Murmuring the Judges

39

‘Sorry I’m late, honey. I had to go to see the Lord President again, short notice.’ Bob slipped off his jacket as he came into the kitchen and hung it over the back of a chair. It was nine-fifty and the children were long since in bed.

Sarah wound her arms around his waist, pressing her long, denim-clad legs against his. ‘I understand. There must be a few nervous judges around today.’

‘You can say that again. We’re giving close round-the-clock protection to sixteen of them, and unofficially we’re keeping an eye on the others. . including the President himself. David’s being very stoical about it all though. He can’t conceive of anyone wanting to bump him off.’

‘I’ll bet Archergait and Barnfather thought the same thing.’

‘Mmm. I don’t know. From what we’ve heard about Archergait, there may have been a queue formed behind him. . composed largely of blood relatives. He seems to have been a right old brute at home.’

‘But what about Barnfather? What’s his guilty secret?’

‘That’s what we’re trying to find out. According to David Murray, he didn’t have any. Archergait’s domestic tyranny, and his son’s hatred for him, were fairly well known among the inner circle, but the other old boy seems to have been universally popular.’

Sarah chuckled. ‘You can say that again. I helped Joe again today with the autopsy. It was something of a surprise. I mean you wouldn’t normally expect a man of his age to have a sexually-linked condition.’

‘What?’

‘You heard me. His crotch had been shaved, and there was evidence of recent infestation. Crabs to you, my dear. He also had an anal infection. Joe’s inescapable conclusion is that the old gentleman had been indulging in homosexual activities.

‘The report will be on Brian Mackie’s desk tomorrow morning as instructed.’

She released her grip on his waist and led him to the table, where a plate of sandwiches sat, sealed with kitchen film.

‘Does that news affect your investigation?’

‘It may well do,’ Bob answered, sitting down and helping himself to two of the sandwiches. ‘This evening we agreed to send Maggie Rose and Karen Neville to interview the gays down on the beach at Jovey’s Neuk. Now you’re telling me that the old chap might have been one himself.’

He sat in silence for a while, munching his smoked salmon sandwich and considering the new development. ‘Maybe the two murders could have been a coincidence after all,’ he murmured, as Sarah handed him a glass of chilled Vouvray.

‘Just suppose Barnfather didn’t go to the Reserve for the bird life, but for something else. Suppose his death was gay persecution, taken to extremes. Suppose Norman King did kill his father. There needn’t be a connection between him and the other judge.

‘God dammit. Just when I thought we could see something in this morass, the fucking water’s gone cloudy again.’

Sarah pushed the table back and swung around, facing him, straddling him. ‘Let me try to make it a little clearer,’ she whispered. ‘All work and no play makes Bob an inefficient policeman.’ She took the glass from his hand and laid it on the table, then kissed him, flicking her tongue against his teeth, running her long, strong fingers through his hair.

He held her a little away from him and smiled. ‘I hope you’ve washed your hands.’

‘No, I’ve just rubbed them with chillies. Fancy living dangerously?’ She kissed him again. ‘Time for bed, I think.’

‘Yeah, it’s been a hell of a day. I’m shagged out.’

‘Not yet, lover,’ she said smokily. ‘Not yet.’

He stood, picking her up in the same movement with his great strength, and carried her through to their bedroom. The curtains were open, but the house stood high on the side of the hill, and they were completely private, with the panorama of the twilit sea spread out before them.

They undressed each other slowly, deliberately, as they had done so often before, enjoying the moments, prolonging them, until finally they slid, naked, under the duvet in its fawn satin cover. He bent his head down to kiss her nipples, sucking them gently, until he felt her shiver and heard her gasp. His hand moved over her belly, but she stopped him, pushing him back and rolling on top of him. Almost before he realised it he was inside her, and she was moving on top of him like a writhing snake, flexing, thrusting, squeezing him with strong hidden muscles. He raised himself up, offering all that he possessed, which she accepted, with hunger in her wild eyes.

Her hair fell over his face. She whispered in his ear, urging, entreating with ever greater intensity and excitement in her voice. He felt the sudden, hot rush as she threw her head back and cried out, he felt the pulsing as it rushed through him, bathing every nerve-end in warm oil. His hands clamped on her clenched buttocks, holding her tight against him as she gripped, released, gripped again, until he heard himself, a voice outside his body, moaning as his orgasm mingled with hers.

When it was over, they lay there for at least ten minutes, Sarah still mounted on him, recovering their breath and their senses, smiles of contentment on their faces.

‘When you come to the end of a perfect day,’ he whispered in her ear, at last.

She raised herself up, her forearms resting on his chest and her fingers interlocked. ‘That’s not what I heard,’ she said. ‘Alex called me earlier, just before she and Andy went to the movies. She was worried about you. She thought you were getting depressed.’

Bob smiled. ‘I suppose I must have sounded that way to Andy this evening. This learning to delegate isn’t as easy as you seem to think it is, my darling. Nor is acquiring patience in your mid forties, when it’s a virtue you haven’t possessed before.

‘Different people are cut out for different things. I’m not sure that I’m cut out to be a Chief Constable, that’s all.’

She leaned down and kissed his forehead. ‘Who’d suspect it?’ she murmured. ‘Skinner the insecure, Skinner the self-doubting.’ She grinned, then gasped with pleasure as he traced the tip of his index finger down her backbone. ‘Just do two things for me. Trust in the people. . like me and the kids, like Andy and Alex, like Jimmy. . who know what you are and believe in you. And remember, when the doubts do surface, that I’ll always be here to drive them away.’

Slowly he smiled, then wrapped his arms around her and rolled her over, powerfully, on to her back.

‘Relaxation therapy, doctor, is that it?’ He pressed his lips to hers, and she felt him begin to stir once more. ‘I’ll come to your clinic, I promise; as often as you like.’