Autographs In The Rain Part 32

'Sure,' agreed Skinner, 'but if, through no one's fault, it does leak and the paparazzi turn up here, they'll stand out like a sore thumb, and they'll be moved on, like any other loiterers.

'Now, would you like to show Louise around?'

Keith Stanley nodded. 'Of course.' He looked at the woman. 'Well,' he began, with a smile, 'this is the living room

Skinner and Mcllhenney remained behind as agent and potential tenant left the room. 'There you are,' the DCC muttered. 'The word "stalker" was never mentioned.'

'You don't think we should tell him?'

'Big Keith's a professional; if he asks, I'll tell him. If not, that's his judgement.

'This was a good spot though, Neil. Nice house, and like you said, a piece of p.i.s.s to protect. The film production company will pay a premium rent and a good security deposit. If Lou likes it, once we've gone, you talk to Keith about the things we need to do for security. Don't go into too much detail, but you can tell him that we want to install automatic openers to the driveway gate and garage door.

The garage is attached to the house, with a steel connecting door, so that way you can drive straight in and Lou can go in without ever being in the open air. Tell Keith that we'll leave the auto openers for his clients when the lease expires, as an added sweetener ... not that he'll need it; I saw the glint of money in his eye.

'Let's get everything done as quickly as we can; I want Lou in here by Tuesday.'L.I.AUTOGRAPHS IN THE RAIN.41.Looking across the table, Maggie Rose thought that Dan Pringle looked a little fl.u.s.tered. That struck her as unusual; she had seen Pringle happy, sad, angry and hung-over, but never fl.u.s.tered. She wondered whether, after all, the country air was proving too fresh for her veteran colleague, and whether sooner rather than later Andy Martin might suggest moving her to the Borders and him back to Edinburgh.

Then it came Pringle's turn to report and she understood. 'Another fish hijacking, Dan?' Willie Michaels exclaimed, only to have the smile wiped from his lips by a single glower.

'You can b.l.o.o.d.y laugh,' came the growl. 'I've seen the figures on pilferage of electrical goods from the factories in your area.'

'So have I,' said the Head of CID from the head of the table. 'Don't worry; that's next on the agenda. Carry on, Dan.'

Pringle shot another arrow-like glance at his West Lothian colleague.

'Very good, sir,' he said. 'Like I said last week, the danger has existed for a while. There's a cavalier att.i.tude among some of these fish farmers; they think that insuring against theft is the only precaution worth taking.

'The first thing I want to do, sir... and here I'd welcome your involvement ... is to speak to the major insurers and draw their attention to what's happened. I want them all to review their cover for these farms, at once, wherever they are, and to put the wind up the operators with big premium increases for those who don't follow police security advice.'

Til do that, Dan,' Martin agreed, 'and going by past experience, they'll agree to that suggestion. The only problem is that it'll take them upwards of a week to agree and longer than that to implement.

'We've had two thefts in a week. What can we do in the short term to prevent another?'

Pringle's heavy eyebrows came together as he tugged at a corner of his moustache. 'The best we can, sir, given our manpower resources.

'Given the cost of this scale of operation, I reckon that there are two140.

other Borders trout farms that are worth doing.'

'What are the costs, Dan?' asked Maggie Rose.

'Two vehicles, four guys, somewhere to kill it quick and freeze it quicker.'

'And the take?'

'That's the thing, Mags. The estimate is that a total of seven tons has been stolen; that's about sixteen thousand pounds of trout. I'm told that if you sell it fresh to the big stores, depending on the market you might get one fifty a pound for it. Frozen you'll get less.

'If you process it, either smoke it or turn it into pate, you'll get more, but these boys are unlikely to have done that. So even if they've managed to find a gullible market that would take it all fresh, their top take will have been twenty-four grand.

'Knock off expenses and split it four ways, and it's no' a h.e.l.l of a lot to risk the jail for. So I'm expecting another theft, somewhere; maybe not on my patch, but somewhere.'

'Okay,' said Martin, 'we'll alert every farm in Britain, and we'll use the information to stir up the insurers as well. But what about the two other farms on your patch?'

'McGurk and I visited them yesterday,' replied Pringle. 'There's Langholm Rainbow Farm, and Country Fresh Trout, near Coldstream.

Langholm's the biggest of the lot, but anyone that does it is asking for it; the owner, a man called Stephenson, has high-definition video cameras on high poles, and he floodlights the place at night. Plus the site's surrounded by an alarmed fence.

'He smokes or processes most of his fish on site, so he's at the top end of profitability. He a.s.sured us that he's never compromised with security.

'The other one, Country Fresh, is run by a woman. Her name's Mercy Alvarez; she and her husband started the place, then she divorced him and got it as part of her settlement.'

'Did you say Mercy?' Greg Jay looked down the table.

'Short for Mercedes,' Maggie Rose explained. 'It's a popular Spanish girl's name.'

T could imagine this one being popular,' said Pringle. 'She's a real looker; just like you'd imagine a senora. Dark eyes, long dark hair.'

'Fine, Dan,' Martin interrupted, 'but what's her security like?'

'c.r.a.p. Same as Mellerkirk and Howdengate; an on-site manager and no perimeter alarms. No alarms at all, in fact. She did say that she'd install video surveillance, though.''Did you believe her?'

To be frank, no I didn't; she struck me as apathetic about the whole business. She was a bit aggressive, in fact. Still, McGurk left her details of insurance-approved installers.'

'Tell him to go back in a couple of days and see if she's done anything about it. I might just give her some encouragement myself.'

'Okay, but I had another thought.'

'What's that?'

'Why don't we install our own?'

'Why should we ? Let her pay for it, and if she won't, let her insurance company shove her premium sky-high.'

'I didn't mean install it for her. I meant install our own set-up on the Q.T. There's a wee woodland overlooking the farm. We could stick a night vision video camera in there with a timer and a long-life battery.'

Martin rubbed the back of his hand against his chin, as he considered the superintendent's suggestion. 'Would the tapes last long enough?'

'Set up two cameras, with two timers. We'll change the tapes and batteries first light every morning.'

'Costly, mind; we'd need high quality kit.'

'Divert it from the crime prevention budget,' Pringle suggested. 'It'll be money spent better than on telly commercials.'

The Head of CID laughed. 'The Boss would agree with you there. Okay, Dan; go ahead. You'll tell the owner, of course.'

'Ach, why should I? She'd never install her own if I did that. No, but as soon as this meeting's over I'll talk to the telecommunications people.'

'Fine,' Martin turned to Detective Superintendent Michaels. 'Right, Willie, about this pilferage epidemic of yours . . .'142.42.Glenys AlG.o.don looked around the living room, not even moderately impressed. 'It's all right,' the secretary said, in a slightly transAtlantic accent, 'but when you compare it to the house the studio rented for you in Sri Lanka on the last gig, or even your own place in Beverly Hills.

'I mean, look how close the neighbours are.'

Neil Mcllhenney felt his hackles rise; the woman had treated him like a taxi-driver when he had collected her from her shuttle flight at Edinburgh Airport, now here she was criticising the accommodation that he had picked out.