Private Investigations

Twenty-Eight

Mario McGuire had ordered that Sammy Pye should be senior investigating officer on both the Zena case and the murders of Dino and Anna, and that he should take a press briefing at the former Edinburgh police HQ.

The DCI was used to being on camera, but he had never been in the hot seat at a formal media conference before such a large audience. He was set to be flanked on the platform by Haddock, for little more than moral support, and by a woman he had never met before. Her name was Isabel Cant, ScotServe’s deputy head of communications, and to Pye, she set new standards in abrasiveness.

‘There’s your statement,’ she said, as they waited in a small room behind the conference hall, five minutes before they were due on stage, and as she thrust a sheaf of paper into his hands. ‘Your Q and A brief is there too, but I’ll field the questions and decide which we can answer.’

‘We?’ Sauce Haddock murmured, beside him.

‘This is a team event, Detective Sergeant,’ she snapped.

‘Fine,’ he chuckled, ‘so where’s my team sheet?’

‘You don’t need one. You won’t be saying anything. This is a very high-profile situation, and very sensitive in media terms. I can’t run the risk of you coming out with information that can’t be revealed at this stage.’

‘In that case,’ Pye intervened, looking up from the text, ‘what’s this doing here? We’re naming the child?’

‘That’s been decided at the highest level,’ she said. ‘The father is incommunicado and could be so for months. In those circumstances, we can waive the “next of kin informed” tradition on this occasion. It’s only ever done as a courtesy anyway.’

‘The highest level? Does that mean the chief constable, or DCC McGuire?’

Cant’s stare reminded him of one of his primary school teachers: he had hated that woman. ‘No, it means the director of communications.’

‘And is that person,’ he began, his voice low and slow, ‘aware that the mother is still unconscious in hospital after surgery? Is he aware that the link between her injuries and the child’s death hasn’t been revealed to anyone outside my team? Is he aware that I don’t want her waking up to find a posse of journos outside her room?’

He took out his phone, scrolled through his contact numbers and offered it to her. ‘There. That’s DCC McGuire’s number. Would you like to call him and tell him what we’re about to do?’

‘I don’t need to. This is my department’s remit. We’re responsible for all media communications.’

Haddock laughed. ‘So you’re going to swan in here and tell an SIO what he can and can’t say about his own investigation?’

‘Welcome to the world of ScotServe,’ Isabel Cant said.

‘Welcome to the world of the Menu,’ Sammy Pye retorted. ‘It’ll still be our arses on the line out there, never yours, so we will make the rules.’ He checked the time on his phone and put it back in his pocket. ‘We won’t be needing you in there.’

‘I think you’ll find that you do,’ she snapped back at him.

‘I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you call your boss while you’re waiting here, and find out who’s right and who’s wrong about that? Meantime we’re going to do our job the way we see fit.’

He opened the door and stepped into the conference room, leaving Haddock to close it behind them.