He shook his head. 'No, my daughter just didn't want to come.
Alex doesn't approve ofPam and me, does she?'
'Bob, that's between you and her.' Andy hesitated. 'But if I were you, I'd just let it lie for a while. She's said she'l support you, and she wil, but she's very fond of Sarah, and she was gutted when you two separated. She won't give you any more grief, but it'd be best if you let her come to terms with things in her own time.'
The older man stared at the sky again, back towards the geese as they wheeled round towards Aberiady Nature reserve, their nesting ground. 'Aye, you're right,' he murmured at last. 'The last thing I need is to fall out with our kid as well.'
Suddenly he glanced back across the table. 'And what about you, Andy? What about you? Do you approve of my new relationship?
After all, you've got a double interest, personal and professional.'
Abruptly, Martin stood up from the table. 'Let's go for a walk,' he said.
Skinner shook his head. 'I don't want to leave Pam. Not after Leona, and everything that's happened. Not with a madman on the loose.'
His friend smiled. 'Don't worry. You have very discreet protection.'
The DCC looked at him, surprised. 'I didn't ask for…'
'Well you bloody should have. My operational decision. End of story.'
'I'm stil not sure. There might be photographers out there.'
'Fuck 'em if there are. Let's go for a walk.'
'Yeah. Al right then.' With a last show of reluctance, Skinner rose also and took a few paces across to the open back door of the cottage.
'Pam,' he called, 'Andy and I are off for a strol. Back in half an hour or so. Remember. Keep the door shut, and let the machine answer the phone.'
There were no photographers in sight outside the cottage. As he closed the gate behind him and stepped between Andy's silver Mondeo and his own BMW, Bob glanced across the Goose Green.
At its lower end, near the back entrance to the Golf Inn hotel, a single car was parked; a nondescript, grey Escort, with a figure in the front passenger seat seemingly reading a newspaper.
'I've got another officer positioned round in the paddock,' said Martin quietly, catching the look. 'Between them they cover al approaches to the cottage.'
'Yes, that's enough. What are their orders if they see someone approaching the house?'
'They're to radio in and alert you, rather than tackling the suspect 74 and risking him getting away. Unless Pam's there alone, of course.
Then they'd go in.'
'What, you mean your game is to let him come at me?' asked Skinner, a grim edge to his voice.
'Yes,' said his colleague, with a quick grin, 'to give us the best chance of catching him. Not that I think it wil happen, but if it does, try to leave the guy in one piece. Please.'
They strol ed out of the green taking a narrow pathway beside the Episcopalian church, which led them through the golf club car park to the slopes of Gullane Hill. They trudged in silence up the steep road towards its summit, until at last they stood on a grassy knol which overlooked the club's three courses, and all of the wide Forth estuary.
The two friends sat side by side on a memorial chair, gazing out to sea.
'Well, Andy,' said Bob at last, breathing only slightly heavily from the climb, 'what about it? What do you think of my indiscretion?
Give it to me straight.'
Martin hunched his broad shoulders, within his roomy sports jacket. 'If you insist. But first, tell me again how it came about. I don't mean the situation between you and Sarah: I know that arose out of your extreme views on questions of trust. I mean the thing between you and Pam.'
Bob leaned against the back of the bench seat. 'Like I said,' he began, 'it just happened. I was lonely, so was Pamela. We were thrown together by the job, and we were attracted to each other. Pam's divorced, I'm separated. When I realised how it was heading I transferred her out of my office…' he paused for a second,'… and into my bed.'
'How do you feel about each other?'
'Fond covers it, I think. Somehow, Pam seems to feel… safe.
She doesn't ask or threaten. D'you understand what I mean?'
'I think so. A once-bitten, twice-shy career woman. I can see why you'd feel safe with her.'
'Mmm,' Bob grunted. 'So come on, out with it.'
Andy drew in a deep breath of the fresh afternoon air, looking out at the grey sea, beneath the blue sky. 'Remember when I was younger
– not that long ago. I was a serial shagger, and no mistake. You used to tell me I had had more women than cooked breakfasts, and you were right.
'I always had to have a girlfriend because that was part of me, but as soon as I started to feel safe with them, I ran a mile in the opposite direction. Safety, in my view, is no basis for a relationship. Mere contentment shouldn't be enough.'
He glanced round, towards Skinner. 'Bob, you were never like I 75 used to be, nor wil you ever be. You couldn't philander to save your life. When you met Sarah, I was pleased for you. After more than fifteen years of widowhood you'd final y found a woman who was made for you. And I was as jealous as hel. Al of a sudden my own life seemed hollow, and I wanted so much to be like you.
'As you'll remember, that led me into one disastrous situation, before I realised that the only woman for me was right before my eyes. I just hadn't noticed that she'd grown up.'
He laughed, but sadly, without humour. 'So look at us now, you and me. My dream's come true. I've become like you were. I'm in love, settled and happy for the rest of my life. You? You're stumbling about like a lost soul.
'You talk about feeling safe, my old friend. Well, I think that's cobblers. I think you're on the fucking rebound, that's what. And I should know. It used to happen to me al the time. I rebounded from one to the next so often that I felt like a human pinball machine.
'You ask me what I think? Well here it is. I've nothing against Pam. She seems like a nice woman, and a couple of years back I'd probably have fancied her myself. But I love Sarah, and I think it's fucking tragic that you and she, between you, are in the process of tearing apart one of the best marriages I've ever seen.
'I don't often presume to speak forAlex, Bob, but I'l tell you that if you asked her, she would tell you that she feels exactly the same way.'
Skinner sat motionless on the bench, staring out across the wide Firth, over to the Fife coast, towards the string of one-time fishing vil ages, transformed by fashion and affluence into holiday resorts.
He sat there for minutes before responding, still without looking round.
'You're my best pal, Andy. Truth be told, one of the very few real friends I've ever had. I value your opinion, and I'm sorry that Sarah and I have caused you distress. You're right about our marriage; it seemed perfect. But remember that it's possible to shatter even a diamond into smithereens.
'However, as for Pam and me, we're sort of tied together now, by the Spotlight thing, and by this kil er's possible focus on me. I do care for her too, make no mistake.
'I couldn't just abandon her, even if I wanted to. I accept what you say, about my being on the rebound. Sure, I know that I let my cock do my thinking for me. I suppose I just needed to be told, and only you could do that. But it's happened, and things may have gone beyond redemption now, between me and Sarah.'
He looked around, at last. 'Right, that was your personal view.
How do you see it professionally?'
Martin frowned. 'You sure you want to hear?'
'Aye, Chief Superintendent. I can take it. Fire away.'
'Very good, sir.
'You used the word earlier: indiscretion.
'However you justify it, and however properly you think you acted, by transferring Pamela out of your office before your slept with her, I believe that you've laid yourself wide open to accusations of indiscretion… at the very
