Thursday legends

67

Skinner put down the telephone and stared out of the conservatory, across the wide Firth of Forth. There was something unsettling about Lennie Plenderleith; even when he spoke to the man by telephone, as he just had for the first time in his life.

Big Lennie, when he was Tony Manson's first lieutenant, had maimed or murdered God knew how many people; later, after his mentor's death he had taken revenge in savage and terminal fashion. He had even tried to kill Skinner himself.

And yet, in spite of it all, against all logic, he found himself liking the giant in Shotts Prison. 'Why?' he asked himself, yet inwardly he knew the answer. In his own way, Lennie understood the meaning of loyalty and obligation as well as anyone he knew and had practised them, even though it had led to his imprisonment for life.

Those were the virtues which Bob Skinner valued above all others and if, in Plenderleith's case, these were accompanied by awesome, pitiless violence when he perceived it to be necessary… the DCC knew that the same streak ran through him. They came from different backgrounds, they had taken different paths through life, yet as Skinner sat in his comfortable home, he wondered whether, had their circumstances been reversed, it might have been him who had ended up in a cell.

Forcing himself to shove the thought to one side, he picked up the phone again, dialled the Torphichen Place police office and asked for Detective Superintendent Pringle.

'Afternoon, sir,' said the veteran as he came on line. 'Did you get anything?'

'Yes, Dan, but nothing that's going to take you forward. I had the Governor bring Lennie to the phone and I asked him about his meetings with Luke Heard. He assured me that the two of them only ever talk business. Heard gives him a quarterly report detailing the performance of every investment in the trust portfolio; Lennie looks at it and makes a few off-the-cuff comments. Later, once he's had a chance to study it at leisure, he writes to him with more detailed instructions.

'There's never any small talk. The big fella told me that he doesn't like Heard; he thinks he's a nasty piece of goods. He only does business with him because the Diddler turned him down.'

'So Lennie had something against Shearer himself,' Pringle commented.

'Don't clutch at straws, Daniel. He understood Diddler's position and he still respects it.'

Pringle could not restrain himself. 'Do you believe all that, though? I mean, the man's a fuckin' murderer.'

Skinner chuckled. 'As someone once said, it doesn't make you a bad person. Seriously though; Lennie has never once told me a lie. Fact is, I doubt if he's ever told a lie in his life. Take it from me, he did not do Heard any favours, or drop him any hints, accidentally or otherwise.'

'Aye okay, sir,' the Superintendent conceded, wearily at first, until his voice changed. 'I suppose one bit of luck's all I can hope for in a day.'

'What d' you mean?'

'I just had a call from the diving team. They've found the Did- Mr Shearer's organiser thing in the river, just downstream from the house. No sign of the watch yet, though.'

'Bugger the watch! You give that lap-top to our technical people; with a bit of luck, there'll be retrievable data on it.'

'It's already on the way to them. I'll give you a call if we get a result.'

'Do that, but keep Andy informed first; everything goes through him.'

As he hung up, he glanced across at Martin, who was seated opposite. 'Did you get that?'

'Diddler's diary?'

'Possibly, unless it's goosed.'

'Our day for the high-tech, isn't it?'

'Seems to be. Go and get Maggie and Mario for me, will you? You understand why I didn't want them in the room while I spoke to Lennie? It would have been a breach of confidence, in a way, to have them listening in.'

'Sure.' Martin paused. 'Tell me something. Do you ever regret not just standing aside that night and letting him walk out of there?'

Bob shook his head. 'Never. Not for a second. Sod the guys that he did in; they were crooks and murderers. But he killed his wife, Andy; he cut her throat, and he had to pay for that.'

The Head of CID left the conservatory, returning quickly with Rose and McGuire at his heels. The Inspector was carrying Alec Smith's computer, while his wife held the strongbox full of photographs.

'Hi, folks,' said the DCC, pushing himself halfway up from his chair as they entered. 'Sorry to keep you waiting; I had something to take care of. We can get on with it now, though, in peace and quiet too; Mark's at school, and Sarah's up at Edith Shearer's with the other two.

'So what's the big mystery? What's this that Andy and I both have to see?'

'Dynamite, Boss,' McGuire, the junior officer in the room, answered. 'Sheer bloody dynamite. As DCI Rose told you on the phone, the late Mrs Smith's Co-op number paid off. We got into the safe, and we found this lot. Once we got into it, we realised that you had to see it.'

'Okay,' said Skinner, 'let's have it then. How's the battery?'

'Fully charged. I switched it on as we were coming through.' He handed the lap-top over, raising the screen as he did so.

The DCC looked at the small keyboard. 'Fiddly thing this. Our Mark's the boy for these.'

'You wouldn't want him to see what's on there.'

'Let's have a look then.'

He looked at the listed folders and clicked open the one marked, 'John'. He hit on the first name at once. 'Barnfather. The old judge?' he asked, glancing up at McGuire, who nodded. As he glanced down the list of names, one jumped out at him. 'Topham? Is that Marcia Topham, the Police Committee woman?'

'The same' Rose murmured.

He opened the first file, and read his way through it. As he finished, the DCI handed him the first envelope of photographs; he hissed with distaste as he looked through them, then handed them to Martin and opened the next file. Slowly, carefully, and silently, he read his way through all twenty-seven numbered files and examined all twenty-seven envelopes.

The twenty-eighth file was headed, 'Report'. Skinner clicked it open and gasped. 'Bloody hell! This is addressed to the Lord President.' The document which showed on the computer screen was headed:

Private and Confidential.

Lord Murray of Overstoun, Lord President of the Court of Session.

Copy to: 'The Moderator, General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.'

The DCC read aloud:

'This report is written to draw to your attention a sinister network of individuals who exist in Scotland today, exercising a malign influence over our country's moral standards, and bringing to bear pressures which have the effect of undermining the principles upon which our society is based.

'Every person listed in this document is, or in the case of the late Lord Barnfather, was, an undeclared, practising homosexual. The evidence against them is clear and is presented in photographic form. 'They include, sir, two of your own colleagues, Senators of the College of Justice, five members of the Scottish Administration, including two of Cabinet rank, three Shadow Ministers, three Queen's Counsel holding public office, two high-ranking police officers, four senior civil servants, including one in the Lord Advocate's Department, two senior clergymen of the Church of Scotland and six prominent and influential figures in the Scottish financial and business community.

'The majority of these people, nineteen to be exact, are married or co-habiting with heterosexual partners. 'The fact that sexually deviant people hold prominent positions represents a danger in itself, given that they are all still in the closet, and are therefore potentially subject to blackmail. However there is a greater danger and it is real and present.

'All of these people are linked by membership of a range of professional bodies, clubs and societies; many of them are known to each other as homosexuals, and there is strong evidence of collusion between them to achieve further sexual liberalisation in Scotland. There are also instances where it is apparent that criminal proceedings against homosexuals have been compromised because influence has been exercised improperly. 'Sir, this document is addressed to you as the senior figure in the Establishment, standing aloof from politics and at the head of the Scottish Legal system. It is my earnest hope that you will use your influence to ensure that these people are driven from office. I am not afraid to make this report public; my evidence is strong enough to withstand any action for defamation. However, I do not wish to cause a national scandal and I rely on you to ensure that this menace is rooted out.'

Skinner looked up and closed the lap-top. 'Jesus Christ!' he murmured. 'Old Alec must have been right round the twist.' He opened the computer again, but it had put itself to sleep. 'What was the date on the first of those files?' he asked Rose.

'About five years ago; the file on Lord Barnfather. It was compiled just after his son died.'

'Ahh, the poor guy. It must have hurt him incredibly for him to react like that. But he was so secretive; he just couldn't have been able to talk to him about it.'

He pressed a key to re-activate the lap-top and handed it to Martin. 'Look at some of the names on that list… especially number five.'

'No need,' said the Head of CID. 'I recognised him from the photographs. Assistant Chief Constable James Elder. Who'd have bloody thought it?'

'Not me, that's for sure.'

'So where does it take us?'

'In theory, it gives us twenty-six people with a reason to kill Alec. But in practice… I doubt if it takes us anywhere. There is a link to the Diddler, I'll grant you, but it's pretty tenuous; his partner, Ronald Johnston-White, is on the list.

'No, it doesn't help my pet theory, Andy, not a bit. Lawrence Scotland is still the man in the frame for Alec's killing. The guy Heard is still prime suspect for Diddler's murder. As for the attack on me; there's a small army of people would like to have done that; probably one of them did.'

'Do you think the report was ever actually submitted to Lord Murray, sir?' asked McGuire.

'No,' said the DCC. 'I'm certain that it wasn't. If that had been put into David's hands, the first thing he'd have done would have been to call me.'

'You don't think he might have called Sir John Govan?' Martin looked at Skinner, a suggestion in his eyes.

'Are you hinting that the First Minister's security adviser might have had Alec bumped off? If you are, you can forget it; I know the man. On the other hand, David Murray doesn't; he'd have called me, for sure.'

'So what are we going to do about this, if it doesn't impact on the murder investigation? Shouldn't we interview the people on the list, at least, just to eliminate them?'

'What? Interview a judge, two Scottish Cabinet Ministers, Marcia Topham and Jim Elder? To tell them all that they've been persecuted by a madman. I don't think so. There isn't a single piece of information here, or a single photograph, that could be used as evidence of a serious crime.

'Let me show you what I'm going to do with this lot. Mags, did you say something about copy disks?'

'Yes sir,' Rose replied. 'There are two.' She took them from the strongbox and handed them over.

Skinner reclaimed the computer from Martin, slid the two disks into the floppy drive, one after the other, and erased them. Finally, he selected the 'John' folder and dragged it to the waste-basket in the bottom corner of the screen.

'You sure?' asked the Head of CID quietly. 'What if one of them did kill Alec?'

'What if?' he murmured. 'I can live with it.' He pulled down a Command from the Apple menu and emptied the wastebasket, destroying Alec Smith's report for ever.

'Leave those photographs with me, Maggie,' he said. 'We're having a barbecue tonight.'