Skinner's ghosts

42

'The cashier remembers him, sir,' Maggie Rose told DCS Martin.

'Youngish men shopping alone early in the morning tend to stand out in supermarkets, so it seems. The girl's name is Lesley, and I'd say she's a reliable witness.

'Her description matches the one Mr Carr, the farmer, gave us.'

'What about accent?'

'Lesley said she doesn't remember him saying anything other than

"Thank you" when she gave him his change.'

'Anything strike her as odd about him?'

Martin heard Rose laugh at the other end of the line. 'I asked her that. She said that she noticed that he didn't buy any cat food, or any Beck's. Apparently guys his age shopping for themselves nearly always buy cat food and Beck's.'

The DCS grunted. 'That's the sort of sweeping generalisation that forms gender stereotypes.'

'High rank's teaching you diplomacy, all right,' said Rose. 'A couple of years ago you'd have said, "That's bloody women for you!".'

'That's funny,' said Martin with a smile. 'I thought that's what I just said. Thanks, Mags, see you.' He hung up and turned to Skinner.

'The man bought enough food for two days,' he said. 'Quick-cook, easy-dispose stuff. Corned beef, meatbal s, yoghurt, the stuff he'd expect a kid to go for.'

'Two days,' said the DCC. 'So if he brought Mark back to the caravan on Friday, and cal ed me on Saturday, unless he went shopping again, it's a fair bet that he moved him again on Sunday.'

Martin nodded.

'One thing more,' Skinner added. 'He bought enough tinned food for two days, but he bought it on Wednesday morning. Which tells us…'

'… suggests to us,' broke in the Head ofCID, 'that he didn't live in the caravan between Wednesday and Friday, otherwise he'd have bought more food.'

'Aye. So let's add to our file on this guy the possibility that he has an address in the Edinburgh area. Let's try and read him, this clever bastard who thinks he's thumbing his nose at me. Let's try and picture him planning this crime.

'Forget about motive, for now. He'll tell us what that is, when he's good and ready. Let's try to read his mind. He's very meticulous, is our man. I think he must have watched Leona for a long time. He must have known her routine: when she'd be at home from Parliament, and so on. He must have known that Mark's au pair…' Skinner paused and smiled. 'The wee chap gets very offended if you call her a nanny. He was thirty when he was born, that one.'

He continued. 'He must have watched for long enough to know that the girl always had Friday afternoon off. Mark might have cal ed her his aupair but she's from Perth. She went home to her parents as soon as Leona got back from London on a Friday, and came back on Sunday night.

'He planned everything in the almost certain knowledge that the two of them, mother and child, would be together, and unprotected.

He stole the caravan – no big deal, he'd just cut the chain on the gate to the dealership yard and help himself- then set it up on this man Carr's land in the middle of fucking nowhere, provisioned and ready for a two-day stop-over. Once it was ready, he went home and waited for his moment.'

He paused, his eyes distant. 'So where's home?' he asked himself, aloud.

'The kidnapper decided to take Mark out of town – somewhere near enough so that he wouldn't have to spend too long on the road getting there, but far enough off the beaten track to be safe. The moors are perfect, and they were even close enough to my place to allow him to pull his telephone stunt with me.

'But why did he go to al that bother? Answer, because he wanted to keep the child, to use him for some purpose, yet to be revealed.

Next question. Why not just take him home? Possible answer: because he has a family, or lives with a parent. Yet all my instincts are crying out to me that this man is a loner. Better answer: because he knew that in the period immediately after the murder we would make Edinburgh very hot indeed, far too risky a place to hide the boy. I think this guy lives in our city, Andy. Do you agree?'

'Yes,' said the Head ofCID, 'I do. I think that's more than likely.

'But Bob, there's one thing that's stil eating at me. Clearly this guy knows you, and knows of your bond with Mark. He's targeting you, somehow, through this crime. But to come to Gul ane to make that cal. Why would he do that?'

'Because he's crazy, Andy, that's why, and he's a gamester. This guy is as mad as a rucking hatter, and he thinks that he can play with the stupid policeman.'

Skinner went on. 'Let's consider something else. He only planned to stay in the van for a couple of days. Why?'

'He wouldn't want to outstay his welcome with Carr, I guess,'

Martin offered.

'Right. So where did he go, when he left on Sunday, after he and Mark had finished their food supply?'

'If I knew that,' said the younger man, 'I'd go and get him.'

'If I knew where he lived,' said Skinner, 'so would I. If he guessed that we only have the manpower to keep the real pressure on for a short period, what was to keep him from just going home?'

The Chief Superintendent looked at the Deputy Chief, and simply nodded his silent agreement.

'Are you seeing the press today?' Skinner asked.

'Whenever Carr finishes the photofit.'

'Right, why don't you tell them that we've found the caravan on the moors, that it's empty, and that we believe that the kidnapper, and Mark, may be back in the city? Let's heat the place up again, with a vengeance. If he is here, maybe we'l panic him into making a break for it.'

Martin looked suddenly doubtful. 'Isn't there a danger that if he panics he'll kill the child?'

The DCC looked him in the eye. 'Yes, there's bound to be: yet this man wants Mark, Andy. He needs him for something. That risk has existed since the kidnap, but he hasn't done it yet, or I'm pretty sure you'd have found the kid dead in the caravan.

'Look, our man has been setting the agenda all along. Let's make some moves of our own, and show him that we've got some brains after all.'

'Okay,' said the Head ofCID. 'I'l play it that way. Now, since you seem to have recovered your powers of deduction and are back in the detecting game, is there anything else that we could be doing that we're not?'

Skinner smiled. 'Since you ask…' he said. 'That caravan. It had a phoney number plate, didn't it?'

'Yes. I wonder why the guy didn't take it off. He's blown his cover in a way by leaving it there.'

'Sure but if he'd removed it he'd have drawn early attention to the van, which he did not want to do. Anyway it doesn't matter. Since we don't know who he is, our man will be using his legal number again.' The DCC paused.

'But stil, the phoneys are a potential lead: how about taking the city apart to see if you can find out who made them?'