The Blood Tree by Paul Johnston Read Free Book Online Page A

dismembered across the table.
    â€œRight, let’s recap,” I said, stifling a yawn. “As far as we know, the intruders were only interested in this file . . .” I tapped the folder with the bloodstain “. . . and Attachment Number Two has been removed from it.”
    The public order guardian moved his head dispiritedly.
    â€œWe’ll have to get some senior auxiliaries to go through the other files more thoroughly.” I pointed at the heap of folders at the other end of the table. They were the neighbouring ones from the stack which Davie had delivered outside the door earlier. He’d sounded very unimpressed when the guardian wouldn’t let him in. No doubt he was now tearing several strips off the poor sods working the night shift in the command centre.
    â€œBut so far there’s no sign of anything having been taken from them.”
    â€œNo.” I looked over at the guardian. His bloodshot eyes stared out between the white of his hair and beard. “Of course, they could have taken papers from completely separate folders. You’ll have to get the whole archive checked.”
    â€œI’ll think about that tomorrow,” Hamilton said, waving his hand weakly.
    â€œIt’s already tomorrow, Lewis.” I reined myself in a bit. My ex-boss looked like one of the city’s ancient diesel-spewing buses had recently run into him. “Anyway, as I said, one of the attachments is missing. And we don’t know what it contained.”
    The guardian nodded. He hadn’t allowed me to read anything other than the cover sheet of the folder. All it told me was that the contents related to three meetings of the Genetic Engineering Committee in April 2002. It gave the names of the Members of the Scottish Parliament, bureaucrats and scientists present, none of which I recognised.
    â€œWhat was so interesting about a parliamentary committee nearly twenty-five years ago?” I mused.
    â€œYou were still in short trousers then, weren’t you?” Hamilton said, without much evidence of playfulness.
    â€œI was eighteen,” I said, giving him a sharp look. “And a fully paid-up member of the Enlightenment.” I shook my head. “That may well have been a mistake.”
    â€œThe Enlightenment Party was the forerunner of the Council,” the guardian said. “How could it have been a mistake to join it?”
    â€œOh, forget it,” I said under my breath. Suddenly I was bombarded by images and memories from that time. I’d just started at the university and for all the social unrest and drugs-gang-inspired chaos, I was full of the joys of life. Not for long. I wondered how many of my friends from that time were still alive, let alone in Edinburgh – plenty had deserted in the early years of the Council, seduced by the allure of supposedly democratic cities like Glasgow.
    â€œWe’ll continue later. I need to get Council authorisation for you to read that file.” Hamilton raised his shoulders. “Sorry, Dalrymple.”
    I shrugged back at him. “Your loss, not mine. I want to check on Hector then hit my bed.”
    Hamilton looked at me blankly then concentrated on the checklist he’d written in his notebook. “I’ll get the forensics people to examine the folder for traces and compare the blood with the spots you found on the floor.”
    â€œI don’t think they’ll find much. I couldn’t see any fingerprints with my lens. Whoever laid hands on this file was wearing gloves.” I raised my right hand which was still sheathed in its protective glove; the rubber dangled loosely from the stump of the forefinger. “Not heavy labourer’s ones but thin ones like these, which were cut by the edge of a sheet of paper. Whence the blood traces and not much else.”
    The guardian went on down his list. “The guard will also be checking the removal of the equipment from the Labour