Skinner's Mission

8

Two potential chief officers sat opposite a third, across Andy Martin’s desk in the CID office suite.

Martin sat with his back to the window in the plain magnolia-painted room. Behind him Detective Superintendent Dave Donaldson and Detective Chief Inspector Maggie Rose could see the sharp, crenellated tower of Fettes College, many of its classroom windows lit, as the minds of its privileged students were illuminated through the dull day.

Donaldson, a year or two older than the Head of CID but still in his mid-thirties, was a tall slim man, with relaxed, friendly eyes, an easy smile, and a taste for suiting which had earned him the nickname ‘Flash’ among his junior officers. He gave off a powerful air of self-confidence which in many another job with less stringent promotion criteria would have been enough in itself to mark him out automatically as a high flyer; looking at him across the desk Martin had a sudden vision of his colleague selling Ferraris on Jackie Charles’ forecourt.

However, the achievement of high rank in the police force is based on more than self-belief, and the Chief Superintendent’s recommendation that he be promoted into the vacancy as Eastern Area CID commander had been based on an impressive service record which showed no hint of recklessness, and a clear-up rate on investigations under his charge which matched even Skinner’s, and his own.

Maggie Rose was impressive in a different way from Donaldson. Her red hair was a good indicator of the core of her personality, but outwardly she was a calm, thoughtful woman. Her clothing tended to emphasise the quiet side of her nature, although Martin thought that it had become slightly more flamboyant since her marriage to Special Branch Inspector Mario McGuire.

One of the great strengths of Maggie Rose, the one which had drawn her first to DCC Skinner’s attention, was the fact that she never offered a view that had not been considered carefully, with all the risks analysed and all the consequences measured.

That was why Skinner had taken her on to his personal staff, and it was why he had concurred with her appointment as Donaldson’s deputy with a degree of reluctance.

And that may have been why Martin was looking at her, although he addressed his questions to them both.

‘Given the breadth of Jackie Charles’ known, or at least suspected activities,’ he said, ‘this investigation is going to be intricate, to say the very least. What would you two say our priorities should be? And do either of you see any short-cuts we might follow?’

‘Well,’ began Donaldson. ‘I’d say . . .’ He stopped in mid-sentence. ‘Sorry, I shouldn’t jump in all the time. Mags, you’re the strategist on the team. What do you think?’

‘Good command skill,’ thought Martin, with a glance at the Superintendent. ‘Assess your subordinates’ strengths, recognise them publicly, and make use of them as much as you can.’

Rose sat silent for a few seconds, looking at Donaldson as if searching for anything patronising in his tone, but finding nothing.

‘Given what we’ve heard, sir,’ she began, ‘the first thing I’d say is that I agree with the Boss. We have to find this chap Carl Medina, on the basis of Charles’ statement.

‘But the second thing I’d say is that I wouldn’t hold out too many hopes that he’s our man.’ She nodded towards Skinner’s tape recorder which lay on the desk, which Martin had just replayed. ‘His was the only name that Charles actually volunteered during that interview. It occurs to me that if he thought for one second that Medina was his wife’s murderer, he’d have kept it to himself, and done something about it himself.’

She paused. ‘We all know that Jackie Charles is a criminal. Yet he’s never been caught, and is only associated with crime through whispers from touts that we’ve never been able to corroborate or present in evidence. People like Jackie Charles, if they were straight, would make great personnel directors. They know people, inside and out. They have the same skill as the most senior police officers in recognising strengths and weaknesses, and they take precautions to ensure that those strengths or weaknesses never become threats.

‘There was a gangleader arrested in France a couple of years back. They reckoned that he had ordered at least fifty murders of associates simply as a precaution.’

She paused and looked at Donaldson. ‘Go on,’ said the Superintendent, fascinated.

‘I’ve studied Charles. He is a very shrewd, ruthless man. He told us that Medina was suspected of stealing from him, and that the only thing he did about it was to sack him. That alone tells me that he regarded Medina as a nonentity. I don’t believe the story about the industrial tribunal; not for one second. Jackie simply threw that in for effect.

‘He thought that Medina was just a pipsqueak, stupid enough to try to steal a few quid from him. If he had thought that he was the sort who would set fire to even a single car out of revenge, then Medina wouldn’t have been sacked, he’d have fallen off a high building, or would have been a hit-and-run victim.

‘Jackie threw us that name as a bone, to set us on a false trail, while he starts his own investigation. We can warn all we like, but we won’t put him off pursuing his wife’s killer.’

‘Unless he did it himself?’ mused Donaldson, aloud.

‘Yes,’ said Rose, ‘we have to keep our minds open to that possibility. We’ve had no information that Charles has ever personally harmed anyone, but he has caused it. His closest associate, other than Carole, is, as we know, one Douglas Terry, the same man who was a suspect in the Indico payroll robbery. He went to work for Charles a couple of years afterwards and they’ve been as thick as thieves . . . now there’s a simile for you . . . ever since.

‘Terry’s official job is general manager of the betting shops and taxi businesses. But we know that he is the middleman into the loansharking and that, in every respect, he’s Jackie Charles’ fixer. His name and Jackie’s are linked inextricably.

‘Okay, we know that Charles was at Ibrox. But if he had wanted Carole dead for any reason he’d have told Terry, and Dougie would have seen that it was taken care of, specifically while Jackie was in a very public place.’

She looked across at Martin. ‘What do you think, sir? You saw Charles.’

The Chief Superintendent shook his head, slowly. ‘We can’t discount the possibility, but I don’t believe it. Neither does the Boss. When we gave him the news that Carole was probably dead in the fire, he was genuinely stunned, and he wasn’t acting. The second time we saw him, he’d worked out what had happened, and guessed that he’d been the target. He was quietly incandescent.

‘So, Maggie. Any thoughts on priorities?’

She nodded her red head. ‘Yes. One, trace Carl Medina and bring him in for questioning.

‘Two, go through the books of the car dealership for anything that might point us in the direction of someone with a grudge. Unlikely, I admit. I don’t think that Jackie’s legitimate business will give us any leads, but it has to be done.

‘Three, interview all of Charles’ known close associates, beginning with Douglas Terry, to see if we can pick up the slightest hint of anyone from whom Jackie might have been under threat.

‘Four, start pulling in the loansharks, at random. Lean on them until they cough up names of their biggest debtors, just to make us leave them alone.

‘Fifth, start pulling in his taxi drivers, off the street, to see what they might have heard. While we have them, check their driving licences, insurance situation, criminal background, everything else. If we find anything to show the person to be an unsuitable or illegal driver, we can go back to the court to have that particular licence removed.

‘Sixth, start interviewing the other taxi owners. Look for special grudges against Charles, and look for any hint that some of them might have got together to put a stop to his extortion.

‘Seventh, pull in every known gangleader in Edinburgh. Not just because we have an opportunity to make a nuisance of ourselves, but to see if any of them have heard anything from outside Edinburgh, about Charles being in trouble.

‘Eighth, using Special Branch, explore the criminal intelligence network throughout the UK to see whether that throws up any leads.’ She paused and looked at her colleagues, from one to the other.

‘That should be enough to go on with.’

Andy Martin leaned forward across his desk. He smiled in admiration yet again of Rose’s thoroughness. ‘I agree with all of those, Maggie, and I see the theme that runs through them. This isn’t just a murder investigation. It’s an opportunity at the very least to interfere with Jackie Charles’ illegal business interests, and at the maximum, to make it too risky or difficult for him to carry on with them.

‘So let’s pursue all of those lines of investigation. Use what manpower you need, but report to me at every stage. Neil McIlhenney and Sammy Pye, from my personal staff, are at your disposal too.

‘The first thing to do is find Carl Medina. The second is to get into the books of Charles’ legit businesses.’

He paused, and took a deep breath. ‘But the third . . . and this is another priority . . . is try to find his other records. Jackie’s criminal business is too extensive for it to have been conducted all in his head, or in Carole’s, or in Douglas Terry’s. Somewhere there have to be records, maybe bank books and evidence of cash deposits and movements.

‘We’ve worked for years in the belief that if we could find the nerve centre of his other business we’d have Charles by the balls. Twice in recent years we’ve had tips that there were books kept in properties belonging to his companies.’

Martin frowned. ‘In each case when we got our search warrant and got in there we found unfurnished apartments and empty safes. It was as if they had known we were coming. I want you to listen out for more whispers in the course of this investigation. We might be in luck next time.’

He paused. ‘The big complication in this investigation is the husband of the victim. You’re right, Mags. The DCC can warn all he likes. He could even take the guy into a small, dark room for half an hour. But it wouldn’t make any difference.

‘Jackie Charles will be after the man who killed his wife. He will run his own investigation alongside ours. If we can’t stop him, we might as well make what use of him we can. So from this time on, keep an eye on him, and on Douglas Terry.

‘You never know where the two of them might lead us.’

He stood up. ‘I’ve asked our press office to call a media briefing for one o’clock.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘That’s in five minutes.

‘Royston’s line has been melting all morning, but I told him to hold fire until the Boss and I had seen Charles and I was ready to make a statement in person.

‘Let’s go to meet the press, and start a few hares running.’