‘Me, me, me!’ squealed the youngest of the three children on the monitor screen.
‘That’s your theme song, lass.’ Her father chuckled.
‘He and Mum are taking all of us to the children’s zoo in Central Park.’
‘And we’re going to ride in a horse and carriage,’ James Andrew added.
‘Indeed? When you do, look out for the bucket.’
‘What bucket?’
‘The one tied under the horse’s tail.’
‘Why do they tie a bucket under the horse’s tail?’
‘You’ll find out.’
‘Pops!’ said a voice from behind him. ‘What the hell are you telling him?’
‘Alex!’ Jazz yelled, as she pulled over another seat and took her place in front of the camera.
Although she spoiled her young siblings in equal measure, there was a bond between James Andrew and his adult half-sister that touched their father every time he saw them together. ‘You lot catch up,’ he said. ‘I’ll speak to you in a couple of days.’ He ruffled Alex’s hair as he stood. She smiled and slapped his hand away.
Aileen was waiting in the kitchen. ‘They’re late,’ she said.
Bob glanced at his watch; it showed one forty. ‘Only ten minutes; you know what the by-pass can be like. Is Alexis on her own?’ he asked. ‘Or is her companion lurking somewhere?’
‘No, she’s alone. And that’s what he is, you know, a companion, nothing more. He’s beefcake, that’s all, like the boy in that old Diet Coke ad.’
‘Beefcake.’ He laughed. ‘There’s a term from the past. How do you categorise me?’
‘You, my darling, are the thinking woman’s hunk. Alex is too bright for DC Montell. He may have his uses, but she’s a woman who needs intellectual stimulation as well.’
As she spoke, a buzzer sounded. Bob stepped across to a small video screen set in the wall, near the kitchen door, and pressed a button below it. Through the window, Aileen saw the heavy wooden gate at the end of the driveway swing open on its pivot. Tyres crunched on the gravel as a metallic blue Ford Mondeo approached the house. It drew to a halt beside Alex’s sports car and Andy Martin stepped out.
‘Hey there,’ his host greeted him from the doorway. ‘Where are your girls?’
‘I’m sorry, Bob. Karen chucked her breakfast; the morning sickness is tough on her. She sends her apologies, but she didn’t fancy a long drive. The wee one can get a bit fractious in the car, so we decided it was best if she stayed at home too.’ He nodded to Aileen as she appeared from the hall. ‘Afternoon, First Minister,’ he said. ‘You both look the better for your holiday.’
‘Just as well,’ she replied, ‘for the big blue boxes have started to arrive. I had my first delivery this morning.’
‘Is that your car?’ Martin looked wistfully at the sleek two-seater. ‘My days for those are over. . for the foreseeable future at any rate.’
‘No, mine’s a conventional saloon, and it’s in the garage alongside Bob’s. That’s. .’
‘Mine,’ said Alex, from the doorway. ‘Hi, Andy.’ She came forward and kissed him on the cheek, then patted the lapel of his navy blue blazer. ‘You’re looking very distinguished. What happened to the old leather jacket?’
‘It got ripped. It was never the same after the repair. Still in the wardrobe, though.’
‘Come on in,’ said Bob. ‘Alex, you’re staying for lunch?’
‘I don’t want to impose,’ his daughter protested. ‘I drove down to say hello, that’s all. . and to apologise for fielding a substitute yesterday.’
‘Neil told me why. No problem, it gave us a chance to catch up.
And now, DCC Martin, you and I can do the same. Let’s go round to the front. We can talk while I fire up the barbie.’ He led the way through the house, to a paved patio area, where a big gas barbecue stood on a complicated stand, with towels and utensils hanging from it. ‘There’s a wee fridge in the garden room,’ he said. ‘Grab a Corona for me and whatever you want for yourself; there’s soft in there as well.’
Andy nodded and followed his friend’s instructions, returning with an opened bottle and a can of Red Bull. They toasted each other as Bob pressed the barbecue’s ignition button. ‘In case you’re wondering,’ he said, ‘I didn’t plan on Alex being here. She just turned up, and she didn’t know you were coming either.’
‘How is she?’ The question sounded casual.
‘My kid? She’s fine; loading up on experience in that firm of hers. Associate at twenty-six; that’s pretty good, puts her on the fast track for a partnership.’
‘No surprise, but how is she?’
Bob stopped adjusting the barbecue and frowned. ‘Personally? She’s enjoying life. She had a crisis a few months back, which you know about, but she was over that in a couple of days, although it was a big help to have the boy Montell living next door with his sister. She’s playing the field; no serious attachments, or so I’m told. If you’re asking me whether she still has any regrets about you two breaking up, I’m not going to hazard a guess. You’ll need to ask her yourself. As far as I’m concerned, the most important thing is that you don’t. You’re married with one and a half kids, son. You can’t be thinking like that.’
‘I’m not,’ Andy exclaimed quickly. ‘I’ve got everything I’ve ever wanted. A wife I love, a daughter I worship and another on the way. No, my life is set in stone. But, if I’m being honest, I’ll admit that I regret the way it ended between Alex and me. When she did what she did, I acted like a total prig. I got on my religious high horse, and yet I’ve never been a model Catholic, Bob. You know that better than anyone. I went to confession afterwards and my parish priest gave me a real tongue-lashing. He told me I should spend a few years in a seminary before rushing to moral judgement. I just didn’t want to face the truth: Alex didn’t want to marry me. I rushed her into an engagement that she wasn’t ready for.’
‘I can’t disagree with that,’ Bob said. ‘And now you’re going to ask me why I didn’t say anything at the time.’
Andy grinned. ‘Maybe.’
‘It’s a simple answer. You were both adults with freedom of choice, and I didn’t have the right to interfere with that, or even try. Was I happy when you broke up? Yes, although I didn’t like to see you both getting hurt in the process. I wasn’t especially pleased that my grandchild had been aborted, but that was an emotional reaction. If I’d known she was pregnant, I wouldn’t have tried to talk her out of a termination. Maybe she should have told you about it, probably she should have. And yet I can see why she chose not to.’
‘Why?’
‘So she couldn’t be pressured into a decision that would have changed her life.’ Bob sighed. ‘But enough of that. Have you finished your report for Jimmy?’
‘Yes. And a copy for you in your in-tray stamped “Secret”. There was a leak; its name was Joe Dowley. He talked too much at a Rotary meeting. And that’s all. There were no others.’
‘Does it lead anywhere?’
‘Right into Davis Colledge’s school.’
‘Oh dear. This young man’s turning into a serious possibility.’
‘Why would he kill his girlfriend?’
‘We’ll need to ask him that when he surfaces.’
‘And the other one?’
‘That’s a much trickier question. I know that the time-line fits, but there are other considerations. Did he just happen upon Nada Sebastian, or did he know about her and follow her from Bellcaire on her morning journey to the rocks at Empuries? And there’s the big coincidence, the one that would have any objective investigator shouting, “Wait a minute!” The fact that she died within sight of my house.’
‘And the fact that you were at Murrayfield Golf Club when Sugar Dean died.’
‘At which precise time I was away on the practice ground hitting golf balls, on my own, while all the other guys were laying into the bacon rolls.’
‘But it gets worse,’ said Martin. ‘Then there’s the pictures. One of Sugar Dean’s works is hanging at Fettes. .’
‘In the conference room. I know about that.’
‘. . and there’s a seascape hanging in your office, one of your own. An original by Sebastian, signed.’