Up close, it was hard not to stare at Mr Pink Eyes's face. His eyes demanded that you meet them, but you really wanted to study the flesh in which they sat.
He was looking at Rebus now.
`Have we met?’
`No.’
`This is Detective Inspector Rebus,' Kenworthy explained. `He's come all the way from Scotland to see you.’
`I'm flattered.’
Tarawicz's grin showed small sharp teeth with gaps between them.
`I think you know why I'm here,' Rebus said.
Tarawicz made a show of astonishment. `Do I?’
' Telford needed your help. He needed a home address for Candice, a note to her in Serbo-Croat…’
`Is this some sort of riddle?’
`And now you've taken her back.’
`Have I?’
Rebus took a half-step forward. Tarawicz's men fanned out either side of their boss. There was a sheen on Tarawicz's face which could have been sweat or some medical cream.
`She wanted out,' Rebus told him. `I promised I'd help her. I never break a promise.’
`She wanted out? She told you that?’
Tarawicz's voice was teasing.
One of the men behind cleared his throat. Rebus had been wondering about this man, so much smaller and more reticent than the others, better dressed and with sad drooping eyes and sallow skin. Now he knew: lawyer. And the cough was his way of warning Tarawicz that he was saying too much.
`I'm going to take Tommy Telford down,' Rebus said quietly. `That's my promise to you. Once he's in custody, who knows what he'll say?’
`I'm sure Mr Telford can look after himself, Inspector. Which is more than can be said for Candice.’
The lawyer coughed again.
`I want her kept off the streets,' Rebus said.
Tarawicz stared at him, tiny black pupils like spots of absolute darkness.
`Can Thomas Telford go about his daily business unfettered?’ he said at last. Behind him, the lawyer almost choked.
`You know I can't promise that,' Rebus said. `It's not me he has to worry about.’
`Take a message to your friend,' Tarawicz said. `And afterwards, stop being his friend.’
Rebus realised then: Tarawicz was talking about Cafferty. Telford had told him that Rebus was Cafferty's man.
`I think I can do that,' Rebus said quietly.
`Then do it.’
Tarawicz turned away.
`And Candice?’
`I'll see what I can do.’
He stopped, slid his hands into his jacket pockets. `Hey, Miriam,' he said, his back still to them, `I like you better in that red two-piece.’
Laughing, he walked away.
`Get in the car,' Kenworthy said through gritted teeth. Rebus got into the car. She looked nervous, dropped her keys, bent to retrieve them.
`What's wrong?’
`Nothing's wrong,' she snapped.
`The red two-piece?’
She glared at him. `I don't have a red two-piece.’
She did a three point-turn, hitting brakes and accelerator with a little more force than necessary.
`I don't get it.’
`Last week,' she said, `I bought some red underwear… bra and pants.’
She revved the engine. `Part of his little game.’
`So how does he know?’
`That's what I'm wondering.’
She shot past the dogs and out of the gate. Rebus thought of Tommy Telford, and how he'd been watching Rebus's flat.
`Surveillance isn't always one-way,' he said, knowing now who'd taught Telford the skill. A little later he asked about the scrapyard.
`He owns it. He's got a compacter, but before the cars get squashed he likes to play with them. And if you cross him, he welds your seatbelt shut.’
She looked at him. `You become part of his game.’
Never get personally involved: it was the golden rule. And practically every case he worked, Rebus broke it. He sometimes felt that the reason he became so involved in his cases was that he had no life of his own. He could only live through other people.
Why had he become so involved with Candice? Was it down to her physical resemblance to Sammy? Or was it that she had seemed to need him? The way she'd clung to his leg that first day… Had he wanted – just for a little while – to be someone's knight in shining armour, the real thing, not some mockery? John Rebus: complete bloody sham. He phoned Claverhouse from his car, filled him in. Claverhouse told him not to worry. `Thanks for that,' Rebus said. `I feel a whole lot better now. Listen, who's Telford 's supplier?’
`For what? Dope?’
`Yes.’
`That's the real joker in the pack. I mean, he does business with Newcastle, but we can't be certain who's dealing and who's buying.’
`What if Telford 's selling?’
`Then he's got a line from the continent.’
`What do Drugs Squad say?’
`They say not. If he's landing the stuff from a boat, it means transporting it from the coast. Much more likely he's buying from Newcastle. Tarawicz has the contacts in Europe.’
`Makes you wonder why he needs Tommy Telford at all…’
`John, do yourself a favour, switch off for five minutes.’
'Colquhoun seems to be keeping his head down…’
`Did you hear me?’
`I'll talk to you soon.’
`Are you heading back?’
`In a manner of speaking.’
Rebus cut the call and drove.
11
'Strawman.,' said Morris Gerald Cafferty, as he was escorted into the room by two prison guards.
Earlier in the year, Rebus had promised Cafferty he would put a Glasgow gangster, Uncle Joe Toal, behind bars. It hadn't worked, despite Rebus's best efforts. Toal, pleading old age and illness, was still a free man, like a war criminal excused for senility. Ever since then, Cafferty had felt Rebus owed him.
Cafferty sat down, rolled his neck a few times, loosening it.
`So?’ he asked.
Rebus nodded for the guards to leave, waited in silence until they'd gone. Then he slipped a quarter-bottle of Bell 's from his pocket.
`Keep it,' Cafferty told him. `From the look of you, I'd say your need was greater than mine.’
Rebus put the bottle back in his pocket. `I've brought a message from Newcastle.’
Cafferty folded his arms. `Jake Tarawicz?’
Rebus nodded. `He wants you to lay off Tommy Telford.’
`What does he mean?’
`Come on, Cafferty. That bouncer who got stabbed, the dealer wounded… There's war breaking out.’
Cafferty stared at the detective. `Not my doing.’
Rebus snorted, but looking into Cafferty's eyes, he found himself almost believing.
`So who was it?’ he asked quietly.
`How do I know?’
`Nevertheless, war is breaking out.’
`That's as may be. What's in it for Tarawicz?’
`He does business with Tommy.’
`And to protect that, he needs to have me warned off by a cop?’
Cafferty was shaking his head. `You really buy that?’
`I don't know,' Rebus said.
`One way to finish this.’
Cafferty paused. `Take Telford out of the game.’
He saw the look on Rebus's face. `I don't mean top him, I mean put him away. That should be your job, Strawman.’
`I only came to deliver a message.’
`And what's in it for you? Something in Newcastle?’
`Maybe.’
`Are you Tarawicz's man now?’
`You know me better than that.’
`Do I?’
Cafferty sat back in his chair, stretched out his legs. `I wonder about that sometimes. I mean, it doesn't keep me awake at night, but I wonder all the same.’
Rebus leaned on the table. `You must have a bit salted away. Why can't you just be content with that?’
Cafferty laughed. The air felt charged; there might have been only the two of them left in the world. `You want me to retire?’
`A good boxer knows when to stop.’
`Then neither of us would be much cop in the ring, would we? Got any plans to retire, Strawman?’
Despite himself, Rebus smiled.
`Thought not. Do I have to say something for you to take back to Tarawicz?’