The nation breakfasted on breaking news of the three deaths in Strontian. Assistant Director made a hasty round of telephone calls from Kingussie instructing Commission heads of department to avoid all contact with the media. An enigmatic imperative from Assistant Undersecretary followed. A meeting was required immediately upon his return from Badenoch that evening, the utmost discretion to be employed.
Assistant Director’s secretary, Alison, was besieged by the current crop of media front runners, relatively junior personnel. Big guns of National Press were kept well behind the lines not to be risked in forays from the trenches. They remained groomed and polished, ready to be pointed and fired without fear of litigious counter-attack, the powdered public faces of media empire. The stereotype was a pleasant over-fifty whose smiles distracted viewers from contemplating the ability to read fluently from a prompt. Much depended on their gift in selling the message of the hour. Careers floated or foundered on the rock of their sincerity.
Assistant Director had made his secretary very clear about his position. “We feel shock and horror, naturally. Our thoughts are with the next of kin. Stick to the usual routine. Deal with it,” he said before impatiently responding to Assistant Undersecretary’s directive, “I’ve told everyone: stay away from the Press. Make it clear that I am attending the funeral here and am not to be contacted. I shall be back in the office tomorrow.”
While Assistant Director’s secretary sat stoically in her office, fielding all calls, Legal Blair was trendsetting by making himself scarce. A university friend in the procurator fiscal’s office had confidentially forewarned him that a Commission employee was suspected of the Strontian murders.
Press Liaison and Advertising, a much used double act, had been bluntly told to lose themselves. They were sure to be the target of young journos hoping for further signs in the Commission of unfeeling incompetence. A few days previously both department heads had announced the raising of a fund for families of the ‘Aberdonian’ fire victims. A rejoicing Press had pointed out that Aberdonians reside on the reverse side of the Grampians watershed from the grief stricken town of Kingussie.
Uncertainty of what would follow the shocking deaths at Strontian had cleared the Commission building of its managers. As the morning went on, rumours that the killer was a Commission labourer gained currency. Mindful of Assistant Director’s unambiguous diktat to avoid the media, these remaining petty bureaucrats, not attending the Kingussie funerals, found a reason to visit outlying regions.