10 Great Rebus Novels (John Rebus) (219 page)

It took him about four minutes to realise the job was impossible.

He sat there smoking a cigarette, staring at the strands. They might tell him everything he needed to know. He finished the cigarette, poured himself a drink, and tried again. It took him a while to lose his temper. He dragged the kitchen table through and sat at it. Then he brought the anglepoise lamp through from his bedroom and plugged it in. The machine had jammed; there was a chance not all the strips had been separated completely.

He didn’t find as many as two strips still joined at any one point.

He swore for a while and walked around the flat, emptied the coffee jar and set it back under the radiator, then put his coat on and went to buy cigarettes and whisky. The corner shop was closed when he reached it. His watch said eleven-fifteen; he couldn’t believe it was so late.

He walked on to the nearest pub and waded through the smoky, shouting throng. The barmaid gave him change for the cigarette machine but couldn’t sell him a carry-out: it was after last orders. She told him about a licensed chip shop he could try, but it was a car-run away, so he walked briskly back to the flat and sought out untried bottles. There was a quarter of Bacardi for emergency dispensation should he ever manage to drag a woman as far as his bedroom. The thought of neat Bacardi repelled him only slightly more than the thought of mixing it with anything.

Which means, he thought, I can’t be an alcoholic.

He unscrewed the top from the Bacardi anyway and sniffed it, then screwed it back on. He’d have to be a lot more desperate . . . say, come four in the morning. Then he remembered the freezer. He opened it up and chipped away at the ice until he’d broken through to two trays of ice
cubes, a single fish finger . . . and a small bottle. It was Polish vodka; a neighbour had given it to him after a trip home to Lodz; a present for feeding the cat for a week.

Rebus found a glass, filled it, and belatedly toasted Solidarity before draining it. The stuff was as smooth as anything he’d ever tried. A third of a litre of eighty-four proof. He took glass and bottle into the living room and put
Exile on Main Street
on the hi-fi. It sounded as good as ever.

He got back into the game, then decided to leave the first bag and start on the second. He filled the first bag back up, then dumped bag two on to the floor.

And his doorbell rang.

It was a little after midnight.

The main door was sometimes left unlocked. No need for visitors, welcome or not, to announce their presence until they were outside the door of the flat.

At this time on a Thursday night?

Rebus looked at the mess on the floor, then went out into the hall and tiptoed to the front door, just as the bell rang again. He could hear two voices at least, little more than murmurs. Suddenly, fingers pushed open his letterbox. Rebus stood to the side of the door, back pressed to the wall.

‘Maybe he leaves the lights on when he’s out.’

‘Aye, and maybe he’s half-shot and sleeping it off.’

Rebus turned the snib silently and yanked open the door. Siobhan Clarke, who’d been peering through the letterbox, stood up, but Rebus’s eyes were on Brian Holmes.

‘Half-shot, is it, Brian? I’m glad you hold me in such high regard.’

Holmes just shrugged. ‘It’s what I’d do on holiday.’

Rebus filled the doorway, his arms folded. ‘So what are you doing: canvassing, polling, or maybe you were just passing?’

‘We were working,’ Brian Holmes explained. ‘We went to get something to eat afterwards, and when we ran out of interesting topics, the conversation came round to you.’

‘What about me?’

‘We wondered,’ Siobhan Clarke said, ‘what the hell’s going on.’

Rebus smiled. ‘You and me both.’ He stood back from the doorway. ‘You better come in. You’re the first to arrive; I haven’t even got the party snacks out.’ He noticed a brown carrier bag on the landing behind Brian Holmes.

‘We brought our own party with us.’ When Holmes picked up the bag, Rebus heard cans and bottles collide.

‘You’re always welcome here, Brian,’ Rebus said, leading them indoors.

They sat in the living room, staring at the pile of paper strips. Siobhan Clarke took a gulp of coffee.

‘You
stole
these?’

Rebus shook his head. ‘A public service; I saved the binmen a job.’

Holmes looked to Siobhan. ‘We did say we were coming here to help.’

‘Yes, but this lot . . .?’ She flapped her arms. ‘I doubt the “Blue Peter” appeal could sort this lot out. Talk about shreds of evidence.’

Rebus held up a pacifying hand. ‘Look, this is my problem, not yours. I won’t be disappointed if you scurry off home. In fact, it would be better for you if you did.’

‘We know,’ said Holmes.

Rebus looked at him. ‘What do you mean?’

Siobhan Clarke explained. ‘The Farmer spoke to us this afternoon. Basically, he warned us off. He said you were on leave, but he didn’t think that would stop you sticking your nose in.’ She looked up. ‘His words, not mine.’

‘We’ve been given new duties,’ Brian Holmes added.
‘Desk work, restructuring the filing system prior to full computerisation.’

‘To keep you busy?’

‘Yes.’

‘And away from me?’

They both nodded.

‘So naturally you come straight here?’ Rebus got to his feet. ‘You could be fucking up both your careers!’

‘I’m not in CID to sort through a lot of old paperwork,’ Siobhan Clarke retorted. Then she realised what she’d said, looked at the mound of shredded paper in front of her, and laughed.

They all did.

They hit lucky with the third bag.

‘Look,’ Siobhan Clarke said, ‘it’s not just white paper.’

Rebus took a strip from her: yellow card. ‘Files,’ he said. ‘They shredded the folders as well!’

‘Must be some machine,’ Brian Holmes added.

‘That’s a bloody good point, Brian.’

The folders were a breakthrough. The problem with the paper was that there was so much of it. There wasn’t nearly so much card, and what there was could be grouped by colour. The front of each file had a white printed label, and these were what Rebus wanted. He wanted the reconstructed labels.

But even knowing what they were looking for, it took time and effort. Rebus’s eyes were stinging, and he kept rubbing them, which only blurred his vision.

‘Get you two anything?’ he kept saying. They would only shake their heads. Rebus demolished the cans on his own. He knew he’d had too much when he polished off a tin of Irn-Bru without realising it was non-alcoholic.

The streets grew quieter after the students had slouched home on the wings of blasphemy. Around two-thirty, the
central heating clocked off and Rebus turned on the gas fire. They each worked on a different colour of folder.

‘I saw one of the folders when Mrs Gillespie dropped it,’ Rebus said. ‘It was marked SDA/SE. I presume the letters stand for Scottish Development Agency and Scottish Enterprise. Scottish Enterprise took over when the SDA was wound up. Councillor Gillespie, by the way, sits on an industrial planning committee.’

‘So,’ Holmes remarked, ‘the SDA file could be completely innocent.’

‘Certainly he had a genuine reason for having a file on the SDA. But why be in such a panic to shred it?’

Holmes conceded the point.

‘I think I’ve got something,’ Siobhan Clarke said. She’d all but completed a yellow file, the label intact save for a strip or two. ‘Looks like the letters A C,’ she said, ‘then a name: Haldayne.’

Rebus fetched the phone book. There was no A C Haldayne in Edinburgh.

‘Strange spelling,’ Brian Holmes said. ‘I’ve never come across Haldayne with a y.’

‘Misspelt?’ Siobhan Clarke said. ‘The name of one of the councillor’s constituents?’

Rebus shrugged. Half an hour later, it was Holmes’s turn to complete a red file.

‘“Gyle Park West”,’ he read out.

Rebus wasn’t paying much attention; he was close to completing the last of the coloured folders, this one a lurid green.

‘“Mensung”,’ he said, looking up. ‘What the hell is Mensung?’

Siobhan Clarke yawned and rubbed at her eyes, then blinked a few times, looking around the room.

‘You know,’ she said, ‘it’s a good job this paper’s lying everywhere. Without it, this place would look like a tip.’

It was six on Friday morning when Rebus’s phone started ringing.

He fell off the chair, the duvet sliding with him. The phone was underneath one of the heaps of paper strips.

‘Whoever you are,’ he said, ‘whatever you want . . . you’re dead.’

‘It’s Siobhan, sir. I’ve been thinking about A C Haldayne.’

‘Me, too,’ Rebus lied.

‘I’ve been thinking about that funny spelling. American names are sometimes spelt differently, aren’t they?’

‘Is that why you woke me up?’

‘Well, it would tie in with AC.’

‘Would it?’

‘Christ, you’re slow, sir.’

‘It’s six in the morning, Clarke.’

‘All I mean is AC could stand for American Consulate. Haldayne could be a surname, and AC the consulate.’

Rebus sat up and opened his eyes. ‘That’s not bad.’

‘I tried phoning the consulate, but got an answering machine. It offered me a lot of options, mostly to do with visa applications, then put me through to the consulate proper, but all I got was another answering machine message telling me the opening hours.’

‘Try again in the morning.’

‘Yes, sir. Sorry for waking you.’

‘That’s all right. Listen, Siobhan . . . thanks for helping me.’

‘It’s no problem, really.’

‘Then you won’t mind doing something else?’ He could almost hear her smile.

‘What?’

‘That shredder. I’m wondering how long Gillespie’s owned it.’

‘You want me to check?’

‘Yes.’

‘Will do. Goodnight, sir.’

‘Goodnight, Clarke.’

Rebus put down the receiver and decided to get up. Half a minute later, he was asleep on the living-room carpet.

On Sunday, Rebus was invited to Oxford Terrace for afternoon tea.

He was glad of the break, having spent much of the previous forty-eight hours trying to piece together some of the strands of A4 paper. He hadn’t made any progress, but it had taken his mind off his swollen gum. By Saturday afternoon, he’d had enough and phoned a dentist, but of course by then all the dentists in Edinburgh were in the clubhouse, deciding over a second gin whether to bother with eighteen holes or, in this weather, just settle for nine.

On Sunday afternoon, dress smart but casual, he went to start his car and found it recalcitrant. Probably a loose connection. He looked under the bonnet, but was no mechanic. He was alone on the street, no one around to give him a jump-start, so he went back indoors and called for a cab, noticing too late that he had oil on his hands, a smudge of which had transferred itself to his trouser leg.

He was not in the best of moods as his driver took him north across the city.

Sammy answered the door. She was wearing thick black tights with a short jumble-sale dress falling over them. Under the dress she wore a white T-shirt.

‘You’re almost on time,’ she said. ‘We weren’t expecting you so soon.’

‘Did Patience teach you that one?’

He followed his daughter down the hall into the living room. Lucky the cat took one look at Rebus, seemed to
remember him, and stalked off into the conservatory. Rebus heard the catflap rattle shut. Now it was only two against one; the odds were improving in Rebus’s favour.

He knew there were things fathers said to their daughters, little criticisms they were expected to make to show they cared. But Rebus knew what his little criticisms would sound like: they’d sound like criticisms. So he kept his counsel. Patience came out of the kitchen wiping her hands on a dish-towel.

‘John.’

‘Hello, Patience.’ They kissed the way friends did, a peck on the cheek, a hand on the shoulder.

‘Be about two minutes,’ she said, turning back into the kitchen. He didn’t think she’d really looked at him. ‘Go into the conservatory.’

Sammy again led the way. The table had a clean white cloth on it, with some dishes already laid. Patience had brought her potted plants indoors for the winter, leaving not much room for anything or anyone else. The Sunday papers were heaped on the window-ledge. Rebus chose the chair nearest the garden door. Looking out of the conservatory window, he could see in through the kitchen window. Patience was busy at the sink, her face lacking emotion. She didn’t look up.

‘Liking it all right?’ Rebus asked his daughter.

She nodded. ‘It’s great, and so’s Patience.’

‘How’s the job?’

‘Very stimulating; not easy, but stimulating.’

‘What do you do exactly?’

‘
SWEEP
’s pretty small, we all muck in. I’m supposed to be developing communication skills in my clients.’

Rebus nodded. ‘You mean so they can be a bit more polite next time they mug their granny?’

She glowered at him and he raised his hands. ‘Just a joke,’ he said.

‘Maybe you need some communication skills yourself.’

‘He’s as blunt as a butt to the head,’ Patience said, bringing in the teapot.

‘Can I help?’ Sammy offered.

‘You sit there, I’ll be back in a second.’

She was away far longer than a second; there was no conversation between times. Rebus watched Lucky the cat staring at him from the garden path. Patience returned with plates of cakes and biscuits. His mouth was imploring him: no hot drinks, no cakes or biscuits, no sugar, no crunching.

‘I’ll pour,’ Sammy said. There was a clatter as Lucky came back in, seeking tidbits.

‘Cake, John?’ Patience said, offering him the pick from the plate. He took the smallest item he could find, a thin end-slice of madeira. Patience regarded his choice with suspicion: he’d always preferred ginger sponge, and she, who hated it, had bought one specially.

‘Sammy,’ Patience said, ‘try the ginger.’

‘It’s a bit sweet for me,’ Sammy replied. ‘I’ll just have a biscuit.’

‘Fine.’

‘This outfit of yours,’ Rebus began.

‘It’s called
SWEEP
,’ Sammy reminded him.