‘I’m going to appoint you a direct media-liaison officer, and I’d like her to be accommodated within your squad and become an integral part of the set-up.’
‘We have Colleen, sir. Are you sure that this is necessary?’
‘Colleen and the press office have their hands full as it is. No, my mind’s set on this. I’ll be sending you Charlotte Stubbs from Edinburgh HQ. She was a legal eagle before she became a parliamentary press secretary. She’s extremely savvy and just what you need.’
If there was a backhanded insult in the chief constable’s remarks Valentine let it go, in much the same way as he understood he would have to let go of any objections he might have to bringing a complete stranger into his squad.
‘We’ll make Charlotte feel at home, sir. If that’s what you’d like.’
Greaves smiled, indicating the floor was now open to the chief super. ‘Anything to add, Marion?’
‘I know this must sound a bit belt and braces, Bob, but we can’t be too careful,’ she said.
‘Of course.’
‘And I’d like you to think of Charlotte as your first point of contact for the press. Anything you need to release goes through her, and I mean anything – I don’t want so much as a good morning given to the hacks unless it’s been written down and approved by Charlotte first.’
The DI immediately saw that this was an impossible task to ask of him. He needed the press to work with him not against him. So much of their relationship depended on quid pro quo that he foresaw a strategy of withholding everything might have the opposite to the desired effect. But he also saw their minds were set and he wasn’t going to be stupid enough to disagree.
‘We’ll do it your way, boss.’ He was tempted to add, ‘And when it all goes tits up, I’ll try not to say I told you so,’ but he kept his thoughts to himself and headed back to the incident room to share the news with his team.
17
Jim Prentice was smacking the side of the vending machine and scowling when Valentine turned the corner on his way from the chief super’s office.
‘Lovely language for a man of your advancing years,’ said Valentine. He was trying to conceal his feelings about the meeting he’d just left by dipping into banter with the desk sergeant, but he suspected his real motives were on show.
‘It bloody well gave me tea when I was after coffee!’
‘Give Dino a knock. She’s got her own percolator in there. Might even give you a couple of digestives to put on the side.’
Prentice laughed. ‘No danger. I see Jimmy Greaves is up.’
‘Don’t remind me. I’ve just pressed the flesh with the bold Greavsie.’
‘Oh aye. And why are we being treated to his company? Rare as hobby-horse manure that is.’
Valentine watched Prentice wincing at the taste of the tea as he sipped from the plastic cup. ‘Put it this way,’ he said, ‘that’s the face I made too.’
‘Be the barrel-boys case, no doubt. Twitchy, is he?’
‘Assigned me a media specialist, for my own use. She’s coming down from Edinburgh.’
‘Colleen’ll be chuffed.’
‘It can’t put her nose any more out of joint than mine. It’s a bit of an unnecessary extravagance if you ask me.’
‘I’d have to agree, in these straightened times and all that. Did you put him right?’
‘You’re joking aren’t you?’ snapped Valentine. ‘I’ve just put the SOCOs on double time at the crime scene. I wouldn’t have a leg to stand on.’
Prentice grinned. ‘Have to go some way to beat the time you had all those uniforms bagging up the contents of the tip . . . would love to have been a fly on the wall when Dino found out. Or even just a fly on the tip!’
Valentine grinned along with the desk sergeant, but inwardly he was beginning to wonder if he had actually earned a reputation for being profligate with resources and cavalier with the press. He didn’t like to question himself, especially his abilities on the job – and more so when he was engaged in a case which required high levels of confidence to get anything done – but the thought had been implanted, and he knew he’d return to it. Clare had already sown doubts about the job in his mind, and he wondered how many more he could accommodate.
‘So Greavsie and Dino are in panic mode?’ said Prentice.
‘I don’t know, Jim. Between you and me, I found the whole situation very strange. I mean for Greavsie to turn up out the blue means either I’m on the watch list or Dino is. I don’t see him keeping that close an eye on our daily caseload, do you?’
‘I haven’t heard anything to that effect. But if you consider that nonsense with Rossi and then there was Flash Harris filling his pockets, you can see their thinking.’
‘But Harris wasn’t part of my team.’
‘He was working the same case, Bob.’
‘It was Dino that put him on that, not me.’
‘I’m only saying, mate.’ Prentice creased his brows; he looked like he was readying himself to fend off another attack.
‘Sorry, Jim. I must be getting jumpy.’
‘It’s all right, we all are. The job’s not what it used to be.’