Free The Hangman's Song (Inspector Mclean 3) by James Oswald

door was open, and McLean almost walked straight in as he would have done back when Jayne McIntyre was in charge. A self-preserving sixth sense stopped him. That and a quiet ‘ahem’ from the desk to one side of the door. He looked around to see a pale-faced constable manning the barricades.
    ‘He’s, um, expecting you, sir.’
    McLean raised an eyebrow. ‘Anyone else had a strip torn off yet?’
    ‘I couldn’t say, sir. DS Laird was in earlier though.’
    Poor old Grumpy Bob. Well, he’d been dealing with the likes of Dagwood for long enough to develop the necessary thick skin. McLean took a deep breath, then advanced upon the open doorway. Across the room he could see the object of his scorn hunched over his desk, peering myopically at the screen of a tiny laptop computer. He rapped lightly on the door frame. Acting SuperintendentCharles Duguid stopped what he was doing, looked up and scowled.
    ‘About bloody time. Come in and shut the door.’
    McLean did as he was told, approaching the desk like a man who wasn’t in fear of his life. Better to close on your enemy fast.
    ‘The Leith suicide. Did I not make it clear I wanted it wrapped up quickly?’
    McLean nodded, said nothing.
    ‘And yet you asked DS Laird to go and check it over again today.’
    McLean shifted slightly, stopped himself from fidgeting. Again said nothing.
    ‘And now I hear you’ve taken DC MacBride and DS Ritchie down to the mortuary for … what exactly?’ Duguid’s scowl deepened. ‘For Christ’s sake. You’re meant to be working with Jo Dexter in the SCU. Is Edinburgh so chaste you’ve got time to go nosing into every suicide?’
    ‘It –’
    ‘There’s plenty of work for all of us without you sniffing out more, McLean. Don’t go complicating things. It’s a simple case. Young man couldn’t face it any more, hanged himself. End of.’
    ‘It wasn’t a suicide sir.’
    Duguid’s stare hardened, his face starting the journey from red to purple.
    ‘What the fuck are you talking about? There was no evidence of foul play. I’ve read the report. Have you?’
    ‘Sir, I’ve just been talking to the pathologist. There’s no trace of fibres from the rope under his nails. He didn’ttouch it. That means at the very least he had an accomplice. Someone helped him.’
    Duguid let out a noise halfway between a sigh and a roar. ‘It’s never easy with you, McLean. You can’t leave well enough alone, can you.’
    McLean held his tongue. No point deliberately poking the bear, especially now he was in charge.
    ‘I don’t know what arrangement you had with Jayne McIntyre, but from now on it will be proper channels. You understand? No new investigations without approval. We don’t have the manpower to go playing every hunch. You know our budget’s being cut like everyone else’s.’
    ‘I understand, sir. Which is why I came to see you as soon as I knew there was something amiss.’
    ‘Dammit, McLean. Are you listening?’ Duguid thumped the desk in time with his words. ‘Proper channels. You report to DCI Brooks. He decides whether or not to take it up with me. You deal with the sergeants, they deal with the constables. Chain of command. Christ, what did they teach you in Tulliallan?’
    How to think for myself. Obviously a lesson you missed.
    ‘I’ll speak to DCI Brooks right away, sir.’
    ‘No, McLean, you won’t.’ Duguid slumped back into his expensive leather chair. ‘You’re here now. I’m not so bloody stupid as to send you off around the houses. Brooks will only come bleating back to me like the rest of them.’
    ‘It won’t take much manpower, sir. DC MacBride’s done a good job so far. He and Bob Laird can do the legwork. I’ll keep an eye on progress, make sure they’re notspending too much time on it. We just need to find out a little bit more about the victim. Speak to his friends, fellow students, tutors.’
    ‘Contrary to what gets said in the canteen, I do know how to run an investigation,