‘What the hell?’ he murmured. ‘Hold on a minute, love,’ he told his ex-wife. ‘There’s something up here. Detective sergeants don’t turn up uninvited in the chief’s office without a bloody good reason.’
He signalled to Dan Provan to enter, but the little man stood his ground. ‘What the fu-’ Skinner muttered. ‘Sit down for a minute, Sarah,’ he said. ‘Maybe the wee bugger’s scared of strange women.’
He walked towards the glass doorway, then stepped through it into the outer office. ‘Yes, Dan?’ he murmured. ‘Where’s your DI and what can I do for you?’
‘She’s detained, sir, downstairs in the office.’
Skinner had a low annoyance threshold. ‘What the fuck’s detaining her? Has it paralysed her phone hand?’
‘No, sir, you don’t understand. Ah’ve detained her. Out of bloody nowhere she’s become involved in the investigation. The rule book requires that Ah do that and report the matter to senior officers, plural. In this case, Ah don’t think that means a couple of DIs.’
The chief’s face darkened; looking up at him, Provan, experienced though he was, felt a chill run through him.
‘Where is she?’ Skinner murmured.
‘She’s in her private office, boss. DC Paterson’s with her; Ah’ve ordered him not to allow her to make any phone calls or send any texts.’
‘You’ve done that to Lottie?’ Skinner said, and as he did he realised how upset the sergeant was. ‘Right, let’s hear about it, but not here.’
He opened the door behind him and called out to Sarah, ‘Urgent, I’m afraid. Hang on please, love; I’ll be as quick as I can.’ Then he led the way into the corridor and along to ACC Gorman’s office, relieved to see through the unshaded glass wall that she was behind her desk. He rapped on the door, and walked straight in.
‘Bridie, sorry to interrupt, but something’s arisen that DS Provan feels he has to bring to the top of the reporting chain. He’s been around long enough to know the rule book off by heart, so we’d better hear him out.’
‘Of course.’ Skinner’s deputy rose. ‘Hi, Dan,’ she said. ‘You look as though the cat’s just ett your budgie.’
The little sergeant sighed. ‘Ma’am, if it would make this go away Ah’d feed it the bloody thing maself.’
‘So what do you have to tell us?’ she asked.
‘To show you,’ he corrected her. ‘Is your computer on?’
‘Give me a minute,’ she said, then pressed a button behind a console that sat on a side table.
The command suite computers were of more recent vintage than those in the floors below, and so it was ready in less than the time she had requested.
Provan inserted the DVD he had brought with him into a slot at the side of the screen. ‘This is CCTV footage,’ he explained to the two chief officers, ‘from the Easthaven Retail Park. It was taken on Friday evening. Our investigation established that the two men who killed Chief Constable Field went there at that time, and later Bazza Brown’s brother, Cec, told us that he took Bazza there as well. Now, please watch.’
He played the recording in the same way that he had shown it to his DI twenty minutes earlier, stopping as the Peugeot roared away from the park.
‘That’s your homicide wrapped up,’ Skinner remarked. ‘But where did the parcel come from?’
‘Watch again,’ Provan replied, rewinding the recording by half an hour, showing Brown’s drop-off by his brother, the unexpected encounter, and the handing over of the package. Once again, he froze the action to show the newcomer’s face.
‘I see,’ the chief constable murmured. ‘Are you going to tell me who that is, now?’
It was Bridie Gorman who answered. ‘I can tell you that,’ she hissed. He looked at her and saw that her eyes, normally warm and kind, were cold and seemed as hard as blue marble. ‘That is Scottie Mann, one-time police officer until the bevvy got the better of him, and still the husband of Detective Inspector Charlotte Mann. What’s the stupid fucking bastard gone and done? Dan, what was in the parcel? Do you know?’
‘I would bet my maxed-out pension, ma’am,’ the veteran detective declared, ‘that it was two police uniforms and two equipment belts.’
Thirty-Seven
‘I’m sorry that took so long,’ Bob told Sarah as he stepped back into his office, ‘but it had to be done straight away, and by nobody other than my deputy and me.’
‘What’s happened?’ she asked. ‘Can you tell me?’
‘In theory no, I can’t, but bugger that. If I don’t I’ll be brooding over it for the rest of the night. Bridie Gorman and I have just found ourselves in the horrible position of having to interview, under caution, the senior investigating officer in the Toni Field murder. Her husband turned up not just as a witness, but as a suspect in the conspiracy. That’s what wee Provan came to tell me, and it must have been bloody tough on him, because the two of them are bloody near father and daughter.’
‘Oh my. How did it go?’
‘We put the question directly to her and she swore that she had no knowledge of her husband’s involvement, and that if she had she would have declared it.’
‘Do you believe her?’
He nodded. ‘Yes, we do. The poor woman’s in a hell of a state. She alternates between being tearful and wanting to rip her old man’s heart out. . and she’s big enough to do that too.’
‘What happens now?’
‘Scott, the husband. . the ex-cop husband,’ he growled, his face twisting suddenly in anger, ‘will be arrested. In fact it’s under way now. Provan’s taking a DC and some uniforms to their house to pick him up. Their son will see that happen, I’m afraid, but there’s no way round that. DC Paterson and the uniforms will take him away and Dan. . he’s the boy’s godfather. . will stay with him till Lottie gets back.’ He chuckled, savagely. ‘She wanted to make the arrest herself! I almost wish that was possible. It’d serve the guy right. No chance, though; she’s out.’
‘You mean she’s suspended?’ Sarah looked as angry as he did.
‘No, of course not.’ He smiled to lighten the moment. ‘Calm down. No need to get the sisterhood wound up. She’s on an unanticipated holiday, that’s all. She can’t continue on the inquiry, because she’s been hopelessly compromised.’
‘Who’ll take over from her?’
‘Dan will,’ Skinner replied, ‘reporting to me, just as she’s been doing. I could parachute in another DI, indeed maybe I should, given his closeness to the family, but Scott was a cop himself and it would be difficult to find someone who had never crossed his path.
‘Anyway, Provan’s forgotten more about detective work than most of the potential candidates will ever learn, and he’s still got enough left in his tank to see him through. He won’t interview Scott, though. Bridie and I will do that, tomorrow morning. Not too early, though, I want him to stew in isolation for a while. Now,’ he declared, ‘let’s you and I get out of here. Change of plan; we’ll take the train, then a taxi to yours. I can’t have PC Davie drive me through to Edinburgh at this time of night.’
They took the lift down to the headquarters car park, where PC Cole was waiting. The chief constable introduced the extra passenger, ‘Doctor Grace, the pathologist, from Edinburgh University,’ then apologised for the delay, a gesture that seemed to take his driver by surprise. His reaction rose to astonishment when Skinner told him that the destination was Queen Street Station.
‘Are you sure, sir?’ he exclaimed.
‘Certain. You can pick me up from there tomorrow as well. I’ll let you know what train I’m on.’
The train was on the platform five minutes from departure as they settled into its only first-class compartment. Sarah grinned. ‘I’m on expenses, or I would be if you hadn’t bought my ticket. What’s your excuse?’
‘I’m not quite sure,’ he confessed, ‘since everything happened very quickly at the weekend, but I think I am too. But the truth is that I prefer first, on the rare occasions that I take the train, simply because there’s less chance of me meeting an old customer, so to speak.’