Skinner's Mission

25

‘Chief Superintendent, Bob; if I’m all of the things which you have been on a mission over the years to prove that I am, then surely the fact that I’m still walking about shows that I have just a wee bit of intelligence.’

Jackie Charles looked at the two detectives coldly, with the self-assured expression of a successful general.

‘If that is accepted,’ he said, ‘you can’t think, surely, I would be so stupid as to mention my connection with this man Medina to you and then do something like this?’

Skinner stared back at him. ‘Jackie, where you’re concerned, I wouldn’t discount anything. You’re one of the most villainous bastards I’ve ever met in my life. You stand here in your fine house, waving your old school tie, and maintaining your honest business front.

‘In reality you’ve been behind just about every crime in the book. If something had happened since yesterday to make you think that Medina was a danger, I wouldn’t, for one second, put it past you to have had him killed. So far, that’s our principal theory.’ He walked over to the window of Charles’ study, on the villa’s upper floor, and looked out, westwards, over Murrayfield Golf Course.

‘The question is, what could have happened to make you pop the boy. Try this for size. After our people saw Dougie Terry this morning, he was straight on to the phone to you. That much I know. Telecom have confirmed that a call was made from his number to your mobile, around the time our guys left Stafford Street.

‘I reckon that something could have been said during that interview which made you think that Medina was a risk after all. Something they asked for upset you, made you think that it might lead us to something which your former book-keeper might have seen in your wife’s possession, and might have been able to identify in court, for all that the entries were in coded language, as being connected to you.’

He glanced at Andy Martin, then gazed back again at Charles, harder than ever, but the man stood his ground. ‘Maybe Carole told you once that she thought Medina might have seen this thing. Maybe then you thought little of it. Maybe today you changed your mind.’

Jackie Charles leaned against his handmade desk and picked a piece of dark fluff from his coral pink Pringle sweater. Then he looked up at Skinner and said, quietly and with the same assurance as before, ‘If that’s your principal theory, Bob, then you’d better get another. Because I had absolutely nothing to do with this man’s death.’

The DCC shook his head. ‘No, no, Jackie, we’re not letting you off the hook.’ He looked out of the window once more. ‘I’ll tell you something,’ he said, over his shoulder, ‘although you may have worked it out already.

‘I’ve got a reputation for being a bit volatile: short-fused, you know. But Andy here knows me better than anyone, and he’ll tell you that I’m the most patient man in the world. When it comes to crime, I think long-term. I see criminals as my mortal enemies, and in pursuing them I never get discouraged, and I never give up.’

He turned and he smiled: a hangman’s smile. He raised a hand, palm upward, fingers curling. ‘I have this guiding principle, you see. I believe that if I’m patient, and if I wait long enough, then one day, God will deliver the balls of my enemy into my strong right hand.

‘Be in no doubt: when that happens, I don’t even try to resist the temptation to squeeze as hard as I can!’ As he closed his powerful fist, tight, Jackie Charles, in spite of himself, winced.

He walked towards the door, Martin beside him. ‘Your turn’s coming, Jackie. It’s coming soon. And when it does, I’ll be using both hands.’

The two policemen hurried down the stairs and out of the house, to Skinner’s car which was parked at the head of the driveway.

‘Sir,’ said Martin, formally, and with a touch of caution. ‘You’ve had Charles in your sights for a long time now. We’ll get him eventually, but as far as you’re concerned, don’t you think you’re becoming a bit . . .’

‘Obsessional, you were going to say.’ The DCC shook his head and laughed. ‘Christ, everyone’s accusing me of that these days.

‘This time, you might be right though. I’d forgotten how much I hate that wee bastard. I have done, I think, from the first moment I ever saw him, and I’m quite certain that I always will. In fact the cold-hearted way that he’s accepted his wife’s death has made it worse.

‘I’ve got half a mind to take him down to the mortuary, and make him look at her body. Only I’m pretty certain that it wouldn’t faze him one bit.

‘Maybe you should keep me at arm’s length from this investigation from now on, Andy, for everyone’s sake, mine included. Keep me informed, but through Pamela, not directly. I’ll try my best to steer clear of you.’

He switched on the engine and put the car in gear. ‘Starting now. Time’s getting on. I have something to pick up from headquarters, then I want to look in to say goodnight to my son.

‘Last of all, I have a date with my daughter.’