Funeral Note

I hadn’t expected that. ‘No thank you, ma’am,’ I replied. ‘I’ve had my quota for today, I reckon.’

‘Then I’ll follow your example,’ she said, favouring me with her first small smile. ‘The chief’s an addict, and it’s bloody near compulsory in his office. Some of the stuff he brews can make you hyperventilate.’

She sat, and I followed, perching on the edge of the squab, not wanting to appear at ease, which I wasn’t in any case. She looked at me, then smiled again. ‘Relax, man,’ she exclaimed. ‘Whatever happens here, it’s not going to be fatal. I’m probably more nervous than you are. I’ve never been in this situation before.’

I took her at her word and settled myself into the well-worn leather; the tension was still there, but I did my best to hide it.

Then she was serious again. ‘Do you think you have any leverage in this room?’ she asked. ‘Your sister Spring is in a gay relationship with one of our senior officers. You have a past friendship with Alex Skinner and those of us who know her well, know also that she isn’t famous for celibacy. D’you reckon any of that’s going to get you off the hook?’

I shook my head. ‘No, ma’am. Nor would I want it to. If you’re working up to ask me to resign quietly because of it, I will, for my sister’s sake, and for her partner’s. As for Alex, she’s a big girl, she can look after herself and she wouldn’t expect me to do anything so noble on her behalf.’

The DCC laughed again. ‘Christ, you do know her well.’ She paused. ‘Do you know what carte blanche is?’

Was she patronising me? ‘French has reached Cape Town,’ I replied. ‘It means. . open season?’ I suggested.

‘That’s as good a translation as any,’ she agreed. ‘Well, that’s been declared on you, for that’s what Mr Skinner says I’ve got.’

The brought me up short; privately I’d been hoping that the boss would weigh in discreetly on my side. I helped Alex out of a scrape a while back, and I knew that I had his personal gratitude; but not professional, it seemed.

‘What have you got to say to me?’ she asked.

‘Sorry,’ I said, immediately.

‘That’s a start, but to whom?’

I didn’t have to think hard. ‘To the force, to the chief, and to the guys who were involved in the Bass investigation. I screwed it up for them.’

‘What’s your relationship with Alice Cowan, away from the office?’

I’d been asking myself that one for more than twenty-four hours. ‘We’re close. . or we were until yesterday,’ I added.

‘Would you say that you were a couple?’

‘Informally. We’ve never discussed the long term but we’ve been in a relationship for a few months now.’

‘Which you did not disclose to your line managers.’ That wasn’t a question.

‘No, we didn’t,’ I conceded. ‘We didn’t think we were at the stage where we had to. It has no bearing on our. .’ I didn’t complete the sentence as I realised how wrong that was.

‘Indeed.’ The DCC frowned. ‘Did you know how Alice came to be posted to Leith?’ She paused. ‘Just in case you’re thinking about protecting her, I’d better tell you that she’s resigned from the force.’

That was news to me; I hadn’t spoken to her since the previous morning, after my DI had called me into his office and ripped me to shreds. Sammy Pye’s a nice, friendly guy, which means that being taken apart by him hurts even more. Alice hadn’t appeared for work; she’d been ordered to stay at home. As soon as Sammy had thrown me out I called her on my mobile, from the toilet, yelled at her, thanked her for what she’d done to my promotion prospects and told her that was the last way she’d ever be fucking me. I felt bad about it a few hours later, but I reckoned that the bridge was burned right down to the water level. I probably would have protected her, or tried to, but her quitting had made that pointless.

And so I answered, ‘Officially, no, because as you know, the reason was never made public within the force, but she told me.’

‘Did you know where she’d been before?’

‘Yes, Special Branch.’

‘You know where I’m going with this, Griff, don’t you?’

She used my Christian name, I thought. A good sign.

‘Of course. You’re going to ask me why it didn’t occur to me that she might be a security risk. I can’t answer that properly; all I can say is that I trusted her.’

‘And she let you down.’

The interview was taking a turn I hadn’t expected. I’d assumed that it would have taken her about two minutes to bust me down to village cop in Breich, or to have me sign my goodbye letter. Instead she appeared to be offering me a way out; shop Alice and let them rubber-stamp the official inquiry.

‘No, ma’am,’ I contradicted her, regardless of it. ‘I wouldn’t put it that way. I let her down by being indiscreet, and putting her in a position that’s led to her blowing her career.’

She smiled again. ‘That’s noble of you. But there’s still a question left, the key one as far as I’m concerned. Did you know of her family connection with this man Welsh?’

‘Absolutely not. I knew that Inspector Varley was her uncle, but that’s all. I’ve never met any of her family, and I didn’t know of the Freddy Welsh connection until DI Pye told me. I’d never even heard the man’s name until I was pulled into the Lafayette’s thing.’

‘So you didn’t know that she had a personal connection with him?’

What the hell did she mean by that? My face must have answered her question and asked one of my own.

‘I’ve got to be blunt here,’ she said, gently. ‘Alice was interviewed this morning at Leith, by DCS McGuire and another senior officer. She admitted to them that she had a brief sexual encounter. . a quickie, if you like. . with Welsh at a family celebration about six years ago. Did you know about that?’

And if I had, then I was done for; out on my ear, and that would be at best.

I took a long breath, blew it out and looked her in the eye. ‘No,’ I replied. ‘She told me. .’ I began, then stopped, considering how best to put it. When I saw how, I continued.

‘At the beginning of our sexual relationship, I told Alice all about me, about my marriage, about my family, and about the extent of my relationship with Alex Skinner. I’ve come to believe that it’s best to be frank about these things.’ I didn’t tell her how. ‘Alice told me that she didn’t have a past anything like that. She said that she’d had very few relationships, that she wasn’t promiscuous, and that the worst thing she’d ever done, and I quote, “was banging a married guy at an in-law’s wedding a few years ago, after too many tequila sunrises, and feeling guilty as hell next morning”. She added that she’d hardly been able to speak to the man since. It sounds as if that was Freddy Welsh, but she didn’t put a name to him, not then and not since. In fact we’ve never discussed it again.’

‘Sure?’

‘Certain.’ I held her gaze. ‘Look, ma’am, Alice is not routinely untrustworthy. Yes, she told me she’d been booted out of SB for tipping off her uncle about something, but when she did she was cracking a joke at my expense. Usually she’s tight-lipped about the time she spent in the Branch. You have to be. .’

Detective Chief Inspector Lowell Payne

I came close to saying, ‘No thanks,’ when my boss told me that Bob Skinner needed a senior officer from another force to work on a sensitive investigation, and that he’d asked for me, specifically. I’ve nothing against Bob, but when the chief super went on to say that I’d be working with Bandit Mackenzie, the prospect of a few days in the capital became less attractive.

He used to be one of ours, and I remembered him as an arrogant bastard; he made DI after I did, but he made no secret of the fact that he expected to leave all of us in his wake. When he left to run the drugs squad in