Head Shot

It's an interesting thought that, eh, sir? Any time you fancy an il icit leg over, all you need to do is put on a dog col ar.'

'I'll bear it in mind. Inspector. I'l give your message to my wife.

You'd better hurry off home to yours; I just hope you don't find her dressing up like a nun when you get there.'

Mackenzie laughed. 'Nice one, sir. I'll be in a bit late tomorrow, if Ms Rose wants to talk to me about what the curate said.'

'Did he mention any specific pubs?'

'No. But now you mention it, he said the busy pubs; yes, he did say that, the busy ones.'

'Thanks; that cuts a few out. Good night, Inspector.'

He hung up, then made a brief note of Mackenzie's information on a pad beside the phone. He had barely finished when it rang again; this time it was Stan Coia on the line. Mario told his cousin's husband, briefly, about Greg Jay's problem. 'Murder investigations are about talking to people and knocking them off one by one as potential suspects.

That's al Greg wants to do with Essary and Frances, but we can't find either of them. There's no answer at their registered address, and no trace anywhere else. Have you got a contact for them?'

'I've got the address on the lease, but I don't remember having any other details.'

'I can guess what the address is. How did you set the tenancy up? Can you remember?'

'Ella Frances phoned me; she said that she and her partner were starting an import business, and they needed to show Customs and Excise that they had the facility to bond stock in the UK. She asked if we rented out space; I said yes we did, she asked how much per square metre, I told her and she said "Fine", and asked to lease some for a year, with an option for a further twelve months.

'I sent her a standard draft agreement, and told her we'd want payment in advance.

'She called me back a couple of days later; I said that I'd draw up the official document, and fixed a date for us to meet them to sign it. I insisted that both of them had to sign it, in person, on the premises. She huffed a bit, but eventual y they met Beppe at the warehouse; they did the business there and they paid up.'

'So you've got bank details?'

'Cash, Mario. They paid in cash. I remember Beppe bringing this wadge of money back to my office, and asking me to bank it in the property account.'

'When did al this happen?'

'Last September.'

'And when did Beppe write to them about terminating the lease?'

'A couple of weeks ago.'

'Mmm.'

He stood with the phone in his hand, aware vaguely of the living-room door opening. 'Is this significant, Mario?' asked Coia. 'Could those two have been behind Beppe's murder?'

'I can't say yes, Stan,' he answered, 'and I can't say no. Al I can tell you is that Greg Jay and I want very much indeed to speak to Mr Magnus Essary, and his partner.'

From behind him, there came a crash as a chicken Madras takeaway, still in its carrier bag, hit the floor.

'What did you say?'

He turned and surveyed the scene, incredulous. 'Is that our dinner on the floor?' he asked, irrelevantly.

'Never mind that. What did you say there? What was that name you used?'

He realised that he still had the phone in his hand. 'Sorry, Stan,' he said, 'got to go.' He hung up and turned back to face her.

'Magnus Essary. He and his partner rented space in our bonded warehouse a while back; Beppe wanted to terminate their lease and they were kicking up about it. Greg Jay wants to talk to him but he can't find him.'

'I'm not surprised,' Maggie exclaimed. 'Magnus Essary was identified as having died of a heart attack, just over a week ago, in a doctor's surgery in Oxgangs.'

'Ah shit. Greg. can take him off the list then.'

'Oh no he can't. We're one hundred per cent certain that the man identified as Essary was actual y Father Francis Donovan Green, a parish priest from Holytown in North Lanarkshire.'

'… Who liked to cruise the Royal Mile pubs looking for friendly ladies with an eye for a new experience, like screwing a priest, so they could tell their pals about it.'

'How did…'

He cut her off in mid-exclamation. 'Bandit Mackenzie phoned a few minutes ago. Green's curate told him the whole story. Who certified the death?'

'A doctor named Amritraj; a locum.'

'Who's now missing?'

'Of course; leaving a mountain of debt in his wake. I was late home because I had to dig up a sheriff to give me warrants to search his digs and the surgery.'

'Where's he from?'

'Goa, in India.'

'He won't be Goa-in' back there, then.'

She groaned at his bad joke. They both became aware at the same moment of the odour of spil ed Madras. She bent to pick up the bag, and carried it into the kitchen. Mario watched her as she scooped the curry into a Pyrex bowl, then transferred it to two plates, laying a naan bread on each one. He pulled up two stools and they ate, hungrily, at the breakfast bar.

'What do you think al this business is about, Mario?' she asked.

He smiled, his cheek bulged out with a chunk of sauce-dipped bread.

'Money,' he answered, when he could. 'Two people go through al the motions of setting up a company; they register, they take commercial space, they have a business address. But they never use the space, and they can only be contacted by mail, through the address.'

'A rented house near where Amritraj worked,' she interposed.

'Why would they do al that?'

'As a front, of course. Smuggling?'

He frowned at her. 'How about insurance? We've got an Essary, dead, only he isn't real y.'

'And who, it turned out, never existed in the first place… not as Essary, anyway.'

'But what if there's a bloody great policy on his life, the kind smal companies take out to cover the death of directors, so that their shares can be bought in?'

Maggie nodded. 'What if, indeed.'

'Where's the body?'

'Up the chimney at Seafield; it was claimed by the partner of the so called deceased.'

'Ella Frances?'

'The same. She had him cremated on Saturday.'

Mario laughed out loud. 'First thing tomorrow, love, you'd better check with al the main corporate insurers.'

'A day in the rank,' she snorted, 'and you're telling me how to do my job?'

'Funny, Greg Jay said much the same to me today. Here, that's a point.

Whose investigation is this anyway, yours or his?'

'It's Dan Pringle's. And you know what? I'm going to see him, right now.

He looked at her, his frown back in place. 'You do that,' he murmured, 'and while you do, I'm off to visit our Paula. No one else but Beppe has seen Essary, that I know of at any rate; but she was close to her old man.

You never know, maybe she can shed some light.'

56

'I made that call to lan,' said Sarah.

'I told you. I don't want to know anything about it.'

'Okay, I just thought…'

'Don't start thinking about this at this stage,' Bob snapped. 'You'l only confuse yourself.'

She looked at him across the bedroom, angered and hurt by his retort.

He softened at once and moved towards her. 'Hey, I'm sorry, love,' he said, wrapping his arms around her in a great bear-hug. 'You do what you have to do. It's just that this is going to be a difficult week for you as it is; I'm not sure you need this added complication.'

'You ain't kidding there,' she murmured, her voice muffled by his chest. 'But I have to deal with it, if I'm ever going to feel right about that time. I won't mention it again, I promise.'

'Fine. The main thing for you, for us both, indeed, is to get through Friday.'

'I know. The meeting at the law firm, whenever it happens, is going to be tough too. And there's something else I have to do before that.'