Strangest bloody thing… white van… dumping bodies…
As the call ended, Ransome hit the stop button. ‘Does that voice ring a bell, Mr Cruikshank?’
Allan shook his head slowly and determinedly.
‘Our forensic team’s hanging on to the original recording,’ the detective said, studying the tape-player before slipping it back into his pocket. ‘Amazing what they can do these days. An engine turning over in the background… they can isolate the sound and match it to a specific brand of car. Isn’t that incredible, sir?’
‘Incredible,’ Allan echoed, thinking of his Audi. Had its engine been running? He couldn’t remember now.
‘There’d be immunity, you know,’ the detective was saying as he rose to his feet. ‘I mean, I’m just thinking aloud here, but anyone who helped us put Chib Calloway behind bars would be a hero, pure and simple. Don’t tell me you’ve never wanted to be a hero, Mr Cruikshank?’
‘I’ve told you, I barely know the man.’
‘But you’re good friends with Michael Mackenzie – and Mackenzie knows him.’
‘So talk to Mike.’
Ransome nodded slowly. ‘Thought I’d try you first – you strike me as the rational sort, the sort who’d see sense.’ Ransome was halfway to the door, but he paused again. ‘It wouldn’t just be immunity, Mr Cruikshank – it would be anonymity, too. We’re hot on that these days for people who help take the likes of Calloway off the streets.’ He took a final look around the room. ‘You had a break-in here, didn’t you? At First Caly, I mean… few years back now.’
‘Yes.’
‘Rumour at the time was, Calloway was responsible.’
‘Then he’s not very clever – we don’t tend to keep bullion on the premises.’
‘Still got away with a pretty penny, though.’ Ransom sniffed and rubbed a finger along the underside of his nose. ‘Another rumour at the time… he had help.’
‘Help?’
‘Someone on the inside.’
‘Just what exactly are you getting at?’ Allan’s voice had hardened.
‘Nothing, Mr Cruikshank. Just that he’s got previous that way – contacts, people he can scare or bribe into helping him. Good of you to take the time to see me. Funny, though… when I asked your secretary, she said you didn’t have any meetings this morning.’ He gave a little bow and a smile, then tapped his watch. ‘Told you I only needed five minutes…’
And with that he was gone.
Yes, thought Allan, five minutes to shred a man’s nerves and send his whole life crashing to smithereens around him. He needed some fresh air, needed to walk off some of the adrenalin, but he couldn’t leave now – Ransome might be loitering. He had to call Mike, tell him everything. Mike was the one the detective was interested in. Mike could lead him straight to Calloway. There wasn’t even any evidence in Allan’s home – what did he have to fear?
He found himself pacing the room, then realised there was something on Ransome’s chair, something that hadn’t been there before. The detective’s business card, with a mobile phone number scrawled along the bottom. When his own mobile rang, he answered it without thinking.
‘Whoever you are,’ the voice said, ‘I don’t take kindly to practical jokes.’
It was the man who’d answered the first time Allan had tried Mike. The wrong number. Allan muttered an apology, ended the call, and turned his phone off altogether. Mike could wait. Everything could wait.
Until he was good and ready to deal with it.
27
Mike Mackenzie was staring at his mobile, willing it to ring. He was seated in a Stockbridge café, having been for a walk along the Water of Leith. It had always been his preferred route when he had things to think about, problems to solve. But this time it had worked miraculously. He’d been wondering what to do about the threat from Westie’s girlfriend. One call to his bank would see the transfer of an additional twenty K into the student’s account, but Mike hadn’t been quite ready to make that decision. Maybe Gissing could warn Westie off, or at least talk some sense into him, but the professor was answering neither messages nor texts. Mike’s latest communication to him had warned that Ransome was closing in and would probably be knocking on both their doors. So far, there had been no reply.
But then, just as Mike was pushing open the door to the café, a text had arrived.
Sorry about Alice. Don’t do anything. W.
Which was fine, just so long as Westie had the measure of his girlfriend. But at least Mike could file that particular problem in the pile marked ‘pending’. The call from Allan had put him right off his goat cheese and rocket ciabatta. Why didn’t he ring now? Could Ransome really have taken him to the station for further questioning? Pockets emptied, belt, tie and shoelaces removed – was that how they did it?
Always supposing I’m allowed one phone call…
Had Allan cracked and told the detective everything? When the phone did ring, it caught Mike by surprise, so that he spluttered some of the coffee back into its cup. But when he looked at the display, it was Laura rather than Allan.
‘Laura,’ he said, answering. ‘Look, sorry I walked out on you. It was bloody rude of me, and I’ve been meaning to call and apologise…’
‘Never mind that,’ she was saying. ‘There’s a full inventory underway at the warehouse.’
‘A thankless task, I’d imagine.’ He was trying for levity.
‘Just bloody listen, will you? The rumour is, they’re finding gaps.’
‘Gaps?’
‘In the collection – the missing paintings.’
Mike’s brow furrowed. ‘But the paintings were in the van…’
‘Not those paintings! The others… the ones still missing. The ones the gang got away with.’
‘Got away with?’ he echoed, his head spinning. ‘How many are we talking about?’
‘Half a dozen so far, and they’re not halfway through the stock check. A Fergusson sketchbook’s gone, too. Plus another book with signed plates by Picasso.’
‘Jesus.’
Laura’s voice turned imploring. ‘If there’s anything you know, Mike, anything you can tell the police…’
‘What?’
‘You’ve got to speak to them. Or you could always call Ransome – I’ll act as go-between, if you like. I’m sure if the paintings could somehow be chanced upon, you know, if they were left abandoned somewhere…’
‘Nice of you to assume this has got anything to do with me.’ Mike realised he was being studied by a woman at another table. She was probably wondering why he was stabbing his cooling ciabatta with a knife. He managed a smile and put the knife down.
‘Has Ransome spoken to you yet?’
‘I told you, Laura, he’s not even working the case – it’s Chib Calloway he’s after, and his paranoia has extended as far as Allan and the professor and me.’
‘Why Allan?’
‘What?’
‘Why put Allan at the top of that list?’
Mike rubbed at his temples, trying to dull the pain. There was a pharmacy next door to the café, and he decided he needed some aspirin. A couple of hundred should do it…
‘No reason,’ he eventually said, knowing the preceding silence had already given the lie to this.
‘If Calloway has the paintings, maybe you could talk to him,’ Laura was suggesting now.
‘Did he look to you like the sort of man you can reason with?’
‘Are you trying to tell me he does have them?’
‘Christ, no – I don’t know anything about these missing paintings! What I’m saying is, I don’t want to be the one making that accusation to Chib Calloway’s face.’