Thursday Legends

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Thursday Legends Page 29

by Quintin Jardine


  it brown from black.

  He turned back towards her. "I guess your name hasn't been linked to

  the investigation yet," he said. "No media outside."

  "No," she said. "Sheriff Dekker and the DA made sure that I was kept

  completely incommunicado. They took me away from Ron's house very

  quickly and I was held in the DA's office, not at the police building.

  The press assumed I was there, so they camped outside. They were only

  told that a suspect was in custody; no name, no gender even."

  "A remarkable show of discretion in the States."

  She nodded. "Yes, I admit that's puzzled me too."

  "I can guess the reason," he grunted, darkly. "When did they give you

  bail?"

  "A judge granted it last night, in chambers; she set a million-dollar

  surety, but John Vranic assured her there was more than enough in the

  estate. It's temporary, though; if I'm indicted and arraigned, it'll

  be considered again then."

  "If?"

  She winced and looked away. "No," she whispered. "When. John told me

  to expect to be in open court this afternoon. Then the whole media

  thing will explode."

  "We'll see about that."

  "Bob, I'm lucky it hasn't happened before this." She walked over to

  him. "You look beat; do you want me to make you something to eat?"

  "Wouldn't do any harm. Eggs, bacon, that sort of stuff; my

  cholesterol's fine, remember. So, you'll be glad to hear, is

  everything else."

  "You slew your dragon, then."

  "Let's just say she's wounded; slaying's a bad topic around here. I'm

  back in post, and that's the main thing."

  "I'm glad for you," she said quietly as she opened the fridge, and took

  out a box of eggs and a pack of bacon.

  "Thanks." He turned his head and looked out of the window at James

  Andrew as he attacked a climbing frame that had not been there when he

  left. "I'm sorry, Sarah. I got obsessed; I admit it, I went off at

  half cock and let it come between us. Now all this shit's come down on

  you, and I feel it's my fault. It's been my week for guilt and no

  mistake."

  She lit a gas ring, under a big frying pan. "Bob .. ." she began, a

  catch in her voice. "I have to ..."

  He put up a hand. "Don't do that just yet, love, please. Just answer

  me something. When you found the guy, was the door of his house lying

  open?"

  "No."

  "In that case, since he was dead, who opened it for you?"

  "Nobody," she whispered. "I had a key."

  He felt his head swim, and for a moment thought that he might be having

  another attack, in spite of his pacemaker. But the thump of his heart

  in his chest told him that he was not. "Okay," he said, in a flat,

  OK

  emotionless voice that was a masterpiece of self-control. "Just so as

  I know when I see the police."

  "You're seeing the police?"

  "This very morning. I phoned Brad Dekker on my way here from the

  airport and told him to be ready for me, with Eddie Brady, at ten

  o'clock."

  "Bob, you can't get involved in this," she exclaimed.

  He smiled at her, for the first time since she had opened the door.

  "Who can't?"

  Forty-Five.

  Angus dAbo had known many an unexpected visit from the police, but he

  had never rated a detective chief superintendent before, so he was

  understandably rattled as he looked across the bar table at his

  visitor.

  "How did ye ken to find me here?" he asked, nervously.

  "You're a creature of habit, Mr. dAbo," Rod Greatorix told him. "Our

  local uniformed officers told me that you have your lunch here in the

  Cannon every day in life." He looked at his plate. "Do they do a

  decent bridie in here, by the way? I feel a bit peckish myself."

  "No' bad," the man replied. "The haggis is best though."

  "Why are you not having it then?"

  "Ah could dna have it every day."

  "You're a bloke who believes in a balanced diet, then?"

  Angus dAbo shrugged his shoulders. "Ah like what ah like, ken. There's

  plenty tae eat up at the Lodge; ah hae the choice frae the kitchen at

  night. But it's a' salmon or game. The guests that come there dinna

  expect pie and chips, like."

  "Unless it's venison pie and game chips."

  "Aye, that's right." He looked down at his plate; the baked beans were

  starting to congeal.

  "Go on," said Greatorix, 'get stuck in. I'm in no rush."

  He sipped his ginger ale and watched as the bald, nut-brown handyman

  bolted down his Forfar bridie. He knew from his file that dAbo was

  fifty-two years old, and that his last conviction had been ten years

  earlier, but he noted that the man still looked fit enough to climb a

  drainpipe without difficulty. He waited, as dAbo mopped up the last of

  his beans with the last of his chips. "How long have you worked at Fir

  Park Lodge?" he asked, the moment he was finished.

  on

  "Three year; since Mr. Williamson bought it. Ah've never been in ony

  bother, like," he added, defensively.

  "I'm not saying you have. Does your employer know all about you,

  though? Does he know you've been in prison?"

  DAbo blinked, nervously. "He never asked," he exclaimed. "Has someone

  telt him? Are you goin' tae tell him?"

  The detective shrugged his shoulders. "If he's going to hire people

  without checking them out, it's not down to me to mark his card. Relax,

  Angus, this isn't about you."

  The handyman looked at him as if he required a lot more persuasion if

  he was going to believe him. "I've asked about you, don't worry,"

  Greatorix continued. "The local people vouched for you. They've got

  their ear to the ground; if you'd gone back to your old profession,

  they would know."

  "Well, what is it aboot?" DAbo looked only a little less suspicious.

  "We're making enquiries about a man whose body was found in Perth last

  Saturday."

  The man's de fences went back up so quickly that Greatorix smiled.

  "No, Angus, I'm not going to ask if you did it. This guy died of a

  heart attack, and fell into the river somewhere. All we're trying to

  find out is where he was. He wasn't reported missing, and he was only

  identified by chance. We think he might have been a guest at a big

  house along the riverbank."

  "Why no' ask Mr. Williamson?"

  "Because we're asking you. We don't know Mr. Williamson. What's he

  like to work for, as a matter of interest?"

  "He's aright. He kens nothing aboot fishin' though, a lot less than

  most of the guests he has. Ah think he only bought the place because

  he fancied bein' a country squire."

  "Is there a Mrs. Williamson?"

  "Naw. There's folk think he's havin' it off withe hoosekeeper, but

  he's no."

  "What makes you so sure?"

  DAbo shot him a sudden lascivious grin.

  "Ah, I see," Greatorix chuckled. "Tell me, is the Lodge busy?"

  "It does a' right. It's fu' this week, but no' every week."

  "This man I'm looking for; he'd have been there about two weeks ago."

  DAbo frowned. "A fortnight since?" he muttered. "Aye, we were qu
ite

  fu' then. What would he look like, this man?"

  "He'd have looked in his late fifties, grey, overweight, and poorly

  dressed."

  "Poorly dressed? He'll no have been at the Lodge, then. They're a'

  fuckin' bandboxes we get in there."

  Greatorix hesitated, and then took a decision. He reached into an

  inside pocket of his jacket and took out a photograph. It showed a

  man's head, viewed from above and in half profile. It was of Michael

  Skinner, and it had been taken in the mortuary, once he had been

  cleaned up. It was presentable, but in no way did it look as if he was

  merely asleep. He handed it to dAbo. "Are you sure?" he said. "That

  was him."

  The handyman took the photograph and gulped, then gagged. For a second

  Greatorix thought that bridie, beans and chips were about to come

  flying his way, but the initial shock seemed to pass. The policeman

  studied dAbo's face, as he studied the photograph.

  "This man was never a guest at the Lodge; Ahim sure o' that." DAbo

  frowned, and scratched his chin. "And yet.. . Ah've got a feelin'

  Ah've seen him somewhere." He picked up the remains of his shandy and

  took a drink, swilling it around his mouth before he swallowed, as if

  to wash away a bad taste. He looked at the photograph again, then

  across to the bar.

  "Aye," he exclaimed. "That could have been him; Ahim no certain, but

  it could have been. If it was, Ah saw him the week before last, in

  here, yin lunchtime. He was wi' another bloke, aboot the same age as

  him." His eyebrows went up, as if a light had been switched on in his

  head. "Wednesday, it was; Ah ken that because Ah had a bridie for ma

  lunch, like the day."

  "Did you know the other man?"

  "Ah never seen him afore; never seen either o' them afore." He tapped

  the photo. "But this man here, he was awfy fond o' the drink. He was

  only in here for less than an 'oor, but by the time he left he was as

  fu' as a fiddler's bitch. The other bloke had tae help him oot the

  door."

  "Was Mr. Williamson in here at the same time? Could he have known

  them?"

  "Neither of them has ever been at the Lodge; Ah kin tell ye that. As

  for Mr. Williamson, he could dna hae been here. He was at his place

  in Florida then; he was awa' for three weeks, and Mae the hoosekeeper

  was runnin' the place. He only got back last Wednesday."

  Forty-Six.

  "You believed him, did you?" asked Mario McGuire; then he nodded, to

  himself, rather than to Mcllhenney. "I suppose you must have, or you

  wouldn't have come bombing down to Galashiels to talk to me about

  it."

  He pulled open a drawer of his desk, took out a KitKat biscuit and

  tossed it across to his friend. "Here, chew on that. You're looking

  unnaturally fit these days."

  "You, on the other hand," said Neil cheerfully as he unwrapped the

  biscuit, broke off one finger and used it to stir his tea, 'are looking

  knackered. Are you not getting enough sleep?"

  McGuire glowered at him. "Just because you're my best pal, inspector,

  don't think you can push your luck."

  "Some would say that's what you're doing, Mario. But I won't be one of

  them. I've got to say something serious, though, as your best pal. You

  have to resolve your situation, and sooner rather than later. I know

  how things are with Mags, and I know she's given you the biggest pink

  ticket in history. But no one else in the force knows the real story,

  not even the Big Man. All they see is you living with your wife, and

  playing away games with Paula. The grapevine is talking of nothing

  else these days, and that's not good."

  "I might be inclined to say "fuck the grapevine"," Mario retorted.

  "You might, but you can't, and you know why. It's not just you who's

  the subject of the station gossip; it's Maggie as well. It's one thing

  you being Jack the Lad; you're not the first copper in this situation.

  But you are the first one whose wife's a senior officer too. We all

  know there's talk of Mags leaving CID and going to chief super. What

  sort of command authority is she going to have among the uniforms if

  they're all whispering about her behind her back?"

  T71

  His friend looked at him for a while, as if he was trying to form a

  reply. But when he spoke it was to ask a question. "So what should I

  do, Neil?"

  "You have to give one of them up, man. You either keep your relations

  with Paula business only, or you leave Maggie. Since you're giving up

  the wee boy, there's really no obstacle in the way of you doing

  that."

  McGuire's face twisted. '1 don't want to leave her!" he protested.

  "She won't sleep with me, but there's more to us than that."

  "Then give up Paula."

  "And embrace the celibate life? Is that what you're saying?"

  "I might say it, but I know you too well to see it happening," he

  conceded. "Listen, I care about you, and I care about Mags, but you

  have to sort this out."

  "Get it through your head, man. I don't want to."

  "No, you get it through yours; you have to. It's not about what you

  want; it's something you have to do for Maggie's sake, for her

  self-respect and for the good of her career."

  "I have to leave her for her self-respect?"

  "Yes, and you have to tell everyone that she's chucked you out."

  "You don't ask much of a friend, do you?"

  "I'll ask whatever I think it's going to take. Just talk to her,

  Mario, please. The pair of you have to realise that you are two bloody

  goldfish swimming about in a bowl with the whole bloody police force,

  or near as damn it, looking at you. And not just the force," he added.

  "Lenny dropped a big hint this morning that he's heard about it."

  "You're kidding!"

  "No I ain't. Big Lenny's a remarkable man. He knows your mother's a

  silent partner in Paula's saunas, for a start."

  McGuire's jaw sagged. "He does?"

  "Yes, and it's more than I did, pal. Doesn't look too good, the head

  of Special Branch being taken by surprise by a lifer. They bought the

  things from Manson's estate, remember. Effectively that means from

  Lenny. Your mum didn't cover her tracks very well."

  "Obviously not. I wouldn't want it getting out either."

  "Don't worry. Lenny won't tell anyone. He regards information as

  currency, and he's not going to spend any without a purpose."

  "So he's got a hold over me?"

  "Of a sort, but he won't use it. If he did, the boss would find out,

  and he wouldn't like it. For some reason, odd since he once tried to

  kill him, Lenny values big Bob's friendship more than anything else."

  "Mmm," said McGuire. "You have had an interesting morning. Especially

  the bit about Maley."

  "That's why I came down here. I wanted to talk to you about it. When

  you were in my job, did you ever take a look at her?"

 

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