the High Street but he left us for dead. And by the way,’ he added, looking the man straight in the eye, ‘he’s done something now. He stole the bike he rode off on, four hundred quid’s worth, according to the careless owner who went into the Seabird Centre without chaining it to the rack.’
‘You guys would make onybody nervous.’
‘Only the guilty.’
‘Fuck off.’
‘Here’s the truth,’ Pye told him. ‘When your son was sixteen years old, he appeared in the Sheriff Court in Haddington, where he pleaded guilty to seventeen counts of theft from cars, and fourteen counts of malicious damage. He was put on probation for two years. When he was eighteen he was found guilty of taking away a vehicle from the car park in St Andrews Street, North Berwick. He was fined five hundred pounds, and put on probation again. There’s no getting round that, Mr Francey; next time he’s in court, he’s going to prison.’
‘You lot would just love that,’ the father retorted.
‘Get real,’ the DCI said. ‘I’ve never met Dean. I don’t know him, so I had no preconceptions . . . until he took off. Now . . . I’m investigating a car theft with serious consequences, and he’s put himself right at the top of the list of suspects. So please, for his sake, help us.’
‘Tae do what? Tae put him in jail?’
‘Can we get off this fucking boat?’ Pye snapped. He was no sailor; the gentle swell of the harbour at full tide and the combined odours of fish, seaweed and oil were beginning to affect him.
Francey looked at him, a sneer in his eyes, then turned and climbed the few rungs of the steel ladder that was bolted into the quayside. The two detectives followed suit.
On solid ground once more, Haddock took over from his boss. ‘Mr Francey, Dean’s doing a bloody good job of putting himself in jail without your help, but the longer this goes on, the tougher it could be for him. I’m not going into detail, but a car that he knows and had been in was stolen from its garage over the weekend. It turned up this morning in Edinburgh, and the driver ran off. The description we have fits your son.’
The father shook his head. ‘Naw, he was here all morning,’ he protested.
‘Do me the courtesy of looking at me when you lie to me,’ the DS said. He turned and nodded towards the old granary behind him. ‘There are upwards of half a dozen flats in that building, overlooking your boat. If he was here, he’ll have been seen by at least one of the residents, for sure. And anyway, what were you doing here, the pair of you? The tide would have been out.’
He gave the man time to consider, then went on. ‘I understand you wanting to protect your son; my dad would do the same for me, if he had to. Now tell us, when did he turn up here, honestly?’
Francey’s shoulders slumped. ‘Just after twelve,’ he murmured. ‘We were supposed to go out at half ten, tae check the pots. Ah wasnae best pleased when he never turned up, for missin’ the tide costs me money. Ah could hae done it maself, but thought he was comin’ so Ah waited.’
‘Does Dean live with you?’
‘Naw. He’s got a one-bedroom flat in a buildin’ on the main street.’
‘We’ll check that,’ Pye said, his equilibrium recovered, ‘but I don’t expect he’ll be there waiting for us. Do you know of anywhere else he’d go in a crisis?’
‘He might go tae Donna’s, his sister’s, Ah suppose.’
‘Where does Donna live?’
‘Musselburgh, near the station.’
‘Alone?’
‘Naw. She’s married tae a fireman. Ah can phone her if ye like, tae see if he’s there.’
‘I think we’d rather ask her that. Give me her address and we’ll pay her a call.’
‘She’ll no’ be in. She works at the university. Levon, her man, he might be. He works shifts. Ah could phone him.’
‘If you want to phone anyone,’ the DCI suggested, ‘you could try calling Dean himself, and tell him to go to the nearest police office.’ Behind him he heard Haddock speaking on his mobile. He waited for him to finish.
‘That was Lucy Tweedie,’ the DS announced. ‘Her troops have found what they think is the stolen bike, abandoned at the station. If he caught the train they think he might be on, it’ll be due in Edinburgh in two minutes. She’s asked the transport police to meet it and she’s