Sentence The Fortieth
Sergeant Brevity noticed the soi-disant prostitute leave the bar in the direction of the toilets, then saw that she was followed by Trixie Davidova, at the same time as Teri Somerville came in from the Ladies and joined the party – all of whom were also her cousins too, for she was another niece of both Daphne and Maude (all of which Gordon Brevity knew because his own wife Goldy was also a niece of the two Historians and he had met all of them at family gatherings) indeed, the irreverent WPC Isa Urquhart was another such – not so surprising really in the small village of Edinburgh) which to him felt like upmarket Carry On comedies; but suddenly he snapped to attention for, though there was no sound, he seemed to be watching a Carry On movie, or something involving the Keystone Cops – penned by a fictioneer in the style of a Brian Rix farce, complete with double-takes, visual puns, tides of movement, and with degrees of emotion from puzzlement, confusion, wonder, excitement all the way to shock and horror, for he saw the Advocate, who he now recognised as Martin Elginbrod, a highly successful lawyer from an old and wealthy family, whose clients included underworld figures many of whom had never been convicted or done time, suddenly move, very quick on his toes for such a large man – he disappeared through the door towards the toilets and came back, almost instantly with perplexity written large on his face – along with a sheen of sweat not there before - and a middling amount of comprehension slowly dawning; he then left the pub at a run before Trixie re-appeared, crying and shouting; her cousins rose to their feet in concern; the barman reached up and pulled down the grills cutting off the bar, and began making a phone call on his mobile; Jinty and Roxy pushed through the doors while Trixie was speaking to Elvira, Teri and Leigh; the other customers saw or sensed that something was up and while several gathered near the bar, most of the others left quickly, distancing themselves from whatever had happened through in the back; Brevity called Isa to his desk and watched as Trixie dialled a number and held her phone to her ear, Isa's own phone rang and when she answered it was obvious to Brevity that it was she whom Trixie had called – just then Roxy and Jinty re-appeared, looking shocked, faces ashen, and Isa told him that Angus Og was in the ladies, with a shoe stuck in his head and blood everywhere – she then explained, a stiletto heel like an ice-pick in his head – and as they watched, they saw Trixie relaying what Roxy told her – Og was still alive, unconscious but still breathing; as Isa called for paramedics and uniform back-up, Brevity ran into the front office, collected Goldy and they headed out to his car for the short drive up to the High Street and Deacon Brodie's Pub – or The Baillie Nicol Jarvie as it was temporarily named; in the few minutes it took them, they found that the pub, on the top corner of The Mound, was already surrounded by uniformed officers, and an ambulance was just pulling up; the two sergeants made their way inside and found six of Goldy's many cousins in a state of shock – particularly Jint and Roxy, who had already, this morning, found a young man murdered in the oubliette under The Heart of Midlothian – the same place where their Aunt Daohne had been briefly incarcerated less than a week before; and it was they who had seen Angus Og recorded on video at the City Chambers, apparently directing the young man down Waird's Close on a path which had led him to his place of execution; as paramedics wheeled Og out of the pub, still with the woman's stiletto shoe impaled in his head, Brevity sat with the young cousins (while Goldy spoke with the bar staff) and asked them what had happened - “we'll do the formal interviews later, down at the Grassmarket, and we'll need some fingerprints for elimination, because Trixie and Teri both came through the doors leading to the toilets, and maybe others of you – the same applies to the bar staff and the guests at the reception upstairs; but just run through what you remember,” and they did, each taking up where another left off, and together with what he had already witnessed on CCTV it gave Brevity a good impression of the events in the bar – though it did not explain the presence of Martin Elginbrod, nor his young companion, who had not been seen, nor caught by any of the cameras attached to ti the walls below the crown moulding around the bar-room since going through to the ladies shortly before Trixie had found Og; Goldy learned from the barman that there was an emergency exit to the street, through a door and a short passage to an outer door, between the Ladies and Gents toilets; that area was not covered by CCTV; she had checked and, though both doors were shut, the outer door had a bar which was down, indicating that this was indeed the likely route the prostitute, and perhaps murderess, must have taken – she had sent several uniformed constables up to the Function Room, but it seemed unlikely that the girl had gone there, as she would have been trapped, with no other exit; “well,” said Brevity, “I'm getting on to DI Bruse right now – and I'll get Isa to send him copies of the CCTV footage, including Martin Elginbrod and his young lady, before we interview him, and forensics will dust the exit door for prints – and the girl's glass for possible DNA – oh, and Goldy,” he remembered what he hadn't done, “can you get someone over to the Royal, to guard Og and let us know when – if – he wakes up. They're probably operating soon, but after that we'll need to know anything he can tell us,” and Goldy grinned her Davidova/Dumbiedykes/Lyttleton etc grin, wider than the Firth of Forth, as she told him it was all arranged – the Uniformed Branch was on the job!
Sergeant Brevity noticed the soi-disant prostitute leave the bar in the direction of the toilets, then saw that she was followed by Trixie Davidova, at the same time as Teri Somerville came in from the Ladies and joined the party – all of whom were also her cousins too, for she was another niece of both Daphne and Maude (all of which Gordon Brevity knew because his own wife Goldy was also a niece of the two Historians and he had met all of them at family gatherings) indeed, the irreverent WPC Isa Urquhart was another such – not so surprising really in the small village of Edinburgh) which to him felt like upmarket Carry On comedies; but suddenly he snapped to attention for, though there was no sound, he seemed to be watching a Carry On movie, or something involving the Keystone Cops – penned by a fictioneer in the style of a Brian Rix farce, complete with double-takes, visual puns, tides of movement, and with degrees of emotion from puzzlement, confusion, wonder, excitement all the way to shock and horror, for he saw the Advocate, who he now recognised as Martin Elginbrod, a highly successful lawyer from an old and wealthy family, whose clients included underworld figures many of whom had never been convicted or done time, suddenly move, very quick on his toes for such a large man – he disappeared through the door towards the toilets and came back, almost instantly with perplexity written large on his face – along with a sheen of sweat not there before - and a middling amount of comprehension slowly dawning; he then left the pub at a run before Trixie re-appeared, crying and shouting; her cousins rose to their feet in concern; the barman reached up and pulled down the grills cutting off the bar, and began making a phone call on his mobile; Jinty and Roxy pushed through the doors while Trixie was speaking to Elvira, Teri and Leigh; the other customers saw or sensed that something was up and while several gathered near the bar, most of the others left quickly, distancing themselves from whatever had happened through in the back; Brevity called Isa to his desk and watched as Trixie dialled a number and held her phone to her ear, Isa's own phone rang and when she answered it was obvious to Brevity that it was she whom Trixie had called – just then Roxy and Jinty re-appeared, looking shocked, faces ashen, and Isa told him that Angus Og was in the ladies, with a shoe stuck in his head and blood everywhere – she then explained, a stiletto heel like an ice-pick in his head – and as they watched, they saw Trixie relaying what Roxy told her – Og was still alive, unconscious but still breathing; as Isa called for paramedics and uniform back-up, Brevity ran into the front office, collected Goldy and they headed out to his car for the short drive up to the High Street and Deacon Brodie's Pub – or The Baillie Nicol Jarvie as it was temporarily named; in the few minutes it took them, they found that the pub, on the top corner of The Mound, was already surrounded by uniformed officers, and an ambulance was just pulling up; the two sergeants made their way inside and found six of Goldy's many cousins in a state of shock – particularly Jint and Roxy, who had already, this morning, found a young man murdered in the oubliette under The Heart of Midlothian – the same place where their Aunt Daohne had been briefly incarcerated less than a week before; and it was they who had seen Angus Og recorded on video at the City Chambers, apparently directing the young man down Waird's Close on a path which had led him to his place of execution; as paramedics wheeled Og out of the pub, still with the woman's stiletto shoe impaled in his head, Brevity sat with the young cousins (while Goldy spoke with the bar staff) and asked them what had happened - “we'll do the formal interviews later, down at the Grassmarket, and we'll need some fingerprints for elimination, because Trixie and Teri both came through the doors leading to the toilets, and maybe others of you – the same applies to the bar staff and the guests at the reception upstairs; but just run through what you remember,” and they did, each taking up where another left off, and together with what he had already witnessed on CCTV it gave Brevity a good impression of the events in the bar – though it did not explain the presence of Martin Elginbrod, nor his young companion, who had not been seen, nor caught by any of the cameras attached to ti the walls below the crown moulding around the bar-room since going through to the ladies shortly before Trixie had found Og; Goldy learned from the barman that there was an emergency exit to the street, through a door and a short passage to an outer door, between the Ladies and Gents toilets; that area was not covered by CCTV; she had checked and, though both doors were shut, the outer door had a bar which was down, indicating that this was indeed the likely route the prostitute, and perhaps murderess, must have taken – she had sent several uniformed constables up to the Function Room, but it seemed unlikely that the girl had gone there, as she would have been trapped, with no other exit; “well,” said Brevity, “I'm getting on to DI Bruse right now – and I'll get Isa to send him copies of the CCTV footage, including Martin Elginbrod and his young lady, before we interview him, and forensics will dust the exit door for prints – and the girl's glass for possible DNA – oh, and Goldy,” he remembered what he hadn't done, “can you get someone over to the Royal, to guard Og and let us know when – if – he wakes up. They're probably operating soon, but after that we'll need to know anything he can tell us,” and Goldy grinned her Davidova/Dumbiedykes/Lyttleton etc grin, wider than the Firth of Forth, as she told him it was all arranged – the Uniformed Branch was on the job!
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