The Hanging Garden (30 page)

Colquhoun picked up the receiver, his hands shaking so badly he kept missing the digits.

‘Don’t bother,’ Rebus said. ‘I’m going. But we’ll talk again. And you
will
talk. You’ll talk because you’re a coward, Dr Colquhoun. And cowards always talk eventually ...’

The Crime Squad office at Fettes: home of country and western; Claverhouse terminating a phone call. No sign of Ormiston and Clarke.

‘They’re out on a call,’ Claverhouse said.

‘Any progress on that stabbing?’

‘What do you think?’

‘I think there’s something you should know.’ Rebus seated himself behind Siobhan Clarke’s desk, admiring its tidy surface. He opened a drawer: it was tidy, too. Compartments, he thought to himself. Clarke was very good at dividing her life into separate compartments. ‘Jake Tarawicz is in town. He’s got this outrageous white limo, hard to miss.’ Rebus paused. ‘And he’s brought Candice with him.’

‘What’s he doing here?’

‘I think he’s here for the show.’

‘What show?’

‘Cafferty and Telford, fifteen rounds of bare-knuckle and no referee.’ Rebus leaned forward, arms on the desk. ‘And I’ve got an idea where it’s headed.’

Rebus went home, called Patience and told her he might be late.

‘How late?’ she asked.

‘How late can I be without us falling out?’

She thought about it. ‘Half-nine.’

‘I’ll be there.’

He checked his answering machine: David Levy, saying he could be reached at home.

‘Where the hell have you been?’ Rebus asked, when Levy’s daughter had put her father on.

‘I had business elsewhere.’

‘You know your daughter’s been worried. You might have phoned her.’

‘Does this counselling service come free?’

‘My fee cancels out when you answer a few questions. You know Lintz is dead?’

‘I’ve heard.’

‘Where were you when you
heard
?’

‘I’ve told you, I had business ... Inspector, am I a suspect?’

‘Practically the only one we’ve got.’

Levy gave a harsh laugh. ‘This is preposterous. I’m not a ...’ He couldn’t say the word. Rebus guessed his daughter was within hearing distance. ‘Hold on a moment, please.’ The receiver was muffled: Levy ordering his daughter out of the room. He came back on, voice lower than before.

‘Inspector, for the record, I feel I must let you know how
angry
I felt when I heard the news. Justice may have been done or not done – 1 can’t argue those points just now – but what is absolutely certain is that history has been cheated here!’

‘Of the trial?’

‘Of course! And the Rat Line, too. With each suspect who dies, we’re that much less likely to prove its existence. Lintz isn’t the first, you know. One man, the brakes failed on his car. Another fell from an upstairs window. There’ve been two apparent suicides, six more cases of what look like natural causes.’

‘Am I going to get the full conspiracy theory?’

‘This isn’t a joke, Inspector.’

‘Did you hear me laughing? What about you, Mr Levy? When did you leave Edinburgh?’

‘Before Lintz died.’

‘Did you see him?’ Rebus knowing he had, but seeking a lie.

Levy paused. ‘
Confronted
would be a more apposite term.’

‘Just the once?’

‘Three times. He wasn’t keen to talk about himself, but I stated my case nonetheless.’

‘And the phone call?’

Levy paused. ‘What phone call?’

‘When he called you at the Roxburghe.’

‘I wish I’d recorded it for posterity. Rage, Inspector. Foul-mouthed rage. I’m positive he was mad.’

‘Mad?’

‘You didn’t hear him. He’s very good at seeming perfectly normal – he must be, or he wouldn’t have gone undetected for so long. But the man is ... was ... mad. Truly mad.’

Rebus was remembering the crooked little man in the cemetery, and how he’d suddenly let fly at a passing dog. Poise, to rage, to poise again.

‘The story he told ...’ Levy sighed.

‘Was this in the restaurant?’

‘What restaurant?’

‘Sorry, I thought the two of you went out to lunch.’

‘I can assure you we didn’t.’

‘So what story is this then?’

‘These men, Inspector, they come to justify their actions by blanking them out, or by transference. Transference is the more common.’

‘They tell themselves someone else did it?’

‘Yes.’

‘And that was Lintz’s story?’

‘Less believable than most. He said it was all a case of mistaken identity.’

‘And who did he think you were mistaking him for?’

‘A colleague at the university ... a Dr Colquhoun.’

Rebus called Hogan, gave him the story.

‘I told Levy you’d want to speak to him.’

‘I’ll phone him right now.’

‘What do you think?’

‘Colquhoun a war criminal?’ Hogan snorted.

‘Me, too,’ Rebus said. ‘I asked Levy why he didn’t think any of this worth telling us.’

‘And?’

‘He said as he gave it no credence, it was worthless.’

‘All the same, we’d better talk to Colquhoun again. Tonight.’

‘I’ve other plans for tonight, Bobby.’

‘Fair enough, John. Look, I really appreciate all your help.’

‘You’re going to talk to him alone?’

‘I’ll have someone with me.’

Rebus hated being left out. If he cancelled that late supper ...

‘Let me know how you get on.’ Rebus put the telephone down. On the hi-fi: Eddie Harris, upbeat and melodic. He went and soaked in a bath, facecloth across his eyes. Everyone, it seemed to him, lived their lives out of little boxes, opening different ones for different occasions. Nobody ever gave their whole self away. Cops were like that, each box a safety mechanism. Most people you met in the course of your life, you never even learned their names. Everybody was boxed off from everybody else. It was called society.

He was wondering about Joseph Lintz, always questioning, turning every conversation into a philosophy lesson. Stuck in his own little box, identity blocked off elsewhere, his past a necessary mystery ... Joseph Lintz, furious when
cornered, possibly clinically mad, driven there by ... what? Memories? Or the lack of them? Driven there by other people?

The Eddie Harris CD was on its last track by the time he emerged from the bathroom. He put on the clothes he’d be wearing to Patience’s. Only he had a couple of stops to make first: check on Sammy at the hospital, and then a meeting at Torphichen.

‘The gang’s all here,’ he said, walking into the CID room.

Shug Davidson, Claverhouse, Ormiston, and Siobhan Clarke, all seated around the one big desk, drinking coffee from identical Rangers mugs. Rebus pulled a chair over.

‘Have you filled them in, Shug?’

Davidson nodded.

‘What about the shop?’

‘I was just getting to that.’ Davidson picked up a pen, played with it. ‘The last owner went out of business, not enough passing trade. The shop was shut the best part of a year, then suddenly reopened – under new management and with prices that stopped the locals looking elsewhere.’

‘And got the workers at Maclean’s interested, too,’ Rebus added. ‘So how long’s it been going?’

‘Five weeks, selling cut-price everything.’

‘No profit motive, you see.’ Rebus looked around the table. This was mostly for the benefit of Ormiston and Clarke; he’d given Claverhouse the story already.

‘And the owners?’ Clarke asked.

‘Well, the shop’s
run
by a couple of lads called Declan Delaney and Ken Wilkinson. Guess where they come from?’

‘Paisley,’ Claverhouse said, keen to hurry things on.

‘So they’re part of Telford’s gang?’ Ormiston asked.

‘Not in so many words, but they’re connected to him, no doubt about that.’ Davidson blew his nose loudly. ‘Of
course, Dec and Ken are running the shop, but they don’t own it.’

‘Telford does,’ Rebus stated.

‘Okay,’ Claverhouse said. ‘So we’ve got Telford owning a loss-making business, in the hope of gathering intelligence.’

‘I think it goes further than that,’ Rebus said. ‘I mean, listening in on gossip is one thing, but I don’t suppose any of the workers are standing around talking about the various security systems and how to beat them. Dec and Ken are garrulous, perfect for the job Telford’s given them. But it’s going to look suspicious if they start asking too many questions.’

‘So what’s Telford looking for?’ Ormiston asked. Siobhan Clarke turned to him.

‘A mole,’ she said.

‘Makes sense,’ Davidson went on. ‘That place
is
well-protected, but not impregnable. We all know any break-in’s going to be a lot easier with someone on the inside.’

‘So what do we do?’ Clarke asked.

‘We fight Telford’s sting with our own,’ Rebus explained. ‘He wants a man on the inside,
we
give him one.’

‘I’m seeing the head of Maclean’s later on tonight,’ Davidson said.

‘I’ll come with you,’ Claverhouse said, keen not to be left out.

‘So we put someone of our own inside the factory.’ Clarke was working it out for herself. ‘And they shoot their mouth off in the shop, making them an attractive proposition. And we sit and pray that Telford approaches
them
rather than anyone else?’

‘The less luck we have to rely on the better,’ Claverhouse said. ‘Got to do this right.’

‘Which is why we work it like this.’ Rebus said. ‘There’s a bookie called Marty Jones. He owes me one big favour.
Say our man’s just been into Telford’s shop. As he’s coming out, a car pulls up. Marty and a couple of his men. Marty wants some bets paid off. Big argy-bargy, and a punch in the guts as warning.’

Clarke could see it. ‘He stumbles back into the shop, sits down to catch his breath. Dec and Ken ask him what’s going on.’

‘And he gives them the whole sorry story: gambling debts, broken marriage, whatever.’

‘To make him more attractive still,’ Davidson said, ‘we make him a security guard.’

Ormiston looked at him. ‘You think Maclean’s will go for it?’

‘We’ll persuade them,’ Claverhouse said quietly.

‘More importantly,’ Clarke asked, ‘will
Telford
go for it?’

‘Depends how desperate he is,’ Rebus answered.

‘A man on the inside ...’ Ormiston’s eyes were alight. ‘Working for Telford – it’s what we’ve always wanted.’

Claverhouse nodded. ‘Just one thing.’ He looked at Rebus and Davidson. ‘Who’s it going to be? Telford knows us.’

‘We get someone from outside,’ Rebus said. ‘Someone I’ve worked with before. Telford won’t have heard of him. He’s a good man.’

‘Is he willing?’

There was silence around the table.

‘Depends who’s asking,’ a voice called from the doorway. A stocky man with thick, well-groomed hair and narrow eyes. Rebus got up, shook Jack Morton’s hand, made the introductions.

‘I’ll need a history,’ Morton said, all business. ‘John’s explained the deal, and I like it. But I’ll need a flat, something scruffy and local.’

‘First thing tomorrow,’ Claverhouse said. ‘Look, we need to talk to our bosses about this, make sure it’s cleared.’
He looked at Morton. ‘What did you tell your own boss, Jack?’

‘I’ve got a few days off, didn’t think it was worth mentioning.’

Claverhouse nodded. ‘I’ll talk to him as soon as we get the go-ahead.’

‘We need that go-ahead
tonight
,’ Rebus said. ‘Telford’s men may already have lined someone up. If we hang around, we might lose it.’

‘Agreed,’ Claverhouse said, checking his watch. ‘I’ll make a few phone calls, interrupt a few post-prandial whiskies.’

‘I’ll back you up if need be,’ Davidson said.

Rebus looked at Jack Morton – his friend – and mouthed the word ‘thanks’. Morton shrugged it off. Then Rebus got to his feet.

‘I’m going to have to leave you to it,’ he told the assembly. ‘You’ve got my pager number and mobile if you need me.’

He was halfway down the hall when Siobhan Clarke caught him.

‘I just wanted to say thanks.’

Rebus blinked. ‘What for?’

‘Ever since you got Claverhouse excited, the tape machine’s stayed off.’

Supper was fine. He talked to Patience about Sammy, Rhona, his obsession with sixties music, his ignorance of fashion. She talked about work, an experimental cookery class she’d been taking, a trip to Orkney she was thinking of. They ate fresh pasta with a homemade mussel and prawn sauce, and shared a bottle of Highland Spring. Rebus tried his damnedest to forget about the sting operation, Tarawicz, Candice, Lintz ... She could see at least half his mind was elsewhere; tried not to feel betrayed. She asked him if he was going home.

‘Is that an invitation?’

‘I’m not sure ... I suppose so.’

‘Let’s pretend it wasn’t, then I won’t feel like complete scum when I turn it down.’

‘That sounds reasonable. Things on your mind?’

‘I’m surprised you can’t see them leaking out of my ears.’

‘Do you want to talk about any of it? I mean, you may not have noticed, but we’ve talked about practically everything tonight except
us
.’

‘I don’t think talking would help.’

‘But bottling it up does?’ She threw out an arm. ‘Behold the Scottish male, at his happiest when in denial.’

‘What am I denying?’

‘For a start, you’re denying
me
access to your life.’

‘Sorry.’

‘Christ, John, get the word put on a t-shirt.’

‘Thanks, maybe I will.’ He got up from the sofa.

‘Oh, hell, I’m sorry.’ She smiled. ‘Look, you’ve got me at it now.’

‘Yes, it’s catching, all right.’

She stood up, touched his arm. ‘You’re worried about taking the test?’

‘Right now, believe it or not, that’s the least of my worries.’

‘It should be. Everything’s going to be fine.’

‘Hunky dory.’

‘Hunky dory,’ she repeated, smiling again. She pecked him on the cheek. ‘You know, I’ve never quite understood what that meant.’

‘
Hunky Dory
?’

She nodded.

‘It’s a David Bowie album.’ He kissed her brow.

He would never know what instinct made him decide on the detour, but he was glad he’d made it. For there, parked outside the Morvena casino, stood the white stretch limo. The driver leaned against it, smoking a cigarette, looking bored. From time to time he took out a mobile phone and had a short conversation. Rebus stared at the Morvena, thinking: Tommy Telford has a slice of the place; the hostesses come from Eastern Europe, provided by Mr Pink Eyes. Rebus wondered how closely entwined the two empires – Telford’s and Tarawicz’s – really were. And add a third strand: the Yakuza. Something refused to add up.