Fallen Gods

Forty-Six

"You believed him, did you?" asked Mario McGuire; then he nodded, to himself, rather than to Mcllhenney. "I suppose you must have, or you wouldn't have come bombing down to Galashiels to talk to me about it."

He pulled open a drawer of his desk, took out a KitKat biscuit and tossed it across to his friend. "Here, chew on that. You're looking unnaturally fit these days."

"You, on the other hand," said Neil cheerfully as he unwrapped the biscuit, broke off one finger and used it to stir his tea, 'are looking knackered. Are you not getting enough sleep?"

McGuire glowered at him. "Just because you're my best pal, inspector, don't think you can push your luck."

"Some would say that's what you're doing, Mario. But I won't be one of them. I've got to say something serious, though, as your best pal. You have to resolve your situation, and sooner rather than later. I know how things are with Mags, and I know she's given you the biggest pink ticket in history. But no one else in the force knows the real story, not even the Big Man. All they see is you living with your wife, and playing away games with Paula. The grapevine is talking of nothing else these days, and that's not good."

"I might be inclined to say "fuck the grapevine", Mario retorted.

"You might, but you can't, and you know why. It's not just you who's the subject of the station gossip; it's Maggie as well. It's one thing you being Jack the Lad; you're not the first copper in this situation.

But you are the first one whose wife's a senior officer too. We all know there's talk of Mags leaving CID and going to chief super. What sort of command authority is she going to have among the uniforms if they're all whispering about her behind her back?"

His friend looked at him for a while, as if he was trying to form a reply. But when he spoke it was to ask a question. "So what should I do, Neil?"

"You have to give one of them up, man. You either keep your relations with Paula business only, or you leave Maggie. Since you're giving up the wee boy, there's really no obstacle in the way of you doing that."

McGuire's face twisted. '1 don't want to leave her!" he protested.

"She won't sleep with me, but there's more to us than that."

"Then give up Paula."

"And embrace the celibate life? Is that what you're saying?"

"I might say it, but I know you too well to see it happening," he conceded. "Listen, I care about you, and I care about Mags, but you have to sort this out."

"Get it through your head, man. I don't want to."

"No, you get it through yours; you have to. It's not about what you want; it's something you have to do for Maggie's sake, for her self-respect and for the good of her career."

"I have to leave her for her self-respect?"

"Yes, and you have to tell everyone that she's chucked you out."

"You don't ask much of a friend, do you?"

"I'll ask whatever I think it's going to take. Just talk to her, Mario, please. The pair of you have to realise that you are two bloody goldfish swimming about in a bowl with the whole bloody police force, or near as damn it, looking at you. And not just the force," he added.

"Lenny dropped a big hint this morning that he's heard about it."

"You're kidding!"

"No I ain't. Big Lenny's a remarkable man. He knows your mother's a silent partner in Paula's saunas, for a start."

McGuire's jaw sagged. "He does?"

"Yes, and it's more than I did, pal. Doesn't look too good, the head of Special Branch being taken by surprise by a lifer. They bought the things from Manson's estate, remember. Effectively that means from Lenny. Your mum didn't cover her tracks very well."

"Obviously not. I wouldn't want it getting out either."

"Don't worry. Lenny won't tell anyone. He regards information as currency, and he's not going to spend any without a purpose."

"So he's got a hold over me?"

"Of a sort, but he won't use it. If he did, the boss would find out, and he wouldn't like it. For some reason, odd since he once tried to kill him, Lenny values big Bob's friendship more than anything else."

"Mmm," said McGuire. "You have had an interesting morning. Especially the bit about Maley."

"That's why I came down here. I wanted to talk to you about it. When you were in my job, did you ever take a look at her?"

"Of course I did. For much the same reason you are now, because the boss was pissed off at her. I couldn't help him though. I came up against blank walls everywhere I went. No one would tell me anything about her that I could use." He smiled. "The chief braced her once, mind you, in a meeting. He dropped a hint that he had a file on her."

Mcllhenney looked amazed. "Proud Jimmy did?"

"Yup. It shut her up for a while too, until she realised that he was bluffing. In the light of what Lenny told you, she must also have realised that if he really had had a file on her, she'd have been up to her ears in it."

"So, mate, what's your advice? Knowing what I know, what should I do next?"

Mario spun in his chair. "That's a good one. All I can tell you is what I would do, and that is nothing. I don't think there's any chance of proving what Lenny told you. Unlike my dear mum, Maley must have covered her tracks completely, for we've never had a sniff of her being a real villain, from any of our intelligence sources.

"I think you have to watch and wait. The classic CID approach; watch everything she does from now on, and wait for her to do something that you can use to bring her down. You might not have too much time, though. If she gets this Holyrood seat she's after, we might all find that she's after us, with a vengeance."