that telly, eating nothing but crisps and drinking rum. Like I say, he’s not helpless, just hopeless.’
‘Don’t worry, Flo, I’ll take care of him.’
‘Lovely. He likes a glass of warm milk with a shot of rum by his bed, and when I’m not there he usually takes one sleeping pill to help him get off. Just the one. They’re in the tea caddy in the kitchen. He hates tea so he never looks in there. But don’t let him talk you into giving him more than one. And don’t let him take the rum bottle to bed with him. And make certain he don’t smuggle a cigar in. I had a smoke alarm fixed right over the bed, but he’s quite capable of switching it off when he’s left to himself.’
‘Mammy, you can’t expect Maggie to be able to boss Pappy around like you do!’ protested Dave.
‘Why not? She gets the practice keeping you in line, don’t she?’
‘I’ll do my best,’ said Maggie. ‘And I hope your sister’s OK.’
‘That’s in God’s hands. I’m more grateful than I can say, dearie.’
She folded Maggie in her arms and gave her a succulent kiss on the cheek.
Then she said, ‘Come on, Dave, I’ll just tell your pa that Maggie’s going to take care of him, then we’re off. I don’t want to get there and find poor Belle’s gone because of your dawdling.’
She went out. Dave the Third gave Maggie a wry grin then said, ‘Oh, one thing more, you’d better know how to work the gate controls. Not that anyone’s likely to come calling tonight, but sometimes Sling goes walkabout and it could be embarrassing if there’s no one around.’
She followed him into a control room located to the left of the main entrance. She’d only glimpsed it through the open door on previous visits and now she was surprised to see how roomy it was. Perhaps the stark decor made it seem bigger. It certainly clashed with the rather self-consciously retro ambience of the rest of the house. The only furniture was a single office chair in front of a control panel. There was no window and the illumination came from a bank of TV screens filling most of one wall. Only two of them were active. One showed the area outside the front door, the other the main gate.
‘You can talk to anyone at the gate by pressing this switch,’ said Dave. ‘And these two buttons open and shut the gates. OK?’
‘Yes. All these other screens…?’
‘No need to bother with those unless an alarm sounds. Then you can bring up the perimeter walls and if necessary the house interior, though I shouldn’t think they’ll ever be needed. The alarm system links directly to the police and there’s enough razor wire on the perimeter wall to shave a woolly mammoth.’
‘David! Are you going to take all night? Get a move on or I’ll drive this thing myself!’
The yell came from outside.
He grinned at her again. Sometimes she could see why he was such a successful womanizer.
He said, ‘Open the gate, will you, then shut it behind me? I’ll ring you later.’
He gave her a kiss on the cheek, not as warmly moist as his mother’s, but more than a simple peck. That was a first too.
He left. She waited till she heard the Audi start up then pressed the button that opened the gate. A few moments later the car appeared on the TV screen. As it went through the gateway, Dave’s arm came out of the driver’s window and waved a clenched fist farewell.
She pressed the close button. It was easy to categorize people, she thought. This was a side of her employer she hadn’t seen enough of. With the right guidance, maybe he could make it all the way. The UK’s first mixed-race prime minister. And he had the qualities to make a good if not a great one. With the right guidance.
Her shift of feeling about Dave made her feel suddenly guilty at the dark suspicions about Goldie that today’s events had sent fuguing around her mind once more. If the combined efforts of Scotland Yard, the left-wing media, and Tory Central Office hadn’t been able to lay anything on Gidman, then he really did have to be clean, didn’t he?
Her phone rang. The display said Number withheld but she recognized instantly the voice that said, ‘That you, Maggie?’
‘Yes, Beanie,’ she said.
She listened as the Bitch talked. After a few seconds she sat down on the chair in front of the control panel.
‘Listen, hon, don’t know why I’m doing this, except maybe you ought to know and also ’cos I gotta talk to someone about it. I’ve just had a call from Gwyn. I was ready to chew his balls off over lying to me, and banging that Huntley child and all, but I could tell something was wrong soon as I heard him. My ma used to tell me, never tell lies ’cos you never know when they’ll come true. Gwyn said he had to deal with a family crisis. Well, he’s really got one now. That kid brother of his, the one he was going to see up in Yorkshire, he’s been murdered.’
‘Murdered?’ echoed Maggie incredulously. ‘How? Why?’
‘Shot in the face. And some cop woman who was there got put into hospital too. I don’t know what’s going on, but if it’s anything to do with that stuff we were talking about, I thought you ought to know.’
‘Do you have any more details?’ demanded Maggie. ‘Have they got anyone for it?’
‘He’d have said if they had. He’s really shook up. Never known him like this. He’s even going on about the intrusive fucking press! Listen, hon, I’ve told you all I know, but you’ve heard nothing from me. And one thing more, that’s you and me squared off, OK? Take care.’
The line went dead.
For another minute Maggie Pinchbeck didn’t move.
Then she got up and went into the hallway just in time to see Sling leading Purdy upstairs, presumably for his meeting with Goldie.
The commander looked like a man with something important on his mind. She knew how he felt.
She watched them out of sight then went back into the control room.
18.20-18.48
As the old Rover sped north out of the city, Dalziel told Pascoe about his conversation with Purdy.
‘Tried to hide it at first, but he’s really worried,’ said the Fat Man.
‘Why wouldn’t he be? With his girlfriend missing and these Delays on the loose, that would worry anyone.’
‘I suppose so,’ said Dalziel.
Pascoe frowned and said warningly, ‘Andy, is there something else here, something to do with Purdy? I thought we agreed. No more secrets.’
You agreed, thought the Fat Man. It’s me as makes the rules, remember?
But he didn’t say it aloud. There would be a time for such reminders. Also it was good to have it confirmed just how fine-tuned his deputy’s sensors were.
He said, ‘I’m not keeping anything secret ’cos I really don’t know anything. Remember, I’ve not seen Purdy for ten years and we weren’t much more than drinking buddies back then. So the way this thing’s panning out, I’m not taking owt for granted.’
‘You think he might be more than romantically involved?’
‘Romantically involved? You been at the Barbara Cartland again? I’ve no idea, Pete. There’s one thing, but. That stuff in the note Gina got about the plucky little trooper and the general. Two ways that might have got into circulation. One is the guy boasting in his cups to an old mate, the other is the girl reminiscing in her bed to a new mate. Mick Purdy fits both bills.’
They drove in silence for a while. Then Dalziel’s phone rang. It was lying on the dashboard.
He said, ‘Could you get that, else I might have to arrest myself.’
Pascoe picked up the phone and bellowed, ‘What?’ in a fair parody of the Fat Man’s telephone style. His reward was a verbal assault that made him wince.
He held it away from his ear and said, ‘I think it’s your old chum Chief Constable Glendower, who seems to believe your mother had intercourse with a sow that was badly infected with both foot and mouth disease and swine fever.’
Dalziel laughed and said, ‘Pass it here.’
