‘Do you think I’m being hard on her, Ray? Well, now it’s your turn. The pair of you are equally at fault. Hell no, what am I saying? Ultimately you’re the one to blame, for you’re the senior officer. There. Now do you want to go and cry in the toilet as well?’
The reproved sergeant laughed. ‘Sammy, if you think that’s what she’s doing, you don’t know Cowan very well; more likely she’s making a wax model of you and getting ready to stick pins in its eyes. Fact is, we’ve got a long list of people to interview. My judgement was that that came first, and I’m standing by it. But that outburst of yours just now, that had fuck all to do with the notion that Glover’s killer might have been sending him threatening letters or emails, had it? You do think he was being bugged, don’t you? Or do you know it for a fact? Is that it?’
‘Leave it, Ray.’
‘No, sir. We’re supposed to be a team, and this is a murder investigation. No information that might relate to it can be on a need-to-know basis.’
As he looked at his colleague, Pye found himself recalling how McIlhenney had faced down Andy Martin on his behalf, over exactly the same point of principle. And he realised that he had learned another lesson. ‘Go find Alice,’ he said, ‘if you can, and bring her back here — once she’s cleaned the wax off her hands, that is.’
‘Sure, boss.’
As he waited, the young inspector thought of calling his senior officer for clearance, then remembered something else he had said in that earlier confrontation. He was the lead investigator, and he would rely on his own judgement.
Wilding returned in no more than three minutes, with Cowan at his heels looking as angry as before. ‘Found her in the bog, with a box of Kleenex.’
‘That’ll be the fucking day,’ she hissed.
‘Alice,’ Pye began, ‘let me make something clear to you. The next time you show me insubordination, either by word or attitude, you’ll be back in uniform so fast it’ll set a record.’ He waited.
Gradually, the tension in her lessened and the flame in her eyes dimmed. ‘Yes, sir,’ she said quietly.
‘OK, that’s fine. Now, I apologise, to you and DS Wilding. The late Mr Glover was indeed being watched, not by our lot but by an outside agency. I’m telling you this on the same confidential basis that I was let into the loop. It doesn’t go outside the inquiry team, and. . I can’t stress this enough. . no hint of it can ever be dropped to the family. Now, I have no reason to believe this surveillance is connected to his murder, or that the people involved are, but you’ll agree that the fact of it puts the arrangement he had with Carol in a different context.’
‘Too right,’ Wilding grunted. ‘Sorry, boss. You were right earlier, we should have been covering this.’
Pye smiled. ‘We’re not going there again, Ray. You took a view, and in the knowledge you had at the time, you were right. But we do need to recover the back-door correspondence Glover received. That means we need to get into Carol’s computer, and into Glover’s house. I’m going to ask the duty inspector at Torphichen Place to put uniforms outside it, front and back, then as soon as we’ve got the family’s permission, and the keys, we need to get in there. That’s going to stretch our resources.’ He glanced at Wilding. ‘Do you think that DI Stallings would agree to lend me that bright young DC of hers, Haddock?’
The sergeant nodded. ‘I reckon so. . although there’ll be a price to pay in the future, I’m sure.’
Once again, Pye thought of Andy Martin, and his threat to McIlhenney. ‘I’ll pay it,’ he said. ‘It’ll be worth it. Give her a call, then if she okays it, raise the lad, wherever he is, and tell him he’s come into an overtime windfall and to get his carcass along here. Then get back out to the daughter’s place and get her co-operation for what we need to do.’ He smiled. ‘While you do that, I must pay a visit to Sergeant McCall and PC Knight, to see whether they’re still up to their elbows in crap.’›
Twenty-five
‘It’s funny,’ Neil McIlhenney chuckled, ‘but I’ve never taken you for a guy who’d sit on a beach filtering the sand through his toes.’
‘Why not?’ Bob Skinner replied ‘I’m a dad just like you, and it’s a nice Sunday. OK, maybe I’m a bit older than you, but my kids are younger than yours, apart from wee Louis here, of course.’ He turned to the infant who sat beside him in a carry-chair, chewing earnestly on a teething ring, and tickled his tummy. ‘Eh, wee man. Won’t be long before you’re on your feet and in the sea with the other four.’ He pointed to the water’s edge, where Spencer McIlhenney and his own adopted son Mark were superintending James Andrew and Seonaid as they played in the light surf. ‘The bathing’s always safe here,’ he said. ‘Just as well, for I don’t know what Markie-boy could do if a big wave came in,’ he murmured. ‘The Jazzer’s a better swimmer than he is.’
‘Maybe better than Spence, too,’ Neil conceded, ‘and definitely better than Lauren, although you won’t find her with this group any more. She sees her place as up at the house with Aileen and Lou.’
‘That’s all part of growing up, mate. I always think that puberty’s a bigger thing for a girl than a boy. With lads the change is more gradual, but. . She may be an early teen, but you better start thinking of your Lauren as a woman. You know, I’d never heard of PMT till Alex was that age, then I found out about it big time. Her mother was neither up nor down at that time of the month. . although maybe she was in her teens, I don’t know. . but Alexis, Christ, from being a peaceable wee girl, she started throwing tantrums every four weeks, regular as clockwork. It was probably the worst part of being a single parent.’ He broke off as a cry of ‘Daddee!’ split the air and Seonaid came running up the beach towards him, throwing herself into his arms as she arrived, soaking his shirt and shorts.
‘Hey,’ he called out, rolling backwards and throwing her in the air, then catching her again as she squealed with delight. ‘I tell you, Neil, I’m making a point of cherishing every moment of this one’s childhood, for it’ll be over in the blink of an eye.’
The child soon tired of the game and returned to her brothers, and their friend, leaving the two men to their chat. ‘Tell me,’ said Skinner, ‘for how long did you consider taking Andy’s advice and keeping me in the dark about Glover’s surveillance?’
‘Two seconds, maybe.’
‘Twice as long as was appropriate, I’d say.’
‘Yes. Sorry I hesitated.’ McIlhenney snorted. ‘I don’t know what he was thinking about, suggesting that I could keep a significant line of investigation secret from my reporting officer.’
‘No, me neither. It’s not like Andy to think that way. He’s never been a pure book operator, any more than I have, but he’s always come down on the right side of an issue.’
‘Maybe this Coben guy got to him; maybe he really was scared for you and for Aileen.’
‘Andy? Scared?’
‘It would be unprecedented, I’ll grant you.’
‘Unnecessary too, all of it. Aileen and I agreed very early in our relationship that it was all right for each of us to keep operational secrets from the other. Plus, I knew about the surveillance.’
‘You knew?’ McIlhenney exclaimed. ‘You mean they cleared it with you?’
‘No, they didn’t, for which omission somebody’s probably had his arse kicked. I found out by accident. Andy’s pal at BT was my source before he ever was his. When he got leaned on by Andy for a second time, he got pissed off, so he came to me and told me about it. So did Amanda Dennis, after he started poking around in MI5. It didn’t take me long to figure out who was behind it, or why. Trident’s an incredibly sensitive issue; anything, anything at all that might relate to its security is going to attract a degree of attention.’
‘This defence intelligence heavy didn’t come to see you, did he?’
‘No, and I didn’t know about his visit to Andy either, before you ask.’