'Well make sure he's kept out of my way, or I'l make him eat them.'
He caught Smal gazing at him with an expression that he had seen once in the eyes of a police dog as it looked at its handler.
'Okay, gentlemen,' he continued, 'if I can have a look at the house.
Are your technicians finished up here?'
'Yes, sir,' the lieutenant answered. 'They're all done. As you requested we've left the scene as close as we could to the way it was when we got here ... apart from the bodies, of course. They've been taken to the morgue in Loudonvil e, our regional headquarters. After we're done here, the coroner would like you to go there: he prefers for a family member to make a formal identification. We've put a hold on the autopsies til you've done that.'
Skinner shivered inwardly; outwardly he nodded briskly, as he headed up the short flight of steps, on to the veranda. The New York detectives fol owed him up, but his Bureau escorts stayed below, anxious, he guessed, not to offend local sensibilities by intruding on to their scene.
'How were they found?' the DCC asked Schultz. 'That part of the story was pretty vague.'
The lieutenant pointed out towards the expanse of lake, which could be seen from where they stood. As he did so, Skinner noticed a jetty, with a small powerboat moored against it. 'A neighbour of Mr and Mrs Grace was out in his cruiser, getting set for some dawn fishing. He saw that the porch light was on, and that the front door was open. He came ashore to check the place out and found them. He called the nearest police office, in Edinburg.'
Skinner's eyes screwed up as his momentary bewilderment registered on his face. 'Where?' he asked.
'Edinburg,' Schultz repeated. 'It's the nearest township, although it's barely big enough to warrant a dot on the map.'
He shook his head wondering whether it was simply coincidence, or whether it had been the name that had first attracted Leo to this remote place. 'I see,' he murmured. 'This fisherman guy: he's been checked out, has he?'
'Yes, sir. We're satisfied that's how it really was. The guy's over seventy; even if he had a grudge against the Graces, he couldn't have kil ed them like that.'
'No, I guess he couldn't. Time of death?'
'Around 9 p.m., the coroner reckoned; give or take an hour, he said. It was very cold through that night.'
Skinner looked down at the rocking chair, at rest now on the wide porch, to the left of the front door as he faced it. A chalk circle had been drawn around it. There was a cushion on the seat, untethered but stil in place, the shape of its occupant's buttocks stil showing clearly in it.
'Nothing's been touched? That cushion's as it was found?'
'Yes, sir. You'll see the crime scene photographs, but the old man was sat in his chair just as if he had died in his sleep. That's what Mr 58
Southern, the neighbour, thought at first, til he went inside.'
The DCC nodded and walked indoors, into a big living room, with a great hearth, filled with the grey ashes of a log fire. He looked around; the place looked as if it had been turned over by an expert in a hurry.
Most of the cushions of the leather suite stood on end, left in those positions by whoever had searched under them. The drawers and doors of a big farmhouse sideboard lay open. Books had been stripped from their shelves, flipped open, he guessed, then thrown on the floor. His father-in-law's flap-front desk, which he remembered from the den in his Buffalo house, had been ripped open. The chisel which the kil er had used lay beside it. The whole scene, furniture, books, every loose object in the room was covered in white fingerprint powder. 'You've been thorough,' Skinner murmured.
'Yes, sir,' the lieutenant agreed. 'We always are.'
'Did you lift any prints?'
'Nada. We got prints of Mr and Mrs Grace, Mr Southern, and the cleaning lady, plus one or two wild ones, but we don't think that any of those belong to the perpetrator. They were in the wrong places for him.'
'One perpetrator?'
'There's no indication that there was more than one perp. There are creaking boards al over the deck outside, yet Mr Grace was taken completely by surprise; my gut feeling is that this was a lone burglar.'
'Did he get anything, do you think?'
'We'l need you or someone else to do an inventory, but as far as we can tell he got money, cards, watches, rings, other valuables: everything you'd expect in a robbery.'
The big Scots policeman shook his head. 'Not everything, Lieutenant Schultz, not everything.' He picked up a book from the floor, and held it out. 'See this? It's a first edition ofMoby Dick, and it's signed by Herman Melville.' He looked at the volumes on the floor and selected another, then turned to the flyleaf. 'That signature? James Thurber. If you root around here for long enough you'l find first editions signed by Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Margaret Mitchell and God knows who else.
'I'm no expert, but there's thousands of dol ars, no, tens of thousands, lying on the floor here. Yet this guy looks through them al , for some reason, then just leaves them here. And this, you tell me, is a professional thief, who's prepared to kill. . .'
He broke off. 'Where's the kitchen?' he asked, sharply.
'Through there,' said Smal , pointing to a door to the left of the hearth.
Skinner walked across and looked inside. The inevitable outline was chalked on the floor; there was blood too, a lot of blood, around where the body had lain, streaking the pine doors of the wall cupboards, and splashed across one of the work surfaces. 'Bastard!' he murmured.
'The guy cut through an artery with the strangling wire,' Schultz explained, unnecessarily. 'It must have been over in seconds, though.'
Bob thought of his gentle parents-in-law as he pictured the scene. His head swam, and for an instant it was as if he had been there, and he could see it al happening. He felt himself sway, and grabbed hold of the nearest worktop to steady himself. He knew that he could not postpone sleep for much longer.
As far as he could see, neither detective had noticed his moment of weakness. He led them out of the kitchen and out of the house. As he stepped out on to the wide porch, his cellphone sang out. Joe Doherty was on the line. 'Where are you?' he asked.
'At the cabin; by the lake. I've seen what was done and how. Thanks for Brand and Kosinski, by the way; they've been great. Right now they're down below, practising diplomacy.'
'What you got?'
'A shit-awful mess. The officer in charge here feels there was only one killer, and I agree with him. Leo and Susannah were clearly killed by the same person, expertly at that. If there had been more than one, they'd probably have taken one each.'
'Where you going next?'
'We're going back to Saratoga Springs, to see the coroner and do what's necessary there, then your guys are going to take me on to Buffalo.'
'Fine. Let me know when you get there. By the way,' Doherty added, just when Skinner thought he was going to ring off, 'did you get that stuff I sent you?'
'Yes.'
'What did it tell you?'
'What I thought it would.'
He heard a heavy sigh. 'Okay, I give in. What's with the "Play it again, Sam"? What did you mean by that?'
Skinner chuckled, but grimly, without a trace of a smile. 'It's my suspicious mind at work; the whole thing made me think of Casablanca, my favourite movie. Remember where Bogart says, "Of all the gin joints
in all the world, she had to walk into mine"? Well, my friend, tell me this.
Of all the vulnerable lakeside cabins in the great United States of America, why did this guy have to walk into Leo Grace's?'
60
16
The chief superintendent's office was bigger than hers, but the view from the window was no better. Rose gave it only a brief glance and then turned her gaze back to the uniformed officers sat at the meeting table; two superintendents, clearly bristling that she was chairing the meeting, and three chief inspectors, of whom at least one was enjoying their discomfort.
'That's the way it is,' she said, briskly. 'You
've all seen the ACC's memo. Anything you would normal y bring to Mr English, you bring to me in his absence; otherwise it's business as usual. I know that the Chief Super is in the habit of holding Monday morning meetings with this group. I'l continue that practice, except that for the duration of this arrangement, which hopeful y will not be long, they'll be on Friday afternoons. The Monday timing clashes with the head of CID's weekly briefing, and I have to be there.'
She caught the look of surprise on one superintendent's face, and shot the group a brief glance. 'Yes, gentlemen, I'm doing two jobs. So please: don't take the piss. Don't go bringing me decisions that you would normally take yourself.'
The two senior officers stared back at her, unblinking. She would have welcomed Haggerty's presence to underline his message, but she knew that this was part of the test.
'CID's going through a quiet spell just now,' she continued, 'but the hooligans don't work to a timetable, so that could go pear-shaped at any moment. To make sure that I'm always contactable, I'm going to have a go-between, a runner; PC Haddock, one of our young probationers, will be my contact. He wil know where I am at any given moment.'
'Hope he's up to the job,' grunted Superintendent Davie Halliday.
'Back-watching calls for a bit of experience.'
Rose looked at him, evenly. 'I don't see why it should in this case,' she said. 'I have every confidence in my fellow officers.' Everyone in the room, Hal iday included, read the warning in her words.
She stood up, ending the meeting. 'Okay, gentlemen, that's al . Barring crises, I'll see you here at three o'clock on Friday, when we can run through the programme for next week. If anyone does need me, I'l be in my own office. I'm not moving in here.' She ushered them to the door, then went back to her own room. Back in familiar territory, she called the front office and asked for Haddock.
'And don't scare the boy this time,' she added, pointedly.
No more than a minute later, there was a knock on her door. Haddock was less nervous that on his first visit, but stil eyed her cautiously as he stood, al teeth and sharp elbows, in front of her desk. 'You sent for me, ma'am?' he ventured.
'Obviously. What do they call you, Constable Haddock? What's your Christian name?'
'Harold, ma'am,' he answered. 'But everybody calls me Sauce. Ye ken, like in brown sauce, like you put on a fish supper.'
Rose wrinkled her nose. 'You might: I certainly don't. But Sauce it wil be, if that's what you're comfortable with. Right, here's why I wanted you.'
She explained the duties she had in mind for the young officer. As she spoke she fancied his chest puffed out a little, and he began to look a little less awkward. 'Okay, Sauce, have you got that? Whenever I leave the station, I'll tell you where I'm going and how I can be contacted. If you see me heading out the front door and I haven't told you, stop me and ask me.'
Haddock nodded, his face telling her that he hoped it would not come to that.
'Good; you are now my official temporary gopher. You can start right away; you'd better get me those bloody night-shift reports.'
62
17
The bedside phone sounded at five minutes past seven; Sarah snatched it up on the second ring. Normal y, at that hour, it would have wakened her, but Seonaid had done that already. Having claimed her mother's attention, in the manner of infants she was asleep once more, on the pil ow on Bob's side of the bed.
She knew who was calling before she heard his voice. 'Hi,' she answered softly. 'Where are you?'
'I'm in Buffalo. I'm sorry I didn't call you from the scene like you asked, but I just couldn't, with those guys around.'
'I understand. How are you?'
'I'm fine.'
'You don't sound fine; you sound tired.'
'If I do, it's because I am. I fell asleep at seven o'clock yesterday evening and I woke up an hour ago.'
'Poor love. You at the house?'
'No, not yet. I checked into a hotel for the night; the Hyatt Regency in Fountain Plaza; I just told the guys to take me anywhere. I was so damn knackered I didn't think to look for keys at the cabin, and anyway, I don't know the alarm combination. To make it hassle-free, I called the security company that looks after the place. They've got everything I'l need to get in. My FBI nursemaids are taking me to meet them there at midday tomorrow. Hopeful y I'll have had some more kip by then.'
'Have you seen Sheriff Dekker yet?' she asked, speaking urgently, yet quietly at the same time, for fear of waking her daughter.
'Gie's a break, love. I spent most of yesterday with Little and Large, the State coppers.'
'How was the cabin?'
'Upside down, ransacked; just as I was told I'd find it.'
'And where else did they take you?'
He could hear her hesitancy. 'They took me to the morgue; I've done the formal identification and given the coroner signed authority to proceed with the autopsies. He's doing everything by the book.'
'How . . . how were they?'
He had been waiting for that question. He could still see their faces; he always would. Leo's eyes had been bulging almost out of their sockets, and Susannah's head had been al but severed by the wire garrotte.
'Peaceful. They'd barely have known a thing,' he told her.
'When can we have the funerals?'
'The coroner said he'l open an inquest, then adjourn it indefinitely.
After that, he's prepared to release the bodies. Shouldn't be more than a couple of days. I'l contact an undertaker, and get things under way. Be prepared for a big turn-out, love, and not just of family and friends. This is big news in the media here. It's all over television and the papers. I was filmed going into the coroner's office in Loudonville; I didn't want to speak to anyone so Schultz and Smal , the local guys, took me out the back way after I was done.'
'I thought you said they were cal ed.. .' She stopped. 'Sorry. My humour switch is stil off.'
'No, I'm sorry. But you should see Smal . I thought Lennie Plenderleith was big, but this bloke; Jesus.' He whistled.
'Anyhow,' he continued. 'That's where we are. My Bureau escorts are collecting me at eleven. We'll get the house opened, and then I'll go and see Dekker, although I'm not quite sure why, in the circumstances.'
'What do you mean?'
'I mean that the investigation has sod al to do with him. The crime happened a hell of a long way from here, and it's state jurisdiction, quite clearly; my seeing him is real y no more than a courtesy cal .'
'Well just remember, be courteous. We set great store on that in the USA.'
'Yes, dear, I'l be nice, I promise. I might even call him Sheriff.'
She heard him stifle a yawn. 'How are the kids?' he asked.
She looked at Seonaid, and saw that she was awake, and peering back at her, curious. 'One of them's right here,' she answered. 'Say hello to her.'
64
18
Looking at it from the street, Mario McGuire could see that Hargreen Primary School had grown over the years, and had changed rapidly in the process. Back in the days when Colinton village really was a village, it had probably boasted three or four classrooms in a smal stone building, and would have been perfectly adequate for its purpose, given the standards and methods of the day.
Happily not for decades had its pupils been crammed into classes of fifty, cowed, and frequently thrashed, into obedience and attention. The original school was still there, but a brass plate on its door indicated that it was now the administration block. A big modern structure seemed to burst out from it, enveloping it in grey concrete, and a second block, of roughly similar design, had been added at some later point. The architecture was definitely not Frank Lloyd Wright, but neither was the surrounding area.
The detective checked his watch. It was twenty-five past one, and the playground was empty; the Hargreen Primary pupils were back at work after lunch. He opened the green wooden door of the administration block, and stepped into a small vestibule, its only furniture an umbrella stand
, well used on that showery day. It opened out into a slightly larger hall, its walls lined with the work of children.
Straight ahead, facing him, there was a door with the word 'Janitor'
printed on a burnished metal plate. As he walked up to it McGuire took a deep breath, then turned the handle and pushed it open. The room was empty.
He looked around. It was famished with a steel-framed desk and chair, a small fridge, a grey filing cabinet, a coat-stand and a small table on which were a kettle, a jar of coffee, a box of tea bags and a jar of sugar.
A big white mug sat beside them, with the word 'Jannie' emblazoned in big blue capital letters. A Day-Glo yellow tunic and a crossing warden's hat were hanging on the stand and a tall traffic lollipop stood in the far corner . He noticed a grey metal wastebin beside the desk. He was about to
look in it when an insistent female voice sounded behind him.
'Excuse me. Didn't you see the sign?' it asked, as he turned. 'Al visitors to the school must first report to the office.'
'No,' he answered, untruthful y. 'I didn't see it.' He looked at the woman; grey well-cut hair, plump, peach-coloured woollen sweater, mock-tartan, mock-tweed skirt, brown tights, sensible shoes, inky fingers. He guessed at once who she was, but he asked his question out of politeness. 'Are you the head teacher?'
As she smiled and gave a self-deprecating shake of her head, he knew that he had been right, and that he had made a friend. 'Oh no,' she said,
'I'm only the school secretary. Mrs Dewberry's the head teacher; she's in her room. Would you like to see her? I take it you're a parent.'
McGuire shook his head. 'No, I'm not a parent; I'm a policeman.
Detective Superintendent McGuire.'
The woman gave a smal gasp. 'Ohhh. You'd better see Mrs Dewberry, then. Just hold on a minute.' As she bustled across the hal , and down a corridor leading off to the right, McGuire glanced into the wastebasket; it was empty. Quickly, he tried the desk's only drawer, but it was locked.
Quintin Jardine - Skinner Skinner 12 Page 7
