'It seems that your fiance sent a couple of heavies to talk to him.
'To clear up a discrepancy' was how they put it. It seems that it was 240 big enough to persuade him to alter his recollection of events.'
'I don't suppose my dad had anything to do with it, did he?'
Mitchell Laidlaw smiled, beatifically. 'That's right, my dear,' he said. 'Don't suppose.'
'How did the Fiscal take it?'
'I've known him to be more cheerful,' Christabel Dawson replied.
'He has decided to postpone tomorrow's scheduled court appearance, to al ow him to discuss the position with the Lord Advocate. I gather that young Archie is a bit miffed that Mr Martin's persuaders promised Charles that there would be no consequences if he withdrew his statement.'
'Cheshire's furious, too,' said Laidlaw.
'He's got no damn right, then,' barked Miss Dawson. 'The man obviously let slip far too much information about the al egation the first time he interviewed Charles. He let him know the amount, the time, the name and the location of the bank. The awful man was clever enough to build his original story around facts gleaned from them.
'Your fiance's chaps seem to have been much more subtle.'
'Where wil the Crown go from here?' asked Alex.
The ancient silk allowed herself a thin smile. 'Maybe nowhere.
Charles's behaviour has attached a bad smel to their side, somehow.'
Laidlaw leaned forward in his chair, smiling agreement. 'Yes. Into the bargain, Alex, I was getting strange vibes from your father today.
Even before Charles decided to withdraw his evidence, with things looking fairly black, he was stil oddly confident. Although he didn't say anything to confirm it, I felt as if he had something up his sleeve.
'I've no idea what it could be, but I felt that it might be pretty devastating.'
Alexis Skinner laughed, seized by a sudden and almost overwhelming relief. 'Indeed,' she said. 'I rather think I know those vibes.
When my father starts playing his cards close to his chest, then it usual y means that someone's in for it, and no mistake.'
73
'There won't be any repercussions for you, wil there, Andy? After all, the Secretary of State did appoint Cheshire to handle the enquiry.
Could you be disciplined for intervening?'
'I suppose it's possible, love, but I hardly think so. Al Cheshire's interview with Charles was downright sloppy work. All he succeeded in doing was getting him to give false evidence against Bob.'
Martin smiled at his fiancee across the table, over the debris of a meal which for once they had completed uninterrupted. 'Mario and Neil did good work though. I played their tape to Cheshire this afternoon, once he'd calmed down enough to listen to it. After a while he conceded that he'd assumed too much when he interviewed Charles, and left himself wide open to being conned.'
'What will he do next?'
'He's doing it already. He and Ericson are writing up their final report to the Lord Advocate. Once it's submitted, they're off home.'
'What do you think it'll say?
'I know from Cheshire what it'l say.' He grinned. 'I shouldn't really tell you, since you're acting for the accused, but I'll chance it.
They will report that even without Charles's admission, there's still a strong case to answer. The money exists; the sample signature exists; the note exists. Without using Jackie as a witness, the Crown could try to imply a connection between the Charleses – either him or Carole
– and your dad.'
Alex nodded. 'Fair enough, but we'l be able to introduce Charles's withdrawal of his statement to undermine that.'
'Agreed,' said Andy. 'Yet Cheshire and Ericson will suggest to Lord Archibald that the public interest requires that charges should be brought, and the matter put to the jury, if for no other reason than to try to answer one of the key questions.'
'What's that?'
'Whose is the money? The account is in Bob's name, beyond question. But without the Charles statement or another to replace it, it only becomes a bribe, and thus forfeit, if the jury says it is. If he's tried and acquitted, then I reckon that legal y, the money's his.'
She smiled. 'Just as well. He'll need it to pay our fees.
'What's your gut feeling, though, Andy? Do you think the prosecution will still go ahead?'
Martin sighed. 'Yes, on reflection I think it will. The police service cannot afford to be seen to be sweeping anything under the carpet.
After al the publicity this business has had, if it was simply dropped, with no prosecution being brought against anyone, that's exactly what would be said.'
74
The post lady was early on a Wednesday also, but Skinner was showered and shaved by seven fifteen, ready and waiting when he heard the loud metal ic bang, as the spring-loaded letter box cover snapped back into place. He was alone, having suggested to Pamela that she should spend the night in Leith, to be in promptly for her last day at the Fettes headquarters.
A bowl, empty save for traces of milk and one sad, solitary cornflake, and a half-finished mug of coffee lay on the table before him as he scanned the Scotsman for any reference to the charges laid against him less than twenty-four hours before. To his satisfaction there was none. Both Lord Archibald and Davie Pettigrew had promised him secrecy until the moment of his first court appearance, and they had been as good as their word.
Reading the newspaper, which led with a report of widespread demonstrations against a terrorist murder in Spain, he still felt the cold burning anger which had gripped him as Pettigrew had recited the formal charge, that he had corruptly accepted a payment of one hundred thousand pounds from a person then under investigation in respect of serious offences.
He felt no surprise at all, only an eager satisfaction, when he saw the Jiffy bag, with its handwritten address, a twin of the earlier package, except that this time, the postmark was sharp and legible.
He looked at it, and noted with interest that the padded envelope had been posted in Inverness on the day before. 'So he's taken them north,' he said to himself.
He carried the parcel through to the kitchen, and opened it in exactly the same way in which he had unfastened the first, taking the same precautions. However, when the contents of the bag finally fell on to the counter it was, as he had expected, a second tape cassette.
Quickly he slid it into his hi-fi deck, and pressed the play button.
The pips broke the silence of the room. 'This is BBC Radio Four
…' the announcer began. The Monday news headlines included reports of half a million people on the streets of Bilbao in a mass demonstration, and of the relatively peaceful passage of Orange Marches in Ireland.
As the second story reached its conclusion the radio faded, and Mark McGrath's voice, frightened but control ed, rose once more.
