distance, in
Neidholm's doorway, he thought that he could see a tiny figure, back to
camera, either entering or leaving the house.
He glanced to the side. "Elaine," he asked, 'can you zoom in on these
images? To be specific, on that doorway?"
"Sure," she replied. "Let me show you." She picked up the camera,
made an adjustment and pressed a button. The figure in the doorway
grew larger, but as it did it lost all clarity, and became no more than
a black blur.
"Take me back to the last image, please," Skinner murmured, 'and see if
you can focus in on the number plate on that white car."
She did as he requested. Together they looked at the screen as the car
grew larger; as they watched, letters became clear and legible.
Bob's grin widened, until eventually it was as if it stretched from ear
to ear. As he looked at the licence plate, he felt almost consumed by
a huge feeling of relief. "Jesus," he laughed, 'talk about signing
your name everywhere you go!"
Fifty-Five.
"So that's it," Paula exclaimed, 'you've actually moved out?"
He nodded. "I'm in the process of, yes."
"You're not giving yourself time for second thoughts? You're not just
giving yourself a bit of breathing space?"
"No; neither of us needs any breathing space. We both know it's
over."
"But why has this happened all of a sudden, Mario? You told me what
your problems were, but you said you were handling them, and that you
and Maggie were content to go on the way you were. God, I never felt
like a whore before, but I do now!"
She turned away from him, but he put his hands on her shoulders and
brought her back to face him once more. "You can stop that right now,"
he said, firmly. "This has got nothing to do with you."
"You can say that, but the rest of bloody Edinburgh won't see it that
way. I suppose I'm a bit late to be thinking of that now'
"The rest of bloody Edinburgh can think what it will, but I can tell
you this; they won't hear it from Maggie, and they sure as hell won't
say it in my hearing. Paulie, the things that killed our marriage have
nothing to do with you and me. They were covered up for too long; now
they've got out of the box and we can't handle them. Losing custody of
Rufus might have been the catalyst for this, but in a way it's been a
blessing too."
"But you were so fond of that wee guy."
"Yeah, I know, but he's going to be much better off with his uncle's
family." He wrinkled his nose. "Hell, I can always get a puppy."
"And what's Maggie going to do on her own?"
"She's going to do her job; get on with her career. As for being on
her own, she's been that way since she was a kid. Even when we were
married, there was a part of her that I could never get near."
"There's a part of me you'll never get near, too; I hope you realise
that."
He grinned. "Hell. I wouldn't want to get any where near her. She's
a dangerous woman."
"You'd better believe it," she said, in mock warning. "But this part
of me isn't." She slid her arms around his waist and pressed herself
against him, burying her face in his chest. "This part's just a
selfish bitch; she's glad that you're out of it. And if it's been
wrong all along, I suppose I should be glad for Maggie too. You never
know; maybe she'll find the right man, in time."
"Maybe she will, but it sure as hell ain't me."
When Paula looked up at him, she was frowning. "That should worry me,
you know," she whispered. "Maybe you'll find the right woman."
"Maybe I've found her," he replied. "Maybe she's been there all along.
Maybe this is the way it should be; me in your mum and dad's old place,
you here, living our lives and getting together when we feel like
it."
"And maybe you should stop trying to see the future. Look at your
friend Neil; you could never have guessed what would happen to him,
after his wife died."
"That's true, but there aren't too many women like Lou around. Anyway,
you have to be looking to land one."
"And was Neil?"
He frowned. "No," he said slowly.
"There you are then. Don't you tell me that you don't know a single
woman that you fancy a bit."
He ran his fingers through her silver hair. "I will tell you that I
don't know a single woman... or a married one for that matter... that I
fancy as much as you."
"Aye," Paula murmured, doubtfully. "Let's see if it stays that way.
"Speaking of Neil," she continued, 'how's he going to take you and
Maggie splitting up? He's close to her as well as you, isn't he?"
"Neil was more or less the detonator that set off the explosion," he
told her. "He sat me down and talked to me and made me see the whole
thing the way it really was. Your ex, Stevie, did something similar
for Maggie, at around the same time."
"Stevie, eh," she mused. "He's a deep one, that. You think I'm
secretive? He's a kind bloke, though; too gentle for me in the end,
but those big soft eyes of his ... Oh they have an effect, I can tell
you."
"He needs to watch who he looks at then," Mario muttered, darkly.
"What do you mean?"
"Remember Alice Cowan, the girl who worked for me in SB?"
"Yeah, she shops in my deli. What about her?"
"She saw Stevie in a wine bar with someone he definitely should not
have been with; a married lady."
"Knowing him, it was probably perfectly innocent; he was probably
counselling her."
"Not the way Alice told it."
Paula's eyes widened; she smiled. "Oh dear," she said. "It's not like
Stevie-boy to be indiscreet. Did you talk to him about it?"
"No danger. I'm not getting into that. If he wants to shaft his
career, he can get on with it. No, I filed it away mentally, and I
told Alice to forget what she had seen, for ever."
"And will she?"
"For sure."
"Won't she tell Neil, now she's working for him?"
"God, no. Anyone but Neil."
Paula's eyes widened even further. "It wasn't his wife, was it?"
"Of course not; I'd have fucking killed Stevie myself if it had
been."
"I'm intrigued."
"Don't be. I'm telling you no more. I shouldn't have let that much
slip."
"In that case it's forgotten already, honest. But speaking of Neil and
his wife, now that we're sort of legit." will I get to meet her?"
"Probably. I'll let the smoke clear, then maybe invite them to dinner
at the new place. By that time Neil may have solved his problem."
"What problem?"
"A woman called Agnes Maley."
"Black Agnes? What's she been up to? I thought she'd cut her links
with the shady side of Edinburgh."
He threw his arms wide in a dramatic gesture, and his head back.
"Jesus," he laughed, 'you know about that too! Police intelligence; a
contradiction, like they say."
"I'm from Leith, Mario," Paula reminded him. "And I'm in the sauna
business. So what about Agnes?"
"She's been making trouble for the
boss, that's all. Now it looks as
if she's about to get a Holyrood seat. Neil wants to fix her wagon
before that happens."
"He's going to have trouble then; Agnes covers her tracks, plus she's
got a lot of friends."
"How does a female scumbag like her have friends?"
"She helps people. They remember it, not least because Agnes never
lets them forget. I heard a story about her the other day, as it
happens." She paused.
"Let's have it then," he said, impatiently.
"Okay, hold your horses. Do you know a woman called Joanne Virtue?"
Mario laughed. "Joanne Virtue? The Big Easy? Every copper in
Edinburgh knows her; one or two have known her intimately as well, so
they say."
"True enough; your colleague Superintendent Jay for one, from what I
hear. Joanne was on the game for years, but she was an honest worker;
no drugs, no clap. A couple of years ago, she hung up her G-string and
got a job as manager of a sauna at the bottom end of the New Town. A
few weeks back, the neighbours started giving her trouble; it's in a
half-posh district and there were one or two noisy incidents. They
sent a petition to the council asking for the licence to be withdrawn.
This would not have been happy news for the owner, and might have had
consequences for Joanne, so she was really worried."
"I'm not surprised. What did she do?"
"She went to see Agnes. The place isn't in her ward or anywhere near
it, and the local Labour councillor had even signed the petition, so
you'd have thought that would have been that. But no; Agnes said
"leave it with me". A few days later, the petition came up before the
committee, and the Labour members voted against it, en masse. Agnes
had taken it to the group and told them she wasn't having the girls who
work there forced on to the street."
Mario stared at her. "But why would she do that? It's not that long
since Agnes had a sauna in her own ward closed on just those
grounds."
"Don't ask me. That's as much of the story as I was told. If you or
Neil want to hear the rest, you'd better ask Joanne."
Fifty-Six.
"So you've got bugger all," Detective Chief Superintendent Dan Pringle
pronounced. "That's the sum total of what you're telling me, is it,
Maggie? You're almost a week into this investigation, and you've got
no suspects and no positive lines of enquiry."
"I wouldn't quite ..." a voice from his left intervened.
It was still short often a.m." and the head of CID was not in one of
his sunnier morning moods; he glowered at Stevie Steele. "You shut up,
inspector. I was talking to your divisional commander, not you." He
turned his hostile gaze back on Rose. "Well?"
"I wouldn't quite say that, sir," she snapped back. "We've been
pursuing this investigation diligently since the incident happened. We
identified a potential suspect almost immediately, someone who had
access to the picture and who was a schizophrenic with a history of
religious freakery."
"Aye, you said. So why isn't she still in the frame?"
"Because she was eliminated at an early stage; she was set up. Whoever
booby-trapped the Trinity lured her along there so she could take the
blame."
"How do you know that?"
"She told us she had a phone call, a voice telling her to go as God's
witness. We established that she did have a call at the time she said,
but from a mobile belonging to someone in Candela and Finch's
office."
"So what about him? Why isn't he banged up?"
"He was," said Rose, impatiently, 'but we had to release him. He
denied making the call, and said that someone must have borrowed his
phone without his knowledge."
"Did you dust it?"
"Of course we did."
"And did you find any prints other than the suspect's?"
"No."
"Was the girl known to the suspect?"
"They were at university at the same time."
"Well?"
"It's not enough."
"Who else have you got?"
"No one." Rose sighed, exasperated, and glared at Pringle. "Dan,
what's got up your shirt? We're doing our bloody best here."
"You're trying too bloody hard then! You've got clear evidence that
this schizo girl was enticed along so she'd be there on a plate for
you. You've got a suspect with knowledge of her condition .. ."
"No, there's no evidence that he knew her history."
"Or that he didn't."
"And what's his motive, Dan? Why should this trainee bloody lawyer
whose interests don't seem to run beyond the local wine bar decide to
fire-bomb a work of art?"
"Maybe he was paid."
"Oh, come on!"
"Maybe he was; but what does it matter? You've got a case against this
guy... What's his name?"
"Sheringham."
'... Sheringham. That's all that need concern you for now. Send it to
the fiscal."
"What?"
"You heard. Clear your tray. Send the papers on Mr. Sheringham to
the procurator fiscal and let Crown Office take the decision on whether
to prosecute. I don't see the difficulty in that." He seemed to
soften a little. "Look Maggie, I know that you and Mario are on the
rocks, and I'm sorry about it, but maybe your private life's been
dulling your professional eye, so to speak." She gasped in outraged
protest, but he held up a hand to cut her off. "To answer your
slightly impudent question, ACC Haggerty has been getting up my shirt,
not big-time yet, but it's heading that way. The big fella could be
back at any minute and Willie's going to want him to find a clean desk.
So you clean it for him. Savvy? You send a report on Sheringham to
the PF, pronto, so that I can tell him we've got a result. That's not
a suggestion, it's an order, so get on with it."
"I'll look like an idiot!" Rose snapped.
"No, the fiscal will if he doesn't prosecute. Do it." The head of CID
pushed himself up from his perch on the corner of Rose's desk and
headed for the door. He was almost there when Stevie Steele stepped
across and blocked his way.
"I'm sorry, sir," he said quietly, 'but I'm not wearing that."
"You're not wearing what, son?" Pringle boomed. "You'll be wearing a
fucking uniform if you're insubordinate with me."
"Don't threaten me, sir." The inspector's voice was steady and icy
calm. "And don't ever shout at me again, or tell me to shut up. I'll
be on this force long after you've gone, and don't you forget it.
Maggie's my boss, and you're not going to come in here and walk on her
like that. You owe her two apologies, one for doubting her judgement
and the other for even thinking that it might be affected by what's
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