‘Look,’ he said. ‘I have to be frank about this. You know your sister and I were not exactly the best of friends.’
Marina smiled, then nodded. ‘Oh yes. She was very clear about that. But that was more political than anything else. You had different views on certain things, but that didn’t affect what she thought of you as a police officer. We both know she was a big supporter of a unified Scottish force.’
‘Sure, she made that clear enough in ACPOS, and I made my opposition equally plain. We had some robust discussions, to say the least.’
‘Oh she told me. But what you probably do not know is, her big fear was that she would talk you round to her view. She rated you very highly as a police officer; in fact she said you were the best she’d ever met. She wanted the top job, no mistake about that, but she didn’t think she’d have a chance if you went for it.’
‘Indeed?’ Skinner murmured.
‘Indeed.’
‘So where does that take us, Ms Deschamps?’
‘I have no personal issues with you, sir,’ she replied. ‘Fate has put you in what was my sister’s office. I’m a top-class secretary with personnel management qualifications, and I like to work with the best. Therefore. .’ She held his eyes with hers.
‘Let me think about it,’ he said. ‘I like to have a serving officer as my assistant, and I’ve already appointed someone to that position, pro tem. To be frank, I’ll need to get to know the job before I can judge whether there will be enough work left for you. But first things first; you and your mother have a funeral to organise, albeit with all the help that the force can give you. Once that’s over, we can talk. Fair enough?’
‘Fair enough,’ she agreed.
Out of nowhere, Skinner remembered a problem. ‘There is one thing, though. Do you have the combination of the safe in the chief’s office?’
Marina sighed. ‘I did,’ she replied. ‘It was seven three eight two seven six. But Antonia always changed it at the end of the week. It was usually the last thing she did on a Friday; sometimes she’d tell me the new number there and then, but if she didn’t have a chance it would wait until Monday. Last Friday she didn’t tell me. You can try the old number, just in case she forgot to make the change, but if it doesn’t work, I fear I can’t help you.’
She looked up as her mother returned carrying a tray, loaded with two tiny espresso cups, and a bottle of Perrier with a glass.
‘No ice,’ Sofia Deschamps declared as she placed them on a small table at the side of the couch. ‘I refuse to dilute the mineral with melted tap water, as so many do.’
‘I couldn’t agree more,’ Skinner told her. ‘When my late wife and I were very young, we went on a camping holiday to the South of France. Everybody told us not to drink the water there, so we didn’t. But we had ice in everything, so everything tasted of chlorine.’
‘If that was the only side effect,’ she countered, ‘you were lucky.’
He winced. ‘It wasn’t; I was being delicate, that’s all.’
‘Your late wife,’ she repeated. ‘And earlier you mentioned your former wife.’
‘Three,’ he said, anticipating the question. ‘Three and still counting.’
‘Maman!’ Marina exclaimed, her tone sharp.
‘Ah yes.’ Her mother held up a hand. ‘I am sorry. That was indiscreet; we have seen this morning’s papers.’
‘No apology necessary,’ he assured her. ‘All it means is that our separation is public knowledge. It wasn’t the way I’d have chosen for it to be revealed, but these things happen. Have you ever been married, Miss Deschamps? Or am I making a false assumption? Have you reverted to your birth surname?’
‘No, you are correct. I have always chosen to avoid marriage. Antonia’s father, Anil, was a member of the Mauritian government of the day. . you see, we have politicians in common. Marriage with him was never possible, since he had a wealthy wife, to whom he owed his position.
‘Marina’s father was an Australian, with business interests in Port St Louis. He spent part of the year there, the winter, usually, and the rest in Australia, or travelling in connection with his business. He was something of an entrepreneur.’ She pronounced the word with care, balancing each syllable.
‘We had a very nice apartment there, and a very pleasant life. Not that I was a kept woman,’ she was quick to add. ‘I had a very good job, in the Mauritian civil service, and I maintained my own household. He did not contribute, because I would not allow it, even though we were together for seventeen years. I had a good income. We are a wealthy country, you know; close to Africa and yet a little distant from it too.’
‘I know,’ Skinner replied. ‘Mauritius is one of the many places on my “To do” list.’
‘You will like it.’
‘Why did you leave?’ he asked her.
‘To be with my daughters. Marina’s father was very good to both my girls; he more or less adopted Antonia, and when she came to university age, he got her a place in Birmingham, where she did a degree in criminology.’
‘She first joined the police in Birmingham as well,’ Marina added. ‘She had a specialised degree and that got her fast-tracked. Well, you’ll have seen her career record, I’m sure. She never looked back.’
‘How about you?’ he put to her. ‘Were you ever tempted to join the force?’
‘That never really arose, not in the same way. My father died when I was sixteen. I was very upset, and any thought of university went out of my mind. . not that I had Antonia’s IQ anyway. I stayed in Mauritius and went to college; I did a secretarial course and a personnel management qualification. I came to Britain eight years ago, when Antonia was senior enough to point me at a job with the Met support staff.’
She smiled. ‘That’s not as bad as it sounds; I had a very stringent interview, and I must have been vetted, for I was attached to SO15, the Counter-Terrorism Command, for a little while. But when Antonia became a chief constable. . back to Birmingham again. . things changed. She insisted that I go with her, to run what she always called her Private Office. The rest you must know.’
Skinner nodded. ‘I’ve been told. Ladies,’ he continued, ‘you’ll be aware that since Saturday evening, a full-scale murder investigation has been under way. I’m keeping in close touch with it, and I know that DI Mann, the senior investigating officer, will want to visit you fairly soon to interview you for the record. Meantime, is there anything you would like to ask me?’
‘Of course,’ Sofia exclaimed, ‘but why would he need to interview us?’
‘Detective Inspector Mann is a lady, Maman,’ her daughter murmured.
‘Then she, if you must. Why would she? What do we know? In any event, can this not be an interview? You’re her boss now, after all, as my dear Antonia was.’
‘Yes but she is in day-to-day charge.’ He paused. ‘If it makes you happy, I can go over some of the ground she’ll want to and report what you say to her. If she’s comfortable with that, fine. If not, she can come and visit you again. Okay?’
‘Yes,’ Marina Deschamps replied, at once. ‘But Maman is right. Why do you need witness statements from us?’
‘Because we’re now certain, beyond any doubt, that Chief Constable Field was the target. These men weren’t after my wife, or the First Minister. They were pros, hit men; they knew exactly who they were there to kill, and they did.’
‘Oui,’ Miss Deschamps whispered. ‘We saw my daughter’s body yesterday. They covered half her face with a sheet, but I made them take it off. We know what was done to her. So yes, I understand you now. What do you need to know?’
‘Her private life,’ Skinner said. ‘I can tell you that we’ll be going back through her entire career, looking at what she’s done, people she’s put away, enemies she may have made along the way who have the power and the contacts to put together an operation like this.’
‘Such an impersonal word: “operation”. You make it sound like a military thing.’
‘It was,’ he told her. ‘Smit and Botha were former soldiers, and Beram Cohen, the planner, had an intelligence background. They didn’t work cheap, and they weren’t the sort of men you can contract in a pub. The very fact that the principal, as we’ll call the person who ordered your daughter’s death, was able to contact Cohen, tells me that he is wealthy and well-connected.