through his contact numbers and offered it to her. ‘There. That’s DCC McGuire’s number. Would you like to call him and tell him what we’re about to do?’
‘I don’t need to. This is my department’s remit. We’re responsible for all media communications.’
Haddock laughed. ‘So you’re going to swan in here and tell an SIO what he can and can’t say about his own investigation?’
‘Welcome to the world of ScotServe,’ Isabel Cant said.
‘Welcome to the world of the Menu,’ Sammy Pye retorted. ‘It’ll still be our arses on the line out there, never yours, so we will make the rules.’ He checked the time on his phone and put it back in his pocket. ‘We won’t be needing you in there.’
‘I think you’ll find that you do,’ she snapped back at him.
‘I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you call your boss while you’re waiting here, and find out who’s right and who’s wrong about that? Meantime we’re going to do our job the way we see fit.’
He opened the door and stepped into the conference room, leaving Haddock to close it behind them.
Twenty-Nine
‘Are you prepared for the wrath of God to crash around your ears?’
‘If necessary, sir,’ Pye told the deputy chief constable. ‘I made a judgement and acted on it.’
‘And personalities had nothing to do with it?’
‘I hope not. How can I put this? I’d like to think that Ms Cant and I had different perceptions of our relative roles in a police investigation, and that mine prevailed.’
‘Thanks to Haddock slamming a door in the face of a senior civilian colleague?’
‘Not true, sir.’ The DCI winked at the detective sergeant. ‘He closed it very gently.’
‘Jesus,’ McGuire sighed, the sound amplified by the phone’s speaker. ‘You do know that the new media structure was signed off personally by Sir Andrew?’
‘I didn’t, but I hope he’ll support his officers when it leads to a conflict of priorities.’
‘For fuck’s sake, Sammy, cut out the diplomatic language. You were told to release the child’s name and you countermanded that instruction.’
‘As senior investigating officer, sir,’ Pye countered, ‘I take my orders from my line managers. As far as I know, Isobel Cant isn’t one of them.’
‘As far as you know,’ the DCC mimicked. ‘Man, it doesn’t work like that any more. In a force of our size, there has to be a recognised communications structure and the professionals within it must have their own form of authority. If Ms Cant, or Peregrine Allsop, her boss, give you a draft, you have to think of it as coming from Sir Andrew himself. What you don’t do is tell her to stick it up her arse.’
‘That’s not fair, sir,’ Haddock protested. ‘The gaffer was a damn sight more polite than she was.’
‘Butt out, Detective Sergeant,’ McGuire growled. ‘I’ll tell you what’s fucking fair, and what’s not.’
‘Sorry, sir.’
‘Accepted; remember it. Now: incredibly fortunately for you two, I agree with you in this instance, and I’ve managed to calm the chief down. Ms Cant breached the new protocol herself, by not discussing the communications strategy with the SIO and taking his views into account. That’s your wiggle room. You are doubly lucky, in that once I explained your view to Sir Andrew he agreed with that too, albeit grudgingly, and asked Allsop to tell Cant to stay out of your hair for the duration of this investigation.’
‘Thanks, sir,’ Pye said. ‘I knew you’d go to bat for us.’
‘Yeah, well, don’t go taking it for granted,’ the DCC mumbled. ‘You’ll need to make your peace with them both at some point, but for now, do things your way. So,’ he continued, ‘what did you tell the media?’
‘I told them as much as I could. I told them that the results of the autopsy on the dead child led us to continue treating her death as suspicious, rather than murder. There was a lot of grumbling when I said I couldn’t name her . . .’
McGuire interrupted. ‘How did you explain that?’
‘With the truth: that there’s a problem contacting the father. They pressed me on why, but they gave up on it when I told them that the prime suspect in the abduction, and his girlfriend, had been found shot dead in a burned-out car.’
‘Yes, that would get their attention,’ McGuire chuckled. ‘Did you name both of them?’
‘Yes, I was able to do that. The DNA confirmation came through at nine thirty, and the police in Gdansk, Anna’s home town, called us to confirm that they’d spoken to her parents.’