I shook my head and kept my voice low.
'I’m not abandoning my career just to inconvenience you, and for the record I did apologise.'
We were interrupted by the sound of a key turning in the front door. There was a pause while the new arrival took off their coat, and then Eilidh put her head into the kitchen.
Her hair was pulled back into a roll, but it looked as if the wind had caught it and loose tendrils curled softly around her face.
'Hi.' She smiled at Johnny, then noticed me for the first time. 'Oh, William.'
I got to my feet, hoping my stubbed-out cigarette wouldn’t cause a row after I’d gone.
'It’s OK, I’ve got to head.'
Eilidh came into the room, glancing at the saucer, but not mentioning it.
'Are you sure?'
'Positive.'
She looked towards the other end of the table.
'John?'
'Let him go, Eilidh. William’s got things to do.'
The woman looked between us, sensing tension but unsure of its cause.
'How’s Grace?'
John took a drink from his bottle of beer.
'I just looked in on her, she’s sound.'
'Good. I’ll have a wee peek after I’ve walked William to the door.'
John shrugged his shoulders. I lifted my jacket from the back of my chair.
'I’ll be fine.'
But Eilidh accompanied me anyway. She turned to me in the hallway.
'What happened?'
'John wants me to do his gig, I told him I wasn’t able to.'
'Couldn’t or wouldn’t?'
'Can’t.'
She looked up at me then put her hand gently on my arm. Her voice was tender, as if she were seeing me for the first time.
'What happened to you, William?'
Something in her touch and her soft tone forced a pressure behind my eyes. I stepped free of her grip.
'Nothing, I just don’t perform any more.'
'It’s OK.' Eilidh smiled gently and I wondered if she’d always been able to switch between the hard professionalism she’d shown in the cells and this empathy that seemed able to sheer off my emotional armour with one look. 'I’ll speak to John. He’s under a lot of pressure and… well, you know how he is when he gets the bit between his teeth.' She shook her head. 'Every time you meet us there’s a display of bad manners.'
I returned her smile; grateful she’d changed the subject.
'Not the night I met you both in the pub.'
'It seemed to me you were a bit prickly then.'
'Possibly.'
'Anyway, I’m glad I saw you. I wanted to apologise for the other day. I should have been more sympathetic. You’d had a terrible experience and I was…'
'Sure I was guilty?'
'… not as sensitive as I should have been.'
'You’ve a lawyer’s way with words.'
'That’s good, I am a lawyer after all.'
'Will I have to go to court?'
'No, not unless one of them changes his guilty plea.'
'That’s something.' I put a hand in my pocket and took out my cigarettes, turning them over nervously in my hands, remembering that smoking was taboo. 'Eilidh, if…'
I hesitated, not wanting the mother of John’s child anywhere near my quest, but realising she was the only legal counsel I was liable to get. She smiled encouragingly.
'Go on.'
'… if a crime happened a long time ago would old evidence still be any good?'
