I needn’t have worried about his tact. The question of what my cousin had been doing on that yacht in the middle of the night wasn’t even raised. I gave them a brief, heavily edited statement of the day’s chain of events, and both Anderson and Trish listened without interruption until I’d concluded my report. Trish leaned over and turned off the recorder.
“He makes it all sound as dull as a routine patrol, doesn’t he?” Anderson commented drily.
Trish grinned.
“… Mr Verity was verbally persuaded to desist in his efforts to elude capture and surrendered his weapon into my keeping…” she said in a droning monotone. “Gripping stuff, Conall!”
Shay snickered at her lousy impression from his chair.
“Speaking of Verity,” I told her, “I’d focus my questioning on him if I were you. I doubt that you’ll get anything at all out of Phelps, and Jordan will probably be a tough nut to crack. Verity is their weakest link. I think he’ll spill everything he knows if you handle him right.”
“You don’t think he had anything to do with the murder of Damien Price, or what happened to Mr Butler?”
“No, I don’t. And I doubt he knows anything about Malcolm Locke’s operation either. As far as we can tell, his involvement only extended to a private, profitable arrangement with the other two. If you make it clear to him that he’ll face nothing more than the smuggling charges if he cooperates fully, he could be very useful in building your case for court.”
“What about the fact that he pulled a gun on you?”
I just shrugged. “It would probably be more useful to tell him we’re prepared to forget that ever happened, but it’s not up to me.”
Anderson didn’t look thrilled by the idea, but I thought he could see the potential benefits of going that way.
“What sort of smuggling charges are we looking at?” His gaze shifted to the pack that Shay had carried in.
“The contents of the pouches in there will all need to be analysed, but I’d say there were about twelve kilos of concentrated high quality, vacuum purged cannabis oil and maybe a kilo of cocaine in that pack. For Jordan and Phelps, there’s also the murder charge and the three unregistered firearms too.”
“Alright then, I think that would be acceptable, if you agree, Trish?” She nodded. “Conall, you’ll only appear in the reports as the DCI seconded to the Western Isles Division to assist with the investigation into the death of Mr Price. Trish will use your reports and the evidence you two have collected to prepare the case to present to the Procurator’s office. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll be called on to testify in person. I can’t see any defence lawyer in the country agreeing to enter a ‘not guilty’ plea on this one.”
No, nor could I.
“That sounds good to me, Sir.”
“Mr Keane,” Shay sat up a little as Anderson addressed him, “you should know that I informed Edinburgh of the situation as soon as we had confirmation that the hijackers had been apprehended. I’m sure you can imagine how displeased they were to hear that you’d ‘been allowed’ to put yourself in that position. However, given the number of times they’ve carelessly mislaid you themselves, I doubt we’ll have any trouble from that quarter over this little incident. If their own people can’t keep track of you effectively, they can hardly expect anyone else to either.”
Shay brightened up visibly at that. “No, they really can’t, Chief Superintendent, but thank you.”
“Just one more thing, Mr Keane. I gather that the Nielsens are a little concerned about your activities on that yacht. I hope that there won’t be any repercussions there that need concern us.”
“What activities?” Shay asked, the picture of offended innocence. Anderson just shook his head at him and sighed.
“I’ll take that as a ‘no’ then. I do hope you’re right about that. You’re doubtless already aware of the kind of connections the father has in the Danish government and must have some idea of how important Denmark’s friendship may prove to be to us in the coming years.”
We did. If those pushing for another referendum on Scottish independence managed to wrangle one in the near future, there was a strong chance that we’d get an entirely different result next time around. It was one thing to agree to remain in the UK but quite another then to be forcibly dragged out of the EU, against the wishes of the majority of the Scottish electorate. People were a lot less trusting, now, about some of the warnings and promises that had been bandied about back in 2014, and we’d certainly want Denmark even more firmly in our corner if we ever did cut loose from London.
“I know that neither of you cares for political games, but the Nielsens have requested that you join them for lunch in Inverness tomorrow, and I’d appreciate it if you would oblige them. In your case, Conall, you may consider that to be an order, whether or not your cousin agrees to tag along. I’ll give you the details on the flight over. I’ve arranged for a helicopter to pick us up at nine tonight, so you’d probably like to go and freshen up and pack soon, but first, do you have any more questions just now, Trish?”
She did. After clearing up a couple of minor points for her, it became clear that the lack of any apparent motive for the murder of Damien Price was bugging her as much as it had bothered us. I suggested the possibility of it being a case of mistaken identity. Maybe the file on Phelps’ earlier arrest would shed some light on that? Anderson just rolled his eyes at my unsubtle hinting and offered to put the request through himself.
“It’s funny, isn’t it, how the little decisions we make can end up making such a big difference to events?” Shay mused as we walked back to our hotel. “If I hadn’t been on
