Last Orders (a Gus Dury crime thriller) Read Online Free PDF Page A

parade.'
    That was the thing with Fitz, he didn't do soft-soaping.
'I take it you ran a check on Caroline.'
    He bit. 'Jesus, Dury, watch what yeer saying!'
    He was always over-cautious about talking on the phone,
there was no reason for it, apart from him having seen too many Bourne movies.
    'Okay ... sorry. What have you got for me?'
    'Do you want the good news or the bad?'
    The way he was going, I wouldn't have predicted a
choice. 'Well, I always like to get the bad news out the way first ...'
    'Urquhart hasn't filed a missing persons for his
daughter. That's the first hurdle right there. But on top of that, we've no
trace of her ... Caroline isn't on our books for anything.'
    With all my suspicions about Urquhart this didn't
surprise me. What confused me no end was why he wanted me to find her at all. 'So,
we've only his word to go on that she's even here ... It doesn't make sense.'
    'Oh, she's here.'
    ' What ?'
    I felt a shove on my back and the queue edged forward, I
was pressed against a large man in a sheep-skin coat who, from the back anyway,
could have been a distant relation of the late Giant Haystacks.
    'Christ Almighty ...' he said, his voice a low girlish
teeter that didn't fit his scale.
    'I'm sorry ...' Like I was arguing the toss.
    'Gus ... Gus ... one large latte.'
    I felt a wince inside me as an American accent mangled
my name from behind the counter. A large paper cup was plonked down in front of
me.
    'Hope you enjoy your coffee, Gus.'
    I didn't know whether to smile or chuck up at the
sentiment. Went for a nod, paired with a conspiratorial wink that said I wasn't
buying into all this false-bonhomie bullshit.
    'Dury ... you still there?' Fitz sparked up on the end
of the line.
    'Yeah ... just grabbing a coffee.' I manoeuvred my way
back onto the Mile, headed down for the crossing. 'Go on ... you were saying.'
    'Caroline Urquhart is in Edinburgh ... or at least,
someone her age and going by the same name is.'
    'How do you know this if she's not on your books?'
    He sighed, sounded like a lengthy explanation was beyond
him. 'Because I ran her details with the Health Board as well ...'
    'Jesus. That's a bit of a result.'
    'It is and it isn't ... I don't have an address. She
gave a homeless hostel as her address, but I checked with them and she's moved
on.'
    I stopped in my tracks. 'Shit.'
    'Well, you'd think.'
    'I hope you're going to tell me otherwise.'
    'No, Gus, I have no idea where Caroline is.' He let a
gap on the line stretch out between us and I felt my hopes evaporating, then, 'But
if you have nothing better to do, I have an idea where you might, just might
mind, catch a hold of someone who does.'
    * * * *
    My feelings about being this deep in the heart of Leith
were conflicted. I'd grown up here, but without the store of happy memories
most people associate with childhood. Every street still hugged me like a
returning son, I loved the place, I just couldn't bear being here for long.
    Leith was changing, the old bricks and mortar buildings
crumbling to decay and being ripped down. In their stead came the chrome and
glass wank-itechture that was infesting the entire city. Most of the flats they
flung up when money was cheap were unsaleable now but it didn't seem to stop
them. Ever the eye to the main chance, or ever hopeful, I couldn't decide
which.
    I came off Commercial Street and took myself onto
Lindsay Street. Fitz had given me the details of a midwife who worked out of
Leith Mount. He didn't know her, or even of her. All he had was a name on a
computer screen and a few details, some of which listed Caroline Urquhart as
one of her patients.
    There was a car park for the practice, I took a look for
the white Micra that belonged to Janice Dawes, the midwife I was about to
doorstep. Fitz had supplied the reg-number for her car so it was a simple
matter of waiting for her to show. They were always on the go, these midwives,
so with any luck I wouldn't have to wait long.
    I found the car in the