Murmuring the Judges

85

Skinner sat up in bed, a feeling of unease gripping him.

‘What’s wrong, Bob?’ asked Sarah, sensing his mood even through her drowsiness.

He swung his legs out of bed and stood, naked, running his fingers through his tousled hair. ‘I don’t know,’ he admitted. ‘Just someone walking over my grave, I guess.’

‘Don’t say that, it scares me. It must be more than that.’

He slipped on his bathrobe and stepped over to the big window, drawing the curtains aside to look out across the Bents, still in shadow, and at the great river, as it caught the first rays of the morning sun.

‘I suppose I’m still wondering who Bakey Newton might have phoned, before he did his runner, and why.’ He glanced at the bedside clock, which showed one minute before seven a.m. ‘I think I’ll take a quick shower, and get into the office.’

He was no more than halfway to the bathroom when the phone rang. He reached it in two strides and picked it up. ‘Skinner,’ he barked.

‘Fookin’ ’ell, I knew I shouldn’t have called this early.’ The tension broken, Bob laughed.

‘You’re dead right,’ he said, sitting on the edge of the bed. ‘What’s the story?’

‘I didn’t have much choice but phone you now, I’m afraid. I’m off to the Gulf wi’ the Defence Secretary in an hour, and I thought you’d want this before I got back, rather than after.’

‘Go on, then.’

‘Well, after I sorted out those names for you, I did a bit more checking into their service records, and something interesting came up.Two of ’em, Clark, the infantryman, and Newton, the cook, had black marks on theirs. They were both court-martialled around the same time, and for a short spell they were in detention together.

‘Clark was done for insubordination, and Newton for beating the crap out of a junior NCO. They were both fined and reduced in rank. However, they both did deals. They pleaded guilty, and the prosecuting officer put forward mitigating circumstances on their behalf, so they stayed in the service.

‘Another connection between them was that they were both prosecuted by the same bloke in the Advocate General’s office.’ As Arrow paused for breath, Skinner’s right eyebrow rose, very slightly, as two thoughts converged in his brain.

‘I’d have made nothing of that,’ the major went on, ‘had something not made me run a check on the prosecutor. He’s long gone from the service. . left seven years ago. . but it were the Army that sent him to St Andrews University. They did that after he was wounded in the Falklands, as a very young officer.’

He paused. ‘You keeping up with me?’

‘I think so. You’re going to tell me that Bennett and McDonnell worked for him in the Advocate General’s office. . not together, a couple of years apart. Then you’re going to tell me. .’

‘That when he was a baby one-pipper getting his knee permanently stiffened by the Argies, seven of whom ’e killed, personally, two of the men under his command in two-Para were Lance-Corporals Ryan Saunders and Charles Collins.

‘There you are, Bob, m’ friend. A nice neat ribbon, tying all six of your bank gang together. What do you think?’

Skinner sat in silence. At last he said, ‘Adam, you are one clever little bastard. If you ever leave the Army, I’ll give you a job on the spot. All I need from you now is for you to tell me two things.

‘One, that this guy is still alive, and two. . his name!’