by Ian Rankin
Well, Elder was doing something too. From his talk with Rose Pellengro, he had noted six possible locations, six places where Witch might take her father before ... before what? Killing him? Would that be enough for her? Whatever, Elder knew she would not linger over her task, so he dare not linger over his.
Joyce Parry was in a meeting in her office when the telephone buzzed. She picked it up. ‘Hello?’
‘Mrs Parry? Barclay here.’
‘Michael, are you still in Brighton?’
‘Well ... yes, actually.’
She knew from his tone that something was wrong. She sat forward in her seat. ‘What is it?’
‘It’s Mr Elder. He’s gone off in my car.’
‘Gone off where?’
‘We don’t know. He said he had to go and fetch something ...’
Joyce Parry rose to her feet, taking the telephone apparatus with her, holding the body of the telephone in one hand, the receiver in the other.
‘Has he talked to the palm reader?’
‘Yes.’
‘What did he find out?’
‘He didn’t say.’
Parry let out a sharp hiss of breath.
‘Sorry,’ said Barclay, sounding despondent.
‘Michael, go talk to the palm reader, find out what she told him.’ She looked at her visitor, as though only now remembering that he was there. ‘Hold on a second,’ she said into the receiver, before muffling the mouthpiece against her shoulder. ‘Elder,’ she said. ‘He’s gone haring off in Barclay’s car.’
Greenleaf got up from his chair. ‘We need a description of the car.’ He came to the desk and took a notebook and pen from his pocket.
‘Michael?’ Parry said into the mouthpiece. ‘What kind of car is it?’ She listened. ‘White Ford Fiesta, okay. And registration number?’ Barclay gave it to her, and she repeated it for Greenleaf. ‘Right,’ she said. ‘Go talk to Madame Whatever-her-name, and call me straight back.’
‘Will do,’ said Barclay’s voice. ‘Just the one thing. There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask. It’s just come back to me. What was Operation Silver—’
But Joyce Parry was already severing the connection. Greenleaf took the receiver from her and pressed some numbers home, pausing for his call to be answered.
‘Inspector Greenleaf here,’ he said. ‘I’ve got a car needs tracing. Notify every force in the country. As soon as anyone sees it, I want to be the first to know. Understood?’
Joyce Parry slumped back down on to her chair and rubbed her face with her hand. Dominic, Dominic. Where the hell are you? And why don’t you ever learn?
He drove first to Salisbury, where, according to Marion Rose, Jonathan Barker had first held her hand, first planted a kiss on her cheek. He had done so as they came out of the cathedral after attending a choral concert. Elder drove up to the cathedral, got out, walked around, got back into the car, cruised around the town for twenty minutes, then headed off. Second stop: a hotel in Henley-on-Thames. Pellengro told him this was where Marion and Barker had first made love. The fortune teller even recalled the hotel’s name. ‘In my business, a good memory helps. You sometimes get a client coming back after two or three years. Helps if you can remember what you said to them last time.’
He parked in the hotel car park, and checked the other parked cars for any on the stolen list. None. The hotel itself was busy, but there was no sign of Witch. Tired, he stopped at a burger drive-in and bought coffee, then bought more later when he filled the car with petrol. He was headed north, doing this because, as with the roadblocks, there was nothing else to do. He had no leads, no real ideas. He didn’t have anything.
And no one would thank him for any of this anyway. Running off on his own, just like in the old days. Barclay would tell Joyce, and Joyce would not be pleased. She would not be pleased at all. Last night, she had massaged his back.
‘It hasn’t healed,’ she said. ‘I thought by now it would have.’
‘Sometimes it clears up, then it starts again.’
She had traced the outline with her finger. ‘Is it sore?’
‘More itchy than sore, but then if I scratch it ... yes, it’s sore. And I know what you’re thinking: serves me right. Which is true. I learned my lesson.’
‘Did you, Dominic? I wonder. I wonder if Silverfish taught you anything.’
Silverfish, stupid name for a stupid operation. A terrorist cell in London. Kept under surveillance. The mention of a meeting to take place in the city between senior members of four European terrorist organisations. But the whole thing had been botched, the terrorists escaping. Including a woman, a woman Elder thought he knew. There was an immediate clampdown: checks on airports, ferry terminals, fishing ports. One of the terrorists, a Spaniard, was arrested at Glasgow Airport. Then came Charlie Giltrap’s phone call.
‘Might be something or nothing, Mr Elder. Just that there’s this woman been sleeping rough on a bit of waste ground near all that building work in Docklands. She don’t talk, and she don’t look right, if you know what I mean. I mean, she don’t fit in.’
Which had been enough to send Elder down to Docklands, to an area of scrapyards, building-sites and derelict wastes. It was late evening, and he hadn’t told anyone he was going. He’d just do a recce, and if back-up was needed he’d phone for it.
Besides, he had his Browning in his pocket.
After half an hour’s hunting, he saw a crouched figure beside what remained of a warehouse wall. It was eating sliced white bread from a bag, but scurried off mouse-like at his approach. So he followed.
‘I only want a word,’ he called. ‘I’m not going to move you on or anything. I just want to talk.’
He cornered her in the shell of another building. It had no roof left, just four walls, a gaping doorway, and windows without glass. She was crouched again, and her eyes were fearful, cowed. But her clothes weren’t quite ragged enough, were they? He came closer.
‘I just want to talk.’
And then he was close enough to stare into her eyes, and he knew. He knew it was all pretence. She wasn’t fearful or cowed or anything like that. She was Witch. And she saw that he knew.
And she was fast. The kick hit his kneecap, almost shattering it. He stumbled, and the flat edge of her fist chopped into his throat. He was gagging, but managed somehow to get the gun out of his pocket.
‘I know you,’ she said, kicking the gun cleanly out of his hand. ‘You’re called Elder. You’ve got a nice thick file on me, haven’t you?’ Her next kick connected her heel to his temple. Fresh pain flared through him. ‘You call me Witch.’ Her voice was calm, almost ethereal. A kick to the ribs. Christ, what kind of shoes was she wearing? They were like weapons. ‘You’re called Dominic Elder. Even we have our sources, Mr Elder.’ Then she chuckled, crouching in front of him, lifting his head. It was dark, he couldn’t make out ... ‘Dominic Elder. A priest’s name. You should have been a priest.’
Then she rose and he heard her footsteps crunch over gravel and glass. She stopped, picked up his pistol. He heard her emptying the bullets from it. ‘Browning,’ she mused. ‘Not great.’ Then the gun hit the ground again. And now she was coming back towards him. ‘Will you put this in your file, Mr Elder? Or will you be too ashamed? How long have you been tracking me?’
She was lifting his arms behind him, slipping off his jacket.
‘Years,’ he mumbled. He needed a few moments. A few moments to recover. If she’d give him a few more moments, then he’d ...
‘Years? You must be my biggest fan.’ She chuckled again, and tore his shirt with a single tug, tore it all the way up his back. He felt his sweat begin to chill. Christ, what was ... ? Then her hand came to within an inch of his face and lifted a piece of broken glass. She stood up, and he thought she was moving away again. He swallowed and began to speak.
‘I want to ask you something. It’s important to me.’
Too late, he felt her foot swinging towards him. The blow connected with his
jaw, sending him spinning out of pain and into darkness.
‘No interviews,’ she was saying. ‘But I’d better give my biggest fan an autograph, hadn’t I?’
And then, with Elder unconscious, she had carved a huge letter W into his back, and had left him bleeding to death. But Charlie Giltrap had decided Elder might need help. It was a rough area down there; a man like Mr Elder ... well, he might need a translator if nothing else. Charlie had found him. Charlie had called for the ambulance. Charlie had saved Elder’s life.
One hundred and eighty-five stitches they gave him. And he lay on his front in a hospital bed feeling each and every one of them tightly knitting his skin. His hearing had been affected by one of her kicks - affected temporarily, but it gave him little to do but think. Think about how fast she’d been, how slow he’d been in response. Think of the mistake he’d made going there in the first place. Think maybe it was time for an easier life.
But, really, life hadn’t been easier since. In some ways it had been harder. This time he’d shoot first. Then maybe his back would heal, maybe the huge scar wouldn’t itch any more.
His next stop was another hotel, this time near Kenilworth Castle, the probable site of Witch’s conception. Barker, usually so cautious, had one night drunk too many whiskies, and wouldn’t let his secretary say no later on, after closing time, up in their shared room. The hotel was locked and silent for the night. There were only two cars in the car park and neither was on the stolen list. Three more to go: York, Lancaster and Berwick. If he pushed on, he could have them all checked by late-morning. If he pushed on.
Dominique booked them into the hotel, pretending that Barclay also was French and could speak no English. The receptionist looked disapproving. ‘Any luggage?’ she sniffed.
‘No luggage,’ said Dominique, barely suppressing a giggle. The woman stared at her from over the top of her half-moon glasses. Dominique looked back over her shoulder to where Barclay stood just inside the hotel door. She motioned for him to join her, but he shook his head, causing her to giggle again before calling to him: ‘I need some money!’
So at last, reluctantly, he came towards the desk. He was worried about Dominic Elder. He’d argued that they should go back to London, but Dominique, pragmatic as ever, had asked what good that would do? So instead they’d had a few drinks and eaten fish and chips out of paper. And they’d played some of the machines in the pier’s amusement arcade.
‘This is a family hotel,’ warned the receptionist.
They both nodded towards her, assuring her of their agreement. So she gave them a key and took their money and had them sign their names in the register. When Barclay signed himself Jean-Claude Separt, Dominique nearly collapsed. But upstairs, suddenly alone together in the small room with its smells of air-freshener and old carpet, they were shy. They calmed. They grew sober together, lying dressed on the top of the bed, kissing, hugging.
‘I wonder where Elder is,’ Barclay said at last.
‘Me, too,’ murmured Dominique drowsily.
He continued to stroke her hair as she slept, and he turned his head towards the large window, through which seeped the light and the noises of night-time. He thought of Susanne Elder, and of Dominique’s father. He hoped Dominic Elder would get an answer to his question. Later still, he closed his own eyes and prayed for restful dreams ...
It wasn’t quite dawn when Elder reached York. The streets were deserted. This was where Marion had told Barker she was pregnant, and where he’d insisted she have an abortion. Poor Marion, she’d chosen the time and the place to tell him. She’d chosen them carefully and, no doubt to her mind, well. A weekend in York, a sunny Sunday morning. A stroll along the city walls. Radiant, bursting to tell him her news. Poor Marion. What had she thought? Had she thought he’d be pleased? She’d been disappointed. But where on the city wall had she told him? Pellengro hadn’t known, so neither would Witch. Elder, many years ago, had walked the circuit of York’s protective city wall. He knew it could take him an hour or more. He parked near Goodramgate, a large stone archway. There was a flight of steps to the side of the ‘gate’ itself leading up on to the ramparts. A small locked gate stood in his way, but he climbed over it. It struck him that Witch would have trouble dragging a prone body over such a gate. But on second thoughts, he couldn’t imagine the Home Secretary would have much trouble climbing over it with a gun pointing at his back. Parts of the wall were floodlit, and the street-lighting was adequate for his needs. The sky was clear and the night cold. He could see his breath in the air in front of him as he walked. He could only walk so far in this direction before the wall ended. It started again, he knew, a little further on. He retraced his steps and crossed Goodramgate, this time walking along the wall in the direction of York Minster itself. He hadn’t gone ten yards when he saw the body. It was propped against the wall, legs straight out in front of it. He bent down and saw that it was Jonathan Barker. He’d been shot once through the temple. Elder touched Barker’s skin. It was cool, slightly damp. The limbs were still mobile however. He hadn’t been dead long. Elder stood up and looked around him. Nobody, obviously, had heard the shot. There were houses in the vicinity, and pubs and hotels. It surprised him that no one had heard anything. A single shot to the temple: execution-style. Well, at least it had been quick.
There was a sudden noise of impact near him, and dust flew from the wall.
A bullet!
He flattened himself on the wall, his legs lying across Barker’s. He took his pistol from its shoulder-holster and slipped off the safety. Where had the shot come from? He looked around. He was vulnerable up here, like a duck on a fairground shooting-range. He had to get back to the steps. She was using a silencer. That’s why nobody had heard anything. A silencer would limit her gun’s range and accuracy, so probably she wasn’t that close. If she’d been close, she wouldn’t have missed. She was somewhere below, in the streets. He decided to run for it, moving in an awkward crouch, pistol aimed at the space in front of him, in case she should appear. She did not. He scrambled back down the steps and over the gate. The city was silent. Outside the walls, a single car rumbled past. He knew he’d never reach it in time. His own car was less than fifty yards away in any case. But he’d no intention of returning to it. He had come this far. He wasn’t going to run.
A sound of heels on cobblestones. Where? In front of him, and fading. He headed into the narrow streets of the old city, following the sound. The streets were like a maze. He’d been lost in them before, unable to believe afterwards that there were so few of them ... just as those lost in a maze cannot believe it’s not bigger than it is.
He couldn’t hear the footsteps any more. He stood for a moment, turning his head, listening intently. Then he moved on. The streets grew, if anything, narrower, then widened again. A square. Then more streets. Christ, it was dark. Back-up. He needed back-up. Was there a police station anywhere nearby? Noise, voices ... coming into the square. Three teenagers, two girls and one boy. They looked drunk, happy, heading home slowly. He hid his gun in its holster and ran up to them.
‘Have you seen a woman?’
‘Don’t need to, I’ve got two here.’ The boy gave the two girls a squeeze.
Elder attempted a sane man’s smile. ‘Is there a police station?’
‘No idea.’
‘Are you in trouble?’ asked one of the girls. Elder shook his head.
‘Just looking for my ... my wife. She’s tall, younger than me. We managed to get separated, and ...’
‘On holiday are you? Thought so.’
‘Here, we did see that woman ... where was she? Stonebow?’
There were shrugs.
‘Down that way,’ said the girl, pointing.
‘Thanks,’ said Elder. As he moved off, he heard the boy say ‘Silly sod’ quite loudly. The girls giggled.
Down this way. Hold on though ... He stopped again. What was he doing? Witch had already taken a shot at him. She knew he was here. So why not let h
er find him? Was she behind him, following, watching patiently as he ran himself ragged? That would be typical of her, biding her time until he was exhausted, then catching him off-guard. Yes, he could run this maze for hours and never find her. Not unless she wanted to be found. He walked back the way he’d come, glancing behind him. What he needed was a dead end, and he found one: an alleyway leading from The Shambles. He staggered into it, tipping over a litter-bin, and leaned against the wall, breathing hoarsely, coughing. One hand was against the wall, supporting him, the other was inside his jacket, as though holding his ribs or rubbing away a stitch. Whenever he paused in his loud breathing, there was silence around him, almost oppressively heavy. And inside him, a pounding of blood.
‘Hey, priest.’ Her voice was quiet. He had not heard her approach. He turned his head slowly towards the mouth of the alley. It was dark in the alley itself, but the street was illuminated. He knew he could see her better than she could see him. But she knew it too. Perhaps that’s why she was standing to one side of the alley’s mouth, partly hidden by the corner of the wall. She was aiming a pistol at him.
She looked different. Not just physically different - that was to be expected - but somehow calmer, at peace.
‘Are you satisfied now?’ he asked between intakes of breath. ‘Now that your father’s dead?’
‘Ooh, Mr Elder, and there I was thinking age had slowed you down. Yes, I’m satisfied.’ She paused. ‘Just about.’ The gun was steady in her hand. She had made no attempt to enter the alley itself. Why should she? It was a dead end. He was not going to escape.
‘What now? Retirement?’ he asked. ‘Your Dutch friend tells us you were paid a million dollars for the assassination.’
‘A million, yes. Enough to buy a lot of retirement. What about you, Mr Elder? I thought you were retired, too.’
