CAFFERTY Not following, Strawman.
REBUS Aye you are. (sees he’s got him) You are eh?
He snatches up CAFFERTY’S phone, keying up the music.
CAFFERTY Give me that.
REBUS How have you even heard of this one?
‘Show Me the Way’ is playing again.
CAFFERTY Switch that off!
REBUS is turning up the volume.
REBUS Maggie Towler’s favourite song. Was it ‘your tune’ Big Ger? Did you wander along the the Granton seafront to this one, swinging your hands and plotting which foundations to drop the bodies in...
CAFFERTY (snatching for phone, REBUS evading) Give it!
REBUS But she’d no have liked all that carry on eh? Is that what happened? She got a wee fright when she saw plain what kind of murdering scum she was shagging? Maybe she had the idea of letting a few other people know about the mess she was in? The police mebbe?
CAFFERTY has got the phone. He cuts the music, breathing heavily.
CAFFERTY I had nothing to do with Maggie Towler after 1999. A year or more before she got herself killed.
REBUS Interesting turn of phrase.
CAFFERTY Wasn’t even questioned about her.
REBUS That was careless of someone. Right enough though, I bet precious few folk knew about that wee romance. Not your usual type was she?
CAFFERTY says nothing.
REBUS Leaving her taste in men aside I heard she was a nice enough lassie?
CAFFERTY She was a lying wee hoor.
REBUS Didn’t see her after 1999 you say?
Nothing from CAFFERTY.
REBUS About the time she fell pregnant?
CAFFERTY I’m ringing Clarke. I’ve given her long enough.
REBUS So all that regret about the Cafferty legacy? A pile of keech eh? You left her high and dry didn’t you? Kicked her to the side and never looked back...
CAFFERTY I’d’ve looked after her!
REBUS So why didn’t you?
CAFFERTY Bairn wasn’t mine. Alright?
REBUS When did you find that out?
CAFFERTY Doesny matter...
REBUS Aye it does. Last night she was seen she ducked home early. Way I heard it she saw someone she didn’t expect to and it scared her. You had eyes and ears everywhere didn’t you, even then.
CAFFERTY Give it up Strawman. We’re no talking about this.
REBUS You caught her taking the back way home didn’t you?
CAFFERTY I never knew she was pregnant, alright?
REBUS Canny always be shooting blanks Ger.
CAFFERTY The bairn was not mine!
REBUS Is that what she told you? Is that what she said? To your face? You wouldny have liked that would you? So you get the news, she’s back on the town, first night out after having the kid... I bet that was the first you knew of the kid eh?
CAFFERTY You sound like a fucking women’s magazine, you know that?
REBUS You catch her going home alone, you ask her what she’s playing at? Keeping your daughter from you...
CAFFERTY Chattering on like a cleaning wifie...
REBUS She says, ‘Fuck you, fuck you Big Ger, think I’d ever have settled for the limp excuse for a cock you’ve got?’
CAFFERTY Oh you better zip it right now!
REBUS (cutting over him) ‘Fuck you, I was never with you even when you thought I was. Fuck you, it’s no even your kid!’
CAFFERTY lays him out. Walks away. Breathing hard. REBUS picks himself up. Recovers.
REBUS And that’s what you did. Well no, nothing like that. You choked the life out of her eh? With her own scarf.
CAFFERTY What do you think’s going to happen now Strawman? Think I’m going to break down and confess?
REBUS No need for that. DNA evidence will put you in the frame. No doubt.
CAFFERTY Fuck you talking about?
REBUS Canny twist a piece of cloth that tight without losing a wee bit of skin. Teeny tiny bits of Cafferty dust. They couldny get a DNA identification at the time, science wasny good enough. It is now. Good thing they kept the evidence safe eh?
A beat.
CAFFERTY Aye right.
REBUS They really did Big Ger. We checked. Yesterday. I was thinking of reopening the case.
CAFFERTY You’re no even a policeman. Who’s going to listen to you?
REBUS You think I couldny get that done? I knew she looked familiar. Should have guessed, right then. Take away the ugly and I can see her, right there, on your face...
SIOBHAN is climbing back up, she comes in. CAFFERTY is just frozen.
SIOBHAN Alright. Here’s what’s going to happen...
REBUS (cutting her off) Cafferty’s changed his mind. The deal’s off.
SIOBHAN What?
CAFFERTY’S still frozen.
REBUS We had a wee talk. He’s had a change of heart.
SIOBHAN Cafferty?
CAFFERTY What?
SIOBHAN The deal’s off?
REBUS He’s no longer a witness for the defence. He’s withdrawing his statement. He’s denying he saw any bit of the bastard that mugged him.
CAFFERTY still doesn’t speak.
SIOBHAN What’s going on?