The inspector sighed. ‘That’s what happened,’ he confirmed.
The superintendent looked across his desk impassively. ‘I might leave you to explain that to the big man when he gets back. I’m just heading off to Gullane to catch up on George Regan’s investigation into a dead gypsy, before the media turn up in numbers.’
‘Fair enough. I’m sorry, boss. I took my eye off the ball. It never occurred to me for a second that he’d do that. Even if it had, I wouldn’t have worried, because I had PC Childs stationed at the front door. But I didn’t know about the other way out, did I?’
‘No, and I doubt if I’d have guessed that one either.’ Pye breathed easier at the confession. ‘And I suppose the guy had the right to leave without notice. He wasn’t under caution, and you hadn’t arrested him.’
‘I was about a second away from doing just that when Sauce came in to tell me about the drugs find.’
‘You were? I thought we were playing it cool.’
‘The time for that was over. When I pinned him down he admitted that he had gone out again. He denied that he’d gone back to the Festival site, but he refused point-blank to tell me where he was going.’
‘What’s your feel for his denial? Genuine?’
‘I don’t have a feel as such. The man’s a bully and a blusterer; he and I had a confrontation when we served him the warrant.’
‘So why did he run for it?’ McIlhenney mused. ‘Did he kill Glover right enough, and realise that the game’s up?’
‘That’s one possibility. The other is that he guessed we’d found his girlfriend’s smack and decided he’d be better off out of there.’
‘Maybe. Did you find anything else, apart from that?’
‘Not what we went in there looking for. Nothing that could relate to the murder.’
‘No syringes? I’d have thought she’d-’
‘So did I, but as Sauce says, she could have been smoking the stuff. If you’re rich enough you don’t have to inject, and with the quantity she had, that may well be her habit.’
‘We are sure it’s hers, and not his?’
‘It was in her shoes. Given her record, she has to be a user; mind you, that doesn’t mean Anderson doesn’t join in.’
‘With his kid around? Surely to Christ. .’
‘We won’t know till we ask him.’
‘True, so what have you done about getting him back?’
‘The first thing I did was to send a car to the clinic. Anderson knew we were going to search that too, so I reckoned there was a chance of him trying to beat us to it, get rid of the evidence before we could find it. He’ll be apprehended if he shows up there, but he hasn’t so far.’
‘You’ve put a vehicle description out, though?’
Pye shook his head. ‘That’s my big problem, I don’t know what the fucker’s driving. I did a DVLA check. Anderson owns a blue Discovery; that’s still sitting in one of his two parking spaces. The other one’s empty, so my assumption is that he’s taken his girlfriend’s motor. A neighbour confirmed that she has one, but he didn’t know the make or model. The only thing is, DVLA has no record of a car registered to Lady Walters, and only the one in Anderson’s name.’
‘Then it must be her father’s.’
‘I’d assumed that too, but which one? Seems that the Duke of Lanark doesn’t have a personally registered vehicle either. All his cars are registered in the name of the limited company that manages his estates, and there are eleven of them.’
‘Ask him which one she drives. Or do you want me to make that call?’
‘I’ve done it already. The Duke’s on his way to London. I spoke to his manager, but he pleaded ignorance. He said it could be one of half a dozen.’
‘Was he lying?’ asked McIlhenney.
‘Probably, but I didn’t have time to press him. All I could do was get him to give me the numbers of all the cars he knew to be on the estate. I’ve eliminated them and put out “Stop on sight” orders for all the others. But again, if he does know which car she has. .’
‘. . he might well have included it on the list he gave you.’
‘Exactly.’
‘So where are you at?’
‘Sauce has taken the search team to the clinic. The drugs squad are crawling all over Anderson’s flat, with orders to be neither neat nor discreet, and I’ve got Ray Wilding and Alice Cowan going through Harvey Nichols, floor by floor. That’s where Anderson said Anthea Walters was. At the very least, I’m having her!’ He frowned. ‘But there’s someone else involved: Tanya, Anderson’s daughter. She’s with Walters. Her dad’s on the run from the police and she’s in the care of a junkie. The kid needs protection, and she’s my top priority.’
Forty-one
‘You know, Bob,’ Sir James Proud confessed, ‘this is a week that once I thought would never come; my last as a police officer before I go off to tend my garden.’
Skinner laughed. He looked around the room: rectangular patches showed on the walls, the places where personal photographs had been hung until a few minutes earlier. ‘You reckoned you were immortal?’ he asked.
The outgoing chief constable did not smile. ‘No, no. Far from it. I had a secret belief that I would die in office. Damn near did too; that heart scare a few years back might have seen me off. But it didn’t. Instead it showed me that too much time spent behind a desk is good for nobody. So now I’m three stone lighter than I was then and I can jog upstairs to this office.’ He patted the arm of the rocker in which he sat. ‘Watch this chair when you settle into it. It’s bewitched; the longer you sit in it, the closer your belly gets to the desk, without either piece of furniture moving at all.’
‘I’m bringing my own chair across the corridor, Jimmy. It’s magic too. If I sit in it for longer than half an hour there’s an ejector mechanism that fires me to my feet. If I’m confirmed in your job, my successor as deputy can have yours.’
‘There’s no “if” about it, son,’ said Proud quietly. ‘None of your brother Scots have applied for the position, in deference to you, or in acceptance of the inevitable, I reckon, and in the current political climate it’s been deemed unacceptable by the Police Board that officers from outwith Scotland should be considered, unless they have a record of service north of the border.’
Skinner stared at him for several seconds as the import of what he had just been told began to sink in. ‘I don’t suppose you had any influence on that “deeming”, did you?’ he asked.
‘Far be it for me to press my opinion on the Board.’
‘If I had you under interrogation and you gave me a non-answer like that, you’d be waiting a long time for your next cup of tea. Were you asked for your opinion?’
‘If I was, why do you assume that I’d have agreed with that view?’ Proud Jimmy smiled. ‘But to stop you pestering me about it, I played no part in the deliberation. . my insistence, not the Board’s. My last act as chief will be to attend the meeting tomorrow, at which your appointment will be confirmed, effective immediately.’
‘I didn’t want that, Jimmy,’ the DCC said quietly. ‘I wanted a contest.’
‘I know, but since this is the way it’s panned out, we’ll just have to accept it. . won’t we? So. . who’s your deputy going to be?’ he asked brusquely. ‘Andy Martin, I assume.’
‘That’s one job there will be several valid applications for.’
‘But none will stand up against him in interview. He is going to apply, isn’t he?’
‘That’s the general expectation.’
Sir James’s heavy grey right eyebrow rose. ‘But not yours?’
‘I have no reason to think he won’t, but. .’
‘What?’
Skinner frowned. ‘Maybe it would be just too chummy if Andy waltzed back in here. Like I said, I’m personally more than a little embarrassed to be taking over your job without a contest, if that’s what’s going to happen, but you are such a crafty old bastard that I’m not really surprised. If I’m seen to be trying to move my best mate into the number two job, that might be too much even for our malleable Board to swallow. Andy can apply, but I’ll make damn sure he’s opposed.’