Rebus: Long Shadows

Act One

The stairwell at Arden Street

Heather, a very young woman, is slumped on the stair. She’s dressed for a night out, revealing but not startling clothes, typical Saturday night girl out clubbing with mates. She’s plugged into her music. Now she sings along, a few lines, pure and accapella. The track she hears is audible only to her. She stops singing, moving gently to the song. She’s mellow and relaxed with something but not obviously under the influence. REBUS is coming up the stairs. He sees HEATHER. He checks for a moment. Looking at her.

REBUS  Comfy there are you?

HEATHER doesn’t seem to have heard him, lost in her music. He carries on past her. HEATHER sings again, just the one line, pure and beautiful. REBUS stops dead. He walks slowly back down to HEATHER.

REBUS  You’re too young to know that one.

She can’t hear him, he mimes for her to pull out her earphones. She does.

REBUS  You’re too young to know that one.

HEATHER  (Frampton Comes Alive, ‘Show Me the Way’) 1976. It’s my family heirloom.

REBUS  How’s that?

HEATHER  My Mum loved it. It was her favourite song when she was a tiny tiny wee girl.

REBUS  Is that right? I know you don’t I? I know your face.

HEATHER  Don’t think so.

REBUS  Waiting for someone?

HEATHER  I was just having a wee think.

REBUS  Who’re you after? Which flat?

HEATHER  He’s no in. I’m freezing. Can I wait in yours?

REBUS  No.

HEATHER  How no?

REBUS  Because you shouldny be sitting about on the stairs at 2 a.m. dressed like that and you definitely shouldny be asking to get into strange men’s flats.

HEATHER  Who are you? My Grandad?

REBUS  Apparently I could be.

HEATHER  So... what? You’re a murdering rapist that’ll cut me up with a steak knife?

REBUS  Well I could be that too. How do you know?

HEATHER  Are you?

REBUS  No... but...

HEATHER  So what do you do then?

REBUS  I was a policeman. Which makes me a bit of an expert on the kind of trouble wee lassies can get into on a Friday night.

HEATHER  A policeman? Wow. Aye, now you say it I can see it. You, have got the shiniest shoes I’ve ever, ever seen.

REBUS  Ah, that’s an army habit. I was in the paras once...

HEATHER  Seriously? So did you like kill people with floss tape? Gouge out their eyes with your thumbs?

REBUS  No. I’ll get you a cab home.

HEATHER  I’m staying here.

REBUS  Not an option.

HEATHER  Aye come on, I’ve got police protection.

REBUS  I’m retired. And I never did waste time protecting folk from their own stupidity.

HEATHER  You think I don’t know the worst that could happen?

REBUS  I think you imagine it’ll never happen to you.

HEATHER  It happened to my Mum. Strangled and dumped on a building site beside the Jackdaw pub in Newhaven. So there you go. I do know.

REBUS  When?

HEATHER  2001. I don’t remember her, I was a baby. Gran brought me up. Mum got killed ‘cause she went out on the raz. A good Mummy wouldny be out with a wee bairn at hame eh? She was always falling into trouble, first me, then death... She was just my age. Can you imagine it? I’m no getting lumbered with a bairn till I’ve made my money. Money first. Then we’ll see about getting domestic.

REBUS has placed the memory.

REBUS  Maggie Towler.

HEATHER  Aye! Jeez you really are polis eh? Aw Christ... was it... did you...?

REBUS  No, I wasn’t lead on that case. Remember it though.

HEATHER  That’s nice. That she’s remembered. When I play that song I tell myself I’m talking to her. It’s about the only thing I’ve got that’s hers.

REBUS  I thought you looked familiar. That must be why. Maggie Towler’s daughter.

HEATHER  You remember her face?

REBUS  I remember all the faces. And most of the names. What’s your name?

HEATHER  Heather. Heather Ross.

REBUS  Not Towler?

HEATHER  I got Gran’s name. What’s yours?

REBUS  John Rebus. So what about your Dad?

HEATHER  I don’t know. Gran said she didny know either but that was lies. She didny want me thinking about him. ‘Your mother thought she could take on the world. Then she met a man she couldny handle.’

REBUS  Every Granny’s warning.

HEATHER  Can you do me a favour John?

REBUS  I try to avoid them. Go on, what?

HEATHER  You’ve still got all my Mum’s stuff. The police have, I mean. Her clothes, the jewellery she was wearing...

REBUS  It’s evidence.

HEATHER  How can it be evidence when she’s been dead seventeen years?

REBUS  It’s an unsolved murder. So we... (corrects himself)... they, try and keep the evidence. Forensics get better all the time. DNA testing gets better all the time. One day we might be able to nail the bastard.

HEATHER  You’re still trying to catch him?

REBUS  Never close an unsolved killing.

HEATHER  What if he’s dead? The guy that did it to her?

REBUS  Then he got away with murder.

HEATHER  That’d shred me. I’d rather never know than that...

REBUS  Where do you need to get back to Heather?

HEATHER  What?

REBUS  Where do you live?

HEATHER  Och around and about.

REBUS  Where does Gran live?

HEATHER  You ask a lot of questions eh?

REBUS  Canny seem to break the habit.

HEATHER  My Gran’s dead. Home was Newhaven, the scuzzy bit that’s still scuzzy.

REBUS  The Jackdaw pub.

HEATHER  Aye, that’s still there. It’s a club now. Techno grunge every Friday. They get artists in from all over. Have you been?

REBUS  What do you think?

HEATHER  You canny dance to it?

REBUS  Canny dance to anything. Wouldn’t try.

HEATHER  I love dancing. You think that’s creepy? That I go the pub she did? The pub where she had her last drink.

REBUS  No. No I can understand why you might do that.

HEATHER  Don’t always think about her. She went out drinking and took the short cut home through the building site. Sometimes I get really mad at her for being that stupid. I knew better before I was ten. So you’ll help me?

REBUS  What?

HEATHER  You’ll see if they’re still trying to catch the guy that killed her? Chase up your pals in the police?

REBUS  I haven’t got many pals in the police. Never did.

HEATHER  But you could phone somebody.

REBUS  No. Look, I know it’s hard but you’d best forget it. Live your life. You don’t always get an answer.

HEATHER  I bet you could always get an answer.

REBUS  If I could, I’d sleep better.

HEATHER  Do you have nightmares then?

REBUS  Only since I stopped drinking.

HEATHER  Christ that’ll dae it.

A young man ANDY is coming up the stairs. He stops dead when he sees HEATHER and REBUS.

HEATHER  You’re late. I nearly called the polis on you.

ANDY  (wary) You been talking to him?

REBUS  Any reason she shouldn’t?

HEATHER  (on the move) Come on then... What’s your name again?

ANDY says nothing.

REBUS  A. Lamont. That’s what it says on the bit of cardboard. Don’t know what the A stands for. Archibald?

ANDY  Andy.

REBUS  Just being neighbourly Andy. (to Heather) You should maybe ask him how he’s supplementing his income. Doesny look like an impoverished student to me.

HEATHER  No?

REBUS  His post says he’s a student. Mature student is it Andy? Second degree? Don’t get your fees paid for that do you? How do you manage? Are you doing a wee sideline in pharmaceuticals? If I’ve noticed... (let’s that one hang)

ANDY  Fuck off.

HEATHER  You’ve noticed him dealing?

REBUS  Are you surprised? Isn’t that why you’re here?

HEATHER  No. No it’s not.

REBUS  Glad to hear it.

ANDY is still warily watching REBUS as HEATHER makes her way back upstairs.

HEATHER  I’m just visiting. I’m going to ask you again John. I think you’re the man that can help me.

REBUS  I don’t change my mind.

HEATHER  No? Don’t say things like that. I love a challenge. See you John.

She’s gone. REBUS is still watching ANDY.

ANDY  What do you think you’re looking at?

REBUS  I’ll let you know.

REBUS waits until ANDY goes upstairs. REBUS tries to get in, doesn’t have key. He searches all his pockets. It’s not there. Swears. Takes one from top of door jamb. Goes into his own flat—

Rebus’s Arden Street flat/dream

He’s walked into darkness. A young woman, MAGGIE, stands on her own, the only thing lit in darkness. She’s played by the same actress who plays HEATHER but MAGGIE is dressed differently, a coat from 2001 fashion, a scarf round her neck. She’s dancing to the same song, half singing along. We can’t see her face clearly.

REBUS  What are you doing here?

MAGGIE  Sit down John.

REBUS sits down in an armchair and watches as if this is television.

REBUS  Who are you?

MAGGIE  I thought you never forgot a face, or a name. You let me down John Rebus...

Rebus’s Arden Street flat

Lights snap up as REBUS wakes in his armchair. It was a dream. He’s fallen asleep in the chair. The song is still playing, just the last line, stuck on repeat. SIOBHAN has walked in. She goes and lifts the needle off the record.

SIOBHAN  So there’s something you need to know about twenty-first-century etiquette. If you get a dozen texts and you don’t answer inside twenty-four hours everyone thinks you’re dead.

There’s an empty glass beside REBUS’S chair. He picks it up and stares at it. SIOBHAN takes it out of his hand and replaces it with a take-away coffee.

SIOBHAN  And I thought you weren’t doing this any more.

REBUS  Doing what?

SIOBHAN  Drinking yourself to sleep in an armchair.

REBUS  Did I do that?

SIOBHAN  Pretty conclusive evidence.

REBUS  ’Time is it?

SIOBHAN  Time to check your phone.

REBUS mutters swearing as he pushes out of the chair and leaves the room, going to the bathroom.

SIOBHAN  (calling after him) Don’t mind me. I’ll just make myself at home.

She makes a half-hearted attempt to clear a few things up. Quickly gives up.

SIOBHAN  I’d make you another cup of coffee but I’m betting you’ve no milk.

She finds his phone. Sighs. REBUS comes back into the room, towelling his face. She holds up the phone at him. Accusing.

SIOBHAN  And you’ve no juice. Where’s your charger?

She’s looking for it, finding it, plugging in his phone.

REBUS  I do have a landline. You’ve heard of them? Ancient communication devices, never run out of juice?

SIOBHAN  I rang it. About half one?

REBUS  I was out.

SIOBHAN  Doing what?

REBUS  Walking.

SIOBHAN  Wandering round the Meadows in the middle of the night.

REBUS  Wandering’s part of my ongoing exercise regime.

She’s got the whisky bottle.

SIOBHAN  Is this part of your exercise regime?

REBUS  Better than sleeping pills. Natural product. Organic.

SIOBHAN  That’s great. You can put it on your muesli instead of milk.

REBUS  Muesli? I forgot my keys last night. Ageing brain. Too much content, no enough storage.

SIOBHAN  Throw some of the memories away.

REBUS  Working on it.

There are boxes and stacks of files all over the floor. REBUS is starting to look through these as they talk.

SIOBHAN  Don’t you want to know why I was trying to get hold of you?

REBUS  Aren’t you here to tell me?

SIOBHAN  No, I came round looking for proof of life.

REBUS  But since you’re here...?

SIOBHAN  They’re going to offer it.

REBUS  Promotion?

SIOBHAN  Had one of those ‘strictly between us but you might want to buy some smarter suits’ conversations.

REBUS  Well that’s great! (she’s not responding) Isn’t it great?

SIOBHAN  Just wanted to talk to you.

REBUS  What’s to talk about? About time isn’t it?

SIOBHAN  So I’d be crazy to knock it back?

REBUS  You want to be stalled at detective inspector for the rest of your days?

SIOBHAN  I could do something else.

REBUS  You’re no fit to do anything else.

SIOBHAN  Hey. We’re not all as sad as you! Some of us have other things in their lives apart from the job.

REBUS  Like what? Driving to Hibs away games? That’s a fast track to suicidal depression.

REBUS is still half looking for something in his heaps of paper.

SIOBHAN  I could do another job!

REBUS  No you couldn’t.

SIOBHAN  Well thanks for the vote of confidence. What are you doing?

REBUS  I just remembered something, about an old case.

SIOBHAN  What old case?

REBUS  A murder, 2001.

SIOBHAN  Seriously?

REBUS  Aye, I passed on it when it came in. Maggie Towler? Remember?

SIOBHAN  No.

REBUS  No, well, we were a bit busy that year. I bet you remember that.

SIOBHAN  Only on the bad nights. We’ve had worse years since.

REBUS  I was starting that case with you. I pushed Maggie Towler onto Fraser Morris. (he’s found the file he wants) Got it! (looking through file) Fraser was a sloppy wee shite, I think he just read the notes of the first officer on the scene and filed it as a lost cause.

SIOBHAN  So I want career advice and you want to rerun some whinge from 2001? Are you even listening?

REBUS  Take the promotion. You’ve come too far to stop now.

SIOBHAN  Have I?

REBUS  It’s our anniversary.

SIOBHAN  What?

REBUS  Twenty-five years since I started mentoring your illustrious career.

SIOBHAN  Oh is that what you were doing?

REBUS  Helping you scale the heights of Police Scotland, Shiv.

SIOBHAN  Keeping me on the brink of investigation for professional misconduct.

REBUS  The edge that sharpens the detective senses.

SIOBHAN  Is it really twenty-five years?

REBUS  I counted.

SIOBHAN  You’re right. It must be. Because I arrived just after the first time we tried to convict Mordaunt.

REBUS  Is that what’s got you in this state? The Mordaunt case?

SIOBHAN  I’m not in a state. Alright. I want the right result this time. I want that a lot. But you must be feeling that. You were part of the original investigation...

REBUS  I was just a baby detective. All I did was a wee bit of the leg work. But everyone was part of it... Something about it, it got to everyone. You know that last lassie he killed... Angela... (trying to get name) Jesus... dying brain...

SIOBHAN  (cutting in) Angela Simpson.

REBUS  Aye. That was her first proper night out you know. First time her Mum and Dad let her stay out past eleven. A sixteen year old lassie just excited to be out on a Saturday... Is it the Dad you’re getting ready for court?

SIOBHAN  Yes.

REBUS  How’s he doing?

SIOBHAN  He’s still blaming himself: ‘If I’d known she was going drinking...’ Sixteen. You ought to be able to sneak into a pub kidding on you’re old enough, laughing with all your mates. That shouldn’t get you killed.

REBUS  Sixteen. Still new. Still daft enough to fall for it when some older guy starts chatting you up. Young enough to swallow the lines...

SIOBHAN  But Jesus, look at Mordaunt!

REBUS  Aye. Even when he was young he looked like a feral weasel that lived in a sewer. He must have had some chat up lines.

SIOBHAN  He’d’ve had confidence by the time he murdered Angela wouldn’t he? He’d already got away with rape and murder twice.

REBUS  He was a cocky swaggering little prick. Then and now.

SIOBHAN  Now we’ll get him. The forensics will get him.

REBUS  Is it from the tights? Is the evidence on the tights he strangled them with?

SIOBHAN  Come on John, I’m not supposed to talk about ongoing...

REBUS  (cutting in) Aw come on yourself, that’s no even me guessing. He strangled those girls with their own tights. There must be traces the forensics weren’t good enough to catch at the time, but you can prove the bastard’s hands were on the knots now.

SIOBHAN  Alright. Good guess. Hopefully, finally, we can do a proper job of putting him away.

REBUS  You don’t think we did a proper job back in 1992?

SIOBHAN  I’m not saying that...

REBUS  Sounds like you are.

SIOBHAN  Look, I can’t help adding up the evidence the original detectives had. They had Mordaunt’s plumbers’ van parked up near where the young women vanished, three times. Every murder, there’s his van...

REBUS  And there’s his wife, giving him an alibi, every time.

SIOBHAN  And, ok, you find yourself thinking, ‘How hard did they lean on his wife?’ Because she must have known.

REBUS  Why would you want to know a thing like that? Way I heard it she was like concrete. They couldny budge her. Mordaunt was drinking with her, apparently, every time.

SIOBHAN  CCTV evidence might’ve knocked a hole in that lie now. Forensics would have nailed him, will nail him now... if nothing goes wrong.

REBUS  What might go wrong?

SIOBHAN  The trial starts Monday.

REBUS  I know. And what might go wrong? What’re you worried about?

SIOBHAN  Nothing. Nothing at all. Do I look worried?

REBUS  Yes.

SIOBHAN  You see you think you can read me but this just proves...

REBUS  (cutting her off) Why haven’t I been called to give evidence?

SIOBHAN  You just said it. You weren’t doing more than door to door back then. You weren’t the lead detective. Steve Cant was.

REBUS  Steve Cant couldny lead his own shite out his arse. It’s thanks to him we never nailed the pervy weasel the day we lifted him. He was so busy worrying about playing it by the book he barely asked Mordaunt his name and address...

SIOBHAN  (cutting in) It’s thanks to him and the forensic pathologist at the time that the evidence of the Angela’s clothing has been preserved properly all these years. Stored properly, logged properly, and believe me that’s going to be an issue for the defence.

Something in her tone alerts REBUS.

REBUS  What’s happened?

SIOBHAN  You did put Mordaunt away John. You got him the same year Angela died. For assault.

REBUS  Aye. What about it?

SIOBHAN  What made you so sure it was him?

REBUS  I could see rapist murdering scum beneath that cheery plumber exterior.

SIOBHAN  And could you really see the kind of man that could lay out a man twice his size? A man like Morris Gerald Cafferty?

REBUS  Cafferty was hit from behind.

SIOBHAN  True.

REBUS  And that was twenty-five years ago. Cafferty wasn’t the behemoth of crime and chaos he was in his prime.

SIOBHAN  He was a big man. And a lethal one.

REBUS  He turned his back for two minutes. All it took.

SIOBHAN  But I never understood why he let Mordaunt get away with it.

REBUS  How do you mean?

SIOBHAN  Well... Mordaunt mugs him behind one of his own bars, length of wood to the back of the skull... What was the motive anyway?

REBUS  Said Cafferty owed him for a plumbing repair on his indoor pool. Cafferty said the job was shoddy.

SIOBHAN  So he whacked the most feared crime boss in Edinburgh...

REBUS  (cutting in) He wasny quite that then but...

SIOBHAN  (cutting in) And Cafferty lets him live?

REBUS  We put him away for it. That was one time Mordaunt’s van in the car park was good enough evidence to convince a jury. Justice was done.

SIOBHAN  Since when does Big Ger Cafferty ever settle for our justice over his?

REBUS  And since when is it justice when a lying, murdering rapist gets away with only eighteen months for assault? Christ, it haunted everyone you know? Angela Simpson, just sixteen. In the photo in the incident room she was in her school uniform...

ANGELA walks through the scene, half dancing to music she’s quietly humming or in her head, aware of nothing else. This is just in REBUS’S mind’s eye.

REBUS  At least we got him for something.

SIOBHAN  That was the attitude at the time? From you and your fellow officers?

REBUS  The gutters ran with IPA and single malt. The fatted calf was put in a bun. Songs of triumph were sung. Aye. It was a result. A bit of one. A crumb of comfort.

SIOBHAN  You see, I don’t think that’s going to help.

REBUS  Help what? (she hesitates) Siobhan? Tell me!

SIOBHAN  I heard the defence think they have something. Something to put up against the forensic evidence. We think they’re going to suggest that someone tampered with the evidence that helped you put Mordaunt away for assaulting Big Ger.

REBUS  Why would we tamper with that evidence?

SIOBHAN  To put Mordaunt in the frame.

ANGELA stops dancing and looks directly at REBUS. Then she’s gone.

REBUS  Right.

SIOBHAN  He’d just got away with rape and murder after all. A third woman dead. The same method as two other young women. You all knew Mordaunt did it. You just couldn’t prove it. Must have been tempting to put him away for something?

REBUS  If we’d wanted to fix evidence to get Mordaunt we could have made a better job of it.

SIOBHAN  Maybe. Anyway, they do want to re-examine the forensic evidence from the attack on Cafferty.

REBUS  Has that been kept?

SIOBHAN  It has. Amazing I know, but it’s still there and they know it.

REBUS  And what’s that supposed to show?

SIOBHAN  DNA. Someone else’s DNA. Not Mordaunt’s. His defence team are going to claim that someone was so keen to get Mordaunt they framed him for the attack on Cafferty. Just so they could have the satisfaction of taking him off the streets. Putting him somewhere Cafferty might finish the job. But he didn’t. And that’s a puzzle isn’t it?

REBUS  They’re definitely re — examing the DNA evidence from the attack on Cafferty...? What would that even prove?

SIOBHAN  Oh like you can’t see it! If the evidence shows Mordaunt didn’t attack Cafferty it could suggest that the police might have been prepared to do anything to convict him. Then and now.

REBUS  Why would anyone even hold onto that evidence?! Case was solved. Cafferty deserved worse than a crack in his monster skull, and Mordaunt went down for it!

SIOBHAN  Maybe someone, somewhere in your team at the time, was uneasy with the quality of that conviction.

REBUS  Only thing that lot ever worried about was the quality of their porn mags and the size of their kick-backs.

SIOBHAN  John. Since we’re here, since we’re talking, I need to ask you...

REBUS  (cuts her off) No.

SIOBHAN  What?

REBUS  I never thought anyone on that squad tampered with evidence.

SIOBHAN  Seriously. Mordaunt is finally in our sights...

REBUS  Mordaunt is evil, rapist scum who preyed on girls who could barely walk out of school sandals.

SIOBHAN  But you never suspected anyone of framing him? Back then?

REBUS  No. Absolutely not.

SIOBHAN  And you’d tell me?

REBUS  Seriously. You need to ask me?

SIOBHAN  You know I do. I’ve put a lot into building the prosecution case here John, getting it in a proper state to match the modern forensic re-examination, making sure everything tallies...

REBUS  No-one I’d rather see picking up the baton than you.

SIOBHAN  And yes, it is this case. That’s what’s got me questioning everything. I’m at that point in my life John, the point where I’m asking what it’s all worth. I’ve seen promotions fly past me before, I sometimes asked myself what I’m hanging in this job for...

REBUS  Because you’re good at it.

SIOBHAN  Yes. It has to be because I’m good at it. Because I can get justice for a young girl, sixteen years old, twenty-five years dead, who just went out on a Friday night with her friends and died in pain and terror and shame before she ever really got to live. Now if I can’t nail this bastard Mordaunt...

REBUS  You will.

SIOBHAN  If you know anything that might weaken our case against him...

REBUS  I’d never do that to you Shiv, never. I won’t let that happen.

SIOBHAN slumps momentarily.

SIOBHAN  No. Course not. Alright. I need to get going. Are you really chasing up some bit of a murder case from 2001?

SIOBHAN is on the move.

REBUS  Fraser didn’t re — interview a key witness, just filed the initial notes. I called him on it at the time.

SIOBHAN  I don’t believe you really remembered that.

REBUS  (showing her) Here’s the file, look.

SIOBHAN  John, I’ve got a live case, now. I can’t even think about some cold case no-one remembers but you. (checks herself) Sorry, Sorry. I haven’t slept. The case is water tight... but now the defence is saying they need more days on the trial schedule, more evidence to present. And I can only guess what it is...

REBUS  Well, you know how it works. You show yours but they never show theirs.

SIOBHAN  Even if they do want to drag in forensics from that assault case, it’s convoluted, it’s not enough to put up against what we’ve got. They must have something more. They must have a witness to that attack on Cafferty.

REBUS  Something like that, aye.

SIOBHAN catches his tone.

SIOBHAN  Which is my problem. Not yours! John? Promise me.

REBUS  Different world back then D.I. Clarke. You might not know the right stones to turn over.

SIOBHAN  You think I haven’t been paying attention these last twenty-five years? Listen to me. Are you listening? Do not phone Cafferty. Promise me!

REBUS  Why would I talk to him?

SIOBHAN  Because you can’t stand not knowing what’s going on. Do not phone him. Do you hear me?

REBUS  I hear you.

SIOBHAN  Good.

She leaves. REBUS picks up his phone and dials. It connects. Answer machine.

REBUS  Cafferty? It’s me. Phone me.

He cuts the call. He looks at the file in his hand. MAGGIE walks out of the shadows.

MAGGIE  Maggie Towler. Seventeen years old. Seventeen years dead. Are you going to do right by me now John? What’s the hold up? I’ve been waiting since 2001.

REBUS  (the file) Aye... Aye, I need to chase this up...

MAGGIE  Oh don’t make me laugh. You don’t care. I’m just a distraction.

REBUS  I’m going to hunt this down. I don’t forget. I never forget.

ANGELA is on, watching him.

ANGELA  Aren’t you forgetting me?

REBUS  Siobhan’s got you, Angela. She has. (trying to convince himself) Siobhan will get justice for you, Angela. So I need to... I need to...

MAGGIE  What?

REBUS  Keep moving. Sort this out. Come on Rebus. (to MAGGIE) I’ll do better for you now Maggie. Promise.

The young women stand looking at him for another beat, then they’re gone again. REBUS snatches up car keys and hurries out of the flat.

Stairwell Jackdaw pub

REBUS is climbing up as a BARMAN is carrying boxes of booze down the steps, struggling. REBUS is in his way.

BARMAN  Help you?

REBUS  You alright there?

BARMAN  Fuck no.

REBUS helps him, grabbing the top box as the barman nearly drops the lot, dumping them on the steps.

BARMAN  (breathless) Thanks.

REBUS  No bother.

BARMAN  See what it is, I always used to be able to carry three. So I just keep doing it. I’m no ready to say I’m not fit to carry three boxes. Do you think the booze is getting heavier? Is that it?

REBUS  Could be.

BARMAN  It might be. It’s all the sugary shite they drink now. I’m sure it’s got to weigh more. It’s like treacle half of it.

REBUS  You’ve been here since it was a pub?

BARMAN  Aye. Jackdaw pub. Still got the name. Still got me. Everything else has gone to shite. This used to be a real dockers’ pub.

REBUS  No more dockers.

BARMAN  Extinct. Nothing but bankers, wankers and dockside redevelopment.

REBUS  That didny really take did it?

BARMAN  No round here. This place is still a dive, just got less smoke in it and louder music. I should sue the fuckers for industrial injury. See the way my heid pounds at the end of a Saturday night?

REBUS  You still work behind the bar?

BARMAN  Still do everything.

REBUS  Still got regulars?

BARMAN  Oh you see the same scabby wee faces...

REBUS  Don’t remember me though eh?

BARMAN  You used to come in here?

REBUS  Aye, a fair bit.

BARMAN  If you say so.

REBUS  (the box) Help you down with this?

BARMAN  After you.

They move down with the boxes. REBUS still talking.

REBUS  Don’t know that I’ve been in here this century mind you. Aye I have. You used to have a big screen tv in the bar there eh?

BARMAN  Aye.

REBUS  Aye that was it, January 2001. Raith Rovers got unlucky against Stirling Albion, terrible match...

BARMAN  That was on the big screen?

REBUS  (ignoring that)... That was no long before that poor lassie was killed here eh? Maggie Towler.

BARMAN  She wasny killed here.

REBUS  But she was drinking here that night eh? Only seventeen. Makes you think.

BARMAN  And she wouldny get in now. Is that what you’re getting at? You police eh? We check ID. On the door. So if you’re wanting to make issues about our license...

REBUS  Nothing like that. I’m no police.

BARMAN  Aye you are.

REBUS  Retired.

BARMAN  Aye. Right.

REBUS  So you remember her? Maggie Towler?

The BARMAN is on the move again, laboriously hefting up his boxes.

REBUS  And you saw her in here that night? You were working?

BARMAN  The fuck you’re not polis. You want to know the answers you should have tried harder at the time.

REBUS  We should. You’re not wrong.

BARMAN  No wonder you never caught the bastard.

REBUS  Which bastard.

BARMAN  The one that killed her.

REBUS  So who’s that then?

A beat.

BARMAN  I don’t need this kind of trouble any more.

REBUS  What kind of trouble?

BARMAN  We’re closed and I’m busy.

The BARMAN is nearly away.

REBUS  You think you know who did it.

BARMAN  No. I don’t. But I know she was scared of him. And I know you bastards didny even ask the right questions.

REBUS  So what would be the right question?

BARMAN  Maggie didny scare easy.

REBUS  So who scared her?

BARMAN  Wasny just a random guy leaping on her in the dark. It was someone she knew. She ran out of here because she saw someone who’d already scared her. Seventeen years and you still don’t know why? Guy like you wrote it all down. Go and ask him.

REBUS  Where did she die?

BARMAN  Building site just across the street there. It’s a high rise now, dockside redevelopment. You can’t even see the ground where they found her.

BARMAN leaves.

Granton high rise

REBUS is looking up. MAGGIE joins him. As always she’s only in his mind’s eye.

MAGGIE  So you do care. I’m touched. You think you know the stones to turn over, John?

REBUS starts to climb.

MAGGIE  In seventeen years most of the stones have been dug up. They’ve had concrete poured over them, car parks built on them, glass towers and gentrified tenements squeezing out the dark underworld that scuttled under the surface of the douce capital’s streets... Oh but the dark’s still there, isn’t it John?

REBUS is climbing up.

MAGGIE  They marked my grave with great towers. High rises with balconies in the clouds, sold to dreamers that believed they’d sit in the sky watching the sparkling silver sea laid out below... And the sharp east wind drives the grey Forth onto the glass.

REBUS is looking out over the view.

REBUS  What scared you Maggie? Someone you knew you couldny handle.

MAGGIE  I’m seventeen John, I think I can take on the world.

REBUS  Someone we never even questioned, because we didny do our job. We didny know he was there. Why was he there? And why did no-one see him?

REBUS is going quickly downstairs again. MAGGIE follows him.

MAGGIE  What makes you think you’ll see it now?

REBUS  Because it’s in here. All in my head. I don’t forget.

ANGELA is suddenly there too, talking to MAGGIE.

ANGELA  He does forget. He’s forgetting me.

MAGGIE  He’s only doing this to forget you.

ANGELA  I know.

REBUS is trying to think, stopped at the foot of the stairs.

ANGELA  Siobhan will nail my killer and you’ll find Maggie’s. That’d be nice.

MAGGIE  That’d be very nice.

ANGELA  Except he hasn’t told Siobhan everything.

MAGGIE  And no-one saw me fall John... Except the man that pushed me down. What are you trying to remember?

REBUS  A name...

MAGGIE  You better hope it’s the name of a man that’s still alive. You spend too much time talking to the dead these days, eh John?

REBUS  Got it!

Quick transition into—

A pub

Scuzzy, old — school drinking dive. A small man in a bunnet is nursing a pint and chaser. He startles as he sees REBUS moving towards him but REBUS blocks him before he can leave. REBUS is already carrying drinks.

REBUS  You running off with half your drink still on the bar Charlie? That’s no like you.

CHARLIE  What do you want Rebus?

REBUS  (offering glass) To buy you the other half of that.

CHARLIE  I’m no talking to you. You’re no even a policeman anymore. I don’t have to tell you anything.

REBUS  (the drink) So you don’t want this?

CHARLIE  What are you doing in here?

REBUS  Just looking for a bar that’s no been turned into a bistro. You canny get a drink in this town any more without some floppy haired article offering you a tapas menu.

CHARLIE  Aye you’re no wrong there.

CHARLIE accepts the drink.

REBUS  This place is holding out though.

CHARLIE  Just about.

REBUS  The Hebrides isny too bad.

CHARLIE  (snorts) You’re joking eh? Full of foreigners and fucking backpackers.

REBUS  Oh I’ll tell you where’s ruined. The Jackdaw, down in Newhaven.

CHARLIE  (not really interested) That right? No been down there in years.

REBUS  Did you no used to drink down there?

CHARLIE  Mebbe when I was working down there but...

REBUS  (cutting in) Working down there? Doing what?

CHARLIE  Rebus, what do you think I do?

REBUS  Five to ten for aggravated burglary usually.

CHARLIE  (dignity) I have a trade. I am a craftsman.

REBUS  Is that right?

CHARLIE  (handing him a card) I am a signed — up member of the Federation of Master Builders. Any home improvement, I’m your man.

REBUS  You do extensions and loft conversions and all that?

CHARLIE  My speciality.

REBUS  Right enough, great way to case the better quality home.

CHARLIE  Fuck yo, Rebus.

REBUS  That what you were doing in Newhaven?

CHARLIE  I don’t need to talk to you.

REBUS  So you keep saying.

CHARLIE  I was nothing but legit then. Didny need to worry about money, building never stopped then.

REBUS  You worked on the flats down there?

CHARLIE  You could name your price. They were throwing those flats up so fast...

REBUS  Happy days eh?

CHARLIE  They didn’t use marine grade on one single fixture or fitting. Not one. That sea wind has turned every block into a subsiding monster leaking rust from every hole.

REBUS  So you were working there when that lassie got strangled.

CHARLIE  Maggie Towler. Aye. I knew her.

REBUS  You knew her?

CHARLIE  Just to look at. She was a looker, wee Maggie. Know what got her killed?

REBUS  Tell me.

CHARLIE  Shagging above her pay grade.

REBUS  Go on.

CHARLIE  That’s it. Word was she was having a flingette with one of the developers.

REBUS  The property developers?

CHARLIE  That’s right.

REBUS  Name?

CHARLIE  I don’t know that! If I’d known that I’d’ve told you lot at the time. That was horrible what that monster did to wee Maggie.

REBUS  So how did you know about it?

CHARLIE  Must have heard someone talking about it on the site.

REBUS  Who?

CHARLIE  I don’t know! Half of them were Polish anyway.

REBUS  What was the name of the property company?

CHARLIE thinks for a moment.

CHARLIE  Weston? No, that’s no right. It began with an...

REBUS takes out a note and hands it to him.

REBUS  When it comes to you, phone me.

CHARLIE  Why would I do that?

REBUS  There’s another of those coming to you if you give me the name.

CHARLIE  Google it.

REBUS snatches the note back.

REBUS  Fuck, you’re right. Thanks Charlie.

REBUS is on the move. CHARLIE shouts after him.

CHARLIE  You tight bastard! I’m glad Ger Cafferty’s going to fuck you over!

REBUS is right back on him. He grabs his hand, hard.

REBUS  What’s that?

CHARLIE  Nothing.

REBUS  Charlie, don’t make me hurt these skilled craftsman’s fingers.

CHARLIE  (agony) Fuck off you bastard! You’ll get us both barred!

REBUS  Then stop screaming. What was that about Big Ger?

CHARLIE  He said he was going to fuck you over.

REBUS  He’s been saying that for thirty years. Said it to who?

CHARLIE  I might have heard him.

REBUS  Where was this?

CHARLIE  I was just lifting a motor he wanted shifted...

REBUS  When?

CHARLIE  Couple of months back mebbe... end of last year? I don’t fucking know, you bastard! Let go!

REBUS  Know what you are? A wee dug trying to borrow a big dog’s bark. Cafferty wouldn’t lift his leg to piss on you.

REBUS lets CHARLIE go and walks out onto—

Stairwell, Arden Street

At the foot of the stairs REBUS takes out his phone and punches the number. It’s answered almost at once.

REBUS  Cafferty, need to have a word...

He stops abruptly as, voiced by MAGGIE, we hear what he hears.

PHONE  The number you’ve dialled has not been recognised. The number you’ve dialled has not been recognised.

REBUS stares at it, checking the number. Then he cuts the call and slowly climbs the stairs. ANDY is coming down. He checks when he sees REBUS.

REBUS  Where’s your friend?

ANDY  What do you want?

REBUS  I need to talk to her, it’s about her mother. I need her number. Come on. Your pal, Heather Ross.

ANDY  Who?

REBUS  Oh don’t play games with me son.

ANDY tries to pass him. REBUS blocks him.

ANDY  Fuck off! I’m warning you...

REBUS  What you going to do? Call the police? You’ll no do that will you Andy?

ANDY  I said fuck off!

ANDY shoves REBUS and REBUS suddenly has him pinned against the wall.

REBUS  You think I couldn’t push you through this wall, Andy? Now you listen. First thing, you’re moving out. Give notice, get going, I don’t care where you go to peddle your sad wee packets of skunk but you’ll take it off my stair and if I see you even put your nose round the door I’ll have you in a cell before you’ve a chance to sniff.

ANDY  I’m not dealing...

REBUS  (shaking him) Are you packing your bags?

ANDY  Yes.

REBUS  Good. And I’ll let you. Once you give me Heather’s number.

ANDY  I don’t...

His tone is suddenly more subdued.

ANDY  I don’t phone her. She phones me. Number withheld.

REBUS  Smart girl.

He’s on the move.

REBUS  Start packing.

ANDY goes back into his flat, REBUS moves into—

Rebus’s Arden Street flat

CAFFERTY is sitting in his chair, watching the door. A moment as REBUS takes this in.

REBUS  Ghosts.

CAFFERTY  Don’t believe in them.

REBUS  I’ve spent half the day chasing them.

CAFFERTY  So I heard.

REBUS  You’ve changed your number.

CAFFERTY  I have. Don’t you want to know how I got in?

REBUS  Doesny take a master criminal. And I’ve nothing to steal.

CAFFERTY holds up keys.

CAFFERTY  You’ll be needing these back.

REBUS  No. I’m thinking of changing the locks.

CAFFERTY  Reckon that’ll stop me?

REBUS  Just ring the bell Big Ger. Mi casa, su casa, all that.

CAFFERTY  I’ve no even had the offer of a cup of tea yet. What kind of a welcome is that?

REBUS  There’s no milk.

CAFFERTY holds up a half pint.

CAFFERTY  Looks like I’m a better detective than you Strawman.

REBUS  I’ll put the kettle on.

REBUS leaves the room. CAFFERTY is prowling, inspecting it.

CAFFERTY  No been here for a while. Nothing’s changed though eh? No even the dust.

REBUS  (off) Canny get the staff.

CAFFERTY  I could recommend a couple of great women. Nae stour too hard to lift.

REBUS  Scrubbing bloodstains out of Persian rugs?

CAFFERTY  Nothing like that. Everything clean and sparkling in my world John, that’s the way I like it.

REBUS is back on.

REBUS  So I’m off your Christmas card list am I? What did I do? Something really annoying I hope...

CAFFERTY  It was time.

REBUS  Time for what?

CAFFERTY  We’ll get to that. Why did you want to get hold of me?

REBUS  Wanted to ask you something.

CAFFERTY  About the Mordaunt trial?

REBUS  Among other things.

CAFFERTY  You lot have taken your time eh? Twenty-five years to finally get that poisonous arse wipe in the dock again.

REBUS  You’re looking forward to a result then?

CAFFERTY  (ignoring the question) Twenty-five years. 1992 eh? John Major, royal divorces, Ravenscraig closes for good, IRA bombs... You could still see over your own belly. You could probably still run upstairs back then, eh John? Let’s get in the mood. You got any music from 1992?

REBUS  Nothing to your taste.

CAFFERTY  I’m going to tell you something now that’ll surprise you.

REBUS  Should I record it?

CAFFERTY  I’ve always been a bit of a Sheena Easton fan. You got any Sheena Easton?

REBUS  Strangely enough I haven’t.

CAFFERTY  Now there’s a woman with the X Factor. I met her once. On a chat show.

REBUS  She was promoting her new album. You were promoting your memoir of murder and mayhem...

CAFFERTY  You read it yet?

REBUS  Do you need to ask?

CAFFERTY  Keeps me in fine wine and classy company John. Did I tell you I’ve got a wine cellar now? A wine room to be accurate. Temperature controlled environment.

REBUS  Stops the bodies decomposing does it?

CAFFERTY  Wine is an investment, John. Something you should have considered before they kicked you into touch. Still, some of this old vinyl’s worth a bit these days they tell me.

REBUS  You canny put a price on memories.

CAFFERTY  True. And we’ve got our share eh John? 1992. Not a year I remember so well as it turned out. I was in intensive care for a bit of it.

REBUS  But Mordaunt paid for that.

CAFFERTY  And now it’s time for him to pay for the rest of it. We should have a proper drink to that eh?

REBUS  I’m pacing myself these days.

CAFFERTY  You’re no fun these days John, that’s the truth. Will you go to the trial?

REBUS  I don’t know.

CAFFERTY  I’ll be there. There’s a fascination eh? Staring at a man you know is a piece of pure evil. Don’t look at me like that, I never killed any civilians. And I wouldn’t even breathe the same air as a sick wee bastard like Mordaunt. Useless plumber as well. I ended up with raw sewage leaking into the jacuzzi. Subsidence my arse. Wee scumbag barely knew how to lag a pipe.

REBUS  You’re going to the trial?

CAFFERTY  Beats daytime television. Have you seen ‘Homes under the Hammer’?

REBUS  I know where I’d like to put the hammer.

CAFFERTY  What are you doing with yourself all day, when you’re not looking for me?

REBUS  I keep busy.

CAFFERTY  Talking to ghosts. So what did you want to ask me?

REBUS  Have Mordaunt’s defence team contacted you?

CAFFERTY  Now. Why would you be asking that? Mordaunt dunts me on the heid in 1992 and you think his defence might want to talk to me? Prosecution maybe... but the defence? What would put an idea like that in your head?

REBUS  Have they?

CAFFERTY  Maybe they have. How did you guess that?

REBUS  Maybe I’m still a detective after all.

CAFFERTY  In which case you shouldn’t be talking to me, should you?

REBUS  What are you playing at Cafferty? Why would you help Mordaunt? What’s in it for you?

CAFFERTY  I can think of almost nothing on this earth I’d enjoy more than seeing that piece of filth nailed down so he canny get up for the rest of his shrivelled wee life.

REBUS  So what are you doing?

CAFFERTY  Almost nothing I’d enjoy more.

REBUS realises.

REBUS  It’s you isn’t it? Shit it’s you. You’re the mystery witness for the defence!

CAFFERTY  How could I help Mordaunt, the man who attacked me?

REBUS  By saying it wasny him that attacked you at all! This is your idea of a game is it? You know this is the conviction half of Police Scotland have wanted for twenty-five years and you’re going to piss on our bonfire, just for the hell of it?

CAFFERTY  I never saw who attacked me. Did I? He was a cowardly piece of shite that whacked me when my back was turned. But I don’t like the idea the wrong cowardly shite took the rap for that John. That offends my sense of justice.

REBUS  Your sense of what?

CAFFERTY is on the move.

CAFFERTY  Listen. This is a bigger conversation. I’m running late. Places to go, people to see, you know how it is. Keeping busy. Why don’t you come over to my place tonight? Come and see the view. Let me repay your extravagant hospitality. Spot of dinner at mine.

REBUS  Dinner parties? What’s next? Saga cruises and National Trust membership?

CAFFERTY  There’s a working lift, no worries about getting your old legs up to the seventh floor. Home delivery from a Michelin starred chef...

REBUS  Stop fucking playing with me and tell me what’s going on!

CAFFERTY  I hope you’ve got someone keeping an eye on your blood pressure John, you’ve gone a terrible colour there. Come round tonight. I’ll explain the deal then.

REBUS  What deal? I’m not making deals with you.

CAFFERTY  You don’t have to. Seven for seven thirty. Alright? You know where I am, no need to bring a bottle. I’m well sorted.

REBUS  Aye and you’ll be well sorted out when I fill the defence team in on the quality of their witness. I don’t think a man who’s never knowingly embraced the truth in any court of law is going to make much of a star witness. Do you?

CAFFERTY  See, the way I heard it... there’s some suspicion the police have a habit of getting a bit creative with evidence, in their natural eagerness to see Mordaunt go down. The defence is going to ask for a reexamination of the DNA evidence from the attack on me. But you knew that, didn’t you? It’s an amazing thing, isn’t it an amazing thing? They’ve still got the stick of wood the guy whacked me with. Stupid bastard kicked it under a car two streets away. Careless, might have been pissed. Do you think he was maybe pissed John? They’ve got tiny tiny traces from that stick, wee scales of skin, that’s all they need now — wee scales of skin from whoever held that bit of wood twenty-five years ago, and then they’ll know who he is. And if it wasn’t Mordaunt that’ll raise a few questions about the quality of all the forensic evidence eh? Most dust is actually human skin scales. Did you know that? You should buy a hoover John, you’re choking on DNA in here.

CAFFERTY is almost gone.

REBUS  A court’s already decided who hit you Ger, it was Mordaunt.

CAFFERTY  That’s no who I saw.

REBUS  You didny see anyone.

CAFFERTY  How do you know?

REBUS  You said you couldn’t see your attacker.

CAFFERTY  I couldny remember at first. I was laid up in the Royal Infirmary with a crack in my heid.

REBUS  But now it’s all coming back to you. It’s a miracle.

CAFFERTY  Think what you like but basically I’m an honest man John. I don’t have to lie my way out of trouble. Always thought that was a sign of weakness.

REBUS  So be honest. You never saw his face. Did you?

CAFFERTY  No.

REBUS  Then stop playing your games and let us get a clear shot at Mordaunt...

CAFFERTY  I didny need to see his face. I saw his shoes. Last thing I saw before it all went dark. Beautiful polished shoes. Shoes buffed to a shine only a man with the army in his DNA could ever bring off. I saw my dying face in those shoes John. Or I thought I did. I’m prepared to swear I would have recognised them anywhere.

He’s looking at REBUS’S shoes.

CAFFERTY  Let’s have a look at your shoes John? No quite as shiny these days. Ah well. Standards are slipping. Nothing’s quite what it was in 1992 but the memories live on. As we started so we’ll finish. But I think it’s my turn to give the killer blow. Eh John? I’ll see you tonight and I’ll tell you the deal. Smart casual, what you’re wearing’s fine. Don’t even need to buff up your shoes.

CAFFERTY leaves. REBUS is frozen. ANGELA walks out of the dark and looks at him, reproachful.

ANGELA  You weren’t paying attention John, were you? You’ll have no time for me and Maggie now, will you? It’s all about your secrets now eh? Poor wee dead Maggie. No justice for her today. No justice for her or me any day.

There’s a scream off.

HEATHER  (off stage) Shit! No! Nooooo!

REBUS moves quickly into—

Stairwell, Arden Street

ANDY is crawling down the stairs, bleeding. He collapses. REBUS hurries to him. Checking him. He’s phoning. HEATHER appears further up the stairs, she’s in bits.

HEATHER  Look at him! Look!

REBUS  (on phone) Police and ambulance... possible assault... 17 Arden Street...

HEATHER comes slowly down the stairs, staring at ANDY in horror.

REBUS  (on phone) I don’t know. He’s bleeding out, multiple stab wounds... Just get here!

REBUS is trying to stop the bleeding. It’s too late. HEATHER is backing off down the stairs, horrified.

HEATHER  He’s dead isn’t he? He’s dead...

HEATHER is running.

REBUS  Heather wait... Heather... Heather!

She’s gone. REBUS crouches over ANDY’S body.