“What is it?” he asked quietly. “Siobhan, what the hell have you done?”
Eventually, she opened her eyes, blinking back tears and getting her breathing back under control. “I saw Carberry this morning. We told him-” She paused. “I told him I wanted Gareth Tench.” She glanced back in the direction of the corpse. “Must be his way of delivering…”
Rebus waited for her to meet his eyes. “I saw him this afternoon,” he said. “He was keeping watch on Tench at the city chambers.” He slid his hands into his pockets. “You said we, Siobhan…”
“Did I?”
“Where did you talk to him?”
“The pool hall.”
“Same one Cafferty told us about?” He watched as she nodded. “Cafferty was there, too, wasn’t he?” Her look was the only answer he needed. He pulled his hands from his pockets and slapped one of them against the wall. “For Christ’s sake!” he spat. “You and Cafferty?” She just nodded again. “When he gets his claws into you, Shiv, they don’t come out. All these years you’ve known me, you must’ve seen that.”
“What do I do now?”
He thought for a moment. “If you keep your mouth shut, Cafferty knows he’s got you.”
“But if I own up-”
“I don’t know,” he confessed. “Bounced back into uniform maybe.”
“Might as well type out my resignation right now.”
“What did Cafferty say to Carberry?”
“Just that he was to hand us the councilman.”
“Who’s the us, Cafferty or the law?”
She gave a shrug.
“And how was he going to deliver?”
“Hell, John, I don’t know…You’ve said yourself, he was shadowing Tench.”
Rebus looked toward the murder scene. “Bit of a leap from there to stabbing him in the back three times.”
“Maybe not in Keith Carberry’s mind.”
Rebus thought about this for a moment. “We keep it quiet for now,” he decided. “Who else saw you with Cafferty?”
“Just Carberry. There were people in the pool hall, but upstairs it was just the three of us.”
“And you knew Cafferty would be there?” He watched her nod. “Because you’d set the whole thing up with him?” Another nod. “Without thinking to tell me.” He struggled to keep the anger out of his voice.
“Cafferty came to my flat last night,” Siobhan confessed.
“Jesus…”
“He owns the pool hall…that’s how he knew Carberry goes there.”
“You’ve got to stay away from him, Shiv.”
“I know.”
“Damage is done, but we can try some running repairs.”
“Can we?”
He stared at her. “By we I meant I.”
“Because John Rebus can fix anything?” Her face had hardened a little. “I can take my own medicine, John. You don’t always get to do the knight-in-shining-armor thing.”
He placed his hands on his hips. “Are we finished mixing our metaphors?”
“You know why I listened to Cafferty? Why I went to that pool hall knowing he’d be there?” Her voice was shaking with emotion. “He was offering me something I knew I wouldn’t get from the law. You’ve seen it here this week-how the rich and powerful operate, how they get away with anything they like. Keith Carberry went down to Princes Street that day because he thought it’s what his boss wanted. He thought he had Gareth Tench’s blessing to cause as much mayhem as he liked.”
Rebus waited to see if there would be more, then touched his hands to her shoulders. “Cafferty,” he said quietly, “wanted Gareth Tench put out to pasture, and he was happy to use you as a means to that end.”
“He told me he didn’t want him dead.”
“And he told me he did. I had quite a descriptive little rant from him on that subject.”
“We didn’t tell Keith Carberry to kill him,” she stated.
“Siobhan,” Rebus reminded her, “you said it yourself just a minute ago-Keith does pretty much what he thinks people want him to do-powerful people, people who’ve got some measure of control over him. People like Tench…and Cafferty…and you.” He pointed a finger at her.
“So I’m to blame?” she asked, eyes narrowing.
“We can all make a mistake, Siobhan.”
“Well, thanks for that.” She turned on her heels and started striding back across the playing field. Rebus looked down at his feet and gave a sigh, then reached into his pocket for cigarettes and lighter.
The lighter was empty. He shook it, tipped it up, blew on it, rubbed it for luck…not so much as a spark. He sauntered back toward the line of police vehicles, asked one of the uniforms if he had a light. His colleague was able to oblige, and Rebus decided he might as well beg another favor.
“I need a lift,” he said, watching Siobhan’s taillights receding into the night. Couldn’t believe Cafferty had gotten his claws into her. No…he could believe it all too readily. Siobhan had wanted to prove something to her parents-not just that she’d made a success of her job, but that it meant something in the greater scheme. She’d wanted them to know there were always answers, always solutions. Cafferty had promised her both.
But at a price-his price.
Siobhan had stopped thinking like a cop, turning back into a daughter again. Rebus thought of how he had let his own family drift away from him, first his wife and daughter, and then his brother. Pushing them away because the job seemed to demand it, demanded his unconditional attention. No room for anyone else…Too late now to do anything about it.
But not too late for Siobhan.
“You still want that lift?” one of the uniforms was asking. Rebus nodded and got in.
His first stop: Craigmillar police station. He got himself a cup of coffee and waited for the team to reconvene. Stood to reason they’d set up the murder room here. Sure enough, the cars started to arrive. Rebus didn’t know the faces, but introduced himself. The detective angled his head.
“It’s DS McManus you want.”
McManus was just coming through the door. He was younger even than Siobhan-maybe not yet thirty. Boyish features, tall and skinny. Looked to Rebus as though he might have grown up locally. Rebus offered a handshake and introduced himself again.
“I was beginning to think you were a myth,” McManus said with a smile. “I hear tell you were based here a while back.”
“True.”
“Worked with Bain and Maclay.”
“For my sins.”
“Well, they’re both long gone, so you needn’t worry.” They were walking down the long hallway behind the reception desk. “What can I do for you, Rebus?”
“Just something I thought you ought to know.”
“Oh aye?”
“I’d had a few run-ins recently with the deceased.”
McManus glanced at him. “That right?”
“I’ve been working the Cyril Colliar case.”
“Still just the two additional victims?”
Rebus nodded. “Tench had links to one of them-guy worked at an adult day-care center not far from here. Tench got him the position.”
“Fair enough.”
“You’ll be interviewing the widow…she’ll probably say CID paid a visit.”
“And that was you?”
“Myself and a colleague, yes.”
They’d taken a left turn into an adjoining corridor, Rebus following McManus into the CID office, where the team was gathering.
“Anything else you think I should know?”
Rebus tried to look as though he were racking his brain. Finally, he shook his head. “That’s about it,” he said.
“Was Tench a suspect?”
“Not really.” Rebus paused. “We were a bit concerned by his relationship with a young rebel called Keith Carberry.”
“I know Keith,” McManus said.
“He was in court, charged with fighting and disturbing the peace in Princes Street. When he came out, Councilmen Tench was waiting for him. They seemed pretty friendly. Then surveillance cameras showed Carberry whacking some innocent bystander. Looked like he might be in deeper trouble than first thought. I happened to be at the city chambers this lunchtime, talking with Councilman Tench. When I left, I saw Carberry watching from across the street-” Rebus ended the speech with a shrug, as if to indicate that he’d no idea what any of this might mean. McManus was studying him.