Falls

by Ian Rankin

  ‘But you didn’t see her do it?’

  Sensing another confrontation brewing, Gill stepped in. ‘Why don’t we just bring her in here and ask her?’

  Rebus nodded. ‘I’ll fetch her.’ He paused. ‘With your permission, sir?’

  Carswell sighed. ‘Go on then.’

  But out in the Inquiry Room, there was no sign of Siobhan. Rebus walked the corridors, asking for her. At the drinks machine, someone said she’d just gone past. Rebus quickened his pace, hauled open the doors to the outside world. No sign of her on the pavement; no sign of her car. He wondered if she’d parked further away, looked to left and right. Busy Leith Walk one way, and the narrow streets of the New Town’s east end the other. If he headed into the New Town, her flat was five minutes away, but instead he went back indoors.

  ‘She’s gone,’ he told Gill. Catching his breath, he noticed Carswell was missing. ‘Where’s the ACC?’

  ‘Summoned to the Big House. I think the Chief Constable wanted a word.’

  ‘Gill, we’ve got to find her. Get some bodies out there.’ He nodded towards the Inquiry Room. ‘It’s not like they’re setting the world on fire in here.’

  ‘Okay, John, we’ll find her, don’t worry. Maybe Brains knows where she’s gone.’ She lifted the receiver. ‘We’ll start with him ..

  But Eric Bain seemed as elusive as Siobhan. He was known to be somewhere in the Big House, but nobody knew exactly where. Meantime, Rebus tried Siobhan’s home number and mobile. He got her answering machine at the former, a recorded message at the latter, telling him the phone was in use. When he tried five minutes later, it was still in use. By that time, he was using his own mobile, walking downhill to Siobhan’s street. He tried her buzzer, with no response. Crossed the road and stared at her window for so long that passers-by started looking up too, wondering what he could see that they couldn’t. Her car wasn’t parked kerbside, nor was it in any of the surrounding streets.

  Gill had already left a message with Siobhan’s pager, asking for an urgent call-back, but Rebus had wanted more, and eventually she’d agreed: patrols would be on the lookout for her car.

  But now, standing outside her flat, it struck Rebus that she could be anywhere, not just inside the city boundary. Quizmaster had taken her to Hart Fell and Rosslyn Chapel. No telling where he’d choose for a rendezvous. The more isolated it was, the more danger Siobhan was in. He felt like punching himself in the face: he should have dragged her into that meeting with him, not given her the chance to do a runner … He tried her mobile again: still engaged. Nobody made a call that long on their mobile, way too expensive. Then, suddenly, he knew what it was: her mobile was hooked to Grant Hood’s laptop. Even now, she could be telling Quizmaster she was on her way …

  Siobhan had parked her car. Two hours yet till the time Quizmaster had suggested. She reckoned she could lie low till then. The pager message from Gill Templer had told her two things: one was that Rebus had told Gill everything; two, that if she ignored Gill’s order, she’d have some explaining to do.

  Explaining? She was having trouble doing that even to herself. All she knew was that the game—and she knew it wasn’t just a game; was something potentially much more dangerous—but all the same it had gotten to her Quizmaster, whoever he or she turned out to be, had gotten to her, to the extent that she could think of little else. The daily clues and puzzles, she missed them, would gladly take on more of them. But more than that, she wanted to know, know everything there was to know about Quizmaster and the game. Stricture had impressed her, because Quizmaster had to have suspected that she would be present at the funeral, and that the clue would only start making sense to her at Flip’s graveside. Stricture indeed … but she felt the word applied to her, too, because she felt bound by the game, tied to it and to identifying its creator. And at the same time she felt almost smothered by it. Was Quizmaster present at the funeral? Had he—or she (remembering Bain’s advice to keep an open mind)—seen Siobhan pick up the note? Maybe … The thought made her shiver. But then, the funeral had been announced in the media. Maybe Quizmaster had found out that way. It was the nearest cemetery to Flip’s home; a good chance she’d be interred there …

  None of which explained why she was doing what she was doing, going out on her own fragile limb like this. It was the sort of stupid thing she regularly chastised Rebus for. Maybe Grant had decided it for her, Grant who had shown himself a ‘company player’, with his suits and his tan, looking good on ‘TV—good PR for the force.

  One game she knew she didn’t want to play.

  Many times she’d crossed the line, but always crossing back again. She’d break a rule or two, but nothing important, nothing career-threatening, and then hop back into the fold. She wasn’t a born outsider in the way she sensed John Rebus was, but she’d learned that she liked it on his side of the fence, liked it better than becoming a Grant or a Derek Linford … people who played their own games, doing anything it took to keep in with the men who mattered, men like Colin Carswell.

  At one time, she’d thought maybe she could learn from Gill Templer, but Gill had become just like the others. She had her own interests to protect, whatever that took. In order to rise, she’d had to take on the worst attributes of someone like Carswell, while wrapping her own feelings inside some sort of reinforced box.

  If rising through the ranks meant losing a part of herself, Siobhan didn’t want it. She’d known as much back at the dinner in Hadrian’s, when Gill had hinted at things to come.

  Maybe that was what she was doing out here, out on her limb—proving something to herself. Maybe it wasn’t really about the game and Quizmaster so much as it was about her.

  She moved in her seat so she was facing the laptop. The line was already open, had been since she’d got into the car. No new messages, so she typed in one of her own.

  Meeting accepted. See you there. Siobhan.

  And clicked on ‘send’.

  After which, she shut down the computer, disconnected the phone and powered it down—battery needed a boost anyway. She placed both beneath the passenger seat, making sure they weren’t visible to pedestrians: didn’t want someone breaking in. When she got out of the car, she made sure all the doors were locked, and that the little red alarm button was flashing.

  Just under two hours to go now; a little time to kill …

  Jean Burchill had tried calling Professor Devlin, but no one ever answered. So finally she wrote him a note, asking him to contact her, and decided to deliver it by hand. In the back of the taxi, she wondered what the sense of urgency was, and realised it was because she wanted to be rid of Kennet Lovell. He was taking up too much of her waking time, and last night he’d even infected her dreams, slicing the meat from cadavers only to reveal planed wood beneath, while her colleagues from work watched and applauded, the performance turning into a stage show.

  If her research into Lovell was to progress, she needed some kind of proof of his interest in woodwork. Without that, she was at a dead end. Having paid the driver, she stood in front of the Professor’s tenement, note in hand. But there was no letter-box. Each flat would have its own, the postman gaining entry by pressing the buzzers until someone let him in. She supposed she could slip the note under the door, but reckoned it would lie there ignored, along with all the junk mail. So instead, she looked at the array of buzzers. Professor Devlin’s just said ‘D. Devlin’. She wondered if he might be back from his wanderings, and pressed the buzzer. When there was no answer, she looked at the remaining buttons, wondering which one to pick. Then the intercom crackled.

  ‘Hello?’

  ‘Dr Devlin? It’s Jean Burchill from the Museum. I wonder if I can have a word …'

  ‘Miss Burchill? This is somewhat of a surprise.’

  ‘I’ve tried phoning … ’

  But the door was already signalling that it was no longer locked.

  Devlin was waiting for her on his landing. He wore a white shirt, the sleeves rolled up, with
thick braces holding up his trousers.

  ‘Well, well,’ he said, taking her hand.

  ‘I’m sorry to bother you like this.’

  ‘Not at all, young lady. Now just you come in. I’m afraid you’ll find my housekeeping somewhat lacking … ’ He led her into the living room, cluttered with boxes and books.

  ‘Separating the wheat from the chaff,’ he informed her.

  She picked up a case and opened it. It contained old surgical instruments. You’re not throwing it out? Perhaps the Museum would be interested …'

  He nodded. ‘I’m in contact with the bursar at Surgeons’ Hall. He thinks perhaps the exhibition there might have room for one or two pieces.’

  ‘Major Cawdor?’

  Devlin’s eyebrows lifted. You know him?’

  ‘I was asking him about the portrait of Kennet Lovell.’

  ‘So you’re taking my theory seriously?’

  ‘I thought it was worth pursuing.’

  ‘Excellent.’ Devlin clapped his hands together. ‘And what have you found?’

  ‘Not a great deal. That’s really why I’m here. I can’t find any reference in the literature to Lovell having an interest in carpentry.’

  ‘Oh, it’s a matter of record, I assure you, though it’s many years since I came across it.’

  ‘Came across it where?’

  ‘Some monograph or dissertation …1 really can’t recall. Could it have been a university thesis?’

  Jean nodded slowly. If it had been a thesis, only the university itself would hold a copy; there’d be no record in any other library. ‘I should have thought of that,’ she admitted.

  ‘But don’t you agree he was a remarkable character?’ Devlin asked.

  ‘He certainly lived a very full life … unlike his wives.’

  'You’ve been to his graveside?’ He smiled at the idiocy of the question. ‘Of course you have. And you took note of his marriages. What did you think?’

  ‘At first, nothing … but then later, when I thought about it … ’

  'You began to speculate as to whether or not they had been assisted on their final journey?’ He smiled again. ‘It’s obvious, really, isn’t it?’

  Jean became aware of a smell in the room: stale sweat. Perspiration was shining on Devlin’s forehead, and the lenses of his spectacles looked smeared. She was amazed he could see her through them.

  ‘Who better,’ he was saying, ‘than an anatomist to get away with murder?’

  'You’re saying he murdered them?’

  He shook his head. ‘Impossible to tell. after all this time. I’m merely speculating’

  ‘But why would he do that?’

  Devlin shrugged, his shoulders stretching the braces. ‘Because he could? What do you think?’

  ‘I’ve been wondering … he was very young when he assisted at Burke’s autopsy; young and impressionable maybe. That might explain why he fled to Africa … '

  ‘And God alone knows what horrors he encountered out there,’ Devlin added.

  ‘It would help if we had his correspondence.’

  ‘Ah, the letters between himself and the Reverend Kirkpatrick?’

  'You don’t happen to know where they might be?’

  ‘Consigued to oblivion, I’d wager. Tossed on to the pyre by some descendant of the good minister …'

  ‘And here you are doing the same thing.’

  Devlin looked around him at the mess. ‘Indeed,’ he said. ‘Selecting that by which history shall judge my small endeavours.’

  Jean picked up a photograph. It showed a middle-aged woman, dressed for some formal function.

  'Your wife?’ she guessed.

  ‘My dear Anne. She passed away in the summer of nineteen seventy-two. Natural causes, I assure you.’

  Jean looked at him. ‘Why should you have to assure me?’

  Devlin’s smile faded. ‘She meant the world to me … more than the world …’ He clapped his hands together again. ‘What can I be thinking of’ not offering you something to drink. Tea perhaps?’

  ‘Tea would be wonderful.’

  ‘I can’t promise any sense of wonder from PG tea-bags.’ His smile was fixed.

  ‘And afterwards, maybe I could see Kennet Lovell’s table.’

  ‘But of course. It’s in the dining room. Bought from a reputable dealer, though I admit they couldn’t be categorical about its provenance—caveat emptor, as they say, but they were fairly persuasive, and I was willing to believe.’ He had taken his glasses off to give them a polish with his handkerchief. When he slipped them on again, his eyes seemed magnified. ‘Tea,’ he repeated, making for the hallway. She followed him out.

  ‘Have you lived here long?’ she asked.

  ‘Ever since Anne passed on. The house held too many memories.

  ‘That’s thirty years then?’

  ‘Almost.’ He was in the kitchen now. ‘Won’t be a minute,’ he said.

  ‘Fine.’ She started to retrace her steps back to the living room. The summer of ‘72, his wife had died … She passed an open doorway: the dining room. The table filled almost the whole space. A completed jigsaw lay on top of it … no, not quite complete: missing just the one piece. Edinburgh, an aerial photograph. The table itself was a plain enough design. She walked into the room, studied the table’s surface of polished wood. The legs were sturdy, lacking any ornamental flourishes. Utilitarian, she thought. The incomplete jigsaw must have taken hours … days. She crouched down, seeking the missing piece. There it was: almost completely hidden beneath one of the legs. As she reached for it, she saw that the table boasted one nice, secretive touch. Where the two leaves met in the middle, there was a central element, and into this a small cupboard had been inserted. She’d seen similar designs before, but not from as far back as the nineteenth century. She wondered if Professor Devlin had been duped into buying something from much later than Lovell’s period … She squeezed into the narrow confines so that she could open the cupboard. It was stiff, and she almost gave up, but then it clicked open, revealing its contents.

  A plane, set-square and chisels.

  A small saw and some nails.

  Woodwork tools.

  When she looked up, Professor Devlin was filling the doorway.

  ‘Ah, the missing piece,’ was all that he said …

  Ellen Wylie had heard reports of the funeral, how Ranald Marr had suddenly turned up and been embraced by John Balfour. The talk at West End was that Marr had been brought in for questioning but then released.

  ‘Stitch-up,’ Shug Davidson had commented. ‘Somebody somewhere’s pulling strings.’

  He hadn’t looked at her as he’d said it, but then he hadn’t needed to. He knew … and she knew. Pulling strings: wasn’t that what she’d thought she was doing when she met with Steve Holly? But somehow he’d become the puppeteer, making her the marionette. Carswell’s speech to the troops had cut into her like a knife, not just nicking the skin but radiating pain through her whole body. When they’d all been called into the office, she’d half hoped her silence would give her away. But then Rebus had stepped in, taken the whole thing upon himself’ leaving her feeling worse than ever.

  Shug Davidson knew it … and though Shug was a colleague and mate, he was also a friend of Rebus’s. The pair of them went way back. Now, every time he made some remark she found herself analysing it, seeking the sub-text. She couldn’t concentrate, and her home station, which she’d seen so recently as a refuge, had become inhospitable and alien.

  Which was why she’d made the trip to St Leonard’s, only to find the CID suite all but deserted. A suit-carrier, hanging from one of the coat pegs, told her that at least one officer had been at the funeral, returning here to change back into work clothes. She guessed Rebus, but couldn’t be certain. There was a plastic bag beside his desk, one of the coffins inside. All that work, and no case to show for it. The autopsy notes were sitting on the desk, waiting for someone to follow the instructions left on them. She lifted the
note from the top, sat down in Rebus’s chair. Without really meaning to, she found herself untying the ribbon which held the notes together. Then she opened the first file and started to read.

  She’d done this before, of course; or rather, Professor Devlin had, while she’d sat by his side taking note of his findings. Slow work, yet she realised now that she’d enjoyed it—the notion that there might be some case hidden in the midst of those typewritten pages; the sense of working on the edge of things, a not-quite-investigation; and Rebus himself, as driven as the rest of them put together, biting down on a pen as he concentrated, or furrowing his brow, or stretching suddenly, unlocking his neck. He had this reputation as a loner, yet he’d been happy to delegate, happy to share the work with her. She’d accused him of pitying her, but she didn’t really believe that. He did have a martyr complex, but it seemed to work for him … and for everyone else.

  Skimming the pages now, she realised finally why she’d come:

  she wanted to apologise in some way he’d understand … And then she looked up and he was standing not four yards away, watching her.

  ‘How long have you been there?’ she asked, dropping a couple of the pages.

  ‘What are you up to?’

  ‘Nothing.’ She picked up the sheets. ‘I was just … I don’t know, maybe one final look before it all went back into the storeroom. How was the funeral?’

  ‘A funeral’s a funeral, no matter who they’re burying.’

  ‘I heard about Marr.’

  He nodded, walked into the room.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked.

  ‘I was hoping Siobban might be here.’ He walked over to her desk, hoping for some clue … something, anything.

  ‘I wanted to see you,’ Ellen Wylie said.

  ‘Oh?’ He turned away from Siobhan’s desk. ‘Why’s that then?’

  ‘Maybe to thank you.’

  Their eyes met, communicating without words.

  ‘Don’t worry about it, Ellen,’ Rebus said at last. ‘I mean it.’

  ‘But I got you into trouble.’

  ‘No, you didn’t. I got myself into trouble, and maybe made things worse for you too. If I’d stayed quiet, I think you’d have spoken up.’