Dead And Buried

Fifty-nine

‘I’m so glad you could make it tonight,’ said Alex, ‘even if it’s only for a drink in the Traverse Bar. You’ve made an honest woman out of me.’

‘Hey, come on,’ Gina protested. ‘You may not be a criminal lawyer but even you should know that an alibi doesn’t count if it’s fixed up after the event.’

‘Maybe not but I don’t like to think of myself as telling out and out porkers.’

‘Speaking of which, what’s he like, this guy Guy?’

‘He’s a Mr Smooth: he looks the part, I have to admit, even if he is carrying a bit of flab. The trouble is, he knows it.’

‘That doesn’t make him a bad person.’

‘He isn’t a bad person. It’s just that he has this smugness about him that infuriates me sooner or later, but as soon as it does, and I let him know, like I did this morning, he has this way of making you feel sorry, and you wind up apologising for saying what you really think.’

‘Ahem. You said “this morning”?’

Alex smiled awkwardly and shrugged. ‘Well. .’

‘Hussy.’ Gina chuckled throatily.

‘No! It’s not as if we hadn’t been there before. I slept with him a couple of times when I was in London.’

‘I see. So now he gets himself a stopover in Edinburgh, consults his palm-top, and says, “Let’s see, who’s a likely bet around here? Ah, good old Alex.” That’s how it was?’

‘Lexy.’

‘What?’

‘He calls me Lexy.’

‘As in Sexy Lexy? And you let him?’

‘Let’s say I humoured him for a while. But you’re right: that’s how it was, or at least that’s how it turned out. If I’m being really honest, it started off the other way round. I was needing some uncomplicated male company in the flat after these bloody calls, and he was handy, so I pulled him, or let him pull me. Oh, what the fuck? It doesn’t matter.’

‘So how was it for you anyway, darling? Or need I ask, since you’ve fixed this emergency alibi to avoid seeing him again?’

Alex sniffed. ‘A girl does not discuss these things. Suffice it to say that all morning I found myself thinking about the remark by a divorced lady, who said that having sex with her ex was like being fallen on by a large Victorian wardrobe with the key still in the lock.’

‘So, on a scale of one to ten?’

‘One and a half: he rates the extra half point because at least it didn’t last long.’

‘But you said it was the third time.’

‘These things fade in the memory. Listen, if you doubt my rating and want to check him out for yourself, he’s in the George. But be sure you take your own Durex.’

Gina looked at her, poker-faced. ‘What’s his room number?’

The two women dissolved into laughter. ‘Thanks, pal,’ said Alex, when hers had subsided. ‘You’ve cheered me up. Guy left me feeling like a bit of a tart this morning, especially when the hunk next door saw him go.’ She sipped her tomato juice. ‘But,’ she continued, ‘I didn’t want to see you just to give myself a pep-up and a veneer of honesty.’

‘Or to give me a hot tip for the George?’

‘Not even that. No, there’s something I want to ask you. Remember that cousin of yours?’

‘Which cousin? I’ve got ten of the buggers.’

‘That particular cousin: when I was splitting up with Andy and living with you, the one I. . found solace with.’

‘Solace? Is that what you called it? Young Raymond thought all his Christmas Days had come at once. God, girl, what is this? You don’t talk about your sex life much, but when you do, it all comes out. What is it? Has your disappointing experience overnight made you want to look for better? As I remember you had a pretty fine time with him too.’

‘Maybe I did,’ Alex admitted, ‘but that’s in the past. I’ve got no urge to rekindle anything there: I was wondering what he’s doing with himself these days, that’s all.’

‘I’m damned if I know. Raymond is the black sheep of the Weston family; he makes me glad that I’m a Reed, not one of them. You may have thought he was a cuddly big chap, but he’s not. He’s been in and out of trouble for the last few years. That shouldn’t surprise you either: his first bit of bother landed you in trouble with your dad, when he named you as proof that he couldn’t have been where the police said he was. The worst, though, was when he and a pal were arrested for making Ecstasy. Raymond wound up being a Crown witness, although he was up to his neck in it; the other lad got seven years. There was talk that his father, my uncle Nolan, fixed it with a friend of his in the Crown Office.

‘Last I heard of him he had wangled himself a job as a trainee fund manager somewhere, but that he gave it up after a few months. I’m not surprised: I wouldn’t let the skinny bastard anywhere near my funds, I’ll tell you. So why your sudden interest in him, if you don’t want to shag him?’

Alex looked at her friend. ‘It’s to do with these calls,’ she said. ‘I had one the night before last. After a while, the guy said, “You hurt me, Alex.” Ever since then I’ve been thinking of men I’ve hurt in my time. I keep coming back to him.’

‘How did you hurt him?’

‘I did, Gina. I had my fling with him to get back at Andy, because I felt he was turning into my jailer, laying down the law about how I should live my life, putting pressure on me to get married and have kids before I was anything like ready.’

‘Listening to you now, I have to tell you that none of that sounds like a good excuse for screwing our Raymond.’

‘You’re right. On top of all that, I was starting to realise that I didn’t want to marry him at all. His unshakeable niceness was suffocating me; somewhere inside I knew I had to get out. I suppose that Raymond was part of the process. That’s the trouble, I never felt anything for him: it was a case of “You’re cute, you’ll do.” I picked him up, and when it all became too much trouble, I threw him away again.’

‘Let’s go back to the calls. What did the voice sound like? Was it deep? Was it high-pitched?’

‘It was somewhere in the middle. It sounded as if he was speaking through a hankie. .’

‘Standard procedure for perverts, I suppose.’

‘Maybe, but it works. What I’m saying is that it could have been Raymond’s voice, but I can’t be sure.’

‘I’ll find out what I can about him, Alex. Maybe you’re right. The words “Raymond” and “you’ve hurt me” don’t sit well together in my mind, because he’s a hurter. But, if you’re right, that’s exactly what he’s doing to you. Christ, he drove you into the arms of Mr Wonderful! How hurtful is that? Leave it with me.’