Saints of the Shadow Bible

debating this when his phone announced an incoming text. It was from Christine Esson, telling him she had news.

‘You’re a naughty man,’ she said when he called her.

‘How so?’

‘Something tells me you already knew there was a connection.’

‘Between Alice Bell and Rory? Actually, I’d no idea.’

‘He’s her uncle. Alice’s mum died six years back — cancer, by the look of it. Then her father was in a car smash.’

‘A car smash?’

‘I know — bit of a coincidence. That was over three years ago, and he died from his injuries.’

‘Where did it happen?’

‘A81, near Port of Menteith.’

‘I’m no further forward.’

‘Sounds like it should be on the coast, but it’s actually west of Stirling, towards Loch Katrine.’

‘Geography your strong point at school?’

‘Ten seconds on Google,’ she corrected him.

‘So it’s right that her family came from Stirling?’

‘Rory was born there. Left school at sixteen and moved west soon after. No actual criminal record, though he’s sailed close to the wind more than once.’

‘Does Alice have money?’

‘Her dad didn’t leave a lot — he worked as a butcher. He was travelling to see one of his suppliers. Van coming the other way tried an overtaking manoeuvre on a bend and went straight into him.’

‘Making Alice an orphan at sixteen. Anything else on Uncle Rory?’

He listened, but she hadn’t found out much more than he’d been told by Laura Smith. He thanked her anyway and ended the call. He was wondering how close Alice was to her uncle. Maybe he slipped her some money now and then to help with her university bills. Could she have been in Jessica’s car the night of the crash? She’d shown no injuries of any kind, no whiplash. Was she the kind who would panic and flee the scene? Again, Rebus doubted it — she would have stayed with her friend, phoned for an ambulance. Unless there was something the authorities couldn’t be allowed to see. He remembered the car boot — closed when the first officer on the scene had taken his photographs, but open the following morning as the car was winched aboard the flatbed truck. .

Rebus called Esson again and asked her to pull up two numbers: that police officer, plus the scrapyard. The uniform’s name was Bryan Hall, and when Rebus got through to him he was adamant no one had tried opening the Golf’s boot while he’d been present. The owner of the scrapyard was less helpful.

‘Reece knocks off at five on the dot,’ he barked. ‘You want to speak to him, you get here before then.’

His full name was Reece Bairstow, and Rebus stared at it in his notebook after the owner had hung up.

‘Well, why not?’ he said to himself, stubbing out the cigarette and heading towards his car.

The scrapyard was on the outskirts of Broxburn, so he took the road out towards Edinburgh Airport. Listening to the radio, he was informed that the economic crisis was getting no easier and other European countries were approaching ‘basket case’ territory. Cyprus, Portugal. . no one seemed to know where it would end. He switched to a local station; an angry phone-in was debating how an independent Scotland could remain part of NATO if it ditched the nukes. After a couple of minutes Rebus could feel his blood pressure rising. He reached for a CD and slid it home. Spooky Tooth’s second album.

‘Better,’ he said to himself.

The yard was behind a chain-link fence, some of it hidden behind a further makeshift barrier of corrugated sheeting and all topped by three separate strands of razor wire. Signs warned of CCTV and guard dogs. Sure enough, a German shepherd got to its feet and bared its fangs as Rebus drove through the open gates and into the compound. The dog was tethered by a length of greasy inch-thick rope and a studded leather collar. The office it protected looked to have been constructed from leftovers of timber and beaten metal. The man who emerged knew Rebus for a policeman straight away, just as Rebus could tell the man had served time at some point in the past. The rolled-up sleeves of his shirt displayed arms festooned with faded home-made tattoos, the kind prisoners inflicted on each other for want of any other hobbies. Shaky writing and wonky thistles seemed to predominate.

‘What’s the dog called?’

The owner squinted at Rebus. He was squat, almost hunchbacked, and his bald dome of a head had an oily sheen to it.

‘Boris,’ he eventually answered, at which the dog’s ears pricked up.

‘Reckon that rope’s strong enough?’

‘You better hope so.’ The man allowed himself a gap-toothed grin. ‘You’re the cop who phoned?’

‘DS Rebus. I didn’t catch your name.’

‘Eddie Duke. I told Reece you wanted to talk to him, and guess what? He decided to knock off early.’

‘He’s gone?’

‘That’s right.’

Rebus pretended to look disappointed, then gestured towards a compactor sixty yards away. ‘So that’s his twin, then?’ he asked. ‘See, I’ve met Reece before.’

The owner’s face fell. Then he placed his fingers to his mouth and let out a piercing whistle. Reese Bairstow looked up from his work and saw his boss signalling him over.

‘You’ve been very helpful,’ Rebus told the man. ‘Don’t think I won’t remember that.’

He started walking towards Bairstow, meeting him halfway. Bairstow was tugging at the fingers of his work gloves, pulling his hands free of them. He gave a twitch of the mouth by way of greeting.

‘Remember me?’ Rebus asked.

‘The VW Golf outside Kirkliston? Car’s right here.’ Bairstow nodded in the direction of a metre-high cube of squashed metal. Another vehicle had already been placed atop it.

‘Yard’s been busy,’ Rebus commented.

‘Way I like it.’ Bairstow stood with almost three feet of space between his work boots, shoulders pulled back.

‘You worried, Reece?’ Rebus asked.

‘No.’

‘Your stance says otherwise.’

Bairstow looked down at himself and tried to relax, shuffling his feet and unknotting some of his muscles. ‘What do you want?’ he asked.

‘I want to know what you took from the car.’

The man just stared at him. ‘Nothing,’ he eventually said.

‘Want to try that again?’

‘I’ve told you.’

‘Easy enough to pop the boot open — key was still in the ignition. But when we suddenly turned up you had to look busy, and you forgot to shut it again.’ Rebus paused and took half a step towards the man. ‘It’s not just a case of bad driving any more, Reece — might end up connecting to a murder. Anyone who holds back from us, there’s going to be a price to pay further down the line.’ He turned his head towards the owner’s shack. ‘I’m willing to bet your boss won’t like us coming back here day after day to question you. Probably got a few things he wouldn’t want us getting wind of. .’

Bairstow’s nostrils flared. He was breathing hard, face fixed in a scowl. ‘I’ve told you,’ he repeated.

‘So you have,’ Rebus agreed, nodding slowly. ‘But this won’t be the last time you see me or someone like me — far from it. I suppose I better go tell your boss that.’ He turned and started retracing his steps. He heard footsteps behind him, Bairstow’s voice telling him to hang on a minute. Rebus stopped and waited while the man walked around to face him.

‘How much trouble would someone be in, taking something from a wreck? Nothing much, I mean — something they didn’t think anyone would want?’

Rebus pretended to consider this, then gave a non-committal shrug.