Still Midnight

35

Gobby had looked through them as well and agreed with Harris that there was something to see. They left the tapes for Morrow in her office but it was hard for her to concentrate on the screen, resentful thoughts about Bannerman kept piercing her concentration. Phrases she would like to say to him if it came to a fight, which it never would, pointless articulations of the exact nature of his wrongs; selfish, careerist, self-important, coward, twat, arse, fucking arse. She knew from long past experience that rehearsing a fight that would never happen was a short-lived luxury. Initially intoxicating, it didn’t help any, just wound her up even more.

She forced her eyes to the screen but couldn’t focus because the image was blurry anyway. Mr Anwar’s videos had been used over and over again and the magnetic tapes had been stretched at the top sometimes, cutting out important bits of the picture with hyperactive diagonal lines. Intermittent waves of snow descended across the image as well and she found herself leaning this way and that, as if she could see past the obstacle. In the faded grey colours of the shop nothing seemed interesting except the extent of Mr Anwar’s concern with tidying up the sweet shelves.

Every time someone bought a chocolate bar or a bag of crisps he’d wait until they had left and then, slightly guiltily, skirt around the counter to straighten the shelves. Johnny Lander was there a lot, sitting silently on the stool next to him. He’d nip around and straighten the shelves without being asked.

Twat.

Another snow-front shimmied down the screen and she stood up quickly, almost over-balancing her chair, stepping over to the door and flinging it open. ‘Harris!’ she shouted out into the corridor, ‘come in here and tell me what I’m supposed to be looking at. My head’s bursting looking at this.’

Harris appeared at the door, pleased finally to have his pain acknowledged and pulled over a chair. She sat down next to him and mumbled a clumsy apology. He ignored it and she appreciated it.

‘Right.’ He held a hand out to the back of her chair and together they shuffled back ten feet from the screen and watched. ‘Sit back from the screen or you’ll get a migraine and shut your eyes a bit.’

He sped the tape on a little, reeling through hours of Lander and Anwar’s relationship in minutes. The two old men hurried around the shop Keystone style, Johnny Lander energetic, disappearing from view often, stacking shelves, bringing tea, Aamir still. The men had a curious intimacy, rarely speaking but sitting a little closer to each other than most men would, never really looking at each other, preferring to face the counter when they were sitting.

A series of customers shifted in and out, commuters, absent as they bought fags or snacks or papers, hardly noticing the shop or the men as they daydreamed their way to work.

‘Here,’ said Harris, changing the speed and shuffling his chair towards the screen.

The woman caught the attention because of how present she was. Tall, she definitely looked tall, and slim. Middle-class hair, no flashes of colour or inappropriate blonde streaks but shiny brown hair, long and brushed. She wore white trousers with brown boots underneath and a shirt that was waisted to show off her figure. As soon as the door opened and the top of her head appeared in the frame Aamir Anwar warmed and stepped off his stool to greet her. Johnny Lander dropped off his chair and disappeared towards the back door.

The woman at the door was bent down as she came to the counter, holding a child’s hand. A small brown-haired boy, a toddler turning into a child. He pulled his hand away and ran over to the break at the side of the counter, chubby arms pumping at his sides, head down.

‘Watch this,’ said Harris, licking his lips.

Aamir Anwar bent towards the child, hands on his knees, craning indulgently towards the child who gave him a reluctant kiss on the beard. Anwar stood up, holding his hand over the kiss, delighted with the boy and then with a flick of his fingers waved the boy to the sweetie rack.

The mother was facing the camera now and didn’t look too pleased about it. Her arms were crossed but she didn’t interfere as the boy grabbed two packets of Skittles, a Milky Way, small packets of jelly sweeties, cradling them in his arms, looking at the old man to check that it was OK. Aamir raised his hands in mock-shock, said something the child didn’t understand and then chortled happily to himself.

And then the visit was over. The woman took the sweets from the child, put them on the counter where he couldn’t see them, edited the pile by pushing some of the packets over to the side, and spoke briefly but seriously to Aamir before unwrapping and giving the boy the Milky Way bar and putting the rest in her handbag. Nice bag, thought Morrow, plain beige leather, big shoulder bag, lots of pockets.

‘Now watch this,’ said Harris.

Aamir kissed the child’s head and followed them to the door of the shop, standing in the opened doorway to wave them off, smiling to himself when he got back behind the counter and climbed back onto his chair. Johnny Lander came back and they sat silently, the smile lingering on Aamir’s face.

‘Is he not allowed friends?’ asked Morrow.

Harris looked at her. ‘They never paid for the sweeties.’

She scratched her chin. Harris was right. The woman pocketed the sweets and left. ‘So…?’

‘Boss, d’ye know the profit margins these shops work on? They never paid for the sweeties. If that’s not his grand wean, it’s his wean.’

Johnny Lander assumed his customary position at the top of the stairs, leaning over the banister to watch them coming up. He was dressed as before but noted the rush in their steps and waited for them in the close, stiff as if awaiting news. He looked anxiously from Morrow to Harris. ‘You’ve not found him?’

‘No,’ said Morrow.

Lander held his chest and slumped. ‘For Pete’s sake, the way ye came bombing up the stairs there…’

‘No, Mr Lander, we haven’t found Mr Anwar.’

‘What are you thinking then…?’

‘No, we’ve every reason to believe he’s alive and well.’

‘Thank God for that, anyway.’ Relief seemed to have made him forget his manners and they stood for a moment looking blankly at each other in the cold close.

Morrow stepped towards the door. ‘Can we come in for a minute?’

‘Oh, aye, sorry.’ He jumped in front of her, holding the door open for her to come into the hallway. ‘’Scuse me.’

She stepped in and walked into the orderly living room. Lander had been reading the local paper when the door buzzed, drinking a mug of tea and eating three biscuits set out on a side plate, everything orderly, and arranged around his armchair. The electric fire had a bar on as well and the room was cosy.

He shut the front door behind them. ‘This is a hell of a thing, this waiting, isn’t it?’ he said.

Morrow reached into her bag and brought out the clumsy video camera that belonged to the department. ‘Mr Lander, can you tell me who this is?’

He stood close to her as she played the video of the woman in the shop. To save time Harris had just filmed the tape from the TV screen and the definition was even worse than before. Lander watched to the end.

‘Who is this woman?’

‘Lily. That’s Lily.’

Morrow looked at him. ‘Who is Lily to Mr Anwar?’

She could see it was awkward for him. He wanted to help in any way he could but his loyalty was in the way. He looked out of the window and hummed for a moment before taking a sharp breath. The conflict made him cringe. ‘Can I give you her address and you can ask her yourself?’

‘Sure.’

He gave them the address, knew it off the top of his head and he gave them good directions too. It wasn’t five minutes away by car, he said.

As they were leaving, as an afterthought before she put her notebook away, Morrow asked for Lily’s surname.

‘Tait,’ said Lander. ‘Lily Tait.’

The house was less than half a mile from the shop, straight along the road headed away from the city. Morrow noted that almost any journey to the town would have meant driving past the shop.

They pulled up in the street behind a black and silver Range Rover with stick-on window shades and a ‘Baby on Board’ sign hanging in the back window, and looked up a steep path to a grand, semi-detached house. In front of it, the garden was carefully planted with seasonal flowers and shrubs.

Morrow and Harris took the path up to the front door. Though the house was elegant blond sandstone someone had added a wooden porch which had worn badly. Brown paint was weathered and peeling, the door on the outside flimsy glass. They could see shoes inside and a child’s blue and red trike. Lined up along the rotting windowsills someone was growing herbs and small bedding trays were set out on a trestle table near the back, making use of the sunlight.

Harris couldn’t find a bell so he tried the door and found it open. They walked up to the front door proper, a grand Victorian window with the outline of an urn etched on the glass.

Lily Tait opened the door. Both Morrow and Harris knew the Taits. No one in Glasgow could fail to know the father; he was pictured in the local papers every time a gangster was found murdered, but Lily didn’t look like one of them at all. She was tall and slender, dressed in a huge mustard jumper with moth holes on the arm, and cut-off denim shorts. She looked gorgeous. Morrow could see Harris ogling her spectacular brown legs and painted toe nails. And yet there, in the roundness of the eyes, in the square set of the shoulders, she could see some small echo of Lily’s background. It was the curse of aspiration, the next generation were better fed, educated beyond the grasp of their own parents.

Behind Lily in the pale grey hall a sulky three-year-old peered out at them, hanging off the waxed balustrade of the staircase. Beyond him the hallway led through to a bright, cheerful kitchen.

‘Lily?’

She smiled out at them. ‘Yeah, can I help you?’

The child, seeing their dark suits and formal stance, lost interest and ran off into the kitchen.

Morrow introduced herself and Harris. ‘We’re investigating the kidnap of Mr Aamir Anwar. Can we come in and talk to you?’

‘Oh, gosh, yes of course.’ She swung the door open and welcomed them into the house. ‘Have you heard anything about Aamir? Is he home?’

‘Not yet, I’m afraid.’

‘Come in, come in.’ She led them through to the kitchen and offered them seats at a pine table littered with cups and children’s drawings and bills. ‘Bit chaotic before the cleaner gets here,’ she said, sweeping the rubble over to one end. The boy was sitting in a miniature red armchair in the corner, drinking from a sipper cup, watching them and looking cross.

Lily slipped into a kitchen chair across from them. ‘So, how can I help?’

‘Well,’ Morrow took her notebook out for show, ‘your name came up a couple of times and we wondered if we could talk to you about your relationship with Mr Anwar.’

She looked a little uncomfortable and glanced at the little prince in the armchair. ‘OK.’

‘How did you meet?’

She shrugged. ‘At school.’

Morrow looked at her, ‘You were at school…’

‘Omar and Billal, yeah. Same year as Billal.’

‘Right.’ She wrote it in her notebook, giving herself time to think. ‘OK, and what is your relationship?’

‘Well, Billal is Oliver’s father…’

The child looked furiously back and forth, knowing he was being talked about and not pleased about it.

‘And how old is Oliver?’

‘Three years and four months,’ she said, as if it was a triumph.

Morrow wrote it in longhand in her notebook. Her pencil tip ripped the paper. ‘But you’re not with Billal?’

‘No.’ Lily was looking at the paper, at the rip, frowning her gorgeous forehead.

‘And,’ said Morrow, ‘you know he’s just had another baby with his wife.’

‘Hm,’ she looked from the rip to Morrow, knowing the woman was trying to upset her. ‘Fine by me.’

‘You’d split up anyway?’

Lily took her thick hair in her hand and leaned on her elbow. ‘Billal’s…’ a glance at the child, ‘hard work to be honest. Not for me.’

‘What do you mean hard work?’

She hesitated and dropped her voice. ‘He’s very into family.’

‘Your family?’

Lily looked hard at her and avoided the question. ‘I split up with him shortly after Mr Nutkins arrived,’ she nodded to the boy, ‘but he didn’t split up with me until quite a long time afterwards.’

‘You mean he’s been hassling you?’

Clearing her throat Lily sat up and looked at the wall clock. ‘Look, um, my nanny’s going to come in very soon, could we wait and talk about this then? I’m not that comfortable…’

‘No,’ said Morrow flatly, ‘this is urgent.’

She wasn’t pleased. She looked from Morrow to the rip in the notebook and back again, chewed her cheek and turned to the child. ‘Nutkins, how about putting on a play jersey and going into the garden for a run around?’

The kid shrugged and stood up, dropping his cup carelessly. She went over, pulled a pale blue jersey from the floor over his head and checked his laces and opened the back door, shoving him out. ‘Stay away from the nettles.’

She left the door open and came back to the table, suddenly looking much harder. ‘OK, I don’t know what that fucker told you – I’m mental probably, I’m a grasping bitch probably-’

‘Is Billal involved with your family business?’

‘Right.’ She raised a furious finger in Morrow’s face. ‘First off, it’s not my family business. We can none of us help where we come from. I haven’t seen my father for five years. Two: Bill and I knew each other from school. Nothing I can do about that. He met my dad then. If they’re going on fucking holiday together now it’s nothing to do with me. I’m nothing to do with either of them, nothing. I never see him. He gets supervised visitation once a month and I’m not even there-’

Her fury was losing momentum and Morrow used it as an opportunity to take charge. ‘Did you start going out at school?’

‘No. It was at a friend’s wedding. He was fine at first but I got pregnant, fine, OK, still together but then suddenly, out of fucking nowhere, he gets all wrapped up in business and suddenly he’s got religion – big time.’

‘He join any groups, start hanging about with anyone?’

‘No, he’s not… it’s not that sort of religion. It’s not political.’

‘What then? Spiritual awakening?’

‘Spiritual? God, no.’ She laughed, shook her head. ‘Spiritual? No. You’re not from religious people are you?’

Morrow shook her head. Harris gave a sideways nod that suggested he was, if anyone was interested. No one was.

‘It’s not just about… you know, Jesus or whoever. It’s about… you know…’ Lily seemed puzzled, struggled to find the words. ‘Belonging to people, you know?’

She looked to them for understanding. Morrow nodded. ‘Go on.’

‘Billal wanted me to convert, go and live with his mother. Don’t get me wrong, I love Sadiqa, she’s gorgeous, but I’m Catholic, I’m Scottish, I’m not going to move in with total strangers and cover my head with a fucking scarf for the rest of my life.’

‘That would be a shame.’

The women looked at Harris who started, as if he hadn’t realised he’d said it out loud.

Morrow brought her back. ‘But Billal didn’t take it well?’

She snorted. ‘Under-fucking statement.’ Hurt eyes skirted the table, weaving through a thousand arguments and midnight calls. ‘I mean if it wasn’t for Aamir and Sadiqa insisting he wouldn’t even pay the support.’

‘Why? Does he think you make enough yourself?’

‘Oh, I don’t work.’ She seemed surprised at the suggestion. ‘Oliver’s only three and a bit.’

‘I see.’ Morrow looked around the big kitchen. ‘What about your family?’

‘No,’ she was indignant, thinking Morrow didn’t understand, ‘I wouldn’t take money, no way.’ It seemed to be a point of pride for her that she wouldn’t take cash from her dad. The irony that she’d just found someone else to squeeze seemed lost on her. ‘Bill thought I’d marry him if he stopped paying the mortgage. He even stopped paying for the nanny at one point. Then he got even more into being a Muslim and married that girl from bloody Newcastle or wherever. Arranged, for fucksake, like it was the middle ages or something. I mean, I know Sadiqa was shocked. Hers and Aamir’s was a love match. She doesn’t like subservient women.’ She shook her thick hair off her shoulders, implying that Sadiqa preferred her over Meeshra. ‘I don’t either.’

‘Lily, what does Billal do for a living?’

Lily stopped, confused as to why the conversation had diverted from a thorough exploration of her complaints. ‘For a living? Bill’s in the motor business.’

‘Bill?’

‘Specialist cars.’

Morrow thought about the Lamborghini, smelled the damp, saw a set of ludicrously white teeth. ‘I see, I see,’ she said, trying to slow her mind down by talking slowly. ‘Where’s his garage?’

‘No, he hasn’t got a garage.’

‘No garage?’

‘No, no,’ Lily waved a hand dismissively, ‘he’s just a middle man. Import/export.’