Thursday legends - Skinner 10 (12 page)

'Detection
is your field, Steve, but I'd have said that, at the very least, you should
interview the local veterinarians to find out whether they have any stock
discrepancies.'

'Would
the local vets need stuff like that, Doctor? I mean, most of them just look
after dogs and cats and hamsters and such.'

'And
cattle and sheep, too,' Sarah responded, 'and horses, especially in a rural
area like this.'

'I
suppose so,' the young Sergeant conceded. He paused. 'All the things that were
done to him; how much of that would he have been aware of?'

'You
saw the video, remember; he was aware of all of it. No, we're talking about a
tranquilliser, not an anaesthetic; he wouldn't have been numbed by the drug.
This man must have suffered unimaginably. He died, eventually, from heart failure
caused by the shock of disembowelment. Like I said, the head injuries came
after that.' Sarah looked around the van, at eight shocked faces.

'A
word about them. They would not have been fatal in any event. They were
furious, angry blows, inflicted as a final act of, of
...
I don't know
...
savagery, that's all I can say. I do not always agree with my husband or with
DCS Martin, but they're both right on this one. Whoever did this is a very
dangerous person.'

Andy
gazed at her. 'Singular, Sarah?'

'As
far as I know. I've seen the video and the still photos taken at the scene. Now
that we know how it was done, there is absolutely no evidence to indicate that
there was more than one person involved. This was carefully planned and
brutally executed; it didn't even require a great deal of strength: pure
physics tells you that it would have been easy to haul Smith up on that hook,
the way it was done.'

She
stepped out of the centre of the group and sat once more on the edge of the
desk.

'Thank
you, Sarah,' said Maggie Rose. 'Are there any more questions for the doctor? If
not, she has to leave us now.'

No-one
spoke; Sarah waved a brief farewell, and stepped out of the van. Martin
followed her outside. 'Before you go,' he said. 'About this afternoon's job; I
know facial reconstruction's a science in itself, but if you could give me
some idea of what this bloke might have looked like it might help us.'

She
grinned at him. 'I'm not a complete ignoramus in that science. I did some
studying while I was pregnant with Seonaid, and I've talked to Joe Hutchison
about it. I couldn't build you a new head yet, but I'll give you some thoughts
that are a little more than guesses
...
if only a little.'

As
he turned to go back into the van, she laid a hand on his arm. 'Andy.' She was
suddenly, untypically, tentative. 'Can I say something?'

'Always.'

'It's
about you and Karen.'

He
smiled gently. 'Bob's been filling you in on the office gossip. Or was it
Alex?'

'No.
You know Bob wouldn't do that. And what would Alex know? He mentioned
something, that's all. I just wanted to say
...
and this is where it gets difficult
...
that if you like her
...
and I can
tell you do
...
you shouldn't hold
back from getting involved because of anything that's happened in the past
...
to Bob and me.'

He
took her point at once. 'Listen, Sarah, one thing I like about Karen is that
she
doesn
't
want to get involved. We're good friends away from the office, and -1 only say
this because it's you - we've danced the occasional dance together, but it
is
a
friendship rather than a relationship. Happily, that suits us both. It's a bit
like Alex and I are now.'

She
surprised him by frowning. 'As her step-mother, I have to tell you I'd be
worried about you and her sleeping together just for old time's sake. Unless you
were getting back together unconditionally, that wouldn't be good for either of
you.'

He
laid his big hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eye. 'We couldn't do
that; we want different things from life and we both know it. As for the other,
I hear what you're saying and I'll make sure that doesn't happen. Promise.' He
laughed, suddenly. 'Christ, my love-life's chaotic enough as it is.'

'Then
maybe Karen is what you need. Friendship should always come first, you know.'

'Ah,
there's a slight impediment in the way of that at the moment.'

'Not
Ruth McConnell, by any chance?'

He
stared at her amazed, confused and guilty all at once. He had forgotten,
completely, his date for the following Saturday night. 'No,' he said, 'not
Ruth.' He paused. 'Well
...'

She
stood up on her toes and kissed him, gently, on the lips.

'Andy
Martin, you are a one-off. Take a tip from Auntie Sarah. Find a nice girl, one
you like and respect, settle down, have lots of babies, and get on with
becoming a Chief Constable.'

'That's
all wonderful theory, Auntie, but when you find three at the same time it
becomes completely buggered up.'

She
shook her head, smiling, and pushed him back towards the mobile headquarters.
'I give up. Go on, get back in there.'

She
was almost gone when he remembered. 'Hey, Sarah,' he called after her. She
turned. 'The floater p.m. this afternoon: would it be all right if a girl I
know sat in on it? Her name's Rhian, she lives next door and she's a final-year
medical student.'

'If
you're vouching for her and you tell her to keep her voice off the tape,
that'll be okay.'

'Great.
Thanks. I'll tell her to ask for you at the Royal.'

Maggie
Rose had continued the briefing in his absence. 'I've just been summarising the
door-to-door results, sir. Nothing, I'm afraid.'

'...
but you're not surprised.'

'No.
Not really. It fits the man.'

'What
do you mean?' he asked

'I
mean that no-one knew who he was. Alec Smith is the most private man I've ever
encountered. It's as if he was born to do the SB job.

'Everything
we've been able to find out about him bears that out. We've interviewed all his
neighbours in North Berwick; not one of them, not even the man who saw the dog
and found the body could tell us anything about him. The woman two doors along
didn't even know what he looked like.

'I've
spoken to former colleagues of his. They all said the same thing. "Oh aye,
Alec." But they couldn't recall any stories about his career, or even any
anecdotes. You know what I mean; Dan Pringle got pissed at a CID dance a few
years back and folk still talk about it. But Alec Smith never even went to the
CID dance
...
not ever.

'The
Chief's even been to see his ex-wife
...
his widow, I should say. They were never divorced. She told him that he was
courteous, a good provider, not mean in any way; but she said that he was a
remote man, quiet to the point of coldness, and that no-one - not even she, not
even his children - ever really got to know him. Eventually she decided that
she didn't like living alone, so she found someone else.'

'Someone
knew him, though,' Martin countered. 'Someone got to know him well enough to
want to burn his eyes out and spill his guts out on to his living-room carpet.
We're going to have to find the real Alec for ourselves. I'm pretty sure that's
the only way we're going to find out who killed him.'

'I
agree with you. That'll have to be Mario's job. There are places he can go and
things he can look at that are closed to us ordinary coppers. He's asked for
Stevie as back-up.

'As
for the rest of us; we'll follow up the only lead we've had so far; Sarah's
post-mortem report. The DCs, Faxon, Morrow and Braid, have been told to get
round all the vets in East Lothian.'

'We
should check out Edinburgh too,' said the Head of CID. 'I'll have Sergeant Neville
and DC Pye from my staff get that done and report back to you.'

He
called across the room. 'You hear that, Karen? You and Sammy do the Herriot
round in the city. See if you can find out what sort of weapon might have been
used to shoot Smith.'

13

'Calling
Andy! Calling Andy! Where are you?'

He
blinked and looked up, across the dinner table. 'I'm sorry, Rhian,' he said,
sincerely. 'You're right, I was off somewhere
...
although I couldn't say for sure where it was. This has been an absolutely
surreal weekend, in all sorts of ways. What a mixture; I've seen pure bloody
horror
...
yet in the midst of it all
there's been you. An island of beauty in a sea of ugliness, you might say.'

She
grinned, dispersing the gloom which had begun to gather around him. 'I might
indeed,' she murmured, 'but I prefer it when you say it.' She angled her head
looking through the glass wall of Daniel's Bistro at the big modern Scottish
Office building.

'My
mum works in there,' she said, idly. 'She's quite important; a Grade-something-or-other
...
Damn! I always forget the number
...
they used to call it Assistant
Secretary. Her division has something to do with Home Affairs
...
a family speciality, you might say.'

A
smile flicked his mouth in acknowledgement of her small joke. 'Everyone's
important, Rhian. From the foot-soldiers through to the field officers like me
to the generals on horseback like Big Bob and Proud Jimmy, we've all got our
part to play in the service we give the public. If one link breaks the chain's
goosed, and it doesn't matter where it happens.

'That's
true of every organisation
...
including the Health
Service. You'll be a better
doctor if you remember it.'

'I'll
be a better doctor for watching Sarah do that postmortem this afternoon. She's
terrific. Thanks for fixing it for me. Talking to her afterwards, listening to
her talk about the way her career developed, has given me a different
perspective on medicine.'

'Think
long and carefully before making any decisions,' he warned her. 'There aren't
many Sarahs about. You have to play to your own strengths, not those you see in
others.'

'Andy:
about that chain of yours. What do you do if you find a weak link?'

'You
mean me? Personally?'

'Yes.'

'I
cut it out.'

'Isn't
that a bit brutal?'

His
vivid green eyes fixed on her. 'It's necessary. I'll do anything that's
necessary. I learned that from Bob.'

'What's
he like, that man Skinner?' she asked him.

'Different.
Inspiring, intimidating when he has to be. He has a tremendous analytical mind.
Sum it all up, he's a great detective and a great leader.'

'But
wasn't he all over the Sundays a while back?'

'I
don't like to talk about that. It's true, but that's all behind him now, behind
both him and Sarah. He's got over his obsessive period, now he's focused
equally on his job and his family, as he should be. There's nothing he likes
more than taking his kids for a walk of a Sunday afternoon; that's his greatest
pleasure in life these days.'

A
silence hung over the table as Rhian sipped her coffee. 'So what about this
talk that we were going to have tonight?' she murmured, eventually.

'Let's
make it tomorrow, honey. My head's wasted right now. How about if we just went
home to bed?'

'I'll
settle for that.' She smiled again, a big gloom-brightening grin which lifted
his spirits in an instant. 'As long as it doesn't become a habit. I'm a lively
young thing, you know.'

Two
hours later, they lay entwined in each other's arms, in the dying light from
the open bedroom window. The duvet was on the floor and they were slicked with
sweat.

'Hey,'
she whispered in his ear. 'Remember what I said earlier about not making a
habit of this?'

'Mmhh.'
His tongue flicked out, licking her neck gently, making her shudder.