normally take yourself.'
The two senior officers stared back at her, unblinking. She would have welcomed Haggerty's presence to underline his message, but she knew that this was part of the test.
'CID's going through a quiet spell just now,' she continued, 'but the hooligans don't work to a timetable, so that could go pear-shaped at any moment. To make sure that I'm always contactable, I'm going to have a go- between, a runner; PC Haddock, one of our young probationers, will be my contact. He wil know where I am at any given moment.'
'Hope he's up to the job,' grunted Superintendent Davie Halliday.
'Back-watching calls for a bit of experience.'
Rose looked at him, evenly. 'I don't see why it should in this case,' she said. 'I have every confidence in my fellow officers.' Everyone in the room, Hal iday included, read the warning in her words.
She stood up, ending the meeting. 'Okay, gentlemen, that's al. Barring crises, I'll see you here at three o'clock on Friday, when we can run through the programme for next week. If anyone does need me, I'l be in my own office. I'm not moving in here.' She ushered them to the door, then went back to her own room. Back in familiar territory, she called the front office and asked for Haddock.
'And don't scare the boy this time,' she added, pointedly.
No more than a minute later, there was a knock on her door. Haddock was less nervous that on his first visit, but stil eyed her cautiously as he stood, al teeth and sharp elbows, in front of her desk. 'You sent for me, ma'am?' he ventured.
'Obviously. What do they call you, Constable Haddock? What's your Christian name?'
'Harold, ma'am,' he answered. 'But everybody calls me Sauce. Ye ken, like in brown sauce, like you put on a fish supper.'
Rose wrinkled her nose. 'You might: I certainly don't. But Sauce it wil be, if that's what you're comfortable with. Right, here's why I wanted you.'
She explained the duties she had in mind for the young officer. As she spoke she fancied his chest puffed out a little, and he began to look a little less awkward. 'Okay, Sauce, have you got that? Whenever I leave the station, I'll tell you where I'm going and how I can be contacted. If you see me heading out the front door and I haven't told you, stop me and ask me.'
Haddock nodded, his face telling her that he hoped it would not come to that.
'Good; you are now my official temporary gopher. You can start right away; you'd better get me those bloody night-shift reports.'
17
The bedside phone sounded at five minutes past seven; Sarah snatched it up on the second ring. Normal y, at that hour, it would have wakened her, but Seonaid had done that already. Having claimed her mother's attention, in the manner of infants she was asleep once more, on the pil ow on Bob's side of the bed.
She knew who was calling before she heard his voice. 'Hi,' she answered softly. 'Where are you?'
'I'm in Buffalo. I'm sorry I didn't call you from the scene like you asked, but I just couldn't, with those guys around.'
'I understand. How are you?'
'I'm fine.'
'You don't sound fine; you sound tired.'
'If I do, it's because I am. I fell asleep at seven o'clock yesterday evening and I woke up an hour ago.'
'Poor love. You at the house?'
'No, not yet. I checked into a hotel for the night; the Hyatt Regency in Fountain Plaza; I just told the guys to take me anywhere. I was so damn knackered I didn't think to look for keys at the cabin, and anyway, I don't know the alarm combination. To make it hassle-free, I called the security company that looks after the place. They've got everything I'l need to get in. My FBI nursemaids are taking me to meet them there at midday tomorrow. Hopeful y I'll have had some more kip by then.'
'Have you seen Sheriff Dekker yet?' she asked, speaking urgently, yet quietly at the same time, for fear of waking her daughter.
'Gie's a break, love. I spent most of yesterday with Little and Large, the State coppers.'
'How was the cabin?'
'Upside down, ransacked; just as I was told I'd find it.'
'And where else did they take you?'
He could hear her hesitancy. 'They took me to the morgue; I've done the formal identification and given the coroner signed authority to proceed with the autopsies. He's doing everything by the book.'
'How… how were they?'
He had been waiting for that question. He could still see their faces; he always would. Leo's eyes had been bulging almost out of their sockets, and Susannah's head had been al but severed by the wire garrotte.
'Peaceful. They'd barely have known a thing,' he told her.
'When can we have the funerals?'
'The coroner said he'l open an inquest, then adjourn it indefinitely.
After that, he's prepared to release the bodies. Shouldn't be more than a couple of days. I'l contact an undertaker, and get things under way. Be prepared for a big turn-out, love, and not just of family and friends. This is big news in the media here. It's all over television and the papers. I was filmed going into the coroner's office in Loudonville; I didn't want to speak to anyone so Schultz and Smal, the local guys, took me out the back way after I was done.'
'I thought you said they were cal ed…' She stopped. 'Sorry. My humour switch is stil off.'
'No, I'm sorry. But you should see Smal. I thought Lennie Plenderleith was big, but this bloke; Jesus.' He whistled.
'Anyhow,' he continued. 'That's where we are. My Bureau escorts are collecting me at eleven. We'll get the house opened, and then I'll go and see Dekker, although I'm not quite sure why, in the circumstances.'
'What do you mean?'
'I mean that the investigation has sod al to do with him. The crime happened a hell of a long way from here, and it's state jurisdiction, quite clearly; my seeing him is real y no more than a courtesy cal.'
'Well just remember, be courteous. We set great store on that in the USA.'
'Yes, dear, I'l be nice, I promise. I might even call him Sheriff.'
She heard him stifle a yawn. 'How are the kids?' he asked.
She looked at Seonaid, and saw that she was awake, and peering back at her, curious. 'One of them's right here,' she answered. 'Say hello to her.'
18
Looking at it from the street, Mario McGuire could see that Hargreen Primary School had grown over the years, and had changed rapidly in the process. Back in the days when Colinton village really was a village, it had probably boasted three or four classrooms in a smal stone building, and would have been perfectly adequate for its purpose, given the standards and methods of the day.
Happily not for decades had its pupils been crammed into classes of fifty, cowed, and frequently thrashed, into obedience and attention. The original school was still there, but a brass plate on its door indicated that it was now the administration block. A big modern structure seemed to burst out from it, enveloping it in grey concrete, and a second block, of roughly similar design, had been added at some later point. The architecture was definitely not Frank Lloyd Wright, but neither was the surrounding area.
The detective checked his watch. It was twenty-five past one, and the playground was empty; the Hargreen
