‘He’s in post already. It wouldn’t be right of me to come, when I might not be a police officer for much longer. You take care now, and watch your back as long as that woman’s standing behind you.’
He ended the call and slipped his mobile into the big canvas bag that lay by his side.
‘What was that about?’ Sarah asked. They were sitting on a travelling rug on the beach at Gullane, watching their two sons trying to persuade Seonaid that the seawater was as warm as they said.
‘Amanda Dennis,’ he said. ‘She’s having a two-day review of the Field fiasco in London, on Monday and Tuesday. It’s a natural response: what went wrong and how to prevent any recurrence. She said she’s ordered Houseman and his entire Glasgow team down there, and asked if I wanted to attend.’
‘Were you serious in what you said to her?’
‘About Lowell? Sure. He never wavered in there and he turned out to be very good at reading people. He’s a natural for the job, and it gives me grounds to give him an acting promotion, without anyone calling it nepotism. Mind you,’ he chuckled, ‘Jean wouldn’t be too pleased if I send him off to London again so soon, so I don’t think I’ll pass on the invite.’
She shook her head. ‘I didn’t mean were you sure about Lowell. I was talking about the last part. Do you really mean that?’
‘I think I do,’ he said. ‘I am edging myself towards walking away from the Strathclyde job and leaving the police service altogether, as soon as I can. All the way back from London I argued the toss with myself, and I still am arguing. It’s doing my head in. I never wanted to destroy the Security Service itself, only to sort any people that might have crossed the line. I’m a realist, I understand how the world has to work at times. But given what I knew, or thought I knew, I had some questions that needed answers.
‘As it was, I got it wrong, although not all of it: the Home Secretary did misuse her position by having Lowery delete the Mauritian birth record. Now I’m being blackmailed by Emily Repton herself, to save her husband’s reputation and both their careers. You should have heard her, and seen her. That woman is fucking evil.’
‘She threatened me? Really?’
‘Yes, but we both knew that was crap; that was just her way of telling me how far she could reach into my life. I’ve taken legal advice since. Your passport may be American, but your children are British. There isn’t a judge in Scotland who’d allow your deportation.’
‘But her threat against Aileen? Is that for real?’
Bob nodded. ‘Oh yes. She went with Morocco to a party in Glasgow, after the premiere of a movie he was in. They’d been watching the pair of them for long enough to be fairly sure she would go, especially since I was at a security conference that MI5 had set up.
‘While Joey was away schmoozing the press, Hubert Lowery’s two women got her shit-faced, possibly with a little chemical assistance, then set up the cocaine scene in the toilets. I know all this because Amanda made Lowery tell her as he was clearing his desk.’
‘How did she make him cough that up?’
He gave a bitter laugh. ‘She threatened to tell me where he lives. That was enough.’
‘Can Amanda do anything about it, now she’s in the top job?’
‘Not with Emily Reptile as Home Secretary.’
‘If you had been right, and Toni Field had been killed on Repton’s orders, what would you have done?’
‘As much as I could, although that might not have been a lot, since so many of the players are dead and so much of it is deniable.’
‘Are you really satisfied that isn’t what happened?’
He nodded. ‘Yes, I’m sure. I got taken. As Mandy suggested, I did send a car to pick up Marina, as soon as I got out of there. She’d gone, right enough. Sofia thought she was just shopping. . or so she said. . but she hasn’t been seen since. Amanda was right. The woman made me look like an idiot. Hell, I am an idiot! She fed me little hints to steer me in the direction she wanted, towards them and away from her.
‘That last scene, her identifying Clyde Houseman as Toni’s mystery lover, that was the final piece of the con. I bought it, like an absolute sucker, and went charging off down to London, to commit professional suicide.’
‘It wasn’t suicide,’ Sarah insisted. ‘You don’t need to do anything so drastic as quit.’ She paused. ‘Don’t go off on me for asking this, but could this depression from which speaking as a doctor, you are clearly suffering, be related to the fact that you feel humiliated, embarrassed, and maybe even a little unmanned by what this Marina woman did to you?’
‘Why should I take the hump?’ he asked. ‘It’s a fair question. But the answer’s no. At the time, sure, I had a red face. Now, I see it the same as a golf game. Marina was good, and so was I. But where I shot a birdie, she had an eagle. When that happens out there on Gullane Number One, you don’t give up the game. You say to the other guy, “Good shot,” and then you stuff him at the next hole. If I leave the force, it’ll be because I can’t go after Repton from within it. But whatever happens, I’m going to find Marina Deschamps.’
She looked at him, a little afraid of the answer to the question she was about to pose. ‘When you find her, what will you do?’
‘I could eliminate her,’ he told her. ‘As long as I don’t do it in the middle of Piccadilly Circus at rush hour, I really don’t believe anyone would want to know. Too many guilty secrets.’ He stopped, then laughed at the alarm on her face. ‘I could,’ he repeated, ‘but don’t worry, I won’t. There is an alternative.’
He jumped up from the rug. ‘Come on, let’s go and paddle with the kids. The water can’t be that cold.’
‘Okay.’ She took his hand and let him pull her to her feet, then laughed, as his phone sounded. ‘I thought you were going to leave that at home,’ she said.
‘Force of habit. I’ll ignore it.’
‘Hell no,’ she retorted, fishing it out of their beach bag. ‘You’ll fret if you do that.’ She handed it to him. ‘It’s Mario.’
‘Ah, that’s different.’ He took it from her and accepted the call. ‘What is it?’ he asked. ‘Has Paula had the baby?’
‘She has indeed,’ the new father replied. ‘Wee Eamon put in an appearance about half an hour ago. Like shelling peas, the midwife said, although not within Paula’s hearing.’
‘Big fella, that is absolutely great, I am so pleased for you both.’
‘In that case, you’re going to be even more pleased. About two hours ago a bloke walked into the St Leonards office with a bag that he found when he was sorting old clothes from one of those public recycling points. It was mixed up among them all, and there was a laptop inside it, wrapped in a shirt with a Selfridges label on it. The battery was flat, but the desk staff found a charger and plugged it in. When they switched it on, it said “Byron’s MacBook”. I reckon we’ve found your man Cohen’s missing computer.’
Looking at Bob, Sarah saw his face light up, saw all his gloom and pessimism evaporate, and she knew that whatever he had been told, it had been a tipping point in his life.
‘Mario,’ she heard him exclaim, ‘that’s brilliant. It means the show’s back on the road. I’d like it in Glasgow in my office, by Monday morning.’ She thought he was about to end the call, but he went on, as if an afterthought had come to him just in time.
‘One other thing,’ he added. ‘I want to see wee Ramsey again, but not in my office. Find him and tell him I’ll be shopping in Fort Kinnaird at noon tomorrow and that I’ll fancy a hot dog from the stall by the crossing. There’ll be one in it for him as well if he turns up.’
Fifty-Seven
‘Welcome back, Detective Inspector,’ Skinner said, with feeling. He jerked his thumb in Provan’s direction. ‘This little bugger’s been intolerable since you’ve been away.’