I hope this information is helpful to you.
Yours sincerely,
J.B. Cotter (Miss)
General Secretary
He glanced at the attachment, a single sheet of paper, which had been amended in manuscript in several places so that all three of Bothwell’s schools and three postal addresses showed, although two had been crossed out. ‘Good for you, Miss Cotter,’ he whispered. ‘Not that it takes us any further, but at least you tried.’ He laid the letter down and picked up his newspaper.
He was scanning the business pages when the intercom sounded. ‘Can you see DS McGurk, sir?’ asked Gerry Crossley.
He glanced up at the wall clock: it showed two minutes past nine. ‘Yes, of course. I’m expecting Mr Haggerty at nine fifteen, but I’m sure we’ll be finished by then.’
McGurk stepped through the door at the end of the room a few seconds later. As always he was immaculately dressed, in a business suit, and his black shoes gleamed. He was carrying a slim folder in his hand. ‘Morning, Jack,’ the chief greeted him. ‘Have you had any contact from the DCC since he went south?’
‘As a matter of fact, sir, I had a phone call five minutes ago.’
‘From London?’
‘From a car, by the sound of it: he was checking on what was happening, that was all, passing the time, I think. I told him about the Bothwell investigation. It seemed to amuse him.’
‘It would. He thinks I’m playing detectives.’
The towering sergeant grinned. ‘If you are, you’re pretty good at it.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I had an interesting visit to New Register House yesterday afternoon. We’re not looking for your lady’s mother any more, at least not primarily. This is a criminal investigation.’
‘What’s the crime?’
‘At the very least, bigamy: two counts thereof.’ He laid his folder on Proud’s desk. ‘It’s all in there. The lady you remember, Montserrat Rivera What’s-her-name, was, in fact, his third wife, but there’s no record of either of the first two marriages ending in either death or divorce.’
‘Bloody hell! Bob suspected as much.’
McGurk fought to keep his eyebrows from rising: he had never heard the chief constable swear before. ‘What do you want me to do now, sir?’ he asked.
‘What do you suggest?’
‘As I see it you’ve got two choices. You can either put the lid back on this thing. . it’s forty years down the road, after all. . and tell Mrs Friend that you can’t find her mother, which wouldn’t be a lie, or you can order me to trace these other women as well.’
‘Would that be easy?’
‘No. The truth is, the system loses track of hundreds of people every year; they could be anywhere. . or nowhere. Remember, sir, we’re talking about elderly people here.’
‘What would our absent friend the DCC do, do you think?’
The two men looked at each other for a few seconds, then smiles broke out on both their faces. ‘Need you ask, sir?’ said McGurk.
‘Let’s call it a rhetorical question.’
Proud sat behind his desk and stared out of the window as he considered the options that McGurk had set out for him. As he did so it came to him that there was a third, crazy option. He thought of his career as it had been and as it was. Nobody would argue that it had not been distinguished: it had won him his knighthood and the Queen’s Police Medal, the honour which he valued privately above all. Yet it rankled with him that he had achieved these things without ever deviating from the conventional, without ever kicking over the traces and taking a chance. Now it was almost at an end; he would be a long time retired. . he hoped. . and sure as hell he would be a long time dead.
‘You know, Jack,’ he said, ‘I need to get out more. Thank you very much for all the work you’ve done in getting us this far, but my diary’s clear for the next few days, and Mr Haggerty’s around to deal with any emergencies, so I think I’m going to handle this stage of the investigation myself.’
The sergeant stared at him, and blinked. ‘You mean you’re going to pass it to the chief constable of Strathclyde, sir?’
‘I’ll tell him when I deem it appropriate,’ Proud replied firmly. ‘I mean what I say, literally: I’m a serving police officer, with a warrant card, and it appears that a crime has been committed. It’s my sworn duty to look into it.’ He stared up at McGurk. ‘I know, son,’ he said. ‘You’re thinking that I’ve gone soft in the head, and maybe I have, but there’s a bit of a mystery here, and damn me, I’m going to solve it.’
Thirty-six
Skinner was smiling as Amanda Dennis drove along the Hogsback, heading for Churt from a different direction than the day before because of a warning on BBC Radio of a crash further down the A3.
‘What’s tickling you?’ she asked.
‘It’s nothing really, just something daft that’s going on in Edinburgh. Jimmy Proud’s trying to carve himself a career as an investigator before it’s too late. Trouble is, it looks as if he’s bitten off more than he can chew. Jimmy’s been a desk pilot for all his career as a senior officer. Luckily this is a private matter, and he’s got big Jack McGurk to help him, so he won’t be embarrassed in front of the rest of the force.’
‘I hope he isn’t. I like your chief constable: he’s a very nice man.’
‘He’s also a sucker for a sob story, which is how he’s got into this thing in the first place.’
‘How about your daughter’s problem?’
The smile left Skinner’s face. ‘I spoke to Neil about that this morning: he told me they’ve got a lead. There was another call last night apparently, and this time the man said something. They’re hoping that it’ll trigger something in Alex’s head that’ll take them to him.’
‘Let’s hope so. I hate that sort of thing: it’s so cowardly.’
‘As the gentleman will find out when we trace him and my two Rottweilers have him in their teeth.’
‘Speaking of same, have you decided how you’re going to handle Rudy Sewell?’
‘I thought you might like to sit in on this one.’
Dennis shook her head firmly. ‘I don’t want to see that man again, ever. He was responsible for the death of one of my team, remember.’
‘More than that, Amanda.’ She glanced at him. ‘It’s okay,’ he said, too quietly for Shannon to overhear in the back seat. ‘I know about you and Sean, but nobody else does.’
‘Bob,’ she murmured. ‘If that man walks away from this. .’
‘That will have nothing to do with me.’
‘But don’t you have the power to offer amnesty in return for co-operation?’
‘Yes, but I’m not giving guarantees. Sewell’s very dangerous. The DG’s not going to turn him loose.’
‘And Hassett?’
‘I’ll be in a better position to take a view on that when I’ve spoken to Sewell. At the moment my view is Miles is a follower, not a leader. His story is that he was approached by Sewell; I want Sewell to confirm that, and I want him to tell me why Hassett was chosen. Then there’s the matter of Bassam. If he didn’t belong to Six, whose was he and how did Sewell come to know of his track record, and have his cover address?’
‘He won’t talk to you.’
‘They all talk to me in the end.’
‘This isn’t Edinburgh, Bob, and he isn’t an ordinary criminal.’
‘Sure he is. He may be Oxbridge educated and he may be a member of the inner circle down here, but he’s guilty of treason, conspiracy to murder, and incitement to murder in the case of Sean Green. He’s a criminal, Amanda: there are no modifying adjectives that can be used with that word. They’re all the same.’