TECHNICIAN No.
SIOBHAN Just checking. Sorry to bother you. Got time for a word John?
REBUS I’m glad you’re here D.I. Clarke. Tell him.
SIOBHAN Tell him what?
REBUS We need to check the evidence for Maggie Towler’s murder.
SIOBHAN is just staring at him.
REBUS March, 2001. Building site between Granton and Newhaven. Lead detective D.I. Morris. (as no-one moves) Case number 4568/NM/ Morris.
SIOBHAN (to TECHNICIAN) Can you look please?
TECHNICIAN What am I checking?
REBUS That it’s still there, safe, sealed and fit for court.
The TECHNICIAN moves off.
REBUS And once we’ve done that we need to get the name of the property company that developed those flats...
SIOBHAN We’re not doing anything John. I’ve been over this.
REBUS Right. Fine. I’ll get it all together myself. Hand it over to you with a big bow tied round the case...
SIOBHAN What case!?
REBUS Maggie Towler. I told you. She’s the unsolved from seventeen years ago? I met her daughter, Heather, night before last. She was on my stair.
SIOBHAN What was she doing there?
REBUS Don’t know. She vanished on me.
SIOBHAN You can have that effect on people.
REBUS But I remembered we let mother her down.
SIOBHAN And that’s why you’re here?
REBUS Of course that’s why I’m here. Why else would I be here?
SIOBHAN So why were you asking about the Mordaunt evidence?
REBUS Just making conversation. It’s on my mind Siobhan. What can I tell you? Why were you here? Just checking no-one had tried tampering with the Mordaunt evidence?
SIOBHAN Yes.
REBUS Well there you go. Nothing to worry about.
SIOBHAN You have to stop John...
REBUS Stop what?
SIOBHAN Poking into cold cases.
REBUS Oh so Maggie Towler doesny deserve justice?
SIOBHAN Will she get it if you steam in trampling all over the evidence...?
She’s cut off as the TECHNICIAN is back.
TECHNICIAN Still there. Sealed, safe and ready for court.
SIOBHAN Thank you.
TECHNICIAN No problem. (indicating REBUS) But he shouldn’t be in here.
SIOBHAN I’ll walk him out.
The TECHNICIAN leaves as SIOBHAN walks REBUS into—
Stairwell Police H.Q.
SIOBHAN Have you slept?
REBUS Have you?
He puts something in his mouth.
SIOBHAN What’s that? You trying the nicotine lozenges?
REBUS Had to try something.
SIOBHAN What do they taste like?
REBUS Well I’ve never actually licked an ashtray full of cat’s piss but...
SIOBHAN We’ve got a family liason officer visiting Angela’s father. But I promised him I’d keep him informed personally. I took his hand and looked him in the eye and promised him I’d convict the man that destroyed his daughter twenty five years ago... Destroyed him too. He’s just a husk of a man, a living container of unbearable grief.
REBUS No mother?
SIOBHAN Cancer. Five years ago. They’d split up by then.
REBUS Sorrow too heavy for two to carry. See it all the time.
SIOBHAN We have to get Mordaunt convicted John. We have to.
REBUS I know.
SIOBHAN And there’s something you’re not telling me.
REBUS Right.
SIOBHAN Isn’t there?
REBUS Mebbe.
SIOBHAN Something to do with the attack on Big Ger. Who are you protecting John?
REBUS You.
SIOBHAN From what?
REBUS A mess. A mess that you don’t need to worry about.
SIOBHAN Oh dear god... (she slumps) You rang him didn’t you?
REBUS He came round the flat.
SIOBHAN I know. We’ve got a tail on him.
REBUS (genuine) Smart girl...
SIOBHAN Oh don’t even start with that! Don’t you...!
REBUS What? It was the right thing to do.
SIOBHAN Yes John, I know, because I’m a really good detective.
REBUS You want to know what we talked about.
SIOBHAN Are you going to tell me?
REBUS He’s got nothing Shiv. It’s all a bluff. He’s just messing with your head. Last night? He just fancied tormenting me.
SIOBHAN Is he going in the witness box?
REBUS Not unless he wants to look like a clown. Big Ger will not mess up your case against Mordaunt. You can keep staring at me Siobhan but you’re either going to trust me on this or you’re not.
SIOBHAN If I couldn’t trust you on something like this I wouldn’t trust this job, I wouldn’t trust myself, I wouldn’t trust any seeming solid thing in the whole world.
A beat.