Murmuring the Judges

43

Bob Skinner stood at the window of the Chief Constable’s office and gazed at the empty chair behind the desk.

‘Where are you when I need you, Jimmy?’ he pondered aloud. ‘If ever I missed your sound political touch in an investigation, then it’s now.’

Seated in the soft leather suite, Andy Martin, Mario McGuire and Neil McIlhenney looked up at him. ‘Come on, Boss,’ said the Head of CID, ‘this idea of the Chief as a smooth operator is a figment of your imagination. On most of the occasions when he’s had to deal with politicians he’s done it with a great big club.

‘He gets on with Councillor Topham because she’s fucking hypnotised by him, that’s all. And in the past he’s seen off at least one Minister of the Crown that I know of.’

Skinner scowled at him from his seat in the fourth chair in the group. ‘Maybe so, but I still wish he was here. I value his judgment as much as his skill as a hypnotist. Christ, what a situation we’re in. The Home Advocate Depute is shaping up as the number one suspect in a double murder. Not only that, but the Lord Bloody Advocate could be involved too.’

He looked across at McGuire and McIlhenney. ‘You checked with the Dean of Faculty, and with Maxwell, like I asked?’

‘Yes, sir,’ the Inspector confirmed. ‘The Dean said that only he and the Treasurer of the Faculty knew about the bequest. . and they didn’t know about any minute of agreement. As for Colin, he swears blind that he didn’t tell anyone about Archergait’s plans, other than us.’

‘The old man didn’t tell his son himself, did he?’ asked Martin.

‘Not according to Clarissa Maclean, King’s lady advocate friend,’ said McIlhenney. ‘She said they hadn’t spoken in a year.’

‘How close a friend is she?’

‘Intimate, according to Maxwell. King was divorced a year or so back. His wife took him to the cleaners in the settlement too.’

‘Aye,’ McGuire broke in. ‘There’s another piece of motive. He’s skint, and he hears that his old man’s going to do him out of his inheritance. I’ve seen cases go to trial with less evidence than we’ve got here already.’

‘So have I, Mario,’ said Skinner, with feeling, ‘but not with an Advocate fucking Depute in the dock. We’ll need to eliminate every shadow of a doubt in this investigation. I want to be able to prove that he was in possession of cyanide, and I want a positive identification of him as the man who took old Barnfather across the sands to his death.

‘The existence of the joint minute of agreement is the clincher. It meant that if King wanted to preserve his claim to the family money, he had to get rid not only of his father, but of Barnfather as well, since he had the power to complete the trust arrangements even after Archergait had been taken out.

‘If Hannah Johnson’s right and he did know about it and what it meant, then it looks as if only Lord Archibald could have told him.’

He shook his head and snorted. ‘We’re looking at a situation in which the Lord Advocate himself is the crucial witness in the trial of one of his own deputies. Christ, Andy, and you wonder why I wish Jimmy was here!’

‘What will it mean for Lord Archibald, Boss?’ asked McIlhenney.

‘Resignation, probably before the trial, possibly as soon as King is charged. It’s a real bastard, Neil, I tell you.

‘Archie Nelson is a good friend of mine, and it looks as if I’m going to be the man who brings him down. Not a happy prospect.’

He looked round at Martin.

‘Have there been any other happenings to brighten up this lovely day?’ he asked.

‘No more robberies, thankfully,’ the Head of CID responded. ‘I had a call from John McGrigor this afternoon though. Someone found a body in a wood near West Linton, tied up and shot in the head.

‘The early indications are that it’s a domestic. Apparently the victim was shagging someone else’s wife.’

‘Indeed,’ said Skinner. ‘I’d leave John to get on with it, if I were you. It’ll do him good to have a nice ordinary murder to investigate. It might even stop him promising to catch Harry Riach’s killer, even if the rest of us can’t. Because knowing him, he might even do it, and I’d worry about what he’d do if he succeeded!’