"Why?"
"It was a fraud ring. It could ruin his legal career."
"So that would give him a motive?"
"Yeah, but I can't believe Benny would do that."
"Didn't think he'd sneak about and creep into your house either, though, did you? And how could he get a key-" Liam flinched suddenly and jerked his arm away from her. "God, shit, yes, Mauri, oh, fuck!"
"What? What?" she said, and tugged at his elbow, making him jerk his neck to the side. He yowled and slapped his hand to it, groaning at the sharp pain.
"I told Benny about the cupboard," he whispered, bending over with the pain, both his hands wrapped around the sore side of his neck.
Maureen was standing stunned beside him, her hands limp at her sides, the cold rain running down her face, dripping off her nose and chin. She spoke quietly. "You told him that?"
"Aye," said Liam, still cringing from the pain.
"You said you didn't tell anyone," she said.
He straightened up slightly and, looking at her, said, "I forgot."
"Did you tell him which cupboard?"
"I pointed it out one day when we were in the house. God, Mauri, I'm sorry."
She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek, slipping her arm back through his. "There's no reason for you to be sorry, Liam. No reason at all."
They walked on in silence, Liam keeping his free hand on his neck. Maureen was holding his arm too firmly, pressing it tightly against her side, pinching his skin in the cup of her elbow. He could feel her tiny walnut biceps digging into his arm and her intensity frightened him. "Why would he plant the knife?" he asked.
"Well, if it's found in the house it looks like I did it because I didn't go out, yeah?"
Liam nodded. "Right, but why leave it so long?"
"That I don't know. Maybe he wasn't working alone and it wasn't his idea to do it. Maybe someone else told him to do it and he couldn't refuse. He told me on the first day that it would look like me if they found it in the house. He wouldn't have told me if he was thinking about doing it. I think he must have mentioned it to someone else and they told him to go up there and do it."
"He's a cunt," said Liam. "Even if he didn't kill Douglas, even if he didn't put the knife there, even if he took my key or your key and just got in to get his CD, he's still a cunt."
"Aye," she said. "But he's the closest thing I've got to a lead at the moment so I don't want you to say anything to him."
"I want to batter him," said Liam petulantly.
Maureen disentangled her arm. "Don't you dare breathe a word about this. Not a single word to anyone. You'll fuck everything up. Just act normal with him and if you can't do that stay away from him."
They walked on.
"We've known Benny forever, Mauri."
"Yeah," said Maureen. "And it wasn't long enough."
WHEN THEY GOT BACK to his house Liam fitted the answer phone and got clean towels from the upstairs bathroom while Maureen made a pot of tea. She dried her hair roughly and followed Liam as he carried the tray upstairs to the nice room on the second floor.
She lay down on the Corbusier chair. Liam sat on the desktop, gasping as he tried to dry his hair without jerking his head. "God, that's sore," he said. He poured out the tea and turned on his computer. "Do you fancy a game of Doom?" They looked at each other and sniggered miserably. "Not really, Liam, no."
The doorbell rang downstairs. "Fuck," said Liam. "If that's Pete…" He put the pot of tea down, walked across the room and peered out of the window. He waved down to someone on the front steps. "Fuck me if it isn't himself," he muttered.
Maureen stood up and looked out. Benny was standing on the stairs waving up at them cheerfully. She waved back.
One hundred yards farther down the road a wet policeman and a dry policeman were sitting in the Volkswagen. They recognized Benny as the third party seen leaving the Scaramouch Street residence on Thursday morning. They guessed rightly that he was the householder, Brendan Gardner. The dry officer turned to the wet officer. "This guy keeps coming up, doesn't he?"
Liam waved out of the window. "We gonnae let the cunt in?" he asked.
"Got to," she said. "Don't let on, Liam, eh?"
Liam stomped down the stairs. She could hear the front door swing open and Benny greeting Liam in a loud happy call. Liam grunted something.
Benny walked up the stairs and stood in the doorway. "All right, Mauri?" He smiled. "Just passing. I had my first exam today."
"Right. I didn't think they had exams on Saturdays anymore."
Benny shrugged. "Old-fashioned college."
"How did it go?"
"Okay."
Liam brushed past him gruffly and picked up his cup of tea.
"How are ye, Liam, man?" asked Benny.
"Fine," said Liam, picking up a bit of paper from the desk and pretending to read it.
Benny paused for a still moment and looked at him, confused by his mood. He turned to Maureen and made a bewildered face. She raised an eyebrow. "Want a cup of tea, then?" she said, walking toward the door and motioning for him to follow her. They went downstairs to the kitchen.
It was chaotic: the police seemed to have concentrated their search in there. Liam usually left it a mess anyway because it was next to the front room. The window was almost opaque with dirt, the floor was half ripped lino, half bare rotting floorboards. Fossilized dirt had turned the old cooker from white to an uneven brown. The police had emptied spice jars into the sink, the contents of the fridge and freezer were stacked on the table and had defrosted over the surface and onto the floor. The crockery, cutlery and saucepans had been taken out of the cupboards and left in piles on the work tops.
"What's wrong with Liam now?" asked Benny, unperturbed by the state of the kitchen.
"It's family stuff. Winnie's turned rabid."
"No, really?"
"Yeah," she said, and began to cry. She tried to stop but couldn't help herself. She was struggling for breath, gasping and weeping open-faced like a lost child. Benny put his arms around her and whispered consolations into her damp hair. She murmured his name, repeating it over and over, holding him tight until she'd calmed down.
"What's she done?" he said when she let go. He rubbed her back gently. "What's she done now, Mauri?"
She could see Liam over Benny's shoulder, walking through the front room toward them. She held Benny tight. "She's lost it. She went mental and threw Liam out of the house."
She caught Liam's eye over Benny's shoulder and gave him a hard look. Benny pressed his face into her neck. "You all right now?" he muttered.
"I'm all right," she said. "It's not the best run of luck I've ever had, though, is it?"
"Guess not," he said.
Liam put the kettle on. "Benny, man, how'd the exam go?" he said, smiling genially.
They brought some big cushions and the portable telly from Liam's bedroom into the upstairs room so they could watch Repo Man on TV. She hadn't realized but the day had worn her out. She lay down to rest her eyes during the ads and fell asleep. They covered her with a duvet.
She woke up in the middle of the night, clammy in her day clothes, and undressed sleepily as she made her way to the spare bedroom, falling asleep the moment she lay down. She dreamed that Martin was combing her hair to comfort her.
Chapter 24
Before she even opened her eyes the next morning she knew that it was time to move home to Garnethill.
She was going to make Liam breakfast but when she looked in on him he was still asleep. There was a large hole in the floor next to his bed: the floorboards had been lifted and left next to the empty space. Nails were sticking up vertically out of the planks, like the ragged teeth on a latent predator. The contents of his clothes cupboard had been thrown onto the floor and the black-and-white checkered linoleum in the en suite bathroom had been ripped up. Maureen shut the door quietly and crept downstairs. No wonder he was fucked off.