‘This is it,’ said Dylan, hauling me back from my dark thoughts to the present. ‘His house is at the end of this cul-de-sac. ’ I turned right, as he indicated.
It was a short street, nothing much to it at all really, half a dozen houses down either side and one at the end: Jack Gantry’s home. An opening to the driveway gaped at us, but I couldn’t see the house from the roadway, since the view was blocked by mature trees down either side of the carriageway and by a high hedge beyond.
What I could see was the dark shape of a Range Rover, parked under the trees, and inside it, almost filling it, an even darker form. Switching off my lights as we cruised up behind it, I drew the Frontera to a halt. Without a word to each other, Dylan and I climbed out and walked up to the driver’s door. Gently I tapped at the window.
Everett Davis started in his seat, banging his head on the roof. He had to turn on the car’s electrics to lower his window, but when he had he looked at us angrily.
‘What you guys doing here?’ he demanded.
‘Naw,’ I said. ‘We saw you first. What the hell are you doing here?’
‘I’m thinking, man,’ he growled. The sound made me imagine unlucky souls lost in the veldt, hearing a noise like that just before they found themselves added to the local menu. ‘I’m thinking about kicking that man’s door down and strangling the mother with his own chain.’
His eyes glistened as he looked at me. ‘Diane’s in there, man.’ The growl had become a moan.
‘Not again, Ev,’ I protested as I leaned against the car. ‘First Liam, now Gantry.’
‘It’s true this time, Oz,’ he muttered. ‘This morning I didn’t get up till later; we’d decided we weren’t going into the office. When I come downstairs she was just finishing a call. . on her mobile, so I didn’t pick up any extension and hear her.’ He glanced at me. ‘You gimme another reason why she wouldn’t use the house phone.
‘So I set a trap. I told her I’d decided to go to London this afternoon, to look at a venue. I packed an overnight bag and I left. But instead of going to the airport, I just drove back up the street and I waited, parked behind a skip someone had hired and left out there.
‘I waited for hours, man. I was just about to admit to myself that you were right and I was an idiot, when she drove out. I just stayed a few cars behind her and followed her; followed her right here. She drove in there and parked right in the garage. I could just see over the hedge when she walked to the door, and I could see who opened it.’ He paused.
‘I waited ten minutes, then I saw a light go on upstairs.’
He looked at me plaintively. ‘Oz, I know you don’t do matrimonial stuff, but would you come in there with me, just as my friend?’
I think I must have looked like Dracula when I smiled at him in the dark, to judge by his expression. ‘Of course I will, Everett. Mike and I are going in there ourselves anyway. Tag along with us. If you’re lucky you might get to kick the door right enough.’
He nodded and climbed out of his car, closing the door as quietly as he could.
Jack Gantry’s house was impressive enough for a Lord Provost, but not overly large for a multi-millionaire; a red sandstone villa on two floors, with a grey slate roof. The driveway was all monoblock paving rather than gravel, so we were silent as we walked up to the front door.
There was a double garage at the side, with a single wide door, which was open. As we approached, Dylan stepped across and looked inside, then motioned me to join him.
There was a motor-cycle inside, a big powerful Kawasaki job. ‘That’s O’Rourke’s bike,’ said the detective. ‘I recognise the number. Let’s just be a bit careful in there.’
I looked over my shoulder and out of the garage at Everett, and felt myself gleaming inside with anticipation. ‘With him as back-up, pal, it isn’t us who have to be careful.’
We stepped up to the front door; I felt totally in command, but I let Dylan ring the bell for form’s sake. All the ground floor was in darkness, but as Everett had said, one big bay window on the first floor showed light behind its drawn curtains. I told the giant to stand to one side, in the darkness beyond the door, so that he was out of sight.
We waited for a full minute, then Dylan rang the bell again. Finally, the curtains moved and a face peered out. I reckoned it was the first time I had seen Jack Gantry without his gold chain. We gazed up at the window, until it swung open.
‘What the hell is this, Mike?’ the Lord Provost exclaimed as he leaned out. His hair was messed up and he was wearing a heavy tweed dressing gown.
‘We have to talk to you, Jack. Open up.’
‘Indeed I will not, Inspector. Now get the hell off my doorstep. You too, Oz.’
‘I don’t think so, Mr Gantry,’ I called up to him. ‘Either you let us in or my big friend here. .’ Unbidden, but dead on cue, Everett stepped out of the shadows ‘. . will take your house apart, stone by stone, just to get to you. You’re nailed, Lord Provost, you and your murderous bastard of a nephew.’
I smiled at him. ‘You do have an alternative, though. In a place like this you’re bound to have a library and a pearl-handled revolver.’
In an instant, Gantry regained his equanimity, goaded, I guessed by my challenge. He beamed down at me, at his most avuncular. ‘I don’t think so, young man. That’s not my style. Just hold on for a minute or two, and I’ll be down.’
‘You better tell Diane to get her ass down too,’ Everett barked. The Lord Provost had no quick comeback for him. He closed the window.
When he let us in a few minutes later, he was fully dressed, in grey slacks, an open-necked shirt and, of all things, a smoking jacket. As we stepped into the big hallway of the villa, we saw Diane, in a leisure suit, standing halfway up the stairs.
‘Honey,’ said Everett, far more calmly than I had expected, ‘you get in your car and go home. I’ll be back later.’
She shook her head.
‘Honey, I promise you I will not lay one finger on this son of a bitch.’
She stared at him, still scared speechless. ‘He won’t, Diane,’ I told her. ‘I’ll see to that.’ She didn’t understand me. . no one did at the time, probably not even me. . but eventually she grabbed her handbag, which was hanging on a Victorian hat stand at the foot of the stairs, and ran out of the door.
‘How gallant of you, Everett,’ said Gantry as we followed him through into a small panelled room, which appeared to be a study. ‘Is it a duel you’ll be wanting?’
‘You heard what I promised her. If I was going to touch you, your back would be broke by now. I just want to hear what you got to say.’
‘About Diane? Nothing. I like beautiful women, and every so often I find that they respond to me. Not to my money, or my office, you understand; that’s not what I like. They have to respond to me, as a man. Diane does; or did, I suppose I should say now.’
‘Do you want her?’ Everett barked.
Gantry looked at him, almost down his nose. ‘Good God no!’ he said. ‘She was drawn to me, she had a need, I fulfilled it. That’s it.
‘Don’t blame her, Everett. Blame yourself if anyone. You assume that she’s as wrapped up in your appalling business as you are. She isn’t, man. She’d like some of your time for herself, every now and again. She even wears those ridiculous costumes in your shows to provoke you, but she never manages to. . or so she tells me.’ He sneered at the huge wrestler.
‘Your business is a pantomime, Everett, full of role-play, and so is your life. But in life there has to be real action, man, not make-believe. That’s what she’s been missing.’
Gantry seemed to have switched into full campaigning mode. The way he was going I was afraid Everett would wind up thanking him for shagging his wife, so I decided to put a stop to it.
‘Let’s leave Diane out of this, Lord Provost,’ I said. ‘There are lots of things I want to ask you. First off, why did you set your nephew Gary O’Rourke up to sabotage the GWA?’