‘There was a purpose to the visits to Toronto and Barcelona. Ontario and Catalunya have what are effectively unitary police forces covering those entire regions. I’ve been studying how they work; my findings will be contained in a paper I’m writing.’
‘A thesis? For a doctorate?’
‘No, that would just be another ego trip. It’s for Aileen; she asked me to do it.’
‘You mean the executive’s looking at setting up a national force for Scotland?’
‘Not officially; at this stage it’s private enterprise on our part. If it floats, she might give it to a policy unit for a view to launching it. Why not? The population of Ontario is twelve million, and Catalunya has eight million. We have five. Mind you, Maggie, this is between you and me. The chief knows what I’m doing, so does Alex, and so does Andy Martin, but that’s it.’
She gazed up at him thoughtfully. ‘I’m more than a bit honoured that you’ve chosen to tell me.’
‘Don’t be; you’re one of the best officers I’ve ever worked with, and you’re a friend. I value your opinions and I’d like to talk my thoughts through with you before I finish my report. Can I do that?’
‘Of course,’ Rose replied. ‘I’ll have plenty of time on my hands over the next few weeks.’
‘You sure will,’ said Stevie, approaching from behind just in time to hear her last few words. He kissed her on the cheek. ‘Sorry I’m late, love, but things have been moving fast. You’re going to have to see Ray’s cousin on your own tomorrow, I’m afraid. Ray and I are off to London to interview Keith Barker, that character I told you about.’ He looked at Skinner, extending his hand. ‘Hello, sir, good to see you. I’m chuffed you would make it.’
‘I wouldn’t have been anywhere else.’ He glanced across the room and saw that McGuire had arrived also. ‘Maggie,’ he said, ‘you should circulate. I want a word with your old man and your ex.’
As Rose headed off in the direction of the chief constable, Skinner caught the eye of the head of CID, who read the summons, and made his way through the assembly. ‘Afternoon, boss,’ he greeted the DCC.
‘And to you. How are you guys getting on? I’ve been following with interest, don’t worry.’
‘We’ve identified Padstow,’ Steele replied. ‘He’s really an investigative reporter called Daniel Ballester. We don’t know where he is, but we do know that we’re not the only people who have been after him; hence my trip to London tomorrow, to question Barker.’ He glanced at McGuire. ‘That’s all happened since we spoke last,’ he said.
‘I know,’ the head of CID told him. ‘Shannon kept me in the loop.’
‘The only family lead is to his parents, retired and living in Arizona. They need to be interviewed.’
‘Give me the details,’ said Skinner, ‘and I’ll use my FBI contacts. I’ll make a call tonight; if his folks know where he is, you’ll know by tomorrow.’
‘What if they won’t say?’
‘They will: retired British subjects in the US need to be good citizens if they want to stay there.’
‘Maybe he’s on his way out there already.’
‘Have you put out an all-ports-and-airports warning on this man?’
‘That’s in place; Dottie Shannon arranged it.’
‘In that case, it’s less than twelve hours since the Noone girl was killed. If he’s your man and he has made it out of the country, his name will be on a flight passenger list somewhere. If he’s landed, we have a hot trail. If he’s still up in the air, when he gets down he’ll wish he’d stayed there. Now, what the hell is this about Barker?’
Stevie chuckled. ‘He came in handy,’ he said to Skinner. ‘The media are going crazy trying to find out why he’s been lifted.’
‘Why has he been?’ asked the DCC.
‘For bribing a guy in the Home Office.’
‘Christ! That’ll keep him out of circulation for a while. Have the Met tied it to his boss?’
‘Not as far as I know.’
‘See if you can help them. I took a big dislike to that man when I saw him on telly; it was plain as the scar on my forehead that when he sat in on your briefing he was looking right through the cameras at the stock market. Now,’ he continued, ‘about your inquiry; there’s something I need to tell you. I’ve put you in an embarrassing position, and I apologise.
‘I know what happened with young Griff; I got feedback from Five as well, and from Amanda Dennis herself, not from the duty officer. He called Shannon without reference to her, and he’s still aching because of it.’ He smiled, his eyes distant for a second.
‘You guys are bound to be wondering why I didn’t react when I saw the photo of Zrinka Boras. The answer is that I’ve never met her, as such. When Alex bought me that picture from her stall at the market, I was busy elsewhere.
In fact, I was trying to free my younger daughter from a faceful of candy floss, a job and a half, if you’ve never had to do it. When I opened the parcel at home, I found that Zrinka had put one of her business cards in with it. That’s how I came to have her e-mail address.’
‘I’d worked that out, sir,’ said Steele. ‘I took a couple of those cards from her flat.’
‘Maybe so, Stevie, but you should have bloody asked me about it, for the book.’
‘Sorry, boss.’
‘Forgiven. Now, what else should you have asked me?’
‘Whether you knew Stacey Gavin as well, since you and Alex each have one of her paintings.’
‘Exactly. For the moment, we’ll leave the question of how Montell came to recognise a picture hanging in my daughter’s bedroom, then shoot his mouth off about it in the office. That’s for me to raise with him on another occasion,’ his eyes gleamed, ‘although you can feel free to tell him that I plan to do just that.
‘The fact is, I didn’t know Stacey, nor did I make the connection until Alex told me about the good detective constable spotting it. I bought both of those works from a gallery; the signature she used was “Gavin”; that was all. The day that she was murdered, I flew out of Edinburgh for the start of a ten-day trip to Barcelona so I missed the press coverage. I saw references to the investigation in the papers after I got back, but by that time all the detail about her had been worked through.
‘That’s it; that’s all I know. Now, what you must do is get that into the record and make fucking sure that the fiscal is aware of it. You’re doing a first-class professional job, Inspector, but there must be nothing swept under the carpet in this investigation, or laughed off as ridiculous. Be absolutely clear about that.’
‘Don’t be hard on Stevie, boss,’ said McGuire. ‘He knew damn fine that if you had anything to add to the pool of knowledge you’d have got in touch with us. He’s running this show in the absence of Mackenzie and Neil.’
‘True,’ Skinner conceded. ‘I didn’t take that into account. Plus he’s got his pregnant wife to worry about, who is, let’s not forget, the reason why we’re all here. Okay, Inspector, I’ll stop blaming you for my own sins of omission. Speaking of the centre of attraction, Brian Mackie’s throwing us meaningful looks. I think he wants to get on with the formalities.’
They joined the crowd of officers of all ranks gathered in the centre of the room, where Maggie, looking a little nervous, stood beside Sir James Proud. The chief constable made a short speech, one of good luck, rather than goodbye. There was no presentation, since Maggie had expressly forbidden a collection within the office.
When Sir James yielded the floor, she gazed around her audience slowly. ‘Chief, ladies and gentlemen, thank you,’ she began, ‘for coming along to wave me off on the road to maternity. If some of you are surprised by this development, I promise you that you ain’t half as bloody astonished as Stevie and I were when we found out what we had done.’ She paused until the laughter quietened.
‘God willing, next time I see many of you, I’ll be bringing our baby daughter into the office for inspection and approval, and for the pleasure of seeing hard-bitten . . . and in some extreme cases, like Charlie Johnston over there, thoroughly chewed . . . police officers acting like big soft nellies. But when I do, it’ll be for old times’ sake.’ She paused again, taking in the puzzled expressions on several faces, particularly those of Stevie, Mario and Bob Skinner.
‘Until this very moment,’ she continued, ‘and this is the truth, I had no intention of saying what I’m about to say today, in this room, but standing among my friends and colleagues I can see very clearly that, knowing what I do, it would be unfair and probably just a bit immoral if I didn’t. I’m not going to do a Bilbo Baggins, put on a magic ring and vanish in a puff of smoke but, friends, this is the last day of my police career.
‘Chief, Bob, Brian, but most of all Stevie, I’m not going to hang around on cushy leave for a year before giving you the news; I’m telling you now what I’ve decided already. My firm intention from now on is to pursue a career as a full-time wife and mother.’
