The Safe House Read Online Free PDF Page A

cheer you up. Fancy something to read?’
    Detective Angeloglou tossed a pamphlet on to Rupert Baird’s desk. Baird picked it up and grunted at the faded print.
    ‘ Rabbit Punch? What’s this?’
    ‘You’re not a subscriber? We’ve got the full run of issues downstairs. It’s the house magazine of ARK.’
    ‘ARK?’
    ‘It stands for the Animal Rights Knights.’
    Baird groaned. He gently patted the hair on top of his head which covered but did not conceal the bald scalp underneath.
    ‘Really?’
    ‘Oh, yes. They’re the ones who broke into the mink farm over at Ness in ’92. They set the mink free.’ Angeloglou consulted the file he was carrying. ‘They fire-bombed the supermarket in Goldswan Green in ’93. Then nothing much till the university explosion last year. They’ve also been involved in some of the more extreme veal protests, the direct actions against farmers and transport companies.’
    ‘So?’
    ‘Look at this.’
    Angeloglou opened the magazine to its central pages, a section under the headline in red ink: ‘Butchers shopped.’
    ‘Is this relevant?’
    ‘This is one of the services they provide to readers. They print the names and addresses of people they accuse of torturing animals. Look, here’s Professor Ronald Maxwell of the Linnaeus Institute. He researches bird-song. He uses caged birds. Dr Christopher Nicholson has been sewing up the eyelids of kittens. Charles Patton runs the family fur company. And here we have Leo Mackenzie, Chairman of Mackenzie & Carlow.’
    Baird seized the magazine.
    ‘What is… what was he meant to be guilty of?’
    ‘Experiments on animals, it says here.’
    ‘Bloody hell. Well done, Chris. Have you checked it out?’
    ‘Yes. At its Fulton laboratories, the company are working on a project, partly financed by the Department of Agriculture. It’s on stress in animal husbandry, they told me.’
    ‘What does it involve?’
    Angeloglou smiled broadly.
    ‘This is the good bit,’ he said. ‘The research involves giving pigs electric shocks and lacerating them in various ways and testing their responses. Have you ever seen a pig being killed?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘They cut the throat. Blood all over the place. They make black pudding with it.’
    ‘I can’t stand black pudding,’ said Baird, turning several pages of the magazine over. ‘I don’t see a date. Do we know when this was published?’
    ‘You don’t get Rabbit Punch at your local newsagent. Its publication is best described as intermittent, and its distribution is patchy. We obtained this copy six weeks ago.’
    ‘Was Mackenzie warned about this?’
    ‘He’d been told about it,’ said Angeloglou. ‘But it was nothing new. From what they say at his head office, he was used to things like this.’
    Baird frowned with concentration.
    ‘What we need now are some names. Who was it who headed the animal operation? Mitchell, wasn’t it?’
    ‘Yes, but he’s arse-deep in the West Midlands at the moment. I’ve been on the phone to Phil Carrier who was his DI. He’s spent the last couple of months wandering around burnt barns and wrecked lorries. He’s going to come up with some names.’
    ‘Good,’ said Baird. ‘Let’s move quickly on that. What’s the latest with the Mackenzie girl?’
    ‘She’s conscious. Not critical.’
    ‘Any chance of a statement?’
    Angeloglou shook his head.
    ‘Not at the moment. The doctors say she’s in deep shock. Hasn’t said anything yet. Anyway, she was hooded, remember. I wouldn’t hold my breath for anything there.’
    As recently as 1990, Melissa Hollingdale had been a biology teacher in a comprehensive school without even an unpaid parking ticket on her record. Now she was an habituée of police interrogation rooms with a file that scrolled up the screen for page after page. Looking through the one-way mirror, Chris Angeloglou sat and stared at this impassive woman in her mid thirties. Her long thick dark hair was tied up behind, no make-up.