Skinner's festival

61

'Her story checked out, then?'

'The mugging? Aye. The boy Paul was French too, but he spoke English. Apparently he was making his way home last night after the show, when three guys in suits came up to him, took him up a close, and gave him a doing.'

Skinner and Proud sat facing each other, over two large whiskies in the Chiefs room at Fettes Avenue. It was still only 6:45 pm, but each looked tired and drained. Removed from the scene of the crime, a second wave of sadness had washed over them both at the loss of their colleague.

Then in suits?' said the Chief Constable. 'That doesn't sound much like Leith.'

'No, it doesn't. Strangest thing of all, the boy said there was a woman with them, and she seemed to be giving the orders.'

'It wasn't this Typhoid Mary woman, was it?'

'No. This one was dark-haired, and she was under five-six.

'I'm already pulling in all of our likely candidates to undertake a contract thumping, but I don't hold out any great hopes that any of them will fit the bill. These will either have been members of the team or out-of-town heavies brought in for this job alone, and so virtually untraceable. They were very professional. Apparently one of them said to the boy, "Sorry, mate, but it's in a good cause." Then he broke his arm with a mason's hammer.

According to Paul. when the guy spoke to him, the woman said "Silence". And again, according to him, she said it in French. But since he's French himself, and he was having his arm broken at the time, I'm discounting that one.'

'What about the late Mr Ricky Smith? Do we have anything on him?'

'Yes. He has a French connection, too. Their police have dug out their file for us. According to his prints, his name wasn't Richard Smith at all. It was Raymond Mahoney, age twenty-six, birthplace Glasgow. Time-served mechanic. Lived in France since

he was twenty. Bad boy, Raymond, or so they think: believed to have been involved in the gang scene in Marseilles. They had him marked down as a driver mostly, but he was known to have been in the vicinity of two or three shootings. The closest they came to doing him for anything was when he was picked up as one of a team in a freelance armed robbery. But then one of the police witnesses was killed on duty, and the other had a fit of amnesia financially induced, they reckoned, so nothing came of it.

Technically he's got a clean sheet, but they won't miss him now,3 he's gone.'

Proud freshened up then" drinks from a bottle of Highland Park. 'What're you doing about the-press?'

'Royston's got a statement ready to go out, as soon as I've been to visit Barry's dad. He's a widower, and he's been away golfing with a pal. They're due back at eight according to the pal's wife.

I'll catch him them.'

'No, you won't,' said Proud. 'I'll see that's taken care of.

You've done enough.'

'Come on. Jimmy, he was my man.'

'My man, too. I was planning to see Mr Macgregor myself, but Eddie McGuinness insisted. He feels that he has to take on at least some of the tough tasks personally. A solid man is our Eddie.'

'So I'm beginning to realise,' said Skinner thoughtfully.

The Chief Constable took a sip from his glass, savoured the smoky taste, and swallowed it. 'So what do these bastards do next, Bob?'

'I'm trying to think like them, Jimmy. Looking at the pattern so far, I'd say it's got to be the Fireworks Concert, a week on Thursday. They know we won't let them near any more celebs, and the Fireworks are the last big event in the Festival. It's even on telly this year. They might stick in a couple of wee surprises between now and then, but I'll bet that's the next thing they'll go for.'

'Let's cancel it then.'

'I've already suggested that to Ballantyne, but there's no way he'll agree. He's got brave again.'

'Well, we'll just have to police it so tightly they'll have to use aircraft to hit it. Tomorrow you and I will go and see Mr bloody Ballantyne. It's time you had some back-up when you're dealing with him."