‘How about you?’ I asked. ‘Do you feel the same about me?’
‘Hell no!’ he protested. ‘Not for a second; nor does Maggie, or anyone else. But Andy’s the chief now, and he needs to feel secure in his chair.’
‘Jesus,’ I exclaimed, ‘are you saying he thinks I’d try to undermine him?’
My one-time colleague let his silence speak for itself.
‘Then it’s time he grew up,’ I said. ‘I will support him in any way he wants, short of coming back into the service. You tell him that from me.’ I paused. ‘Tell him something else too; I know about the Scottish Police Authority chair coming up next year, and I know what the gossip’s saying. For the record, there’s no way I’d take that job, ever. I spent the latter part of my career doing my best to ignore people like that, and there is no sodding way that I will ever become one of them.’
‘I will tell him that,’ Mario replied, ‘word for word. And I’m sure it’ll be a big weight off his mind. ‘
‘Good,’ I declared. ‘Now, when am I getting the Princess Alison investigation file?’
‘I’m having it retrieved and couriered through to you in Gullane,’ he told me. ‘It’ll be with you this evening. Have fun.’ I expected him to end the call, but he carried on. ‘Just one thing, and this comes from me, not Andy. You might be working for Eden Higgins, but he’s a civilian. These papers are for your eyes only. He doesn’t get to see them.’
In the early days of my professional relationship with big Mario McGuire, when he was just a brash kid, it didn’t occur to me for one second that he was a deputy chief constable in waiting. I smiled as I thought of the man he’d become. ‘As you wish, sir,’ I murmured. ‘As you wish.’
Fourteen
For all that she tried to present a confident front to her seniors, Detective Constable Jackie Wright felt that she had yet to find her feet in CID. She saw her main strength in sourcing information, and she was pleased that she had been able to help in identifying the child who had been found dead in Edinburgh that morning, but at the same time she recognised that a civilian clerk with computer skills and a contact list could have done the same job.
To compound her doubts about her own value, there were some occasions when she found herself frustrated, all options exhausted, and with nothing else to do but to go to Sauce Haddock, and admit failure.
‘I’m sorry, Sarge,’ she said. ‘I’ve got as far as I can. The Ministry of Defence are not coming close to being cooperative. All they’ve done is to confirm that David Gates is a naval lieutenant, and that he’s currently on service, an officer in the submarine section. They won’t put me in touch with him and they won’t even promise to pass a message to him.
‘The man I spoke to was unbelievable. I told him that it was essential that we speak to Lieutenant Gates, but it cut no ice. He wouldn’t guarantee to get any information to him, or give me a contact number for him. I don’t know what to do next.’
‘You’ve done it, Jackie,’ the DS told her. ‘You’ve told the man’s employer that we need to speak to him, and now you’ve reported it up the line to me. I couldn’t have done any more and I doubt the DCI could either.’
‘But the way they behaved, Sauce,’ Wright protested. ‘It’s ridiculous.’
‘There’ll be operational reasons for it,’ Haddock told her. ‘The man is a submariner; you’ve established that. These people go on cruises for months and for a lot of that time they’re submerged. If that’s where he is, let him stay there.’
‘But he needs to know!’
‘Does he? If he is on sensitive active service, what would it do to him to get news like that?’ The young sergeant paused to consider his own question, then continued with another. ‘Who was your contact in the MoD?’
‘His name’s Blackett; he’s in the naval personnel department.’
‘Then go back to him,’ Haddock instructed. ‘Get him to guarantee that as soon as Lieutenant Gates is in a position to be contacted we’ll be advised and given facilities to interview him. If he gives you any trouble, remind him that the number two ranking minister in his department is an MP for a Scottish constituency, then ask him whether he fancies being named in a