Thursday legends - Skinner 10 by Quintin Jardine Page B

within.'
    'So
what are we looking for here?' Steele asked.
    'We're
looking for all the enemies Alec might have made in his time. We'll do it by
sifting through the files for the period in which he was in my job, and through
the private papers which I've brought here from his house.'
    'And
where do we begin?'
    'We
begin by interviewing the Deputy Chief Constable, who might be the only bloke
here who can tell us anything about Alec Smith as a man, as well as a police
officer.'
    Steele
gulped, involuntarily, as McGuire pushed himself up from his chair, and stepped
out from behind his desk. 'Come on; he'll be waiting for us now'
    The
Inspector led the way out of the Special Branch suite. They marched briskly out
of the high-rise section of the Fettes headquarters complex and along the link
which led to the Command Corridor, above the main entrance, where the chief
officers were based.
    McGuire
leaned into a small room, off to the right. Ruth
    McConnell
smiled up at him. Gorgeous as
always, he thought. 'The Boss
in?' he asked.
    'Yes.
He said to send you along when you arrived. Go on, and I'll buzz him.'
    'Thanks.'
Beckoning Steele to follow, he walked a few yards to Skinner's door, knocked
and led the way inside.
    The
Deputy Chief was in uniform, unusually. He caught McGuire's surprised glance as
he rose from his swivel chair and stepped across towards the low seating in his
reception area, where Neil Mcllhenney was sitting. 'Visitors,' he explained. 'A
delegation from the Mossos Esquadra, the Catalan national police force. Then
tomorrow, I'm off to a three-day conference in London. Great week, eh?' he grumbled.
He pointed to a coffee filter in the corner of the big, bright room with a
wall-to-wall window which gave Skinner a view of everything going on outside.
'Help yourselves, if you want. I've had my ration for the morning.'
    Steele
poured coffee for McGuire and for himself and joined the senior officers around
the low table.
    'So,
Mario,' the DCC began briskly. 'What do you want to know?'
    'Everything
you know about Alec Smith, sir. We've got nothing out of North Berwick, or out
of his widow even. We were told that you and he used to mix socially as well as
professionally. I was hoping you might help us get a handle on the man.'
    'I
thought you might say that. Yes, Alec and I had a common interest away from the
office; he was one of the Legends for a while.'
    Steele
frowned, puzzled.
    Skinner
explained. 'A bunch of us play five-a-side football -
or four, or six, depending on how many turn up - every Thursday night at North
Berwick Sports Centre. We've been at it for twenty years and more; we call
ourselves the Legends because these days we're all so fucking old.
    4 We had a vacancy, oh, maybe ten years ago. I knew
Alec had played a bit in his youth, and he lived in East Lothian, so I asked
him if he wanted to come along. He was one of us for about five years, till he
chucked it. He decided his right knee wasn't up to it any more.
    'But
that was the extent of our social mixing. The Legends is as much about the
get-together in the pub afterwards as it is about the game itself but Alec
rarely mixed in with that. More often than not, he'd get dressed, pay his
money, say goodnight and go home to Pencaitland. He never came to any of our
Christmas Dinners, no matter what time of year we held them ... they're never at Christmas.
    'On
the odd occasion he did come to the pub, he rarely had much to say. He was
pleasant enough, you understand; I never heard Alec Smith say a hard or rude
word in my life. He was just a very quiet man, that's all.'
    He
turned to Mcllhenney. 'Neil, you worked with him in SB once. How did you find
him?'
    'I
was just seconded there for a short time, Boss, but I thought he was a
magician. He'd allocate jobs and when you reported back to him, it was as if
he'd known what you were telling him all along.'
    'Who
were in his inner circle in SB at that time?' asked McGuire.
    'He
didn't have one, Mario. He treated