Murmuring the Judges

81

‘Have you heard from Lady Proud again?’ The Head of CID asked the Deputy Chief Constable as together they gazed at the little man in the loud Hawaiian shirt and baggy shorts.

‘No, I haven’t, so I guess Jimmy must be on the mend.’ Skinner grinned. ‘I wonder if he dresses like that on his holidays?’ The little man, his equally garish wife by his side, stood motionless. The statues were among the star attractions in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, one of the jewels in the capital city’s cultural crown.

The two policemen had decided to take a break from their offices, and from their telephones which had been ringing all morning, reminding each of them that the two investigations which had been dominating their lives were only a small part of their respective workloads.

‘What have you got on this afternoon?’ Martin asked.

‘I’ve got to prepare for the Police Board tomorrow. Councillor Maley and her clique are bound to try to ambush me with a few awkward questions in Jimmy’s absence. I’m damned if I’ll give them the satisfaction of catching me out.’

‘Send ACC Elder.’

Skinner laughed. ‘He’s a nice guy. How could I do that to him?’

They left the American tourists frozen in their little world, and moved through to the next room. ‘You any further forward on Mr Hamburger?’ asked the DCC.

‘I’m afraid not. Kwame Ankrah and Sammy have finished the tapes. Apart from Ankrah spotting some bloke he met with me in another context, and who’s got fuck all to do with this, they came up with zero. How about your source?’

‘He’s come up with nothing so far other than confirmation that, apart from Saunders and Collins, who fought in the Falklands, the six didn’t soldier together.’

‘I thought Bennett was there too.’

‘No, he must have been bullshitting about that. He lost his fingers in a training accident.’

‘That doesn’t take us any further forward, then does it,’ mused Martin. ‘I did have one odd phone call this morning,’ he said, ‘from Mitch Laidlaw, of all people.’

‘What was that about?’

‘Apparently Alex had mentioned to him that the investigation had stalled. He had her call me up, just so he could ask me if I was old enough to remember the original Perry Mason television series. That was all. I asked him what he was on about, but he just laughed, and said it was only an idea.’

Skinner stopped and looked at him. ‘And are you old enough?’

‘Hardly. Haven’t a fucking clue what he was on about. That series was early sixties stuff, wasn’t it?’

‘Yes. Even I barely remember it. I don’t get the joke either. It’s not like Mitch to waste chargeable time kidding on the telephone. He’s probably told Alex; she’ll put you out of your misery.’

He paused. ‘Speaking of Alex. .’

‘There’s still tension in the air, Bob.’

‘Knowing my lass, I didn’t think it would go away overnight. One thing though, Andy. I know she’s well mature beyond her years, but part of her is still a kid. You’ve got to let that bit continue to grow.’

‘Sure,’ Andy retorted. ‘But what if she grows into. .’ He stopped short.

‘. . into her mother, you were going to say. I don’t think there’s a cat’s chance of that. Looking back, I can see now that there was always something secretive, and manipulative too, about Myra. The first party we were at as teenagers, I beat the crap out of some lad because of her. I never realised at the time, but she set it up.

‘Alex isn’t like that. I never knew her to keep a secret for more than half an hour. She looks like her mother, but that’s it.’

His friend’s laugh was heavy with irony. ‘That’s supposed to have cheered me up, is it? She doesn’t have her mum’s nature: in that case she must take after you.’ He nodded. ‘That figures. She’s good at drawing a line in the sand then daring you to step over it.’

‘D’you know what you do then?’ asked Bob, quietly.

‘Tell me.’

He reached out with his right foot and moved it from side to side, in an odd gesture. ‘Rub out the line.’