Stay of Execution

26

The DCC was tidying his desk, and thinking about the road home, when there was a knock at his door. The status light outside had been set to red, ‘busy’, but he pushed a button in his desk and turned it to green, ‘come in’.

His visitor was the head of CID. ‘Red lights mean nothing to you, do they, Dan?’ said Skinner, amiably.

‘Depends where they are. Traffic lights I generally take note of, but houses down in Leith I avoid like the plague.’

‘I wish all our officers could say that.’

A smile seemed to ruffle Pringle’s heavy moustache. ‘Are you suggesting that some of our colleagues might not be above accepting sexual favours, Bob?’

‘I know of at least one who has done in days gone by, but he knows I do, so it won’t happen again.’ He grunted. ‘Anyway, he’s probably fucking past it by now. . or words to that effect. What have you got for me, Dan? Whatever it is, it had better not take long.’

‘It won’t. It’s about the swinging banker; you asked me to keep you in touch, remember.’

‘Aye, what about him?’

‘I’ve just had Maggie on the phone. She and Stevie have wrapped it up; they’re reporting it to the fiscal in the morning as a probable suicide.’

Skinner frowned. ‘I’m not sure the pathologist will be too happy about that. Sarah came in to see me at lunchtime. She said she’d found injuries that offered another explanation.’

‘I know,’ said Pringle. ‘Rose told me that. But she came up with a theory of her own, and I think it fits.’ He explained the scenario that had been outlined to him by the outgoing divisional commander.

When he finished, Skinner sighed, and nodded. ‘I can see that one,’ he admitted. ‘And I reckon the fiscal would buy it too. It’s not like my wife to go out on a limb like that, and be wrong. In fact, I’ve never known it before. I’ll need to be careful around the dinner table tonight.’

‘There’s merit in what she said, though, boss. It’s just that when Maggie and Steele went to the bank this afternoon, they were given a folder that showed that the bloke had been at it. Almost certainly he’d have been rumbled. On the evidence it seems pretty clear-cut.’

‘I suppose it does,’ the DCC agreed. ‘Weird, but clean-cut. Are you happy?’

‘I have to be. We all have to be; that’s what the evidence tells us.’

‘Tell that to the ghost of Timothy Evans, my friend.’

‘Who was he?’

‘An accused of fifty years ago. The evidence said he was guilty too, and they hanged him. . a lot more neatly than this chap, by all accounts. But. . cases like that are rarities. If you lot are prepared to report, I’m not going to rock the boat.’