Gallery Whispers

21

'Where is this man Impey now?' said Bob Skinner. He spoke quietly, but there was something in his tone which send a cold shiver running down Mario McGuire's spine.

'On his way back to Dumfries, boss. I told him to get the youknow-what out of Edinburgh before you got your hands on him.'

'Well the bugger can't run fast enough, or far enough. Wherever he surfaces again he's going to find out that my bite is a hell of a lot worse than my bark.'

'Don't be too hard on him, boss. He was showing initiative; he just made an honest mistake.'

'So did the captain of the Titanic. Thanks to that man and his monumental stupidity, I've had the commander of the Interpol task force on counterfeiting moaning down my phone for the last half hour. You were advised of this operation, as was every other Special Branch office in the country, including Dumfries and bloody Galloway.

You were all told that they were watching a major software forgery centre in South Armagh and you were all given photographs of the agents involved.

'In spite of that, because oflmpey's "honest mistake" we've ruined the culmination of the operation. The guy you lifted was following a courier; the purpose of that was to discover the bootleggers' main distribution route and from that to catch their customers with the stuff in their possession. The Interpol people even sent a fax to Impey's office warning him that the man was on the move. I've checked; it's in his in-tray and it was there when he left to check the ferry passengers.'

McGuire scratched his chin. 'Oh shit,' he groaned. 'Poor old Joe.'

'Don't waste your sympathy on the guy, Mario. He should have committed that information to memory, and he should have had that man's face imprinted in his brain. That's standard SB procedure as you know well. If Impey isn't up to following it, he isn't up to the job.

But he won't be in it for much longer.

'He'll have a very embarrassed chief constable waiting for him when he gets back to his office tomorrow morning, and believe me, Archie Deas is not a man anyone wants to embarrass.'

'What'll he do to him?'

'Hang him up by his soft bits until they drop off, probably. Once they have, he'll stick him back in a uniform and post him to Auchencross, or some place like that, with a bike to get around on. At least that's what I've suggested to Archie that he should do.'

He swivelled in his chair. 'What about Mr Steyn, the agent? Have you calmed him down?'

'Just about. I've booked him into the George for the night, on our tab. He'll go back to Ireland in the morning.'

'Take him out to dinner, just to show real contrition. Take Mags along if you like.'

McGuire frowned. 'I can't do that, boss. I've promised to meet Neil tonight. He says he's got something to tell me.' The frown turned into his dazzling smile. 'From the way he sounded, I suspect that Olive's in the club again.'