Skinner's Festival (2 page)

'We’ll see to the lad, sir.’ The voice came from behind him. He looked round to see an ambulance crew; a man and a woman in uniform. Nodding, but without a word, the big detective took a step back, then turned and walked towards the opening in the canvas wall.
As once it was clear to Skinner that the explosion had originated in the far right-hand corner of the tent’s inner apartment. One of the structure’s stout supporting pillars had been blown to
fragments, and debris radiated outwards from that spot. Slowly, Skinner stepped towards the wreckage. But suddenly he paused, his eyes widening, as he caught sight of what was left of Danny, the boy he had been sent there to see.
All of his clothes had been blown off. The right arm and most of the right leg were missing. Forcing himself to look closer at the carnage. Skinner saw them lying a little way apart from the mangled torso. He tensed and stepped closer, keeping himself under control with an effort of will, as he took in the horror of it in stages. The corpse seemed to have been ripped open by shrapnel, for metal, glass and wood splinters were mixed in with the bloody mass. The top of the young man’s head had been sliced off, and the bluey-grey brain matter spread out beyond it. Skinner then realised that some of this terrible cocktail had been splashed
on the boy’s friend next-door.

'Oh, Holy Mother of God.’
The voice came from behind Skinner – followed by the violent sounds of its owner vomiting. Skinner did not speak until the heaving had subsided. Then, still without turning, he said grimly: 'Didn’t know you had got religion, Andy.’
There was no reply other than another bout of retching.
'You made it here fast.’
Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Martin, Head of Special Branch, and once Skinner’s personal assistant, stepped up to stand alongside him. 'Not as fast as you, boss, but I wasn’t that far away either. Sally and I were in
John Lewis
when I got the shout. She wasn’t best pleased. As a matter of fact, she suggested it was a porky pie I had dreamed up to get out of shopping for her fucking curtains. To hell with her; I wish it had been a lie.’
'You should have brought her along to see for herself,’ said Skinner. 'Christ, we get to clear up some right messes, but this one . . .’ He shook his head, as his voice tailed away.
'Where were you, boss?’
'Along at the Gallery precinct, with Sarah.’
'You heard the bang?’ Martin asked.
Skinner nodded in confirmation.
'What do you think it could have been? It looks as if they were installing beer kegs in here. Could it have been one of the gas cylinders?’

'No way, Andy. It was a bomb. You’ve been on the courses too. You know the different sound that explosives make. That was what I heard. Anyway, the beer and the gas bottles are all over there in that other corner.’ He pointed a finger off to the left.
'This was no accident. Some bastard did this in deadly earnest.
We’d best be very careful just in case he left us any other wee parcels. In fact, I think that for once we’ll be sensible and get the fuck out of here until the Bomb Squad arrives and checks the whole place over. There’s nothing we can do for poor Danny there, but we can empty the Waverley Centre, and the Balmoral next door.’

They walked quickly from the tent. Outside, more uniformed officers had arrived and were busy moving the crowds back. An ambulance was pulling out of the Princes Street Gardens gateway, with its blue light whirling. Two others stood by, waiting for passengers. Skinner caught sight of Sarah beside the Scott Monument, tending to Danny’s friend, the boy from the tent. As he looked on, she wiped the blood from his forehead with a towel, then helped him, very gently, to take off his frightful shirt. For a moment, the youth held it away from him, at arm’s length, then dropped it on the ground,

Four fire appliances had arrived. They were lined up on Waverley Bridge, at the spot where, normally, the tour buses took on their passengers. A senior fire officer, recognising Skinner, came across. 'What can we do here?’ he asked.
'Nothing in the tent for now, but you could tell your people to evacuate the shopping station, and to close off the Station exit up the Waverley Steps.’
The officer nodded, his bulky helmet giving this gesture added emphasis. 'You’ve got it.’ He turned and walked back towards the fire appliances, barking out orders to his men.
Skinner looked around for the highest-ranking policeman, and soon spotted a superintendent in uniform. He walked over and tapped the man on the shoulder. The officer spun round,
impatient at first, until recognition brought him swiftly to attention.

'Afternoon, Archie,’ said Skinner. 'Look, I want the Balmoral emptied. See to it, please. Then get on your radio and have someone tell the Transport Police, on my authority, that I want all trains stopped at Haymarket, and held up to the east. Until the bomb boys have cleared the site, I don’t want any more people in that station than can be helped. If there’s another bang, it could bring down the glass roof – if that one hasn’t already!’
The man saluted and moved away to carry out his orders.
Skinner retraced his steps and found Martin.
'Andy, you get down to your office. I want to know the minute someone claims responsibility for this mess. And even if no one does, I want the best analysis that your outfit can give me of the likely runners. I don’t recall any recent intelligence in my other job to give me a hint of this, but I’ll look again. You check your network for ideas.
'Maybe it’s the Arabs getting even for us blowing out their plot last winter. Or perhaps it’s the Paddies deciding to give Scotland a turn at last. Or possibly we’ve grown some new nutters of our own. I don’t fancy any of those prospects, but the one I like the least is the last one, the idea that we might have collected our own terrorist outfit. If that’s so, I want to nail them quick and clean them out”

TWO

Martin had been gone for less than ten minutes when the Army Bomb Squad arrived from their base on the outskirts of the city.
Major Gabriel 'Gammy’ Legge, their commander, was well known to Skinner from countless call-outs to bomb hoaxes, and from their work together on security preparations for Royal and VIP visits to the city. The two stood beside the gold chairs, in the first area of the marquee.
'I suppose it was bound to happen one day. Bob,’ said the slim soldier. His accent was that of an Ulsterman, but its harsher tones had been smoothed away by years of military service. 'All those false alarms, and then when the real thing comes we don’t have a chance to defuse it.’
'You might have that chance yet. Gammy. There’s all sorts of stuff lying in there needing to be checked out. There’s something else in there, too. Maybe it’ll make you and your lads think twice about being heroes. If it doesn’t, at the least it’ll sure as hell make you careful.’
The smile left the Major’s face.

'Look out for yourselves, but. Gammy, I need the place checked out with all safe speed. I need to get the forensics people in, and I have to get the station reopened as soon as possible, before the effect of train hold-ups ripples all the way down to London.’
'Thank you, Robert, I’ll take charge now.’
The voice breaking in on their conversation came from the entrance to the marquee. Surprised, and instantly annoyed, Skinner looked up to see the Deputy Chief Constable, in full uniform, bearing down on him.
DCC Edward McGuinness was in temporary command of the force, in the absence on holiday of the recently knighted Chief Constable, Sir James Proud. Skinner was aware that even at the best of times he was not the Deputy’s favourite colleague. At the Chief Constable’s regular management meetings, he and McGuinness were drawn almost invariably to taking opposite sides in any debate. Now Skinner guessed that to arrive at the
disaster scene and find Bob in command, and matters well under control, was more than the other man could bear.
Mastering his irritation at McGuinness’s rank-pulling, he mustered a smile.
That’s fine, Eddie. I’m glad you’re here. Crowd control’s for the uniform branch, anyway!’
The DCC reddened.
'I’d better fill you in, since you’ve only just got here.’ Still smiling. Skinner seized him by the elbow and led him towards the entrance through the partition. 'The bang happened through
there. Some form of explosive. We don’t know for sure what, but from the pattern of destruction it could have been Semtex.’
He ushered McGuinness through into the second area. 'There have been some casualties, almost all of them superficial – apart from poor Danny there.’

The DCC had taken a few steps into the chamber, before he realised what lay on the floor. He started back in horror, but Skinner held tight to his elbow and drew him onwards.
McGuinness’s ruddy face had gone grey.
“They can be hellish, these crime scenes, can’t they, Eddie. I’m glad you’re here to take charge of this one. I’ll be in my other office if you need me.’ He slapped the DCC on the back in friendly fashion, then turned and strode out of the marquee, his grim smile broadening with every step.

THREE

Skinner’s 'other office’ was a small room in St Andrews House, the headquarters of government in Scotland.
Three months before, out of the blue, he had received a telephone call from Alan Ballantyne, then newly appointed as Secretary of State for Scotland. The surprising thing, he had thought as he answered that summons to a private meeting, was that Ballantyne had placed the call himself, rather than arranging an appointment through his Private Secretary. The unorthodoxy of this approach had soon been explained. A suave politician, Ballantyne was still a few years short of forty, and his rise to power had been meteoric. It had been helped along by a lack of alternative talent among his party’s Scottish membership, but nonetheless, even with that dearth of competition, his appointment to the Cabinet had been greeted with some surprise on both sides of the Commons Chamber.

Ballantyne was a stocky man, with quick darting eyes and a quiff of frizzy hair which, however expertly it was cut, invariably stood up from the rest in defiance of gravity, giving the appearance of a permanent overhanging question-mark.
At their first meeting in his office, the new Secretary of State had received the detective alone.
'Sorry about the mystery, Mr Skinner, but I’m finding that, as in your own job, there are one or two matters in mine which can’t be delegated, or even discussed over the telephone. I find myself with a … shall we say a personnel problem. You will find many advisers to the Secretary of State listed in those office directories over there. But there is one who is not listed among the rest. I think you are aware of the job I’m talking about, and I believe that you’re acquainted with the previous post-holder.’

He had paused then, palms laid flat on the polished mahogany surface of his desk, and had thrown Skinner a sidelong glance which he still recalled vividly. Then he continued. 'Indeed, I believe that you may even have had something to do with the man’s rapid departure from office.’
Skinner had said nothing, nor given anything away in his expression.
'If that’s the case, Mr Skinner, you yourself have left me with something of a problem. So the way I see it, now it’s up to you to solve it. Therefore, with the approval of your Chief Constable, I am inviting you to combine your present role within the police force with that of security adviser to the Secretary of State, in succession to Mr Hugh Fulton.’

At Ballantyne’s suggestion. Skinner had called Jimmy Proud to discuss the offer there and then, and had found his chief enthusiastic.
'It’s an honour. Bob, and it’ll be the first time that job’s been combined with active service in a police force. There’s all sorts of ways it could help you here. Of course I think you should take it.
Who do you think put your name up anyway? Mind you, combining the two jobs was my idea. There’s no way I’d want to lose you from here, I’m not that bloody patriotic.’

And so Skinner had accepted – with one proviso. 'I don’t want any more of this secrecy crap. It’s well outdated. Hughie Fulton used it only to build up a wall of mystique around him – to suit his ego. So, if I take the job, I go into the directories, along with the doctors, the dentists, the social workers and all your other advisers.’
'If you say so,’ the Secretary of State had conceded, 'but remember the confidentiality is most of all for your own protection.’
Skinner had laughed. 'Listen, Mr Ballantyne. I make enemies enough just by being head of Edinburgh CID. A few more won’t bother me.’

And so he had accepted the appointment. In the ensuing weeks he had seen a lot of the Secretary of State, their meetings usually in private. Their relationship was informal and cordial, yet Skinner, despite his long experience of appraising people, still felt that he knew very little of the real man. This Secretary of State was an enigmatic, secretive character, and though Skinner had sought to pinpoint the special quality which had won Ballantyne his high office, it remained hidden to him.
Skinner had experienced no problems in coping with the extra workload of his part-time post. Most of it involved nothing more strenuous than writing reports to the Secretary of State on an assortment of questions relating to his personal security and that of his junior Ministers, or to the security of establishments which were the responsibility of government, directly or through its agencies.

He had taken the precaution of following some of his own security advice, varying his daily routine rather more often than before, garaging his car when possible, and checking underneath it whenever it had been left in a public place for any length of time. But overall, his new job, which carried a modest additional salary, had made his life no more difficult than before.
However, it had given him, as a serving policeman, one very big advantage. As Hugh Fulton had been before him. Skinner was now regarded as an active member of the UK Security Service. As such, he had access to the latest files on terrorism at national and international level, intelligence far more sensitive than any available to Andy Martin’s Special Branch network. For example, Skinner was briefed fully on the Ulster Unionist plot, foiled earlier
that summer, to assassinate President Clinton in New York, and on the secret elimination by the SAS, only a month before, of an underground organisation in Hong Kong which had been planning violent public opposition to the forthcoming Chinese takeover.

He had been told of the rigorous international search for the ringleaders in each case, and of the harsh orders to be carried out should any of them be traced in Britain. He knew the true
operational strength of the various Northern Irish paramilitary groups, and was aware of the routes which were used to smuggle weapons and explosives to the British mainland. He had heard rumours, too, of the summary justice meted out to those terrorists who, by chance, fell into the hands of the SAS rather than the police.
But he knew of nothing at all, on either the MI5 or the Special Branch networks, which offered the faintest clue to the identity of the perpetrators of the Waverley Centre explosion.