Strange Loyalties

36

Bob Lilley was standing outside the Getaway when we arrived. The three of us came out of the car. Edek had his recording equipment in a leather shoulder-bag.

‘Melanie’s inside,’ Bob said. ‘So it was good?’

‘She was good,’ I said. ‘The rest just followed.’

‘So?’ Bob said.

‘So,’ I said. ‘Brian knows the score. You and him can go and get the clearance. And we will proceed in a very direct direction. Tommy Brogan. Chuck Walker. Matt Mason last. You’ve got to build the cage before you catch the tiger. Okay, Brian?’

‘We’ll get back-up, Jack,’ Brian said.

‘Sure. But you and Bob should make the pinches. It’s your case. You do it yourselves. I just want to be there.’

‘We’ve really got them?’ Bob said.

‘Well,’ I said. ‘It does look slightly promising.’

Edek and I came into the Getaway. The place was quite busy, mainly with young people. It was good to be reminded that other things were happening besides my preoccupations. While we were looking round, a voice spoke behind me.

‘What are you doing here at this time? It’s hardly your scene.’

It was Ricky, mine altruistic host.

‘They let me out the Eventide Home for the day,’ I said.

‘Marty’s over in the corner.’

‘You do us a favour, Ricky?’ I said. I gave him a tenner. ‘You get somebody behind the bar to bring us a pint of Eighty, a whisky and water, a gin and tonic and whatever Marty’s drinking? And one for yourself.’

‘You want table service now?’

‘Just this once, Ricky. And a drink for whoever brings them over?’

‘I’ll put it to the committee.’

Marty was brooding over a whisky that was dark enough to be a Jack Daniels. None of the young people had claimed the seats at his table, perhaps because the battered authority of his presence discouraged them. With his rough face and the eccentric pony-tail, he looked like somebody who had come to his own terms with experience and might act unpredictably out of them. We sat down with him.

‘How’s Melanie?’ I said.

‘Not so good,’ Marty said. ‘She’s in the toilet. Doin’ repair work. She had a bad time?’

‘Threats were made. But they won’t be carried out.’

‘Ah hope not.’

‘Melanie’s going one place, Marty,’ I said. ‘Matt Mason’s going another. Never the twain shall meet.’

‘Ah don’t know. Malice can wait a while. An’ it’s got long arms. You’re goin’ to have to use the tape.’

‘Maybe not. We’ll see.’

A young man arrived with the drinks. While we were sorting them out, Melanie came out of the toilet. She was dressed in her jeans and jacket again. She was carrying a couple of plastic bags which she offered to Edek. The small plastic bag contained Edek’s microphone and transmitter, which he put in his leather shoulder-bag. I took the larger plastic bag and looked inside. It contained the dress and the coat.

‘Why not keep these?’ I said.

‘What?’

‘You looked good in them. You like them?’

‘Yes. They felt good to wear.’

‘Then keep them. They might remind you of the day you did something really brave. Said, to hell with being a victim.’

Edek looked at me.

‘I’ll pay,’ I said.

‘Not out of police funds,’ Melanie said.

‘Out of the pocket, Melanie,’ I said. ‘It’s not a bribe. It’s a gift. Personal. All right?’

She smiled and nodded. Taking the bag back, she put it on the floor beside her chair. There came a brief, good time like a furlough from the front. Melanie was just about due to go for her flight and the excitement of where she was going softened the bleakness of where she had been. In spite of herself, she became animated. It was good to see. Marty’s worries for her seemed to relax. She said she was glad to have confronted Matt Mason and to know the truth of the recent past. It might make the future less haunted. When Marty gently chivvied her about catching the flight, I saw, as she glanced round the room, a glimpsed fragment of the girl she must have been — interested in everything, nervous as a thoroughbred mare. We all stood up with her. We said our goodbyes. She embraced me.

‘You’re some Melanie McHarg,’ I said. ‘You did it all. The rest of us have just been on the sidelines. Good luck.’

‘The odds are against me, aren’t they?’

‘The odds are against us all. So what?’

Then she said a nice thing to me. It was about time somebody did.

‘Why weren’t you the first policeman I ever met?’ she said. ‘It might have made a difference.’

I found an envelope in my pocket and wrote my name and number on it. I tore off the piece of paper and gave it to her.

‘You’re in trouble,’ I said, ‘you ring. Over there or back here. If it’s just talk you need, we’ll talk. If things are getting heavy, we know ways to get heavier. Don’t be afraid.’

‘An’ what about me?’ Marty said.

‘If you could just learn to behave yourself, Marty, you would do us all a favour.’

He pouted a kiss at me.

‘While Ah’m waitin’ for you, Jack. I will. I promise.’

As they were leaving, Edek looked at me. He nodded towards Marty.

‘Does that mean what Ah think it means?’

‘I don’t think he was serious.’

‘Ah know, Ah know. But — ’

‘Yes. That’s Marty’s tendency. He just deals with it on his own terms. The way he does with everything else. Anyway, who stole your scone? You’ve been very quiet. What are you thinking?’

‘I’m thinking,’ Edek said, ‘that I’m glad I’m a sound recordist.’

‘Explain the mystery of your utterance, wise man,’ I said.

‘I’ll explain all right,’ Edek said. ‘You’re going to do yourself in, Jack. That stuff at that house today. You think you can handle that and stay yourself? No chance. Ah don’t even want to go near it. I want to do my job and have a pint and be with Jacqueline. Maybe climb the odd Munro at the weekend. You ever tried hill-climbing? You should. Each Munro is over three thousand feet. That’s high enough for me. You like risk too much.’

‘What’s the risk?’

‘The risk is to you. You’re spending your life in a contagious diseases unit without inoculation. What have you got in your life to counteract the bad things you live among? No marriage. No structure to your life. Why do you do it?’

I began to wonder if he had been talking to Jan. I was glad that Bob and Brian came in.

‘Officialdom is with us,’ Bob said. ‘Shall we go?’

I nodded. Edek was still looking worried about me as we left. I didn’t realise I was about to find out why.