Death in the Black Wood, Oliver Davies [short story to read TXT] 📗

a series of car thefts that had been sweeping the area since before Christmas. That had turned out to be a dead-end, as Caitlin and I had both half expected it to be. Our potential ‘chop shop’ had turned out to be an amateur enthusiast lovingly restoring a couple of vintage cars they’d picked up cheap at auctions. All of their documentation had been in impeccable order too.

The number of vehicles stolen annually in Scotland might be a lot lower than it had been ten years earlier, but more than half of the thefts were never solved. It would certainly help if people were more vigilant and if fewer of them left their damned electronic keys near the front door. Yes, a shelf or a hook in the hall was a handy spot to leave your keys to grab on your way out, but it was also a gift to the current generation of tech-savvy car thieves.

A pair of them, working together, could easily take a car with a keyless system installed from a driveway or a kerbside parking spot in the middle of the night; one standing near the car with a device to boost the signal meant for the key and their partner, near the house, to relay the signal to the key itself. As easily as that, the doors opened at a touch, and they could drive their prize away. A lot of the thieves were working as part of organised gangs these days, and a stolen car could soon be stripped for valuable parts or moved on very quickly. It was an easy, low risk and very profitable business, especially if they mainly targeted the more expensive models.

And really, how hard was it to take a few extra, sensible precautions, not that I’d expect anyone to go as far as my cousin tended to do when he wanted to ‘secure’ anything. I’d like to see anyone try a trick like that at our place!

Maybe, when Shay had finished tinkering with his new toys, he might even agree to help us out with our car thieves. He’d been talking about how it should be possible to link his little drones to an AI system and teach it how to get them to follow a specific person or vehicle around. Setting up a few potential cars as irresistible targets might be a good test run for his system once he’d got it up and running.

No, I admitted to myself reluctantly, it wouldn’t be fair to even ask him to try that. Shay’s attitude to non-violent property theft of this kind was that as the entire social system was rigged to favour the wealthy, it was none of his business. Why should he care if someone’s insurance premium went up? If they could splash out forty grand or more on a stupid bloody car, they weren’t exactly going to starve or anything. Maybe they’d even learn to be a bit more careful in the future.

I’d driven us down to Fort Augustus earlier, so Caitlin had taken the wheel for the drive back. I think she loved our new ride even more than I did. I’d put in a request for an unmarked CID car back at the beginning of the previous June, after spending what seemed like hours filling in the ridiculous paperwork required to do that. My new, assigned car had been handed over to me three weeks later.

I’d never seen such a huge smile on Caitlin’s face as the one she cracked when she first tried our nifty new Peugeot 308 out. I hadn’t realised, before then, how much she’d disliked riding around in our faithful old Astra. It wasn’t the car’s fault it had POLICE painted all over it. When I asked her why she hadn’t said something sooner, she’d just shrugged and told me that as I hadn’t seemed to mind, she didn’t think it was her place to comment. Oddly, the rest of my team had all seemed to take a bit of an approving ‘about time too’ attitude to the change as well. Anyone would think they’d all been a bit embarrassed about what I’d been ‘putting up with.’

Caitlin reached out to automatically turn the radio off when my phone rang. We’d both shucked our coats off when we got back into the car, so it took me a few seconds to fish it out of my pocket. It might be a crisp, chilly three degrees above zero outside, but the inside of the car warmed up very quickly.

I glanced at the caller ID and mouthed ‘McKinnon’ at her before answering. He didn’t wait for a greeting.

“Conall? Where are you?”

“On our way back from Fort Augustus, about fifteen minutes out.”

“East or west bank?”

“West. We took the A82.” He made an unhappy noise.

“Alright then. Listen, a new homicide case has come up, and from what Davie Baird’s telling me from the scene, it’s a really nasty one. He’s down near Dores, in the woods a couple of miles east of your place. Can you cut through town and head straight there if I send you the location?” I didn’t like the sound of his voice at all, and if James said ‘really nasty,’ then it would certainly be something very unpleasant.

“Of course,” I assured him. “What can you tell me?”

“Not much, which is why I want your eyes on the situation as soon as possible. A forest ranger stumbled across a body out there less than an hour ago. Davie and his boys have been there for about fifteen minutes. He says there’s absolutely no doubt that we’re looking at a premeditated killing. He’s already informed our procurator fiscal, and a police surgeon should be heading that way soon. Davie’s not too hopeful about getting anything from the scene to help identify the perpetrators either. The body was set on fire afterwards, and the skin, hair and clothing are a charred, melted mess. Plus, he thinks it’s been there a few days.”

“We’ll get there