two twenty-pence pieces for the game.
‘What’s wrong?’
Nell was staring at him. To do so, she had brought herself to his level, her head resting against the table.
‘Nothing.’ He turned towards her, offering the rest of the room a hard profile. ‘Are you hungry?’
‘I suppose so, yes.’
‘Good, me too.’
‘I thought you said you’d eaten.’
‘Not enough. Come on, I’ll treat you to an Indian.’
‘Let me finish my drink first.’ She did so in three swallows, and they left together, the door swinging shut silently behind them.
‘Heads or tails?’ Rebus asked McCall, flipping a coin.
‘Tails.’
Rebus examined the coin. ‘Tails it is. You break.’
As McCall angled his cue down onto the table, closing one eye as he concentrated on the distant triangle of balls, Rebus stared at the door of the bar. Fair enough, he supposed. Holmes was off duty, and had a girl with him, too. He supposed that gave him grounds for ignoring his senior officer. Perhaps there had been no progress, nothing to report. Fair enough again. But Rebus couldn’t help thinking that the whole thing was meant to be taken as a snub. He had given Holmes a mouthful earlier on, and now Holmes was sulking.
‘You to play, John,’ said McCall, who had broken without potting.
‘Right you are, Tony,’ said Rebus, chalking the tip of his cue. ‘Right you are.’
McCall came to Rebus’s side as he was making ready to play.
‘This must be just about the only straight pub in the whole street,’ he said quietly.
‘Do you know what homophobia means, Tony?’
‘Don’t get me wrong, John,’ said McCall, straightening up and watching Rebus’s chosen ball miss the pocket. ‘I mean, each to his own and all that. But some of those pubs and clubs. .. .’
‘You seem to know a lot.’
‘No, not really. It’s just what I hear.’
‘Who from?’
McCall potted one striped ball, then another. ‘Come on, John. You know Edinburgh as well as I do. Everybody knows.the gay scene here.’
‘Like you said, Tony, each to his own.’ A voice suddenly sounded in Rebus’s mind: you’re the brother I never had. No, no, shut that out. He’d been there too often before. McCall missed on his next shot and Rebus approached the table.
‘How come,’ he said, completely miscuing, ‘you can drink so much and play so well?’
McCall chuckled. ‘Alcohol cures the shakes,’ he said. ‘So finish that pint and I’ll buy you another. My treat.’
James Carew felt that he deserved his treat. He had sold a substantial property on the outskirts of Edinburgh to the financial director of a company new to Scotland, and a husband and wife architects’ partnership - Scottish in origin, but now relocating from Sevenoaks in Kent - had just made a rather better offer than expected for an estate of seven acres in the Borders. A good day. By no means the best, but nevertheless worthy of celebration.
Carew himself owned a pied a terre in one of the loveliest of the New Town’s Georgian streets, and a farmhouse with some acreage on the Isle of Skye. These were good days for him. London was shifting north, it seemed, the incomers brimming with cash from properties sold in the
south-east, wanting bigger and ¦ better and prepared to pay.
He left his George Street offices at six thirty, and returned to his split-level flat. Flat? It seemed an insult to term it such: five bedrooms, living room, dining room, two bathrooms, adequate kitchen, walk-in cupboards the size of a decent Hammersmith bedsit. . . . Carew was in the right place, the only place, and the time was right, too. This was a year to be clutched, embraced, a year unlike any other. He removed his suit in the master bedroom, showered, and changed into something more casual, but without shrugging off the mark of wealth. Though he had walked home, he would need the car for tonight. It was garaged in a mews to the rear of his street. The keys were hanging on their appointed hook in the kitchen. Was the Jaguar an indulgence? He smiled, locking the flat as he left. Perhaps it was. But then his list of indulgences was long, and about to grow longer.
Rebus waited with McCall until the taxi arrived. He gave the driver McCall’s address, and watched the cab pull away. Damn, he felt a little groggy himself. He went back into the pub and headed for the toilets. The bar was busier now, the jukebox louder. The bar staff had grown in strength from one to three, and they were working hard to cope. The toilets were a cool tiled haven, free from much of the bar’s cigarette smoke. Pine disinfectant caught in Rebus’s nostrils as he leaned over into one of the sinks. Two fingers sought out his tonsils, pausing there at the back of his throat until he retched, bringing up half a pint of beer, then another half. He breathed deeply, feeling a little better already, then washed his face thoroughly with cold water, drying himself off with a fistful of paper towels.
‘You all right?’ The voice lacked real sympathy. Its
owner had just pushed open the door to the gents’ and was already seeking the closest urinal.
‘Never felt better,’ said Rebus.
‘That’s good.’
Good? He didn’t know about that, but at least his head was clearer, the world more in focus. He doubted if he’d
