‘OK…’ Manny groaned. ‘You win.’ She relinquished his ear. ‘Kai, well, he was lifted, done for possession with intent tae supply and he did cut a deal… One of my boys was busted, that’s why Kai had tae leave Paisley – he grassed me up.’
‘I heard he’d gone straight,’ Hanlon said.
Manny shook his head. ‘I dinnae think so. I heard that there was a cop in Strathclyde connected with bringing coke in from the islands. Kai was involved in that, that’s why he got that job out there. He bragged aboot it tae Tam, said it was huge, far bigger than piss-ant deals down the Rob Roy… That’s all I know.’
Hanlon straightened up.
‘So, you’re telling me that Kai had a deal going with a cop in the islands. Do you know who this cop is? I want a name.’
‘I can’t…’
Hanlon placed her right heel on Manny’s outstretched fingers and leant her weight on it. Manny gasped. ‘Jesus, you’re breaking my fingers…’
‘I know.’ She smiled pleasantly down at Manny’s anguished, elderly face. His yellowy eyes stared up at her, his mottled cheeks with a crimson network of spidery veins turning a purple-red. ‘Please give me a name.’
‘Campbell, Murdo Campbell,’ he said.
She removed her heel, satisfied. ‘OK, then, you’d better pray that I don’t come back,’ she said. ‘Oh, and if I hear that anything has happened to Lee Anne, I will be back. That’s a promise. I’ll burn your fucking establishment to the ground and you with it.’
‘Where’s Leo?’ Manny asked. ‘Please tell me…’
Hanlon pointed at her face. ‘Leo hit my head,’ she said. ‘It must have given me amnesia, oh… hang on, I remember…’ She paused as if struck by a thought. ‘No, sorry, thought I had it… It’s gone again. Hopefully he’ll be OK. I’d be very upset if anything happened to Leo. He’s got so much to give to the world.’
She took the key from the door.
‘Are you going tae help me up?’ asked Manny plaintively. He started coughing, then fighting for breath; his pasty white face turned a kind of deep red.
‘No,’ she said.
‘I cannae get up by mysel’,’ he pleaded.
‘Tough, you shouldn’t smoke so much.’
Hanlon heard a voice outside. She opened the window. Manny burst into a paroxysm of truly alarming coughing, alternating with breathless wheezing as he fought for breath. Hanlon stepped out of the window into the yard, then pulled it down almost all the way behind her.
There was a knocking on the door.
‘Are you OK, Manny?’
‘No, I’m not fucking OK.’ There was another alarming outbreak of terrible wheezing coughing. ‘I’m doon on the flair!’
‘Whit the fuck are you doing doon there, Manny?’ she heard Frank say from behind the door.
‘I need a hand up, Frank… my fucking legs gave way…’ Explosive coughing. Hanlon smiled to herself. Manny was not going to admit he’d been beaten by a woman.
‘You sound awfi ill, Manny. Are you awreet?’
‘Of course I’m nae fuckin’ awreet, I’m on the fuckin’ flair… Get me up.’ More coughing.
‘I cannae dae that, Manny, the door’s locked.’ Frank’s voice was one of gentle reason, as if he were talking to a child. More coughing from Manny, lengthy pauses and then anguished wheezes as he breathed in.
‘I cannae breathe, I need mah puffer… Break it doon!’
‘It’s reinforced, Manny, you should know that, it was your idea. I’ll get a locksmith.’
‘The windae! Come through the windae…’ wheezey breaths ‘… I cannae breathe…’
‘I cannae hear whit you’re saying, Manny… I’d better get back tae the bar, those cunts’ll rob it otherwise… Manny, I’ll call the locksmith, hang on in there. He may be a while.’
Hanlon crept to the small window by the back door. She risked a look through. She could see Frank in the dim hallway, crying with laughter. He lit a cigarette and sat down on the stairs. Frank was in no hurry whatsoever to help Manny.
She slipped away across the yard and out into the street. She wondered whether to call for help; she doubted Frank would. Then she thought of Manny calmly ordering Leo to beat her up; she thought of Lee Anne.
She decided to leave Manny’s fate up to the universe. She nearly had enough on Campbell for McCleod to go to her superiors. A bit more patient digging would turn something concrete up, she felt sure of it.
But right now she wanted to go home to McCleod.
30
The following day – after a night in the Holiday Inn in Port Glasgow, bankrolled by Leo – travelling by coach and ferry, Hanlon returned to Islay and then Jura. It was the last lap in what felt like a very long race.
Standing on the ferry, staring up at the enormous swell of the three Paps, she had an odd feeling of coming home. She breathed in the heavy, salt air, listened to the throb of the engines beneath her feet, the metal and rivets of the white-painted side of the ship cold to the touch under her hand, and wondered why.
Was it McCleod? The warmth of her willing body, her responsiveness to Hanlon’s touch – could it be that simple? She somehow doubted it. She’d been alone in her life for too long to want to share too much with another person. But she was aware of a fierce affection towards the other woman, despite her criminal untidiness, her desire to do things by the book, her inability to wash her car or keep it clean inside, and her bloody dog, and she had an uncomfortable feeling that affection was very close to love.
Don’t be stupid, she thought, pushing the thought aside. Hopefully in a couple of hours she would know who had shot Kai and hopefully this would lead to leverage over how the drowned girls had died. Her money was very much on Campbell. He had been on the island when it had happened. He had made one appointment with Kai. Maybe the time
