‘Have you told your boss?’
‘Mitchell Laidlaw? Of course I’ve told him, and I’ve checked with Ronnie Drake.’
‘How did they react?’
Alex laughed. ‘Mitch’s first reaction was to rub his hands at the thought of all that fee income; then he told me to get on with it, for a couple of weeks, until Regine’s had time to come to terms with her husband’s death, and consider the future more calmly. Ronnie’s seriously pissed off that Regine didn’t ask her to take it on. Well, screw her. If she’d shown more enthusiasm about contacting Regine in the first place, she probably would have wound up in the frame. I told her as much too.’
‘Christ, Alex, listen to you. A partner for a day and you’re making waves.’
‘Like hell I am. I’m making a point. Ronnie Drake’s a spare wheel in this firm; it’s just as well she’s not long for it.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘The private client department’s being hived off; in other words, we’re getting rid of it. Don’t worry,’ she added, ‘I’m not giving away any secrets. Our press people announced it this morning. The management board has been wanting to do it for a while. Willie Conn was the last of the opponents, and now he’s gone . . .’
‘Mitch hasn’t said a word to me,’ Bob grumbled, ‘and I’m a private client.’
‘He will, though; meantime he asked me to tell you. You’ll be getting a letter as well.’
‘So I’ve got to look for a new lawyer?’
‘No. A very few key clients are being invited to stay on, and you’re one of them. This is office politics, Pops, part of my new world. But enough of it: I’m still waiting for you to tell me that you’re pleased for me.’
‘About what?’
‘About this new appointment,’ Alex exclaimed, exasperated.
‘I’m not sure that I am. The late owner was a known, if unconvicted, hoodlum. I thought he’d left that behind him, but now I’m not so sure. He died a sudden and violent death, which is under police investigation as we speak, for all that I told you yesterday it was a suicide. Now you want me to be pleased because my daughter’s taking control of his businesses?’
‘Pops, these companies are absolutely kosher.’
‘I don’t doubt it. But what about the people who work for them? You know nothing about them at all. This sidekick of his, Gerulaitis. How’s he going to take it when you swan in there and tell him that he answers to you from now on?’
‘He’s going to take it like a gentleman; in about half an hour, give or take a few minutes. I’ve fixed a meeting with him in his office.’
‘And if he doesn’t?’
‘Then he’d better be checking his contract of employment, for if he refuses to accept me, or to cooperate with me, I’ll have no choice but to fire him.’
Bob frowned. ‘Listen, love,’ he said, quietly, ‘I know you’ve never traded on my name, and that you can get quite spiky when it’s brought up, but just this once . . . Since Gerulaitis is Tomas Zaliukas’s cousin, you can be sure he’ll know all about me. I want you to promise me that you will make certain that this bloke knows exactly who you are, and that he knows your name’s no coincidence.’
‘Father,’ she replied, severely, ‘you are being melodramatic. But, since I was put on earth to fill your life with light and joy, I’ll do what you ask; just this once.’
‘Good. You’ve made an ageing man happy.’ He sighed. ‘Now, Regine. She says she’s staying in France?’
‘Yes, for the moment. There’s nothing she can add to your investigation, other than to confirm that her husband seemed perfectly normal last time they spoke. But she also told me that the idea she’d left her husband is all balls. She was taking a short break in France with her kids, that’s all. I’ve left a message to that effect with Sauce Haddock’s DI, though she didn’t seem overjoyed to get it.’
‘Hers not to reason why,’ the chief constable murmured. ‘There’s the small matter of a funeral,’ he continued.
‘Which can’t happen until you lot release the body,’ his daughter pointed out.
‘As soon as I give the nod to the report to the fiscal, he’ll be able to OK it.’
‘And when will that be?’
‘When I’m convinced there are no worms left down there. Yours enigmatically, Robert Morgan Skinner. Bye, kid.’ He snapped his mobile shut, ending the call.
Thirty
Neil McIlhenney’s eyebrows almost formed a single dark line as he looked at Ray Wilding. ‘Sunshine,’ he said, quietly, ‘you’re quite high up the list for promotion to inspector. That’s why I’ve been happy to leave you in charge here while Sammy does his stint at the police training college. But if I find you’ve left me out of the loop about anything else, I will become distinctly unhappy.’ He took an A4 sheet from his pocket and held it in the air. ‘I get a call in my office from a journo who’s got my direct number. He asks me how we’re getting on with identifying the mystery girl. “What fucking mystery girl?” I say to him, and he directs me to one of our own media releases that I’ve never fucking heard of, let alone seen. I had to stonewall him, and now I’m having to come down here to sort it out. You know the rules; anything issued by our press office that affects my patch is copied to me by the originator. Alan Royston’s already had his balls kicked, and now it’s your turn.’
The sergeant folded in the face of the detective superintendent’s rare show of anger. ‘I’m sorry, boss,’ he said. ‘There was a push to get it out last night, so I guess I forgot about that. When they issued it this morning, well . . . Sorry,’ he repeated.
McIlhenney nodded. ‘OK, point made, apology accepted. I know it wasn’t your mistake, Ray, that it was one of your troops, but it’s your can, and I respect you for not trying to duck out of carrying it. I’ll leave you to kick whatever arse requires it. But,’ he continued, ‘you said you tried to have this issued last night. Why wasn’t it?’
‘Royston said there was no point, that it was too late.’
‘Too late to try to identify a girl whose parents might be sitting at home worrying themselves to death about where she is? Did he really say that?’
‘Apparently so. But from what I hear, if her parents are chewing their knuckles anywhere, it’s in Russia.’
‘Russia?’ McIlhenney’s frown returned as he considered the implications of the revelation. ‘You’ve been asking around, I take it?’
‘Yes. Griff and Alice did a trawl. They even went to see Joanne Virtue.’
‘The Big Easy? She’s out of that game now, though.’ He grinned, fleetingly. ‘People used to go to her to get laid; now it’s to get laid to rest. She’s working in an undertakers.’
‘How did you know that?’
‘I gave her a reference.’
‘Mmm. You’ll be getting yourself talked about, sir. Griff told me that when Alice got a bit hoity with her, your name came up. Joanne nailed her to the wall with it.’
The superintendent nodded. ‘With my blessing. Joanne knows where some bodies are buried, figuratively speaking, of course. She did us a big favour once, and it will not be forgotten. Could she help?’
‘No, not really. Montell and Cowan were going to check one place out, but they got called up to the Royal to see the kid. She’s back in the land of the living. They’re with her now.’
‘I hope she stays there. Let me know how it pans out. Meantime I’m heading back up to Fettes to speak to someone about Mr Royston’s sense of urgency.’
Thirty-one
What an unpleasant woman, Alex Skinner thought as she was shown into Valdas Gerulaitis’s office. I can see why her husband’s cousin chose to leave her a string of brothels.
Her husband was much more affable. ‘Miss Skinner,’ he greeted her. ‘Our new lawyer, I’m told. That’s a familiar surname around Edinburgh.’
‘For the avoidance of doubt,’ she said, taking the first opportunity to keep her promise, ‘he’s my father. It hasn’t kept me completely out of tro
uble, but he is a pretty formidable insurance policy for a single girl to have.’
‘I’m sure, from what I’ve heard of him. My late cousin, Tomas, spoke of him occasionally, with great respect.’ He slapped his palms on his desk as they both sat. ‘Now, what can I do for you? I can’t spare too much time. It’s a wee bit daunting to be landed with the job of running two companies.’
‘That’s what I’ve come to discuss, Mr Gerulaitis,’ she replied. She laid her briefcase on the desk, opened it and took out two documents. ‘That,’ she said, sliding the first across the desk ‘is a notarised copy of Mr Zaliukas’s will. There are a couple of matters that concern you indirectly, but I want to draw your attention to the disposition of the two Lietuvos companies. Under its terms, these pass to Mrs Zaliukas and her children; they now own the businesses, one hundred per cent.’ She handed him the second document. ‘And this is a copy of a faxed letter from Mrs Zaliukas, in her capacity as executor of her late husband’s estate, appointing me interim administrator of them both.’
Gerulaitis’s eyes widened. As he read, his mouth dropped further and further open, until it gaped. ‘Wha . . . what does this mean?’ he stammered.
‘For you, nothing. You continue in your present position; “financial controller” is your title, I believe. But every decision that affects the companies materially will be taken by me.’ Pause. ‘I know this is a shock to you, but I’d ask you to respect Mrs Zaliukas’s wishes and cooperate with me.’
The man recovered his composure. ‘Of course,’ he said, quietly. ‘I’ll have to think about it, though, longer term.’
‘Sure, but bear in mind that I only expect to be here in the short term. In due course, Mrs Zaliukas will want to appoint a permanent chief executive. That might be you, it might not; it’ll be her choice. In the meantime, I’d be grateful if you could provide me with a set of keys for these premises, and a note of the alarm code, in case I want to drop in when you’re not here. Then I’ll leave you to read the rest of the will. As I said, there’s something else in there that I expect will be of great interest to you.’
Thirty-two
‘What’ll happen to her, Alice?’ Griff Montell asked.
The two detectives had driven in silence since leaving the Royal Infirmary. The South African had exploded with anger as soon as they had stepped out of the building and Cowan had left him to cool off in his own time.
‘Something good, I hope,’ she replied.
‘Sure,’ he snapped, bitterly. ‘I can see her now being passed around from pillar to post, nobody wanting to take responsibility for her, until eventually she’s shipped back to her orphanage in Estonia.’
‘No,’ said Cowan, firmly, as they drove through Seafield. ‘That’s not going to happen, because we’re not going to let it. She might be a European Union citizen, but she’s entered the country illegally, without a passport.’
‘Maybe we’ll find she has one.’
‘Bollocks, a fifteen-year-old orphan with a passport? Don’t be daft. That makes her our business, that and the fact that she’s a victim of crime. First, obviously, we’ll check her story out, with the orphanage in Tallin; it’ll stand up, I’m sure. Mrs McStay will be calling there even now to confirm that a girl called Anna Romanova is missing, and to get the full names of the other two. Once we have those details, I’ll report the circumstances to the social work department. They’ll go to the sheriff and get child protection orders on all three girls.’
‘What good will that do?’
‘It’ll make them what they’d call wards of court in England, and it’ll give us instant powers to care for the other two when we find them. With a bit of luck, we’ll be able to keep them safe under social work supervision at least until they turn sixteen, and can make their own decisions about their lives.’
Montell scowled. ‘They’re just kids, Alice. What a mess to be in.’
‘I’d never have guessed you were such a softie. You must miss your own, right enough.’
‘That’s why I never talk about them,’ he said, quietly. ‘It would make it worse. Alex Skinner has a major down on me because I never told her about them, but that’s why.’
‘Then explain to her . . . if you’re still interested in her, that is.’
‘I’m not, in the way you mean, and I never was. Alex was more of a pal than anything else. She and I used to call me her handbag, a useful accessory.’
‘Is that how you see me?’ Alice asked, steering through the junction at the foot of Constitution Street.
‘I’d like to think that we’re pals.’ Hesitation. ‘The truth is that I’m scared off anything more than that. Once bitten, gnawed, savaged . . . several times shy.’
‘What happened, Griff, with your wife?’
He stared at the road ahead. ‘She left me; walked out with no warning. I got home from work one night, she was gone, the kids were gone, most of the furniture was gone, and our joint account was cleaned out.’
‘Another guy, I take it.’
‘Funny thing is, I could probably have taken that. No, Maura left me for another woman. I went a little bit crazy when I found out; after I calmed down I hired a lawyer and petitioned the court for custody of the kids.’
‘What are their names?’
‘Shaun, he’s six, and Daisy, she’s four. I argued that it was bad for them to be brought up by a same sex couple. The female judge called me a homophobe and gave Maura permanent custody, with control over my visiting rights. She also awarded maintenance that left me with hardly a fucking rand for myself; I’d to take a second job to survive. So I left. My sister was planning to move to Scotland, so I asked if I could join her. We hadn’t been close for years . . . Maura never liked her . . . but she agreed. Spring’s a good sort; we get on fine, sharing a place. We give each other our own space. That’s important.’
‘I’m sure. How did you manage to switch jobs? Was it easy? I’ve sometimes thought of moving myself.’
‘My boss was sympathetic to me, and he helped fix up the transfer to this force, even though I had to drop a rank to get it.’
‘You were a DS there?’
‘Yeah, the equivalent, and on the up. By now, Ray Wilding’s Springbok doppelgänger would have been calling me “sir”.’
‘Regrets, then.’
‘Only over the kids. I like it here, and financially it’s better. Maura’s lawyer advised her to go to court here to get an enforceable maintenance order. It blew up in her face, for the Scottish court awarded generous maintenance for the kids, but not a penny to her. Now I can breathe again.’
‘You should get a promotion here soon from the sound of it.’ Alice glanced sideways at him and smiled. ‘I’m sorry I was such a wuss yesterday, with all that “Who’s in charge?” crap.’
‘Don’t be. I’m happy. Besides, you’ll probably make sergeant before I do.’
‘I don’t think so.’ She frowned. ‘Not after I got kicked out of Special Branch.’
‘I never knew that,’ Montell exclaimed. ‘What happened?’
‘Long story,’ she replied, ‘for another time. But it was my fault.’ Pause. ‘Life’ll work out, Griff. You’ll see.’
‘Maybe. I’ll tell you one thing though, for sure, just between the two of us. I wasn’t a homophobe before it happened, but I fucking well am now!’
‘I wouldn’t share that with too many other people,’ Cowan advised. ‘Political correctness is everything in this world, and even more so for cops. If we’re caught being prejudiced in any way, we are down the fucking toilet.’ As she spoke, she took a sharp left turn off Commercial Street. ‘Breck Street,’ she announced. ‘Number seventy-seven. The Softest Touch massage parlour. Can you see a sign?’
Montell nodded. ‘Just up there on the right. You can park right in front of it. God,’ he cracked his knuckles, ‘I’m looking forward to meeting this man Linas.’ As he spoke, his eyes narrowed. ‘Alice,’ he murmured, as she drew to a halt at their destination, ‘what the hell are t
hose two doing here?’
His partner followed the direction of his glance, and saw, heading in their direction, a lean, towering figure alongside a younger, smaller, but still tall individual with reddish hair.
‘Jack?’ the South African began as he stepped out of the car.
McGurk and Haddock stopped in their tracks. ‘Where are you going?’ the sergeant asked.
‘Right here, the massage parlour.’
‘Same here. What are you after?’
‘A Lithuania arsehole called Linas something or other. We want him for rape, sex with a minor, false imprisonment, people trafficking and, with any luck, resisting arrest. Did you hear about the girl we found yesterday?’
‘I heard something about it this morning on the radio,’ Haddock replied. ‘Unidentified, possibly east European, yes?’
‘That’s right. We’ve identified her now, and we’ve heard her story.’
‘And you really think this guy will still be hanging around if he’s behind what happened to her?’ said McGurk.
Montell’s eyes gleamed. ‘We can only hope.’
‘I doubt it. We’re here because we’ve been checking on all the massage parlours owned by a guy called Tomas Zaliukas. He shot himself yesterday morning, on top of Arthur’s Seat.’
‘I read about that in this morning’s Saltire,’ Cowan volunteered. ‘That was him? The guy who owned Indigo, and a lot of other places?’
‘Including twelve of these knocking shops. Your girl, Griff. She’s been trafficked, you said?’
‘Trafficked, drugged, used and abused. That’s her story and we believe it. According to the charge nurse in her ward she only knows two English words, “fuck” and “pizza”. We believe that she’s one of a consignment of nine girls, brought over from Estonia about three months ago. What have you found in the other places?’
‘That’s the strange thing. We’ve found “closed till further notice” signs on all of them. We asked some of the neighbours. As near as we can find out, they were all working as usual till yesterday morning.’
20 - A Rush of Blood Page 14