‘Lucky you. Did your father leave you money?’
‘No. It was Byron. He made a pile in bonuses working with the bank, and never spent it. He wasn’t the type to buy a flashy sports car or anything like that. No, one way or another we’ve always been comfortably off.’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘Are you saying. .’
‘I’m not saying anything,’ the DCS replied. ‘I’m asking. We’re trying to build up a complete picture of Byron. To do that we need to search, where he lived, where he worked, everywhere we can. Was he a member of a sports club, for example?’
‘He played squash, but otherwise he wasn’t the clubbable sort. He ran, on the streets, he cycled and he did things like chins and press-ups. . he could do hundreds of those things. . but always on his own.’
‘So all his private life was here in this house?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did he have a computer here?’ Payne asked.
‘We have one, yes, but it’s mine and he never used it. I’ve told you, he had his laptop, his MacBook, and he took that with him when he left.’
‘Can we look in your machine nonetheless? Just in case he was able to access it without you knowing about it.’
She let out a sigh, of sheer exasperation. ‘Yes, if you must, but honestly, Byron wouldn’t do that, any more than I would look in his. That’s assuming I could get into it. He used to laugh about it and say that breaking his password was as likely as winning the Lottery.’
‘If that’s so,’ McIlhenney said, ‘I wouldn’t like to try to access it, just in case it spoiled my luck for the jackpot.’
‘No worries of that happening,’ Payne pointed out.
‘You mean you didn’t find it,’ the widow asked, ‘among his effects?’
‘I told you, we didn’t find anything, Mrs Millbank. Not even his clothes.’
She shuddered and for a second her eyes moistened, her first sign of weakness. ‘How awful,’ she whispered. ‘Robbing a dead man. How could they have done that? Of course I’ll help you in any way I can. What do you need to see?’
‘That computer for a start,’ the DCS replied. ‘If you could take us through it, looking for any files you don’t recognise, and at its history, its usage pattern. Then if we could look though his belongings, and examine any area where he might have worked at home.’
‘There wasn’t one. He never did. But you can look. If it’ll help, you can look; anything that’ll help you find those so-called friends of his.’
‘Oh, we know where they are,’ Payne said.
‘Then what are you looking for?’
‘I’m afraid it’s one of those situations where we won’t know until we find it. And if we do,’ he added, ‘we might not be able to tell you, for your own protection.’
Her forehead wrinkled. ‘That sounds a little scary. You can’t tell me anything?’
‘No more than we have already.’
‘Nothing? What about that name you mentioned, the Israeli man, Beram Cohen. Where does he fit? Who is he?’
The DCI looked at his escort colleague, raising his eyebrows, asking a silent question. McIlhenney hesitated, then nodded.
‘I’m sorry, Mrs Millbank,’ Payne replied, ‘but he was your husband.’
Forty
‘Thanks, Bridie,’ Skinner said, as the ACC rose from her chair at his meeting table, their morning briefing session having come to an end. ‘I’ll give you a shout when I’m ready to start interviewing Scott Mann. He can stew for a bit longer.’
‘His lawyer’s not going to like that,’ she pointed out.
‘Then tough shit on him. The Supreme Court says he has a right to be there, but we still set the timetable, up to a point, and we haven’t reached that yet. He can wait with his client.’
Gorman liked what she heard; her smile confirmed it.
‘Do something for me,’ he continued. ‘Ask Dan Provan to come up here, straight away. With Lottie being stood down, he’s carrying the ball, and I need to speak to him.’
The third person in the room was on his feet also, but the chief waved him back down. ‘Stay for a bit, Michael, please. I’d like a word.’
ACC Thomas frowned, but did as he was asked.
‘I want to apologise to you,’ Skinner began as soon as the door had closed behind Gorman.
‘For what, Chief?’ For which of the many ways I’ve been offended? he thought.
‘For asking you to attend Toni Field’s post-mortem. It’s been suggested to me since then that your relationship might have been more than professional. If I’d been aware of that at the time, no way would I have asked you to go.’
‘Even if the suggestion was untrue?’
‘Even then, because I wouldn’t have been quizzing you about it. If you and she had a fling away from the office, so what? When I was on my way up the ladder, and widowed, I had a long-standing relationship with a female colleague. Nobody ever questioned it and if anyone had they’d have been told very quickly to fuck off.’
‘Then I accept your apology, and I appreciate it, sir. . although it wasn’t really necessary, since it was my duty as a senior officer to attend the autopsy.’
Skinner grinned. ‘Which means, by implication, that if it was yours, then it was mine even more, and I shirked it.’
‘I didn’t say that.’
‘No, but if you had I couldn’t have argued, ’cos you’d have been right. The truth is, I’ve seen more hacked-about bodies than you or I have had years in the force, combined, and I tend not to volunteer to see any more. I should have stood up for that one, though.’
Thomas shook his head. ‘No, you shouldn’t,’ he said.
‘How do you work that out?’ the chief asked.
‘Because the examination was performed by your ex-wife, who still speaks of you with a smile and a twinkle in her eye; in my book that disqualifies you as a witness. Suppose that she’d made a mistake, and her findings had been challenged by the defence in a future trial and you’d wound up in the witness box. You’d have been hopelessly compromised.’
Skinner stared at him. ‘Do you know, Michael,’ he murmured, ‘you are absolutely right. It’s years since I attended one of Sarah’s autopsies, but I have done, when we were married. I shouldn’t have, unarguably. I should have known that, so why didn’t it dawn on me?’
‘I’d guess because the possibility of her slipping up didn’t enter your head,’ Thomas suggested. ‘She does seem very efficient.’
‘She’s all that. She gave up pathology for a while, when we went our separate ways, but I’m glad she’s back. I confess that the very thought of what she does turns my stomach from time to time, but I can say the same about my own career.’
‘Is it public knowledge?’
The chief blinked. ‘What?’
‘Toni and me. Does everybody know?’
‘From what I gather, most of the force does.’
‘Jesus!’ The ACC stared at the ceiling. ‘It’s never got back to me, then. I’ve never heard a whisper, not once. And once is the number of times it happened so how the. .’
‘You were unlucky. You were seen by the wrong people, the kind whose discretion gene was removed at birth. Max Allan did what damage limitation he could, but for what it’s worth, when Lowell Payne gets back from a wee job I’ve given him, I’m going to ask him to root out the people who started the story. Then I’m going to draw them a very clear picture of their futures in the force. What’s the shittiest part of our vast patch, Michael? Where does no PC want to be posted?’
‘I’ll give it some thought,’ Thomas growled.
Skinner nodded and pushed his chair back. ‘You do that,’ he declared. ‘Let’s you and I start again, with a clean sheet,’ he added, extending his hand.
As the two men shook, Skinner’s phone rang. ‘Need to take this,’ he said. ‘It might be Payne.’
It was.
‘We’ve just left Mrs Millbank, Chief,’ his exec told him. ‘We got nothing from it. Neither of us believe that she had a clue about her husband’s previous, or any idea about his sideline. It helped their lifestyle, though; the family business is pretty well fucked, but they live debt-free and drive a nice Lexus.’