Skinner's ghosts bs-7

by Quintin Jardine

  Skinner turned towards his solicitor. 'The bal 's in your court. You go back to see Christabel. Start work on a defence. As for me, I'm going looking for Mr Noel Salmon. I'm going to do something I should have done long ago. I'm going to scare the shit out of that little man, and with it, hopeful y, a name.'

  He smiled, wickedly. 'You see, the one thing that Jackie Charles would find it difficult to do from his hotel suite in Perth Jail is to make a private, unrecorded cal to Salmon, to tip him off about the bank account.

  'Jackie's cute. He's turned Cheshire and Ericson back on 234 themselves and got them to buy a statement that could be complete supposition on his part. He's built his story on things that they've told him. The idea that he agreed to pay me off, then turned the mechanics over to Dougie Terry, that's brilliant for two reasons: one, because that's exactly how he used to work, and two, because Terry isn't around any more to contradict him.

  'Not that he would have. Dougie the Comedian would have died for Charles. Come to think of it, he did.'

  Skinner smiled again, in recol ection this time. 'Jackie to Terry, Terry to someone else, and that someone else did whatever needed doing. One to one al the time, so there was never any corroboration.

  That was the way they worked, and it was the reason why we were never able to nail Jackie for any of the big stuff he was involved in.

  'That's why the idea of bunging me to reduce the charges is al so much shite. We always needed Terry's evidence to be sure of convicting Charles, so when he got his head caved in, we were stuffed.

  'That's something Jackie's overlooked in his eagerness to nail me, and Cheshire and Ericson didn't realise. With Terry dead, there were no other charges we could have made stick. Christabel should be able to take him apart in the box with that.'

  He turned to Martin. 'Andy, would you do me a big favour? Don't tell anyone about it, just do it, please. Ask McGuire and Mcllhenney if they would go up to Perth to question Charles. Tell them to get him to go over his statement again, and again, and again. Tel them also, while he's doing that, to drop in plenty of hints about perjury charges, and the penalties.

  'Jackie's out on a limb, you see. I reckon he's seen a chance to get even with me, and he's jumped at it. But if we can undermine his confidence, scare him a wee bit about the risk he's taking, hint that there are one or two things that he doesn't know about, then maybe, just maybe, he'll withdraw that statement.

  'Will you do that?'

  Martin nodded.'Of course.'

  'Thanks. But explain to Mario and Neil that this isn't an order. If either of them feels uncomfortable about it, I'l understand.'

  'You real y do think Charles is lying, Bob, don't you?' said Laidlaw.

  'That he couldn't be the one who's set you up?'

  'I'm certain of it. He had nothing to do with that money. He didn't know about it til Cheshire and Ericson went up to Perth and told him, but when they did, a whole world of possibilities opened up in his devious wee mind.

  'The one thing he couldn't do, though, was make that phone cal to Salmon.'

  'Maybe he had an accomplice?' the solicitor suggested.

  Skinner shook his head, firmly, pursing his lips. 'The only three accomplices Jackie Charles ever had in his life were his wife Carole, Tony Manson, and Dougie Terry. And they're al dead.

  'No, the person who gave that information to Salmon was the person who set me up, without any assistance from Jackie, or anyone else.'

  He stood, abruptly. 'Right Mitch, you'd better go and see Christabel again. I'l meet the two of you at the Sheriff Court tomorrow: nine thirty, as Davie Pettigrew asked. Andy, you talk to Mario and Neil about going up to Perth.'

  Martin nodded. 'Are you going after Salmon? Because if you find him, I wouldn't want…'

  His friend laughed. 'You wouldn't want me to damage him, you were going to say? Don't worry, son, I'l get the truth out of that wee man without laying a finger on him. Anyway, he can wait till tomorrow.

  'This afternoon, I'm going out to Gul ane. I was reminded on Sunday that my golf game's a bit rusty. So just for a break, and to let me do some uninterrupted thinking, I think I'l hit a few bal s. When Pam gets back from York, tell her that's where I'll be, and that I'll probably stay out there tonight, if she wants to join me.'

  'Sure, I'll do that.' His right eyebrow rose, with a recollection.

  'Speaking of your lady,' he added, 'I had a call this morning from the Central Force. The woman she's due to replace has had a complication of pregnancy, so she's gone off earlier than scheduled. They'd like Pam right away if they can have her.'

  'How soon?'

  'Thursday, if possible?'

  'Can you spare her?'

  'I think in all the circumstances, it'd be best if I could.'

  'Then talk to her about it. And as long as she's happy, that'l be fine. Then the two of us can get on with sorting out our future. I think I owe it to us both to make an honest woman out of Pamela.'

  71

  'How long have you got to do, Jackie?' asked McGuire.

  John Jackson Charles, managing somehow to look immaculate even in badly cut prison clothes, looked at him coolly. 'I expect to be released in two years and one month… as you must know.'

  'This story, the one you've told us twice now, about our boss,' said Neil Mcl henney. 'You wouldn't have the idea, would you, that it might get you out a year or so early?'

  'I'm not so naive, Sergeant.'

  Mcl henney laughed. 'I know that, all right. You're not infal ible either though. If you were you wouldn't be wearing that fucking awful suit right now. Daks is your preference, isn't it.'

  'Yes,' countered Charles, evenly, 'and Hugo Boss: just for the odd bit of variety you understand. I've got a wardrobe ful of them, waiting for me. Dior shirts, too.'

  'You might find it easier to put them on when you get out,' growled McGuire.

  'Why?'

  'You might not have to pul them over your head. Because you might not have a rucking head by then.'

  Jackie Charles looked at the silent guards, standing by the door of the prison interview room. 'Are you threatening me, Inspector?'

  McGuire flashed his best Latin smile. 'Not at al. I was just hinting at something you might have forgotten.

  'Suppose this bright idea of yours actually works, and a jury believes that you bribed our boss. He'l go down, undoubtedly: seven or eight years, probably, while you, as a Crown witness, will be immune from prosecution.

  'The Scottish prison network isn't al that big. The odds against big Bob being sent here aren't al that great. Suppose you two wind up in the same nick. Have you considered what he might do to you?'

  The first flicker of doubt showed through Charles' confident veneer. 'Why would he do that? He solicited the bribe. He only has himself to blame.'

  Mcl henney grunted. 'I know big Bob a bit better than you, Jackie.

  He might not see it that way. And the Inspector's right, you know.

  He's got a real nasty streak to him. Christ, if he could put big Lenny 237

  Plenderleith in hospital, what's he going to do to you?'

  'Let's just go over this story of yours one more time,' said McGuire.

  Charles sighed. 'Really!'

  'Humour us. Just one more time.'

  'Oh, very well. But just once more and that's it. Your great Skinner approached me last year. We go way back, you know. Bob and I. He thought, rightly, as it turned, out that one of your guys might be on the take. I made enquiries about some things that my wife and Dougie Terry were doing, and found that he was right. Into the bargain, I found out that I was in some trouble.

  'So I went back to Bob, and I gave him the name of your bad apple. I also suggested, very obliquely, that there might be something in it for him, if he could limit my personal damage.' He looked at McGuire and Mcl henney, his eyes wide and innocent. 'To my surprise, he came back to me and said that his terms were a hundred thousand cash, payable in accordance with instructions in a sealed envelope. He
told me that it contained the address of a bank, and a copy of his signature and personal details.

  'In return, he said that charges against me would be limited to tax offences, and that I would do a year, eighteen months at the most.'

  'And you agreed to pay this backhander?' asked Mcl henney.

  'Yes. I decided that it was a worthwhile investment. So I gave the envelope, unopened, to Douglas and told him to make it work. Two days later, he came back to me and told me that the arrangements had been made, and gave me the name of the bank to which the money had been sent.'

  'Why did you decide to shop him now?'

  Charles smiled, grimly. 'When I heard about the publicity over Bob's private life, it occurred to me that his feet of clay had been exposed. So I decided to drop a word.

  'I didn't intend that it should get back to me, of course. I thought that evidence of the payment would be enough.'

  McGuire leaned forward, forearms on the table. 'How did you get that word to the Lord Advocate?' he asked. 'We know you didn't phone his office from here; that would have been picked up.'

  Charles hesitated, for the first time, taken aback by the question.

  'I found someone from Edinburgh who was being released first thing next day,' he replied at last, 'and gave him an anonymous note addressed to the Crown Office.'

  'Handwritten? Suggesting that someone should look at the JZG

  Bank in Guernsey?'

  'That's right.'

  'What was the name of the man who dropped the note for you?'

  Charles shrugged. 'I can't remember. He was just another inmate.'

  'His name wasn't Salmon, was it?' asked Mcllhenney. 'Noel Salmon?'

  The prisoner hesitated again. 'Yes,' he said, final y, 'that was it.'

  The two policemen looked at each other, smiling. 'Interview suspended,' said McGuire, reaching across to switch off the tape recorder on the table. 'Jackie,' he grinned, 'you've blown it. Twice.

  Noel Salmon delivered the message all right, but he was never in here. He should have been, but he wasn't.

  'He didn't deliver it to the Crown Office, either, but to the Secretary of State, and because his boss told him to, not you. You're a liar, Charles, and if you go into the witness box to tell that fairy story about Bob Skinner, we'll destroy you with what's on that tape.

  'There aren't too many perjury trials, but when they happen, the judges are always tough. We can also charge you right now, through that tape, with giving false information to the police.'

  McGuire's smile vanished completely. His eyes hardened, as he leaned forward, and focused on the man across the table. 'This is a once-only offer, Jackie. You may withdraw the statement you gave Cheshire and Ericson, and you withdraw it right now. You may admit that you have no knowledge of and had no involvement in the opening of the Guernsey bank account.

  'You can do that right now, and no action wil be taken against you. Persist, and I doubt if those suits will still fit, by the time you get out. They'll certainly be well out of fashion. Now, which is it to be?'

  Charles looked at him for around ten seconds, unwavering. Then, without warning, his eyes dropped, he sighed and he nodded.

  McGuire reached across and switched in the tape once more.

  'Interview resumed. Detective Inspector McGuire and Detective Sergeant Mcl henney present in Perth Prison, with John Jackson Charles.'

  72

  For all her natural confidence and self-belief, and for all her involvement in her father's defence team, Alex still felt slightly overawed when she was summoned to the office of the head of the partnership. The cal, from Mitchell Laidlaw's secretary, came just after 4.30 p.m.

  The unexpected presence of Christabel Innes Dawson QC did nothing to calm the nerves tugging at her stomach.

  'You sent for me, Mr Laidlaw?' she asked.

  'Yes, Alex, Miss Dawson thought it would be good for you to sit in on our consultation. I'm sorry, I really should have advised you that she was coming in to see us.'

  'I enjoy the odd touch of opulence,' the old lady rumbled.

  'Honestly, I only wish I could take al the people who go on about fatcat advocates and parade them through offices like this one.' She glanced at Skinner's daughter.

  'D'you intend to come to the Bar, young lady?'

  'I've given it some thought.'

  'Hmm. Then look around you, and give it some more. Damned hard work, damned little recognition. Of course, I suppose in these times you would have the opportunity to become a judge, if you were good enough. That path was closed to me.' She looked more than a little angry at the recol ection, giving Alex a sudden picture of a tiny gimlet-eyed figure in an ermine-trimmed red robe, glaring down at the court.

  'Well,' she said, fearlessly, 'I for one am glad that you'll be in the well of the court and on our side, when my dad's case is called.'

  The old lady smiled. 'Thank you for that compliment, miss. But you real y should say "if", not "when". We've just had a very surprising cal.'

  Laidlaw nodded. 'That's right. From the Procurator Fiscal, no less.

  It seems that John Jackson Charles has withdrawn the statement which he gave Cheshire and Ericson.'

  She looked at him, astonished and delighted simultaneously. 'He has? But why?'

  'It seems that your fiance sent a couple of heavies to talk to him.

  "To clear up a discrepancy" was how they put it. It seems that it was 240 big enough to persuade him to alter his recollection of events.'

  'I don't suppose my dad had anything to do with it, did he?'

  Mitchell Laidlaw smiled, beatifically. 'That's right, my dear,' he said. 'Don't suppose.'

  'How did the Fiscal take it?'

  'I've known him to be more cheerful,' Christabel Dawson replied.

  'He has decided to postpone tomorrow's scheduled court appearance, to al ow him to discuss the position with the Lord Advocate. I gather that young Archie is a bit miffed that Mr Martin's persuaders promised Charles that there would be no consequences if he withdrew his statement.'

  'Cheshire's furious, too,' said Laidlaw.

  'He's got no damn right, then,' barked Miss Dawson. 'The man obviously let slip far too much information about the al egation the first time he interviewed Charles. He let him know the amount, the time, the name and the location of the bank. The awful man was clever enough to build his original story around facts gleaned from them.

  'Your fiance's chaps seem to have been much more subtle.'

  'Where wil the Crown go from here?' asked Alex.

  The ancient silk allowed herself a thin smile. 'Maybe nowhere.

  Charles's behaviour has attached a bad smel to their side, somehow.'

  Laidlaw leaned forward in his chair, smiling agreement. 'Yes. Into the bargain, Alex, I was getting strange vibes from your father today.

  Even before Charles decided to withdraw his evidence, with things looking fairly black, he was stil oddly confident. Although he didn't say anything to confirm it, I felt as if he had something up his sleeve.

  'I've no idea what it could be, but I felt that it might be pretty devastating.'

  Alexis Skinner laughed, seized by a sudden and almost overwhelming relief. 'Indeed,' she said. 'I rather think I know those vibes.

  When my father starts playing his cards close to his chest, then it usual y means that someone's in for it, and no mistake.'

  73

  'There won't be any repercussions for you, wil there, Andy? After all, the Secretary of State did appoint Cheshire to handle the enquiry.

  Could you be disciplined for intervening?'

  'I suppose it's possible, love, but I hardly think so. Al Cheshire's interview with Charles was downright sloppy work. All he succeeded in doing was getting him to give false evidence against Bob.'

  Martin smiled at his fiancee across the table, over the debris of a meal which for once they had completed uninterrupted. 'Mario and Neil did good work though. I played their tape to Cheshire this afternoon, once he'd calm
ed down enough to listen to it. After a while he conceded that he'd assumed too much when he interviewed Charles, and left himself wide open to being conned.'

  'What will he do next?'

  'He's doing it already. He and Ericson are writing up their final report to the Lord Advocate. Once it's submitted, they're off home.'

  'What do you think it'll say?

  'I know from Cheshire what it'l say.' He grinned. 'I shouldn't really tell you, since you're acting for the accused, but I'll chance it.

  They will report that even without Charles's admission, there's still a strong case to answer. The money exists; the sample signature exists; the note exists. Without using Jackie as a witness, the Crown could try to imply a connection between the Charleses – either him or Carole

  – and your dad.'

  Alex nodded. 'Fair enough, but we'l be able to introduce Charles's withdrawal of his statement to undermine that.'

  'Agreed,' said Andy. 'Yet Cheshire and Ericson will suggest to Lord Archibald that the public interest requires that charges should be brought, and the matter put to the jury, if for no other reason than to try to answer one of the key questions.'

  'What's that?'

  'Whose is the money? The account is in Bob's name, beyond question. But without the Charles statement or another to replace it, it only becomes a bribe, and thus forfeit, if the jury says it is. If he's tried and acquitted, then I reckon that legal y, the money's his.'

  She smiled. 'Just as well. He'll need it to pay our fees.

  'What's your gut feeling, though, Andy? Do you think the prosecution will still go ahead?'

  Martin sighed. 'Yes, on reflection I think it will. The police service cannot afford to be seen to be sweeping anything under the carpet.