Laidlaw

49

When Laidlaw reached the cell, the door was slightly open. He paused with the cup of tea he was carrying and listened. He could hear Milligan’s voice.

‘Come on, son,’ he was saying. ‘Do yourself a favour. You’re for the high jump, anyway. Your fancy-man must have been into something. So tell us. You can’t hurt him. Didn’t you know? They found him with a throat like Joe E. Brown’s mouth. He’d cut it. Made a helluva mess of the carpet.’

Laidlaw put his cup down carefully at the edge of the corridor not to spill the sugar-lumps. He pushed open the door.

‘Excuse me,’ he said. ‘Detective Inspector Milligan. Could I see you for a minute, please?’

‘Think about it, son,’ Milligan said. ‘You think about it.’

As Milligan came out into the corridor, Laidlaw pulled the door to.

‘Aye?’ Milligan said. ‘I hear you got there too early.’

Laidlaw took him by the lapels and flung him across the corridor. Milligan jarred against the wall and was coming back off it when he halted himself. He made as if to come on for Laidlaw.

‘Please,’ Laidlaw said.

They stared at each other. Milligan realised that Laidlaw had chosen his moment carefully. The corridor was empty. Milligan would either do something now or forget it, because to report it would be an admission about himself.

‘You shouldn’t have opened the door to come out,’ Laidlaw said. ‘You should’ve walked under it.’

Milligan decided to be cool. His expression fell somewhere between a sneer and a wince.

‘Oh, Laidlaw,’ he said. ‘You’re really insane. You know that? Something bad’s going to happen to you.’

‘So volunteer.’

‘I can wait.’

‘What you mean is you can’t do anything else.’

‘No. I mean I can wait. You want to see your boyfriend, go ahead. I’ll be back. I’ve got plenty of time.’

Laidlaw nodded bitterly. The look between them was like a promise. He lifted the cup of tea and went into the cell.

The boy didn’t move, didn’t look up. He sat huddled into himself, trembling slightly, like a rabbit caught in the glare of a lamp. The trousers they had given him were beltless and too big for him. If he stood up, they would fall to his feet. The shoes had no laces.

Laidlaw crossed and sat on the bed beside him.

‘Here, son,’ he said.

The boy looked blindly at him.

‘I brought you a cup of tea, son.’

The boy looked at the cup and looked at Laidlaw, as if the two formed a connection he could never understand.

‘For me?’ he said. He was watching Laidlaw solemnly. ‘Why?’

Laidlaw saw the countless flecks that swam in the boy’s eyes, a galaxy of undiscovered stars.

‘You’ve got a mouth, haven’t you?’ Laidlaw said.