Chapter 21

Drew couldn't believe his good fortune. He had driven to the Dundee address Mark MacGhee had given him, intent on taking a 'look see' at Luke MacNab at the first opportunity. The drive from Glasgow had taken just over an hour in reasonably light traffic.

He had parked up approximately twenty-five metres from MacNab's house and settled down to wait for the accountant to put in an appearance. When Kenny MacGovern rounded the corner and marched past his car, it took several moments for his brain to process what he was seeing. He firstly questioned what he saw but then quickly accepted his good fortune and acted.

"Fuck! Is that the teacher? It is, it is him. Oh you fucking beauty, come to daddy!" ran through his head and then he was out of the car and closing the distance between himself and his target. When Kenny opened the garden gate leading to Luke MacNab's house, Drew struck and took only a few seconds to handcuff the teacher and read him his rights.

Drew couldn't be positive but he thought he detected curtains twitching in one of the upstairs windows of the MacNab residence. He shrugged off the sense that someone was watching him and concentrated on getting Kenny MacGovern back on his feet and into the back seat of his car. Thereafter he made directly for Glasgow and the Stewart Street police station. The teacher was booked, searched and processed quickly before being led to a holding cell. Drew intended to let him stew for a few hours before questioning him and hopefully bringing a number of additional charges against him.

MacNab was stunned. Kenny MacGovern had just been arrested outside the house! The scene had all unfolded outside the window - in full view. Kenny had come marching down the street like a man with a mission. He had opened the gate but before he could walk down the garden path, a burly man had wrestled him to the ground and twisted his arm painfully up his back. Handcuffs had been snapped round the teacher's wrists and then he had been bundled into the back of a car.

MacNab had seen the burly assailant glance up at the window once, but was pretty sure nothing could be seen through the curtains. Kenny's arrest had come completely out of the blue. The last information had placed him in a villa on the Costa Del Sol only a few days ago. What was he doing here? The fact he was now in police custody was also potentially a big problem - Kenny was the only one who knew how to access the offshore account. MacNab needed that information. Spinning round to face the computer, MacNab began searching through the database for any of the remaining former pupils that might be helpful.

Kenny didn't trust anyone. For all he knew, Luke could have used the brain defragmenter programme on anybody. For that reason, his paranoia led to him refusing as solicitor and a decision that her would defend himself.

He refused to break under the relentless questioning that Drew subjected him to. He quickly realised that the detective must have found his notebook, as the detail he was aware of could only have come from that. He admitted to himself that MacIntosh was skilled in his interrogation, but he wasn't a match intellectually for Kenny's own brain capacity. He stuck rigidly to his previous story - that his notebook contained ideas for a novel that he wanted to write.

This time it was clear that the police had somehow managed to get some of the girls to make a statement against him so he knew he wasn't going to get off scot-free.

"Look, Kim Park has given us a detailed statement of the sick things you made her do, MacGovern. I've got you bang to rights for that. I know all the names of those you used to set up the Church and the people you used to launder the money from the Hamiltons.

"It's only a matter of time until I get some of these people to crack and grass you up. By my reckoning there are three solicitors and six accountants involved in that alone. What odds will you give me that I can get at least two or three of them to sing?"

Kenny was reasonably certain that his brain programme would stop all of those involved from ever giving the police information. However, his confidence had been shaken by the fact that Kim Park and other girls had somehow ignored their programming and given statements. The detail the detective had could only have come from the girls. That could only mean that Luke had ordered the girls to tell the police about him. If MacNab had done that, it was a fair bet that he had instructed some of the others to do likewise.

The detail that MacIntosh kept returning to was that dealing with the Hamiltons being ordered to kill Mark MacGhee and Jason Welsh also being ordered to take out the journalist. Kenny guessed that these were the crimes that the detective was most anxious to make stick. Two counts of commissioning murder would indeed be serious, but Kenny held out hope that these were the areas where the police had the least information. He had a sense that that was the reason the detective kept returning to them again and again - he was desperate for Kenny to crack and give him something to work with.

"Admit it, MacGovern. The journalist was getting too close to exposing what you were up to and you panicked. You panicked and ordered the Hamiltons to shut him up before he could reveal the extent of your schemes! And when the Hamiltons failed in their attempts, you ordered Jason Welsh to have a go as well. It's all written down in your notebook, in your own handwriting man. You can't deny it!"

Kenny knew that there was no reference to Jason Welsh in his notebook. The detective had slipped up in that respect. That tiny slip gave him renewed hope. MacIntosh was fishing, he didn't have enough to go on and he was desperate for Kenny to break. That knowledge helped stiffen his resolve and he continued to repeat his answers.

"I didn't order anyone to harm Mr MacGhee. I did not ask the Hamiltons or this Jason Welsh to do anything, certainly not to murder someone. The details in my notebook are all about my idea for a novel."

His growing sense of relief and renewed hope was suddenly punctured. Like the experienced interrogator that he was, Drew had let the suspect build up a false sense of security and then he moved dramatically to rip it away.

"How do you explain this then?" he asked, putting a single sheet of A4 paper in front of Kenny.

Kenny blanched as he quickly skimmed the words on the page. Somehow the detective had managed to get hold of his first e-mail to Mark MacGhee.

"This is an e-mail from you to the journalist. Your own words condemn you man! You clearly refer to the fact that Mr MacGhee is now safe and you apologise for what you've done. How could you use those words if you weren't in control of the contract that was put out on Mr MacGhee? Come on, admit it MacGovern. You ordered Mark MacGhee's death!"

Drew could see the teacher's shoulder slump, as he realised the mistake he had made.

"Look, MacGovern. I've got more than enough to make these charges stick. If you think for one minute that a judge and jury are going to believe your cock and bull stories about writing novels or being subjected to mind control you're off your rocker! You might as well admit your guilt and confess - if you cooperate then that will sit well with the judge and it might mean a lighter sentence."

Despite the fact that the detective had shattered his confidence, Kenny fell back on his only line of defence and continued to weakly deny all of the allegations.

"Sergeant? Have him formally charged," Drew said and left the interview room.

The next few days were a nightmare for Kenny. He continued to refuse to accept a solicitor, deciding to represent himself in court too. He almost changed his mind when he realised the extent of the charges against him. He was charged with two counts of commissioning murder, a list of offences to do with money laundering, of conspiring with a police officer to pervert the course of justice and finally with a range of sex crimes involving the young girls.

He was hastily taken before a court where a grim-faced judge ordered that he be remanded in custody until a trial date was set. Kenny sat with his head bowed as the charges against him were read out and could only mumble his plea of 'not guilty' to each one.

Two guards from a private security firm hustled him down through the courthouse and into the back of a waiting armoured van. Kenny was manhandled into the back of the van and his handcuffed wrists were secured to a metal rail to ensure he couldn't escape. There were four other prisoners in the van and Kenny avoided making any kind of eye contact with them.

The van made the short journey from the court to Glasgow's notorious Barlinnie Prison. Once inside the prison walls, the van pulled up in a courtyard and Kenny and the other prisoners were released and pushed outside. More security guards were on hand to control the prisoners and direct them towards a strong metal door.

He found himself being processed once more. His clothing was removed and he was subjected to a full body search. Kenny felt his spirits sinking lower and lower with each step he took along the criminal justice process. It was almost as if the whole approach was designed to break people, to remove any shred of dignity or self-respect that they had left. The guards in particular seemed to take great delight in verbally abusing the prisoners and were clearly aware of the charges that each of them faced.

"Hey, look guys! We've got another kiddy abuser! It's always great to see what the other inmates dish out to sick bastards like you. Give it a couple of days and you won't be able to walk, you little shit! Mr Big and all his horny gang members are going to pound your arse so badly, you'll need to wear nappies for the rest of your life! Ha, ha, ha!"

There was much laughter amongst the guards, as they imagined and described what was going to happen to Kenny once the hardened criminals got their hands on him. Kenny felt his body begin to tremble, as he to began to see mental images of what might be in store for him.

He was bundled into a communal shower area and subjected to harsh jets of ice-cold water before being directed to dry himself with a towel that felt as if it was made of sandpaper. Rough prison clothing was thrown at him and a guard screamed at him to hurry up and cover up his scrawny excuse for a body. Then he was escorted through several locked doors and into the prison proper.

The noise and the smell were the first things to hit him. People were screaming and shouting all through the cavernous prison hall. It rose three stories and the acoustics only served to increase the noise levels. The voices were aggressive and abusive and the whole environment was completely alien and terrifying to him.

The place stank of shit, piss, sweat and fear.

The other prisoners were frightening. They leered at him and seemed to exude violence just in the way they stood or looked at him. He was scrutinised by the other inmates at every step he took and it was something of a relief when his guard reached the cell he was clearly going to be occupying.

Kenny glanced around quickly and realised he would be sharing a cell with another prisoner. The other man was laid out on the top bunk of a pair and he sat up when Kenny and the guard entered.

"I've got a little playmate for you, Benson. Make sure you don't break him now, okay?" the guard laughed.

Kenny put the blanket he was carrying down onto the lower bunk and stood nervously in the middle of the cell. He could see that several other prisoners had followed along behind him and they were now hanging around outside, clearly waiting for the guard to leave so they could investigate the new arrival.

He was sure that the guard was getting a perverse pleasure out of Kenny's obvious discomfort but he knew that the man was the only thing standing between himself and these violent criminals. As soon as the guard left, he would be on his own with some of the toughest, most vicious, low-life scum in Glasgow. He had never been put in such a hostile environment in his life and his fear threatened to completely overwhelm him.

Kenny only just managed to stop himself from begging the guard not to leave him with these people. His common sense told him that it was going to happen, no matter what he said to the guard, he would be left to get on with things. He instinctively knew that if he showed weakness in front of the other prisoners, then whatever he was going to face would only get worse. Somehow, from somewhere deep inside himself, he managed to keep his mouth shut and simply watched as the guard gave him one last grin and then left.

The taunting and verbal abuse of the other guards was still fresh in his mind and Kenny realised that he had to try to keep the details of the sex charges he faced quiet. If what the guards said was true, the other inmates would definitely come down hard on him as a child abuser. His only hope, he thought, was to try to come across as somehow dangerous in his own right.

His cellmate swung his legs off of the top bunk and jumped lightly down onto the floor of the cell. Two other prisoners pushed their way into the cell too and all of them began to question him. Kenny didn't realise it, but the interminable boredom of having nothing to do day after day meant that anything out of the ordinary was a big deal to these men. A new prisoner arriving was a big event and broke the monotony of the day for a short time.