequence. A figure could be seen ducking in and out of the shop doorway and then another figure approached. The second figure looked as if it might be a drunk, but as it came level with the doorway it suddenly leapt to the side. Gone were the drunken stagger and the lack of coordination. One second the figure was shuffling along and the next it disappeared into the doorway.