Murray slid his hand into his jeans pocket and found a two-pound coin.
‘Coke, please.’
The grey man on the bar stool turned and gave him the smallest of smiles. His voice was low, but Murray had no trouble hearing him over the beat of the music.
‘Are you a member, sir?’
Murray took in the uncarpeted floor, the couches draped with cheap cotton throws, the stubbled bartender back in the sports page of his tabloid.
‘No, I’m afraid not.’
‘No problem. I can sign you in.’
‘Cheers.’
He hoped the man wouldn’t expect a drink in exchange.
‘There’s a ten pounds entrance fee for non-members.’
Murray felt his eyes drifting back towards the stage. He forced himself to look at the bouncer.
‘I wasn’t planning on staying.’
‘Fair enough.’ The man slid from his stool and put a firm grip on Murray’s elbow, but his tone was as courteous as Professor Fergus Baine correcting a departmental rival’s slip in literary theory. ‘I’ll see you to the door.’
‘I mean I’m only stopping a minute.’
‘In that case it’ll be a tenner.’
‘The thing is,’ Murray gently disengaged himself and leant against the bar, striving for a mateyness he’d long known was outside his repertoire, ‘there’s a girl I want to avoid.’
The barman raised his eyes from the paper.
‘I ken the feeling.’
Murray smiled at him, keen to win an ally.
‘So if you’d just let me stop here for a moment, three minutes at the most, you’d be doing me a huge favour. I’m happy to buy a drink.’
He opened his palm, revealing the two-pound coin within. It looked pathetic and he closed his fingers round it again.
‘No problem.’ The bouncer’s voice was slick with the complacency of a school bully extorting dinner money from a swot. ‘You can stay for as long or as short a time as you want, but the fee remains the same, ten pounds.’ His smile showed surprisingly white teeth. ‘We accept all major credit cards.’
Murray wondered if Lyn and her companion had already passed by, but there had been a vintage vinyl shop between them and the pub. The man in the wheelchair had looked the type to linger at its window.
‘I’m happy to buy a pint, but you can’t really expect me to pay ten quid for one drink?’
The bouncer put his hand back on Murray’s elbow.
‘Be more like fourteen quid, mate, the drinks aren’t free. Anyway, it depends how much you want to avoid her.’
They were approaching the exit now. Murray made one last appeal.
‘What harm would it do?’
‘Immeasurable, mate.’ The man nodded towards the girl on stage. ‘Strictly-Cum-Dancing would report me to the boss, and I’d be out on my ear.’ He opened the door. ‘Nothing personal.’ And gave Murray a gentle shove out into the sunshine.
Murray scanned the street. Lyn and her companion were walking away from the pub, their backs towards him. He was safe. He grinned at the bouncer. ‘I’ll let you get back to the Ritz then.’
The man gave Murray a good-natured smile.
‘Is that her there, the skinny piece with Ironside?’
‘No.’
Murray started to walk away, just as the bouncer shouted, ‘Hey, doll, he’s over here.’
Lyn turned. A look of confusion clouded her face, but she raised a hand in greeting. She said something to her companion and started to walk back to where Murray now waited.
The grey man grinned. ‘Next time, pay the entrance fee.’ He let the door swing behind him, shutting out the darkness and music, leaving Murray to face his brother’s girlfriend.
‘Hello, stranger.’
Lyn’s expression was out of kilter with the jaunty greeting and Murray wondered if she’d noticed what kind of pub he’d been in. Usually when they met they kissed, but neither of them made the first move and the moment was lost.
‘Hi.’ He readjusted his heavy bag, fighting the urge to take it from his back. ‘How are you?’
‘Good.’ Lyn pushed a strand of loose hair away. The sun was in her face and she narrowed her eyes as she looked up at him. He was reminded of a photograph Jack had taken of her wearing the same expression, battling the light. ‘I didn’t know you were coming through.’
Her voice was free of reproach, but he felt it anyway.
‘I’m here most days at the moment, working up at the library.’
‘How’s it going?’
‘Aye, fine.’ He sought for something else to say. ‘I’m getting into it.’
Lyn turned towards the man in the chair.
‘Frankie, this is my brother-in-law, Murray. Murray, this is Frankie. We were just on our way to the shops.’
Frankie pulled his hat up on his forehead and stared Murray out.
‘Any good in there?’ He nodded back towards the pub.
Lyn said, ‘Frankie.’ Half-cajoling, half-warning, and Murray realised that his visit wasn’t a secret.
‘No.’ He tried to keep it light. ‘Ten pounds entrance fee and the music was too loud.’ He looked at Lyn. ‘I went in by mistake.’
She glanced at the A-board outside on the street advertising: LAP DANCING, FANTASY CABINS, EXECUTIVE BOOTHS, EXOTIC DANCERS, OFFICE DOs AND STAG PARTIES WELCOME.
‘Easy done.’
‘No disabled access.’ Frankie zizzed the chair into life. ‘That’s against the law.’ He rolled back and forth, letting the tyres hiss his impatience. Come on, come on, come on, come on.
A wheel nudged Murray’s foot and he took a sharp step back.
‘Frankie.’ Lyn’s voice held an unfamiliar, scolding edge. ‘We’re only going to Lidl’s. It’ll still be there if we spare a moment to say hello.’
‘But some of those great offers won’t be, Lyn.’ Frankie glanced up at Murray. Standing, he might have been the taller of the two. ‘No offence, man, but you know how it is.’
Murray didn’t, but he nodded anyway.
‘I wouldn’t want to hold you back.’
‘Don’t worry about it.’ Frankie snapped the electric chair around and careered ahead.
‘Jesus fuck.’ There was a break in Lyn’s voice that might have been amusement or despair. ‘Watch him go. I’d like to get my hands on the genius that issued him with that thing.’
‘They must be cracking offers. Should you go with him?’
‘He’s a grown man.’
‘Difficult customer?’
‘Easy customers needn’t apply.’
‘Aye, I suppose.’ He nodded back at the pub. ‘I really didn’t notice it was a go-go bar before I went in.’
‘Go-go bar.’ Lyn laughed. ‘You’ve some turn of phrase.’ She looked beyond him, following Frankie’s progress with her eyes, before turning her attention back to Murray. ‘It wouldn’t be any of my business if you did.’
‘But I didn’t.’
‘Must have been a shock to the system.’
‘A wee bit. I was looking for somewhere to get a bowl of soup.’ They laughed together and for the first time he was glad they’d met. Lyn glanced back in the direction Frankie had taken. He was a block ahead now, talking to a Big Issue vendor. Frankie reached into his pocket for a pack of cigarettes and the vendor sparked them both up.
‘I’d better go after him, our bus is about due. Have you got time to walk to the stop with me?’
It was the opposite direction from the one he’d intended taking, but Murray nodded and they started to follow slowly in Frankie’s wake, like parents who had let their child run ahead on a weekend walk.
‘So is Frankie your main man at the moment?’
‘There’s a horrible thought, but now you mention it, I do seem to spend more time with him than I do with anyone else, including Jack.’