Thursday legends

30

'He was a great believer in natural justice, was Alec Smith,' Andy Martin declared. 'But he went way over the top with Gus Morrison and Wendy Forrest.'

'And did Morrison kill him?' Skinner asked.

'Kevin O'Malley says absolutely not. He says that he has a persecution complex — which is not surprising since the poor bastard has been persecuted, wrongfully imprisoned and had his girl-friend driven to suicide — and that he is schizophrenic, but he says that he is a talker and not a doer. He says that if he's charged, he'll give evidence for the defence and he'll do it for nothing.'

The DCC whistled. 'That's it, then. Let Kevin section him and treat him for a while, but let's make sure that he gets his job back when he's fit for it.' He paused. 'And Gavigan?' There was an edge of savagery in the question.

'Like I said; I had him in last night and put the thumbscrews on him. He confirmed Gus's story. He said that the Sunday Post sent that anonymous letter straight to Alec. As soon as he saw it he knew who had done it. He didn't go apeshit — he never did, apparently — he just said "Better sort this, Tommy", then told Gavigan how they were going to sort it.

'Everything that Gus Morrison described to me was exactly as it happened. He and his girlfriend were no terrorists, just a couple of harmless fools with big patriotic dreams and big mouths.'

'Poor guy,' Skinner murmured. 'He sure didn't deserve that. And that lass, to die as she did, miserable and alone, locked up for nothing.' His eyes narrowed as he spoke.

'Alec must have known they were no threat,' Martin continued, 'but their big mistake was to embarrass him, by penetrating what he liked to think of as his own special world. From the moment he went into that SB job he was the wrong man for it, because he was a fanatic who had a narrow, unbending vision of right and wrong, as it applied to everyone, it seemed, except him.

'What he did to Gus and Forrest was hellish. Yet the way he dealt with Basra and Lawrence Scotland… it was effective, at least. Basra never raped and murdered another kid, and Scotland's been a model citizen ever since.'

'Maybe,' said the DCC. 'When are you going for him?'

'Later on this afternoon. When it's quieter at the St Leonard's' office.'

'Well, just watch it, eh.'

'Sure, as always.'

Skinner pushed himself up from his low seat and walked across to the big window of his office. 'Now, about Gavigan. Where is he now?'

'In a cell up at St Leonard's. I was so angry last night, I just locked him up.'

'Good for you. Mario had got rid of him, effectively; we were going to give him early retirement and send him on his way'

'Not any more, I hope.'

'Ah, it's not as easy as that. As President Johnson said of J. Edgar Hoover, the last thing I want is a guy like him outside the tent pissing in. It's always more comfortable the other way around.

'Ask yourself. What can we do with him? We could charge him with perverting the course of justice, perjury and all the rest. But this is all undercover stuff. Christ, his perjured evidence was in camera. On top of that, Alec Smith's dead, Wendy Forrest is dead, Angus Morrison is unbalanced and that anonymous letter to the Sunday Post will have been burned to ashes and crushed up long ago.

'Even if it was politically acceptable to try him, it would be legally impossible to get a conviction. Gavigan corroborates Morrison's story, but interview him formally with a lawyer present and he'd clam up, and all we've got is the unsupported allegation of a schizophrenic.

'Gus Morrison will be pardoned and compensated; it'll have to be done very quietly, but I'll see to it. As for our man, he's going to have to walk, Andy… but not before I've had a chat with him. Have Pye bring him down here.'

The Head of CID nodded. 'Will do.' He rose and headed for the door. 'I'll let you know how it goes with the other fella.'

31

'What's she like, this Mrs Smith?'

'She's a really nice woman, and very attractive for her age.'

Maggie Rose looked severely at her Sergeant across her Haddington office. 'The menopause doesn't make you ugly, Stevie. I can think of any number of women who became even more attractive the older they got

… my own mother among them.

'I meant did she strike you as completely frank, or might she have been holding something back from us? Do you think she was telling the truth about Alec's apparent lack of interest in photography?'

'Why should she lie?' Steele asked.

'What if he had some photographs of her that she doesn't want found?'

'I don't believe that for a second. Everything she told me bears out everything else I've learned about Alec Smith; that he was obsessively secretive. In their case, it turned the two of them into virtual strangers to each other.'

'So what does it leave us to go on, apart from the keys? What did you get from her?'

The Sergeant grinned. 'He walked his dog at Yellowcraigs.'

'Once, that we know of… and we can hardly dig up the whole place. Anyway, if Smith did have a secret set of photographs and files, he was hardly the sort of guy to keep them in a knot-hole in a tree, was he? Whatever my daft husband or I may have said, the dog is not going to turn out to be our star witness.'

'Okay, there's the gay son.'

'Whom his father shunned. He's been dead for five years; how could he tie in?'

'Like you say, his father shunned him. Maybe John Smith had a partner who hated him for it.'

'A nice respectable lawyer, his mother told you. Maybe. Not. You can check it out if you like, but I don't see it as a runner.'

'Mrs Smith said that he let slip once, about ten years ago, that he was afraid of Mr Skinner. She said it was just a casual comment, but should we ask him if there was a reason around that time why he should have been?'

Rose chuckled, quietly. 'Nothing sinister in that, Stevie. All the villains in Edinburgh, and most of the coppers, are afraid of Bob Skinner. I'll ask him; but even if he and Smith did have a falling-out, way back, I don't see how it could connect to this investigation.'

'In that case, we're just left with that standing order as our only unanswered question. Mrs Smith didn't know anything about it.'

'Are you one hundred per cent on that? Maybe she hasn't been declaring it to the Inland Revenue and didn't like to admit it.'

'I'm certain, ma'am. If that money was for her then it was invested somewhere that she didn't know about.'

'Best tidy it up anyway. The Dundee solicitor firm was called Biggins and McCart. Give them a call and see what he was paying them for. Use my phone; ask the switchboard to get the number for you and put you through.'

Steele gave the instruction to the constable who answered the Haddington switchboard, replaced the phone and waited. Eventually it rang; he picked it up. 'Miss Malone, of Biggins and McCart, Sergeant,' the constable announced.

'Hello, Miss Malone,' said the detective.

'Hello,' a young female voice answered in an unmistakable Dundonian accent. 'Fit can ah do for you?'

'I'm Detective Sergeant Steele,' he began. 'I'm involved in an investigation here… a murder investigation,' he added to capture her interest, as well as her attention. 'We've discovered that the victim, a Mr Alexander Smith, of Shell Cottage, North Berwick, maintained a standing order in favour of your firm, paying you one thousand two hundred pounds, annually.

'We'd like to know what it was for.'

'Ah'll need tae check, like. Can ah ca' you back?'

'Sure, but as soon as possible.' He gave her the Haddington number then hung up once more.

This time, they had to wait for ten minutes before the phone rang again. 'Miss Malone,' the constable repeated.