right to have a party in the face of terrorism.'
Still standing, Ballantyne seemed to fight, for a few seconds, for breath and words. Eventually he gasped, 'You can't threaten me.
I'll… I'll…' a The storm broke. Proud Jimmy exploded in a fury that Skinner had never witnessed before. He roared at Ballantyne. 'Don't be a bloody fool, man! I am Scotland's senior Chief Constable. You're just another tinpot politician. You have no jurisdiction over me.
Of course I can threaten you. I have just threatened you. I am still fucking threatening you! And I will carry out my threat at once, if you cross me!'
He glared at Ballantyne for a moment, then went on, his voice lower, grinding out the words. 'I'll go further than that. I missed the first few days of this affair, but I've kept in touch with Bob '
Skinner here, who, in spite of your scorn, is in my opinion the finest policeman in Britain. I am now observing for myself the final stages of your transformation under fire from a moderately acceptable minister to a dangerous buffoon who is quite unsuited for high office. For now, Mr Ballantyne, Bob Skinner needs my support. But I tell you today that, once this affair is over, I will renew the promise I have just made to you, and wilt carry it out exactly as I have described, unless you yourself resign to make way for someone with the judgement and ability to do the job!'
He glanced down at Skinner, who sat in his chair marvelling silently at his Chief. 'Come on. Bob. Let's go and get on with the job of keeping this pathetic man alive!'
He turned his back on Ballantyne, and slammed out of the room. Skinner, for once in his life, followed silently and obediently at Proud Jimmy's heels.
64
At the Chief Constable's insistence. Bob took the rest of that Monday off.
'Take your lovely wife away to the seaside, man. Recharge those batteries for Thursday night.'
So, with Sarah signed off from her practice and her police duties for twenty-four hours, they headed down to Gullane. All three of the golf-courses were jam-packed, and so they decided instead to walk along the beach path to North Berwick, and back via the highway – a good twelve-mile hike. Dressed in T-shirts, shorts and Reeboks, they walked mostly in silence at first, finding and following a narrow path which wound down through a forest of head-high thorn bushes, then ran for a stretch along the perimeter of Muirfield golf course, before opening out on to the broad East Sands, far from the Gullane Bents car park. No day trippers knew of this attractive beach, and so it was always deserted, even on the finest of days. Sheltered, in a natural alcove among the dunes, from the light breeze which signalled the turning of the tide, they lay down to sunbathe for a while, stripping off their T-shirts to use as beach-mats.
Bob marvelled anew at the firmness of his wife's body as she lay on her back, high-breasted, nipples erect, eyes closed against the sun which glinted on her auburn hair.
'Perfection,' he whispered, and suddenly into his mind came a premonition of brown-haired sons and of a second shot at fatherhood. He felt himself harden, and laughed softly.
'Skinner?' She voiced his name as a question. Then, without needing an answer, she rolled sideways and on top of him, full of desire and with the suppleness of her youth, She made love to him quickly, lustily, hungrily, in the hoti August sunshine which bathed the deserted beach, mounted on; him as if he were her stallion, calling out to him in her pleasure.
When their journey was over, she lay upon him for a while longer,; their foreheads touching, covering his face with kisses. ,222 8 And then, as if she had read his earlier thought, she said: 'You and I are ready to be parents, my love. You deserve another shot, and I Couldn't get any broodier if I tried.'
He held her breasts in his hands as she lifted herself up from his chest. 'Well, honey,' he said, huskily. 'If that happens, we'll just have to call him Jimmy. After all, he did give me the afternoon off
65
The Mallard's Eighty-shilling ale was pouring at its best. The village clock showed 6:15 pm as they arrived back in Gullane.
Their hike, and the excitement of their sudden, spontaneous, sunwashed coupling on the deserted beach, had left them with a raging thirst, which they slaked with two pints each of Scottish Brewers' finest product, They gave some thought to dining in the bar, but eventually! they agreed that the evening was too good to be spent indoors.'
And so, instead, they went back to their cottage and barbecued i two thick steaks in the garden, with potatoes baking in foil in the red-hot coals, and sliced onions sizzling on the grid. They ate as hungrily as they had made love in the sand, washing down the succulent meat with good red Valdepenas, and finishing off with a whole pineapple quartered and soaked in Cassis.
Then, all their appetites satisfied, they sat in the garden and watched the day go down in the west – and with it, their brief break from the dangers which had so recently overwhelmed their lives.
'Will they ever stop, Bob?' Sarah asked him suddenly.
'Yes, love. They'll stop, when they've got what they want. And that isn't Scottish independence, or any of that crap. I don't believe that any more. They've got us tear-arsing around all over Edinburgh, and that's what they've been out to achieve all along.
It's all being done with a purpose in mind, though I've no idea at all of what that could be. When I do know, that's when they'll stop. Because I'll stop them.' I The hard determination in his voice made her suddenly afraid again, just as she had felt in the Park, over the body of young Macgregor.
'Darling, promise me one thing. Please. That when you do meet up with these people, you'll take care. Of yourself. Inside and out.'
He looked at her in silence. 224; 'There's someone in you that I don't know. It's like there's a closet inside you with something awful and dangerous inside: a real bogeyman. I'm just terribly afraid that if he ever really gets out, he could take you over.'
She held his gaze until his eyes dropped.
Aye, my love,' he said with a deep sigh. 'I know the man you mean. I've met him. And I've no wish to encounter him again either. But I have to say that if I'm ever in that kind of danger again, I hope he's still around. Because one thing about my alter ego: he doesn't half get the business done!'
66
Skinner saw the ball drop as the gun went off.
'This is where I'll be, Andy. I can see the whole show from here.'
The three of them – Skinner, Martin and Adam Arrow stood on the Castle battlements, just at the angle where the Millsi Mount Battery joins with the Western Defences, a part of the image which most visitors conjure up when their thoughts returnj to Edinburgh, f It was a few seconds after one o'clock. Close by, the famoui gun still smoked, having just boomed out its time signal. When it had fired, Skinner had been gazing out, across Princes Street, over' the Scott Monument and the Balmoral Hotel, at the roof of the round grey stone building on the top of Calton Hill, and had seen the huge green globe as it slid down its flagpole, in a visual time- check for navigators in the wide River Forth, simultaneous with the sounding of the gun for those on land.
Now all three looked downwards, observing the main Glasgow railway line at the base of the rock, and beyond it the chasm of Princes Street Gardens, all in the shadow of the great Castle. The tented roof had been removed from the Ross Theatre. Only the stage was out of sight, under the canopy of the open-air bandstand,
