Autographs In The Rain Part 59

The sergeant nodded and led Donovan out of the hide, taking care to disturb the sloping roof as little as possible as they left.

The pumping operation continued for twenty minutes, until both tanks had been emptied. As Gates and his companion stowed the hose once more, Pringle took out his mobile and called McGurk's number. 'Ready Jack?'

'Yes sir.'

'Magic this, isn't it?' said the superintendent. 'It's just like being a realpolisman again. Okay, he's on the move. Call me when you get where you're going.'He ended the call and watched as the tanker turned awkwardly within the compound, then drove back out of the gate. The hooded man closed it behind him, then went back inside his Portakabin.

Pringle sat back and waited. He made himself a mug of tea from the kettle on the small gas stove; eventually, he made another. At last, his mobile played its little tune. 'Yes?' he answered eagerly.

'You're not going to believe this, sir,' came Jack McGurk's drawl. 'Gates has just driven up the track to Mellerkirk.'

V In his hide, the superintendent laughed quietly. 'The audacious wee so and-so,' he said. 'The insurance money's come through, and Gates is selling Sir Adrian Watson's own f.u.c.king fish back to him, at top dollar, you can bet.

'I wish I could find it in my heart to feel sorry for the arrogant b.a.s.t.a.r.d, but when this comes out in evidence in the High Court, it'll be the talk of the New Club!

'Job well done, Jack. Let's keep the other two under close observation.

Then all we'll have to do is wait until they show up, take identifiable photographs of them on site and they should be ours.'

'Save for one thing, boss. Same old problem, how do we identify the fish?'

'f.u.c.k that; we're past that now. We'll just charge them all with murder and theft, and stand back, so we're not trampled in the rush to be the lucky one who's allowed to shop the others and become a Crown witness.'254.73.'Are you sure it's safe to leave Louise on her own?' asked Bob Skinner.

'Yes,' replied Mcllhenney emphatically, 'there's no problem. I thought I'd take the chance to come into the office, since they're shooting a scene in the Laigh Hall this afternoon; you know where that is, just about directly below the Great Hall itself. It's a part of the building that we can control quite easily. No one's getting in without identifying themselves to a uniformed officer.

'Everyone involved on the shoot has to carry a laminated photo-pa.s.s, signed by Warren Judd, no less.'

'They'll become collector's items,' the DCC grunted sourly.

'I doubt it. There's too many of the b.l.o.o.d.y things; there are a h.e.l.l of a lot of people in a full-scale film production crew you know, especially the sort of big-budget jobs that Lou works on.'

'Listen to the expert. How's the filming been going anyway, Mr de Mille?'

'Remarkably smoothly, considering that they lost Monday. Silver split the crew into two, so they could film simultaneously on different locations; Lou's not in every scene herself so it was simply a matterof dividing up the extras.'

'They're all checked out too, I hope.'

'To be sure. They all have photo-pa.s.ses as well, even Lucy, Lou's sister; she's got a walk-on part.'

'She's a thesp too?' said Skinner, surprised. 'I didn't know that.'

'Well,' the inspector sounded hesitant, 'it isn't as simple as that. She'd like to be, but she's got a couple of big obstacles ... no joke intended. She looks too much like her sister for a start; she'd have difficulty establis.h.i.+ng her own ident.i.ty. On top of that, she's not a very good actress.'

'Ah, that's unfortunate.'

'Lou's got her a couple of jobs, on the back of which she has an Equity card, but she didn't exactly s.h.i.+ne in either of them. Still, when she asked for a part in the new movie, Lou got soft and told Silver to write her in.''What does she play?'

'Lou's character's sister, what else? She's only got a couple of lines, though. One in the Laigh Hall today, and the other in the big climax scene; they're shooting that in the Great Hall over the weekend.'

'It's not finished already is it?'

'No,' said Mcllhenney quickly. 'They've got another week of location shooting after this, then they break for Christmas, and come back to do the Hogmanay stuff.'

'And during the break?' Skinner asked. 'I mean, there's no reason to suppose we're going to have caught this bloke by then. Have you given any 'thought to that? No, I suppose I mean has Lou given any thought to it?

'If she's still under protection . . .' he went on. 'You have to spend Christmas with your kids . . . Christ, I should have thought this through, before I allowed you to move her in with you, whatever your personal relations.h.i.+p.

'In spite of your personal relations.h.i.+p!' he shouted. 'I have messed this up. I should have moved her in with Mario and Maggie, not you.'

'Sure,' his a.s.sistant said quietly. 'If you'd done that at the start. Aye, and if Alex hadn't been working that Friday night, Lou and I might never have met. But she was, and we did, and there and then things started to happen between us without either of us being aware of it, until the truth dawned.

'Don't worry, I'm a big boy; well-fired in life's furnace you might say.

I'm not disregarding the possibility that Lou's feelings might change once this clown's caught and the strain is off her. It was just about the first thing I asked her, in fact. She said no; that she's sure. In any event, I know how I feel about her, and that's got sod all to do with being her knight in s.h.i.+ning armour. It's man and woman, pure and simple.

'So let me ask you this, Boss.' He stopped. 'No, let me ask you, Bob, man to man. If Sarah was under this sort of threat, would you delegate the job of protecting her, or would you allow the Chief to delegate it?'

Sitting on the edge of his desk, the DCC smiled at his friend. 'No, I would not,' he answered, truthfully. 'As you know d.a.m.n well.

'Doesn't alter my question, though. What are we going to do during that Christmas break to get you and the kids together, yet protect Lou?'

'She's thought about that too. We haven't discussed Life After John Steed, as you might put it, but the Christmas question has come up.

'Lou has four homes,' said Neil. 'One in London, one on the Cote d'Azur, one in Ireland, where she's officially resident, and one in Beverly Hills. It's

256.

AUTOGRAPHS IN THE RAIN.on an estate with its own security, and she wants us all to go there for Christmas.

'If we did, d'you think your pal in the States could fix it for me to carry

a firearm?'

'I know he could.' Skinner grinned. 'Don't shoot anyone unless you have to, though. It could get messy.'

'I promise, boss. In that case . . .'

He was interrupted by the ringing of the DCC's private line. Skinner frowned in momentary exasperation, then picked it up. 'Yes,' he snapped.

'It's Dave Mackenzie, Mr Skinner. I'm going to need your help.' The Strathclyde DI sounded anxious.

'Sure, if I can. What do you want me to do?'

'Can you have a word with my superintendent?' asked Mackenzie plaintively. 'I've spent all week logging on to p.o.r.no websites. In the process, I've run up this b.l.o.o.d.y enormous bill on my credit card for material I've downloaded. If I'd known what I was getting into I'd have cleared the spend before I started; I didn't, though. When I went to the DCI, he c.r.a.pped himself and referred it up the line.

'The Super went ape-s.h.i.+t, and demanded to know exactly what the f.u.c.k I've been up to. I had to show her the list you gave me; now she's demanding to know exactly where the f.u.c.k it came from!

'I tried to tell her that I had a source to protect. She told me that in that case I could protect him even more by paying my own credit card bill. I'm in it deep, sir. Can you help me?'

Skinner laughed. 'I reckon I can,' he said. 'Is this your divisional commander you're talking about?'

That's right.'