Laidlaw

42

They weren’t nearly there, Harkness discovered. The rest of the day was like cycling on rollers. No matter how much energy they expended, they were still in the same place. They expended plenty.

Harry Rayburn wasn’t at Poppies, wasn’t at home, wasn’t anywhere they could find. The general hunt for a Tommy Bryson was yielding nothing. They knew now where they were going and they knew that they would get there. But what worried Laidlaw was when. During the afternoon something happened which made Laidlaw say, ‘Maybe we’ve got a grip of a one-way hour glass here.’

It was when he phoned to check with the Burleigh. A small boy had come in off the street with a sealed envelope he handed in at the desk. Laidlaw’s name was on it. He said a man in the street had given him ten pence to bring it in. Laidlaw asked Jan to read it to him. The message, printed in pencil, said, ‘Minty McGregor has cancer. He wants to take somebody you are looking for along with him before he goes.’

But Minty wasn’t home either. Laidlaw and Harkness saw Minty’s house in Yoker, the worn wife, the five children, even the hen-run at the back door. But they didn’t see Minty, and they didn’t see Minty’s fourteen-year-old son leave the house after them and go to another house a few streets away.

There the boy found his father and the man he called Uncle James sitting alone in the house. They put a grownup silence between him and them as soon as he came in. His news that the police had been to the house didn’t seem to bother his father at all. He nodded and smiled at Uncle James. All he said was, ‘Tell yer mither Ah’ll no’ be hame till late on the night.’

It was fairly late on and beginning to get dark before two policemen at Poppies reported that Harry Rayburn was there. The news was especially heartening for Harkness because it inspired Laidlaw to use a car.