Lethal Intent

Thirty-nine

Excitement and Willie Haggerty did not go hand in hand, yet as he stood in the DCC's office, the assistant chief constable looked about to burst. Skinner could not keep his amusement from showing. Even Amanda Dennis was smiling.

'It's great when we get a result, Willie, isn't it? I heard an author say once that the best bit about his job comes when something appears on the page as he's writing it that not even he expects. It's the same for us detectives. When we walk into an interview and something happens that we weren't looking for at all, we get a buzz like… Ah, you know what I mean.'

Haggerty beamed. 'It's even better when the guy who gives you your break isn't even in the interview in the first place. If young Bulent hadn't come into the kitchen for the salads when he did, I'd never have known any better.' He paused. 'How do we find out about this Frankie Jakes character?'

'Not through the SDEA, that's for sure,' Skinner replied. 'They'd want to know why we were asking, and since we've agreed to keep them out of it, that could be awkward. I've got a contact in the National Criminal Intelligence Service; I can try her in confidence. If he's a small-change guy, though, they might not know too much. While they're looking, let's ask nearer home.' He picked up a phone on his desk and dialled a number. 'Bandit? You're in, good. This is the DCC; come up to my office, now.'

The three waited. 'I heard about Pringle's girl,' Haggerty said eventually, breaking the silence. 'How is she?' he asked Skinner.

'Gravely ill, and unlikely to get any better. I checked with the hospital just before you got here. The consultant's due to meet with Dan and Elma any time now, to give them a full rundown on her condition.'

There was a rap on the door, and then it opened: Bandit Mackenzie breezed into the room. 'Yes, sir,' he exclaimed, then saw the others. 'Sorry, sirs and ma'am. What can I do for you?'

'Do you still have friends in Glasgow?' Skinner asked. 'By that I mean do you have friends in the CID at street level, that you can trust to be discreet?'

'One or two, boss. Gwennie Dell, my old sergeant in the northern division, works out of Baird Street now. Why?'

'I want background on someone, a bloke who goes by the name of Frankie Jakes. He's a dealer who works around Partick, in and around a pub called the Johnny Groat.'

'Why are we interested in him?'

'Because we've got a confirmed sighting of Samir Bajram in Jakes's company,' said Haggerty, with a hint of pride.

'Where did this come from?'

'You don't need to know that.'

'Do you know Jakes yourself, Bandit?' asked Skinner.

'Never heard of him, sir.'

'Do you know or are you known in the pub I mentioned?'

Mackenzie shook his head. 'I've never worked in Partick, and I sure as hell wouldn't drink there out of choice.'

'Good, because I want you to start now. Use your contact through there to get info on Jakes and known associates, and get her to show you mug-shots if they have them, so you'll recognise them.'

'What do I tell her if she asks why I want this?'

'Tell her more or less the truth, that something's come up in Edinburgh that Jakes is linked into and that it's very hush. What you don't tell her is that you'll be hanging about the Johnny Groat this weekend, waiting for Samir or one or more of the others to show up again.'

'Alone?'

Skinner almost replied, 'No, I'll be with you.' It was on the very tip of his tongue. Then he thought of promises made, of a football match, of Deep Sea World, and he had a vision of a small boy's hurt if they were broken. He frowned. 'Your wives will both hate me for it, but you'd better take Neil with you. I reckon that Mavis might attract too much attention in a boozer like that. Besides, if you do get into bother…'

'He can handle himself, then?'

'You'd better believe it. But he can also shoot straight. We have to assume that the Albanians will be armed, so you guys will be too.'

Bandit grinned. 'If we have to shoot somebody that'll kind of blow our cover, won't it?'

'You let me worry about that. But please, try not to. If Samir shows up, do no more than tail him; if all of them appear, get word to me, or to Amanda, but otherwise do nothing without further orders.'

The DCC saw Haggerty's frown. 'What if they do get rumbled, Bob, and all the team are there?'

'Why should they?'

'I could go too.'

Skinner chuckled. 'Willie, I've seen you at firearms practice. If you fired a warning shot in there you'd miss the ceiling. Besides, your mug's well known in Glasgow; you've probably lifted half the guys in that pub in your time.'

'Could we get a few SAS in there in plain clothes?'

'Maybe we could,' Dennis conceded, 'but do you really want to fill the place full of strangers?'

'Maybe not,' the ACC conceded.

'Plus, it would be overkill,' said Skinner. 'Let's be clear this will be an intelligence-gathering operation, no more. If these guys have jumped to Glasgow, against expectation, the objective is to find out where they're based. Once we know that, we can take them out at a time of our choosing, hopefully when we've identified the fifth guy.'

'Frankie Jakes couldn't have been the fifth guy, could he?' asked Mackenzie.

'Unlikely. If it was him, why did he come to Edinburgh when they could have jumped off the flower truck in Glasgow earlier in the day?'

'Granted.'

The DCC raised an eyebrow. 'Thank you, Chief Inspector. Okay, time's pressing. Call your contact through in Glasgow and get what you can from her. If you need to go through there to meet her, do it. I'll brief Neil when he gets back from his lunch date. On your bike.'

Mackenzie nodded and left, with Haggerty at his heels. Dennis remained behind. 'I could have a detachment of special forces close by, just in case,' she said.

'Too many people on the ground, and unnecessary at this stage,' Skinner maintained. 'Look, if things really do look like going pear-shaped, we can have a Strathclyde armed-response team there pretty fast. But somehow I don't think they will. Frankie Jakes is supposed to be Macedonian, according to Willie's contact. Maybe he's just another cousin, and Samir went to look him up. This investigation is full of maybes.' He looked at her. 'How are you coming along with Sean Green's new identity?'

'It's done. This afternoon he'll be ready to call Bassam and ask for an interview for the job. After that we trust to luck and Sean's persuasiveness, which can be pretty effective, I assure you.'

'Good. Maybe this weekend we'll find out what we really need to know… what the hell these guys are doing here.'

As Dennis nodded agreement, the phone rang on Skinner's desk: his direct line. He picked it up, his mind still on their discussion. 'Yes?' he exclaimed, not realising that he sounded irritable.

'I'm sorry,' said Sarah. 'Have I called at a bad time?'

'No, no,' he assured her quickly, then put a hand over the mouthpiece and turned to Dennis. 'I have to take this,' he told her. She nodded and left.

'Sorry,' he said, as the door closed. 'I had someone with me.'

'Something important?'

'Very.'

'Another shitty fan, eh, Bob? That's the story of your life.'

'I wish my life was that simple. Where are you?'

'I'm still in Key West, but not for long. I'm about to check out.'

'You're coming home, then?' Part of him wanted to add 'please', yet the rest felt ambivalent.

'Not straight away. I'm going back to Buffalo; I've made some decisions and I need to be there to put them into effect. I'm going to sell all the property there, both my parents' house and the up-state lakeside cabin; the cars as well, the furniture, everything. I'm finished with that city, Bob.'

'And once you've done that?'

'Once I've instructed estate agents, and all the other people I need to see, I'll come back to Scotland to you and the kids.'

'Still in time for Christmas, though?'

'Of course.'

'And after that?'

'I'll tell you when I see you.'

He felt his stomach flip. 'Not "we'll talk about it"? You'll tell me?'

'I'm sorry: that was badly put. When I get back we'll sit down and have a discussion and compare our respective ideas about the future. How's that?'

'Come on, Sarah,' he said. 'What do you mean by that?'

'Leave it. I'm sorry I said it. I'm not going to discuss the state of our marriage over the phone. How are things with the Justice Minister, incidentally?'

In spite of himself, he bridled. 'You can leave that out, too. You're the one living in the…' He stopped himself before 'glass house', but she caught his meaning. There was a long, expressive silence.

'How did we get like this?' she murmured, eventually.

'We've just lost the plot, honey, that's all,' he replied, wearily. 'Can we pick it up again?'

'I don't know. That's what I don't want to discuss at long distance. I'll see you in a few days.' She hung up, leaving him staring out of his beloved office window on to a world that was in danger, for the first time in his adult life, of moving out of his control.