‘A couple of minutes’ he had said, and it took no longer, until there was a click, and the safe swung open.
‘Piece of piss, Ah told ye. Three four eight five’s the combination. Four digits, no’ six.’
Skinner smiled as he handed over the notes. ‘Do you know what “recidivist” means, Johan?’ he asked.
‘No, sir,’ Ramsey replied as he pocketed them.
‘No, I didn’t think so. Do me one favour, even though it’ll be a big one for you. Try not to get nicked again on my patch, whether it’s here or in Edinburgh. This can’t get you any favours, and I really don’t want to have to lock you up again. Come on, let’s get you back home. Remember, you were never here.’
His desk phone rang again as they stepped back into his office. He picked it up.
‘PC May again, sir. Your next visitor’s arrived.’
‘Good timing,’ he said. ‘Bring him up, and you can take this one back.’
Fifty
‘When will they be in court?’ Viola Murphy asked, as soon as Dan Provan had finished reading the formal charges, and the two accused had been taken away to complete the bail formalities.
‘Ah can’t say,’ he replied, ‘but we’ll let you know. Will you be defending them both?’
‘Probably, unless either one of them changes their mind and decides to plead not guilty; in that event, there could be a conflict. Does Skinner mean it? Will he press for custodial sentences?’
‘From what Ah hear you got on the wrong side of him. Did you think he’s the kind that bluffs?’
‘No,’ the lawyer conceded.
‘It’s no’ just him. ACC Gorman’s of the same mind.’
‘And you?’
‘Listen, Viola, we all are. It’s tough for me, personally, you must know that, but we cannae let this go by wi’ a slap on the wrist, especially for McGlashan. If she goes down, he has tae and all. That would be the case suppose he wasn’t an ex-cop and married to somebody who still is. The fact that he is just underlines it. The fiscal will demand jail. The best you can hope for is a soft-hearted sheriff that gives them less than six months.’
‘I’ll ask for a suspended sentence.’
‘Ye better no’. He might hang them.’ He winced. ‘Bad joke, Ah know, but you know the bench. Sometimes, the more that lawyers chance their arm, the harder they go. Would ye like some advice?’
‘I’ll listen to it,’ she said. ‘Whether I’ll act on it. .’
‘Okay. If I was in the dock, I’d want the youngest, freshest kid in your firm tae do the plea in mitigation. Ah’d even be hopin’ that they made an arse of it, and the judge took pity on them. Because that’s the only way those two will get anything like sympathy from any sheriff in this city.’
‘Mmm,’ she murmured. ‘You may well be right. I suppose you should be; you’ve been around long enough to have seen it all. I’ll have a word with my partners, and see what they think. Thanks, Sergeant.’
The door had barely closed behind her when it opened again. Provan looked up, to see Scott Mann framed there.
‘Dan,’ he began. ‘Sarge.’
The older man bristled. ‘Don’t you fuckin’ call me Sarge.’ He jerked a thumb in the direction of DC Paterson who stood beside him, gathering notes and papers and putting them in order. ‘That’s reserved for colleagues, like Banjo here; for police officers, and that you’re no’. And don’t “Dan” me either. Mr Provan, it can be, but frankly Ah’d prefer nothing at all. Ah’d rather no’ see you again.’
‘Will ye put a word in for me?’ Mann begged.
‘What? Wi’ the high heid yins? You must be joking.’
‘No, I meant wi’ Lottie.’
The DS started round the table towards him, only to be restrained by Paterson’s strong hand, grabbing him by the elbow. He stopped, gathering himself.
‘There is even less chance of that,’ he said when he was ready. ‘From now on, I will do all I can to protect Lottie from you. Now you fuck off out of here, boy, get off wi’ your tart. And be glad you’re leavin’ in one piece. In the old days ye wouldn’t have.’
Fifty-One
‘Who was that little guy?’ Clyde Houseman asked, as he settled into the chair that Skinner offered him. ‘He wasn’t the sort you expect to see on the command floor of the second largest police force in Britain.’
‘Just a technician,’ the chief replied. ‘I had a wee problem, but he sorted it out for me.’
‘Computer?’
He shrugged. ‘You know IT consultants, they live in a different world from the rest of us. Some of them turn up and they’re dressed like you, others, they’re like him. I know which ones I trust more. I’m not a big fan of dressing to impress.’
The younger man winced and his eyes seemed to flicker for a moment. ‘I do. .’
Skinner laughed. ‘Don’t take it personally. I wasn’t getting at you. You’re ex-military, an ex-officer; you’ve had years of training in taking a pride in your appearance. Plus, you’re not a computer consultant; you’re a spook. Whatever, you look a hell of a lot better than you did as a gang-banger in Edinburgh half a lifetime ago.’
‘Thank God for that.’
‘Me, now? I’ve never changed. I joined the police force because I felt a vocational calling, and I followed it even though I knew that my old man had always hoped I would take over the family law firm eventually. I think he died hoping that. I never let myself be swayed, though. I applied to join the Edinburgh force, they saw my shiny new degree and they accepted me. And you know what? The first time I put on the uniform, I realised that I hated it. The thing was ugly and uncomfortable and when I looked in the mirror I didn’t recognise the bloke inside it.
‘It didn’t kill my pride in the job, but it did make me want to get into CID as fast as I could. Look at me now; I’m a chief constable, but my uniform is hanging in my wardrobe next door. I’m only wearing a suit because I feel a wee bit obliged to do that, at least until I get settled in here.
‘The real me might dress a wee bit sharper than the guy you passed at the lift, but it would still be pretty casual. So what you see here, to an extent it’s a phoney. Old George Michael got it right; sometimes clothes do not make the man.
‘But yours, though, they do. They mark you out, they define you. The military defined you. It made you; you became it. Before that you were no more than eighty kilos of clay waiting to be given proper form.
‘I could see that when I came across you in that shithole of a scheme in Edinburgh. That’s why I gave you my card that day: I thought you might see the light and get in touch. You didn’t, but you still went in the right direction. If you had. . you’d still be the man you are, but you’d just look a bit different, that’s all.’
Houseman laughed. ‘Scruffy at weekends, you mean? How do you know I’m not?’
‘I know, because I’ve met plenty of soldiers in my time and quite a few were officers who rose through the ranks, like you. I’ll bet you don’t have a pair of jeans in your wardrobe. Am I right?’
‘You are, as a matter of fact. Is that a bad thing?’
‘In a soldier, no. In a lawyer, no. In an actuary, for sure no. When I hang out in Spain I see these fat blokes on the beach in gaudy shirts and ridiculous shorts, with gold Rolexes on their wrists and all of them looking miserable because their wives have dragged them there and they’re starting to panic because they don’t know who anyone else is and, worse, nobody knows what they are. My golf club’s full of people who’ve never worn denim in their fucking lives, and that’s okay, because if they did they’d be pretending to be something they’re not.’
‘Exactly. So what are you saying?’
‘I’m trying to tell you,’ Skinner said, ‘that conformity is fine for normal people. But you, Clyde, you’re not a normal person, you’re a spook. You’re a good-looking bloke, of mixed race, so you have an inbuilt tendency to be memorable. The way you dress, the way you present yourself, makes you unforgettable, and in your line of work, my friend, that is the very last thing you want to be. If they didn’t teach you that when you joined up at Millbank, then they failed you.’