Hour Of Darkness

Thirty-Two

‘How strong is this lead of yours, Dan?’ Lottie Mann asked as they watched the ferry being secured to the Dunoon quayside. ‘You know every bloody thing that happens in our force, or in Glasgow at any rate, or you know a man who does. So where did this information come from?’

‘Just this once, Lottie, I’m not telling you.’

‘I’ll pull rank on you,’ she threatened.

‘You could pull my fuckin’ ears wi’ red hot pincers and it still wouldn’t do you any good. And before you say it again, it’s got eff all tae do with the Data Protection Act.’

‘I still find it hard to believe, you know. The concept of David Mackenzie being taken under the wing of a priest, that is.’

‘Why should that be so difficult to cope with?’ Provan challenged. ‘Are you saying you’re surprised he’s a Catholic just because he’s got an old traditional Scottish name, one beginning wi’ Mac rather an O’? All that Rangers versus Celtic stuff isn’t typical of the whole country, you know; they’re just a couple of wee cabals. . okay, maybe no’ so wee,’ he conceded. ‘Religion in Scotland was full of splits and schisms for centuries. We’re a pretty ecumenical nation: there’s nothin’ in a name.’

‘You and your philosophy and fancy words again,’ she mocked, but only playfully. Her junior officer happened to be her closest friend, and after an act of betrayal by her estranged and newly imprisoned husband, he had become her only confidant.

‘I have my hidden depths,’ he said, ‘as somebody observed last night. But I’m as intrigued as you. If there’s someone I would not have picked out as a former altar boy, it’s Bandit Mackenzie.’

‘Indeed,’ she murmured, as the ferry’s forward platform clanged down on to the stand, and as the dozen drivers on board returned to their vehicles. ‘Father Donnelly. I’ve heard of him, you know. I’ve got cousins in East Kilbride, and they talked about him.

‘He had a high profile in the town. Unorthodox, they said of him but quite a man. The feeling was that he should have been a bishop, but wasn’t because the hierarchy were afraid of him.’ She dug out her car keys from her bag. ‘So, what time’s he expecting us?’

‘He’s not. He doesn’t know we’re coming.’

‘He what?’ she boomed, loud enough for a van driver who was standing five yards away to turn his head and stare at them. ‘Are you telling me we’re going all the way to Tighnabruaich on spec? He could be on his holidays, away on a retreat, filling in for a sick priest. Retired guys do that sometimes.’

‘The man I spoke to in the Archbishop’s office says he hardly ever leaves the place, but aye, we’re turning up unannounced. We don’t just want to ask him where Mackenzie might go in a crisis, do we? We need to allow for the very realistic chance that he might have gone to the man himself. Unorthodox, you said. In my book that also means unpredictable; if our David is there, we don’t want him warned off, do we, Lottie?’