Doors Open

32

The look of horror on Allan’s face did nothing but deepen as Mike told his story. The only moment of relief came when Mike started to apologise that Chib had got his hands on the Coultons.

‘He’s welcome to them,’ Allan had said, sounding as though he honestly meant it. ‘And now that we’re shot of all our ill-gotten gains, let’s shop Calloway to Ransome.’

‘And leave the professor in the lurch? Besides, Chib wouldn’t hesitate to tell the police everything, meaning you and me would still go away. Then there’s Westie to consider…’

They tried the student’s mobile, but it was only his messaging service. After the beep, Mike left a warning, to which Allan added a yelled coda:

‘It’s your own stupid fault, you moron!’

Mike ended the call. ‘I hope he’s out somewhere and not just wasted or blotto.’

‘If he knows what’s good for him, he’ll have left the country.’

‘That might not be too far from the truth,’ Mike mused.

‘Far as I’m concerned, they can go rot, him and his grasping girlfriend both.’ Allan had started to pace the room, loosening his tie and undoing the top button of his shirt.

‘Why are you dressed?’ Mike suddenly thought to ask. ‘It’s the middle of the night.’

Allan studied himself. ‘I’ve not been to bed yet.’

‘You wear your tie in the house?’

‘Never mind all that – what are we going to do, Mike? That’s the bigger question. I knew something like this would happen! I knew it would all go wrong!’

‘Well, Allan, the first thing you can do is try calming down.’ Mike wanted to add that he was the one whose house had been broken into. He was the one who’d been threatened and assaulted, who’d had to flee for his life, scared witless as he leapt from garden into garden. He was the one known to Chib and Hate both – the one they were blaming for everything.

Looking at his friend, however, he doubted any of that would help. Allan was muttering about ‘all that planning’ having ‘gone down the drain’. So instead, Mike repeated his first instruction and watched as Allan nodded distractedly, taking off his glasses and rubbing at them with the corner of a handkerchief. Mike poured out more coffee – without offering a refill to his friend – and allowed his head a moment’s rest against the back of the chair. He even let his eyelids droop for a few seconds, but the image of Chib Calloway’s furious face made him open them again. There was going to be hell to pay, no doubt about it. Allan was staring at him.

‘What did Westie think he was doing?’ he was asking. ‘Could he just not help himself, had to leave some sort of bloody signature? Or was he having a go at us because he really did see us as “the establishment”? And how come he didn’t swap the forgery for the original at the warehouse? Was it maybe just a cock-up?’

‘The Utterson was in your vault, Allan,’ Mike stated quietly.

‘What?’

‘Chib’s Utterson was one of the paintings you lifted from the warehouse.’

‘Then I don’t understand. Are you saying we left the original painting in the back of the van? And what about all these other paintings they’re saying have gone AWOL? How many did we end up taking?’

‘We need to speak to Gissing,’ Mike commented. ‘After Westie, he’ll be the next person Chib and Hate will want a word with.’

‘And then it’ll be us?’

‘Don’t worry, Allan – I’m sure you’re parked solidly at the foot of his list.’

This produced a thin smile. ‘You might be sorry about that, but I can assure you I’m not.’ The smile was enough to prise a laugh from Mike, which started Allan off, too. Shoulders heaving, Mike pinched the bridge of his nose. Allan was catching his breath and dabbing at the corners of his eyes. ‘How did we ever get into this, Mike?’ he asked.

Mike shook his head slowly. ‘Never mind that – let’s concentrate on how we’re going to get out of it.’

‘There’s always this…’ Allan had produced something from the breast pocket of his shirt. Mike took it and peered at the tiny writing. It was a business card belonging to DI Ransome, dog-eared and smudged, and complete with his mobile phone number.

‘Last resort,’ he said, tucking it into his wallet. ‘First off, we go see Gissing.’

‘What if they’re waiting for us?’ Allan’s nerves were beginning to reassert themselves. Mike thought for a moment.

‘I’ve got a plan,’ he told his friend. ‘We’ll have to take your car, though, and I’ll explain on the way…’

The cabbie had been right: Edinburgh was dead. It was a perennial problem with the city. It lacked the boisterousness to be found in larger cities like Glasgow and Newcastle. Lack of traffic, meaning Allan’s car would be easy to pick out. But then they did have a slight advantage – Mike knew Chib’s BMW by sight, while Chib had no idea what marque Allan favoured. Added to which, Chib had only met Allan fleetingly, and Hate didn’t know him at all. Which was why Mike lay flat along the back seat of the Audi, having instructed Allan to be on the lookout for Beamers. Whenever they were forced to stop at junctions and red lights, Allan’s hands would tighten on the steering wheel. If a car drew up behind or alongside, his spine would stiffen, his gaze fixed on the windscreen. Mike knew what he looked like – a drunk driver, terrified of the breathalyzer. He only hoped Chib and Hate would think so, too.

There were a few taxicabs on the roads, their roof lights showing them to be still for hire, touting for customers who simply didn’t exist. Mike had considered a brief detour past Westie’s tenement building, just to check the lie of the land, but he didn’t think Allan would be keen, and wasn’t even sure it would be worth the risk. Gissing lived just outside town, and that was where they were headed. It was a large detached property in Juniper Green. Mike and Allan had been guests there at a couple of parties, where the professor had introduced them to critics, college lecturers, and a few established artists, one of whom, over dinner, had doodled all over his paper napkin, Allan slyly pocketing the result while the table was being cleared. Mike mentioned the incident now as they left the city centre behind, hoping to keep his friend’s mind from other things.

‘Always meant to frame it,’ Allan responded with a nod. ‘My big regret is not asking him to sign the bottom of the bloody thing…’

It was another mile or so before Mike told him they were getting close. ‘Pull in to the kerb,’ he suggested. They were still a few hundred yards shy of Gissing’s house. It sat behind a low stone wall on what had become a main commuter artery into the city. At one time, the wall would have been topped with iron railings, but they had been removed during World War II for use in the manufacture of armaments. Gissing had told the story once over port and brandy.

‘Load of bollocks, of course,’ he had chuckled. ‘They collected tons of the stuff and ended up tipping the whole lot into the Firth of Forth. No way you could use it for anything useful, but it made the civvies feel they’d done their bit for the war effort.’

Mike reminded Allan of this as Allan turned off the ignition and headlights. Allan just nodded and handed over his mobile phone. They’d agreed that if there was a callbox in the vicinity, they’d use that, but there wasn’t. Mike punched in the numbers and waited for an answer, then took a deep breath.

‘Somebody’s breaking in next door!’ he yelped. ‘I heard the glass smashing. The old guy lives there on his own, so I’m really worried – I’m going to go take a look, but please send a car!’ He reeled off Gissing’s address, then hung up. ‘And now we wait,’ he said, handing the phone back.

‘They’ll have you on tape now,’ Allan commented.

‘Least of my worries.’

‘Almost certainly,’ Allan conceded. ‘They’ve got a recording of Westie, too, you know – Ransome played it to me. He says they can identify the make of car from the engine noise.’

‘Ransome’s full of crap,’ Mike retorted, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt. Having spoken with Ransome himself, the detective would have little trouble identifying his voice from a recording. But then he would know Allan’s voice, too. It didn’t matter. None of it mattered, not in the wider scheme…

A quiet night in the city for Lothian and Borders Police – this was a given, when it took only four or five minutes for the patrol car to arrive, its blue lights bouncing off the surrounding buildings and trees. The lights were switched off when the car came to a stop. No siren either – maybe they didn’t want to scare away the felons, or it could just have been a courtesy to the sleeping neighbours. That was Edinburgh for you. Two uniformed officers got out. Neither bothered with his cap. They wore black stab vests over white short-sleeved shirts. One was holding a torch, shining it towards the professor’s house. They opened the garden gate and walked down the path towards the front door. Mike waited. There were half a dozen other cars parked along the length of the road and he wanted to see if any of them suddenly sprang into life.

‘Nothing,’ Allan stated. The two policemen had disappeared around the far side of the house.

‘Okay, then, nice and slow…’

Allan turned on ignition and headlights both and they cruised past the house, Mike staring hard from the back seat. The torch was casting huge shadows against the house next door and the garage Gissing had never used since outgrowing his sports car.

‘Drive on a bit further and turn around,’ Mike commanded.

‘Yes, bwana.’ Allan signalled into a side street, executed a three-point turn, and started back the way they’d just come. The officers were out front again, trying the doorbell, peering through the letterbox. Mike could hear the crackle of a two-way radio.

‘Nobody’s home,’ Allan said.

‘Or else they’re keeping very quiet,’ Mike added. Not that he believed this for a second. They parked again, opposite side of the road this time and facing away from Gissing’s house. It was only a couple of minutes before the patrol car moved off. A few seconds later Allan’s phone sounded.

‘That’ll be the police switchboard,’ he reasoned, ‘wondering why we’re making hoax calls.’

‘A good reason not to answer.’

‘I wasn’t planning to. I can always report the phone as stolen…’

‘If you like, but I doubt you’ll fool Ransome.’

‘True.’

The phone stopped ringing eventually. They sat for another five minutes, just to be sure, and then Mike patted his friend’s shoulder.

‘Do we park outside?’ Allan asked.

‘Let’s walk. The air will do us good.’

They got out and, still keeping their wits about them, padded quietly towards the house. No lights had come on in any of the neighbouring properties. None of the cars nearby was a BMW.

‘Maybe Calloway’s already snatched him,’ Allan hissed.

‘Maybe,’ Mike said, not really believing it.

‘Cops could come back at any moment.’

‘Yes.’

Mike pushed open the wooden gate and headed down the garden path towards the living room’s large bay window. He pressed his face to the glass, but the shutters were closed on the inside. There was another window to the left of the front door – Gissing’s dining room, where Allan had pocketed the artist’s napkin – but the shutters were closed there, too.

‘Fingerprints,’ Allan whispered in warning, and Mike realized he’d been resting his hands against the glass. He shrugged and headed to the side of the house, taking the path past the garage.

‘I don’t get it,’ Allan said, following close behind. ‘Place looks deserted – has he gone into hiding? If he misses the degree show, people will start to get suspicious…’

The rear garden was silent, the moon appearing suddenly from behind a bank of cloud, giving Mike more than enough light. The conservatory was empty – they’d sipped their port and coffee there after dinner, seated on squeaky wicker furniture. But now there was nothing. The space was completely empty. No shutters either at the kitchen window, allowing Mike to peer inside. Again, the room had been stripped.

‘He’s done a runner!’ Allan gasped.

‘Only possible explanation,’ Mike agreed. He had taken a couple of steps back on to the lawn. It needed cutting, his shoes sinking into it, but one of his heels caught the edge of something more resistant. It was a cardboard sign, attached to a wooden stake. He hoisted it up, so that Allan could see for himself the words FOR SALE, across which another piece of card had been attached. There was just the single word printed there.

SOLD.

‘All the way down the damned Limpopo,’ Mike muttered, tossing the placard back on to the ground.