Pray for the Dying

Thirty-Eight

‘Where is ma daddy, Uncle Dan?’ Jake Mann asked, not for the first time. His godfather realised that there was no ducking the question.

‘I told ye before, Jakey, it’s all hush-hush, but maybe this’ll explain it. Ye know your daddy used to be a policeman.’

The child nodded, with vigour. ‘M-hm.’

‘Well, it’s like this. They’ve asked him to go back and help them again. Yer mum and I, we’ve been asked no’ tae talk about it, not even tae you.’

‘Wow! Secret squirrels?’

‘That’s right, secret squirrels; undercover.’ He ruffled Jake’s hair. ‘Now away ye go to your bed, like yer mum asked ye to a while back.’

‘Okay.’ He hugged his honorary uncle and ran into the hall, heading for the stairs, as if he was fuelled by excitement.

‘You’re a lovely wee man, Danny Provan,’ Lottie said, from the kitchen doorway. ‘I’d never have thought of that.’ She was carrying two plates, each loaded with fish and chips still in the wrapper. She handed him one and settled into her armchair. ‘It won’t hold up for long, though,’ she sighed. ‘Eventually, this is going to hit the press.’

‘Eventually,’ he conceded, ‘but these are special circumstances. The husband of the SIO bein’ lifted? Okay, it’s bound to leak within a day or two, but Ah’d expect the fiscal tae go to the High Court and get an interdict against publishing Scott’s name, at least until the trial begins, maybe even till he’s convicted.’

‘There’s no doubt he will be, is there?’

‘Ah’d love tae say he’s got a chance, but Ah can’t. We found the wrapping from the parcel in the car. You know as well as I do that the forensic people will find fibres on it and match them to a police uniform.’

‘It’s as well for him he is done,’ she barked. ‘I could bloody kill him, for what he’s done to Jakey; it’ll be hellish for him at school. Ye know what kids are like. I tell you this, even if by some miracle he does get out of this, he and I are done. He’s never coming back here. Never!’

‘Come on, Lottie, Scott wouldnae harm his laddie for a’ the tea in China.’

‘And what about me? Do you think he hasn’t harmed me?’

‘No, Ah don’t,’ the sergeant admitted. ‘I concede that. Ah want you to know, hen,’ he added, ‘that this has been the worst day of my police career. What I had to do this afternoon. .’ His voice trailed away, as if he had run out of words.

‘But you had to do it, Dan,’ she countered. ‘As you say, you had to do it. If you hadn’t, I’d have thought the worse of you, and so would you and all, for the rest of your life. You’ve always been a hero to me, since I was the rawest DC in the team, but never more so than this afternoon.’