‘Any questions, ladies and gentlemen?’ Alf Old invited, from his seat at the table on the right of the platform, then pointing as he chose from the hands that shot up, and from the babble of competing voices. ‘John Fox.’
‘Is this not a panic reaction, Ms de Marco,’ the BBC reporter asked, ‘after your narrow escape on Saturday?’
‘Absolutely not.’
‘What would you say to those people, and there may be many of them, who think that it is?’
‘I’d tell them that they’re wrong. Scottish Labour took a corporate decision some time ago to support unification; we’re quite clear that it’s the way forward. On the other hand, the party in power seems less committed. Yes, I know the First Minister says that it’s the way forward, but there are people on his back benches who aren’t quite as keen.
‘We’ve been reading a lot this morning about the First Minister’s personal courage. . and I have to say that I admire him for the way he displayed it on Saturday, when even the senior Strathclyde police officer on the scene collapsed under the strain.
‘What I’m saying today is that it’s time for him to bring that courage into the parliament chamber and join with us in getting important legislation on to the Scottish statute book.’
She paused, for only a second, but Marguerite Hatton seized on her silence.
‘Do you have anyone in mind for the position of police commissioner, Ms de Marco?’ she asked.
Aileen glared down at her from behind her lectern. ‘There will be a selection process,’ she replied, ‘but I won’t have anything to do with it.’
‘Would you endorse your husband’s candidacy?’
‘I repeat,’ she snapped, ‘I will not have anything to do with the selection process. I’m not First Minister, and even if I was, the appointment will be made by a body independent of government. The legislation will merge the existing police authorities into one and that will select the commissioner.’
‘Then my question still stands,’ the journalist countered. ‘Will you endorse your husband’s candidacy?’
‘I’m sorry, Ms Hatton,’ she maintained, ‘I’m not going there. I’m the leader of the Scottish Labour Party, and I’m sure that I’ll have political colleagues on the new authority, but it won’t be my place to influence them in favour of any candidate.’
‘Or against one,’ she challenged, ‘if you believed he was entirely wrong for the job?’
Aileen paused. ‘If I believed that strongly enough about someone,’ she replied, ‘I’d say so in parliament.’
‘So do you believe your husband would be the right man for the post, even though he’s an authoritarian bully?’
‘Now hold on a minute!’ Alf Old barked, from the platform. ‘This press conference isn’t about individuals. It’s about important Labour Party policy. However, I have to tell you that I’ve met the gentleman in question and I don’t recognise your description. Now that’s enough out of you, madam. Another questioner, please?’
Hatton ignored him. ‘But isn’t that why you and he have just announced your separation, Aileen?’ she shouted. ‘Isn’t that why you ran into the arms of another man after your terrifying ordeal on Saturday, because Bob wasn’t there for you?’
Aileen de Marco had known more than a few intense situations in her life, and she was proud of her ability to stay calm and controlled, whatever the pressure. And so, it was agreed later, her outburst was entirely atypical, which made it all the more shocking.
‘Bob’s never been there for me,’ she yelled. ‘Why the hell do you think I’m divorcing him, you stupid bloody woman?’
Twenty-Six
‘John, go easy on her, will you?’
‘Bob, I’m BBC. We don’t run big lurid headlines on our reports and we don’t editorialise on politicians. We just run what we’ve got on the record, and in this case that’s Aileen screaming at the Hatton bitch then storming out of the room. We can’t ignore that, because it’s there. STV have got it, and that means it’ll be on ITN national at lunchtime. Sky have got it and they won’t hold back. Plus I saw a couple of freelance cameras there, so it could even go international.’
‘Bugger,’ Skinner sighed. ‘And you’re the nice guys, aren’t you?’
‘Exactly,’ John Fox said. ‘You know what Hatton will do with it, and the rest of the tabloids. Thing is, Bob, it’s not just Aileen that’s been caught up in it.’
‘Don’t I know it. I was never there for her, she said.’
‘Do you want to react to that?’
‘To the media in general, no, because anything I say will be used in evidence against either Aileen or me. To you, because I trust you or we wouldn’t be speaking right now, I’ll say I’m sorry she feels that way, and I’ll add that lack of communication is one of the factors behind our separation.’ He paused, then added, ‘Hell, you can use this as well, on the record. I find it contemptible that she was goaded into her outburst after what she went through on Saturday night.’
‘I will use it too. How about Hatton calling you an authoritarian bully?’
Skinner laughed. ‘Jesus, John, I’m the acting chief constable of the UK’s second biggest police force. If that doesn’t make me an authority figure, I don’t know what would. As for me being a bully, I appreciate Alf Old putting her straight, and I hope that others will as well.’
‘I wouldn’t worry about that,’ Fox told him. ‘It’s a wee bit close to defamation, so most sensible editors. . including Hatton’s. . won’t repeat it. I was only covering my back by asking you about it. Besides, no tabloid editor in his right mind’s going to want to fall out with you.’ He laughed. ‘Not that that implies you’re a bully, mind.’ He was silent for a second or two. ‘Can I ask you something else?’ he murmured.
‘Sure.’
‘I told you what she said about Max Allan. Do you want to counter it?’
‘I’d like to, but I can’t, because it’s true. Max was first into the hall when the emergency lighting came on. He could see very little, and at first he thought it was Paula Viareggio who’d been shot, not Toni. Max has known Paula since she was a kid; he and his wife live closer to Edinburgh than Glasgow and so they do nearly all their shopping there. They’ve been customers of the Viareggio delicatessen chain for twenty years, since the days when Paula worked behind the counter.
‘He thought that was her on the floor, and he just buckled. The poor guy’s career’s probably at an end, and an ignominious one at that, thanks to Aileen. The next time I speak to her she and I are going to have very serious words about it. You can be sure of that.’
‘I agree,’ the journalist murmured. ‘True or not, it was well out of order. But Bob, off the record this time, why did she put herself up there to be shot at? Sorry, that was an unfortunate choice of words in the circumstances.’
‘Maybe but I know what you mean. My informed guess would be that her reasons were purely political.’
‘Did you know about Labour supporting unification?’
‘Of course I did. This is very much between us, chum, but it was the last straw as far as our marriage was concerned.’
‘I guessed as much. There’s a piece on the Saltire website that nobody’s noticed yet. It was blown out of the printed edition by the Field shooting, but it’s got your stamp all over it. Everybody knows that paper’s your house journal, with June Crampsey being a retired cop’s daughter.’
‘Mmm,’ Skinner murmured, ‘do they indeed? I’ll need to watch that, but I won’t lie to you about my input to that article; you’re right. I was a bit steamed up at the time. But if you’re going to have a girn about me playing favourites, don’t, because I’m doing it just now. Nobody else is getting past the switchboard here and I’m taking no other media calls anywhere else.’
‘I appreciate that,’ Fox chuckled. ‘In the spirit of our special relationship, is there anything else you’d like not to tell me? About the Field investigation, for example.’