Bridge of Doom (20 page)

Guy Brodie was waiting to greet them at the door to his penthouse office.
 

'Come in, it's really good to see you both again. I hope Henry has got you settled in okay.'  

'Yes, our rooms are very nice, thanks.' said Jack. 

'Yeah, just like home, not,' added Annie with a smile. 'By the way, is it okay for me to use the gym and the other facilities down in the basement?' 

'Yes, absolutely. You have the complete run of the house apart from the top floor, which is where I've been holed up for the past two weeks, working full time on this deal. You might bump into one or two of my close friends, who occasionally pop in to use the gym or the sauna. But apart from them you'll basically have it to yourself, Annie. I'm afraid I've not been down there as often as I should lately, what with one thing and another.' 

'I think I'll pass on the gym,' said Jack. 'The home cinema is probably more my style.' 

'Again, please feel free. There's a small cupboard on the left just as you go in, with a pretty good DVD library. But if there's nothing in there to your taste, you can stream movies and television shows directly from Netflix or Amazon on the big screen.' 

'Perfect,' said Annie. 

'To get back to business, I was deliberately vague the last time we spoke, about how long your job here will last. But the way things are shaping up at the moment, I think I'll probably need you around for around for at least two weeks, give or take a few days either way.'  

'Yes, Henry gave us a heads up earlier and we're happy with that,' said Jack. 'We've completely cleared the decks in terms of taking on any new work, so we'll be here for as long as we're needed. But it would be useful if you could give me as much warning as you can, when the finishing date becomes clearer.'  

'I will. So, tell me Jack, what's your professional assessment of my security arrangements?'
 

'Well we've been right round the place, both inside and out and, overall, I'd say your security looks very impressive, with no obvious weak spots.' 

'It's reassuring to hear you say that,' said Guy. 

'But it would be really useful if we could get access to your CCTV system,' added Annie. 'So we can monitor the whole property, inside and out. Is there any way I can link up my laptop to the security cameras?'
 

Guy began scribbling on a sheet of paper before replying. 'Yes that's an excellent idea, Annie. All the security cameras are linked to a wireless local area network, which has the very latest encryption. I'll give you a password for the house Wi-Fi and, once you're logged on, this second password, which I've written below, will allow you access to the CCTV hard drive and all the live feeds from the various security cameras throughout the house, except for the ones on this floor. My private suite is completely self-contained and secure.'
 

'Yes, Henry explained earlier that you even have a panic room up here,' said Jack.
 

'That’s right and you're probably both far too polite to say so, but I'm aware that you're thinking my apparent obsession with security is slightly over the top. But to give you a little background, my previous home was broken into and completely trashed just before I moved here. Very unpleasant and, although you may not be aware of it, there's been something of an epidemic of burglary here in Edinburgh over the past year or so. This followed the disbandment of a very effective local police team, which specialised in home burglary investigations.'

Jack snorted and said, 'obviously not one of Police Scotland's smarter decisions. Although, to be fair, the same could be said about quite a lot of other things they've done recently.'
 

'Quite so, but in this case it sent out the completely wrong message to the local criminal fraternity. They took it to mean, correctly, that they could go ahead and burgle houses throughout Edinburgh, including here in the New Town, with complete impunity.'
 

'Yes, but somehow, Guy, I'm getting the feeling that's not the whole story.'
 

'What do you mean?'
 

'We've got the impression from speaking to Henry that, leaving aside general concerns about burglary in the city, there have also been specific threats to you personally. He didn't go into any great detail, but he said that you might want to explain a bit more about it.'
 

Guy said nothing but got up and went over to a dormer window, where he stared out at the panoramic view over the rooftops, north across the river Forth to Fife.
 

'Look, I'm sorry if I've got that completely wrong, but I felt I had to ask.'
 

'There's no need to apologise, Jack, because your instincts are absolutely correct. It started about a month ago, just after I moved in here. It was low-level stuff at first, hardly worth mentioning really.' 

'What do you mean?' said Jack.
 

'First there was a broken window. An unopened can of Tesco value lager, if I remember correctly, ended up in the middle of the dining room carpet. Without being snobbish, there's probably not a great deal of that particular beverage drunk here in Moray Place, so I think I can safely rule out any of my immediate neighbours as potential suspects.' 

'Anyway, not a big deal I thought, probably just some passing drunken idiot and it was just bad luck that he happened to pick my house. These things can happen anywhere, so I had the window fixed and forgot about it. Then a few days later a neighbour telephoned me around eight o'clock in the morning to let me know that graffiti had been sprayed over my front door.'
 

'What kind of graffiti?' said Annie.
 

Guy picked up his phone, quickly found a saved picture of the vandalism and showed it to Jack and Annie.
 

'It was puzzling, because it wasn't the usual type of mindless graffiti that you occasionally see around the city centre. You know, gang tags or something to do with football. It was just one word,
CHEAT
,
that had been written in big block capitals, using an aerosol can of bright red paint.'
 

'I see, so someone was obviously sending you a specific message, or a warning. What did you take it to mean?'
 

'I really didn't know what to make of it at the time, because at that point I wasn't aware that I had pissed anyone off unduly, either in my business dealings or my private life. Well, no more than usual. You know what it's like, Jack, there are winners and losers in every walk of life and property development is no different. But things usually even out over the piece and, at the end of the day, we all have to co-exist with our competitors and rivals. So it was a complete mystery to me at that stage.' 

'What happened next?' 

'That's when things got really serious. A shot was fired at the front of the house, which broke a window on the first floor, with the bullet lodging in the ceiling plaster. It’s not been repaired yet, so you can still see the damage. The police went through footage from the security camera on the front of the house and they describe it as a so-called drive-by shooting which is, thankfully, much more common in South Central LA than here in Edinburgh.'
 

'Did they get manage to get a plate number, or identify the make of car?' asked Jack.
 

'No, unfortunately all that can be seen on the video tape is a large dark coloured car slowing down outside and then the bright muzzle flash of a handgun being fired from the front passenger window, by someone who was wearing a ski-mask. This happened around two-thirty in the morning, when there was no one still up in the house, so it clearly wasn't a serious attempt to kill or injure me.'
 

'But extremely unsettling nevertheless.'
 

'Absolutely, Jack, and at that point I started to get really worried. So, with Henry's help, I immediately beefed up my security, installing even more cameras and that’s when I had the panic room installed here on the top floor. If you'd told me six months ago I'd be doing all of these things, I'd have said you were completely mad. But it doesn't feel mad now. And then Henry suggested that we should think about hiring some extra help.'
 

'I've worked on a few jobs with Henry and we've always got on pretty well,' said Jack diplomatically.
 

'Henry and I go way back. We're good friends as well as business colleagues and I trust him with my life. In fact, I don't know what I would have done without him these last few weeks. When I saw how concerned he was for my personal safety, I decided to take his advice and that's why you are both here.' 

'Have there been any more recent incidents?' 

‘Yes, I’ve also received numerous silent phone calls to my private number. I’ve changed it three times in the last month alone, but somehow they still manage to get through. What else? Oh yes, my car has been vandalised twice and the last few times I’ve been out and about in Edinburgh, I’ve had the feeling that someone was following me. So I think that my current level of paranoia has some justification.’

‘And I noticed that someone tried to force the rear door down in the basement,’ added Jack.

‘Yes, I forgot about that and I’m pleased you picked it up on your survey. So, as you can appreciate, it’s quite a long list of aggravation that I could heartily do without. But just to bring you completely up to date, the very latest development is that a gang of young men have taken to regularly hanging around outside the house late at night. Sometimes they kick a ball about in the street, or they sit on the bonnets of cars laughing and drinking cans of beer. Other times they just stand outside silently staring up at the house, which is even worse. Quite intimidating in fact.'
 

'Any idea who they are?' 

'None. But it doesn't take a genius to work out that someone has put them up to this, Jack. There is no other explanation, because I don't know any of them and I've certainly never had any kind of interaction with a bunch of hooligans. Of course, I've spoken to the police about it and they've driven past a couple of times and had a word with the gang members.'
 

'So how did that go?'
 

'They told the police they were just waiting around for a lift. Complete rubbish, of course. But since they've not been seen committing a crime, the police say their hands are tied for the moment.'
 

'Yes, and I suppose if they can't be arsed to come out of the cop shop to investigate burglaries, they're not going to get too excited about some young guys playing football out in the street, even if it is in the New Town.'

'One of the older policemen who came to the house even suggested that, given the Scotland team's ropey form, we could actually do with more youngsters practicing football out in the street. You know, the way kids used to do years ago.' 

Jack smiled and said, 'he does have a point there, Guy, to be fair. But just to go back to the graffiti on your front door, which implied you had cheated someone, I think it would help if you could explain a bit more about the background to this big property deal you've been working on.' 

'About six months ago, at the beginning of February, I was approached directly by a property agent, acting for an unnamed family trust which owns a large vacant site just to the west of the city centre. The sellers, for undisclosed reasons, didn't want to become involved in a protracted public bidding process for the land. I'd dealt with this particular agent before and it seemed a perfectly plausible story at the time. A quick sale for cash was what was on offer and I was given a week to chew it over and come to a decision, one way or the other. A slightly unusual set of circumstances, certainly, but not unheard of. So I took a look at it and that's when I started to get excited very quickly, because opportunities like this one don't come along very often.'
 

'Okay, what was so good about this particular site?' asked Jack.
 

'First off … there's the size, it's nearly four acres. It's very unusual for a site of that size to become available in central Edinburgh.’ 

'Sorry,' said Annie. 'I've no idea how big that is.' 

'It's roughly the size of four football pitches, so that grabbed my attention right away. Then there's the proximity to the city centre business district, the university and all of the major transport links. But there was a potential problem because of the unusual shape of the site and the fact that the planners wanted to retain part of the façade of the original building, which is ‘B’ listed. God knows why, but not an insurmountable problem. Here, it's probably easier if I show you what I'm talking about on this plan of the development.'
 

One wall of the office was almost covered by a detailed layout plan of the
Westlink
development and Guy used a pencil to indicate a cross-hatched area on the plan. ‘This main bit in the middle is the site of the old brewery complex, owned by the family trust, and these four smaller areas in blue, which adjoin the main site, were all in private ownership. Fortunately, I've managed to acquire all of them, in order to make the whole thing viable. This is where a children's nursery will go, at the request of the council, and there will also be several small retail units.'