Slaughter's hound

13

I was expecting a couple of priests, maybe even a monsignor, but I had to make do with the bishop-sized Gillick. He stood to one side of the marble fireplace, his body language, consciously or otherwise, mimicking the chest-puffed profile of the patrician figure in the portrait on the chimney breast.

Bob Hamilton, I presumed, larger than life, although he’d been plenty large in life. A swarthy cove to begin with, the artist had given him a piratical mien, placing Big Bob on the deck of a yacht where the breeze could amuse itself for all eternity in ruffling his dark curls, or at least until someone decided a Knuttel molls-and-gangsters pastiche was more in keeping with the ambience. Gillick’s presence suggested that that day wouldn’t be long coming. The brandy balloon in his chubby fingers gave the gathering an incongruous air of celebration.

That room could have fit a small helicopter, although the pilot would need to be the barnstorming type to avoid mangling the by now obligatory squiggles and scrawls that defaced three walls. The fourth, the rear wall, was composed entirely of glass. The crushed-velvet drapes were drawn back, affording a view of a dawn-drained North Atlantic that stretched most of the way to Iceland and a sky like Carrera marble, hard and cold behind the faint pink blush.

Gillick looked pretty comfortable standing beside the fireplace. The nonchalant stance made me wonder if his relationship with Mrs Hamilton was one that required him to stand by that fire on a regular basis, lapping brandy out of a balloon big enough to breed guppies.

I couldn’t fault his taste. In among the high-backed Victorian armchairs, French-polished mahogany and a foot-high brass Cupid pinging his arrow from the distressed-oak coffee table, Mrs Saoirse Hamilton was by some distance the best preserved antique in the room. She reclined on a couch angled towards the log fire, the flames taking their cue from her auburn mane. The ripe side of fifty, luscious as fresh mango, she wore a knee-length nightgown in lavender silk that most women would have happily worn to a wedding, this providing they had a grudge against the bride. A peignoir trimmed with lacy frills would have completed the look, but she’d accessorised, using the word loosely, with a fluffy pink bathrobe, Dennis the Menace-striped leggings and knee-length riding boots. None of which disguised the fact that she had more curves than the Monaco Grand Prix. The drawl suggested she gargled Sweet Afton.

‘Mr Rigby. So good of you to come.’

‘I’m sorry for your troubles, Mrs Hamilton.’

‘You are too kind.’ She inclined her head towards the facing armchair. ‘Please, won’t you sit?’

I sat. She held up her glass. ‘Will you join us in a toast?’

It wouldn’t be her first and they’d have drank on without me, so Simon built me a Jack and ice. We toasted Finn in silence. ‘Gentlemen,’ she said, ‘could you leave us for a moment?’

Being no gentleman, I was expected to stay. She watched Simon and Gillick leave, then turned dreamy eyes on mine. Grainne had been sold short with the cobalt blue. Her mother’s eyes were the Aegean on a hazy June dawn. ‘What can you tell me, Mr Rigby?’

‘Not much more than I told Simon, I’m afraid. Sorry.’

‘Yes. Simon told me you were here earlier. Very thoughtful of you, Mr Rigby.’

‘Anyone else would’ve done the same.’

‘I wish that were true. But I am inclined to believe that most people would have washed their hands of the whole sorry mess.’

‘I knew Finn, Mrs Hamilton. I thought it’d be better coming from me than the cops.’

‘So I understand. Unfortunately, Simon was rather vague on the details. Apparently Finn jumped off the PA building shortly after speaking with you.’

‘That’s right.’

She flicked some wayward silk back up onto her ankle. ‘And how was Finn when you spoke with him?’

‘Good form, yeah. He was, y’know, Finn.’

‘And you noticed nothing that might …’ She hesitated, then steeled herself. ‘That might explain why Finn would want to take his life?’

‘Nothing. Really.’

‘May I enquire as to what it was you spoke about?’

‘It was Finn who did most of the talking. He was pretty excited about this new development.’

Her forehead shimmered, which I took to be a Botox frown. ‘Development?’

Gillick, already under some strain hoisting the brandy balloon, had obviously left the heavy lifting to me.

‘It was supposed to be a surprise,’ I said, ‘a wedding present. Luxury apartments, with a salon for Maria.’

‘And where exactly,’ she drawled, glancing away to rearrange some more silk, ‘did he propose to establish this development?’

‘Cyprus.’

‘Cyprus?’

‘That’s right. Northern Cyprus.’

‘They were going to live there?’

‘So he said, yeah.’

‘For how long?’

‘All going well, for good.’

She considered that. ‘And did he say when this was likely to happen?’

‘He wasn’t sure. Red tape was holding them up at the Cyprus end. And he was funding it from the sale of the PA building, so …’

Her forehead glistened. ‘The PA?’

‘The Port Authority building.’

‘I know what it is, Mr Rigby.’ She sat up straight, sloshing some martini onto the cuff of the fluffy bathrobe. ‘What is it exactly,’ she said, a cold storm brewing in the Aegean dawn, ‘you are trying to achieve?’

‘Sorry?’

‘The question is straightforward. What is it you hope to achieve by telling me lies?’

‘What lies? I don’t-’

‘That property wasn’t Finn’s to sell, Mr Rigby. It belongs to Hamilton Holdings. And no one knew that better than Finn.’ A mocking smile. This much, at least, she was sure of. ‘So how could he have been planning to sell it?’

‘I haven’t the faintest idea. You wanted to know what Finn was talking about tonight, and I’m telling you.’

‘I don’t believe you.’

‘That’s your choice, but Finn told me he was selling the PA. If you’re saying he couldn’t, then I don’t know, maybe you should be having this conversation with Gillick. Maybe there’s some loophole in the setup that allowed Finn to sell.’

She stared imperiously, and I guessed I was supposed to find a hole to crawl into, or just whimper a little. I sipped some Jack.

‘You do appreciate,’ she said, ‘that what you’ve just told me is entirely ridiculous.’

I wondered how ridiculous she’d find it if I mentioned Finn’s sudden desire to settle in a place where family still meant something. I set the Jack on the coffee table, being careful to avoid the glazed tile coasters. ‘Here’s what I don’t appreciate, Mrs Hamilton. Getting called a liar. Spending half the night in the cop shop for trying to do the right thing. Having my taxi wrecked.’ I fingered my grazed cheek. ‘Let me know when you’ve heard enough. There’s more.’

‘If it’s compensation you’re-’

‘I’ve been paid, Mrs Hamilton, not bought. The Queen’s shilling doesn’t go as far as it used to these days.’

If looks could kill I’d have been cremated on the spot. ‘How dare-’

I stood up. ‘You want my advice, buy mittens for your daughter. Some day she’ll attack someone who matters.’ I made for the door.

‘Mr Rigby.’

I kept going.

‘Please?’

I faltered, then stopped and turned. ‘Allow me to apologise,’ she said huskily. ‘As you can imagine, this is a fraught time.’ She gestured towards the armchair. ‘Please?’

I figured Gillick had had his five hundred euro worth, but there was a catch in her throat when she said the word ‘please’ that suggested she’d licked it off a leper’s tongue. I sat down again, retrieved the Jack. She settled back into the couch and composed herself. ‘I presume you know that Finn and I have been estranged for some time?’

‘Mrs Hamilton,’ I said, ‘what exactly do you want?’

She compressed her lips, then drained the martini and sat up rearranging more silk. From under a cushion she drew a beige manila envelope and from that she slid an A4 sheet of paper. ‘I’d like you to read his suicide note, Mr Rigby.’

My guts flipped over. I felt trapped, the room shrinking, a clammy claustrophobia sucking on my lungs. ‘If it’s all the same to you …’

‘It’s not.’ She softened her tone. ‘You knew him, Mr Rigby. Perhaps you can help me make sense of it all.’

‘You should probably talk to Maria.’

She fixed me with the pair of cobalt skewers. ‘You weren’t to know, Mr Rigby. But my orders are that that whore’s name is not to be spoken in this house.’

‘With all due respect, orders aren’t really my thing.’

I waited, tensed up, while the sedatives and martinis waged war in her eyes. I was guessing she’d be a lot more brutal than her daughter when she finally let-

Shit.

Like father, like son.

I cursed myself for not seeing it before. For not trying to understand how it might feel to be Saoirse Hamilton, so used to having her every whim indulged and command obeyed, now rocked to her core by the suicide of both husband and son. A bereft queen skulking behind her throne, terrified and uncomprehending as she ducked the chunks of masonry shaken loose by some blind and barbarous emissary of Fate.

I could sympathise, sure. If it was Ben who’d just topped himself, I’d be lashing out myself. But Maria deserved better than crude abuse, even from a woman who was for now little more than agony made flesh, an old wound ripped open to be salted all over again.

‘Does Maria know?’ I said. ‘Has she even been told?’

‘I’ll remind you,’ she said, ‘that you are under my roof.’

‘And I’ll remind you I’m here as a favour to Finn, not you.’

His name seemed to clarify something. She still glared, but her eyes were fully clear now, focused. She tapped the sheet of paper in a way that made me feel like a whole row of violins. ‘Hey Joe,’ she said, ‘where are you going with that gun in your hand?’

It was obscene. She read all the way through to the end in a husky monotone. When she was finished she raised her eyes to mine. ‘Can I ask you, Mr Rigby, what you make of that?’

‘It’s a song. They’re lyrics.’

‘That much I already know. What I am asking is, why do you think Finn would have left those lyrics in particular?’

‘He liked the song. It was one of his favourites.’

‘I understand. But you will appreciate what I mean when I say that they do not appear to be entirely relevant. This,’ she continued, glancing down contemptuously, ‘seems to be about shooting an unfaithful lover. Whereas most suicide notes, if I am not mistaken, will at least attempt to explain why its writer killed himself.’

‘Maybe it does.’

‘So you believe,’ a triumphant trembling, ‘he was distraught about her infidelity.’

‘Maria’s?’

Her mouth tightened in the corners. ‘Who else?’

‘That’s a hell of a leap. What I’m saying is, you’d need to have been inside Finn’s head to know what he meant.’

‘Can I ask you to try?’

‘He was suicidal,’ I said. ‘No one can-’

‘Mr Gillick tells me that you shared,’ and here the corner of her mouth turned down, ‘a room with Finn. For almost a year.’

‘A cell, yeah. That was a long time ago.’

‘Mr Gillick also tells me you were a private investigator.’

‘That was a different life. And anyway, I-’

‘Would you mind?’ She held out the note. ‘Perhaps, given your experience, you might spot a clue.’

A clue, of course. One brief scan of the note would reveal to master sleuth Rigby that Colonel Mustard had used the lead pipe to batter Finn off the roof of the library.

‘Please?’ she said, proffering the sheet of paper. ‘I would consider it a very great favour.’

First Jimmy, now Saoirse Hamilton. People I wanted nothing from kept offering me favours.

‘All I crave,’ she said, ‘is a tiny corner of my mind where I might find some measure of peace. If you refuse,’ she chuckled the coldest sound I’d ever heard, ‘I may be forced to request a priest.’

I took the note. A copy, obviously. The cops wouldn’t have released the genuine article yet. It was written in his familiar flowing script, and while it would take a handwriting expert to say for sure, the writing looked like his, normal and unstressed. Apart from the notations between the lines, which were basic chord progressions, there were no additions. It wasn’t even signed.

‘Well?’ she prompted.

‘Like I say, the song is one of Finn’s favourites. This is the Hendrix cover, Jimi Hendrix, which most people consider definitive. Finn preferred Love’s version, it has more of an energy, sounds more desperate.’

‘Go on.’

‘Finn knows the song by heart. There’d be no reason for him to scribble out the lyrics for himself, it’d be like the Pope doodling a Hail Mary.’

‘Your point, Mr Rigby?’

‘I’m not being flip. I’m just trying to eliminate possibilities. You told me that this is a suicide note, and I’m suggesting there are other options.’

‘Such as?’

‘The most probable, going by the notations, is that he was writing out the lyrics for someone who wanted to learn the song. A talented beginner, maybe. It’s not the easiest song in the world to play but the chords here are fairly straightforward.’

‘You don’t believe it’s his note?’

‘It’s his writing, sure, but Finn was his own man. If he had something to say, he’d have said it in his own words.’

She pressed a forefinger to her lips, then used a knuckle to snick a tear from the corner of her eye. She beckoned for the note. ‘Thank you,’ she said.

‘For what?’

‘Confirming my sanity.’

‘What I believe and what’s true aren’t necessarily the same thing, Mrs Hamilton. And-’

‘Saoirse, please.’

‘Okay.’ She was fairly pouring it on now. First the tears, now the brazen familiarity with the lumpen prole. ‘What I’m saying is, just because — whoa.’

She’d balled the note and tossed it on top of the log fire. While she crossed to the bar I watched it shrivel into a petrol-blue flame. She came back with a fresh martini, a Jack. She handed me the glass and perched on the edge of the couch, hunched forward, one knee crossed on the other. Her tone was brisk.

‘Estranged or not, Mr Rigby, I know my son. He would have left a note. And if he did write a note, it shouldn’t be too hard to find, even for,’ she cleared her throat, ‘a retired investigator. It’s not the kind of thing you hide.’

I thought she was right, but then suicide is by definition out of character. And once a man finds himself out in the badlands, out beyond rule and law and custom, who knows what anyone might do?

‘Sorry, Mrs Hamilton, but I’m not the man for-’

‘I would like to retain your services, Mr Rigby. I want you to find for me, if it exists, Finn’s suicide note.’

‘With all due respect, Mrs Hamilton-’

‘Saoirse.’

‘-I’d be wasting your time. I’ve been away from the game too long and I’ve no intention of ever going back. On top of that, the cops have already been over the studio. Like you say, if Finn did write a note, he wouldn’t have hidden it. He’d have left it to be found.’

‘Perhaps he didn’t leave it at the studio.’

‘So you go to his apartment. If he wrote one — and not all suicides leave a note — it’ll probably be there.’

‘That would be impossible.’

‘I’m sure, under the circumstances, Maria would-’

‘Mr Rigby, I have warned you once. I will not warn you again.’

I put the Jack on the low table, stood up. ‘You have my sympathies, Mrs Hamilton. Really. But looking for a suicide note that probably doesn’t-’

‘I’m begging you.’

You can tell when people use a phrase for the first time. The virgin words sound awkward, the tongue fumbling its way around syllables rough as broken teeth. Her face was turned up to mine, imploring. The fluffy robe had fallen away to reveal an expanse of decolletage, but it was the naked want in her eyes that made me avert my eyes. A raw and secret savagery.

‘Simon has my card,’ I said. ‘If you still feel this way tomorrow morning, then call me and we’ll talk about it again.’

I said it as gently as I knew how, but a dismissal is a dismissal and Saoirse Hamilton wasn’t practised at being gracious when denied.

‘Do you think it might be possible for a mother to ever stop wondering why her son would do such a thing, Mr Rigby?’ Each word was a scourge. ‘Can you honestly believe that one day will make any difference to how I feel?’

I considered that. ‘Gillick told you I did time,’ I said.

‘Yes, he did.’ A faint sneer. ‘And why.’

‘Then you’ll appreciate why I don’t want to be the one to raise false hopes. Goodnight, Mrs Hamilton.’

I felt like a toe-rag walking away. Still, a glass shattered against the frame as I opened the door, spraying me with Jack.

That helped.