Beggars Banquet

by Ian Rankin

  On Tuesday morning, Leighton phoned the station. Rebus got in first.‘You didn’t tell me you were a taxman, Mr Leighton.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘A taxman.’

  ‘What does it matter?’

  What did it matter? How many enemies could one taxman make? Rebus swallowed back the question. He could always use a friend in Her Majesty’s Inland Revenue, for personal as well as strictly professional use . . .

  ‘I know what you’re thinking,’ Leighton was saying, though Rebus doubted it. ‘And it’s true that I work in the Collector’s office, sending out the demands. But my name’s never on the demands. The Inspector of Taxes might be mentioned by name, but I’m a lowly cog, Inspector.’

  ‘Even so, you must write to people sometimes. There might be somebody out there with a grudge.’

  ‘I’ve given it some thought, Inspector. It was my first thought. But in any case I don’t deal with Edinburgh.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘I deal with south London.’

  Rebus noted that, phoning from his place of work, Leighton was less nervous-sounding. He sounded cool, detached. He sounded like a tax collector. South London: but the letters had local postmarks - another theory sealed under cover and posted into eternity, no return address.

  ‘The reason I’m calling,’ Leighton was saying, ‘is that I had another letter this morning.’

  ‘With a photo?’

  ‘Yes, there’s a photo.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘It’s difficult to explain. I could come to the station at lunchtime.’

  ‘Don’t bother yourself, Mr Leighton. I’ll come to the tax office. All part of the service.’

  Rebus was thinking of back-handers, gifts from grateful members of the public, all the pubs where he could be sure of a free drink, chip shops that wouldn’t charge for a feed, all the times he’d helped out for a favour, the way those favours accumulated and were paid off . . . Tax forms asked you about tips received. Rebus always left the box blank. Had he always been accurate about amounts of bank interest? More crucially, several months ago he had started renting his flat to three students while he lived rent-free with Dr Patience Aitken. He had no intention of declaring . . . well, maybe he would. It helped to know a friendly taxman, someone who might soon owe him a favour.

  ‘That’s very good of you, Inspector,’ Leighton was saying.

  ‘Not at all, sir.’

  ‘Only it all seems to have been a mistake anyway.’

  ‘A mistake?’

  ‘You’ll see when I show you the photograph.’

  Rebus saw.He saw a man and a woman. In the foreground was a coffee table, spread with bottles and glasses and cans, an ashtray full to overflowing. Behind this, a sofa, and on the sofa a man and a woman. Lying along the sofa, hugging one another. The photographer had caught them like this, their faces just beginning to turn towards the camera, grinning and flushed with that familiar mix of alcohol and passion. Rebus had been to these sorts of party, parties where the alcohol was necessary before there could be any passion. Behind the couple, two men stood in animated conversation. It was a good clear photo, the work of a 35mm camera with either a decent flash-gun or else no necessity for one.

  ‘And here’s the letter,’ said Leighton. They were seated on an uncomfortable, spongy sofa in the tax office’s reception area. Rebus had been hoping for a sniff behind the scenes, but Leighton worked in an open-plan office with less privacy even than the reception area. Few members of the public ever visited the building, and the receptionist was at the other end of the hallway. Staff wandered through on their way to the coffee machine or the snack dispenser, the toilets or the post-room, but otherwise this was as quiet as it got.

  ‘A bit longer than the others,’ Leighton said, handing the letter over.

  Mr Leighton,Here is the photo. We have plenty more, plus negatives. Cheap at £2,000 the lot, and your wife will never know. The money should be in fives and tens, nothing bigger. Put it in a William Low’s carrier-bag and go to Greyfriars Kirkyard on Friday at 3 p.m. Leave the bag behind Greyfriars Bobby’s gravestone. Walk away. Photos and negatives will be sent to you.

  ‘Not exactly the quietest spot for a handover,’ Rebus mused. Although the actual statue of Greyfriars Bobby, sited just outside the kirkyard, was more popular with tourists, the gravestone was a popular enough stop-off. The idea of leaving a bagful of money there surreptitiously was almost laughable. But at least now the extortion was serious. A time and place had been mentioned as well as a sum, a sum to be left in a Willie Low’s bag. Rebus more than ever doubted the blackmailer’s professionalism.‘You see what I mean?’ Leighton said. ‘I can only think that if it isn’t a joke, then it’s a case of mistaken identity.’

  True enough, Leighton wasn’t any of the three men in the photo, not by any stretch of the will or imagination. Rebus concentrated on the woman. She was small, heavy, somehow managing to fit into a dress two sizes too small for her. It was black and short, rumpled most of the way to her bum, with plenty of cleavage at the other end. She also wore black tights and black patent-leather shoes. But somehow Rebus didn’t think he was looking at a funeral.

  ‘I don’t suppose’, he said, ‘this is your wife?’

  Leighton actually laughed, the sound of paper shredding.

  ‘Thought not,’ Rebus said quietly. He turned his attention to the man on the sofa, the man whose arms were trapped beneath the weight of the smirking woman. There was something about that face, that hairstyle. Then it hit Rebus, and things started to make a little more sense.

  ‘I didn’t recognise him at first,’ he said, thinking out loud.

  ‘You mean you know him?’

  Rebus nodded slowly. ‘Only I’ve never seen him smile before, that’s what threw me.’ He studied the photo again, then stabbed it with a finger. The tip of his finger was resting on the face of one of the other men, the two behind the sofa. ‘And I know him,’ he said. ‘I can place him now.’ Leighton looked impressed. Rebus moved his finger on to the recumbent woman. ‘What’s more, I know her too. I know her quite well.’

  Leighton didn’t look impressed now, he looked startled, perhaps even disbelieving.

  ‘Three out of four,’ Rebus said. ‘Not a bad score, eh?’ Leighton didn’t answer, so Rebus smiled reassuringly. ‘Don’t you worry, sir. I’ll take care of this. You won’t be bothered any more.’

  ‘Well . . . thank you, Inspector.’

  Rebus got to his feet. ‘All part of the service, Mr Leighton. Who knows, maybe you’ll be able to help me one of these days . . .’

  Rebus sat at his desk, reading the file. Then, when he was satisfied, he tapped into the computer and checked some details regarding a man who was doing a decent stretch in Peterhead jail. When he’d finished, there was a broad grin on his face, an event unusual enough in itself to send DC Siobhan Clarke sauntering over in Rebus’s direction, trying not to get too close (fear of being hooked), but close enough to register interest. Before she knew it, Rebus was reeling her in anyway.‘Get your coat,’ he said.

  She angled her head back towards her desk. ‘But I’m in the middle of—’

  ‘You’re in the middle of my catchment, Siobhan. Now fetch your coat.’

  Never be nosy, and always keep your head down: somehow Siobhan Clarke hadn’t yet learned those two golden rules of the easy life. Not that anything was easy when John Rebus was in the office. Which was precisely why she liked working near him.

  ‘Where are we going?’ she said.

  Rebus told her on the way. He also handed the file to her so she could read it through.

  ‘Not guilty,’ she said at last.

  ‘And I’m Robbie Coltrane,’ said Rebus. They were both talking about a case from a few months before. A veteran hard man had been charged with the attempted armed hold-up of a security van. There had been evidence as to his guilt - just about enough evidence - and his alibi had been shaky. He’d told police of having spent the day in questi
on in a bar near his mother’s home in Muirhouse, probably the city’s most notorious housing scheme. Plenty of witnesses came forward to agree that he had been there all day. These witnesses boasted names like Tam the Bam, Big Shug, the Screwdriver, and Wild Eck. The look of them in the witness-box, police reasoned, would be enough to convince the jury of the defendant’s guilt. But there had been one other witness . . .

  ‘Miss June Redwood,’ quoted DC Clarke, rereading the casenotes.

  ‘Yes,’ said Rebus, ‘Miss June Redwood.’

  An innocent, dressed in a solemn two-piece as she gave her evidence at the trial. She was a social worker, caring for the most desperate in Edinburgh’s most desperate area. Needing to make a phone call, and sensing she’d have no luck with Muirhouse’s few public kiosks, she had walked into the Castle Arms, probably the first female the regulars had seen in the saloon bar since the landlord’s wife had walked out on him fifteen years before. She’d asked to use the phone, and a man had wandered over to her from a table and, with a wink, had asked if she’d like a drink. She’d refused. She could see he’d had a few - more than a few. His table had the look of a lengthy session about it - empty pint glasses placed one inside another to form a leaning tower, ashtray brimming with butts and empty packets, the newspaper’s racing page heavily marked in biro.

  Miss Redwood had given a quietly detailed account, at odds with the loud, confident lies of the other defence witnesses. And she was sure that she’d walked into the bar at 3 p.m., five minutes before the attack on the security van took place. The prosecution counsel had tried his best, gaining from the social worker the acknowledgement that she knew the accused’s mother through her work, though the old woman was not actually her client. The prosecutor had stared out at the fifteen jury members, attempting without success to plant doubt in their minds. June Redwood was a rock-solid witness. Solid enough to turn a golden prosecution case into a verdict of ‘not guilty’. The accused had walked free. Close, as the fairground saying went, but definitely no goldfish.

  Rebus had been in court for the verdict, and had left with a shrug and a low growl. A security guard lay in hospital suffering from shotgun wounds. Now the case would have to be looked at again, if not by Rebus then by some other poor bugger who would go through the same old steps, knowing damned fine who the main suspect was, and knowing that he was walking the streets and drinking in pubs, and chuckling at his luck.

  Except that it wasn’t luck: it was planning, as Rebus now knew.

  DC Clarke finished her second reading of the file. ‘I suppose you checked on Redwood at the time?’

  ‘Of course we did. Not married, no boyfriends. No proof - not even the faintest rumour - that she knew Keith.’

  Clarke looked at the photo. ‘And this is her?’

  ‘It’s her, and it’s him - Keith Leyton.’

  ‘And it was sent to . . . ?’

  ‘It was addressed to a Mr K. Leighton. They didn’t get the spelling right. I checked in the phone book. Keith Leyton’s ex-directory. Either that or he doesn’t have a phone. But our little tax collector is in there under K. Leighton.’

  ‘And they sent the letters to him by mistake?’

  ‘They must know Keith Leyton hangs out in Muirhouse. His mum lives in Muirhouse Crescent.’

  ‘Where does Kenneth Leighton live?’

  Rebus grinned at the windscreen. ‘Muirwood Crescent - only it’s not in Muirhouse, it’s in Currie.’

  Siobhan Clarke smiled too. ‘I don’t believe it,’ she said.

  Rebus shrugged. ‘It happens. They looked in the phone book, thought the address looked right, and started sending the letters.’

  ‘So they’ve been trying to blackmail a criminal . . .’

  ‘And instead they’ve found a taxman.’ Now Rebus laughed outright. ‘They must be mad, naïve, or built like a hydro-electric station. If they’d really tried this bampot caper on with Leyton, he’d have dug a fresh grave or two in Greyfriars for them. I’ll give them one thing, though.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘They know about Keith’s wife.’

  ‘His wife?’

  Rebus nodded. ‘She lives near the mum. Big woman. Jealous. That’s why Keith would keep any girlfriend secret - that’s why he’d want to keep her a secret. The blackmailers must have thought that gave them a chance that he’d cough up.’

  Rebus stopped the car. He had parked outside a block of flats in Oxgangs. The block was one of three, each one shaped like a capital H lying on its face. Caerketton Court: Rebus had once had a fling with a school-dinner lady who lived on the second floor . . .

  ‘I checked with June Redwood’s office,’ he said. ‘She’s off sick.’ He craned his neck out of the window. ‘Tenth floor apparently, let’s hope the lift’s working.’ He turned to Siobhan. ‘Otherwise we’ll have to resort to the telephone.’

  The lift was working, though barely. Rebus and Siobhan ignored the wrapped paper parcel in one corner. Neither liked to think what it might contain. Still, Rebus was impressed that he could hold his breath for as long as the lift took to crackle its way up ten flights. The tenth floor seemed all draughts and high-pitched winds. The building had a perceptible sway, not quite like being at sea. Rebus pushed the bell of June Redwood’s flat and waited. He pushed again. Siobhan was standing with her arms folded around her, shuffling her feet.‘I’d hate to see you on a football terrace in January,’ said Rebus.

  There was a sound from inside the door, then the door itself was opened by a woman with unwashed hair, a tissue to her nose, and wrapped in a thick dressing-gown.

  ‘Hello there, Miss Redwood,’ said Rebus brightly. ‘Remember me?’ Then he held up the photograph. ‘Doubtless you remember him too. Can we come in?’

  They went in. As they sat in the untidy living-room, it crossed Siobhan Clarke’s mind that they had no way of proving when the photo was taken. And without that, they had nothing. Say the party had taken place after the trial - it could well be that Leyton and June Redwood had met then. In fact, it made sense. After his release, Leyton probably would want to throw a party, and he would certainly want to invite the woman who had been his saviour. She hoped Rebus had thought of this. She hoped he wasn’t going to go too far . . . as usual.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ said June Redwood, wiping her nose again.

  ‘Come on, June,’ said Rebus. ‘Here’s the proof. You and Keith together in a clinch. The man you claimed at his trial was a complete stranger. Do you often get this comfortable with strangers?’

  This earned a thin smile from June Redwood.

  ‘If so,’ Rebus continued, ‘you must invite me to one of your parties.’

  Siobhan Clarke swallowed hard. Yes, the Inspector was going to go too far. Had she ever doubted it?

  ‘You’d be lucky,’ said the social worker.

  ‘It’s been known,’ said Rebus. He relaxed into his chair. ‘Doesn’t take a lot of working out, does it?’ he went on. ‘You must have met Keith through his mum. You became . . . friends, let’s call it. I don’t know what his wife will call it.’ Blood started to tinge June Redwood’s neck. ‘You look better already,’ said Rebus. ‘At least I’ve put a bit of colour in your cheeks. You met Keith, started going out with him. It had to be kept secret though. The only thing Keith Leyton fears is Mrs Keith Leyton.’

  ‘Her name’s Joyce,’ said Redwood.

  Rebus nodded. ‘So it is.’

  ‘I could know that from the trial,’ she snapped. ‘I wouldn’t have to know him to know that.’

  Rebus nodded again. ‘Except that you were a witness, June. You weren’t in court when Joyce Leyton was mentioned.’

  Her face now looked as though she’d been lying out too long in the non-existent sun. But she had a trump card left. ‘That photo could have been taken any time.’

  Siobhan held her breath: yes, this was the crunch. Rebus seemed to realise it too. ‘You’re right there,’ he said. ‘Any time at all . . . up to a month before Keith’
s trial.’

  The room was quiet for a moment. The wind found a gap somewhere and rustled a spider-plant near the window, whistling as though through well-spaced teeth.

  ‘What?’ said June Redwood. Rebus held the photograph up again.

  ‘The man behind you, the one with long hair and the tattoo. Ugly-looking loon. He’s called Mick McKelvin. It must have been some party, June, when bruisers like Keith and Mick were invited. They’re not exactly your cocktail crowd. They think a canapé’s something you throw over a stolen car to keep it hidden.’ Rebus smiled at his own joke. Well, someone had to.

  ‘What are you getting at?’

  ‘Mick went inside four weeks before Keith’s trial. He’s serving three years in Peterhead. Persistent B and E. So you see, there’s no way this party could have taken place after Keith’s trial. Not unless Peterhead’s security has got a bit lax. No, it had to be before, meaning you had to know him before the trial. Know what that means?’ Rebus sat forward. June Redwood wasn’t wiping her nose with the tissue now; she was hiding behind it, and looking frightened. ‘It means you stood in the witness-box and you lied, just like Keith told you to. Serious trouble, June. You might end up with your own social worker, or even a prison visitor.’ Rebus’s voice had dropped in volume, as though June and he were having an intimate tête-à-tête over a candlelit dinner. ‘So I really think you’d better help us, and you can start by talking about the party. Let’s start with the photograph, eh?’