'Yes,' grunted Skinner, watching the door close with a surge of pleasure at the woman his daughter had become.
'Hello, boss,' Neil Mcllhenney replied. 'How're you doing?'
'Fine, Big Fel a, fine.' He paused. 'Well no, I'm not. I'm very, very deeply pissed off, if the truth be told. Is this a social call, seeing as how I'm a non-polisman at the moment?'
'Of course it is, boss. I just wanted to make sure that you're hanging in there.' At the other end of the line, Skinner heard a soft rumbling chuckle. 'Mr Martin specifically didn't tell me to call you. He also told me not to let slip that the McGrath-Anderson team have just had a tip from a woman out in Howgate about a man taking a wee lass into a cottage out there this morning. She was struggling, so the woman said.'
Skinner stood bolt upright. 'Did she know the man?'
'No.'
'Did she give a description?'
'Tal, fair, slim. He took the kid out of the back of a grey Toyota van. With a tow-bar.'
'Who owns the cottage? Anyone checked yet?'
'Sammy just did. It belongs to a Mr George. He gets a Council Tax discount as a sole occupant. But the witness says it's not usually occupied. It's a holiday place, and she hasn't a clue whether the man she saw is the owner or not.'
Skinner took a deep breath. 'When?'
'We're just leaving now. Mr Martin, the boy Pye, Pam and me.
We're using two unmarked cars. There's an armed team on the way up now to deploy out of sight.'
'Pam?' said the DCC sharply 'Why Pam?'
'Don't worry, boss,' the Sergeant reassured him, quickly. 'She'l be well back. Mr Martin wants a woman there to look after the kids if we recover them.'
'Who's carrying?'
'Mr Martin and me.'
'Where's the cottage?'
'You know where the old Inn was?'
'Yes.'
'At the end of a track, just beyond it.'
'And where does the witness live?'
'In a converted steading across the field. There are four houses there. The uniform team has orders to empty them.'
'Very good, Neil,' said Skinner. 'Everything sounds fine. I'm glad the situation's in such good hands. Best of luck.'
'Thanks boss,' said Mcl henney, sounding a touch bewildered.
67
'Fancy seeing you here,' Mcl henney grinned, as he stepped out of the passenger seat of Martin's car, opposite what had once been the Howgate Inn, a popular Midlothian watering place. 'Just for a minute there, I…'
'I thought I'd go for a drive,' replied Skinner, casual y forestal ing him. 'Something going on here?'
An attractive blonde woman, in her mid-forties, stood beside him.
Three other people, two more women and an elderly man, residents of the steading, the Sergeant guessed, were gathered a few yards away, with a uniformed constable. 'This is Mrs Christopher,' said the DCC as Martin approached, followed by Pam and Sammy Pye, from a second car. 'Your witness.'
'That's good,' nodded the Chief Superintendent. 'There are a few other questions I wanted to ask.'7
Skinner smiled. 'Mrs Christy The grey van's been around h Here for a couple of days, th it last on Friday night, sho
''ye had a chat already. '1 or three weeks. hack. She saw e?'
Andy Martin frowned
'Mrs Christopher's Thursday morning to
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'somplice?' the solicitor suggested., is1iead, firmly, pursing his lips. 'The only three She pointed to Skinner. 'This gentleman's already asked me that.
The answer's stil no, though. I haven't.'
'Thanks anyway,' said the Head ofCID. 'Would you join the others now, please.'
As Mrs Christopher retreated he turned back to Skinner. 'How d'you think we should play this, sir?'
'It's your show, Andy,' the DCC replied.
'Not so as I'd noticed.'
Skinner grinned. 'Well. I did have a quick scout around.' He pointed along the twisting road which led out of the vil age. 'The track to the cottage is over there, but you're out of its sight until you're almost at the front door. The van's tucked away beyond it, but it's angled so that you can't make out its number, dammit.
'Behind the house there's a wee patch of woodland. The place backs right on to it, with hardly any garden. Some of the armed support is in there already. The rest are in the steading.'
He looked quizzical y at Martin. 'Why don't Neil and I make our way through the woods, and you and Sammy go straight up the track?'
'Why don't we cal in the SAS?' asked Pye.
'Because there is at least one kid in there that we know of, Sam,'
Skinner replied. 'The SAS go in bloody. I don't want any child deafened by a stun grenade or shot by this man in a panic.'
'That's right,' said the Chief Superintendent. 'Let's be gentle about it. I'l just walk up and knock the front door, with you two out the back, and al that firepower in the woods and across the field.'
Skinner nodded. 'You'd better advise the armed support commander.
If he comes out shooting, or even showing a gun, he goes down.' He grimaced. 'I wish we knew just a wee bit more about the situation, but with what we've got, the balance of the risk says we do it now.'
They split into the agreed pairs. Skinner led Mcl henney into the wood, finding a rough path through the trees, trodden down by the armed support officers. A hundred yards or so into the plantation they came upon the four-strong unit, well hidden in the gloom from anyone looking from the bright afternoon outside.
'Seen any movement inside the house?' the DCC asked a uniformed sergeant. The man looked at him, clearly surprised by his presence.
'Only once, sir. A man came into the kitchen, then went out again carrying a can of Pepsi. He was a dead ringer for the photofit.'
The radio which Mcllhenney was carrying crackled into life.
'We're in position.' Martin's voice sounded whispered. Skinner and his sergeant stepped across the low wire fence into the cottage's small garden. 'Ready,' said Mcllhenney.
A few seconds later, they heard a loud knock. A few seconds after that, the back door swung open, fast, and a man rushed out: a tall, slim fair-haired man.
His mouth opened in surprise as he caught sight of the two detectives, then panic showed in his eyes at the sight of the pistol in Mcl henney's hand. He started to run for the corner of the house, towards the grey van, the
