Read Online Thursday legends - Skinner 10 by Quintin Jardine - Free Book Online Page B

handphone away. 'Work,' he said
to Thomson.
    'Not
that thing our newsroom was on about today, was it? Out in my home town.'
    'I'm
afraid so.'
    The
little man shook his head. 'Poor old Smithy. He was one of us, you know; one of
the Thursday Legends. Something come back to haunt him, did it?'
    Martin
frowned at the shrewdness of the question. 'Maybe, maybe not. Too early to
tell. Come on, there's been enough shop all round. Let's get to the grub.'
    They
were almost there when the scream rang out behind them; short, sharp piercing,
then dying into a gasp. The detective turned on his heel. Margot, the birthday
girl, was standing to the left of the garden with her back to her guests,
leaning over the boundary fence and gripping its rail tightly. She was staring
down, back along the river towards the Belford Bridge.
    The
rest of the gathering seemed to turn in slow motion towards her, but Andy
Martin was by her side in three strides. 'What's up, Margot?' he asked
urgently.
    The
girl said nothing, did not move, as he put a protective arm around her
shoulders. She could only gaze at the greenish-tinged water, her mouth hanging
open slightly. At last she raised a hand and pointed. 'There,' she whispered.
'What's that thing along there? Is it what I think it is?'
    The
detective followed the direction of her outstretched finger, leaning outwards,
just as she did. At last he saw it, just under the far parapet of the bridge
which carries the road above across Edinburgh's little river. It was a large
green, puffy object, swollen by the water, not going with the flow but snagged
on something. He might have thought that it was no more than a roll of carpet -
but for the thing, the pale white thing, which floated on the surface.
    'Oh
no,' he muttered. 'Just what I need to round off a perfect day.'
    He
felt a strong hand tug at his elbow and turned to face Rhian. Juliet, Spike and
the others had gathered behind her, one or two of them leaning out over the
fence. 'Back,' he called out, sharply. 'Everyone get back towards the house,
please.
    'There's
something in the river and it's given Margot a fright. It's probably nothing -'
He knew as he spoke that his urgency made his lie sound unconvincing. '- but
I'm going along to check it out, just in case. Come on now, back, please.'
    Frowning,
Juliet Lewis took her younger daughter, who had begun to tremble, by the hand
and drew her away from the fence, while Rhian began to usher the rest of the
gathering towards the back of the garden as Martin had asked. As she did, he
glanced down at his clothes, then eased out of his sandals to stand barefoot on
the grass. He stripped off his Hugo Boss shirt and hung it over the top rail
then, deciding that his cotton slacks were expendable, vaulted over the fence
on to the sloping embankment which ran along the other side.
    The
arch of the bridge was about fifty yards away; he made his way crabwise along
the grass banking until he reached it, then stepped out into the murky waters.
Almost at once he was more than waist deep, wading through ooze and slime,
pausing to balance himself as he stepped on the occasional slippery stone. The
river was no more than a few yards wide, but under the bridge it was so gloomy
that he could not see the object clearly until he was almost upon it.
    Close
to, the pale thing had a bluish tinge. It was a hand, on the end of a
shirt-sleeved right arm which seemed to have worked its way awkwardly from the
dark-coloured rug which had enclosed it. The head was almost clear too; a man's
head, face down in the water, sparse hair floating on the surface.
    The
detective allowed his eyes a few more seconds to become accustomed to the
gloom. Gradually he saw that the rug had been tied with thick twine, top,
middle and bottom. It was hooked on the branch of a tree, which had fallen
somewhere upstream and become snagged itself on the riverbed.
    Something
made him look again at the hand, closely this time. The thumb and little finger
were missing;