Autographs In The Rain Part 13

She laid her hand on his thigh. 'Once the boss gets back, I'm sure all the strain will be off, but until it is, until I know for sure, I'm still in this nightmare.

'Once it is over ... Would you like to move in with me? Or would you like me to move in with you? Or do you prefer it the way it is?'

He sighed, and smiled. 'You know what I want. Your place is bigger than mine; your bathroom's nicer, your kitchen's better equipped. I'll move in with you; after a while we can look for something together.

'I won't be in this job forever. Who knows, Mr Martin might post me down to the Borders, beside Dan Pringle.'

'No danger; Jack McGurk's there already, remember. You're going back56.AUTOGRAPHS IN THE RAIN.east, eventually, to Brian Mackie's division. Stevie Steele's going to team up with Maggie Rose again, once a certain DS in her team retires.'

'How do you know all that?'

'I just do. Now please forget I said it. We'll have to be careful with the pillow-talk, you and I.'

'I'm just looking forward to starting it.'

The too,' said Ruth. 'But now we'd better get inside. My big boss might be away for the morning, but the other one's probably been in for an hour already.'Detective Inspector David Mackenzie stepped into his office, closed the door behind him, then stared in astonishment at the man sitting behind his desk. His mouth hung open as the visitor pushed himself out of his chair and walked round toward him.

The blow was faster than anything he had ever seen; the tips of three stiff straight fingers stabbed into the pit of his stomach at the top of the inverted V-shape below his rib-cage. A bolt of pain, worse than anything he had ever known, flooded through him and stayed. His legs gave, and his bladder almost followed, but despite the agony he managed to keep it under control.

As he started to fall, the man caught him by the lapels of his overcoat, held him up, then dropped him on to a straight-backed seat. Mackenzie wanted to shout for help, but he felt as if he had no breath left in his lungs, only fire. Also, he guessed that there was a fair chance that if he tried, no sound would be allowed to escape his lips.

'Who?' he croaked eventually.

'You know who I am,' said the intruder icily. 'You know all about me, Bandit, or so it seems.'

He reached into his pocket, produced a small, palm-sized tape recorder and pressed a b.u.t.ton. The inspector froze as he heard his own voice, tinny but unmistakable.

'And your man Skinner's never made a mistake about a woman has he ?

I seem to remember he was all over the tabloids not so long ago. Something to do with him s.h.a.gging a woman detective sergeant on his staff.

'Does he give you one as well, now and again ?'

'The answer is "no", Mackenzie, although the man who does is a lucky son-of-a-b.i.t.c.h.

'Mister, you've just committed two of the biggest mistakes any detective officer can make. The first is stupidity, and the second is underestimating a suspect. I've been guilty of both myself in my time, but never as cra.s.sly as58.AUTOGRAPHS IN THE RAIN.that. Ruth works for me; she's a very intelligent lady, and she's picked up a few touches from me in her time.

'For the purposes of your investigation, I'll tell you this, you arrogant young b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Last night, after your failed attempt at intimidation, Ruth came straight to see me. She played me that tape, which sealed your fate on the spot. Then I asked her to think very carefully about all the time she spent away from Sammy that Sat.u.r.day afternoon.

'Happily she remembered something. She remembered seeing my daughter in Jenner's, just before five o'clock. She didn't speak to her, but she saw her on the other side of the second-floor balcony, in the gla.s.sware department.

'I called Alex, and she confirmed that she was there. And she does have a date and time stamped credit card slip to prove it; for half-a-dozen whisky tumblers, as it happens. My Christmas present; she's p.i.s.sed off because now she'll have to get me something else.

'So you can forget about Ruthie as a suspect. That was always far too f.u.c.king easy, anyway. I'll grant you that all the circ.u.mstances pointed straight at her, but even at that, you must have been out of your f.u.c.king mind to think that a DCC's secretary would off anyone and let herself be seen doing it.

'So look somewhere else, Bandit. Your investigation's back to square one again. Understood?'

Mackenzie nodded, still incapable of coherent speech, still racked with pain.

'You know, son,' Bob Skinner continued, 'there're two ways a copper like you can go. He can go to the top or he can go to h.e.l.l in a handcart.

Make me your enemy and you are on route two: you can be dead certain of that.'

He held up the recorder for the Strathclyde detective to see. 'I could use this tape to have you sent to Oban in a uniform by tomorrow morning at the latest. I've got the power to halt your career in its tracks.

'But I'm not going to, because I asked my pal Willie Haggerty about you. You remember him? Yes, I thought you would.

'He told me that you're undoubtedly the c.o.c.kiest, most conceited b.a.s.t.a.r.d he's ever met, and that you have been in need of a really good doing for some time. But he said also that you've made DI in spite of your weaknesses, and that with them knocked out of you, you could become a great detective officer.'Now you've got the chance to prove him right. Get out there and find out who killed old John McConnell. And keep me informed of progress every step of the way. Don't worry about jurisdiction; I'll square that with your gaffers. They owe me a couple of favours, and I've got a personal interest in this one.'

He looked down through what David 'Bandit' Mackenzie realised were the coldest blue eyes he had ever seen. 'I'm backing Willie Haggerty's judgement of you, son. You prove us wrong and I might just come back here and teach you everything I know about intimidation.'60.15.As the door of his office swung open, Ted Chase sighed his irritation.

'Inspector Good,' he began, 'I thought I told you to call before...' Then he looked up and saw a figure, clad in a uniform which was heavy with silver braid.

He stood up straight behind his desk, almost by reflex. 'I'm sorry, Chief, I didn't realise.'

'Not at all, not at all,' said Sir James Proud. 'I should apologise. I ought to have knocked.' He waved some correspondence which he was holding.

'I just thought Bob might have been in here, that was all. There's something I wanted to ask him about.'

'It wouldn't be the London incident, would it?' Chase ventured.

'As a matter of fact it would. How the h.e.l.l did you know about that?'

The normally affable Chief Constable frowned slightly.

'I happened to be in the office on Sunday when the doc.u.ment arrived.

Since it was marked urgent I took it upon myself to open it, in your absence.

I took it upon myself also to show it to the DCC, and to discuss it with him.'

'Did you not think you were taking rather a lot on yourself, Ted?' asked Sir James. 'You've only been here ten minutes, and five of them must have been taken up writing that paper of yours on the command structure of the force.'

'I exercised my judgement, sir. That's all I can say.'

'Even though for all you knew this could have been a report from the Security Services exposing you as an Iraqi spy?'

'All the more reason for me to open it, sir.'

Proud Jimmy laughed. 'Aye, maybe so. Anyway, Ted, you've explained everything. I get this daft report about Bob, which you've already showed to him. In the same in-tray, I find this grovelling apology from the bloke who wrote it. You don't have to tell me what happened when Bob read the b.l.o.o.d.y nonsense. Even a.s.sistant Commissioners aren't beyond his reach.''Yes,' Chase concurred. 'He does seem to have his own power-base, doesn't he.'

The silver-haired Chief Constable looked at his a.s.sistant for a few seconds. 'Maybe you didn't mean that remark to have a barb in it, Ted. If you did, please desist. I have your paper under consideration, and I am taking it seriously. I'm seized of your underlying point that criminal investigation is only one of the responsibilities of a modern police force and should not be allowed to dominate it. So, incidentally, is Bob Skinner.

He and I have discussed that very concept on many occasions.

However, I and I alone will decide what happens to your doc.u.ment, and I'll do it in my own good time. So just leave it at that, eh?'

'Very good, sir, but I really didn't mean anything by my last remark.'

'Good. Then forgive me for reading anything into it.' Sir James paused.

'Want a coffee?'

Chase took the invitation as an order; he nodded and followed the Chief back to his own office.

'Do you happen to know where Bob is anyway, Ted?' Proud Jimmy glanced across the table as Gerry Crossley set a coffee pot and crockery on his low table.

'Not really, sir. I asked Miss McConnell, but she said simply that he had an appointment out of the office.'