Black Book

10

He went straight to the Infirmary where, despite the early hour, pre-breakfast tea was being served. Michael was sitting up in bed with the cup on the tray in front of him. He seemed like a statue, staring at the surface of the dark brown liquid, his face blank. He didn’t move as Rebus approached, pulled a chair noisily from a pile beside one wall, and sat down.

‘Hiya, Mickey.’

‘Hello, John.’ Michael continued to stare. Rebus hadn’t seen him blink yet.

‘Going through it again and again, eh?’ Michael didn’t answer. ‘I’ve been there myself, Mickey. Something terrible happens, you play it over in your mind. Eventually it fades. You might not believe that just now.’

‘I’m trying to understand who did it, why they did it.’

‘They wanted you scared, Mickey. I think it was a message for me.’

‘Couldn’t they have written instead? They got me scared all right. I could have shit through a Polo mint.’

Rebus laughed loudly at this. If Michael was getting back a sense of humour, the rest couldn’t be far behind. ‘I brought you this,’ he said.

It was the photograph from Aberdeen. Rebus placed it on the tray beside the untouched tea.

‘Who are they?’

‘Dad and Uncle Jimmy.’

‘Uncle Jimmy? I don’t remember an Uncle Jimmy.’

‘They fell out a long time ago, never spoke again.’

‘That’s a shame.’

‘Uncle Jimmy died a few weeks ago. His widow-Auntie Ena-wanted us to have this photo.’

‘Why?’

‘Maybe because we’re blood,’ Rebus said.

Michael smiled. ‘You wouldn’t always know it.’ He looked up at Rebus with wet shining eyes.

‘We’ll know it from now on,’ said Rebus. He nodded towards the cup. ‘Can I have that tea if you’re not drinking it? My tongue feels like a happy hour’s welcome-mat.’

‘Help yourself.’

Rebus drank the tea in two swallows. ‘Jesus,’ he said, ‘I was doing you a favour, believe me.’

‘I know all about the tea they serve in institutions.’

‘You’re not as daft as you look then.’ Rebus paused. ‘You didn’t see much of them, eh?’

‘Who?’

‘The men who grabbed you.’

‘I saw bodies coming through the door. The first one was about my height, but a lot broader. The others, who knows. I never saw any faces. Sorry.’

problem. Can you tell me anything?’

‘No more than I told the constable last night. What was his name again?’

‘Hart.’

‘That’s it. He thought I’d been bungee-jumping.’ Michael gave a low laugh. ‘I told him, no, I was just hanging around.’

Rebus smiled. ‘But thankfully not at a loose end, eh?’

But Michael had stopped laughing. ‘I had a nightmare about it. They had to give me something to make me sleep. I don’t know what it was,’ but I still feel doped.’

‘Get them to give you a prescription, you can sell tabs to the students.’

‘They’re good kids, John.’

‘I know.’

‘It’d be a shame if they moved out.’

‘I know that, too.’

‘You remember Gail?’

‘The girl you’ve been seeing?’

‘I’ve seen every inch of her. Strictly past tense now. But she has a boyfriend in Auchterarder. You don’t suppose he’s the jealous type?’

‘I don’t think he’s behind last night.’

‘No? Only, I’ve not been around Edinburgh long enough to make any enemies.’

‘Don’t worry,’ said Rebus. ‘I’ve got enemies enough for both of us.’

‘That’s very reassuring. Meanwhil…’

‘Yes?’

‘What about getting a spyhole for your door? Just think if one of the lassies had answered.’

Oh, Rebus had thought about it. ‘And a chain,’ he said. ‘I’m getting them this afternoon.’ He paused. ‘Hart said something about the van.’

‘When they pushed me in, it was like I was fitting into a narrow space. Yet I got the feeling the van itself was a decent size.’

‘So it had stuff in the back then?’

‘Maybe. Bloody solid, whatever it was. I bruised both knees.’ Michael shrugged. ‘That’s about it.’ Then he thought of something. ‘Oh yes, and it had a bad smell. Either that or something had died in the carpet they wrapped me i…’

They sat talking for another quarter of an hour or so, until Michael closed his eyes and went to sleep. He wouldn’t be asleep for long: they were starting to serve breakfast. Rebus got up and moved the chair back, then placed the photograph on Michael’s bedside cabinet. He had another call to pay, while he was here.

But there were doctors with Brian Holmes, and the nurse didn’t know how long they’d be. She only knew that Brian had woken again in the night for almost a minute. Rebus wished he’d been there: a minute would be long enough for the question he wanted to ask. Brian had also been talking in his sleep, but his words had been mumbled at best, and no one had any record of what he’d said. So Rebus gave up and went off to do some shopping. If he phoned around noon they’d let him know when Michael was likely to be getting home.

He went back to the flat by way of the corner shop, where he bought a week’s worth of groceries. He was finishing breakfast when the first student wandered into the kitchen and drank three glassfuls of water.

‘You’re supposed to do that before you go to bed,’ Rebus advised.

‘Thank you, Sherlock.’ The young man groaned. ‘Got any paracetamol?’ Rebus shook his head. ‘Definitely a bad keg of beer last night. I thought the first pint tasted ropey.’

‘Aye, but I’ll bet the second tasted better and the sixth tasted great.’ The student laughed. ‘What’re you eating?’

‘Toast and jam.’

‘No bacon or sausages?’

Rebus shook his head. ‘I’ve decided to lay off meat for a while.’ The student seemed unnaturally pleased.

‘There’s orange juice in the fridge,’ Rebus continued. The student opened the fridge door and gave a gasp.

‘There’s enough stuff in here to feed a lecture hall!’

‘Which is why,’ said Rebus, ‘I reckon it’ll do us for at least a day or two.’

The student lifted a letter from the top of the fridge. ‘This came for you yesterday.’

It was from the Inland Revenue. They were thinking of coming to check on the flat.

‘Remember,’ Rebus told the student, ‘anyone asks, you’re my nephews and nieces.’

‘Yes, uncle.’ The student recommenced rummaging in the refrigerator. ‘Where did Mickey and you get to last night?’ he asked. ‘I crept in at two and there was no sign of life.’

‘Oh, we were jus…’ But Rebus couldn’t find any words. So the student supplied them for him.

‘Shooting the breeze?’

‘Shooting the breeze,’ agreed Rebus.

He drove to a DIY superstore on the edge of the city and bought a chain for the door, a spy-hole, and the tools a helpful assistant suggested would be needed for both jobs. (A lot more tools than Rebus used, as it turned out.) Since there was a supermarket nearby, Rebus did a bit more grocery shopping, by which time the pubs were open for business. He looked in a few places, but couldn’t find who he was looking for. But he was able to put word out with a couple of useful barmen, who said they would pass the message along.

Back at the flat, he called the Infirmary, who told him Michael could come home this afternoon. Rebus arranged to pick him up at four. He then got to work. He drilled the necessary hole in the door, only to find he’d drilled it too high for the girl student, who had to stand on tiptoe even to get close. So he drilled another hole, filled in the first with wood putty, and then fitted the spy-hole. It was a bit askew, but it would work. Fitting the sliding chain was easier, and left him with two tools and a drill-bit unused. He wondered if the DIY store would take them back.

Next he tidied the box room and put Michael’s stuff into the washing machine, after which he shared the macaroni cheese which the students had prepared for lunch. He didn’t quite apologise to them for the past week, but he insisted they use the living room whenever they liked, and he told them also that he was reducing their rent-news they took unsurprisingly well. He didn’t say anything about Michael; he didn’t reckon Michael would want them to know. And he’d already explained away the extra security on the door by citing several recent burglaries in the locality.

He brought Michael and a large bottle of sleeping tablets back from the hospital, having first bribed the students to stay out of the flat for the rest of the afternoon and evening. If Michael needed to cry again, he wouldn’t want an audience.

‘Look, our new peephole,’ said Rebus at the door of the flat.

‘That was quick.’

‘Protestant work ethic. Or is it Calvanist guilt? I can never remember.’ Rebus opened the door. ‘Please also note the security chain on the inside.’

‘You can tell it’s a rush job, look where the paint’s all scored.’

‘Don’t push your luck, brother.’

Michael sat in the living room while Rebus made two mugs of tea. The stairwell had seemed full of menace for both brothers, each sensing the other’s disquiet. And even now Rebus didn’t feel completely safe.

This was not, however, something he wished to share with Michael. ‘Just the way you like it,’ he said, bringing the tea in. He could see Michael was weepy again, though trying to hide it.

‘Thanks, John.’

The phone rang before Rebus could say anything. It was Siobhan Clarke, checking details of the following morning’s surveillance operation.

Rebus assured her that everything was in hand; all she had to do was turn up and freeze her bum off for a few hours.

‘You’re a great one for motivation, sir,’ was her final comment. ‘So,’ Rebus asked Michael, ‘what do you want to do?’

Michael was shaking a large round pill out of the brown bottle. He put it on his tongue with a wavering hand, and washed it down with tea.

‘A quiet night in would suit me fine,’ he said.

‘A quiet night in it is,’ agreed Rebus.