Pray for the Dying

Seven

He looks tired and tense, Paula Viareggio thought. But he also looks more alive than I’ve seen him in a couple of years.

‘I am perfectly fine, Bob,’ she assured him. ‘Honestly. The police doctor checked me out last night and he said exactly that. He checked both of us out in fact. The baby’s good too. For a while afterwards I did wonder if he’d stick his head out to find out what all the fuss was about, but it seems he’s keeping to his timetable.’

‘You’re some woman, Paula,’ Skinner chuckled. They were sitting around a table on the deck of the prospective parents’ duplex. The sun was high enough to catch the highlights in his steel-grey hair.

‘No, I’m just like all the rest. I had my few moments of sheer terror, and I know I’m never going to lose the memory, of the noise more than anything else, the sound of the bullets hitting the poor woman.’

‘Hey, enough,’ her husband said quietly.

‘No, Mario, it’s all right; I yelled my head off at the time, because I was afraid. . I was scared for two, as well. But once something’s happened, it’s happened. You can’t go back, you can’t change it, but the danger’s over and talking about what happened won’t bring it back. So no worries, big fella; I won’t be waking up screaming in the night.’

‘I’m glad you feel that way,’ the chief constable said, ‘because there is a formal murder investigation going on in Glasgow and it would be useful if you could give my DI a statement, for the record.’

‘I won’t have to go through there, will I? I couldn’t be arsed with that.’

‘No, of course not. You don’t need to leave home. Knock it out on your computer, print it, sign it with Mario as witness, then scan it and send it to DI Charlotte Mann.’ He dug a card from his pocket and handed it to her. ‘Her email address is on that.’

‘Will do. Is Aileen having to do the same?’ She paused. ‘That is the one thing that gets to me, Bob: the idea that she was the real target.’

‘Then don’t dwell on it,’ he told her. ‘Because I don’t believe she was, and neither does Lottie Mann.’ He looked at his colleague. ‘How about you, Mario?’

The swarthy detective shook his head. ‘Probably not.’

‘But what does Aileen think?’ Paula asked.

‘I’ve never been good at working that out,’ Skinner replied, ‘but whatever she believes, she won’t mind having people think she was. There’s more votes in it.’

She stared at him, shocked. ‘Bob, that’s not worthy of you. The poor woman was terrified last night.’

‘Maybe, but she was spitting tin tacks when I spoke to her last at the thought of Clive Graham taking credit from it.’

‘Get away with you, you’re doing her an injustice.’

‘I wish I was, but I’m not.’ His expression changed, became quizzical. ‘Did she tell you anything last night about the two of us?’

Paula hesitated. ‘No, she didn’t say anything specific; but looking back, there was something about her, something different.’

‘We’re bust,’ he said. ‘Sorry to be blunt, but it’s over. The press will catch on eventually. When they do, we’ll call it “irreconcilable differences”. That’ll be true, as well.’

‘The police unification issue? Mario told me you were at loggerheads about it.’

He nodded. ‘That’s part of it, but not all. She was planning to turn me into a backroom politician. Aileen has ambitions beyond Scotland that I knew nothing about. She had this daft idea that I would help her fulfil them.’ He snorted. ‘As if.’

He stood, straightened his back, and smoothed his uniform jacket. ‘Now I must go. Wouldn’t do if I was late for my unveiling.’ He turned to Mario once again. ‘Okay, ACC McGuire. I have no idea when I’ll see you again, but I’m glad the promotion’s come through. It probably won’t make any operational difference to you, as you’ll still be head of CID under the new structure, but you’ll be doing the job from the command corridor, where you’ve belonged for a while now.’

A smile lit up McGuire’s face. ‘Thanks, boss.’

‘You’re out of date. Maggie’s the boss, for the next three months. She’ll need support though; be sure to give her all you can. And have your people do something for me too.’

‘Of course.’

‘Freddy Welsh. The armourer, the man that young Houseman and I arrested yesterday. The man who supplied the weapons for the concert hall hit and God knows how many others. Clyde and I didn’t have time to ask him all the questions we needed to, but they’re still relevant. Technically, it’s part of Lottie Mann’s investigation, but he’s in your hands, so your people should handle the interrogation.

‘I want to know who placed the order for the weapons. Was it Cohen, the man who put the operation together, or was it someone else? Somebody sent that team after Toni Field. . yes, Paula, fact is we’re certain she was the target. . and we must find out who it was and why they did it.’

‘I’ll handle it myself,’ the new ACC said. ‘But it’s a pound to a pinch of pig shit, Bob; his lawyer will have advised him by now to keep his mouth shut.’

‘Then keep his lawyer out of it. Welsh is going away for years for illegal possession of firearms, and conspiracy to supply. We don’t need to charge him over his involvement in Field’s assassination, so you can interview him as a potential witness, not a suspect.’

‘Okay, but I’ll bet you he still won’t talk. His customers aren’t the sort you inform on.’

Skinner smiled. ‘If that’s how it is, you give him a message from me. If he holds out on us, I won’t hesitate to hand him over to MI5, and Clyde Houseman. My young friend made quite an impression on Freddy at their first meeting. I don’t think Mr Welsh will be too keen on another session. Now, I really am off.’

McGuire saw him to the door. ‘Well,’ he said as he rejoined his wife in the sunshine. ‘Is this our morning for surprises? The big man enticed to Strathclyde, not to mention him and Aileen being down the road.’

‘Indeed,’ Paula laughed. ‘And maybe get yourself ready for another. When she saw that Joey Morocco last night, before the concert, and it was all going off. . mmm, that was interesting.’

Mario looked at her, intrigued, reading her meaning. ‘She looked like she wanted to eat him, did she?’

‘Oh, I think she has, in the past. In fact I know so, ’cos she told me. And I’m pretty certain she fancies another helping.’