Thursday legends - Skinner 10 (43 page)

'Afternoon,
sir,' said the veteran as he came on line. 'Did you get anything?'

'Yes,
Dan, but nothing that's going to take you forward. I had the Governor bring
Lennie to the phone and I asked him about his meetings with Luke Heard. He
assured me that the two of them only ever talk business. Heard gives him a
quarterly report detailing the performance of every investment in the trust
portfolio; Lennie looks at it and makes a few off-the-cuff comments. Later,
once he's had a chance to study it at leisure, he writes to him with more
detailed instructions.

'There's
never any small talk. The big fella told me that he doesn't like Heard; he
thinks he's a nasty piece of goods. He only does business with him because the
Diddler turned him down.'

'So
Lennie had something against Shearer himself,' Pringle commented.

'Don't
clutch at straws, Daniel. He understood Diddler's position and he still
respects it.'

Pringle
could not restrain himself. 'Do you believe all that, though? I mean, the man's
a fuckin' murderer.'

Skinner
chuckled. 'As someone once said, it doesn't make you a bad person. Seriously
though; Lennie has never once told me a lie. Fact is, I doubt if he's ever told
a lie in his life. Take it from me, he did not do Heard any favours, or drop
him any hints, accidentally or otherwise.'

'Aye
okay, sir,' the Superintendent conceded, wearily at first, until his voice
changed. 'I suppose one bit of luck's all I can hope for in a day.'

'What
d' you mean?'

'I
just had a call from the diving team. They've found the Did- Mr Shearer's
organiser thing in the river, just downstream from the house. No sign of the
watch yet, though.'

'Bugger
the watch! You give that lap-top to our technical people; with a bit of luck, there'll
be retrievable data on it.'

'It's
already on the way to them. I'll give you a call if we get a result.'

'Do
that, but keep Andy informed first; everything goes through him.'

As
he hung up, he glanced across at Martin, who was seated opposite. 'Did you get
that?'

'Diddler's
diary?'

'Possibly,
unless it's goosed.'

'Our
day for the high-tech, isn't it?'

'Seems
to be. Go and get Maggie and Mario for me, will you? You understand why I
didn't want them in the room while I spoke to Lennie? It would have been a
breach of confidence, in a way, to have them listening in.'

'Sure.'
Martin paused. 'Tell me something. Do you ever regret not just standing aside
that night and letting him walk out of there?'

Bob
shook his head. 'Never. Not for a second. Sod the guys that he did in; they
were crooks and murderers. But he killed his wife, Andy; he cut her throat, and
he had to pay for that.'

The
Head of CID left the conservatory, returning quickly with Rose and McGuire at
his heels. The Inspector was carrying Alec Smith's computer, while his wife
held the strongbox full of photographs.

'Hi,
folks,' said the DCC, pushing himself halfway up from his chair as they
entered. 'Sorry to keep you waiting; I had something to take care of. We can
get on with it now, though, in peace and quiet too; Mark's at school, and
Sarah's up at Edith Shearer's with the other two.

'So
what's the big mystery? What's this that Andy and I both have to see?'

'Dynamite,
Boss,' McGuire, the junior officer in the room, answered. 'Sheer bloody
dynamite. As DCI Rose told you on the phone, the late Mrs Smith's Co-op number
paid off. We got into the safe, and we found this lot. Once we got into it, we
realised that you had to see it.'

'Okay,'
said Skinner, 'let's have it then. How's the battery?'

'Fully
charged. I switched it on as we were coming through.' He handed the lap-top
over, raising the screen as he did so.

The
DCC looked at the small keyboard. 'Fiddly thing this. Our Mark's the boy for
these.'

'You
wouldn't want him to see what's on there.'

'Let's
have a look then.'

He
looked at the listed folders and clicked open the one marked, 'John'. He hit on
the first name at once. 'Barnfather. The old judge?' he asked, glancing up at
McGuire, who nodded. As he glanced down the list of names, one jumped out at
him. 'Topham? Is that Marcia Topham, the Police Committee woman?'

'The
same' Rose murmured.

He
opened the first file, and read his way through it. As he finished, the DCI
handed him the first envelope of photographs; he hissed with distaste as he
looked through them, then handed them to Martin and opened the next file.
Slowly, carefully, and silently, he read his way through all twenty-seven
numbered files and examined all twenty-seven envelopes.

The
twenty-eighth file was headed, 'Report'. Skinner clicked it open and gasped.
'Bloody hell! This is addressed to the Lord President.' The document which
showed on the computer screen was headed:

Private
and Confidential.

Lord
Murray of Overstoun, Lord President of the Court of Session.

Copy
to: 'The Moderator, General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.'

The
DCC read aloud:

'This
report is written to draw to your attention a sinister network of individuals
who exist in Scotland today, exercising a malign influence over our country's
moral standards, and bringing to bear pressures which have the effect of
undermining the principles upon which our society is based.

'Every
person listed in this document is, or in the case of the late Lord Barnfather,
was, an undeclared, practising homosexual. The evidence against them is clear
and is presented in photographic form. 'They include, sir, two of your own
colleagues, Senators of the College of Justice, five members of the Scottish
Administration, including two of Cabinet rank, three Shadow Ministers, three
Queen's Counsel holding public office, two high-ranking police officers, four
senior civil servants, including one in the Lord Advocate's Department, two
senior clergymen of the Church of Scotland and six prominent and influential
figures in the Scottish financial and business community.

'The
majority of these people, nineteen to be exact, are married or co-habiting with
heterosexual partners. 'The fact that sexually deviant people hold prominent
positions represents a danger in itself, given that they are all still in the
closet, and are therefore potentially subject to blackmail. However there is a
greater danger and it is real and present.

'All
of these people are linked by membership of a range of professional bodies,
clubs and societies; many of them are known to each other as homosexuals, and
there is strong evidence of collusion between them to achieve further sexual
liberalisation in Scotland. There are also instances where it is apparent that
criminal proceedings against homosexuals have been compromised because
influence has been exercised improperly. 'Sir, this document is addressed to
you as the senior figure in the Establishment, standing aloof from politics and
at the head of the Scottish Legal system. It is my earnest hope that you will
use your influence to ensure that these people are driven from office. I am not
afraid to make this report public; my evidence is strong enough to withstand
any action for defamation. However, I do not wish to cause a national scandal
and I rely on you to ensure that this menace is rooted out.'

Skinner
looked up and closed the lap-top. 'Jesus Christ!' he murmured. 'Old Alec must
have been right round the twist.' He opened the computer again, but it had put itself
to sleep. 'What was the date on the first of those files?' he asked Rose.

'About
five years ago; the file on Lord Barnfather. It was compiled just after his son
died.'

'Ahh,
the poor guy. It must have hurt him incredibly for him to react like that. But
he was so secretive; he just couldn't have been able to talk to him about it.'

He
pressed a key to re-activate the lap-top and handed it to Martin. 'Look at some
of the names on that list
...
especially number five.'

'No
need,' said the Head of CID. 'I recognised him from the photographs. Assistant
Chief Constable James Elder. Who'd have bloody thought it?'

'Not
me, that's for sure.'

'So
where does it take us?'

'In
theory, it gives us twenty-six people with a reason to kill Alec. But in practice
...
I doubt if it takes us anywhere.
There is a link to the Diddler, I'll grant you, but it's pretty tenuous; his
partner, Ronald Johnston-White, is on the list.

'No,
it doesn't help my pet theory, Andy, not a bit. Lawrence Scotland is still the
man in the frame for Alec's killing. The guy Heard is still prime suspect for
Diddler's murder. As for the attack on me; there's a small army of people would
like to have done that; probably one of them did.'

'Do
you think the report was ever actually submitted to Lord Murray, sir?' asked
McGuire.

'No,'
said the DCC. 'I'm certain that it wasn't. If that had been put into David's
hands, the first thing he'd have done would have been to call me.'

'You
don't think he might have called Sir John Govan?' Martin looked at Skinner, a
suggestion in his eyes.

'Are
you hinting that the First Minister's security adviser might have had Alec
bumped off? If you are, you can forget it; I know the man. On the other hand,
David Murray doesn't; he'd have called me, for sure.'

'So
what are we going to do about this, if it doesn't impact on the murder
investigation? Shouldn't we interview the people on the list, at least, just to
eliminate them?'

'What?
Interview a judge, two Scottish Cabinet Ministers, Marcia Topham and Jim Elder?
To tell them all that they've been persecuted by a madman. I don't think so.
There isn't a single piece of information here, or a single photograph, that
could be used as evidence of a serious crime.

'Let
me show you what I'm going to do with this lot. Mags, did you say something
about copy disks?'

'Yes
sir,' Rose replied. 'There are two.' She took them from the strongbox and
handed them over.

Skinner
reclaimed the computer from Martin, slid the two disks into the floppy drive,
one after the other, and erased them. Finally, he selected the 'John' folder
and dragged it to the waste-basket in the bottom corner of the screen.

'You
sure?' asked the Head of CID quietly. 'What if one of them did kill Alec?'

'What
if?' he murmured. 'I can live with it.' He pulled down a Command from the Apple
menu and emptied the wastebasket, destroying Alec Smith's report for ever.

'Leave
those photographs with me, Maggie,' he said. 'We're having a barbecue tonight.'

68

'So,
what did you find out about the Lewis girl?' Dan Pringle asked.

'She's
been working at the zoo full-time since she finished her Highers a few weeks
back,' said McGurk. 'She was a pupil at Watson's. I did a quiet check-up there;
she and Heard's daughter, Sophie, are best pals apparently.'

'Where's
the Heard girl just now?'

'She's
crewing a schooner around the Western Isles for her Duke of Edinburgh's Gold
award.'

The
Superintendent raised an eyebrow. 'She's doing what?'

'Crewing,
sir.'

'Ahh.
For a minute I thought you said something else. So do you reckon her pal's crewing
her old man while she's away?'

'It's
a thought, but it's barely relevant, is it?'

'Naw.
Not a bit. But you know what I think? I think that Heard's been giving her one
and now she's threatening to tell the girl Sophie and Mrs Heard. The way you
described it, that could have been hush money he was handing her.'

'Still,'
McGurk ventured. 'Do you think we should interview her, just to confirm it?'

'We've
interviewed her already, son. A week last Saturday, after she spotted Shearer
floating under the Belford Bridge. You were there, remember. She was still
shaking like a leaf, terrified; poor lass got a hell of a fright. Andy Martin
told me
that after we were done he had to get the MO to give
her a sedative.