on one of the companies on your list. I’d like to look into it in more detail, but to do that I’ll need to speak to someone. It’s a guy I know, but the problem is he’s a business journalist, and you said no press.’
‘How well do you know him?’
‘Very well; we were at school together. I used to give him information when I was with the insurance company.’
‘Can you talk to him without bringing me or our client into it, and without giving him any clue of what this is about?’
‘Mr Skinner, you’re forgetting; I don’t know what this is about. I’m just running down a list of people and companies you gave me.’
‘Maybe so, but can you talk to him without making him too curious?’
‘Yes, I can. If he did get difficult,’ she added, ‘I know who his newest lady friend is, and he knows I know.’
‘What’s that got to do with anything?’
‘She’s a television presenter, and she’s married.’
‘Tread carefully,’ I warned her, ‘but go ahead.’
The snow disappeared as quickly as it had arrived, and I was able to pick up pace. Since I ceased to be a cop I’ve always been careful to stick to the speed limits, or at least to stay within the unofficial tolerance zone. Too many tabloids would love to report on a Bob Skinner court appearance. Even at that gentle pace, I had time on my hands so I made a detour to the Mercedes dealership on the edge of Edinburgh to pick up a detailed estimate for the repair of my damaged car.
I was almost home when my phone sounded again. I hadn’t expected to hear from Lottie Mann for at least twenty-four hours, and so I was taken by surprise.
‘What’s up?’ I asked. ‘Was there something we forgot to cover over lunch?’
‘No,’ she said breezily. ‘I thought I’d give you a heads up on what we’ve got so far. We’ve still got a way to go before we have the complete picture, but we know some of it. Hodgson was fifty-four; he graduated in marine engineering from Heriot Watt Uni in Edinburgh and joined the Navy aged twenty-four. He served in the surface fleet, including some time in aircraft carriers during the first Gulf War. He retired, or he was retired, ten years ago and joined the Royal Fleet Auxiliary: that’s a civilian support . . .’
‘I know what it is; it gets people and things to wherever they’re needed by the military.’
‘That’s right. He turned that in when he was fifty, and moved to Wemyss Bay from the Portsmouth area. He was married from nineteen eighty-nine to twenty zero two. That ended in divorce; no children.’
‘Where did you get all this?’ I asked.
‘Department of Work and Pensions . . . if that’s what it’s still called,’ she chuckled. ‘He’s been paying self-employed National Insurance contributions for the last four years. We don’t yet know who his clients are apart from Mr Higgins, but when we can access his bank details and see where his payments have been coming from, that’ll give us a better idea.’
‘Where did he bank?’
‘We found an ATM card for a Santander account among his effects in the house. He had one of their credit cards as well, and a Barclaycard. Dan’s on to the bank now; as usual, they’re being difficult.’
‘Let DCC McGuire know if it becomes a problem,’ I suggested. ‘He has a special way with difficult jobsworths, plus he knows the Data Protection Act inside out.’
‘Will do, Mr Skinner, thanks,’ Lottie said.
‘Were there no papers in the house to help you?’ I asked.
‘Precious little. He had a file with council tax details in it, and another for insurance, but no receipts for utilities, gas, electric, the phone.’
‘Me neither,’ I confessed. ‘Everything in my household is online, and settled automatically by direct debit. But if that was the case with Hodgson,’ I pondered aloud, ‘it should be on his computer.’
‘And it probably is,’ she agreed, ‘but we don’t know where that is. A week or so before his death, he reported a break-in at his house. The missing property listed in the investigating officers’ notes was a hundred and fifty quid in cash, an inscribed Omega watch that was a leaving present from his Navy pals, some gold men’s jewellery, a valuable ring that he said was his mother’s, and a Dell laptop computer.’
‘Did the responding officers have the place dusted?’
‘Of course they did,’ she said, reprovingly. ‘And it was clean as a whistle.