Where the Bodies are Buried by Christopher Brookmyre, Brookmyre Page B

absurd.
    She stiffened a little inside, as she did any time a colleague mentioned Abercorn to her in less-than-respectful terms, since
     their scorn bore a tacit acknowledgement of her having been overlooked for his position. Unfortunately, Abercorn was seldom
     referred to in anything
but
less-than-respectful terms, so every mention of his name was like a little aftertaste of the disappointment and shame she
     had felt when she didn’t get the nod.
    Abercorn was the head of the Organised Crime Unit Special Task Force, set up almost two years ago specifically to target gang-related
     criminal operations. He had been preferred to Catherine for the post despite her greater experience, higher conviction rate
     and then superior rank. All of the reasons she considered herself the better-qualified candidate therefore became the reasons
     her rejection felt all the more humiliating, and it served to remind her that her colleagues were aware of that humiliation
     whenever they disparaged Abercorn.
    The Organised Crime Unit Special Task Force was often decried as having a name longer than its list of convictions. It was
     officially known as Locust, a quasi-acronym that ignored the final F and added an L at the front in order to accommodate a
     word invoking parasites and pestilence, presumably to describe its targets rather than itself. This being the Glesca polis,
     the cops weren’t long in coming up with their own alterations and definitions. It was frequently claimed that the missing
     F was to represent the complete absence of force the unit had proven to wield, while the redundant, makeweightL was variously suggested to stand for lame, lazy, lackadaisical, lamentable and languorous, among others. However, the most
     damning slight in circulation was in the ‘backronym’ that had been coined to suggest what Locust really stood for: Letting
     Off Criminals Under Secret Trades.
    ‘We want bodies for this,’ Raeside said. ‘Not bargaining chips.’
    ‘So who do you reckon? Frankie Callahan? Stevie Fullerton? The Cassidys? Maybe the McLennans?’
    ‘Take your pick. It’s been brewing, though. Anybody could see that.’
    ‘They’ve all taken some hits lately,’ Catherine agreed. ‘Trouble is, we put a few of them away and the others just think that
     means there’s more of the pie up for grabs. Could be a show of strength by somebody to demonstrate that they’re back off the
     canvas. Could equally be the strongest of them making a play while their rivals are vulnerable.’
    ‘If it’s the latter, I’d be looking at Callahan,’ Raeside suggested. ‘Word is he’s the only one whose supply lines haven’t
     been disrupted in recent months. If he fancied muscling in to Gallowhaugh, now would be the time. The former is the nightmare
     scenario. Wounded animals taking bites out of each other. That’s when you get weans hit by stray bullets and folk stabbed
     because they look like somebody else. Either way, we need to nail this down quick with proper police work: show these bampots
     that we’re in charge before it escalates.’
    Catherine glanced again at what used to be James McDiarmid. Raeside was right: the aftershocks would be seismic. Nothing said
     ‘game on’ quite like somebody abducting your right-hand man, beating him into submission, blowing his brains out and then
     bringing his corpse right back home for everyone to hear about. Paddy Steel would have to strike back.
    Raeside said they wanted bodies for this. It was polis-speak for arrests, but either way, from where Catherine was standing,
     bodies were guaranteed.

The Presence of Absence
    Jasmine was only moments in the door of Jim’s office when she was beset by a shuddering sense of unease.
    Out of nowhere, she went from her usual Monday-morning condition of mild anxiety at how she might screw up today, mixed with
     the growing comfort she was starting to enjoy at having a wage-earning purpose to her days and weeks, to being blindsided
     by a