Lethal Intent

Sixty-two

Alex heard the front door open; a few seconds later, her father appeared in the doorway of the sitting room. She checked her watch. 'It's nearly nine. What sort of time is this to be crawling in at?'

'Stop it,' he pleaded. 'You sound just like your mother when you say that.' He walked towards her. 'Have you eaten?'

'No, I waited for you. I've got a table booked at the Golf Inn, if you want. They said as long as we got there before nine thirty they'd feed us. Don't worry, I'm paying.'

'Trish is in?'

'Yes, her boy-friend's working tonight.'

'Come on, then. I'll change my shirt and we'll go.'

As he stepped into the light of the hall she saw him more clearly. 'God,' she said, 'you look bushed. Are you sure you want to go? I can always whip something up.' And then a memory came back to her. 'Oh, shit, I forgot: Stevie Steele called earlier. He said he needs to talk to you.'

'It had better be urgent,' Bob growled. 'Bugger the shirt, they can take me as I am. Come on, I'll phone him from the restaurant.' He fetched a heavy leather jacket from the cloakroom off the hall, and they headed for the door.

The restaurant was a few hundred yards away from the house; in less than ten minutes they were seated at a corner table, and Alex was ordering wine from the extensive list. As soon as the waiter had gone her father took out his phone and dialled Steele. It was Maggie Rose who answered. 'Hold on, I'll get him,' she said.

'Thanks, Mags. Oh, and before I forget, I want to see you in my office next week, as soon as we can both fit it in.' He waited, until her partner came to the phone. 'You wanted me,' Skinner grunted.

'Yes, sir. I'm sorry about the timing, but I don't think it can wait. I've spoken to Superintendent Chambers and she agrees. I want to reopen the investigation into George Regan's son, and link it with DCS Pringle's daughter's so-called accident.'

'Her death, you mean. Ross passed away this afternoon.'

He heard Steele's gasp. 'Sorry, sir, I didn't know that.'

'No matter. What's prompted this?'

'George has found a witness, a woman who saw someone legging it into the lower entrance to the car park at around the time the pathologist reckons the boy died. She described him as running away from someone, only there was nobody chasing him.'

'That's your link?'

'It's enough for me, boss.'

'And me, Stevie. Given what happened to young Spence McIlhenney, I've been kicking myself all night for not pursuing the theory, even with no evidence to say so, that the two events might have been linked.'

'What happened to him?'

'You don't know? Call Neil, and he'll fill you in. I'm on-side with you on this; this is your investigation. You're detached from all other duties and you report directly to me. Here's where you start. I want you to identify every investigation where Regan, Pringle and Neil McIlhenney worked together, plus I want a list of all the other officers involved with them. That's a priority: I don't want any more tragic so-called accidents. Get moving on it first thing tomorrow. If you find you need help, then co-opt Ray Wilding from the head of CID's office, on my authority. He'll be sat on his hands for a while anyway.'

He hung up just as the waiter appeared with Alex's choice of wine, and with a pint of lager. 'You look as if you need that,' she told him.

'I'll let the Faustino breathe for a bit.'

He picked up the tall glass gratefully, and drained almost half of it in one gulp.

'That sort of day?' his daughter asked.

'Since about four o'clock.'

'What was that about Neil?'

'Someone tried to snatch Spencer, his boy, at the top of the Hillend ski slope.'

'My God,' she gasped. 'You mean a perv, a paedophile?'

'I don't think so. Did you read about George Regan's son being killed, and Ross Pringle being gassed in her room on the campus?'

'Yes.'

'Well, this may have been the third in a series… in fact, I'm bloody sure it was.' He stopped as the waiter approached. 'I'll have the black-pudding starter, then venison,' he said, then turned back to Alex. 'A year ago, kid, I would have made that assumption on day one. I don't care how clearly accidental they looked, I would not have bought that coincidence.'

'Pops,' she told him, 'you can't do the thinking for the entire force.'

'Why not?' he shot back at her. 'I'm the highest-ranking CID officer. I'm not supposed to make mistakes, especially not one that put a kid's life at risk. I have not had my mind on the job, daughter. I have been so bloody preoccupied with my domestic life that my performance is suffering. I wouldn't take that from a junior officer, so I sure as hell won't take it from myself. I have to get my eye back on the ball, or kick the damn thing into touch.'

'Shape up or ship out, you mean?'

'That's about it.'

'And which will it be? No, forget that: it was a damn silly question.'

He forced a grin. 'I had a moment of weakness this afternoon,' he confessed, 'but that's gone. My decision's made: it's not a matter of choosing job or family. How many men have to do that? No, it's a matter of finding the proper time for both and giving both my total attention.'

'And what about this woman you told me about? Is there room for her too?'

'She's as committed to her job as I am. We have common interests and we like each other; that's all there is to it. Aileen's not an issue; Sarah is, and the future of our marriage.'

'Well, sort it out, Pops, please, for I do not like to see you like this. I'm going to have serious words with my stepmother when she gets back.'

'You will not. Don't get involved, and don't take sides.'

'I'm promising nothing; I'm on your side, damn it, and that won't change.' She rapped the table. 'Now, enough of that and tell me what happened to Neil's son. You said "tried to snatch him", from which I take it that he's okay.'

'He's got some cuts and bruises, and he's shaken up, but he's all right. Mario McGuire's not so good, though. He's in the Western.'

'Mario?'

'He took the kids skiing. At the moment the best guess is that the kidnapper was watching the house, and tracked them to the centre. We know that he hired skis and boots there, and bought a snowsuit and goggles… paid cash, God damn it, so there's no card to trace. He grabbed Spencer when he was isolated from Mario, and Lauren was on her way down the slope, The big fellow worked out what had happened and set off after them, but the guy lay in wait for him and whacked him with a rock in a sock: they found it at the scene.'

'How bad is he?'

'He'll live. The doctor who examined him at the scene reckoned concussion and maybe a hairline skull fracture. They're keeping him under observation to make sure there's no inter-cranial bleeding. He was hit pretty hard, but not hard enough to stop him picking himself up and heading back up the slope to where he and Spence found each other. When our officers got there, he was standing guard over the kid and ready to slaughter anyone who touched him. He decked two constables before they calmed him down.'

Alex gazed at him in horror. 'That's awful,' she exclaimed. 'What about Lauren? She must have been hysterical.'

He surprised her by laughing. 'The words "hysterical" and "Lauren McIlhenney" do not go together. Neil was in a far worse state than she was when I told him what had happened.'