Read Skinner's Rules for Free Online Page B

Market Street and turned into the Steps. When she saw Skinner there was a strange glaze in his eyes, and she recognised the tears held back.
    Then she saw the policeman’s cap on the ground and her gaze swept past the terrible thing that had been the woman, to the ginger hair, innocent eyes and opened throat of young MacVicar. She looked at Bob and was in tears herself.
    She put her head on his chest, sobbing. ‘Why am I crying for him, when I didn’t for the others?’
    ‘If you weren’t, I’d have something to worry about. It’s always worst when it’s someone you know, or can relate to. It doesn’t happen often, but it happens.’
    Skinner realised that he had enfolded her, quite naturally, in his arms, and that one or two of the uniformed officers were glancing furtively in their direction. Then, because life is hard, and because coppers have to be even harder, he broke the mood and became Chief Superintendent Skinner once more.
    ‘Come on, Doctor, let’s go to work.’
    And Sarah did just that. Her first, quick examination told her that both the woman, an office cleaner on her way to work she guessed - correctly as it turned out - and MacVicar had been taken completely by surprise. The woman might have had time to cry out as her attacker appeared in front of her, but the blow had killed her instantly. There were no marks on MacVicar’s body other than the throat wound, which had been caused by a knife or a razor, indicating that he too had been taken completely unawares.
    She looked up at Skinner. ‘The way the wound is, I’d say that the man pulled his head back from behind and cut his throat.’
    Skinner nodded. ‘That’s how it looks. There are no other marks that I can see, or any other signs of a struggle. The poor laddie can’t have had a chance to defend himself at all.’ He looked at Sarah, a glance of enquiry. ‘Can we make any assumptions about this guy’s height?’
    ‘I’d say that he would have to have been as tall as MacVicar to have cut him at that angle. He needn’t have been a Superman though. If he caught him completely unawares it would all have been over in a second.’
    Skinner shook his head sadly. He looked round towards Martin. ‘Andy, what was the boy’s last reported position?’
    ‘He radioed in from the top of the Mound, boss. Said it was all quiet and didn’t the Christmas tree look nice.’
    ‘Well, my guess,’ said Skinner, ‘is that he hears something, maybe the old lady gets a shout off, and charges down the News Steps. Being MacVicar, he doesn’t think to call in first for assistance.
    ‘Now from past performance we can assume that our pal — or does anyone want to tell me that it could be someone else — is pretty agile, quick enough to have got off his mark before a big, blundering bobby, whose feet he must have heard from a mile off, could have got anywhere near him.
    ‘That says to me that he was looking for, or at least wasn’t afraid to chance, a double act. As you said, Sarah, our poor lad barely knew what happened to him.’
    He looked around the scene, and at the high fence behind which the bulk of the Festival Office building cast a dark shadow.
    ‘He probably hid up there after he whacked the woman. Maybe he heard MacVicar up there on the Mound. Maybe she did scream, and he decided to hide until he could be sure that no one had heard. Whatever it was, MacVicar appears and he jumps down and does the boy in.’
    Anger blazed in Skinner’s eyes.
    ‘If that’s right, then we surely don’t just have a random loony here. We’ve got someone who moves and kills like a professional. Maybe a martial arts freak who’s seen one too many Kung-fu movies, who knows. But whatever he is, he’s here, and he’s leaving the proof all over the Royal Mile!’
    As Skinner finished, the Chief Constable arrived, called to the scene by Martin. One of his men had been killed. He should be there.
    ‘Good morning, Bob, Inspector.’ He nodded and smiled