Quintin Jardine - Aftershock

‘As I said, Bob, it’s your day.’

‘Maybe, but there’s one thing that’s got me baffled. Why pick on me? Why try to set me up? Not even you would have anticipated that I’d be convicted for things I hadn’t done, but enough smoke, even without fire, would have derailed my career, and probably Aileen’s too. I suppose that’s what those anonymous phone calls were about, you trying to kick-start that process. So why, Gregor, why me? We’ve known each other for twenty years. I’ve always regarded you as a friend. Tell me, please; I don’t know and I can’t guess.’

‘I don’t suppose you can, Bob. If it’s any consolation, I’ve never regarded you as an enemy: as a friend, though, no, not for a long time; not since I found out about you and Phil.’

Skinner stared at him. ‘That’s it? That’s why you’ve been trying to point my own officers at me in their investigations? Phil and I went out together. . what? Twelve years ago now, before you and she were married, or even engaged. It wasn’t a secret at the time, but I doubt if there’s anybody in Edinburgh who still remembers it, apart from the three of us. I’ve never even told Alex about it, only Aileen. What’s your beef? I didn’t ask her to marry me, although I might have got around to it, I admit. You did, and she accepted. I was the one who got hurt, not you.’

‘You think so? Remember when Ranald was born, our first?’

‘Of course I do. We wet his head in Deacon Brodie’s. Got it very wet, as I recall.’

‘I told you he was carried full term. . or, at least, I allowed you to assume that he was. Actually he was two months premature.’

To Skinner the room suddenly felt smaller. ‘Now wait a minute. .’ he began. ‘Phil and I didn’t have that sort of relationship.’

‘Never? Under oath?’

‘Well, maybe a couple of times. . just before it packed in. But you’re not telling me that you and she were platonic.’

‘No, I’m not, and our relations were within the time-frame. Phil never gave me the slightest hint that I might not have been Ranald’s dad, but I’m afraid I always had that little niggle. Gradually I forgot about it, though, until last year, when something happened. Your daughter was attacked, and to help the investigation, she gave a DNA sample. Of course, the papers in the case landed on my desk. I’d never thought of having a test done until then, but I found the temptation too much to resist. I had comparisons run privately using your daughter’s DNA, Ranald’s and mine. Congratulations, Bob. Your sex with Phil may not have been very memorable, but for all that it was effective. You stole my son, you bastard.’

‘Does she know?’ Skinner whispered.

‘No. She and Ranald must never know, but now that. . now that it’s all over for me, by God you should!’

‘And you’ll trust me to keep your secret, after what you tried to do to me?’

‘You wouldn’t hurt Phil. You wouldn’t damage the boy.’

‘How exactly would it damage him to know that the most notorious serial killer we’ve had in years isn’t his dad after all? How much hurt do you think Phil’s going to feel when I tell her about you? How is she going to carry on with her career, with her husband up before one of her fellow judges?’

‘Bob, a few minutes ago you said you thought of me as a friend.’

‘Fucking wrong there, was I not?’

‘Maybe, but do this one thing for me. Keep my secret.’

Skinner glared at him. ‘Okay, I will, if you do something for me.’

‘What?’

‘The psychiatrists are going to be crawling around inside your head for the next few weeks, Gregor. They may say you’re nuts, unfit to plead. But if they don’t, then the word you say is “guilty”. You will not put Phil and her boys through the ordeal of a trial.’

‘You’re blackmailing me.’

‘At the moment, pal, you’re lucky that I’m not around this table disembowelling you with my fingernails. If you do that to your wife and family, what else do they have to lose? Do we have a deal or not?’

Gregor Broughton looked at him and nodded. ‘We do. Tell me, Bob,’ he added, ‘since I can’t be objective in this, you must have interviewed more than a few crazy people in your time. Do you think I’m one of them?’

‘Do you think he is?’ Aileen asked him, her arm linked though his as they strolled past Gullane Parish Church.

‘Fit to plead?’ he responded. ‘Sometimes it’s hard to tell. Did he know right from wrong as he was killing those people? That’s the test. Gregor’s career, a very successful one, was based on knowing that very difference when it came to the cases he had to prosecute, so it may be difficult for him to offer that defence. On the other hand, this prosecution will be handled personally by the Lord Advocate; for practical reasons, he may be quite keen to accept it. Now ask me whether I think he’s crazy. Absolutely not, but my gut feeling is that’s what the outcome will be.’

‘How did Lady Broughton take it?’

‘She’s a rock. Jimmy Proud and I went to see her together, in her office up at Parliament House. We told her what had happened and we played her a tape of the interview, then we sat quietly for half an hour while she persuaded herself that we were telling the truth.’

‘Do you think she had any inkling that her husband was. .’

‘No, but neither did I until very late in the day. And, you know, if he hadn’t made that mistake with the computer, nobody would have twigged. Not for a while at any rate. Phil’s first reaction was to write out her resignation as a judge and hand it to the Lord President, but I talked her out of it.’

‘What did you tell her?’

‘That there was nothing to be served by allowing one very bad man to drag a very good woman down with him. Gregor’s done enough damage. I hope I showed her also that her kids will need her up there as an example to them.’

‘And Ranald?’

‘Gregor’s older son?’

‘Except he’s yours.’

‘I’ve never met the boy; I feel no attachment to him, and I never will. I don’t know why, but it’s different from the way I felt about the kid Myra had aborted. As far as he’s concerned, as far as Phil’s concerned, he’s Gregor’s. As far as I’m concerned he’s Gregor’s. It all came down to racing tadpoles; mine won but the bookies paid out on the other.’

She laughed as she looked up at him. ‘You can be a real romantic when you try, you know.’

‘So I’ve been told.’

‘How would you feel if we had a kid?’

‘That’s a question for you, just as much as me,’ he told her, as they reached the door of the Mallard Hotel, where supper awaited, followed by the regular Friday gathering of the informal local group known to some as the Ten o’Clock Gang. ‘But I’m not asking it, not for a while at any rate. Let’s get married first.’

She nodded as he held the door for her. ‘Let’s do that,’ she agreed. ‘But first, Chief Constable-in-waiting, you have a promise to keep.’