by Ian Rankin
REBUS
How do you mean?
SIOBHAN
Well . . . Mordaunt mugs him behind one of his own bars, length of wood to the back of the skull . . . What was the motive anyway?
REBUS
Said Cafferty owed him for a plumbing repair on his indoor pool. Cafferty said the job was shoddy.
SIOBHAN
So he whacked the most feared crime boss in Edinburgh . . .
REBUS
(cutting in) He wasny quite that then but . . .
SIOBHAN
(cutting in) And Cafferty lets him live?
REBUS
We put him away for it. That was one time Mordaunt’s van in the car park was good enough evidence to convince a jury. Justice was done.
SIOBHAN
Since when does Big Ger Cafferty ever settle for our justice over his?
REBUS
And since when is it justice when a lying, murdering rapist gets away with only eighteen months for assault? Christ, it haunted everyone you know? Angela Simpson, just sixteen. In the photo in the incident room she was in her school uniform . . .
ANGELA walks through the scene, half dancing to music she’s quietly humming or in her head, aware of nothing else. This is just in REBUS’S mind’s eye.
REBUS
At least we got him for something.
SIOBHAN
That was the attitude at the time? From you and your fellow officers?
REBUS
The gutters ran with IPA and single malt. The fatted calf was put in a bun. Songs of triumph were sung. Aye. It was a result. A bit of one. A crumb of comfort.
SIOBHAN
You see, I don’t think that’s going to help.
REBUS
Help what? (she hesitates) Siobhan? Tell me!
SIOBHAN
I heard the defence think they have something. Something to put up against the forensic evidence. We think they’re going to suggest that someone tampered with the evidence that helped you put Mordaunt away for assaulting Big Ger.
REBUS
Why would we tamper with that evidence?
SIOBHAN
To put Mordaunt in the frame.
ANGELA stops dancing and looks directly at REBUS. Then she’s gone.
REBUS
Right.
SIOBHAN
He’d just got away with rape and murder after all. A third woman dead. The same method as two other young women. You all knew Mordaunt did it. You just couldn’t prove it. Must have been tempting to put him away for something?
REBUS
If we’d wanted to fix evidence to get Mordaunt we could have made a better job of it.
SIOBHAN
Maybe. Anyway, they do want to re-examine the forensic evidence from the attack on Cafferty.
REBUS
Has that been kept?
SIOBHAN
It has. Amazing I know, but it’s still there and they know it.
REBUS
And what’s that supposed to show?
SIOBHAN
DNA. Someone else’s DNA. Not Mordaunt’s. His defence team are going to claim that someone was so keen to get Mordaunt they framed him for the attack on Cafferty. Just so they could have the satisfaction of taking him off the streets. Putting him somewhere Cafferty might finish the job. But he didn’t. And that’s a puzzle isn’t it?
REBUS
They’re definitely re–examing the DNA evidence from the attack on Cafferty . . .? What would that even prove?
SIOBHAN
Oh like you can’t see it! If the evidence shows Mordaunt didn’t attack Cafferty it could suggest that the police might have been prepared to do anything to convict him. Then and now.
REBUS
Why would anyone even hold onto that evidence?! Case was solved. Cafferty deserved worse than a crack in his monster skull, and Mordaunt went down for it!
SIOBHAN
Maybe someone, somewhere in your team at the time, was uneasy with the quality of that conviction.
REBUS
Only thing that lot ever worried about was the quality of their porn mags and the size of their kick-backs.
SIOBHAN
John. Since we’re here, since we’re talking, I need to ask you . . .
REBUS
(cuts her off) No.
SIOBHAN
What?
REBUS
I never thought anyone on that squad tampered with evidence.
SIOBHAN
Seriously. Mordaunt is finally in our sights . . .
REBUS
Mordaunt is evil, rapist scum who preyed on girls who could barely walk out of school sandals.
SIOBHAN
But you never suspected anyone of framing him? Back then?
REBUS
No. Absolutely not.
SIOBHAN
And you’d tell me?
REBUS
Seriously. You need to ask me?
SIOBHAN
You know I do. I’ve put a lot into building the prosecution case here John, getting it in a proper state to match the modern forensic re-examination, making sure everything tallies . . .
REBUS
No-one I’d rather see picking up the baton than you.
SIOBHAN
And yes, it is this case. That’s what’s got me questioning everything. I’m at that point in my life John, the point where I’m asking what it’s all worth. I’ve seen promotions fly past me before, I sometimes asked myself what I’m hanging in this job for . . .
REBUS
Because you’re good at it.
SIOBHAN
Yes. It has to be because I’m good at it. Because I can get justice for a young girl, sixteen years old, twenty-five years dead, who just went out on a Friday night with her friends and died in pain and terror and shame before she ever really got to live. Now if I can’t nail this bastard Mordaunt . . .
REBUS
You will.
SIOBHAN
If you know anything that might weaken our case against him . . .
REBUS
I’d never do that to you Shiv, never. I won’t let that happen.
SIOBHAN slumps momentarily.
SIOBHAN
No. Course not. Alright. I need to get going. Are you really chasing up some bit of a murder case from 2001?
SIOBHAN is on the move.
REBUS
Fraser didn’t re–interview a key witness, just filed the initial notes. I called him on it at the time.
SIOBHAN
I don’t believe you really remembered that.
REBUS
(showing her) Here’s the file, look.
SIOBHAN
John, I’ve got a live case, now. I can’t even think about some cold case no-one remembers but you. (checks herself) Sorry, Sorry. I haven’t slept. The case is water tight . . . but now the defence is saying they need more days on the trial schedule, more evidence to present. And I can only guess what it is . . .
REBUS
Well, you know how it works. You show yours but they never show theirs.
SIOBHAN
Even if they do want to drag in forensics from that assault case, it’s convoluted, it’s not enough to put up against what we’ve got. They must have something more. They must have a witness to that attack on Cafferty.
REBUS
Something like that, aye.
SIOBHAN catches his tone.
SIOBHAN
Which is my problem. Not yours! John? Promise me.
REBUS
Different world back then D.I. Clarke. You might not know the right stones to turn over.
SIOBHAN
You think I haven’t been paying attention these last twenty-five years? Listen to me. Are you listening? Do not phone Cafferty. Promise me!
REBUS
Why would I talk to him?
SIOBHAN
Because you can’t stand not knowing what’s going on. Do not phone him. Do you hear me?
REBUS
I hear you.
SIOBHAN
Good.
She leaves. REBUS picks up his phone and dials. It connects. Answer machine.
REBUS
Cafferty? It’s me. Phone me.
He cuts the call. He looks at the file in his hand. MAGGIE walks out of the shadows.
MAGGIE
Maggie Towler. Seventeen years old. Seventeen years dead. Are you going to do right by me now John? What’s the hold up? I’ve been waiting since 2001.
REBUS
(the file) Aye . . . Aye, I need to chase this up . . .
MAGGIE
Oh don’t make me laugh. You don’t care. I’m just a distraction.
REBUS
I’m going to hunt this down. I don’t forget. I never forget.
ANGELA is on, watching him.
ANGELA
Aren’t you forgetting me?
REBUS
Siobhan’s got you, Angela. She has. (trying to convince himself) Siobhan will get justice for you, Angela. So I need to . . . I need to . . .
MAGGIE
What?
REBUS
Keep moving. Sort this out. Come on Rebus. (to MAGGIE) I’ll do better for you now Maggie. Promise.
The young women stand looking at him for another beat, then they’re gone again. REBUS snatches up car keys and hurries out of the flat.
Stairwell Jackdaw pub
REBUS is climbing up as a BARMAN is carrying boxes of booze down the steps, struggling. REBUS is in his way.
BARMAN
Help you?
REBUS
You alright there?
BARMAN
Fuck no.
REBUS helps him, grabbing the top box as the barman nearly drops the lot, dumping them on the steps.
BARMAN
(breathless) Thanks.
REBUS
No bother.
BARMAN
See what it is, I always used to be able to carry three. So I just keep doing it. I’m no ready to say I’m not fit to carry three boxes. Do you think the booze is getting heavier? Is that it?
REBUS
Could be.
BARMAN
It might be. It’s all the sugary shite they drink now. I’m sure it’s got to weigh more. It’s like treacle half of it.
REBUS
You’ve been here since it was a pub?
BARMAN
Aye. Jackdaw pub. Still got the name. Still got me. Everything else has gone to shite. This used to be a real dockers’ pub.
REBUS
No more dockers.
BARMAN
Extinct. Nothing but bankers, wankers and dockside redevelopment.
REBUS
That didny really take did it?
BARMAN
No round here. This place is still a dive, just got less smoke in it and louder music. I should sue the fuckers for industrial injury. See the way my heid pounds at the end of a Saturday night?
REBUS
You still work behind the bar?
BARMAN
Still do everything.
REBUS
Still got regulars?
BARMAN
Oh you see the same scabby wee faces . . .
REBUS
Don’t remember me though eh?
BARMAN
You used to come in here?
REBUS
Aye, a fair bit.
BARMAN
If you say so.
REBUS
(the box) Help you down with this?
BARMAN
After you.
They move down with the boxes. REBUS still talking.
REBUS
Don’t know that I’ve been in here this century mind you. Aye I have. You used to have a big screen tv in the bar there eh?
BARMAN
Aye.
REBUS
Aye that was it, January 2001. Raith Rovers got unlucky against Stirling Albion, terrible match . . .
BARMAN
That was on the big screen?
REBUS
(ignoring that) . . . That was no long before that poor lassie was killed here eh? Maggie Towler.
BARMAN
She wasny killed here.
REBUS
But she was drinking here that night eh? Only seventeen. Makes you think.
BARMAN
And she wouldny get in now. Is that what you’re getting at? You police eh? We check ID. On the door. So if you’re wanting to make issues about our license . . .
REBUS
Nothing like that. I’m no police.
BARMAN
Aye you are.
REBUS
Retired.
BARMAN
Aye. Right.
REBUS
So you remember her? Maggie Towler?
The BARMAN is on the move again, laboriously hefting up his boxes.
REBUS
And you saw her in here that night? You were working?
BARMAN
The fuck you’re not polis. You want to know the answers you should have tried harder at the time.
REBUS
We should. You’re not wrong.
BARMAN
No wonder you never caught the bastard.
REBUS
Which bastard.
BARMAN
The one that killed her.
REBUS
So who’s that then?
A beat.
BARMAN
I don’t need this kind of trouble any more.
REBUS
What kind of trouble?
BARMAN
We’re closed and I’m busy.
The BARMAN is nearly away.
REBUS
You think you know who did it.
BARMAN
No. I don’t. But I know she was scared of him. And I know you bastards didny even ask the right questions.
REBUS
So what would be the right question?
BARMAN
Maggie didny scare easy.
REBUS
So who scared her?
BARMAN
Wasny just a random guy leaping on her in the dark. It was someone she knew. She ran out of here because she saw someone who’d already scared her. Seventeen years and you still don’t know why? Guy like you wrote it all down. Go and ask him.
REBUS
Where did she die?
BARMAN
Building site just across the street there. It’s a high rise now, dockside redevelopment. You can’t even see the ground where they found her.
BARMAN leaves.
Granton high rise
REBUS is looking up. MAGGIE joins him. As always she’s only in his mind’s eye.
MAGGIE
So you do care. I’m touched. You think you know the stones to turn over, John?
REBUS starts to climb.
MAGGIE
In seventeen years most of the stones have been dug up. They’ve had concrete poured over them, car parks built on them, glass towers and gentrified tenements squeezing out the dark underworld that scuttled under the surface of the douce capital’s streets . . . Oh but the dark’s still there, isn’t it John?
REBUS is climbing up.
MAGGIE
They marked my grave with great towers. High rises with balconies in the clouds, sold to dreamers that believed they’d sit in the sky watching the sparkling silver sea laid out below . . . And the sharp east wind drives the grey Forth onto the glass.
REBUS is looking out over the view.
REBUS
What scared you Maggie? Someone you knew you couldny handle.
MAGGIE
I’m seventeen John, I think I can take on the world.
REBUS
Someone we never even questioned, because we didny do our job. We didny know he was there. Why was he there? And why did no-one see him?
REBUS is going quickly downstairs again. MAGGIE follows him.
MAGGIE
What makes you thi
nk you’ll see it now?
REBUS
Because it’s in here. All in my head. I don’t forget.
ANGELA is suddenly there too, talking to MAGGIE.
ANGELA
He does forget. He’s forgetting me.
MAGGIE
He’s only doing this to forget you.
ANGELA
I know.
REBUS is trying to think, stopped at the foot of the stairs.
ANGELA