REBUS How do you mean?
SIOBHAN Well... Mordaunt mugs him behind one of his own bars, length of wood to the back of the skull... What was the motive anyway?
REBUS Said Cafferty owed him for a plumbing repair on his indoor pool. Cafferty said the job was shoddy.
SIOBHAN So he whacked the most feared crime boss in Edinburgh...
REBUS (cutting in) He wasny quite that then but...
SIOBHAN (cutting in) And Cafferty lets him live?
REBUS We put him away for it. That was one time Mordaunt’s van in the car park was good enough evidence to convince a jury. Justice was done.
SIOBHAN Since when does Big Ger Cafferty ever settle for our justice over his?
REBUS And since when is it justice when a lying, murdering rapist gets away with only eighteen months for assault? Christ, it haunted everyone you know? Angela Simpson, just sixteen. In the photo in the incident room she was in her school uniform...
ANGELA walks through the scene, half dancing to music she’s quietly humming or in her head, aware of nothing else. This is just in REBUS’S mind’s eye.
REBUS At least we got him for something.
SIOBHAN That was the attitude at the time? From you and your fellow officers?
REBUS The gutters ran with IPA and single malt. The fatted calf was put in a bun. Songs of triumph were sung. Aye. It was a result. A bit of one. A crumb of comfort.
SIOBHAN You see, I don’t think that’s going to help.
REBUS Help what? (she hesitates) Siobhan? Tell me!
SIOBHAN I heard the defence think they have something. Something to put up against the forensic evidence. We think they’re going to suggest that someone tampered with the evidence that helped you put Mordaunt away for assaulting Big Ger.
REBUS Why would we tamper with that evidence?
SIOBHAN To put Mordaunt in the frame.
ANGELA stops dancing and looks directly at REBUS. Then she’s gone.
REBUS Right.
SIOBHAN He’d just got away with rape and murder after all. A third woman dead. The same method as two other young women. You all knew Mordaunt did it. You just couldn’t prove it. Must have been tempting to put him away for something?
REBUS If we’d wanted to fix evidence to get Mordaunt we could have made a better job of it.
SIOBHAN Maybe. Anyway, they do want to re-examine the forensic evidence from the attack on Cafferty.
REBUS Has that been kept?
SIOBHAN It has. Amazing I know, but it’s still there and they know it.
REBUS And what’s that supposed to show?
SIOBHAN DNA. Someone else’s DNA. Not Mordaunt’s. His defence team are going to claim that someone was so keen to get Mordaunt they framed him for the attack on Cafferty. Just so they could have the satisfaction of taking him off the streets. Putting him somewhere Cafferty might finish the job. But he didn’t. And that’s a puzzle isn’t it?
REBUS They’re definitely re — examing the DNA evidence from the attack on Cafferty...? What would that even prove?
SIOBHAN Oh like you can’t see it! If the evidence shows Mordaunt didn’t attack Cafferty it could suggest that the police might have been prepared to do anything to convict him. Then and now.
REBUS Why would anyone even hold onto that evidence?! Case was solved. Cafferty deserved worse than a crack in his monster skull, and Mordaunt went down for it!
SIOBHAN Maybe someone, somewhere in your team at the time, was uneasy with the quality of that conviction.
REBUS Only thing that lot ever worried about was the quality of their porn mags and the size of their kick-backs.
SIOBHAN John. Since we’re here, since we’re talking, I need to ask you...
REBUS (cuts her off) No.
SIOBHAN What?
REBUS I never thought anyone on that squad tampered with evidence.
SIOBHAN Seriously. Mordaunt is finally in our sights...
REBUS Mordaunt is evil, rapist scum who preyed on girls who could barely walk out of school sandals.
SIOBHAN But you never suspected anyone of framing him? Back then?
REBUS No. Absolutely not.
SIOBHAN And you’d tell me?
REBUS Seriously. You need to ask me?
SIOBHAN You know I do. I’ve put a lot into building the prosecution case here John, getting it in a proper state to match the modern forensic re-examination, making sure everything tallies...
REBUS No-one I’d rather see picking up the baton than you.
SIOBHAN And yes, it is this case. That’s what’s got me questioning everything. I’m at that point in my life John, the point where I’m asking what it’s all worth. I’ve seen promotions fly past me before, I sometimes asked myself what I’m hanging in this job for...
REBUS Because you’re good at it.
SIOBHAN Yes. It has to be because I’m good at it. Because I can get justice for a young girl, sixteen years old, twenty-five years dead, who just went out on a Friday night with her friends and died in pain and terror and shame before she ever really got to live. Now if I can’t nail this bastard Mordaunt...
REBUS You will.
SIOBHAN If you know anything that might weaken our case against him...
REBUS I’d never do that to you Shiv, never. I won’t let that happen.
SIOBHAN slumps momentarily.
SIOBHAN No. Course not. Alright. I need to get going. Are you really chasing up some bit of a murder case from 2001?
SIOBHAN is on the move.
REBUS Fraser didn’t re — interview a key witness, just filed the initial notes. I called him on it at the time.