The Head of CID nodded. ‘I’ll tell Gerry where and when.’
Skinner turned and left the dining room. To his instant annoyance, he found Councillor Marcia Topham pacing the corridor outside. ‘Ah, there you are,’ said the Chair of the Police Board. ‘I’ve been waiting for ten minutes, and no sign of either you or that secretary chap. I thought you’d forgotten about me.’
‘How could I, Councillor?’ he replied with a forced smile. ‘But you are a bit early.’ As he spoke, Gerry Crossley appeared at the end of the corridor, returning from lunch. Skinner showed the woman into the Chief’s office through the side entrance, signalling behind her back for coffee to be brought in.
Inside, he directed her to one of the comfortable armchairs and sat down facing her. ‘I’ll come straight to the point, Mr Skinner,’ she burst out. ‘I’m not happy.’
Instantly the DCC felt his temper beginning to strain at the leash, but he kept his smile in place. ‘I’m sorry to hear that, Councillor,’ he replied. ‘A domestic problem?’
‘No, it is not,’ she snapped. ‘I’m having to put up with a lot of comments from constituents, friends, and just ordinary people in the street, about these terrible robberies. When are we going to see an arrest, Mr Skinner? It’s just not good enough.’
‘I quite agree with you. It’s not good enough that you should be subjected to such harassment. I’d be quite happy if you were to refer every one of these people to my office. I’ll be happy to listen to their worries.’
He paused. ‘But let me ask you? What do you say to these concerned constituents?’
‘I agree with them, of course. Armed men holding up banks and the police apparently doing nothing about it. It’s not right.’
Skinner held up his right hand, bunched into a fist. ‘D’you see that, Councillor?’
She peered at it. ‘It looks swollen to me.’
‘Quite right. I injured it this morning, tackling a very large man holding a silenced pistol. If I hadn’t been there, or even if I’d been a second or two slower, a young officer would be dead right now.’
As he spoke, his tone became harder. ‘I saw you at a funeral yesterday; that of a young police officer. Annie Brown gave her life in the service of the public, lady. Stevie Steele almost did today.
‘In the office which you hold, people like them are entitled to expect unswerving public support from you. In the office which I hold, I bloody well demand it. Unless you’re prepared to relinquish the Chair to someone worthier, I suggest that you try to learn a bit about the realities and the difficulties of police work.
‘For example, not all criminals wear flat caps, have low foreheads, and carry sacks labelled “swag” over their shoulders. Some. . the successful ones. . are highly intelligent people who go about their work in a highly professional way. These robberies have been planned better than any I’ve ever encountered, and have been implemented with matching efficiency. It is not easy to catch people like that. . yet if you look at the record of this force, you’ll find that almost invariably, we do.
‘The Chair of the Police Board should know all that. I suggest that you go away and read up the facts and figures, so that you can do your job properly by supporting my officers, not attacking them.’
He stood up, abruptly, his anger written all over his face. ‘Now, as you will appreciate, with the number of live investigations which we have running, I’m busy, so this meeting is at an end.’
Councillor Topham looked up at him, red-faced. ‘But Sir James always gives me half an hour,’ she protested.
‘In that case,’ said Skinner, ‘maybe you should postpone your next visit until Jimmy gets back from holiday. I think that we both have higher priorities than vacuous chat, don’t you?’
She rose, at last, with ill grace. As the side door closed on her, Gerry Crossley appeared at the other end of the room, carrying a tray. The Acting Chief grinned at him. ‘Sorry, but the lady’s just gone. Have the other cup yourself and brief me on these hearings.’
The secretary nodded and left the room to fetch his papers. When he returned, he sat in the armchair which Councillor Topham had just vacated.
‘Let me see, sir,’ he began, leafing through the folder. ‘In both these cases, the officers concerned have declined formal hearings into the complaints. They’ve opted to come straight to the Chief Constable for disposal.
‘PC Green. . he’s the first before you. . has taken the position that since the circumstances which led to the Divisional Commander’s complaint against him were domestic rather than professional, and since no criminal charges have been laid, there’s no case to answer.’
Skinner nodded. ‘I can follow that line of reasoning. Will he be represented this afternoon?’
‘Yes. He’s exercised his right to have his local Police Federation rep. sit in on the meeting.’
‘Who’s that?’
‘Sergeant Ewan Cameron, from Bathgate.’
‘I know who you mean. He was a DC on my Drugs Squad years ago. What’s he like as a Fed. guy?’
Crossley thought for a moment. ‘Conscientious but cautious, I’d say, sir. He does his job properly: by that I mean he stands up for the people he represents, but that he always manages not to upset Sir James.’
Skinner laughed. ‘That sounds like Ewan all right. It sums up the reason why I recommended him for promotion to uniformed sergeant. Sometimes in CID work you have to put your arse on the line. Cameron was conscientious all right, but he’d never do that.’
He took a sip of his coffee and picked up a low-fat chocolate digestive. ‘What about Sergeant Neville?’
‘She simply denies the allegation. There’s a statement from PC Keenan, the boy she’s alleged to have assaulted, describing the incident. Then there’s a note from the Divisional Commander, which says that he can’t judge the facts, but that she’s a bloody good officer, and that the probationer has not impressed him in his attitude to the job. Finally, there’s her own statement which says simply that she bumped into Keenan in the cupboard. She says that they just happened to be in there at the same time.’
‘Will she have a Fed. rep. with her?’
Gerry Crossley frowned, momentarily. ‘No. Sergeant Geary, from Dalkeith, is her area rep., but when I spoke to her to arrange this hearing, she refused point-blank to have him present. She said she was going to come alone.’ The secretary paused, and coughed. ‘I told her that in the circumstances, sir, I thought that would be completely inappropriate, so I insisted that she bring another personal representative.’
Skinner laughed out loud. ‘Were you scared she’d walk out of the meeting and accuse me of groping her as well?’
The young man flushed, and smiled, awkwardly. ‘No, sir, but in this office you can’t be too careful.’
‘I know that, son. So just you make sure that the recording system is switched on.’ Crossley looked at him in sudden, shocked surprise. The acting Chief Constable grinned. ‘Gerry, there’s nothing I don’t know about this building. You bear that in mind, and don’t ever think about phoning your stockbroker from in here.’ He pointed to the desk. ‘Especially not through that white telephone over there.’
By the time the buzzer sounded at three o’clock, Skinner had read his way through all of the papers relating to the cases which he was to hear. He had also changed into uniform, something which made his secretary’s eyebrows rise momentarily as he showed in PC Green and Sergeant Cameron.
Both men marched into the room stiffly, and stood to attention. ‘At ease, at ease, for Christ’s sake, and take off those bloody hats,’ the DCC burst out. ‘Ewan, you don’t have to come to attention in front of me.
‘Sit down both of you. Take one of the comfortable seats over there.’ Sergeant Cameron smiled and nodded. Green seemed, in an instant, as if a weight had been taken from him.
‘That’s good, that’s good,’ said Skinner as they settled into the plush, well-upholstered chairs.