‘What does that say about you?’ She knew he wasn’t going to answer that, asked instead if she’d see him for dinner.
‘Sure,’ he told her. ‘Unless you don’t, of course.’
‘Of course,’ she said. Then: ‘How’s the head?’
‘Fine.’
‘You liar. Try one day off the booze, John, just for me. One day, and tell me you don’t feel better in the morning.’
‘I know I’ll feel better in the morning. Problem is, as soon as I have a drink, I forget.’
‘Bye, John.’
‘Bye, Patience.’
Patience: more than living up to her name...
30
Rebus and Gill Templer, in Interview Room B with Cal Brady.
Interview Room B: same room Rebus had taken Darren Rough. Same room he’d first met Harold Ince during the Shiellion inquiry. They were talking to Cal Brady again because Templer had a few things to clear up.
‘You started that fire,’ she said.
‘Did I?’ Brady looked around, wide-eyed. ‘Maybe we better get a solicitor in here then.’
‘Don’t try to be funny, Mr Brady.’
‘Only jokers I see around here are you lot.’
‘Billy Horman is reported missing, next thing you’re out torching Darren Rough’s flat. If I was of a mind, I might think you had something to gain from that.’ She paused, shifting the paperwork in front of her. ‘Or something to hide.’
‘Such as?’ Brady sat back in his chair, arms folded.
‘That’s what I’m wondering.’
Brady snorted, looked to where Rebus was standing. ‘Lost your voice or what?’
Rebus didn’t rise to it. Gill Templer was quite capable of dealing with the likes of Cal Brady.
‘Everyone else went out looking for Billy,’ she continued, ‘but you held back. Why’s that, Mr Brady?’
Brady shifted in his seat. ‘Kept an eye on Billy Boy’s mum.’
Templer made a show of checking her notes. ‘Joanna Horman?’ She waited for Brady to nod agreement. ‘That’s women’s work, isn’t it, Calumn? Holding the mother’s hand, offering sympathy and a rum and Coke. Thought you were more of an Action Man.’
‘Someone had to do it.’
‘But why you, that’s what I’m getting at? Maybe you fancied her. Maybe the two of you know one another...?’ She paused. ‘Or could it be that you already knew there was no point looking for Billy Horman...?’
Brady thumped the desk. ‘Don’t you start on this!’ Quick to ignite. ‘Everybody knows what happened to Billy Boy. He got snatched by Rough or one of his cronies.’
‘Then where is he?’
‘How the hell should I know?’
‘And who killed Darren Rough?’
‘If it had been me, he’d’ve been missing some bits.’
‘What if I tell you he was?’ Templer playing a little game.
Brady looked surprised. ‘Was he? Nobody said...’
Templer looked at her notes. Then: ‘DI Rebus, I believe you have a few more questions for Mr Brady.’
Rebus having cleared things with her first, explaining his interest. He moved towards the desk, rested his knuckles on it.
‘How do you come to know Archie Frost?’
‘Archie?’ Brady looked at Templer. ‘What’s this got to do with anything?’
‘Another inquiry, Mr Brady. Unconnected to the other two, except, perhaps, by you.’
‘I don’t get it.’
‘You want that solicitor now?’
He thought about it, shrugged his shoulders. ‘I do some work for him.’
‘For Mr Frost?’
‘That’s right. I work on the door some nights.’
‘You’re a bouncer?’
‘I keep an eye out for trouble.’
Rebus produced the photographs again. They had curled and creased at the edges, and were smeared with fingerprints.
‘Do you remember me asking about these people?’
Brady looked at the photos, nodded. ‘I wasn’t on the door that night.’
‘And which night is that?’ Brady looked up from the photos. Rebus was smiling. ‘I don’t recall giving Mr Frost any particular night.’
‘If I’d been working that night I’d have spotted him. I had a run-in with him once before. No way he would have got past the door with me there.’
Rebus narrowed his eyes. ‘What sort of run-in?’
Brady shrugged. ‘Nothing much. He was just a bit pissed, making too much noise. I told him to calm down and he didn’t, so a couple of us escorted him off the premises.’
Brady liked this last phrase; smiled at it. A nice official ring to it: ‘escorted’, ‘premises’.
‘You ever do any door work at the Clipper?’
Brady shook his head.
‘But you work for its owner.’
‘Mr Mackenzie has a share of the boat, that’s all.’
‘But he provides the bouncers too.’
‘I tried it once, didn’t like it.’
‘Why not?’
‘All these stuck-up tarts and Hooray Henries, thinking they could walk all over you because they had a bit of cash.’
‘I know what you mean.’ Brady looked at him. ‘No, really. I’ve seen them for myself.’ Rebus was still thinking about Brady’s run-in with Damon Mee. He’d thought it was Damon’s first visit to Gaitano’s; no one had told him any different. ‘Thing is, Cal, Damon’s a missing person, and I’m a bit like Gulliver in one of Lilliput’s toilets.’
‘Eh?’
‘I’ve not got much to go on.’ Gill Templer groaned at the joke, while Rebus counted off on his fingers. ‘I’ve got Damon going missing, last seen with a blonde being dropped by taxi outside the Clipper. The boat’s part-owned by Charmer Mackenzie, who also owns Guiser’s, which is where Damon and the blonde seemed to meet. See, there’s a connection there. Right now, it’s the only thing I’ve got, which is why I’m going to keep working away at it until I’ve got some answers.’ He paused. ‘Only you don’t have any of the answers, do you?’
Brady stared at him. Rebus turned to Templer.
‘No further questions, m’lud.’
‘All right, Mr Brady,’ she said. ‘You can go now.’
Brady walked to the door, opened it, turned his head back towards Rebus.
‘Gulliver,’ he said. ‘Is he the one in the cartoon with the little people?’
‘That’s him,’ Rebus acknowledged.
Brady nodded thoughtfully. ‘I still don’t get it,’ he said, closing the door after him.
At lunchtime, Rebus sat in his car and slept for half an hour, before heading back to the office with a beaker of tomato soup and a cheese and Branston sandwich.
‘We’ve got something,’ Roy Frazer informed him. ‘Sighting of a white saloon car, exiting Holyrood Park at the Dalkeith Road end. Someone from maintenance at the Commonwealth Pool noticed it. Early morning, no traffic about. This car was doing a fair lick, went through a red light. He’s a cyclist, pays attention to that sort of thing.’
‘And a model citizen too, I’ll bet. Never sneaks through a red on his bike when nobody’s watching.’ Rebus thought for a moment. ‘Any surveillance cameras that might have caught it?’
‘I’ll check.’
‘Clear it with DCI Templer first. She’s in charge.’
‘Yes, sir.’ Frazer bounded off in search of her. He reminded Rebus of a pet spaniel, always ready for attention and praise. White saloon car... Something was niggling Rebus. He put in a call to Bobby Hogan at Leith police station.
‘If I say the words “white saloon car” to you, what would you say to me?’
‘I’d say my brother’s got one, a Ford Orion.’
‘I’m thinking of Jim Margolies.’
‘Something in the notes?’