Autographs In The Rain Part 16

Mcllhenney nodded. 'Will do, boss. I've got something for you, though.

'I've just had a call from that lad from the Met, the one who called me at the weekend. He told me that one of their uniformed women was on foot patrol in Regent Street early this morning when she spotted something in the gutter about two hundred yards away from the spot where you had your bother.

'It was bent out of shape, and looked as if it had been run over by a car, but it turned out to be a spent shotgun cartridge.'

'Is that right?' The DCC's eyes shone in triumph. 'I'd like to shove it up72.AUTOGRAPHS IN THE RAIN.a.s.sistant Commissioner Dumpty's a.r.s.e,' he muttered, 'just to teach him not to doubt the word of a brother officer.'

He paused, still smiling. 'Oh aye. Thinking about Regent Street and all reminds me. Lou Bankier's coming up to Scotland on Friday, and I've invited her to dinner at Gullane. I was going to ask Alex to join us, and to take her back to the Balmoral afterwards, but it turns out she's going to Paris on

business.'

He caught the twitch of Mcllhenney's eyebrows. 'I know. b.l.o.o.d.y lawyers move in a different world these days.

'Anyway, if you can find a child-sitter, Sarah and I wondered if you'd like to join us. You can do the taxi run, of course, which won't be a problem since you insist on being teetotal these days.'

The big inspector looked at him oddly. 'It's nice of the two of you to ask, Boss, but... I don't know. The truth is, I haven't sat down to dinner with any adult other than you and Sarah since Olive died. I don't know what kind of company I'd be.'

'I do, or I wouldn't have asked you. I'll tell you from the perspective of one who's made such a mistake; you can't be a social hermit all your life, man. Furthermore, you know d.a.m.n well that your wife would have been the very first to agree with me. Anyway, for G.o.d's sake, I'm offering you a date with a movie star!'

Mcllhenney grinned. 'Now that would give Olive a laugh!' He glanced upwards for a second. 'Aye, all right, Boss. She says it's okay. Thanks.'

That's good. Now go and get me that PM report, and let's see what I can stir up.'There was only one car parked in the street, when Ruth turned into Qlenlaverock Grove; it was a bright red Ford Ka with colour-matched plastic b.u.mpers, and it stood directly outside number fifteen. She pulled up her blue Corolla close behind it.

As she did so, Bandit Mackenzie climbed out of the driver's seat, almost catching his long overcoat in the door as he closed it behind him. The coat suits you, Inspector,' she said, a shade archly. 'It goes with your image.

The car doesn't, though; of course, if you were wearing a pointy blue hat with a bell on the end . . .'

'It's not mine, honest,' he a.s.sured her, hurriedly. 'Mine's in for a service; this is the wife's.'

'My G.o.d, you have a wife?'

'Aye, and three kids.'

'Indeed? And what do you do if one of them comes home with a bad school report? s.h.i.+ne hot lights in his eyes and give him the third degree?'

Mackenzie smiled at her. The hostility of the day before had vanished; if she had never met him before she might have taken a liking to him at first sight. 'My kids don't get bad reports,' he said. 'Other than my four-year old, when he tried to correct a playgroup teacher's spelling.'

'I wonder where he got that trait from?'

'Ah, but he was right.'

'He must take after his mother, then.'

The inspector sighed. 'I'll tell you what, Ms Connell; I know this is a smokeless zone, but if you can come up with some ashes, I think I could lay my hands on the sackcloth. I am really sorry about yesterday; all our information did point to you, and I got p.i.s.sed off at having to traipse through to Edinburgh. But still I went over the top; I must have scared the h.e.l.l out of you.

'A big mistake on my part, I tell you.'74.AUTOGRAPHS IN THE RAIN.Finally she smiled back at him, with a degree of satisfaction. 'You don't ha veto.'

She paused. 'Very well, Inspector. Apology accepted; let's start off fresh.

Let's go inside; it's chilly out here.'

Mackenzie nodded, then reached into his overcoat pocket and produced a labelled key ring. 'Here,' he said, handing them to her. 'You can have these back; our forensic team are all finished here. I'll keep the second set for a while, if you don't mind; just in case Gwennie and I need to go back to check up on something.'

'Such as?'

'I have no idea at this moment, but you can never tell. It would be useful, that's all.'

'Okay, if you have to.'

She looked at the keys and found the two which opened the front door, as the detective ripped away the plastic crime-scene tape.

The house was cold as they stepped inside; Ruth looked at a wall thermometer in the hall, with a circular switch alongside. 'This controls the central heating,' she said. 'It's set at five centigrade. One of your people must have turned it back.'

'No,' replied Mackenzie. 'It was like that when we were called out.'

She frowned. 'Yes,' she murmured. 'I remember now; it was cold when Sammy and I came in at first. I'd forgotten. That was unusual; I always remember Uncle John's house as being uncomfortably hot.'

The inspector stepped up to the control wheel and peered at it. 'There you are, right away; that's something we'll need to come back for. This doesn't look as if our technicians have dusted it; we must, though, just in case our dark-haired lady found it uncomfortably hot as well.'

He turned back to Ruth. 'Where do you want to begin?'

'What about the garage?'

'What about it?'

'He didn't drive much, Mr Mackenzie, but he still had a car, a big old Rover coupe, with real leather seats. He's had it all my life, so it must be over thirty years old. It was his pride and joy; he used to spend hours cleaning and polis.h.i.+ng it.'

'I've been in the garage, Ms McConnell,' said the detective quietly.

'There's no car there; a back wall racked with carefully arranged tools, but no car.'

For a few moments, Ruth had to fight to hold back tears. 'Oh no,' shewhispered. 'The grandfather clock, the trophy; okay, they're gone. But something very bad must have been happening for Uncle John to sell his car.'

'Maybe he didn't sell it. Maybe someone just took it.'

'But who? Why?'

'I don't know. But presumably the same people who've been emptying his deposit account in the Hibernian Building Society in Coatbridge over the last few months.'

'What?'

i Mackenzie nodded. Tm afraid so. How much did you know about your uncle's finances?'

'Only that he was comfortably off; nothing much else.'

'Mmm. He had two bank accounts; a current account with the Bank of Scotland that his pension was paid into, and the other one, with the Hibernian. Last summer, that had over seventy grand in it. Just under three weeks ago the last of the money was drawn out. Each of the withdrawals was made by a third party, on the basis of a form signed by the old man, nominating Ms Ruth McConnell as his representative.

'The tellers who handled the transactions all described a tall, attractive woman, with long dark hair.'

'Didn't they ask for evidence of ident.i.ty?'

'They did. She showed them a credit card with your name on it.'