Fallen Gods

Thirty-Five

"Stevie, are you sure about this?" asked George Regan. "I mean it's so bloody obvious that the Strachan girl's the one for this job. She had the opportunity, she's a nutter with a religious kink, she's got a track record for fire-raising, and she was there when it happened, with a personal invite, she says, from God. But, no, you don't think she did it. Are you kidding me, or what?"

Steele had had enough; Regan had been complaining for half an hour, since they had begun to review all the notes made and interviews transcribed after the Royal Scottish Academy fire. "No sergeant," he said, heavily, "I'm ordering you to shut the hell up and get on with it. If you can't do that, feel free to go and see Detective

Superintendent Rose and take it up with her. She'll probably arrange for you to swap jobs with young Sauce. That would suit me, for frankly, probationer or not, he'd be more use to me in here right now, and you'd be more use to the force in uniform, and out on the reception desk."

Regan threw him a dagger-filled look, but Steele stared him down. "What are we looking for, then?" he asked, grudgingly, and still grumpily.

"We're after anything that interviewees saw that was odd. We were so hot after the girl when we spotted her there that we didn't give these statements any more than a cursory glance."

"I'm not surprised. God talks to the girl, Stevie."

Steele grinned at his persistence. "George, enough."

"Aye, okay." He picked up a folder.

"We are looking into that, by the way," the inspector added.

"What?"

"God's phone call; Maggie's checking it out."

"She's got His number has she? Or does her old man? They tell me he's got plenty of numbers in his book."

Steele caught a flicker in Regan's eye. "If you mean what I think you do, George, you should make a point of forgetting any rumours you've heard. You don't want to mess with Mario; no way, not at all."

"He doesn't bother me."

"Don't get in his way or he will. And don't let the boss hear you talk about him either, in case she takes it personally. One of those two's going to be the next head of CID when Dan Pringle goes; you want to remember that."

"So what?"

Steele was about to tell him when his phone rang. He picked it up, with a touch of relief that the conversation had been brought to an end before Regan could say any more. "Stevie?" said a familiar voice.

"It's Jack." Detective Sergeant Jack McGurk had recently been appointed as Bob Skinner's executive assistant, during the DCC's absence in the US. He sounded excited, and Steele hoped that he could guess the reason.

"He's back," McGurk exclaimed. "It's official. The Big Man is back in post. The chief's just had me in and told me; he was reinstated by the chair of the Police Authority, after a private meeting this morning. He saw the buggers off, Stevie. I had a feeling something was going to happen today. Neil Mcllhenney called into my office this morning, and warned me to stay close."

"Did the chief say anything else?"

"No, but he had to stop himself from grinning all over his face."

"Is he back in the office now?"

"Not yet. It might be a few days before he is, given what happened to his brother, and everything else."

Steele wondered what 'everything else' might be, but he knew better than to ask with George Regan within earshot. The sergeant looked across at him and raised an eyebrow. Steele nodded, hung up and went through to Maggie Rose's office. He knocked on the door and walked in.

Before he could open his mouth, she smiled at him. "I know," she said.

"Mario just called me; he had it from Neil five minutes ago. Batman is back in action. Which means… that very soon we are going to have an anxious Dan Pringle, and maybe even ACC Haggerty, wondering what's going on with the Academy investigation."

"Good point. I'd better get back and crack the whip even harder over George."

Rose looked up at him from behind her desk; she was still smiling. "Do that anyway, but I've got some more good news for you. I've just had the result of the check I told you I was going to run with BT. I've also had Adam Broadley confirm with Andrea that she didn't have any other calls on Friday… apart from the one from God, that is. It seems that as the ads used to say, He's every one-to-one you've ever had. When He called Andrea, He used His mobile. And guess what else?

When He's not presiding over all of creation, He's a trainee solicitor with Candela and Finch."