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‘Aye, you not heard? He had inoperable cancer, a year left at most,’ said Wakefield.
‘Christ. This job just gets worse,’ said Ross.
‘It’s gonna be hard to contain,’ Wakefield said, his face ashen.
‘What’s the DCC’s take on it?’ said Ross.
‘I’m at point on this, but operationally reporting directly to her whilst the Chief’s away. I’m setting up two MITs. One for this, and the other for Slattery is up and running now.’
‘What about us?’ said Ross.
‘She doesn’t want you involved. Sorry, Ross. I know we should have listened, but she was adamant from the outset. I think she views you as usurping her position as lead for professional standards.’
Ross said nothing, just shrugged.
‘How did your man know to be here?’ said Wakefield.
‘As I said, coincidence?’ said Ross, his face displaying nothing but pure innocence.
‘Coincidence, my arse,’ said Wakefield, his belligerence returning.
‘Look, Miles. How and why he was here is kind of irrelevant. It’s hardly the world’s best kept secret that the recovery operation was here, as it was all over the radio, divers involved with all their entourage and every other bugger. Police Scotland is a small playground. Let’s just say that he was here, and be thankful that you have high-quality bloody footage of the whole thing.’
Wakefield sighed, even more deeply than he had done previously. There was a tone from his pocket, and he reached in and produced his phone, looking at the display.
‘Yes, ma’am?’ he said, his eyes closing resignedly. He paused and listened, the voice on the other end almost audible to Ross.
‘Aye, I’m just here, and getting a briefing from DI Fraser now.’
There was another pause, and his eyes flicked up to Ross, his eyebrows raised in mild surprise.
‘I understand completely, ma’am. We’ll get right on it.’ He hung up and tucked his phone in his pocket, a smile replacing the frown on his face.
‘That sounded interesting,’ said Ross.
‘Aye, a hundred-eighty-degree shift. It seems that we’d be delighted if you could assist us on this inquiry in any way you can. It seems that Mr Macdonald has made his feelings clear from Tenerife. He’s currently at the airport, and anticipates being back at Tulliallan first thing tomorrow, where he’s going to want the fullest of briefings from all of us.’
‘Stoatin. We’ll pull out all the stops for you, pal.’
Wakefield shook his head resignedly. ‘Okay, what do you need?’
‘Firstly, a look at the scene, once it’s been photographed. We need to know where the shooter was sited, and Max here was a sniper in the Army, so may have observations. It sounds like it was a big bore weapon, so that suggests military.’
‘Fine. As I understand it, photographer has almost finished, so as long as you stay out of the way of the CSIs, I can’t see why you can’t see the scene. Can we get a copy of the drone footage?’
‘No problem. Unfortunately, the battery cut out at an inopportune moment, but it has the attempted rescue captured beautifully.’
‘Great. I can get the whole team to watch it.’
‘I don’t think that’s a great idea, Miles,’ said Ross, shaking his head ruefully.
‘Whyever not?’ said Wakefield, his eyes narrowing.
‘Let’s look at what actually happened here, and at the intelligence that Hardie was spouting off about. He accurately led your people to a submerged body, probably and correctly thinking it would keep you all busy whilst he got busted out. The body being recovered was never the real pull though, was it?’
Wakefield looked at Ross intently, clearly wondering how much to reveal. ‘No. The suggestion that she was killed on the orders of someone more significant to protect them. We want whoever killed her, and more importantly, who ordered her death.’
‘Exactly. So, two points arise from this. Firstly, how did the rescuers know exactly where he was gonna be, when he hadn’t even told the cops the location until they set off this morning?’
