10 Great Rebus Novels (John Rebus)

by Ian Rankin

  ‘Cudden,’ she said coldly.

  ‘Sit down, Ms Cudden.’

  She sat down, reached into her bag for the black cigarettes. ‘Do you mind?’

  ‘Actually, there’s no smoking allowed,’ Jack said, sounding apologetic. ‘And neither Inspector Rebus nor myself are smokers.’

  She looked at Rebus. ‘Since when?’

  Rebus shrugged. ‘Where’s Stanley?’

  ‘He’ll be here. We thought it wise to leave separately.’

  ‘Uncle Joe won’t suspect?’

  ‘Well, that’s our problem, not yours. As far as Joe knows, Malky’s going out on the ran-dan, and I’m visiting a friend. She’s a good friend, she’ll not let on.’

  Her tone told Rebus she’d used the friend before – other times, other assignations.

  ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I’m glad you arrived first. I wanted to have a private word.’ He rested against a desk, folded his arms to stop his hands shaking. ‘That night in the hotel, you were setting me up, yes?’

  ‘Tell me what you know.’

  ‘About you and Stanley?’

  ‘Malky.’ Her face creased. ‘I hate that nickname.’

  ‘OK then, Malky. What do I know? I know just about everything. The two of you head north every now and then on business for Uncle Joe. I’d guess you’re go-betweens. He needs people he can trust.’ He gave a twist to the last word. ‘People who won’t share their hotel bedroom, leaving the other one vacant. People who won’t rip him off.’

  ‘Are we ripping him off?’ Disregarding Jack, she’d lit up. There were no ashtrays in sight, so Rebus placed a wastepaper-bin beside her, inhaling the smoke as he did so. Wonderful smoke. Almost a contact high.

  ‘Yes,’ he said, retreating to the desk. They’d placed Eve’s chair in the middle of the floor, Rebus to one side of her, Jack the other. She looked comfortable enough with the arrangement. ‘I don’t see Uncle Joe as a bank account kind of villain. I mean, he probably wouldn’t trust the banks in Glasgow, never mind Aberdeen. Yet there you are, you and Malky, dumping wads of cash into several accounts. I have dates, times, bank details.’ An exaggeration, but he reckoned he could wing it. ‘I’ve got statements from hotel employees, including maids who never need to clean Malky’s room. Funny, he doesn’t strike me as the tidy sort.’

  Eve exhaled smoke down her nostrils, managed a smile. ‘All right,’ she said.

  ‘Now,’ Rebus went on, wanting to rid her of the confident smile, ‘what would Uncle Joe say to all this? I mean, Malky’s blood, but you’re not, Eve. I’d say you were expendable.’ Pause. ‘And I’d say you know it, have done for a while.’

  ‘Meaning?’

  ‘Meaning I don’t see you and Malky as an item, not long-term. He’s too thick for you, and he’ll never be rich enough to make up for that. I can see what he sees in you: you’re an accomplished seducer.’

  ‘Not that accomplished.’ Her eyes found his.

  ‘Pretty good though. Good enough to hook Malky. Good enough to talk him into skimming from the Aberdeen money. Let me guess: your story was that the two of you would bugger off together when there was enough set by?’

  ‘My language may not have matched yours.’ Her eyes were calculating slits, but the smile had gone. She knew Rebus was going to deal; she wouldn’t be here otherwise. She was wondering what she could get away with.

  ‘But you wouldn’t, right? Just between us, you were planning to clear off by yourself.’

  ‘Was I?’

  ‘I’m banking on it.’ He stood up, walked towards her. ‘I don’t want you, Eve. Good fucking luck to you, I say. Take the money and run.’ He lowered his voice. ‘But I want Malky. I want him for Tony El. And I want the answers to some questions. When he gets here, you’re going to talk to him. You’re going to persuade him to cooperate. Then we’ll talk, and it’ll go down on tape.’ Her eyes widened. ‘The story is, it’s my insurance in case you decide to stick around.’

  ‘But in reality?’

  ‘It’ll take Malky down, and Uncle Joe with him.’

  ‘And I walk away?’

  ‘Promise.’

  ‘How do I know I can trust you?’

  ‘I’m a gentleman, remember? You said as much in the bar.’

  She smiled again, her eyes not moving from his. She looked like a cat: same morals, same instinct. Then she nodded her head.

  Malcolm Toal arrived at the station fifteen minutes later, and Rebus left him with Eve in an interview room. The station was evening quiet, not yet late enough for pub rowdies, knife fights, blow-ups before bed. Jack asked Rebus how he wanted to play it.

  ‘Just sit there and look like everything I say is the word of God, that’ll be good enough for me.’

  ‘And if Stanley makes a move?’

  ‘We can handle him.’ He’d already told Eve to find out if Malky was carrying. If he was, Rebus wanted the weaponry on the table by the time he returned. He went into the toilets again, just to steady his breathing and look at himself in the mirror. He tried to relax his jaw muscles. In the past, he’d have been reaching for the quarter-bottle of whisky in his pocket. But tonight there was no quarter-bottle, no Dutch courage. Which meant for once he’d be relying on the real thing.

  Back in the interview room, Malky looked at him with eyes like lasers, proof that Eve had said her piece. Two Stanley knives lay on the table. Rebus nodded, satisfied. Jack was busy setting up the recorder and breaking the seals on a couple of tapes.

  ‘Has Ms Cudden explained the situation, Mr Toal?’ Malky nodded. ‘I’m not interested in the pair of you, but I am interested in everything else. You slipped up, but you can still get out of this, same as you’ve been planning all along.’ Rebus tried not to look at Eve, who was looking anywhere but at lovelorn Stanley. Christ, she was a tough one. Rebus really had taken a liking to her; he almost liked her better now than he had that night in the bar. Jack nodded that the recorder was running.

  ‘OK, now we’re recording I’d like to make it clear that this is for my own personal insurance, and won’t be used against the pair of you at any time, so long as you clear off afterwards. I’d like you to introduce yourselves.’ They did, Jack checking the levels and adjusting them.

  ‘I’m Detective Inspector John Rebus,’ Rebus said, ‘and with me is Detective Inspector Jack Morton.’ He paused, pulled out the third chair at the table and sat down, Eve to his right, Toal to his left. ‘Let’s start with that night in the hotel bar, Ms Cudden. I’m not a great believer in coincidence.’

  Eve blinked. She’d expected the questions to relate to Malky alone. Now she saw that Rebus really was going to have some insurance.

  ‘It wasn’t coincidence,’ she said, fumbling for another Sobranie. The packet slipped, and Toal picked it up, taking out a cigarette, lighting it for her, then handing it over. She could hardly bear to take it – or else wanted Rebus to think that. But Rebus was looking at Toal, surprised by the gesture. There was unexpected affection in ‘Mad Malky’, a real joy at being close to his lover, even in the present situation. He seemed very different from the scowling complainer Rebus had met at the Ponderosa: younger now, face shining, eyes wide. Hard to believe he could kill in cold blood – but not impossible. He was dressed in the same awful non-style of their previous meeting – the trousers from a shell-suit with an orange leather jacket and a blue patterned shirt, set off with scuffed black slip-on shoes. His mouth moved like he was chewing gum, even though he wasn’t. He sat low in the chair, legs open, hands resting between his thighs, high up near the crotch.

  ‘It was planned,’ Eve went on. ‘Well, sort of. I thought there was a good chance you’d hit the bar before you went to bed.’

  ‘How come?’

  ‘The word is, you like to drink.’

  ‘Says who?’

  She shrugged.

  ‘How did you know which hotel I’d be in?’

  ‘I was told.’

  ‘Who by?’

  ‘The Yanks.’

 
; ‘Tell me their names.’ By the book, John.

  ‘Judd Fuller, Erik Stemmons.’

  ‘They both told you?’

  ‘Stemmons specifically.’ She smiled. ‘Coward that he is.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘I think he thought handing you to us was a better option than putting Fuller on to you.’

  ‘Because Fuller would have been harder on me?’

  She shook her head. ‘He was thinking of himself. If we went after you, the two of them were in the clear. Judd’s difficult to control sometimes.’ Toal snorted at that. ‘Erik would rather he didn’t get worked up.’

  Probably Stemmons had reined in Fuller, so all Fuller’s men had done was pistol-whip Rebus rather than put him out of the game. One yellow card: he couldn’t see Fuller giving a second. Rebus wanted to ask her more. He wanted to know how far she’d have gone to find out what he knew . . . But somehow he thought that line of questioning might blow all Malky’s fuses.

  ‘Who told the Yanks where I was staying?’

  He already knew the answer – Ludovic Lumsden – but wanted it on tape if possible. But Eve shrugged, and Toal shook his head.

  ‘Tell me what you were doing in Aberdeen.’

  Eve busied herself with her cigarette, so Toal cleared his throat.

  ‘Working for my dad.’

  ‘Doing what specifically?’

  ‘Selling an’ that.’

  ‘Selling?’

  ‘Dope – speed, skag, anything and everything.’

  ‘You sound very relaxed, Mr Toal.’

  ‘Mibbe resigned would be nearer the mark.’ Toal sat up in his chair. ‘Eve says we can trust you. I wouldn’t know about that, but I know what my dad’ll do when he finds out we’ve been skimming.’

  ‘So I’m the lesser of two evils?’

  ‘You said it, not me.’

  ‘All right, let’s get back to Aberdeen. You were supplying drugs?’

  ‘Aye.’

  ‘Who to?’

  ‘Burke’s Club.’

  ‘The individuals’ names?’

  ‘Erik Stemmons and Judd Fuller. Specifically Judd, though Erik knows the score, too.’ He smiled at Eve. ‘Score,’ he repeated. She nodded, letting him know she got the joke.

  ‘Why specifically Judd Fuller?’

  ‘Erik runs the club, does the business side of things. Doesnae’ like getting his hands dirty, you know, pretends everything’s above board.’

  Rebus remembered Stemmons’ office – paperwork everywhere. Mr Businessman.

  ‘Can you give me a description of Fuller?’

  ‘You’ve met him: he gave you that beating.’ Toal grinned. The man with the pistol: had he sounded American? Had Rebus been listening that hard?

  ‘I didn’t see him though.’

  ‘Well, he’s six feet, black hair, it always looks wet. Brylcreem or something. Back-combs it, long, like that Saturday Night Fever guy.’

  ‘Travolta?’

  ‘Aye, in that other film. You know.’ Toal made like he was spraying the room with bullets.

  ‘Pulp Fiction?’

  Toal clicked his fingers.

  ‘Except Judd’s face is thinner,’ Eve added. ‘In fact, he’s thinner all round. He does like wearing dark suits though. And there’s a scar on the back of one of his hands, looks like it was sewn together too tight.’

  Rebus nodded. ‘Does Fuller deal only drugs?’

  Toal shook his head. ‘Naw, he’s got fingers in every pie: prozzies, porn, casinos, a bit of reset, fake designer stuff – watches and shirts an’ that.’

  ‘All-round entrepreneur,’ Eve added, flicking ash into the waste-bin. She was being careful to say nothing that would incriminate her.

  ‘And Judd and Erik aren’t the only ones. There are some Yanks in Aberdeen worse than they are: Eddie Segal, Moose Maloney . . .’ Toal saw the look on Eve’s face and ground to a halt.

  ‘Malcolm,’ she said sweetly, ‘we do want to get out of this alive, don’t we?’

  Toal’s face reddened. ‘Forget I said that,’ he told Rebus. Rebus nodded, but the machine wouldn’t forget.

  ‘So,’ Rebus said, ‘why did you kill Tony El?’

  ‘Me?’ Toal said, going into his act. Rebus sighed and looked at the tips of his shoes.

  ‘I think,’ Eve prodded, ‘that means the Inspector wants everything. We don’t talk to him, he has a word with your dad.’

  Toal stared at her, but she held it; he broke off first. His hands went back to his crotch. ‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘well, I was under orders.’

  ‘Who from?’

  ‘Dad, of course. See, Tony was still working for us. He was day-to-day running of the Aberdeen end. All that stuff about him leaving, that was just a story. But after you came and spoke to Dad . . . he went through the fucking roof, because Tony had been doing outside hits, endangering the operation. And now you were on to him, so . . .’

  ‘So Tony had to go?’ Rebus was remembering that Tony El had bragged to Hank Shankley about his ‘Glasgow connections’ – he hadn’t been lying.

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘And I don’t suppose you were too upset to see the back of him?’

  Eve smiled. ‘Not particularly upset, no.’

  ‘Because to save his own neck, Tony might have grassed the two of you?’

  ‘He didn’t know we were skimming, but he found out about the hotel arrangements.’

  ‘Biggest mistake he ever made,’ Toal said, grinning again. He was getting cockier by the minute, enjoying telling the story, basking in the knowledge that everything was going to be fine. As he grew cockier, so Eve seemed to regard him with less and less good grace. She’d be relieved to be free of him, Rebus could see that. The poor little bastard.

  ‘You had CID fooled, they thought it was suicide.’

  ‘Well, when you’ve a cop or two in your pocket . . .’

  Rebus looked at Toal. ‘Say that again.’

  ‘A cop or two on the payroll.’

  ‘Names?’

  ‘Lumsden,’ Toal said. ‘Jenkins.’

  ‘Jenkins?’

  ‘He’s something to do with the oil industry,’ Eve explained.

  ‘Oil Liaison Officer?’

  She nodded.

  Who’d been on holiday when Rebus had arrived, Lumsden standing in for him. With those two on your side, you’d have no trouble supplying the production platforms with whatever they needed – a real captive market. And when the workers came ashore, you had further delights for them: clubs, prozzies, booze and gambling. The legit and the illicit working side by side, each feeding the other. No wonder Lumsden had tagged along on the trip out to Bannock; he was protecting his investment.

  ‘What do you know about Fergus McLure?’

  Toal looked to Eve, ready to talk but seeking permission. She nodded, keeping her own mouth shut.

  ‘He had a little accident, got too close to Judd.’

  ‘Fuller killed him?’

  ‘Hands on, that’s what Judd said.’ There was a hint of hero worship in Toal’s voice. ‘Told McLure they had to talk somewhere private, said walls had ears. Moseyed down to the canal with him, a dunt to the head with his gun, and into the water.’ Toal shrugged. ‘He was back in Aberdeen in time for a late breakfast.’ He smiled at Eve. ‘Late.’ Presumably another joke, but she was beyond smiling back. She just wanted out of there.

  Rebus had other questions, but he was beginning to tire. He decided to leave it at that. He got up and nodded for Jack to switch off the machine, then told Eve she could go.

  ‘What about me?’ Toal asked.

  ‘You don’t leave together,’ Rebus reminded him. Toal seemed to accept this. Rebus saw Eve along the corridor and down the stairs. Neither of them said a word, not even goodbye. But he watched her leave before asking the desk officer for a couple of uniforms, a.s.a.p. at the interview room.

  When he got back, Jack had just finished rewinding the tapes, and Toal was on his feet, doing some stretchi
ng exercises. There was a knock, and the two uniforms came in. Toal stood up straight, sensing something was wrong.

  ‘Malcolm Toal,’ Rebus said, ‘I am charging you with the murder of Anthony Ellis Kane on the night of —’

  With a roar, Mad Malky flew at Rebus, hands scrabbling at his neck.

  The woolly suits eventually got him into a cell, and Rebus sat on a chair in the interview room, watching his hands shaking.

  ‘You OK?’ Jack asked.

  ‘Know what, Jack? You’re like a broken record.’

  ‘Know what, John? You’re always needing it asked.’

  Rebus smiled and rubbed his neck. ‘I’m fine.’

  As Toal had run at him, Rebus had kneed the young man in the groin with enough force to lift him off his feet. After that, the uniforms had found him just about manageable, especially with a Vulcan death grip to his carotid.

  ‘What do you want to do?’ Jack asked.

  ‘One copy of the tape goes to CID here. It’ll give them enough to go on until we get back.’

  ‘From Aberdeen?’ Jack guessed.

  ‘And points north.’ Rebus pointed to the machine. ‘Stick the copy back in and turn it on.’ Jack did so. ‘Gill, here’s a little present for you. I hope you’ll know what to do with it.’ He nodded, and Jack stopped recording and ejected the tape.

  ‘We’ll drop it off at St Leonard’s.’

  ‘So we are going back to Edinburgh?’ Jack was thinking of tomorrow’s meeting with Ancram.

  ‘Only long enough for a change of clothes and a doctor’s line.’

  Outside in the car park, a solitary figure was waiting: Eve.

  ‘Going my way?’ she asked.

  ‘How did you know?’

  She smiled her most feline smile. ‘Because you’re like me – you’ve got unfinished business in Aberdeen. I’m only going to be there as long as it takes to visit a few banks and close a few accounts, but there are those two hotel rooms . . .’

  A good point: they’d need a base, preferably one Lumsden didn’t know about.

  ‘He’s in a cell?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘How many men did you need?’

  ‘Just the two.’

  ‘I’m surprised.’

  ‘We all surprise ourselves some time,’ Rebus said, opening the back door of Jack’s car for her.