Free Country of the Blind by Christopher Brookmyre

last night's events may have been for many people," he said, "any new development may be bound to cause great excitement, but it is vital that we keep our feet on the ground. In this climate of uncertainty, it would be easy to imagine Miss Carrow's apparent revelation as a twist in the tale, but in fact it merely confirms what our investigations have been increasingly leading us to believe - that some kind of security leak facilitated last night's tragic events. And indeed, we are already involved in efforts to establish the source of the leak right now. However, it strikes me as disingenuous to suggest that a few handwritten words can in any way clear the suspicion of a terrorist motive."
    "And why do you believe that?"
    "Well, Miss Carrow's paragraphs do not actually prove the suspects didn't know the identity of whoever would be staying at Craigurquhart House. Indeed it strikes me that by going on about 'some rich person' it sounds very much like McInnes was deliberately attempting to cover up the fact that they did know, and you have to ask yourself why that might be. You have to ask yourself why Mr McInnes would deposit such a letter with his lawyer prior to taking part in this atrocity. It seems to me the only reason could be as a damage limitation exercise in the event that he was caught. If he has written a letter claiming he intended merely to rob some anonymous rich guest, and that he did not know that rich guest's identity, it would suggest that Mr Voss was not a premeditated target, as well as protecting whoever might be behind the operation - by suggesting that no-one was behind it."
    The policeman held up his hands in an explanatory gesture. "At this stage,"
    he continued, "we cannot for certain say that this wasn't just a very bloody and ruthless attempted robbery, but nothing we have seen gives us any reason to rule out a terrorist motive either, and for that reason we can't afford to relax our position. These men have already managed to murder one of the most powerful businessmen in the world. If there is a terrorist group behind them, then it is a very merciless and very resourceful one, and if this is a demonstration of their capabilities, I think it is vital to the security of not just our own country that we do everything in our power to hunt them down."
    Fair enough, thought Parlabane, but something was still discomforting him, some half-formed realisation that had got lost along the way, an irritation like trying to remember in which movie he had previously seen some minor-role actress - and whether she might have taken her clothes off in it. 41
    He jogged the remote control to picture-search Rewind, watching the figures and talking heads suddenly turn black and white, and jiggle, newsreelstyle, at jerky high-speed. The cop disappeared, replaced by the reporter, replaced in turn by Nicole Carrow, Parlabane all the time trying to remember what had sparked his truncated revelation.
    There, he suddenly thought, watching her hand place hair into her eye in a sharp, precise movement. He hit Play and the image slowed, lurchingly, restoring itself to colour a moment before sound returned.
    ". . . ot, I had instructions to open it. Inside wuh. . . "
    Sudden look of uncertainty in the unobscured eye, glancing quickly off and back before she cleared her throat and then swept the offending strands clear. Offending strands that hadn't been bothering her for the four or five seconds they had already been sitting there.
    "Excuse me. Inside was a let. . . "
    Something was wrong. Something had slightly knocked her off balance. He jogged into reverse once again, that hand plonking the hair faithfully back into her eye a second time.
    ". . . open it. Inside wuh. . . Excuse me. Inside was a letter. . . "
    She had given something away, or rather was afraid she had.
    ". . . uctions to open it. Inside wuh. . . Excuse me. Inside waw. . . "
    He listened to the accent, the inflections and emphases.
    ". . . it. Inside wuh. . .