‘Hey, guys!’ The bar’s door was wide open, someone standing there with their phone held up in front of them. Rebus, Hazlitt and Hammell couldn’t help turning towards the voice. The young man smiled as he checked the quality of the photo he’d just taken, then offered a thumbs-up as he backed out on to the pavement, the door swinging shut after him.
Rebus had recognised Raymond, Dempsey’s journalist nephew — and so had Gavin Arnold. The two men shared a look.
If this ever gets back. .
‘Maybe a whisky,’ Rebus told Hammell.
‘That’s the stuff,’ Hammell replied, waving towards Sue Holloway. The tension seemed to leave Hazlitt’s body. She threw a smile in Rebus’s direction, thanking him for staying. .
He was in bed when he heard a knock at his door. Just shy of midnight, according to his watch. He got up and padded across the floor.
‘Yes?’ he prompted.
‘It’s me,’ Siobhan Clarke said. ‘Are you decent?’
Rebus looked around the small room. ‘Give me a minute.’ He pulled on his trousers and shirt, then opened the door.
‘Not interrupting anything?’
‘I should be so lucky. What’s up?’
‘Seen this?’ She was holding up her phone so he could see the screen. It was a news feed from the local paper. The photo from the Lochinver was there, along with a subheading: A9 Families Thirsty For Answers.
‘Not subtle, is he?’ Rebus commented.
‘Want to tell me about it?’
‘I went out for a drink. Hammell and Hazlitt had been talking to reporters. They wandered into the pub and Tintin got busy with his phone.’
Clarke gave him much the same disbelieving look as Gavin Arnold.
‘But to get to the important stuff,’ he added, ‘how did your meal go?’
‘We were civil to one another.’
‘Did you tell him you resent being dumped for the Chief Super?’
‘Can we just drop it?’ She sounded exhausted.
‘Sorry,’ Rebus said.
‘I’ll see you at breakfast.’
‘If Dempsey’s not sent me packing by then.’ He gestured towards Clarke’s phone.
‘I might not be far behind. James says he’s struggling to find “a viable role” for me.’
‘He’s a real charmer.’
Clarke checked the clock on her phone. ‘Better get some sleep. Night, John.’
‘Everything’s going to work out,’ he was telling her as he pushed the door shut. He listened as she crossed the landing and headed to her own eaves bedroom a further flight up. Another door opened and Rebus heard Page’s voice asking her if she was all right.
‘Fine,’ was all she said, the stairs creaking as she climbed them.
52
Dempsey didn’t wait for them to arrive at HQ. Her chauffeured car drew up as, post-breakfast, Rebus, Page and Clarke emerged from the guest house. Rebus, already in the process of lighting a cigarette, asked Dempsey if he needed a blindfold to go with it.
‘What in God’s name did you think you were doing?’ she asked him.
‘I was in a pub, having a quiet drink.’ He’d had time to prepare this version of the story. ‘Hammell and Hazlitt were across the road. After they’d posed for the cameras, they found themselves next to me at the bar. We know each other, so we said hello. That’s when Raymond burst in and took his little paparazzi shot.’
‘What’s this about?’ Page asked, frowning.
‘Your officer,’ Dempsey told him, ‘is all over the internet.’
‘Thanks to your nephew,’ Rebus reminded her.
She ignored the jibe. ‘So what did you tell them about the investigation?’
‘What’s to tell? I’m not exactly in the loop.’
Dempsey pointed at him, but her eyes were on Page. ‘I want him gone, do you hear me?’
‘Loud and clear,’ Page responded. Dempsey was already getting back into the car. Her driver started pulling away.
‘Thanks for backing me up there, boss,’ Rebus commented.
‘Go back inside,’ Page said, ‘get your stuff together and check out of your room — Gayfield Square will pick up the tab. We’ll see you in Edinburgh.’
Rebus thought of things he could say, things like: ‘I was solving murders when you were in your pram.’ He didn’t, though. He just gave a little bow of the head in Clarke’s direction, as if to wish her the best of British, then flicked the cigarette to the ground and did as he was told.
When he re-emerged, Mrs Scanlon — make-up immaculate as usual — came with him and wished him well on the journey south. Page and Clarke were gone. Rebus watched as Mrs Scanlon closed the door, then decided on another cigarette before the off. When his phone rang, he considered not answering, but it was Gayfield Square.
‘Who is it?’ he asked.
‘Christine Esson.’
‘Hiya, Christine. If you’ve not already heard, I’ll be joining you shortly.’
‘Any news to report?’
‘Way this thing’s going, the internet’ll know before I do.’
‘I did see that photo of you with Hammell and Hazlitt. .’
‘And you thought you’d call me to gloat?’
‘What is there to gloat about?’
‘Nothing.’ He crushed the butt of his cigarette underfoot and got into the Saab. Would this be the day it refused to start?
The engine growled into life; none of the dashboard’s warning lights came on.
‘So, anyway,’ Esson was saying, ‘I said I’d pass on her number.’
‘Sorry, Christine, I missed the start of that. Whose number?’
‘The woman who phoned wanting to speak to you about Sally Hazlitt.’
Rebus rolled his eyes. Another sighting. ‘How much of a crank did she sound?’
‘She seemed perfectly sane. Told me to give you her name and get you to call her.’
Rebus sighed, but reached into his pocket for his notebook and pen. When Esson read the woman’s name out, he stiffened. Then he asked her to repeat it.
‘Susie Mercer,’ she obliged, keeping her intonation nice and clear.
‘That’s what I thought you said first time,’ Rebus told her.
53
Glasgow.
Rebus had told the woman who called herself Susie Mercer: ‘This has to be in person.’
She’d asked him why.
‘I need to be sure.’
She was in Glasgow. A9 south, then M80 west. It was lunchtime before Rebus arrived, parking in a multi-storey near the bus station and walking the short distance to Buchanan Street. As arranged, he called her again.
‘I’m here,’ he said.
‘Where?’
‘Heading down Buchanan Street.’
‘Turn left at Royal Exchange. You’ll see a cafe there called Thompson’s. Sit at the counter by the window.’
‘I’m hardly James Bond material.’
‘Just do it or I walk.’
So Rebus did it — ordered a coffee and an orange juice and sat with them, staring out at the passing parade of shoppers. Glasgow wasn’t his patch. It was a sprawl compared to Edinburgh. As long as he stuck to a half-dozen streets, he could navigate his way around; outside that tight circumference, he’d be lost.
It was a good five minutes before she came in. She eased herself on to the stool next to him.
‘Had to be sure you weren’t bringing her,’ she announced.
Rebus studied her. She’d cropped her hair and bleached it, then plucked her eyebrows till they almost ceased to exist. But the eyes and cheekbones were still those of her mother.
‘You’ve gotten good at this down the years,’ Rebus said, staring into the eyes of Sally Hazlitt.
‘Not good enough,’ she snapped back.
‘That e-fit was a fair likeness, though — no wonder you panicked.’ He paused. ‘So do I call you Sally, or Susie, or have you already fixed on a new name?’
She stared at him. ‘Nina keeps mentioning you on the news. Then I saw that photo of the two of you. .’
‘And?’
‘And she needs to be told to stop.’
‘Stop looking for you or stop thinking you’re a murder victim?’