Quintin Jardine: Skinner's ghosts

'Read next week's Spotlight for Sarah Skinners reaction to her husband's betrayal. More exclusive pies on pages 4 and 5.'

'Would you credit that?' said Skinner hoarsely as he looked up from the newspaper. 'The miserable, snooping, duplicitous little creep photographed me through my bedroom window. And the story's a fucking travesty.

'Sarah and I are formal y, legal y separated, both here and in the States. "Holidaying with her parents" for Christ's sake! She has a job over there. She took my son over there – without my agreement at that.

'What the hell else have they done? Let's see.' He lifted the paper again and tore it open at pages four and five. As he did so Alex and Andy came to stand with him, scanning the pages from either side.

The spread showed an array of photographs. One showed Sarah, white-tunic-clad at an open-air crime scene, frowning at her husband.

'Last year, at Witches Hill, I guess,' said Skinner. Others showed Martin, at the press conference, pointing to the door as he ordered Salmon from the room, then glaring angrily at Alan Royston. A fourth, taken in the street below, showed Alex andAndy leaving home, casually dressed.

Finally there was a series of three photographs, in colour like the rest. They had been taken from a high vantage-point looking down into the garden of the Gullane cottage. The first showed Bob and Pam, kissing. In the second, she was kneeling before him, her face buried in his lap. In the third, he had gathered her up in his arms, and was carrying her towards the house.

'The dirty little sod,' Alex cried out. 'Imagine photographing us in the street like that. And those in Gullane… How could they have taken them?'

Icily calm now, Skinner shrugged. 'The window shot, that's obvious. They waited outside and they got lucky. The others… they could only have been taken from one place. The big house at the top of the Green, the one that belongs to our chum. He's in the Seychelles just now and the place is empty. They must have climbed on to the roof.'

He crumpled the tabloid in his hands, twisting it in his fury and tearing it to pieces. Throwing it into a corner, he turned to his daughter, putting his hands on her shoulders and looking her in the eye. 'I am so sorry, my love, that you and Andy have been mixed up in this. It's not right, it's not fair, and it's al down to me.'

She looked at him solemnly 'Dad,' she began, 'I've only got one thing to say to you.'

He waited, looking at her anxiously. 'Go on.'

'If the Spotlights done nothing else, it's proved to the world that you've got a nice bum for a forty-six-year-old.' She smiled at him, suddenly and brightly, and hugged him. 'Pops, if you think for one second that I won't stand by you in this…

'You, Sarah, and Pam, you're al grown-up people. Just do what's best for my wee brother, that's al I ask. But I know you wil.'

Bob heaved a great sigh of relief. He turned to Andy Martin, who was smiling also.

'Right, people,' he barked. 'What am I going to do about this?'

Martin answered him at once.' We, Bob. What are we going to do?

I for one am going to have that little bastard Salmon arrested and charged with breach of the peace. I reckon we might be able to make that stick, on the basis of that bedroom shot.'

'I'd love to let you, Andy,' Skinner replied. 'You know that. I'd love to use all my power to have this little man broken like a butterfly on a wheel. For Pam's sake, I'd like personal y to knock ten bells out of him in a quiet room somewhere.

'But none of that is going to happen.' He turned to his daughter.

'Alex, right now, you get on the phone to the chairman of this new law firm of yours, my footbal -daft chum in North Berwick. I know you're only a raw new apprentice there, but in this you're acting for me. I want an opinion from him on whether we can go to court to secure an injunction stopping publication of this crap. If it's possible, do it.

'If he says it isn't, I want him to issue through the firm a statement on my behalf saying that my relationship with Miss Masters is an entirely private matter, setting out the legal position between Sarah and me, and saying – if he thinks that we have a case – that writs for defamation wil be issued on Monday morning by both Pamela and by me.

'Any press statement from me should issue through your firm, not the force. Got all that?'

Alex nodded. 'I've got Mr Laidlaw's number too. I was given a list of senior partners' contact numbers. I'll cal him now from the bedroom.' She rushed off to make the cal.

Skinner turned back to Royston. 'Alan, I should crucify you for letting Salmon back into Fettes against my orders, but I'm not going to. For the Chief's sake, you need to be back on the job now: and anyway, I was only going to chew you out on Monday, nothing worse.

'Unless an injunction sticks, Sir James wil be asked tonight for a response to the story. He'll need your objective guidance and support.

I want you to come with me now, to see him. I have to tell him about this, personally. Once I've done that, I'l withdraw so that he can't be accused of acting under pressure from me.'

Royston nodded. 'I agree with al of that, sir. But there's someone else involved. What about Pam?'

Skinner could see his anxiety. 'Look, Alan,' he said. 'I know that you and she were close once, but don't worry. I'll look out for her in this.'

He turned away from the press officer, took out his mobile, and 36 K.

dialled Pamela Masters' number. She answered, sounding hesitant and a little afraid.

'Listen love,' said Bob, 'to what I have to say. We've got a media problem, and it could be messy. Stay where you are for now. Don't answer the phone, and don't answer the door until I get there. I'l give four quick buzzes so you know it's me.

'Before then I have to see the Chief, and I have to go to back Fairyhouse Avenue.'

'Why do you have to go there?' Her tone was one of bewilderment.

'Because I have to phone Sarah, and it just seems right to me that I do it from there.'

'Bob. This problem involves me, yes?' She sounded completely scared now.

'I'm afraid so, honey. You and I wil be al over the scandal sheets tomorrow, thanks to a wee man with a grudge. But don't you worry: things are under control, and hopeful y we can nip it in the bud.

'I'll be with you as soon as I can.' He ended the cal just as Alex reappeared in the doorway.

'Dad,' she said. 'I've got Mr Laidlaw on the line. He wants to speak with you.' Skinner nodded and followed his daughter through to the flat's main bedroom. The telephone was lying off its cradle on a bedside table. He sat down and picked it up. 'Mitch, hello. Sorry to break into your Saturday evening, but this fucking scandal sheet's left me no option.'

Skinner had known Mitchell Laidlaw socially for twenty years, as a fellow member of an informal group who gathered together on Thursday evening in North Berwick Sports Centre to play enthusiastic, if largely unskilled, indoor five-a-side football. However this was the first time the two had ever spoken on a professional footing.

Laidlaw's career had paralleled that of Skinner, as he had risen through the legal ranks to become Scotland's leading litigation solicitor, and finally, head of its largest law firm, Curie, Anthony and Jarvis, which Alex had joined a month earlier on leaving university.

' So I gather from your daughter, Bob.' Skinner was struck at once by his friend's tone. There was no hint of the normal Thursday-evening banter. Mitch Laidlaw sounded solemn and totally professional.

'Alex has read the article to me, and described the photographs. I admit that charging the people involved with breach of the peace is a nice idea, but even if the Sheriff convicted, he'd be overturned at appeal for sure, and your force would be open to an action for malicious prosecution. So you were right to veto that.