Quintin Jardine - Murmuring the Judges

Skinner nodded. ‘It was, but I’ve dug it up again. You speak as if you knew her. Did you?’

‘Yes, I did. Curly and I were going together before. . before that thing happened.’

‘Did you like her?’

‘Well enough. She was round at Curly’s mum’s quite a lot. She never had much to say for herself though. Quiet woman, a bit starchy, stiff-knickered. Know what I mean?’

The policeman smiled and sat down. ‘I can guess. Let me ask you something. Do you think she did it?’

Grace Collins threw him a shrewd look. ‘If Curly was here, I’d have to say “No way”. He wouldn’t hear of it but the truth is, I reckon she did. She was a bit odd, Beattie, in the way she looked at folk. It was as if her expression was painted on. As for Uncle George, her husband, he was a slippery bastard. According to Curly’s mum, he couldn’t have kids, and that was why he was so free and easy. Beattie just smiled her way through life while he was out with his birds.

‘I reckon that the police were right. When yon girl turned up at her house and told her she was the new love of George’s life, I think she just went quietly mental, waited until he was asleep and knifed the swine.’

‘There’s some doubt that she could have done it, physically, with her disease.’

‘Hah!’ she said. ‘That was patchy. She’d complain about being helluva tired, sure, but other times she was okay. Curly and I went round to see his granny the week before it happened, and we found Auntie Beattie there chopping up logs for the fire.’

She pursed her lips. ‘That’s just my humble opinion, mind. Curly, and his mum, and his granny; they all defended her to the last. “No’ our Beattie”, they were always saying.’

‘Did Curly talk about the case much?’ Skinner asked.

‘At the start of it, he could talk about nothing else. It was a real obsession with him.’

‘Did it ever go away?’

‘No’ really. Every so often he would bring it up. Even although he was in the forces, another uniformed service, he had a real down on the police because of it. And the Courts too.’

‘Look, did he ever threaten over it?’

She frowned. ‘What’s this leading up to?’

‘Let’s wait and see. Did he?’

‘Not threaten as such. But every so often he’d come out with something like, “See those bloody judges. I’d like to put them away and see how they get on.” Now you’re telling me he shot someone. D’you think he’d have done them in too?’

‘Someone has, Mrs Collins,’ said the DCC quietly. ‘That’s the problem.’ She looked up at him in disbelief.

‘Do you have children?’ he asked.

‘Two girls.’ Grace Collins pointed to a series of photographs in a glass-fronted display cabinet near the window. ‘Una and Amy. One’s starts Uni next month. The other’s at school.’

‘Ah. It’ll be hard for them, losing their dad. . whatever he was, or did. I don’t want to make it harder, but I want you to be straight with me, because another man’s liberty might just depend on it.

‘I’m going to write down three dates and times for you. I’d like you to search your memory, wall calendars, diary, anything you have, and see if you can tell me where Curly was on each of those occasions. When you’re ready, I want you to phone me at my office.

‘Will you do that?’

She gazed at him, her mouth drawn in a tight line, twin red spots on her pallid cheeks. ‘You’re saying someone else could be in bother?’

‘No. He is in bother, but he may very well be innocent. You can’t harm Curly now, Mrs Collins.’

‘Okay,’ she said at last, ‘write them down. I’ll do it.’

‘The pieces are coming together, Bob,’ said Andy Martin, emphatically. ‘We recovered a third shotgun from Tory Clark’s flat, stuck in a cupboard beside his golf clubs. I don’t know where Newton kept his. . maybe it’s buried in his garden. . but he didn’t make a very good job of hiding the mask he wore at the George Street robbery. We came across that in his attic, together with some cartridges.’

‘How much cash have we recovered?’ asked Skinner, leaning back to allow the dining-room waitress to pour his coffee.

‘Just over a quarter of a million in total; from Saunders’ van, under Collins’ greenhouse, and from Newton’s wife. We’ve got a slight problem with the third lot, actually. I’m sweating slightly in case Mrs Bakey goes to a lawyer. She might challenge us to prove that it came from a robbery.’

The DCC added a touch of milk to his cup. ‘Don’t worry about that. If it comes to the bit, hand the money over to the Fiscal and let him sort out.

‘The thing I’m most pleased about,’ he went on, ‘is knowing Collins and Saunders shot Riach and PC Brown. And the reason I’m so chuffed is that the bastards are lying in the morgue.’

Martin hunched his shoulders. ‘You don’t suppose, do you, that Hamburger executed them because they killed by-standers?’

‘What, the noble criminal? Come on, Andy, you don’t really believe that. Hamburger wiped them out to protect himself, that’s the way of it.’

‘Why didn’t he take their money, then?’

Skinner snorted. ‘Because he didn’t have a squad of coppers to help him look for it. He’s got at least half the proceeds stashed away himself, remember, and probably all of Raglan’s diamonds.

‘Any trace of any of our fugitives so far?’

The DCS nodded. ‘One, this morning. Arlene Regan’s father called Stevie Steele to say that they had a card from her in today’s mail. It was posted in Paris six days ago. The message was “All well, don’t worry, love Arlene”. I’ve alerted the French police.’

‘Don’t hold your breath. There are more illegals in Paris than you’ve had chocolate biscuits.’

Skinner picked up his cup once more, cradling it in both hands.

‘How’s my daughter, Andy?’

The sudden question took his friend by surprise. He looked up sharply. ‘Why d’you ask?’

‘Why shouldn’t I? I’m her dad.’ Bob smiled, a shade sheepishly. ‘It was something Sarah said last night. She thought she was worried about something. Eh. . she isn’t. .’

‘No, she bloody isn’t!’ Martin snapped back.

‘Okay, okay. I’m sorry to be so indelicate.’

‘No, my apologies: I shouldn’t have bitten your head off. Sarah’s right, as usual. ’The younger man’s shoulders hunched once more. ‘Alex and I have run into a problem, that’s all.’

‘Nothing you can’t sort out, though?’

‘I hope not, but. .’ He paused. ‘Bob, since she and I have been together, we’ve made nothing of the age difference between us. But we can’t kid ourselves, it’s there, and it can make us look at things. . important things. . from different angles. If I stick to my guns, I feel like I’m being a bully, but if I capitulate, I feel like I’ve got a ring through my nose.’

‘Hey, since this body-piercing craze started I’ve seen guys all over town with rings through their noses.’ Skinner grinned. ‘Listen, there’s a big age difference between Sarah and me, but we’re okay. . now,’ he added.

‘Yes, but Sarah’s. . Well she’s a few years older than Alex. She’s done more in her life.’

All at once, the big DCC nodded. ‘I think I can see where this is leading; straight into a bloody minefield.

‘Son, the only advice I’ll give the two of you is to ask yourselves whether right now, you’re happy. . and I know you are. Let tomorrow take care of itself, for now at least. Don’t take up rigid positions about something in the future that you could regret for the rest of your days. You can tell Alex that as well. But sort it out for yourself; don’t get Sarah or me involved.’