pseudo photos too, although I've never heard anyone, even those with twice your nous, try to use that as an excuse for a video, so ten out of ten for originality.'
'I haven't done nothing.'
'You're a liar '
'I'm not! It was me brother's thing. All them vids were his I never even knew '
'Even so, you are a fucking liar I recognize you.' Caffery put his cigarette in the ashtray and inspected the mark on his arm, squeezing it, seeing if it would bleed. 'You had a wig on, but you made a boy who looked, to my untutored eye, about eleven…' He paused and looked up from his arm. 'Actually, you know, I could be wrong, maybe he was even younger just goes to show I can't tell kids' ages very well. Anyway, you made him go down on you, didn't you?' He dropped his arm and looked her square in the eye. 'You know, the video with you on the sofa. Little boy of about eleven having his cock sucked. And there were three others.'
'Don't you start trying to grief me now.' She rubbed her chest. 'I've got a bad chest. Doctor says stress could be dangerous.'
'Don't threaten me. You're not Cynthia Jarrett. Nobody's going to give a flying fuck if you keel over, except for a couple of sad old nonces.'
'There wasn't no harm in what I did.' Her face was growing redder. 'He wanted it, that lad. He wanted it. Couldn't you tell? You don't get a fucking lob-on if yer don't wan nit
'Tracey, he was only a kid. Legally he can't make a decision at that age and you shouldn't have put him in a position where he had to '
'You're stressing me.' The phlegm was rattling in her throat. 'You're really stressing me.' She moved her tongue around and began to lean over between her knees.
'Don't you dare spit in my fucking car!'
'I'll suffocate if I can't.'
'Oh, for Christ's sake.'
He leaned over, undid the passenger window and pushed her head out. She hawked phlegm into the hedgerow and it landed on an opened cow-parsley umbrella at shoulder height. 'Charming.' He pulled her back into the car and pushed her against the seat. She sat back, blinking, and suddenly dropped her face into her hands and began to sob self-pityingly.
'Oh, Jesus.' He sighed.
'What are you going to do to me?' Her nose began to run. 'What're you going to do?'
Caffery stared out of the window at the cars going by on the A134. Tracey Lamb was depressing him.
'Don't shop me please don't. I don't want to go away again.'
'You won't if you help me.'
'But I don't know any of them who was biters I don't!'
'Not good enough. Not fucking good enough.'
'It's true.' Tracey started crying even louder.
'Oh, for Christ's sake.' He rolled his eyes skywards. 'Here have a fag, for fuck's sake.'
She wiped her nose and watched him roll a cigarette. She took it, let him light it and smoked for a few minutes until she was in control again. He watched her carefully, knowing that all he'd said so far was subterfuge, that he should cut to the chase. He rested his elbow on the steering-wheel and turned full on to her.
'Look,' he said, 'be straight with me don't you recognize my name?'
'What name?'
'Caffery.'
She shook her head. Her nose was still running.
'But you've heard of the boy across the railway tracks?' That got her attention. She opened her mouth a little and looked at him. 'You know about the boy across the railway tracks, don't you? Penderecki told you, didn't he?'
'Uh '
'What happened, Tracey? Eh? What happened?'
'I uh Her eyes had changed. They flickered uncertainly and he knew he was getting somewhere.
'Come on where did Penderecki put him?'
'Why d'you want to know?'
'Doesn't matter why.' Caffery put his index fingers on his temples as if she tired him immensely. 'What matters is what happens to you if you don't tell me.'
Her eyes travelled back and forward across his face as if she was working something around in her head, and slowly her expression changed. 'Here,' she said eventually, a suspicious little glint in her eyes, 'I thought you was asking about a biter. That's what you said someone who bites little boys.'
'Well, now I'm not. Now I'm asking about the boy on the railway tracks.'
'How comes you're here on yer own?'
'I'm the only one who knows.'
'Are you arresting me?'
'I will if you want.'
'No, you won't.' Her eyes glittered like fake gems. She'd sussed him. 'This ain't official, is it?' She smiled, her lips pulled back from the yellow rabbit's teeth. 'You're working for someone. There's some gelt in it. You're in with someone.'
'Just give me the truth.'
'The truth? The real truth?'
'Yes.'
She didn't answer. They stared at each other for a long time. Then Tracey raised her eyebrows and grinned.
'What?'
'I don't know. I don't know what happened to him.'
'Oh, Jesus.' He shook his head and dropped his face into his hands. 'Stop dicking with me,' he said wearily. 'I mean it, Tracey, no more fucking bullshit. I want to know where they put him.'
'I don't know seriously, I don't. All I know is that Ivan wouldn't tell me brother and that's all. I swear I don't know.'
Twenty.
Caffery sat back, exhausted. He lit another cigarette and smoked it without speaking. Fuck this. He believed she didn't know anything about Rory's killer but he was sure she knew more than she was letting on about Ewan. Was he going to let himself be suckered in again, sniff along blindly like a desperate, hungry dog? I think you will. He imagined Rebecca smiling in amusement, smoking a cigarillo and coolly assessing his behaviour. Penderecki's gone but you still like being jerked around when it comes to Ewan.
No, he thought, fuck it, no. He chucked the cigarette out of the window, started the car and nosed it forward a few feet. 'I'll come back.' He reached across Tracey and opened the door. 'When you've had time to think about it.'
She looked dubiously down at the stinging nettles pushing though the cracks in the hot tarmac. 'I'm not getting out here in me drawers. Can't you drive me back to the house?'
'No.' He unsnapped her seat-belt and shoved her. 'Go on get out.'
She jerked forward. 'Oi, ya cunt. What d'you think you're doing '
'Go on. Fuck off.'
'You cunt!' Tracey Lamb got out of the car, squealing, 'You cuntV
'Yeah.' He closed the door. 'OK, see you later.' She was in her underwear and a see-through wrap, barefoot in a lay by two miles from her house, but he didn't care. Fuck her. He accelerated away, his hands shaking on the steering-wheel. He followed the A12 into London and straight into the City, where he turned south, setting the car for Shrivemoor. He was going to go straight back and tell Souness about Penderecki's cache and then he was
