Deception is the Old Black

by V Clifford

  ‘Nice image. You could always stay on here. See what’s going on with that buoy.’

  She shoved him. ‘I don’t think so. Whatever it is won’t be our business as soon as we get up that hill. Unless he’s involved.’ She nodded indoors to where Archie was still guzzling breakfast. ‘Sometimes I think we’ve become too paranoid. I mean, we always see a potential crime before anything else. And that buoy could actually be completely innocent yet we’re off down the criminal route.’

  ‘That’s why we’re good at what we do, Viv. Suspicion isn’t a bad thing.’

  Her mind wandered back to Dawn. If only she’d been more suspicious, or willing to follow the intuition that she’d actively ignored. ‘Should we get going?’ She pointed to the steep brae, a serious scramble to start their journey to the road.

  ‘Yes. We’ll just give the rest a minute.’

  Once the others joined them they set off, Mac marching up front with Viv, Archie and Frances close on their heels, and Davie and Gordon lagging behind.

  Viv said, ‘So what happened to Robbie?’

  ‘I said he could help at this side.’

  ‘Dare I ask why?’

  ‘First up he couldn’t swim. And second he’s had stuff going on at home.’

  ‘None of which he knew before we left?’

  ‘What can I say, Viv? Some people lie their way into jobs . . . He’s a great analyst.’

  ‘What will happen to him?’

  He stared at her with incomprehension. ‘Happen to him? It’s not school. Nothing will happen to him. They all came of their own accord.’ He pointed his thumb at those behind.

  ‘Like fuck they . . . we did.’

  ‘Ah, well, apart from you.’ He grinned.

  The ground was rough and their breathing laboured. Mac’s strides were so long that Viv had to trot to keep up. She was grateful for a breeze that kept her hair off her face. She wished she’d tied it up but couldn’t now be bothered faffing around for a band in her sack.

  Archie caught up. ‘Looking forward to getting back to the big city then, Viv?’

  ‘Sure. You can get too much fresh air. It can’t be good for you.’

  Archie said, ‘But you’re a natural. Swimming, canoeing, rock climbing, a veritable all rounder.’

  There was an edge to his voice, an indication that perhaps he wasn’t really impressed. Mac obviously caught the tone as well. He glanced at Archie, who was puffing along to keep up. ‘So she’s done well this weekend? Who would you say comes second?’

  Not expecting this Archie said, ‘Oh, I’m not sure. But not Gordon. He’s been an arse. Davie’s been on form.’

  ‘Not putting yourself in the running then?’

  ‘God no. I thought I’d die swimming over that bay. I’m so unfit.’

  Although he’d vomited when he’d finished the swim, Viv didn’t believe he was as unfit as he was making out. ‘What will you do when you get home?’

  ‘Eat. Then eat a bit more and probably a bit more still.’

  Viv said, ‘That breakfast we had was enough to feed an army on the hoof. You can’t grumble about feeling hungry now.’

  ‘It’s psychological. Unless it’s meat it doesn’t count.’

  ‘Christ, Archie, it must be difficult being a carnivore. I bet if you hadn’t been told that there wasn’t any meat you’d have been perfectly happy. I’m stuffed.’

  Archie screwed up his eyes. ‘And by the way, why would you be interested in what I’m doing when I get back? Or care about my eating habits?’ He glared at her.

  Mac chipped in. ‘I’m interested, though. Because the meat thing is something I’ve been toying with the last few months. My yoga teacher says our digestion, our inner health, is better if we eat vegetarian. But bacon butties get me every time, even those flaccid efforts that sit for hours under lights in the canteen. Can’t pass them by.’

  Viv said, ‘Neither of you have enough will power. Pathetic.’ She strode on ahead. She wanted to prove her point. Mac caught her up, but Archie stayed behind with the others.

  She said, ‘Something has riled him and I don’t think it’s just food deprivation.’

  Chapter Eighteen

  One by one they made it back to the road, where the mini-bus waited. Gordon and Frances came last, and in no hurry. They clambered aboard, taking the seats that they’d had on the journey there. Such territorial creatures, it was more than simply habit. The mood had shifted, lighter now that the end was in sight. The chat turned to what they were doing when they returned. Frances, eyes glued to her phone, appeared to be checking out her ‘hot date’. Viv caught a glimpse of a photograph of a man. It was difficult to see what exactly the attraction was, since he was huddled in a scarf that covered his mouth and had a tight woolly hat pulled down to his eyebrows, but Frances was excited. Davie was wound up like a tight spring, dying to get back into the office. Gordon was also keen to get back to work, but not before having a hot bath to rid himself of the smells of the sea. Archie didn’t say much but stared out of the window, occasionally adjusting his rucksack, which was doubling as a pillow. He grimaced every time he moved. She guessed he must be stiff from the exertion of the weekend.

  Viv remained alert. She still had work to do.

  They stopped for a comfort break at the Green Welly again. Viv wasn’t desperate so stayed put. Archie got up but did a comical double take between Viv and his rucksack before reluctantly deciding to leave it. Viv, inevitably suspicious, wondered what might be in it that he was concerned about. As soon as everyone was out of sight she took a quick peek. She slid the zip along, releasing the smell of worn clothes with sweaty deodorant clinging to them. She rifled around, found nothing suspect and closed it. The large side pockets had lots of slips of paper, receipts all from the same place, Coral, so he was a betting man. Multiple used Irish lottery tickets – no winners – a business card for an Italian restaurant on Leith Walk, an empty packet that used to contain Tic-Tacs. Nothing that Viv could see he’d need to protect. But his hesitation had indicated otherwise. There was another pocket along the top, but it only contained toiletries, too many for one weekend, but that wasn’t a punishable offence. She headed off the bus just as the driver returned. Better use the facilities after all.

  She arrived back before the others and wondered how to get more info from them before they reached Edinburgh. It was a tall order but she’d have to try. Once they were on the road again she said to the whole bus, ‘So did any of us learn anything this weekend?’

  Gordon shot back, ‘What the fuck is it to you?’

  Frances replied, ‘Nice, Gordon. I see the weekend’s improved your manners. I learned that I can’t swim as well as I thought.’ She stared and mouthed ‘thank you’ to Viv. ‘But also that veggie food can be delicious if you take time to prepare it. Which is never going to happen in my flat – I like sausages too much and my flatmate is a good cook. I’d have to battle with the gourmet smells she produces. What about you guys?’ She nodded to Archie and Davie.

  Davie said, ‘I suppose I thought I was a landlubber, but I really enjoyed being in that canoe. My school experiences had obviously been contaminated by horrible boys who never . . .’ He looked out of the window and continued. ‘It helped that the weather was fair. I’d like to have another go. Oh and I learned that it doesn’t help to judge people.’

  Viv couldn’t stop herself and said, ‘What do you mean?’

  He hesitated. ‘Well, I thought Frances was a bit of a twit taking on the swim. Putting someone else in danger. Having to be rescued.’

  Viv could see Frances’ colour rise and she was about to interrupt when Viv knitted her eyebrows in Frances’ direction, enough to prevent her butting in.

  Davie continued. ‘But then I got to thinking about what I would have done. Any one of us could have got cramp, or just over tired. But I also thought that Frances recovered really well and didn’t let that spoil the weekend for the rest of us. I mean she could have used that to become the centre of at
tention but she didn’t.’ He looked around him, and realising how attentive the rest of them were, he shrugged.

  ‘Bravo, Davie! I agree,’ Viv said.

  Gordon ostentatiously turned his back when Viv spoke – a brazen attempt at silencing her. It worked. She wondered how the others would react.

  Archie said, ‘You must have learned a lot, Gordon. We both collapsed after that swim and couldn’t have rescued Frances if our lives had depended on it.’

  Gordon stared out of the window nursing his angst.

  Archie continued, ‘If Viv hadn’t . . .’

  Gordon spun round. ‘Miss fucking goodie two shoes there,’ he stabbed his finger in Viv’s direction, ‘should mind her own fucking business.’

  ‘Oh yeah, and leave you to fall off the cliff?’ Archie goaded.

  There was something going on between them that Viv had ascribed to lack of meat and caffeine. Perhaps she’d missed the mark.

  Archie said, ‘Honestly, Gordon, if you were a grown up you’d be grateful that she was there. Or would you rather have broken your neck? Or that Frances had drowned? Which she could have if Viv hadn’t jumped in.’

  Gordon responded. ‘Are you quite finished arse licking the boss’s pet?’

  At this Mac, who had clearly decided to stay focused on the road and not interfere, raised his head but didn’t say anything.

  However small his gesture, it didn’t go unnoticed. In turn the others shifted in their seats as if suddenly remembering this was still work. Silence fell and the journey was completed without further comment.

  The minibus made good time and pulled into Fettes just before 4 pm. They’d only had the one break at the Green Welly and now everyone stretched like waking caged animals. Viv bent over to help pull bags from the hold, but stopped in her tracks when she caught a glimpse of Sal at the other side of the car park. A woman that Viv didn’t know was rubbing a proprietorial hand up and down Sal’s arm and Sal was laughing in a way that Viv would describe as coquettish. Viv’s colour rose as she became aware that not only was she staring but she had halted in an awkward mid-crouch.

  Mac’s voice broke her concentration. ‘Right, Doc, grab this.’ He threw her a bag, which distracted her for a moment. Sal hadn’t registered them. The woman, taller than Sal, an Emma Watson look-a-like, elfin, stunning with short fair hair, tanned skin. She wore torn jeans and a pale blue tee shirt. She leaned in and kissed Sal on the cheek, then skipped off and jumped into a silver BMW Cabriolet parked a few cars up from Sal’s Golf.

  Viv glanced away, trying to look busy. Sal got into her car and drove off, oblivious to her audience.

  Viv turned to Mac. ‘Did you know?’

  Mac stared. ‘Whatever I say is going to be the wrong thing, so cut me some slack. I could see there was something in the air but I didn’t know what exactly.’

  ‘You could have said.’

  ‘What could I say? “Oh, Viv, there’s something going on with Sal”, to which you’d have replied, “And your point is?”, or words to that effect. Besides it’s only been a couple of weeks.’

  Viv swung her rucksack over her shoulder and headed towards her car. The others called cheerio but she just waved her hand and kept walking.

  Irrational though it was, she wasn’t ready for anyone else to have Sal, especially someone as beautiful as the woman she’d just seen. She was just about to turn on the Rav’s engine when she heard someone call her name. Ruddy’s driver stood on the steps at the entrance to the building and began walking towards her. Mac was already making his way over and they fell into step.

  ‘Seems you’ve made a little impact over there on the west. He wants to see you both.’

  She glanced toward Mac. Their eyes met briefly and they both began to speak at the same moment.

  ‘No, no, you first,’ Mac said with no small measure of sarcasm.

  ‘No, no, after you.’

  The driver raised his eyebrows. ‘He’s in session room four.’

  Peevishly, Viv took off into the building, but halted abruptly as she realised she had no clue where room four was. Mac caught up and gestured for her to follow him.

  Room four was in a section of the basement where Viv had never been. Ruddy greeted them with, ‘Okay, okay, so I didn’t want either of you to know what the other knew for good reason. If I’d told you both what I suspected was going on over there it would have been your only focus and Mac had other fish to fry. Good job done, though. I’ve heard from the local constabulary over on the west coast. They’re waiting for an explosives expert to show up.’

  Now Viv and Mac did stare at each other. She blurted, ‘Explosives expert? What . . ?’

  Mac rubbed his hands across his face. ‘Shit. I really jumped the gun. I assumed drugs. Never gave anything else any real consideration. Thanks to Viv we didn’t pull the container aboard.’

  Ruddy nodded. ‘I’ll let you know when we receive information about what’s inside. Oh and they did find a microchip GPS on it, so whatever it turns out to be is being monitored from somewhere, which also means the owners know that it’s no longer where it should be.’ He grinned and nodded at Viv. ‘How did you find it?’

  ‘Just lucky to spot the black buoy. A black buoy isn’t much use for making anything obvious.’

  ‘Good job. Oh and we’ll need whatever you got on the woman who bumped her head. I assume you did get something?’

  Viv nodded and sensing Mac’s discomfort said, ‘Mac sent me to ring the local guys so . . .’

  ‘Don’t need details on how you’re covering his arse.’ Ruddy nodded again, this time a ‘that’ll be all’ nod.

  But as they walked away he said, ‘By the way there’s been more chatter on the Queen.’

  Mac raised his eyebrows. ‘I’ll get right on it.’

  As they made their way back to reception Mac said, ‘So there was a mission from on high.’

  She nodded. He sighed, but seemed satisfied with that as an answer, and she turned back to the Rav. ‘Cheerio. No doubt speak soon.’

  Chapter Nineteen

  Viv arrived back in the West Bow earlier than she’d anticipated, but still couldn’t shift the vision of that affection between Sal and her new friend. She needed a distraction. She checked her email. One from Mac said, ‘You need to come back to HQ.’ Yeah, sure, HQ could wait. She rang Ellie. ‘Hey you, how’re you doing? How’s about we have that night out?’ Ellie hadn’t met Sal, but Viv had hinted to her about their affair.

  ‘Sure. When were you thinking?’

  ‘Tonight. Like in a couple of hours or so?’ Viv’s voice was too high. Forced joviality.

  ‘You okay?’

  ‘Never been better . . . I’ll fill you in when we meet up.’

  ‘It’s Monday night, a school night.’

  This was code for no-can-do-I’ve-got-work-next-day.

  Viv pressed. ‘How come you’ve got a job so quickly?’

  ‘Just helping a friend out. I suppose . . .’

  ‘Excellent! That’s settled then. I’ll meet you in Copa Cabana at half seven.’

  Ellie sighed. ‘Copa what?’

  ‘Cabana. It’s at the top of Leith Walk near the cinema. Come to think of it we could see a movie.’

  ‘Look, Viv, I’ll pass on the movie but happy to hear what’s on your mind.’

  Viv put down the receiver and caught up with her other messages. She replied to clients, apologising for her delay, and deleted most of the others. ‘Thank the Lord for cutting hair.’ She blew out a breath and reminded herself that seeing hair clients was what kept her grounded. She shook her head, still unable to shift that image of Sal. The more she thought about the scene in the car park the more she thought there was something familiar about the new friend.

  She tossed her grubby clothes from the weekend in the washing machine and looked for something to wear. If they went to the movies it didn’t matter what she put on so long as she was comfy.

  Viv wandered up Victoria Street through a stream of to
urists, skipped over George IV Bridge, and took a right onto the Royal Mile. She’d put on a pair of cream cord jodhpurs and a black linen shirt, and slung a jacket over her shoulders, but a nippy wind had got up and she pulled the jacket on. Everything she needed was in her pockets.

  Ellie greeted her with a huge hug. ‘Soooo good to see you properly. We going on a bender?’

  Having cooled off, both metaphorically and physically, on the walk down, Viv was less desperate to get hammered. She grinned. ‘Not exactly, but the idea of sitting brooding wasn’t on the cards.’

  ‘I’ve never known you to brood, well not for long.’

  Viv hugged her again and rubbed her arms. ‘Oh, I can do brooding. But I’ll be fine. Good to see you too, though. You look less stressed than on Friday.’

  ‘I’d just got off the plane . . . well almost. It’s so nice to see my folks.’

  ‘How are they doing?’

  ‘My dad’s as he ever was, cheery, definitely getting old, though. God! Talk about slow.’ She shook her head. ‘It’s doing my mum’s head in – she’s still energetic. Got a real shocker though, she’s stopped dying her hair. Looks much better. Less Cruella De Ville. She’s completely white. It suits her skin much better.’

  Viv nodded. ‘I encourage women to avoid harsh dark shades unless they’re willing to wear a ton of make-up. As we age everything gets paler – hair and skin. Dark tints are counter-intuitive. There’s nothing worse than white regrowth and black ends. How many badgers does the world really need?’

  Ellie let go a belly laugh. ‘My mum’s too vain to let roots show for long but I know what you mean. How’s your mum?’

  ‘Chuffed to have a grandson. Mand’s secured her position at the top of the favourites list. Not that I was ever in the running. But James is a wee cutie. Now, he could make me properly broody.’

  ‘No way.’

  Viv nudged Ellie’s elbow. ‘Just kidding. But he is a cracker. Let’s order a drink.’

  There was a card with a list of cocktails on the table. ‘Fancy one of these?’