thick. The more Jenny tried to ignore her, the heavier Alison's footsteps became. Reading through the latest batch of post-mortem reports she tolerated it for nearly an hour. She was switching her attention to the list of black Toyotas when Alison entered without knocking and dumped a pile of mail on top of the document she was reading.
'Your post. And some of yesterday's, too.'
Holding her temper, Jenny said, 'Is something the matter?'
'I'm sorry, Mrs Cooper?'
'You seem out of sorts.'
Alison forced a tight, patient smile, 'I'll be out of your hair in a minute. I've arranged to take a statement from Mr Madog.'
The game was following its usual pattern: Alison would repeatedly deny anything was wrong until finally, as if she were conceding only to satisfy some irrational need of Jenny's, she would tell her what it was.
'I'll get through all the outstanding files this weekend,' Jenny said. 'If there are consultants at the Vale hassling you for decisions you can tell them Monday at the latest.'
'Last time I checked we were no more behind than normal.'
'Then is there something I've overlooked?'
'I don't think so.'
'Anything I've done?'
Alison's frown hardened.
Jenny said, 'I sense I'm getting warmer.'
Alison sighed. 'It's not for me to tell you how to do your job, Mrs Cooper, but I do sometimes get a little tired of being piggy in the middle.'
'Between whom, exactly?' Jenny said.
'I had Dave Pironi calling me at home last night asking what a coroner was doing interfering with a police investigation.'
'Mrs Jamal's death impacts on my inquest.'
'It's not just him. Gillian Golder has phoned more than once this week demanding to know what on earth is going on during this adjournment.'
'It's none of her business . . . Why didn't you just put her through to me?'
Alison gave her a look which said: isn't it obvious?
'She's asking you to spy on me for her?'
'It wasn't expressed in quite those terms.'
'I'll deal with her,' Jenny said.
'That puts me in a rather awkward situation.'
'I won't mention your name.'
Alison looked doubtful.
'Honestly. Trust me. Anything else?'
Alison sucked in her cheeks and agitatedly flicked some imaginary fluff from her lapel. 'You know I wouldn't normally say anything like this . . .'
'Hello? Anybody home?' an unmistakable voice - McAvoy's - called through from the outer office.
Alison flashed Jenny an accusing look. 'What's he doing here?'
Jenny shrugged. 'I've no idea.' She got up from her desk.
Alison stepped between her and the door. 'Please, Mrs Cooper - let me see to this. I told you you shouldn't have anything to do with that man.'
'He's come up with the only new lead we've got.'
'You can't trust him. He's poison. I sat in on his interviews.'
There was a knock on the office door.
'Mrs Cooper?'
Jenny said, 'Hold on a moment.' She turned to Alison. 'At least let me see what he wants.'
She stepped past and out into reception. McAvoy was standing in the waiting area idly leafing through Alison's church newsletter.
'Mr McAvoy—'
'Sorry to arrive unannounced,' he said, with a mock formality imitating hers. 'I wonder if we might have a quick word about Mrs Jamal.'
Alison came to Jenny's shoulder. 'I really wouldn't advise it, Mrs Cooper. Mr McAvoy is a witness. You don't want to run the risk of tainting your inquest.'
'Good to see you again, Mrs Trent,' McAvoy said, with more than a hint of irony. 'It's been a fair wee while.'
Alison took a step forward, squaring up like the detective she had once been. 'You should know that Mr McAvoy was imprisoned for perverting the course of justice. He arranged a false alibi in a violent armed-robbery case - and that was just the time he got caught.'
McAvoy smiled and tossed the newsletter back on the table. 'I've heard that your old boss Dave Pironi claims to have found Jesus. In my humble opinion it may be a little too late. He was one of the dirtiest, most corrupt policemen I ever met. He sent that wee lassie to me, and I think you know that.'
Alison said, 'See what you're dealing with?'
McAvoy said, 'Did you ever ask yourself why my office happened to be bugged on that day? Or why, when any sane person wouldn't touch CID with a shitty stick, that witness couldn't do enough to help them?'
Jenny said, 'Can we stop this now, please?' She turned to McAvoy. 'Should you really be here?'
McAvoy said, 'This case has already cost me my liberty and career—'
Alison gave a dismissive grunt.
He ignored her and continued. 'And if you remember, it was immediately I got on the trail of that Toyota eight years ago that your officer and her colleagues fingered me.'
'That was nothing to do with it,' Alison said.
'With respect,' McAvoy replied, raising his voice, 'as a DS you wouldn't have had a fucking clue, Mrs Trent. Pironi and whoever was working him put me away to stop that car ever being identified. And then this call the other day - the guy asking what did I know, and threatening to put me in a
'Her flat's on his patch,' Alison said.
'And how long's he been there? Three months I heard. Transferred about the same time she lodged her application to have her son declared dead. Now I don't like to accuse a fellow believer of a mortal sin, but it does start to make you wonder.'
'He had nothing to do with Mrs Jamal's death,' Alison snapped.
'I'm sure you're an intelligent woman, Mrs Trent, but even an ex-copper should have learned that evil bastards don't always go around in black hats.' He nodded to the newsletter he'd dropped on the table. 'I couldn't help noticing that you and he get a mention in the church news there —’
Alison marched across the room, snatched her coat from the peg and thumped out of the office.
McAvoy picked up the newsletter, turned to an inside page and handed it to Jenny. 'Adult baptism's a wonderful thing, but it kind of takes the shine off . . .'
He pointed to the notices section. Mrs Alison Trent was listed as one of five new members of the Body of Christ baptized the previous Sunday. She had two sponsors - the adult equivalent of godparents - one of whom was named as Mr David Pironi.
McAvoy said, 'It's pretty low, even by his standards. How'd he pull that off? She hasn't got a terminal illness or something, has she?'
'No,' Jenny said, 'just some family troubles.'
They talked in Jenny's office. McAvoy said a long-running trial he was involved with had been adjourned for the day because the judge had to conduct an all-day sentencing hearing: eight members of a paedophile ring each
