‘There’s something else, ma’am. Once we had got past that I asked him if there was anything in Sugar’s medical record that would help us eliminate her. He said she had her appendix out when she was ten, and broke her left arm falling off her bike when she was fifteen.’ The young detective constable frowned. ‘I’ve just checked the post-mortem report. It’s her, no doubt about it.’
Thirteen
‘Let me ask you again,’ said Bob Skinner. ‘Are you absolutely sure about this?’
‘Yes, I am. I don’t expect to achieve anything, apart from the comfort of knowing I made the effort, but I feel that I have to do it.’
‘Maggie, my dear, you’re on sick leave, maternity leave and compassionate leave all at the same time. It would be against justifiably established police practice for me to let you do this.’
‘Yes, it would, wouldn’t it?’ They were a thousand miles apart, yet he could see her smile as she spoke.
‘Ah, to hell with it,’ he exclaimed. ‘Go for it. Mario’s already called me to let me know, and I think to seek my approval after the event. The report we put together was typed up by a Special Branch secretary; that’s how confidential it is. But I’ve agreed with his rash promise to give you a copy.’
‘Thanks, boss.’ There was a moment’s silence on the line. ‘Mario said there was other information, stuff that only you have.’
‘There is,’ said Skinner, ‘but I’m not going to give you it over an insecure telephone line. If you think you need it, I’ll visit you when I get back, although I’m not sure that any of it will be any good to you.’
‘In that case, I’ll start with the report, and see what I can glean from that.’
‘You do that.’ He paused. ‘Let’s be professional about this, Maggie, rather than just plain personal. What are you bringing to this investigation. . apart from your obvious motivation, that is?’
‘A fresh eye. I won’t say objectivity, but I’ve held high rank in CID, so I should know what I’m doing.’
‘And that’s why I’m giving you the go-ahead, albeit on one condition.’
‘What’s that?’
‘That should you find it becoming too much for you to handle, emotionally or physically, you hold your hand up at the very first moment it does and tell me. I’ll pick up whatever progress you’ve made and take it on from there myself. Deal?’
‘Deal.’
‘Good. Now, I’ve been thinking as we’ve been speaking. If you’re going to do this, you’d better have official status. Your study, as we’ll call it, will be part of the internal investigation into Stevie’s death, and for its purpose, you are temporarily attached to Special Branch. You won’t use its office, and you won’t get in the SB commander’s way, but if at any time you need access to sensitive information, you can use the clout that department gives you.’
‘Thanks, sir. I appreciate the leverage, even though I don’t imagine I’ll use it.’
‘Don’t be so sure. If you make any progress, I reckon you will. All the best now, I’ll see you when you get back. Oh, and one other thing, Chief Superintendent Steele. I can’t begin to tell you how pleased I am that you’ve changed your mind about leaving the force. It can’t afford to lose you.’
As he hung up, Aileen came into the room. ‘Who was that?’ she asked.
‘That? I reckon it was the awakening of a sleeping tigress. Maggie Rose Steele is on the prowl, on the scent of Dražen Boras.’
‘Judging by the look on your face that’s good, but is she up to it yet?’
‘It’s probably the best therapy she could have,’ said Bob. ‘I’ve told Mario to monitor her closely, but I’m sure she’ll be fine. Who knows? Maggie being Maggie, she might even get a result.’
Fourteen
‘Do you want to make this call, ma’am?’ asked Detective Constable Haddock. ‘I’ve finally traced Davis Colledge’s family, through the office at the Merchant Company. I thought there was something familiar about the name. His father’s a Member of Parliament. . Westminster, not Holyrood.’
‘Michael Colledge?’ DI Stallings exclaimed. ‘The shadow Defence Secretary?’
‘That’s the man.’
‘In that case, Sauce, yes; you’d better leave that one to me. In fact, I’d better check further up the line myself.’
She picked up the phone and dialled Neil McIlhenney: as commander of all CID operations in Edinburgh, he was her operational boss. All day, she had been keeping him briefed on the progress of the inquiry. She heard him sigh as she gave him the latest update. ‘Do you want to take it on from here, sir?’ she asked. ‘Given that he’s a VIP?’
‘Do you want me to?’
‘I’m not asking,’ she replied, ‘if that’s what you mean.’
‘In that case, go ahead. You’ve got the rank; you don’t need me. Anyway, the guy’s not a VIP; he’s a Tory.’
She laughed. ‘I won’t tell anyone you said that.’
‘It wouldn’t hurt my career if you did. This is Scotland: we’ve got more dinosaurs left than we have Tories.’
Stallings opened her bag and took out her Filofax. It was one of her most treasured possessions. It had been an eighteenth-birthday gift from her boyfriend of the moment, but its value was far more than sentimental. Within its brown-leather cover was every telephone number she had called since then, personal and professional, listed alphabetically on well-thumbed pages. She opened at ‘C’, and drew a blank, but switched to ‘H’ and found the main number for the House of Commons.
It took several minutes for the switchboard to locate the Member of Parliament for Newtown Mowbray through his researcher. When he came on line, he sounded distinctly out of breath. ‘My assistant says that you’re the police,’ he gasped.
‘Yes, Mr Colledge,’ the DI began, pushing thoughts of MPs and their researchers to the back of her mind. ‘Becky Stallings, detective inspector, Edinburgh, CID. I need to contact your son, Davis. I wonder if you can tell me how I can reach him.’
‘Dave? Why do you want Dave? What the hell’s he been up to? I’ve had no reports from his school of any incidents.’
‘He hasn’t been up to anything, sir. I need to speak to him in connection with an investigation we have going up here.’
‘What’s it about?’
‘The death of a woman. We haven’t confirmed her identity formally, but we believe she was your son’s art tutor.’
‘Jesus! Sugar? You are absolutely certain that it’s her?’
‘We’ll need to use DNA to confirm it, but I’m in no doubt.’
‘How did she die? Did she have a heart condition? Or was it some sort of an accident?’
‘She was shot in the head, at close range.’
‘And you’re looking for Dave?’ the MP exclaimed.
‘It’s okay,’ said Stallings, quickly. ‘I’m not saying he’s a suspect. We’re going to be speaking to everyone who knew Miss Dean.’
‘Jesus!’ Colledge murmured again. ‘It’s unbelievable. Such a vivacious girl. Who’d. .’
‘You’ve met her?’
‘Yes, a couple of weeks ago. My wife and I visited Edinburgh to attend the school prize-giving. Dave won the art prize. We arranged to take him to dinner the night before, and he asked if he could bring a friend. We were expecting another lad; we got quite a shock when she arrived. That was Thursday evening; and you’re saying that she was. . That’s just awful.’
‘You called her vivacious, sir.’
‘Yes, and I meant it literally: full of life, that’s how she struck my wife and me. We took to her, once we had got over the initial surprise.’
The MP was being more talkative than Stallings had expected. She decided to move the discussion on, further than she had intended when it began. ‘Did Davis. . did they. . discuss the nature of their relationship?’
‘He introduced her as his art tutor. He told us that they had met at an inter-school event and that she had been impressed by his work, enough to have offered to coach him in her spare time.’
‘So they were simply pupil and tutor.’
She heard Michael Colledge take a deep breath. ‘That was how he introduced her. However, it became clear during the evening that they were very good friends.’