that the cash Dino was paid with wasn’t exactly legitimate and two, that as the other Walter suggested, it was obtained in England.’
Haddock walked to each of the four corners of the small room, peering into each with his hand shading his eyes.
‘What the hell are you doing?’ Pye asked.
‘I’m looking for a straw you haven’t clutched at yet.’
‘Fuck!’ the DCI shouted as he slumped into his chair. ‘If you weren’t my mate, I’d have you on points duty.’
‘Sorry, Sammy,’ the DS said, ‘but that’s what it sounded like. The money’s not going to take us anywhere, other than in ever-decreasing circles, until we disappear up our own arses.’
‘I know,’ Pye sighed. ‘But what have we got? All I can see is the end of the tunnel, and the only light’s an oncoming train.’
‘That may well be, but there’s still one line of inquiry that we haven’t explored, one strand that links our two crimes. We’ve got two victims, the Gates family and now the Mackails; and in each one the father was, or is, in the Navy. Do they connect, and if so, how?’
The DCI pulled himself up in his chair. ‘You’re right, of course,’ he said. ‘I’m tired and I’m under pressure. Thanks, Sauce, I needed that kick up the arse.’ He paused, frowning. ‘We should check Mackail’s Navy background, but let’s not get too excited. The two families were connected professionally; if the two men did know each other in the Navy and kept in touch afterwards, yes, I can see where that could have led Grete to work for Hector, but the likelihood is that the link extends no further than that.’
‘It still has to be ticked or crossed off,’ Haddock insisted.
‘Agreed, but that might be easier said than done. Remember, Lieutenant Gates set off all sorts of security alarms last time we asked about him. That might happen again.’
‘And it might not. Stay positive, gaffer.’
‘I’m trying,’ Pye said, ‘but I know in here,’ he tapped his chest with his middle finger, ‘that there’s something we’re just not getting, a link in this chain of events that we can’t see, and my problem is I have no idea where to go looking for it. I tell you this, Sauce, and only you; this new set-up makes me feel completely exposed. Oh how I wish Bob Skinner was here!’
As he spoke, with a huge frustrated sigh, his office door opened, and a familiar voice exclaimed, ‘Be careful what you wish for.’
Fifty-Three
I will carry with me to the grave the expression on Sammy Pye’s face as I stepped into his office. He turned towards me, in his old swivel chair, eyes wide open, jaw slightly dropped, and he murmured, ‘Have the last six months been a dream?’
Even young Haddock was taken aback by my inadvertent timing. He jumped from his perch on the edge of his boss’s desk; for a moment I thought he was about to come to attention.
‘As you were,’ I said.
‘How did you get in?’ he asked.
I grinned at him. ‘Seriously?’
Mind you, I did feel a little weird myself. Twenty years before, that room had been mine, when I ran Serious Crimes as a detective superintendent, surrounded by good cops, among them much younger versions of Andy Martin and Mario McGuire, and with Alison Higgins not very far away.
It hadn’t taken me long after Carrie McDaniels came up with the name Mackail to realise that I had to touch base with the guys. I didn’t rush into it, though. Instead I paid a visit to Mario, not in his office in Stirling but in his very posh penthouse in Leith, in the evening.
My friend, the deputy chief constable, is probably the most dedicated cop I know, if only because he doesn’t need the money and never has done. On his mother’s side he’s a member of one of the most successful business families in Edinburgh, and his dad was a building contractor. He could have taken up either option at any time but he never did. Instead he joined the police force in his early twenties after completing a degree in business administration that he never talks about.
Initially, his choice had something to do with a simple desire to prove to his family that he could be a success in his own right, on his own terms. He achieved that years ago; by that time he loved the job so much that he never contemplated leaving.
I arrived at Eamon’s dinnertime; he’s a little over six