Doors Open

29

‘Took your time,’ Ransome complained into his phone. He was at his desk, doing some actual real work for a change. That was exactly how DS Ben Brewster had put it: actual real work. Sarky little bastard. But now Glenn had called, and he had some information for him.

‘I’ve got good news and bad,’ the voice rumbled.

‘I always like the bad news first, Glenn – that way there’s something to look forward to.’

‘Chib had you tailed yesterday.’

Ransome’s grip on the receiver tightened. ‘Why didn’t you warn me?’

‘Johnno’s just told me…’

Ransome wondered if Johnno had been there when he’d visited First Caledonian’s HQ. Had to give the man credit: Ransome hadn’t spotted him.

‘What time was this?’

‘About eleven till three.’

Meaning Chib probably now did know Ransome had paid Allan Cruikshank a visit. That might work out okay, actually… Chib turning the screws one side of the banker, Ransome the other. ‘So what’s the good news?’ he asked.

‘I’ve got four names for you. Chib told me he wanted to talk to them, then changed his mind. I reckon they’re the ones he was recruiting.’

Glenn recited the names while Ransome jotted them down. ‘So who are they? Bellboy’s the only name I seem to know.’

‘Same here.’

Ransome sighed loudly. ‘Okay then, here’s an easy one: where’s Chib now?’

‘Diamond Jim’s in Gorgie.’

‘The snooker hall?’ Ransome tapped his pen against his notepad, thanked his CHIS, and ended the call. Complaints were rising into the air – someone in the crowded office had farted. Clipboards were being waved like fans; groans and pleas to try opening a window. The smell hadn’t reached him yet, but if he rose to leave he knew he would get the blame, so he held his ground and studied the names on his pad.

Billy, Kev, Dodds and Bellboy. Bellboy was a hard wee bastard. The others would be pals of his; known to local coppers, no doubt. Add Mike Mackenzie and Calloway himself and you had a posse big enough to pull off the heist. ‘The gang’s all here,’ he muttered to himself. He still wasn’t sure about Allan Cruikshank and Professor Gissing. Oh, he reckoned they knew about it – knew all about it. Mackenzie would have taken them into his confidence, bragging, showing off.

Making them complicit.

Making them accessories.

Which meant one of them might just squeal. Ransome hadn’t had a proper talk with Gissing yet. From what he’d seen so far of the old man, he thought he knew the type. Probably marched against the bomb in the fifties. Liked the idea of a student riot in ’68 but couldn’t get anyone else in Edinburgh to agree with him. Typical trendy leftie grown old, still anti-police and unlikely to cooperate as a result.

Leaving the banker, Allan Cruikshank. Ransome intended letting him stew another day, max, before a second visit, trusting the man didn’t have an aneurysm in the interim. But now that the detective had started to consider the professor, he realised there might be some fun to be had there, too. Before that, though, he had to pass these four new names around, get a minion to run a check. He’d managed to shift a further half-inch in depth from his in-tray.

‘Time for a break,’ he persuaded himself, tearing the page from the notebook.

Mike had spent a fruitless half-hour at the art college. Gissing’s secretary wasn’t around, and neither was he. The door to his outer office was open, but the inner sanctum was locked tight. There was paperwork on the secretary’s desk and her phone was ringing. Mike was tempted to pick up, just in case it was Gissing himself, but instead he placed his hand against the coffee mug next to the telephone. There was some residual warmth, meaning the secretary couldn’t be far off – unless she’d clocked off early. In the end, he scribbled a note and slid it under Gissing’s door. Just the three words – NEED TO MEET – and his initials. Heading back downstairs, he decided to visit Westie. The basement was labyrinthine. Plenty of students were at work, but no one had seen Westie. Eventually, a bearded and bespectacled man – somewhat older than the undergraduate norm and standing in a studio half filled with hay bales – told him that Westie was in the next room along. Except that he wasn’t there. His door was ajar, and inside there were signs of recent activity. Seven paintings, framed and prepped. A couple were waiting for hooks to be hammered into the wall against which they rested. The hooks were on the floor next to them, as was a small hammer. Mike hoped that Westie was on the hunt for Alice. He hoped he wasn’t hunched on the sofa in his flat, getting stoned and maudlin.

‘You a dealer?’ It was the beard from the next studio along. He was wiping his hands down the front of his overalls. It took Mike a moment to realise he probably meant art dealer rather than any other kind. Mike shook his head.

‘There was a guy here yesterday,’ the man continued, ‘looked like a bouncer. I asked Westie afterwards who he was. Said he was a dealer. Takes all sorts, I suppose…’ The man was shuffling back towards his work.

‘Excuse me,’ Mike called to him. ‘Is Westie’s stuff any good, do you think?’

‘Define “good”,’ the man said, moving out of view.

Mike thought about this and decided that he couldn’t. He headed upstairs again and pulled open the door to the outside world. Someone else was coming in, so he took a step back. The man made to pass him with a nod of thanks, then stopped in his tracks. Mike realised who it was: Ransome. He stared at the floor, but too late.

‘You’re Michael Mackenzie,’ the detective said.

Mike pretended to look surprised. ‘That’s right,’ he said. ‘Do we know one another?’

‘Has your good friend Chib Calloway not mentioned me to you? Or Allan Cruikshank, come to that?’ Ransome was holding out his hand, waiting for Mike to reciprocate. Mike shook it.

‘Allan?’ he asked. ‘No, I don’t think he has. Do you work with him?’

Ransome laughed. Some students wanted to get past, so that the two men had to move back inside the reception area. ‘I’m a police officer, Mr Mackenzie. Surely Mr Cruikshank must have said something to you about me?’

‘Why should he?’

‘Because I’m investigating your friend Chib Calloway.’

‘You keep calling him that, but I wouldn’t class him a “friend”.’

‘What, then? An associate – would that be nearer the mark?’

‘We were at school together, Tynecastle High… bumped into one another again recently.’

‘And found that you share an interest in fine art,’ Ransome mused. ‘Does that explain your trip here today, Mr Mackenzie?’

‘I’m a bit of a collector.’ Mike offered a shrug. ‘Degree show’s coming up and I was hoping for a sneak preview.’

Ransome nodded along with this, but looked far from convinced. ‘So you weren’t just warning Professor Robert Gissing not to speak to me?’

Mike managed a laugh. ‘Why in God’s name would I do that?’ He cut the end of the sentence off with a little cough. He’d been about to add the word ‘Inspector’ but couldn’t remember if Ransome had identified himself as such. He’d already slipped up with Laura; couldn’t have it happen again.

‘You don’t deny you’re friends with Professor Gissing?’

‘I certainly know him a damned sight better than I do Chib Calloway.’

‘You’ll know where I can find him, then.’

‘He has an office on the top floor. I can’t say for certain he’ll be there.’

‘Well, I’ll try anyway.’ Ransome smiled and made to move past Mike.

‘What’s this all about? First Allan Cruikshank and now Professor Gissing… you seem to be talking to half my friends.’ Mike was trying for levity, but Ransome’s stare was steely.

‘You can’t be that short of friends, Mr Mackenzie, surely.’ He seemed about to leave it at that but then paused. ‘I’ve just been to see a man called Jimmy Allison – too much to expect that you know him, too?’ Ransome watched Mike shake his head. ‘He was the victim of a mugging, night before the Granton warehouse heist. You’ll have heard something about that, Mr Mackenzie?’

‘The heist? Sure,’ Mike agreed.

‘Well, this curator… expert in his field… he lives just a short hike from here, one of those newish blocks of flats by the canal.’

‘Yes?’

‘Only he wasn’t there. His wife’s up to high doh – called the police even, only no one thought to tell me. He’s gone missing, you see. Since yesterday. She’s worried he’s got concussion.’

Christ, first Alice, and now this…

‘Could have fallen in the canal,’ Mike eventually commented.

‘Is that what you think, Mr Mackenzie?’ Ransome’s jaw was jutting. ‘Thing about Mr Allison is, he knows Professor Gissing.’

‘Half of Edinburgh knows Robert Gissing.’ Mike paused. ‘You can’t think that the professor had anything to do with…?’

Ransome responded with a twitch of the mouth. ‘Only bit of good news I’ve got for you, Mr Mackenzie, is that having spoken to you, I don’t think it’s your voice on the tape. But pretty soon now, I’m going to know who made that call.’

‘What call?’

‘Ask your friend Allan.’ Ransome gave a little bow as he moved away. Mike watched him disappear into the building, then made good his escape, breathing hard. Allison was missing: what the hell was that about? Maybe concussion was the truth of it. Poor sod could have ended up in the canal. A tap on the head was all that had been requested and required, but Mike should have been there to make sure.

Maybe Allan was right – maybe the best thing to do was ditch the paintings and phone in a tip-off. Problem was, Hate still had his hands on one of them. Plus the forgeries might be traceable back to Westie, once identified as such. And Mike would need to convince Westie and Gissing to give their paintings back.

You wanted this, Mike, he told himself…

‘Oh, Christ, Gissing!’ Mike slapped at his forehead. Say the secretary had returned. Say she unlocked the door. The detective would find Mike’s note lying there… He slapped himself a couple more times for luck, then noticed that passing students, portfolios tucked under their arms, were staring at him.

‘Performance art,’ he explained, striding towards another of his favourite thinking places: the Meadows.

By six o’clock, the offices of First Caledonian were closed and Allan Cruikshank felt it safe to start answering his home telephone. Checking his messages, he discovered that the half-dozen calls he’d ignored during the course of the day had all been from his secretary, wondering where he was, asking if he was ill, telling him she was cancelling all his meetings. There was nothing from Mike or Robert Gissing, and nothing from the detective. Allan had turned off his mobile phone, and felt little compunction to switch it on again. He had the feeling that the first person he spoke to, he’d end up telling them everything. Had he been a religious man, he might have headed up Leith Walk to the Catholic cathedral, where confessionals doubtless awaited. He’d even considered Margot, but she would scold him and maybe even laugh at his plight, relieved to have rid herself of such an idiotic specimen.

Allan’s stomach had been growling since mid-morning, but he lacked an appetite. He’d sipped eight or nine glasses of tap water, but still felt unquenched. Daytime TV had proved little solace. One chat show aimed at housewives had contained a lengthy discussion about the international trade in stolen art. And at the top of every hour there’d been a news update, which Allan always switched off before the heist could be mentioned. He was shaved and dressed in his work suit, having woken up from a brittle, short-lived sleep determined to go into the office as usual. His resolve had lasted as far as the front door. With his hand ready to turn the lock, he’d frozen. There was a whole terrifying world out there. This flat was his only refuge. Most of the rest of the day he’d stayed by his window, wondering if Ransome or some other authority figure would exit the police station and take the short walk to the tenement, pressing the bell marked CRUIKSHANK. There were no signs of any media interest. Patrol cars came and went. Plainclothes officers ambled outdoors for cigarettes and conversation. With his window open, ears straining, all Allan could ever hear were birds in the trees and the rumble of buses on Leith Walk.

He could take one of those buses and lose himself elsewhere. Or a train south. An aeroplane headed overseas. He had a passport, and a couple of credit cards, only one of them nearing its spending limit. What was stopping him? Did he want to get caught? Ransome’s card was in his wallet, giving off some kind of weak radiation so that he was always aware of it. An eleven-digit phone number was all that stood between him and a kind of atonement. What was he so afraid of? Letting Mike and Robert Gissing down? Or the wrath of Chib Calloway? Seeing himself in the newspapers and the dock? Or slopping out with the other inmates? Seated on his living room floor, his back to the wall, he raised his knees and wrapped his arms around them. His secretary would have left for the evening. There’d be no more phone calls from work. If he could get through the rest of the evening, maybe things would start to look a little brighter. Maybe tomorrow would be better.

Maybe things would turn out all right.