As I finished my salad and looked around the table I realised that I’d been able to develop my thinking uninterrupted because everyone else had been ignoring me. Pye and Mann were deep in conversation, while Sauce Haddock was picking away at his namesake but absorbing everything the weathered sage that is Dan Provan had to say.
I sat back and allowed the gathering to bring itself back to order . . . or as close to that as is possible when Provan is involved. ‘I was just telling the boy here,’ he said, looking up at me, ‘that the police service is going to hell in a handcart. We used tae know who our bosses were, and where we worked. Now we don’t have a fuckin’ clue. We’re Glasgow, Lottie and me, and we get sent down tae Wemyss Bay.’
‘You weren’t sent,’ I replied, ‘you were called.’
He stared at me ‘Who called us then?’
‘Effectively, I did.’
‘But you’re history. How could you dae that?’
‘Effectively,’ I repeated. ‘I still know who to call.’
‘Hardly worth your while leavin’, then,’ Provan muttered.
I laughed. ‘On the contrary, Bilbo. It’s been very much worth my while.’
His eyes twinkled. ‘I’ve always seen maself more of a Gandalf type,’ he said, ‘but it’s true; you’re lovin’ this.’
‘I’m loving watching how you can talk and eat at the same time,’ I replied. ‘I’ll grant you there are things I miss. Times like these for an example. But I’ve been missing them since I became a deputy chief.’
‘That’s how you were crap at it.’
The ungrammatical grenade hung in the air for a few seconds, until I defused it by agreeing with him.
‘That’s exactly why,’ I conceded. ‘Just as your inability to master basic diplomacy while dancing on the edge of insubordination is how nobody’s ever been tempted to promote you to inspector, even though you’re probably the best detective in Glasgow. You’ve never aspired to being a wizard, Dan; you’ve always been happy to be a hobbit.’
‘You know me so well,’ he laughed. ‘And I know you. You’re a pure hunter. You cannae stop yourself.’
‘I can,’ I retorted, a little sharply, because he was getting to me, ‘and I do. It’s made easier because you are right about one thing. The police service is going to hell in a handcart, as I knew it would when I opposed unification, but even though I’m no longer part of it, that’s something I will not allow.’
‘How are you going tae stop it?’ he challenged.
‘Watch this space.’
I pushed my plate away, enjoying the silence as the waiter cleared the table. He asked for our dessert orders. I pointed at Provan. ‘He’ll have Black Forest gateau,’ I said. ‘I could not bear to watch him picking sticky toffee pudding out of those teeth.’
He did, too, just to spite me, I’m sure, for everyone else declined the sweet course and went straight to coffee.
‘Well,’ I said once everyone had been served. ‘What does everyone think of my analysis?’
Pye was the senior officer at the table; the others, even Provan, looked to him.
‘I don’t disagree with any of it, sir,’ he said. ‘I’m in no doubt that’s how it happened. Eden Higgins as prime suspect? It can’t be anyone else, can it?’
‘No, it can’t,’ I concurred. ‘But now the hard bit . . . proving it.’ I paused, looking at Sammy and Sauce. ‘You two, of course, you could walk away at this stage with brownie points. You’ve had three parts to your investigation and two of them are cleared up. You’re in the plus column, even more so when you consider that a victim of your unsolved strand was the perpetrator in the first two.’
‘Try telling that to the chief constable, boss,’ Haddock chipped in.
‘I will if I have to,’ I promised him, ‘but there are folk within the force who’ll do that before me.’
‘That’s nice to know, sir,’ Sammy murmured, ‘but there’s somebody you’ve forgotten: Anna Hojnowski, Anna Harmony, Singer, whatever you want to call her. I don’t know why but I feel as if I knew her. There’s no way I’m walking away from this without putting my hand on the collar of the person who shot her.’
I smiled at that; warrant card or not, I felt exactly the same way.
I turned to Lottie. ‘You two, on the other hand, have a big, smelly unsolved on your hands. Jock Hodgson did one of two things; either he betrayed his employer or he did a pal a favour to right a perceived wrong.