Set In Darkness ir-11

by Ian Rankin

  'The first one', he said, leading them as if through an exhibition, 'is me at seven, mixing concrete in Dad's yard.' Dad being Jack Kirkwall, who'd founded the company back in the 1950s. He was in some of the photos, too. But the focus was on Peter: Peter bricklaying during a summer break from college; Peter with the plans of one of the city's office blocks, his first Kirkwall project; Peter meeting dignitaries... and behind the wheel of a Mercedes CLK... and on the day of Jack Kirkwall's retirement.

  'If you want it first-hand,' he said, easing into his chair and business both, 'you need to talk to Dad.' He paused. 'Coffee? Tea?' Seemed pleased when they shook their heads: his was a busy schedule.

  'We appreciate you taking the trouble, sir,' Wylie said, not above a bit of soft-soap. 'Business good, is it?'

  'Phenomenal. What with the Holyrood redevelopment and the Western Approach corridor, Gyle, Wester Hailes, and now the plans for Granton...' He shook his head. 'We can hardly keep up. Every week we're making bids on some project or other.' He waved towards where some plans lay on the room's conference table. 'Know how my dad started? He built garages and extensions. Now it looks like we might get a finger in a pie as big as London Docklands.' He rubbed his hands with what looked to Hood like glee.

  'But in the seventies, the firm worked on Queensberrv House?' Wylie was first with the question. It pulled Kirkwall back down to earth.

  'Yes, sorry. Once you get me started, I don't know when to stop.' He cleared his throat, composed himself. 'I did look up our records...' Reaching into a drawer, bringing out an old ledger, some notebooks and a card index. 'Late in '78, we were one of the firms renovating the hospital. Not me, of course, I was still at school. And now you've found a skeleton, eh?'

  Hood handed over photographs of the two fireplaces. 'The room to the far end of the basement. It was originally the kitchen.'

  'And that's where the body was?'

  'We estimate it's been there twenty years,' Wylie said, easing into her role: talker to Hood's silent type. 'Which would coincide with the building works.'

  'Well, I've had my secretary dig up what she can.' He smiled to let them know the pun was deliberate. Kirkwall - striped shirt, oval glasses, groomed black hair - was. Wylie presumed, trying for the sophisticated look. But there was something uncomfortable and ill-defined about him. She'd seen footballers turned TV pundits: they could wear the clothes but failed to carry the style.

  'It's not much, I'm afraid,' Kirkwall was saying. reaching into a drawer. He unrolled the plan so it faced them, weighting its corners with pieces of polished stone. 'I collect one from each job I do,' he explained. 'Get it cleaned and varnished.' Then: 'This is Queensberry House. The blue shaded areas were our project, plus the red lines.'

  'It looks like exterior work.'

  'It was. Downpipes, cracks in the masonry, and one summer house to be built from scratch. It's like that sometimes with public works, they like to spread the contract around.'

  'You obviously weren't greasing enough palms at the council,' Hood muttered.

  Kirkwall glared at him.

  'So another firm was doing the internal work?' Wylie was studying the plan.

  'Firm or firms. I've no record. Like I say, you'd have to ask Dad.'

  'Then that's what we'll do, Mr Kirkwall,' Ellen Wylie said.

  But first they hit Valvona's, where Wylie did her shopping before asking if Hood fancied a bite to eat. He made show of checking his watch.

  'Come on,' she said. 'There's an empty table, and I've been here often enough to know that must be a sign.'

  So they ate salad and pizza and shared a bottle of mineral water. Around them, couples were doing the same thing. Hood smiled.

  'We don't stick out,' he commented.

  She looked at his stomach. 'Well, I don't.'

  He sucked in some gut and decided to leave the last slice of pizza. 'You know what I mean,' he said.

  Yes, she knew. Being a cop, being around people who knew cops, you always felt they could spot you, and you came to think everyone had the knack.

  'Bit of a shock to find you're not a social leper?'

  Hood looked at his plate. 'More of a shock to find I can actually leave food.'

  Afterwards, they headed out to the house Jack Kirkwall had built for his retirement. It sat in countryside on the edge of South Queensferry, with both bridges visible in the distance. The house was angular with tall windows. When Wylie stated that it was like a scaled-down cathedral. Hood knew what she meant.

  Jack Kirkwall welcomed them by insisting that he be remembered to John Rebus.

  'You know Inspector Rebus?' Wylie asked.

  'He did me a good turn once.' Kirkwall chuckled.

  'You might be able to return the favour, sir,' Hood said. 'Depending on how good your memory is.'

  'Nothing wrong with the napper,' Kirkwall grumbled.

  Wylie shot her partner a warning look. 'What DC Hood meant, Mr Kirkwall, is that we're in the dark and you're our one ray of light.'

  Kirkwall perked up, settled into an easy chair and motioned for them to be seated.

  The sofa was cream leather and smelt brand new. The lounge was large and bright with inch-thick white shag pile and a whole wall of French windows. To Wylie's eye. there seemed very little of Kirkwall's past on display: no photos or old-looking ornaments or furniture. It was as though, in later life, he had decided to reinvent himself. There was something anonymous about it all. Then Wylie realised: it was a show house. Prospective clients could be shown around, Kirkwall Construction workmanship evident everywhere.

  And no place for individual personality. She wondered if that explained the sad depths to Jack Kirkwall's face. No way was this his idea of retirement: in the choice of fabrics and furnishings she saw the son, Peter.

  'Your firm', she said, 'did some work at Queensberry House in 1979.'

  'The hospital?' She nodded. 'Started work in '78, finished it in '79. What a hellish time that was.' He peered at them. 'Likely you're too young to remember. That winter there was a rubbish strike, teachers' strike, even the mortuary was on strike.' He snorted at the memory, looked to Hood. Tapping his head, he said: 'See, son? Nothing wrong with the napper. Remember it like it was yesterday. We started in December, finished in March. The eighth, to be precise.'

  Wylie smiled. 'That's incredible.'

  Kirkwall accepted her praise. He was a big man, broad-shouldered, chisel-jawed. He'd probably never been handsome, but she could imagine him having power and presence.

  'Know why I remember?' He shook his head. 'You'll be too young.'

  'The referendum?' Hood guessed.

  Kirkwall looked deflated. Wylie gave another warning look: they needed him on their side.

  'It was March first, wasn't it?' Hood continued.

  'Aye, it was. And we won the vote but lost the war.'

  'A temporary setback,' Wylie felt bound to add.

  He glared at her. 'If you can call twenty years temporary. We had dreams...' Wylie thought he was turning wistful, but he surprised her. 'Just think what it would have meant: inward investment, new homes and businesses.'

  'A building boom?'

  Kirkwall was shaking his head at the thought of so much opportunity wasted.

  'The boom's happening now, according to your son,' Wylie said.

  'Aye.'

  She doubted she'd ever heard so much bitterness in a single syllable. Had Jack Kirkwall gone willingly, or had he been pushed?

  'We're interested in the hospital's interior,' Hood said. 'Which firms had the contracts?'

  'Roofing was Caspian,' Kirkwall said tonelessly, still lost in thought. 'Scaffolding was Macgregor. Coghill's did a lot of the inside work: replastering, a few new partition walls.'

  'Was this in the basement?'

  Kirkwall nodded. 'A new laundry room and a boiler.'

  'Do you remember any of the original walls being exposed?' Wylie handed over the photo of the fireplaces, 'like this?' Kirkwall looked, shook his head. 'But the
work in the basement was done by a firm called Coghill's?'

  Kirkwall nodded again. 'Gone now. Firm went bust.'

  'Is Mr Coghill still around?'

  Kirkwall shrugged. 'Shouldn't have gone bust really. Good firm. Dean knew his stuff.'

  'The building trade's a tough game,' Wylie agreed.

  'It's not that.' He looked at her.

  'What then?'

  'I might be speaking out of turn.' He considered this. 'But at my age, who cares?' Took a deep, noisy breath. 'It's just that, way I heard it, Dean fell foul of Mr Big.'

  Wylie and Hood responded as one voice. 'Mr Big?'

  The Oxford Bar was busy when Rebus arrived. He'd already had one drink at The Makings, leaving before the evening influx of students, and two drinks at Swany's on Causewayside. In Swany's he'd bumped into an old colleague, recently retired.

  'You look too young,' Rebus had chided him.

  'Same age as you, John,' had been the reply.

  But Rebus didn't have thirty years in; had joined the force in his mid-twenties. Two or three more years, he could be a gentleman of leisure. Rebus got a round in, then sneaked out into the cold blast of winter. Headlamps piercing the darkness; recent rainfall threatening ice. A fifteen-minute walk home. Across the street, a taxi filling up at the petrol station.

  Retirement. The word bouncing around in his skull. Jesus, but what would he do with himself? One man's retirement was another's redundancy. He thought of the Farmer, then waved down the taxi, asked to be taken to the Oxford Bar.

  No sign of Doc and Salty, Rebus's usual drinking partners, but plenty of faces he knew. The place was buzzing, bodies crammed in the front room. Football on the TV: a game from down south. A regular called Muir was standing close by the door. He nodded a greeting.

  'Your wife has a gallery, doesn't she?' Rebus asked. Muir nodded again. 'Ever sell any stuff by Alicia Rankeillor?'

  Muir snorted. 'If only. Rankeillor's stuff, as you call it, fetches tens of thousands. Every city in the western world wants something of hers in its collection - preferably something from the forties or fifties. Even her limited prints fetch a grand or two apiece.' Muir looked up. 'Don't know anyone who wants to sell, do you?'

  'I'll let you know.'

  The Two Margarets were behind the bar, busy in their confinement. Rebus's IPA arrived, and he ordered a whisky to go with it. Music from the back room. He could just make it out: acoustic guitar, young woman on vocals. But here was his favourite duet: a pint and a dram. He added water to the whisky, removing the edge. A deep swallow, coating his throat. One of the Margarets was back with his change.

  'Friend of yours through the back.' Rebus frowned. 'Singing?'

  She smiled, shook her head. 'Up by the cigarette machine.'

  He looked. Saw a wall of bodies. The ciggie machine was in an alcove, up three steps and next to the toilets. Fruit machine there, too. But all he could see were men's backs, meaning someone had an audience. 'Who is it?'

  Margaret shrugged. 'Said she knew you.'

  'Siobhan?'

  Another shrug. He craned his neck. A new round was being got in. The backs half-turned. Rebus saw faces he knew: regulars. Glazed smiles and cigarette smoke. And behind them, relaxed, leaning against the fruit machine, Lorna Grieve. A tall drink was raised to her lips. It looked like neat whisky or brandy, three measures at least. She smacked her lips; her eyes met his and she smiled, raising her glass. He smiled back, raised his own glass to her. A sudden flash of memory: as a kid, he'd been coming home from school. Passing a street corner by the sweet shop, a crowd of older boys hemming in a girl from his class. He couldn't see what was going on. Her eyes, suddenly catching his between the heads of two of the boys. Not panicked, but not enjoying herself either...

  Lorna Grieve touched one of her suitors on the arm, said something to him. His name was Gordon, a Fifer like Rebus. Probably young enough to be her son.

  Now she was walking forwards, negotiating the steps. Squeezing through the crowd, touching arms and shoulders and backs; each touch enough to aid her progress.

  'Well, well,' she said, 'fancy seeing you here.'

  'Yes,' he said, 'just fancy.' He'd finished the whisky. She asked if he wanted another. He shook his head, lifted the pint.

  'I don't think I've ever been here,' she said, leaning into the bar. 'I've just been hearing about the old owner, how he wouldn't serve women or people with English accents. I think I might have liked him.'

  'He was an acquired taste.'

  'The best kind, don't you think?' Her eyes were on him. 'I've been hearing about you, too. I may have to stop calling you Monkey Man.'

  'Why's that?'

  'Because from what I've been told, not many people make a monkey out of you.'

  He smiled. 'Bars are great places for tall stories.'

  'There you go, Lorna.' It was Gordon, presenting her with another drink. Armagnac: Rebus had watched Margaret pouring. 'AH right, John? You never told us you knew famous people.'

  Lorna Grieve accepted the compliment; Rebus stayed quiet.

  'And if I'd known there were honeys like you in Edinburgh,' she told Gordon, 'I wouldn't have moved out to the sticks. And I certainly wouldn't have married a grim old beast like Hugh Cordover.'

  'Don't knock High Chord,' Gordon said. 'I saw Obscura supporting Barclay James Harvest at the Usher Hall.'

  'Were you still at school?'

  Gordon considered the question. 'I think I was fourteen.'

  Lorna Grieve looked at Rebus. 'We're dinosaurs,' she informed him.

  'We were dinosaurs when Gordon here was just primordial soup,' he agreed.

  But she wasn't at all like a dinosaur. Her clothes were colourful and flowing, her hair immaculate, and her make-up striking. Surrounded by men in work suits, she was a butterfly in the company of fluttering grey moths.

  'What are you doing here?' he asked.

  'Drinking.'

  'Did you drive in?'

  'The band gave me a lift.' She peered at him. 'I didn't just come here to see you, you know.'

  'No?'

  'Don't flatter yourself.' She brushed invisible flecks from her scarlet jacket. Beneath was an orange silk blouse, and on her legs faded denims, frayed where they touched her ankles. Black suede moccasins on her feet. No jewellery anywhere.

  Not even a wedding ring.

  'I like new things, that's all,' she was explaining. 'And currently my life is so dreary', looking at her surroundings, 'that this counts as new.'

  'Poor you.'

  Her glance was arch and wry at the same time. Gordon shuffled his feet and said he'd see her upstairs. She nodded unconvincingly.

  'Have you been drinking all day?' he asked.

  'Jealous?'

  He shrugged. 'I've been there often enough.' He turned so he was facing her. 'How does the Ox measure up?' Her nose wrinkled. 'It's very you,' she said. 'Is that good or bad?'

  'I haven't decided yet.' She studied him. 'There's a darkness in you.'

  'Probably all the beer.'

  'I'm serious. We all come from darkness, you have to remember that, and we sleep during the night to escape the fact. I'll bet you have trouble sleeping at night, don't you?' He didn't say anything. Her face grew less animated. 'We'll all return to darkness one day, when the sun burns out.' A sudden smile lit her eyes. ' "Though my soul may set in darkness, It will rise in perfect light." '

  'A poem?' he guessed. She nodded. 'I forget the rest.'

  The door creaked open. Two expectant faces: Grant Hood and Ellen Wylie. Hood looked ready for a drink, but he wasn't coming in. Wylie spotted Rebus, motioned for him to step outside.

  'Back in a minute,' he told Lorna Grieve, touching her arm before squeezing his way past the other drinkers. The night air was fresh after the pub fug. Rebus took in several deep gulps.

  'Sorry to bother you, sir,' Wylie said. 'You wouldn't be here if there wasn't a good reason.' He slipped his hands into his pockets. There was ice in the gutters now. The nar
row street was badly lit. Cars were parked down one side, windscreens rimed with frost. Sudden clouds in the air when the three detectives spoke. 'We went to see Jack Kirkwall,' Hood explained. 'And?'

  'You two know each other?' Wylie asked. 'A case few years back.'

  Hood and Wylie exchanged a look. 'You tell him,' Hood said. So Wylie told the story, and at the end Rebus was thoughtful.

  'He's flattering me,' he said at last.

  'He said you'd tell us about Mr Big,' she repeated.

  Rebus nodded. 'That's what some in CID called him. Not very original.'

  Hood: 'But the name fitted?'

  Rebus nodded, moved aside to let a couple into the bar. The singer had started up again: he could hear her through the back room's closed window.

  My mind returns, she sang, to things I should have left behind.

  'His name was Callan, first name Bryce.'

  'I thought Big Ger Cafferty ran Edinburgh?' Rebus nodded. 'But only after Callan retired, moved to the Costa del Sol or somewhere. He's never been away, though.'

  Wylie: 'How do you mean?'

  'You still hear stories, how a piece of Cafferty's action heads out to Spain. Bryce Callan's almost grown...' He sought the word. More lyrics from the back room: My mind returns, to things best left unsaid. 'Mythical?' Wylie suggested.

  He nodded, stared at the window of the barber's shop across the lane. 'Because we never put him away, I suppose.'

  'How would Dean Coghill have fallen foul of him?' Rebus shrugged. 'Protection maybe. There's a lot can go wrong on a building site, and those projects... even then they'd be worth thousands. A few days lost could mean everything.'

  Hood was nodding. 'So we need to find Coghill.'

  'Always supposing he'll speak to us,' Wylie warned. 'Let me do some checking on Bryce Callan,' Rebus said. The past is here now, insistent, carved from darkness, So please beware, take care now where you tread... 'Meantime,' he went on, 'you better try to get hold of Coghill's employee files. We need to know who was working on the site.'

  'And if any of them disappeared,' Hood added.

  'I'm assuming you've made a start on MisPer records.'

  Wylie and Hood shared a look, said nothing.

  'It's shit work,' Rebus acknowledged, 'but it's got to be done. Two of you on it, takes half the time.'