Private Investigations

Twenty-Nine

‘Are you prepared for the wrath of God to crash around your ears?’

‘If necessary, sir,’ Pye told the deputy chief constable. ‘I made a judgement and acted on it.’

‘And personalities had nothing to do with it?’

‘I hope not. How can I put this? I’d like to think that Ms Cant and I had different perceptions of our relative roles in a police investigation, and that mine prevailed.’

‘Thanks to Haddock slamming a door in the face of a senior civilian colleague?’

‘Not true, sir.’ The DCI winked at the detective sergeant. ‘He closed it very gently.’

‘Jesus,’ McGuire sighed, the sound amplified by the phone’s speaker. ‘You do know that the new media structure was signed off personally by Sir Andrew?’

‘I didn’t, but I hope he’ll support his officers when it leads to a conflict of priorities.’

‘For fuck’s sake, Sammy, cut out the diplomatic language. You were told to release the child’s name and you countermanded that instruction.’

‘As senior investigating officer, sir,’ Pye countered, ‘I take my orders from my line managers. As far as I know, Isobel Cant isn’t one of them.’

‘As far as you know,’ the DCC mimicked. ‘Man, it doesn’t work like that any more. In a force of our size, there has to be a recognised communications structure and the professionals within it must have their own form of authority. If Ms Cant, or Peregrine Allsop, her boss, give you a draft, you have to think of it as coming from Sir Andrew himself. What you don’t do is tell her to stick it up her arse.’

‘That’s not fair, sir,’ Haddock protested. ‘The gaffer was a damn sight more polite than she was.’

‘Butt out, Detective Sergeant,’ McGuire growled. ‘I’ll tell you what’s fucking fair, and what’s not.’

‘Sorry, sir.’

‘Accepted; remember it. Now: incredibly fortunately for you two, I agree with you in this instance, and I’ve managed to calm the chief down. Ms Cant breached the new protocol herself, by not discussing the communications strategy with the SIO and taking his views into account. That’s your wiggle room. You are doubly lucky, in that once I explained your view to Sir Andrew he agreed with that too, albeit grudgingly, and asked Allsop to tell Cant to stay out of your hair for the duration of this investigation.’

‘Thanks, sir,’ Pye said. ‘I knew you’d go to bat for us.’

‘Yeah, well, don’t go taking it for granted,’ the DCC mumbled. ‘You’ll need to make your peace with them both at some point, but for now, do things your way. So,’ he continued, ‘what did you tell the media?’

‘I told them as much as I could. I told them that the results of the autopsy on the dead child led us to continue treating her death as suspicious, rather than murder. There was a lot of grumbling when I said I couldn’t name her . . .’

McGuire interrupted. ‘How did you explain that?’

‘With the truth: that there’s a problem contacting the father. They pressed me on why, but they gave up on it when I told them that the prime suspect in the abduction, and his girlfriend, had been found shot dead in a burned-out car.’

‘Yes, that would get their attention,’ McGuire chuckled. ‘Did you name both of them?’

‘Yes, I was able to do that. The DNA confirmation came through at nine thirty, and the police in Gdansk, Anna’s home town, called us to confirm that they’d spoken to her parents.’

‘Photographs?’

‘Issued. Francey’s we had on file; the university had one of Anna on her admission record. Mind you, I’m sure it won’t be long before the red-tops are using the one that’s on a poster outside Lacey’s.’

‘And their killer?’ McGuire asked.

‘I told them what I told you, sir, that we’re still examining the crime scene. What I didn’t add was, outside that, there are absolutely no leads.’

‘Then you’d better go and get some, lads. In today’s news cycle, that’ll keep them busy for a couple of hours.’

‘Maybe a bit longer,’ Pye chuckled, softly. ‘One of the Fire and Rescue team must have a pal in the Daily Record newsroom. Their reporter collared us afterwards; she said they’d had a tip-off that the fire team leader at the crime scene went bats when he saw the car. I’d no reason to “no comment” her, so I confirmed it, and said that the guy was Francey’s brother-in-law. She went off in search of Levon Rattray. As soon as they break that online, the rest’ll have to play catch-up. They’ll be off our backs, for a wee while at least.’

‘Good,’ the DCC said, ‘use that time well; you have to keep ahead of the media on this one. There’s a lot resting on this investigation for you, chum. You’re not completely off the hook with the chief. He might have backed what you did this morning, but you still crossed him. The last thing he said to me was that if you don’t get a result, he’ll think about seconding you to the Communications Department. I don’t think he was joking either.’