Skinner's Rules by Quintin Jardine

Author:Quintin Jardine [Jardine, Quintin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Police Procedural, General, Mystery & Detective, Fiction
ISBN: 9780747241393
Publisher: Headline Book Publishing
Published: 1994-01-03T00:00:00+00:00

51

As Skinner teased memories of Mortimer from Johnny Smellie, Martin in his office, made his way gently back into the life of Rachel Jameson

He began by calling Kay Allan, by her mother’s reckoning her bes Edinburgh friend. Mrs Allan came to the telephone drowsily, after being wakened by her husband. He had been annoyed by a Sunday morning; call from anyone, let alone the police.

Martin introduced himself.

‘How long had you known Miss Jameson, Mrs Allan?’

‘About four years. We were in the same squash club, then we went to a keep-fit class together. And we went out for drinks on occasion with other girls in our circle.’

‘What sort of person was she?’

‘On the outside a quiet, gentle sort of person, but nobody’s soft touch I went to see her in court once. She was really forceful. It took me by surprise. It was someone that I didn’t really know.’

‘Did you ever meet her boyfriend?’

‘Mike? Yes, quite a few times. He was a really nice bloke. The sam type as Rachel, but with more showing on the outside. They were really well matched. What happened to him was just terrible. Poor Mike. Poor Rachel. To have everything, and then to have it all wiped out.’

‘Did you see Miss Jameson after Mr Mortimer’s death?’

‘Yes. I went round the evening after it happened. She was, well, funny; very quiet, very controlled, but it was as if a big black blanket had wrapped itself around her. I couldn’t reach her at all. I wasn’t really surprised when she killed herself. She was keeping all the grief inside And that’s dangerous, so they say.’

‘That evening, or at any other time, did she ever talk about her work?

‘Not much. She mentioned one or two criminal cases. She did tell me that she was worried about that last case. What was the man’s name. McGann? McCurin? No, McCann, that was it. She said that he scared the life out of her. She told me that she was sure he was guilty, but he had a defence and although she thought he was lying, she was worried that if the main prosecution witness wasn’t good, he might get off. The advocate’s dilemma, she called it. He didn’t get off, did he, but he escaped. Have they got him yet?’

‘Yes, the French police picked him up last week in Dijon. He’s been charged with murdering an old woman for the sake of the forty-three francs in her purse.’

‘Horrible. Rachel was right about him.’

‘She surely was. Mrs Allan, did Miss Jameson ever mention anything she was working on that was out of the usual run of things; something that she might have been working on with Mike?’

The woman was silent for several seconds. ‘Only the house. They’d bought a piece of land in West Linton. They were getting married next autumn and they were going to build a house.

‘But work, no. Nothing at all.’

‘Did Miss Jameson have any other male friends before Mike, or even while she was seeing him?’

‘You can forget the second part of that question.

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