The Road to Hell Read online

  THE ROAD TO HELL

  First published in 2012 by Polygon,

  an imprint of Birlinn Ltd

  West Newington House

  10 Newington Road

  Edinburgh

  EH9 1QS

  www.polygonbooks.co.uk

  Copyright © Gillian Galbraith 2012

  ISBN 978 1 84697 225 6

  eBook ISBN 978 0 85790 176 7

  The moral right of Gillian Galbraith to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form without the express written permission of the publisher.

  British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Maureen Allison

  Colin Browning

  Douglas Edington

  Lesmoir Edington

  Robert Galbraith

  Daisy Galbraith

  Diana Griffiths

  Christine Johnson (Bethany Christian Trust)

  Jinty Kerr

  Alan Montgomery

  Roger Orr

  Aidan O’Neill

  Dr David Sadler

  DEDICATION

  To Hamish, with all my love

  Contents

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  1

  The middle-aged woman in the poorly-fitting yellow anorak was twisting the ring on her finger, first one way and then the other, all the while trying to slide it over the enlarged, inflamed middle joint. She appeared not to notice the queue of people growing behind her. Now bowing her head and starting to lick her finger with her tongue in an attempt to ease it, she muttered to the assistant, ‘Got any soap, dear?’

  The embarrassed girl, dressed all in black, shook her head, then peered up from beneath her straw-coloured, floppy fringe, eyeing the line of increasingly restive customers with concern. Looking at them, she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, rocking nervously from side to side. After a further minute had passed without any progress, she asked, pleadingly, ‘Maybe we could get on with things, while you’re getting the ring off? Have you got the paperwork with you? Your passport, your driving licence?’

  ‘Eh?’ the woman snapped irritably, concentration broken on her all-engrossing task. A bubble of spit glistened on her lower lip.

  ‘Your passport? Your driving licence?’ the assistant repeated, tapping her finger on a yellowing, typed notice that was pinned to the wall detailing what was required of sellers. ‘Like what it says here.’

  ‘I’ve no passport, I’ve no need of one. And I don’t drive either.’

  ‘A household bill, maybe . . . electric, gas, something like that? That would do instead. Everybody has them.’

  ‘Not this body, dear. I’ve not got any of them with me. But it’s gold all right, if that’s what’s worrying you. It’s my wedding band.’ Then, giving herself a rest from the strenuous removal attempt and sounding wheezy and out of breath, she added, ‘It had bloody better be anyway. Archie gave it me. You can bite it or whatever you do, check it with your teeth like the gypsies. But you’ll need to wait until I’ve got it off my finger.’ She removed her chewing gum and smiled winningly at the girl as if to charm her into submission.

  ‘I’m sorry but we can’t take it,’ the assistant replied, shaking her head, ‘not without the proper documentation.’

  ‘Bingo!’ said the woman, beaming even more broadly, holding the ring triumphantly between the still sticky thumb and forefinger of her right hand, and thrusting it at the assistant.

  The girl shook her head again, mulishly, and as she did so, the lank curtain of her hair swung from side to side across her eyes. ‘No documents, no sale. That’s the rule in all Money Maker stores.’

  The middle-aged woman, now chewing her gum again, appeared unabashed by her refusal and continued polishing the ring on the sleeve of her yellow anorak. In fact, seeing the girl’s implacable expression and determined to get her way, she decided it would be wise to change tack. If charm was not to going to win the day then coercion would have to be used.

  ‘Listen, dear,’ she said, moving forwards and brandishing the ring in the girl’s face, ‘you’ve a big sign outside saying “All gold wanted – good prices paid”. Is my gold not good enough for you, then?’ Both of her fists were now parked on her well-padded hips and her feet were set wide apart, like a boxer readying himself for a fight. After wrestling with the ring for the last five minutes she had no intention of giving up now. Immoveable, she looked round at the queue of people behind her, suppressing a smirk as she recognised them for what they were, her unwilling allies. Few could resist the silent pressure that they were unwittingly exerting, certainly not this stick-thin teenager. A puff of wind and she would drift skywards.

  ‘I’d like the money today, dear, and this is gold. Right? Got that? Your sign outside says nothing about paperwork. Gold is gold, OK?’

  The girl pressed a button on her counter to summon assistance but no ringing sound came from it. She tried again, pressing harder but only eliciting a faint clicking noise for her pains.

  ‘Shit!’ she murmured to herself, looking down at the button and hitting it crossly one final time. In doing so she hurt her knuckles, and started rubbing them against her shoulder.

  ‘Your alarm button not working then? Now, my gold?’ the woman said quietly, between chews. ‘There are lots of people waiting, dear. They’ll be getting awfully impatient, you know, some of them may just walk out . . .’

  ‘Eric! Eric!’ implored the flustered girl, waving to attract a male assistant’s attention. ‘I’m needing some help over here.’

  At her words, the youth put down his orange duster and moved away from the bank of widescreen plasma TVs that he had been standing beside and watching. He, too, wore only black clothing. He was heavily built and walked with the muscle-bound, wide-legged gait of a professional bruiser. All the TV screens around him showed the same picture. A blonde woman in a leotard sat on an exercise bicycle, pedalling effortlessly while smiling inanely at the camera. Any accompanying sales spiel was lost as the sound was turned off.

  ‘I’ll attend to you, flower,’ he said coming up to the woman and cupping her elbow with his meaty hand, attempting to waltz her slowly towards another empty counter.

  ‘Get your mitts off me, son, or you’ll hear my alarm button go off all right, just you wait and see. I’ll shout the place down.’ She disentangled herself from his grasp.

  ‘OK, OK. But if you’ll not move we’ll have to get help – police help,’ he said in a hushed tone, looking into her face, taking his mobile from his pocket and crooking an index finger above the keypad. Realising she had been outmanoeuvred, she turned her back on him and strutted out of the queue, keeping her chin held high in an attempt to preserve the shreds of her dignity. There were other places, after all, plenty of them less finicky with their paperwork than this one, less choosy when gold was on offer. Grasping the handle of one of the double glass doors, she toyed momentarily with the idea, the luxury, of threatening them with the trading standards people. But it would be an empty threat and only annoy them further, which would be pointless.

  Three
hours later, in the same Money Maker store, DS Alice Rice looked up at the CCTV camera pointing directly at her and took her place at the head of the queue. The reflection staring back at her in the lens was as distorted as that on the back of a spoon, splaying out her nose and making her eyes appear small and piglike. She looked more like fifty than forty, she thought, and her dark hair appeared to be framing an entirely unfamiliar face.

  ‘I’ve come for the notebook laptop,’ she said to the lank-haired girl.

  ‘We’ve a few of them in here at the moment. We’ve got an Apple, a Sony and a Toshiba, too, I think. But you’ll need to go to that counter, over there, if you’re buying.’ She pointed to the far end of the shop. Stacked by the counter were turntables, battered cardboard boxes overflowing with DVDs and an army of upright Dyson vacuum cleaners.

  Crossing the floor and stepping over the open boxes, Alice Rice addressed another black-clothed clone. ‘The notebook laptop, please. Donny was going to phone you about it earlier, he said. I’ve come to collect it.’

  ‘You from SART, then?’ the man asked. ‘Donny told us you’d be here by eleven. Eleven on the dot.’ He sounded annoyed. Glancing at his watch to emphasise that the time had long since passed, he bent down and removed a smallish box from below his counter. Still frowning, and consulting the watch again to further underline his point, he handed the package over to the plain-clothed policewoman.

  She wondered why he was so bothered about the time. He was not exactly run off his feet, she was his only customer. What possible difference could that half hour have made to him? The jerk. All the same, she was relieved that he had known exactly what she was supposed to be collecting. No one in the SART office had told her the make of the notebook they were after.

  Once it was safely stored in her carrier bag, she decided to waste a few more minutes having a look around the store. Time had to be killed this morning and here was as good a place as any to do it in. The shop was warm, and browsing its contents might distract her, repel the repetitive thoughts which were constantly trying to invade her brain. It might, briefly, obliterate her obsession with her two o’clock appointment, her forthcoming tribunal hearing. Her very own, and imminent, personal disciplinary case.

  As she wandered about the shop, she was struck by its resemblance to a wholesale outlet, but it seemed a strange, sinister variant of the species. Goods were piled high on all the available floor space, the walls were hung with them and not an inch of unused shelving was visible. But despite the bright strip-lighting, crisp decoration and the superabundance of merchandise, the place reeked of poverty and desperation. The assistants drifting about reminded her of undertakers in their black clothes, circulating within a Chapel of Rest. They spoke to everyone in hushed tones and their customers replied in the same way, as if they were embarrassed to find themselves in such a place. The body-language of the patrons conveyed one message and one message alone, that they were ‘just looking’. They were not here to buy, and certainly not to sell.

  In the absence of any apparent trade, it seemed a miracle the business survived at all, she thought. But a notice on the wall boasted that branches of the chain were to open from the Forth to the Clyde. Money Maker appeared to be flourishing in the ailing towns of the Central Belt like some kind of fungus living off a dying tree. According to the advertisement, its spores were soon to take root in the cold, grey streets of Kirkcaldy and on a disused lot by the dog-racing track in Thornton.

  ‘Are you after anything special?’ an assistant, who had glided silently to her side, asked her in a sibilant undertone.

  ‘Just looking, thanks,’ she caught herself whispering in return. After he had moved away, she turned her attention to the rear of the shop. High up on a wall hung a selection of crossed fishing rods and nets, and stacked immediately below them were a row of golf bags, shiny clubs protruding from each of them. On shelving to one side was a display of power tools, some in mint condition, but others mud-spattered and worn, as if plucked, still buzzing, from their building sites only minutes earlier. Nothing tempted her.

  A customer coming in through the swing doors set a couple of tiny handwritten tickets on a nearby alarm clock fluttering in the artificial breeze, like the wings of a frantic insect. Catching sight in the distance of a silver-plated saxophone displayed against the blue silk lining of its case, Alice wandered over towards it, attracted by the beauty of its sinuous shape. Gazing at it, she felt an overwhelming urge to possess it. Maybe Ian would like to draw it, or even learn to play it? Of course, other lips, strangers’ lips, would have blown into it, dribbled into it, and that might well put him off. Besides, the price of ninety-five pounds seemed steep, and money might be tight if the worst happened this afternoon. He might think she had chosen it with herself in mind, despite it being ostensibly a present for him? He would be right, and he could, and would, see right through her. But, with its fine filigree engravings it was a wondrous object. The sort of thing that would be appreciated by anybody, surely?

  While she was still mulling things over, trying to talk herself out of buying it, a man joined her, also intent upon inspecting the musical instruments section. He smelt strongly of stale curry, and in his left hand he held a stick, on which he leant heavily. Hobbling past her, he came to a halt before a stand on which seven electric guitars were propped up. Humming to himself, he began slyly inspecting the instruments and their price tickets. As he bent over to examine one, he lost his balance and toppled into a large pile of treadmills and dumbbells stationed at the base of the stand.

  ‘Feck!’ he shouted, lying spreadeagled on the floor. Instantly, a pair of assistants appeared from nowhere. Yanking him up, one of them hissed at him, ‘Forget it, Paddy. You’re not getting it back unless we get the cash.’

  The other stood in front of the guitars, his arms crossed, deliberately blocking the man’s view with his body.

  ‘I just need it the one night, boys,’ the man pleaded. ‘I’ve a gig booked in Ratho. I could give you the money after it’s over and I’m paid.’

  Alice decided that she had seen enough. Ian would not thank her for the saxophone. Like the rest of the items in the place, it would carry with it its story of shattered dreams, hobbies abandoned, jobs lost, mortgage payments now in the red. Almost every article was a tangible reminder of human misery or folly, including the saxophone, and that thought would certainly put him off. Her, too, thinking about it dispassionately.

  And, of course, a fair few of the things there told a different story, as the SART boys knew only too well: one of housebreaking and heroin. Camouflaged among the once-treasured possessions were a mass of stolen goods.

  Having had her fill of the place she walked towards the door. Next to the entrance were a couple of locked cabinets, both filled with an assortment of highly-polished jewellery, calculators and mobile phones. For a second, sunlight glinted off a golden bangle, the reflection temporarily blinding her. Another reflection danced on the pavement below, a third flitted about on a leather jacket worn by a passer-by. The cabinets, she noticed, had been angled artfully by the management, arranged to attract those outside the shop into it, acting as lures to draw them in like fish into a trap.

  ‘Sure there’s nothing I can help you with?’ It was the same lisping male assistant as before. He smiled at her, as if to persuade her to come back inside. Behind him she could see Paddy being frogmarched to the exit, his stick waving uselessly in the air like the leg of an upended insect.

  ‘No thanks . . . I’ve just been looking,’ she said.

  On Leith Walk, Alice headed southwards, trying to look into each of the dusty, old-fashioned shop fronts as she dawdled past them. She knew that if she allowed her mind to drift, she would find herself rehearsing her evidence again, answering questions which might never be posed, justifying herself to herself like a mad woman. How the hell had she got herself into a situation like this?

  Suppressing her inner dialogue, she stared into the shop windows. To her eyes, they seemed a
nachronistic, a collection of fossils from an older, slower world of commerce, an age untouched by computer technology and internet shopping. There was an old-fashioned barber’s shop complete with striped pole, a tattoo parlour with its proprietor’s name dripping in blood-red letters, and cheek by jowl with it, a secondhand bookshop. Leith’s glory days were long since over. A few of its street names, Baltic Street and Madeira Place, hinted at its romantic past as a maritime port. Recently, city money had been pumped in to redevelop, renovate and restore the place, but despite the millions spent on it, its couthy character had never quite been extinguished. It was like an old Scots lady, her tartans now replaced by stylish silk clothes, but who betrayed her origins every time she opened her mouth.

  Next to the bookshop was an office, deserted, with a Polish name emblazoned above the door and fly-posters pasted across its cobwebbed windows. Its abandoned state was easily enough explained, she thought. Nowadays, there were precious few Poles left in the capital to use its services, the cold wind of recession having blown most of them back to Warsaw, Cracow, Gdansk or wherever.

  Maybe, after the hearing, she too would find herself jobless, she mused. Conscious that she was sinking into the quagmire of doubt again, she wrenched her attention back and began staring through the glass of a shoe repairer and locksmith’s door. Deliberately, she focused on the display of mortise locks and Yale keys inside as if they were of interest, exhibits worthy of study. Moving onwards she forced herself, once more, to put her appointment out of her mind, to stop herself dwelling on her imminent professional nemesis. But with the hour growing closer it was becoming impossible.

  In a final attempt, she halted to look in the window of the One-Stop Aquarium Shop, her eye momentarily caught by an iridescent fish darting about its tank, its tiny body glinting like a jewel in the clear water. But as she was watching it, unconsciously she started to finger the folded-up piece of paper in her pocket, feeling the edges of the Misconduct Form between her thumb and forefinger. It was dog-eared and discoloured from too much handling, and on it were recorded the two charges laid against her.