Autographs In The Rain Part 28

He poured her more coffee. 'Are you happy with Neil as your minder?'

'Very happy. I like him, and he strikes me as formidable too. I'm sure I'll feel safe with him around. But can you spare him from your office?'

'I have a very good secretary, just like you. She can cope for a while.

Anyway,' he added, 'it won't be for long. I intend to catch this b.a.s.t.a.r.d, double quick, and lock him up.'

Let's hope you do.' She glanced out of the window, towards the sea; it looked grey and cold. The threatened rain had made its way up from the Borders, and was falling hard. 'I don't like this feeling of being constrained.

I've never suffered from claustrophobia before, but that's what this feels like.

'I'm just like everyone else; I like mixing with people, and I know that not being able to will do my head in.'

'It needn't be as bad as that. With Neil around you can go out.'

She looked at him. 'I really should too, shouldn't I?' she suggested.

'You won't catch this man unless he shows himself again, will you?'

'Maybe we will.'

'But it's unlikely, isn't it? Yes, of course it is. But how will you draw him out if you've got me holed up in a house somewhere?'

'Honest to G.o.d, even if I was ruthless enough to use you as bait, I don't think I'd need to. This man followed you to Soho with me. He followed you to Edinburgh, and he found your room number in the Balmoral. He'll find out where you're living all right. Maybe, if we're lucky, just trying to will get him caught, but I doubt it. Sometimes people like this are dumber than you think, but it always pays to a.s.sume that they're intelligent.'

'He must be to have got into my hotel room.'

'Not really,' said Bob. 'What did you do with your key when you were out here last night? You don't need to tell me; you walked over to me at reception, left it there, and then we headed off in my car. You're our stalker, you distract the receptionist for ten seconds and you're in there.'

'But how do you put the key back, Uncle Bob?'

A small voice came from beside the fridge. Skinner looked over his shoulder in surprise and saw Mark, standing behind him, with a Seven-Up in each hand. 'You don't, son. It's a card key, you see. So all you do is go down to the foyer again, wait till the receptionist's back is turned, andI.AUTOGRAPHS IN THE RAIN.chuck it on the floor, behind the desk.'

He grinned at his adopted son, reaching out a hand to ruffle his hair.

'Clever little so-and-so, though, aren't you? I'll make you either a master criminal or an ace detective when you grow up. Which'll it be?'

'Detective,' Mark replied at once. 'Better security and long-term prospects.'

The three adults laughed as he headed back to the playroom. 'You think he's kidding?' Bob joked. 'He'll have worked that out. Mark's always had a phenomenal memory; now he's developing the mental power to back it up.

'What he's actually going to be is a mathematician, and probably before he grows up at that.' He rapped the table top. 'But back to our discussion.

See how Mark wandered in here without us noticing him?

That's how easily the stalker could have got into your room.'

'G.o.d,' Louise murmured. 'What advantages do we have?'

'Privacy, for the moment. You're out of the spotlight for now, in that n.o.body knows where you are. Possibly one other edge also. If this man's from out of town, and let's a.s.sume he is, there's just a chance that he doesn't know who and what I am.'

That illusion lasted for five minutes longer, until the phone rang. 'I've found a house, boss,' Neil Mcllhenney announced. 'I checked the "to let"

section in the ESPC office after we all split up. There was a place listed in Craiglockhart Avenue, a detached bungalow; rang the viewing number and had a look. It's newly refurbished, new kitchen and stuff, very well furnished, with a nice big open garden that you couldn't hide a mouse in. To cap it all, it's just a couple of minutes' walk from my place.

'Couldn't be better. We can show it to Lou tomorrow afternoon, if you like. Keith Stanley's the letting solicitor; we know him, so he shouldn't be hard to deal with.'

Skinner smiled at his exec.'s pleasure over a job well done. 'Yeah, we'll do that. You make the arrangements and tell us where and when. We'll meet you there.'

'Fine,' said Mcllhenney. 'There's one more thing.

'I just had a call from Alan Royston, the press officer. He was a bit leery about phoning you, but there's a piece in the News today, in their gossip column. It talks about Lou being seen leaving the Balmoral last night, and here I quote, "looking starstruck herself, on the arm of a very senior Edinburgh policeman."122.'Royston's already had the News of the Screws, the Sunday Mail, the People and the Sunday Herald on the blower. He wants to know how he should play it.'

's.h.i.+t!' Skinner snapped, drawing startled looks from the two women.

'Tell him to play it straight, Neil; the plain truth, that we're old friends from way back and that I was taking Lou to dinner with family and friends.

Tell him also to make it clear what will happen if anyone as much as suggests anything different.

Thanks mate. See you tomorrow.'

'What was that?' Sarah asked.

'If our man was in any doubt about who I am, he knows now, courtesy of our well-meaning and very well-informed local evening newspaper.'124.35.'Are you sure I'm on overtime for this, Dave?' Gwendoline Dell looked at the detective inspector doubtfully.

'Don't worry about that, Gwennie,' he told her, in a tone of voice which made her worry even more. Til square it with the DCI on Monday. Anyway, look at me; I'm missing out on the joys of an afternoon in the St Enoch Centre with the wife and weans.'

'No wonder they call you Bandit,' she muttered, looking out of the car at the bungalow, and at the rain, which was las.h.i.+ng down. 'Okay, I'm here; now will you tell me why?'

Mackenzie nodded. 'Ach Gwennie, it's just... well I've always fancied you, and here's an empty house ...'

Her mouth fell open in astonishment; she glared at him with instant fury . .. until she saw the laughter in his eyes.

'If you didn't sign my fitness reports ...' she exclaimed. 'Listen, cut the c.r.a.p. What are we here for?'

'It's that bag that the old dear told you about. I've been wondering about it. Bigger than a handbag, she said; big enough to make her think that Ruth had come for the weekend. I've been wondering what was in it, and why, if it was that bulky, and she wasn't staying for the weekend, she bothered to bring it into the house . . . unless there was something in it she needed.' He smiled at her again.

'The obvious answer is that there was something in it she needed.'

'Drugs,' Dell suggested.

'She could have got a whole f.u.c.king pharmacy in there. Even if we're right and she was feeding the old man's habit, she could have carried the temazepam, and the works in her pocket. No, there was something else in that bag.'

All joking over, he looked at the sergeant. 'I've been trying to think like Skinner,' he told her.

'He impressed you that much?'He nodded, emphatically. 'That much. Just talking to him changed my outlook on a lot of things. We were trained to look for the obvious first and foremost; so was he, but once he sees it he questions it. He told me that when he was in the field he'd turn up at a crime scene and ask himself a few simple questions. What type of crime was this? Was it opportunistic or was it premeditated? Was it driven by anger or financial gain? Was it a stupid crime, or was it well planned?

'I've been asking myself all those questions, and I find myself looking at something that was clearly premeditated, money-driven and very well planned. A very intelligent crime, so f.u.c.king intelligent that we're not even sure if it's been committed or not. Is this murder? Is it extortion? Is it both?

Or did the old boy give this woman all his money just because he liked her?

Did he just run his bath too hot, take a heart attack from the shock, and drown in it?

'We don't b.l.o.o.d.y know, do we? Now that Ruth McConnell's been taken out of the frame and our faith in the obvious has been destroyed, we know hardly anything.'

'Agreed,' said DS Dell. 'So what would your new hero Skinner do in our shoes?'

That's what I've been asking myself. And then I remembered something he said, when we were at the golf club. He said he'd look at the whole scene in a mirror.'

'What did he mean by that?'

'Well, so far we've been concentrating on what's missing from the house.

Now we know, but it's taken us nowhere. But instead of that, what if there's something in the house that shouldn't be?'