There was a moment of silence from the other end. Logan heard Tyler take a breath, and could almost picture him puffing himself up.
Good on the lad.
“I could’ve, boss, but I decided not to,” he replied. “Because I think you’ve missed something.”
Logan frowned. “What do you mean? Missed what?”
“Well, I’ve just been in the shared inbox looking at the photos and stuff you sent,” Tyler continued. “And in one of them, you can see a computer screen.”
“And?”
“And the X-ray of the briefcase is on there.”
Logan pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Get to the point, son.”
“I think there’s something else in the case, boss. Something you didn’t take a picture of.”
Logan frowned, then indicated Shona’s laptop. “Can you get the X-ray we took tonight on there?”
“Mm-hm,” Shona said through a mouthful of vinegar-infused boiled egg. She took her bag from the table, slipped out the laptop, and Logan watched her fingers dance across the keys like revellers at a rave.
“We’re looking now,” Logan said into the phone.
Shona said something, but her full mouth turned it into an incomprehensible mush of vowels and consonants. Logan got the gist from the way she presented the screen to him, though.
It showed the X-ray they’d taken a couple of hours ago, the boxy outline of the briefcase clear to see, along with the photocopied letters, the bundle of photographs, and the outlines of the envelopes containing both.
“I’m not seeing…” the DCI began, but then he stopped when Shona tapped a spot on the screen.
It wasn’t obvious. Not right away. Whatever it was had been well-hidden in the image by the photographs on top of it, but there was definitely something else there. Something thicker than the other items in the case. A notebook, maybe, or…
No. Best not to get his hopes up.
“You spotted it yet, boss? Middle right. Looks a bit like—”
“Aye, I see it,” Logan confirmed. “Good spot, son. We were looking for bombs, and clearly not paying enough attention to the details.”
He heard Tyler puffing up again, this time with pride. “Cheers, boss. I was just looking through it, you know, and I thought, ‘Oh-ho! What’s this?’ and then—”
“Aye, very good, son. Don’t tell me anymore, though, I’m waiting for the TV adaptation,” Logan said, cutting the story short. He switched the phone to speaker mode, then set it on the couch beside. “Hold on, we’re having a look.”
He got up, retrieved a pair of rubber gloves from the pocket of his coat which he’d dumped over the back of an armchair, then returned to the couch and sat forward to give himself easy access to the briefcase on the table.
They’d turned just one number on each dial of the lock to secure it again, so it took just a second to get the lid open. Shona cleared the food out of the way as he removed the two envelopes and set them down on the coffee table beside the case.
“I can’t see any pockets,” he announced, running his hand along the inner lining.
“Must be something, boss,” Tyler replied, his voice echoing from the phone’s loudspeaker.
Logan picked up the case and turned it over in his hands. There was a sound like something sliding, and then a faint clunk as it came to a stop.
“It must be stitched into the lining,” Shona said. “Can’t believe we didn’t see that.”
“Right, then!” Logan bounced to his feet and headed for the kitchen.
“Where’re you going?” Shona asked.
“To get a pair of scissors. I want to see what’s hidden in there.”
Reaching into her bag, Shona produced a small leather pouch with a zip running around three of the four sides. She opened it to reveal an assortment of worrying looking implements, then presented Logan with a scalpel.
“Some of the tools they give me are proper shite,” she explained. “So I bring my own from home.”
Logan stared at the offered scalpel, took it, then stared at it some more before replying. “I’m not going to dwell too much on that for the moment,” he told her.
He perched on the front of the couch again, opened the briefcase, and ran his fingers over the lining again, more firmly this time.
“There,” he announced, as he brushed against something stowed beneath the silky fabric. He traced the outline, and felt a surge of excitement.
It couldn’t be, though. It couldn’t.