Dead And Buried

Thirty-four

Something remarkable had happened to Maggie Rose. It was as if she had spent most of her life in a darkened room. . a brutal childhood, an unloving mother, a nervous, fumbling attempt at marriage, and a nightmare that had ended it. . until, totally unexpectedly, she had found herself in the right place with the right person at the right time. With that the curtains had been drawn back, and her world had been flooded with light.

It had not been an instant happening: she had known Stevie for years, as a junior officer in another division and then as a close colleague. He had been around the block too, and was beginning to acquire a reputation, of which she had been well aware, as a dangerous man with the ladies. And yet when they had fallen together, he had been revealed as the gentlest, most caring person she had ever met.

Now that they were living together, for almost the first time in her working life she found herself looking forward to the end of the duty day, and to evenings at home with him. Her career had been the one thing that had kept her going through the bleakness. A successful spell in CID had led to a stint in Bob Skinner’s office, and then on to the short ladder to the top. Promotion to uniformed chief superintendent and station commander had been the acme. She knew that the doors of the Command Corridor at Fettes lay open for her. It was all the more remarkable, then, that as she leaned against him on the couch, wine goblet cupped in her hands, listening to Mark Knopfler’s soundtrack for the movie Wag the Dog, the sort of music she had ignored for years but now loved, she found herself considering whether she would return to work at the end of her forthcoming maternity leave.

‘What do you think?’ she asked him.

‘Do you really mean that you’d chuck the job to look after the baby?’

‘Why shouldn’t I? What’s against it?’

‘Want me to give you a list? You’d be turning your back on so much of your life. You’d be depriving the people of this region of one of the most talented police officers they have. You’d be disappointing the chief and Bob Skinner, who’ve got you marked out for an ACC’s silver braid. You’d also be taking a hell of a chance that you wouldn’t get bored with being a full-time mum.’

‘I haven’t heard that babies can be boring.’

‘You’ve never been pregnant before.’ He ran his hand over her abdomen. ‘I’ve heard of this syndrome: you don’t just get a big belly, you’re gripped by unquenchable romanticism. Admit it, girlie: it’s true.’

‘It’s true that I’m finding out a hell of a lot about myself, love. You know, at no point in my life have I ever thought about becoming a mother. Even when we got together, the idea of pregnancy didn’t occur to me. It’s as if I’d forgotten what caused it, or never knew. But now that I am, I realise what an incomplete person I was before. I don’t want to be like that again. There’s this too: maybe it’s that I was such a good copper because I was such a blinkered character. Maybe all I could see was the job, and it blinded me to everything else that’s good about life. I can see it all now, and I’m glad. That’s not being romantic.’

He kissed the top of her head. ‘Then here’s what you should do: whatever feels right to you. But don’t take any decisions now: max out your maternity leave by working as late as you can, and take the additional unpaid entitlement as well. After a year off work you’ll know whether you want to go back.’

She snuggled even closer. ‘What did I do for common sense before I met you?’ she asked.

‘God knows. When do you plan to make the big announcement in the office?’

‘I’ll tell people when it starts to show, and not before. At the moment, only Bob Skinner knows, and he’ll keep it strictly to himself, because I asked him to.’

‘Aren’t you going to tell your ex?’

‘No! Why should I? It’s our business, ours alone. In fact when the time comes, I’ll tell all the girls and you can tell all the boys. Deal?’

‘Deal.’ Stevie sipped his wine. ‘Now that’s sorted, I’ve got an announcement of my own. I’m being moved down to Leith.’

She sat up and stared at him. ‘You are? When was this decided?’

‘Over the last day or so, I gather. Neil McIlhenney rang me this afternoon to tell me.’

‘Have they finally decided to separate the two of us? Put us in different offices?’

‘No. I asked Neil that, and he told me that it was purely operational.’

‘What do you make of it?’

‘Nothing. When my boss tells me something I tend to take it at face value. What do you read into it, Ms Conspiracy Theorist?’

‘I think you should take it as a compliment. You’re a safe pair of hands: that’s why you’re going there. That Mackenzie’s a bit of a loose cannon. I thought so the first time I met him, when he was still in Strathclyde. Blokes like him, when they’re as flash as that, often they’re compensating for something. If they start to overcompensate, they can be trouble.’

‘That doesn’t worry me: I’ll take him as I find him. Ray Wilding’s there as well now, and he’s a pretty stable guy. It’ll be okay.’

‘When do you go?’ she asked, as he rose to change the CD.

‘As soon as we’ve caught this idiot who’s stalking Alex Skinner.’

‘Any leads on that?’

‘Nothing solid. We’re making very discreet enquiries in her workplace, but nothing’s come from them yet.’

‘Could it be linked to the thing her dad was involved in last week?’

‘A survivor out for revenge? Or even a fringe sympathiser? Those are the unspoken fears, but I don’t believe so.’ He pushed the play button on his remote and Van Morrison’s Veedon Fleece eased its way gently into the room.

‘What do you think?’ asked Maggie, as he settled down beside her. ‘By the way,’ she said, ‘you do realise that I’m only marrying you to get access to your music collection?’

He laughed. ‘My library is yours. I haven’t leaped to any conclusions about the boy, and I won’t. My brief is simple: catch him. I’m most likely to do that if I keep a completely open mind.’

‘What happens when you do?’

‘I hand him over to DCS McGuire and Detective Superintendent McIlhenney: orders from on high.’

‘God help him.’

‘No, God will be helping him by keeping him away from their boss.’

‘The very thought of that confrontation makes me shiver. Do you know where he is, by the way? I tried to get hold of ACC Haggerty today and I was told that he was at a committee standing in for the DCC.’

‘I haven’t a Scooby, but the grapevine told me that he and Dottie Shannon were seen at the airport this morning checking in for a London flight.’

‘Shannon?’

‘The new head of Special Branch.’

‘God, I never knew,’ she gasped. ‘See? I’m becoming detached from the job already.’

‘It’s all happened very. .’ He was interrupted in mid-sentence by the ringing of the telephone. With a frown and a muttered curse, he paused Van Morrison and picked it up. ‘Steele.’

‘Sorry to disturb you, boss. It’s Tarvil here.’

Stevie sighed: he knew that DC Singh was not one to call him off duty without thinking hard about it. ‘Tell me,’ he said.

‘Alex has had another call.’

‘Did we get a fix on it?’

‘A callbox in George Street. He stayed well away from the house this time, and he’s smart enough not to hang around either. We had a car in St Andrews Square when we pinned it down, but he was gone by the time it got along there.’

‘Was anything said?’

‘Yes. Something different this time.’

‘Bring me down a tape.’

‘Now?’

‘I don’t mean tomorrow.’

‘It’d be quicker if I send it to you as an email attachment.’

‘True. Do it.’ He ended the call. Walked across to the bay window and switched on his computer, then logged on to the Internet. Singh’s message arrived in his mailbox inside a minute.

‘What is it?’ Maggie asked, as he downloaded the attachment.

‘Alex’s latest breather call hot off the line.’

‘Let’s hear it.’

He grinned over his shoulder. ‘Yes, ma’am.’ He clicked on the play icon, and adjusted the volume upwards. In an instant, the room was filled by the sound of a ringing telephone. There was a faint click as it was answered.

‘This is Alex.’

Silence.

‘Ah, it’s you again. Tell me, for I want to know this after last night, are you just an ordinary pervert or are you a peeping Tom as well? Were you looking through my window last night?’

Silence.

‘You know, I really am looking forward to meeting you, and I will. I meant it, you know: my dad’s on to you. If you value your nuts, you’ll pack this in.’

Silence.

‘Okay, I think I’m going to hang up now. I was working just now, and my time’s valuable. If you want to say anything to me, you’ve got ten seconds to do it.’

Silence. Then, the sound of a breath, and, hoarsely, ‘You hurt me, Alex, you bitch.’

There was a click, followed by the dial tone, and the sound of Alex Skinner’s breathing.