this evening in the Royal Concert Hall at the top of Buchanan Street. It starts at seven thirty, with a VIP reception half an hour before. The star turn’s a pianist called Theo Fabrizzi. I want you to go there and arrest him.’
‘You what?’ I chuckled, instantly incredulous.
‘I know,’ he said, ‘it’s a bit out of the ordinary, but we’ve got a problem; no, a whole raft of them. There is a credible threat against this man; he’s Lebanese, pro-Hezbollah, anti-Israeli and it is highly like that Tel Aviv wants him dead. We believe there’s a hit squad in place ready to take him out. He’s been advised of the danger, but the stupid bastard carries a martyr’s shroud around with him and he’s refusing to back down.’
I knew I was sticking my head in the lion’s mouth, but I had to ask. ‘Bob, surely the obvious solution is for Strathclyde police to cancel the event.’
‘Maggie,’ he snapped; then he stopped. ‘I’m sorry, I keep forgetting; you’re my deputy, you’re supposed to question me. The complicating factor is that this is not a police operation. The first objective is to capture or kill the hit team and that’s in the hands of MI5. I’m not really speaking to you as a cop here. I’m involved. We’ve had a specific instruction from the very top not to advise Strathclyde. That said, I’m not letting anyone offer this man as a target, not even the man himself. We have to take him out of play another way.’
‘How?’
‘As I said, I want you to go to the sheriff and get a warrant for his arrest, then pick up David Mackenzie, if he’s available, if not somebody of equivalent rank, and go through there and arrest him.’
‘Eh?’ I exclaimed. ‘On what charge?’
‘Suspicion of the murder of an Israeli national named Beram Cohen,’ he said. ‘His was the body we found the other night at Mortonhall.’
‘But I thought that was death by natural causes?’
‘The sheriff won’t know that, though. See if you can dig out Sheriff Levy, the one they’re calling Miss Whiplash. If she wants to know the grounds for arrest tell her he’s a known anti-Zionist and that witness statements place him near where the body was found.’
‘Is that true?’
‘The first part is,’ he chuckled. ‘I’ll bet you that’s enough for Ms Levy.’
‘What do we do with him when we’ve arrested him?’
‘Head back to Edinburgh, very slowly. Chances are you won’t be halfway there before I call you to say that the witness has recanted his statement.’
‘Okay.’ I paused. ‘Do you know for sure that the attempt will be in the concert hall?’
‘No,’ he admitted.
‘Well what if they try somewhere else?’ I asked him.
‘Then Fabrizzi will be dead, the career of a certain young MI5 man will be in jeopardy, and I will make it my business to ruin the politician who gave him his orders. Go to it, Mags.’
He was right about Sheriff Levy. I found her at home; all I had to do was mention the words ‘anti-Zionist’, ‘Hezbollah’, and ‘Lebanese’, and her signature was on the warrant.
I’d called Mackenzie before I went to see her. His wife answered and treated me to one of those heavy stage sighs, before calling him. He was all too keen, when I told him that I had a job that required senior officer back- up.
I have to confess that I’ve never liked that guy much. He’s always been a Bob Skinner project. The chief thought he saw a good detective in there behind the flash, when he recruited him from Glasgow to run our drugs squad. I’m sure he also thought that he could knock some of the arrogance out of him, but it took a loss of bottle during an armed operation to do that. Loss of bottle. . followed by taking to the same in a big way.
There were strong grounds for tipping him over the side, but that would have involved the boss admitting he’d been wrong about him, and that is not something he does with either ease or grace. Instead, Mackenzie was given time to prove that he was off the scoosh, then he was given a uniform and a job in the command corridor, as senior officers’ exec. He does it efficiently, I can’t deny that, but I always feel that he has something of the Cassius about him, and I don’t mean Clay.
I was sure I’d told him ‘no uniform’ so I was less than pleased when he stepped out of his front door looking like he was going on duty at the Queen’s Garden Party. I’d have told him to change, but there wasn’t time. Mental note though, Maggie, in future all instructions and requests to him must be repeated, for the avoidance of doubt.
There was little conversation on the way through. I didn’t feel like making small talk with him, so I turned down his offer to drive, and then turned up the radio once we were under way.
As soon as we reached our destination, and turned into Killermont Street, it was evident that there was a VIP event on. There was a visible police presence, at the vehicle entrance to the Royal Concert Hall, and a couple of them were armed.
I’d heard from colleagues at inter-force meetings that the new Strathclyde chief had taken no time at all to earn herself a nickname, the ‘Gunslinger’. She believed in a show of force, and it had taken the combined efforts of all her assistant chiefs to persuade her that it was a bad idea to have armed officers on view at Old Firm football matches.
Our friends in the west weren’t very keen on me parking directly outside the concert hall. Indeed one of them, a big blackshirt PC who’d have done Oswald Mosley proud, was quite abusive until I made him read my warrant card and until Mackenzie stepped out of the passenger seat. I have to admit that the uniform did come in handy, damn him.
I had the Bolshie guy escort us inside, into a foyer that didn’t seem to enjoy any natural light. It was ten minutes before seven, comfortably ahead of the official starting time, or even of the preshow reception, but the organisers were thick on the ground, as were a few others as well. I spotted one of them straight away, just as he clocked me: Max Allan, the senior ACC in the Strathclyde force, the man who wasn’t allowed to know that there was a terrorist alert on his patch. Max is a good guy, and not a stickler for formality, but there he was on a Saturday evening wearing every single piece of silver braid to which his rank entitled him and every medal ribbon too.
‘Jesus Christ, man,’ I said as he approached. I noticed that he managed to ignore Mackenzie completely; some history there, I guessed. ‘Have I got this wrong? Is this a royal event?’
‘It might as well be, Maggie,’ he replied. ‘One of our police charities is a beneficiary, as well as the armed forces, and Her Ladyship’s representing us.’
‘Her Ladyship?’ I repeated, then I caught on. ‘Oh, you mean. .’
He nodded. ‘The chief constable, our Toni. That means all us underlings have to be in our best uniforms, shoes polished shiny, etc.’ He paused. ‘That’s her way, so I mustn’t complain. What brings you here, Maggie?’ Finally he nodded to my companion. ‘With escort.’
I glanced around the busy foyer. ‘Can we go somewhere quiet, Max, please,’ I murmured.
He frowned, but he nodded and led us past a broad stairway and round to its side, just as the first of the VIPs arrived. I caught a quick flash of heavy gold chain, the kind that civic dignitaries wear, but I had no time to admire it. Max opened a door and we stepped into a large windowless cupboard. He switched on the light. ‘What’s up?’
‘I’m about to rain on your parade,’ I told him. ‘Is your guest star here?’
He nodded. ‘Just arrived. He’s on stage checking the piano.’
‘Well, you’d better have someone ask him to join us.’ I showed him the warrant.
He read it, at least twice, with incredulity that reached jaw-dropping point. ‘You can’t be serious,’ he gasped.
‘Would I make that sort of joke?’
‘No, but. . can’t you wait till the show’s over?’
‘My orders are to pick him up now. Do you want to argue with Bob Skinner?’
‘God no, but Field will go fucking ape-shit.’
‘Then she’d better not find out till it’s done and we’re gone. Look,’ I continued, ‘Fabrizzi’s not the only performer, is he?’
‘Of course not. We’ve got the Scottish National Orchestra as well.’
‘In that case, they’re going to have to improvise. You’ll just have to say that Fabrizzi’s been taken ill at the last minute.’
‘Okay,’ he sighed. ‘But I’ll be taken ill when my chief finds out that I went along with it. She’s after me as it
