by Ian Rankin
After all his years on the force, Rebus reckoned that at last he was in the presence of someone with a genuinely clear conscience. It didn’t usually take so long for people to ask what a policeman was after. When it did take so long, the person either knew already what was wanted, or else had absolutely nothing to fear or to hide. So Rebus asked his question.
‘I notice you keep the telephone kiosk sparkling, Mrs Corbie. I was wondering if you’d noticed anything suspicious recently? I mean, anything up at the box?’
‘Oh, well, let me think.’ She placed the flat of one hand against her cheek. ‘I can’t say . . . what sort of thing exactly, Inspector?’
Rebus couldn’t look her in the eye – for he knew that she had started to lie to him.
‘A woman perhaps. Making a telephone call. Something left in the box . . . a note or a telephone number . . . anything at all.’
‘No, no, nothing in the box.’
His voice hardened a little. ‘Well, outside the box then, Mrs Corbie. I’m thinking specifically of a week ago, last Wednesday or maybe the Tuesday . . .?’
She was shaking her head. ‘Have another scone, Inspector.’
He did, and chewed slowly, in silence. Mrs Corbie looked to be doing some thinking. She got up and checked in her oven. Then she poured the last of the tea from the pot, and returned to her seat, studying her hands again, laying them against her lap for inspection.
But she didn’t say anything. So Rebus did.
‘You were here last Wednesday?’
She nodded. ‘But not the Tuesday. I go to my sister’s on a Tuesday. I was here all day Wednesday though.’
‘What about your son?’
She shrugged. ‘He might have been here. Or maybe he was in Dufftown. He spends a lot of time off gallivanting . . .’
‘He’s not here just now?’
‘No, he’s gone to town.’
‘Which town?’
‘He didn’t say. Just said he was off . . .’
Rebus stood up and went to the kitchen window. It faced on to the yard, where chickens now pecked at Rebus’s tyres. One of them was sitting on the bonnet of the car.
‘Is it possible to see the kiosk from the house, Mrs Corbie?’
‘Eh . . . yes, from the sitting room. But we don’t spend much time in there. That is, I don’t. I prefer here in the kitchen.’
‘Could I take a look?’
Well, it was clear enough who did spend time in the living room. There was a direct line between sofa, coffee table and television set. The coffee table was marked with rings made by too many hot mugs. On the floor by the sofa there was an ashtray and the remains of a huge bag of crisps. Three empty beer cans lay on their sides beneath the coffee table. Mrs Corbie tut-tutted and went to work, lifting the cans. Rebus went to the window and peered out.
He could make out the kiosk in the distance, but only just. It was possible Alec Corbie might have seen something. Possible, but doubtful. Not worth sticking around for. He’d let DS Knox come and ask Corbie the questions.
‘Well,’ he said, ‘thanks for your help, Mrs Corbie.’
‘Oh.’ Her relief was palpable. ‘Right you are, Inspector. I’ll see you out.’
But Rebus knew he had one last bet worth laying. He stood with Mrs Corbie in the yard and looked around him.
‘I used to love farms when I was a lad. A pal of mine lived on one,’ he glibly lied. ‘I used to go up there every evening after tea. It was great.’ He turned his wide-eyed nostalgic smile towards her. ‘Mind if I take a wander round?’
‘Oh.’ No relief now; rather, sheer terror. Which didn’t stop Rebus. No, it pushed him on. So that before she knew it, he was walking up to the hutches and sties, looking in, moving on. On past the chickens and the roused ducks, into the barn. Straw underfoot and a strong smell of cattle. Concrete cubicles, coiled hosepipes, and a leaking tap. There were pools of water underfoot. One sick-looking cow blinked slowly at him from its enclosure. But the livestock wasn’t his concern. The tarpaulin in the corner was.
‘What’s under here, Mrs Corbie?’
‘That’s Alec’s property!’ she shrieked. ‘Don’t touch it! It’s nothing to do with –’
But he’d already yanked the tarpaulin off. What was he expecting to find? Something . . . nothing. What he did find was a black BMW 3-series bearing Elizabeth Jack’s registration. It was Rebus’s turn to tut-tut, but only after he’d sucked in his breath and held back a whoop of delight.
‘Dear me, Mrs Corbie,’ he said. ‘This is just the very car I’ve been looking for.’
But Mrs Corbie wasn’t listening. ‘He’s a good laddie, he doesn’t mean any harm. I don’t know what I’d do without him.’ And so on. While Rebus circled the car, looking but not touching. Lucky the forensics team was on its way. They’d be kept busy . . .
Wait, what was that? On the back seat. A huddled shape. He peered in through the tinted glass.
‘Expect the unexpected, John,’ he muttered to himself.
It was a microwave.
7
Duthil
Rebus telephoned Edinburgh to make his report and request an extra day’s stay up north. Lauderdale sounded so impressed that the car had been found that Rebus forgot to tell him about the break-in at the lodge. Then, once Alec Corbie had arrived home (drunk and in charge of a vehicle – but let that pass), he’d been arrested and taken to Dufftown. Rebus seemed to be stretching the local police like they’d never been stretched before, so that Detective Sergeant Knox had to be diverted from the lodge and brought to the farm instead. He looked like an older brother of Constable Moffat, or perhaps a close cousin.
‘I want forensics to go over that car,’ Rebus told him. ‘Priority, the lodge can wait.’
Knox rubbed his chin. ‘It’ll take a tow-truck.’
‘A trailer would be better.’
‘I’ll see what I can do. Where will you want it taken?’
‘Anywhere secure and with a roof.’
‘The police garage?’
‘It’ll do.’
‘What exactly are we looking for?’
‘Christ knows.’
Rebus went back into the kitchen, where Mrs Corbie was sitting at the table studying an array of burnt cakes. He opened his mouth to speak, but kept his silence. She was an accessory, of course. She’d lied to him to protect her son. Well, they had the son now, and he was the one that mattered. As quietly as he could, Rebus left the farmhouse and started his car, staring through the windscreen at his bonnet, where one of the chickens had left him a little gift . . .
He was able to avail himself of Dufftown police station for the interview with Alec Corbie.
‘You’re in keech up to your chin, son. Start at the beginning and leave nothing out.’
Rebus and Corbie, seated across the table from one another, were smoking, DS Knox, resting against the wall behind Rebus, was not. Corbie had prepared an extremely thin veneer of macho indifference, which Rebus was quick to wipe off.
‘This is a murder investigation. The victim’s car has been found in your barn. It’ll be dusted for prints, and if we find yours I’m going to have to charge you with murder. Anything you think you know that might help your case, you’d better talk.’
Then, seeing the effect of these words: ‘You’re in keech up to your chin, son. Start at the beginning and leave nothing out.’
Corbie sang like his namesake: it didn’t make for edifying listening, but it had an honest sound. First, though, he asked for some paracetamol.
‘I’ve got a hell of a headache.’
‘That’s what daytime drinking does to you,’ said Rebus, knowing it wasn’t the drinking that was to blame – it was the stopping. The tablets were brought and swallowed, washed down with water. Corbie coughed a little, then lit another cigarette. Rebus had stubbed his out. He just couldn’t deal with them any more.
‘The car was in the lay-by,’ Corbie began. ‘It was there for hours, so I went and took a look. Th
e keys were still in the ignition. I started her up and brought her back to the farm.’
‘Why?’
He shrugged. ‘Never refuse a gift horse.’ He grinned. ‘Or gift horse-power, eh?’ The two detectives were not impressed. ‘No, well, it was, you know, like with treasure. Finders keepers.’
‘You didn’t think the owner was coming back?’
He shrugged again. ‘Never really thought about it. All I knew was that there were going to be some gey jealous looks if I turned up in town driving a BMW.’
‘You planned to race it?’ The question came from DS Knox.
‘Sure.’
Knox explained to Rebus. ‘They take cars out on to the back roads and race them one against one.’
Rebus remembered the phrase Moffat had used: boy racer. ‘You didn’t see the owner then?’ he asked.
Corbie shrugged.
‘What does that mean?’
‘It means maybe. There was another car in the lay-by. Looked like a couple were in it, having an argument. I heard them from the yard.’
‘What did you see?’
‘Just that the BMW was parked, and this other car was in front of it.’
‘You didn’t get a look at the other car?’
‘No. But I could hear the shouting, sounded like a man and a woman.’
‘What were they arguing about?’
‘No idea.’
‘No?’
Corbie shook his head firmly.
‘Okay,’ said Rebus, ‘and this was on . . .?’
‘Wednesday. Wednesday morning. Maybe around lunch-time.’
Rebus nodded thoughtfully. Alibis would need re-checking . . . ‘Where was your mother all this time?’
‘In the kitchen, same as always.’
‘Did you mention the argument to her?’
Corbie shook his head. ‘No point.’
Rebus nodded again. Wednesday morning: Elizabeth Jack was killed that day. An argument in a lay-by . . .
‘You’re sure it was an argument?’
‘I’ve been in enough in my time, it was an argument all right. The woman was screeching.’
‘Anything else, Alec?’
Corbie seemed to relax at the use of his first name. Maybe he wouldn’t be in trouble after all, so long as he told them . . .
‘Well, the other car disappeared, but the BMW was still there. Couldn’t tell if there was anyone in it, windows being tinted. But a radio was playing. Then in the afternoon –’
‘So the car had been there all morning?’
‘That’s right. Then in the afternoon –’
‘What time precisely?’
‘No idea. I think there was horse-racing or something on the telly.’
‘Go on.’
‘Well, I looked out and there was another car had turned up. Or maybe it was the same one come back.’
‘You still couldn’t see?’
‘I saw it better the second time. Don’t know what make it was, but it was blue, light blue. I’m fairly sure of that.’
Cars would need checking . . . Jamie Kilpatrick’s Daimler wasn’t blue. Gregor Jack’s Saab wasn’t blue. Rab Kinnoul’s Land-Rover wasn’t blue.
‘Anyway,’ Corbie was saying, ‘then there was more shouting the odds. I reckon it was coming from the BMW, because at one point the volume went right up on the radio.’
Rebus nodded appreciation of the observation.
‘Then what?’
Corbie shrugged. ‘It went quiet again. Next time I looked out, the other car was gone and the BMW was still there. Later on, I took a wander into the yard and through the field. Took a closer look. The passenger door was a bit open. Didn’t look as though anyone was there, so I crossed the road. Keys were in the ignition . . .’ He gave a final shrug. He had told his all.
And an interesting all it was. Two other cars? Or had the car from the morning returned in the afternoon? Who had Liz Jack been calling from the phone-box? What had she been arguing about? The volume rising on the radio . . . to mask an argument, or because, in the course of a struggle, the knob had been moved? His head was beginning to birl again. He suggested they have some coffee. Three plastic cups were brought, with sugar and a plate containing four digestive biscuits.
Corbie seemed relaxed in the hard-back chair, one leg slung over the other, and smoking yet another cigarette. So far Knox had eaten all the biscuits . . .
‘Right,’ said Rebus, ‘now what about the microwave . . .?’
The microwave was easy. The microwave was more treasure, again found by the side of the road.
‘You don’t expect us to believe that?’ Knox sneered. But Rebus could believe it.
‘It’s the truth,’ Corbie said easily, ‘whether you believe it or not, Sergeant Knox. I was out in the car this morning, and saw it lying in a ditch. I couldn’t believe it. Someone had just dumped it there. Well, it looked good enough, so I thought I’d take it home.’
‘But why did you hide it?’
Corbie shifted in his seat. ‘I knew my mum would think I’d nicked it. Well, anyway, she’d never believe I just found it. So I decided to keep it out of her way till I could come up with a story . . .’
‘There was a break-in last night,’ Rebus said, ‘at Deer Lodge. Do you know it?’
‘That MP owns it, the one from the brothel.’
‘You know it then. I think that microwave was stolen during the break-in.’
‘Not by me it wasn’t.’
‘Well, we’ll know soon enough. The place is being dusted for prints.’
‘Lot of dusting going on,’ Corbie commented. ‘You lot are worse than my mum.’
‘Believe it,’ Rebus said, rising to his feet. ‘One last thing, Alec. The car, what did you tell your mum about it?’
‘Nothing much. Said I was storing it for a friend.’
Not that she’d have believed it. But if she lost her son, she lost her farm, too.
‘All right, Alec.’ said Rebus, ‘it’s time to get it all down on paper. Just what you’ve told us. Sergeant Knox will help you.’ He paused by the door. ‘Then, if we’re still not happy that you’ve told us the truth and nothing but, maybe it’ll be time to talk about drunk driving, eh?’
It was a long drive back to Mrs Wilkie’s, and Rebus regretted not having taken a room in Dufftown. Still, it gave him time to think. He had made a telephone call from the station, putting back a certain appointment until tomorrow morning. So the rest of today was free. Clouds had settled low over the hills. So much for the nice weather. This was how Rebus remembered the Highlands – louring and forbidding. Terrible things had happened here in the past, massacres and forced migrations, blood feuds as vicious as any. Cases of cannibalism, too, he seemed to recall. Terrible things.
Who had killed Liz Jack? And why? The husband was always the first to fall under suspicion. Well, others could do the suspecting. Rebus, for one, didn’t believe it. Why not?
Why not?
Well, look at the evidence. That Wednesday morning, Jack had been at a constituency meeting, then a game of golf, and in the evening he’d attended some function . . . according to whom? According to Jack himself and to Helen Greig. Plus, his car was white. There could be no mistaking it for blue. Plus, someone was out to get Jack into terrible trouble. And that was the person Rebus needed to find . . . unless it had been Liz Jack herself. He’d thought about that, too. But then there were the anonymous phone calls . . . according to whom? Only Barney Byars. Helen Greig had been unable (or unwilling) to confirm their existence. Rebus realized now that he really did need to talk to Gregor Jack again. Did his wife have any lovers? Judging by what Rebus had learned of her, the question needed changing to: how many did she have? One? Two? More? Or was he guilty of judging what he did not know? After all, he knew next to nothing about Elizabeth Jack. He knew what her allies and her critics thought of her. But he knew nothing of her. Except that, judging by her tastes in friends and furnishings, she hadn’t had much taste . . .
Thursday morning. A week since the body had been found.
He woke up early, but was in no hurry to rise, and this time he let Mrs Wilkie bring him his tea in bed. She’d had a good night, never once thinking him her long-dead husband or long-lost son, so he reckoned she deserved not to be kept out of the bedroom. Not only tea this morning, but ginger nuts, too. And the tea was hot. But the day was cool, still grey and drizzly. Well, never mind. He’d be heading back to civilization, just as soon as he’d paid his respects elsewhere.
He ate a hurried breakfast, and received a peck on the cheek from Mrs Wilkie before leaving.
‘Come back again some time,’ she called, waving to him from the door. ‘And I hope the jam sells all right . . .’
The rain came on at its heaviest just as his windscreen wipers gave up. He stopped the car to study his map, then dashed outside to give the wipers a quick shake. It had happened before: they just stuck, and could be righted with a bit of force. Except this time they really had packed in. And not a garage in sight. So he drove slowly, and found after a while that the heavier the rain fell, the clearer his windscreen became. It was the slow fine rain that was the problem, blotting out all but the vaguest shapes and outlines. The heavy dollops of rain came and went so fast that they seemed to clear the windscreen rather than obscuring it.
Which was just as well, for the rain stayed heavy all the way to Duthil.
Duthil Special Hospital had been planned and built to act as a showpiece for treatment of the criminally insane. Like the other ‘special hospitals’ dotted around the British Isles, it was just that – a hospital. It wasn’t a prison, and patients who arrived in its care were treated like patients, not prisoners. Treatment, not punishment, was its function, and with the brand new buildings came up-to-date methods and understandings.