‘One, to get Ignacio settled in at university; two, to get the garage construction project under way.’ He paused, and a mischievous smile crossed his face.

  ‘Three?’ she asked.

  ‘This may blow your mind,’ he replied. ‘I had a call this morning from my former wife, the devious Aileen. Her Majesty’s Labour Opposition, of which she is now a high-ranking member, is looking to beef up its representation in the House of Lords, and they’re sort of talking about sort of offering me a peerage. She wants me to go down to meet her boss to talk about it.’

  Sarah sat bolt upright. ‘Are you going to sort of accept?’ she exclaimed.

  ‘Me? Baron Skinner of Gullane? I doubt that very much,’ he said, ‘but I’ve never been in that building, so I thought I might go down and check it out, just for fun.’

  ‘Then you do that,’ she told him, ‘but make damn sure you come back.’

  Seventy-Eight

  ‘What did the chief say?’ Haddock asked as his senior officer replaced the phone.

  ‘She said well done,’ Pye replied, ‘a brilliant investigation all the way through. She praised in particular our initiative in bombing up to Perthshire to confront Lita Baker before she could find out that Pike had been lifted and have a chance to disappear. Once we’ve taken her formal statement, she wants to see a transcript.’

  ‘Hold on, are you saying she doesn’t know that we were hauled up there by the headmaster like a couple of kids caught smoking in the bike sheds?’

  ‘She doesn’t appear to have the faintest idea.’

  ‘You didn’t enlighten her?’

  ‘If I had,’ the DCI said, ‘I’m pretty sure that big Bob would be terminally pissed off with me.’

  ‘Christ!’ Haddock laughed. He shook his head. ‘Where did we start off in this thing? “In all the gin joints . . .” that was it. All I can follow that with is, “Please don’t play it again, Sam.”’

  ‘He never said that.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘In Casablanca : Bogart never said that.’

 

 

  Quintin Jardine, Game Over

 

 

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