Ian Rankin - Set in Darkness

And if no one came... then you sat and waited. You didn’t go out until you’d been ‘first-footed’: it was bad luck. One aunt had sat alone for a couple of days; everyone thought she was at her daughter’s. Elsewhere: songs in the street, handshakes, drunken reminiscence and prayers for a better year to come.

The old days. And now Rebus was old himself, heading home from Swany’s at eleven. He’d see the New Year in alone, and would go out tomorrow even though he’d had no first foot. Maybe he’d walk under a ladder, too, and step on every crack in the pavement.

Just to show that he could.

His car was parked one street over from Arden Street — no spaces available near his flat. He unlocked the boot and extracted his carry-out: a bottle of Macallan, six bottles of Belhaven Best, paprika crisps, dry roasted peanuts. There was a pizza in the freezer, and some sliced tongue in the fridge. Enough to see him through. He’d been saving the White Album ; could think of worse ways to see in the New Year.

One of them was standing by his tenement door: Cafferty.

‘Would you look at us?’ Cafferty said, opening his arms. ‘Both on our ownios, this of all nights!’

‘Speak for yourself.’

‘Oh, right,’ Cafferty said, nodding, ‘you’re hosting the social event of the year — I’d forgotten. A bevvy of beauties are on their way as I speak, scented and mini-skirted.’ He paused. ‘Merry Christmas, by the way.’ He tried handing something to Rebus, who wasn’t of a mind to take it. Something small and shiny...

‘Twenty fags?’

Cafferty shrugged. ‘An impulse buy.’

Rebus had three packets waiting for him upstairs. ‘Keep them,’ he said. ‘Maybe I’ll get lucky and you’ll get cancer.’

Cafferty tutted. His face seemed huge, moon-like in the sodium light. ‘I thought we’d take a drive.’

Rebus stared at him. ‘A drive?’

‘Where d’you fancy: Queensferry, Portobello...?’

‘What’s so urgent?’ Rebus put his carrier bags down; they clinked musically as they came to rest.

‘Bryce Callan.’

‘What about him?’

‘You don’t have a case, do you?’ Rebus didn’t respond. ‘Won’t get one either. And I haven’t noticed any worry lines on Barry Hutton’s brow.’

‘So?’

‘So maybe I can help.’

Rebus shuffled his feet. ‘And why would you do that?’

‘I might have my reasons.’

‘Reasons you didn’t have ten days ago when I asked?’

‘Maybe you didn’t ask nicely enough.’

‘Then I’ve got some bad news: my manners haven’t improved with age.’

Cafferty smiled. ‘Just a drive, Strawman. You can do your drinking, and fill me in on the case.’

Rebus narrowed his eyes. ‘Land developer,’ he mused. ‘It would be branching out, wouldn’t it?’

‘Easier to do if you can take over an existing business,’ Cafferty admitted.

‘Barry Hutton’s business? I put him away, you step in. I can’t see Bryce being too happy.’

‘My problem.’ Cafferty winked. ‘Let’s go for that drive. Stick a note on the door, let the glamour models know the party’s shifted back an hour.’

‘They won’t be happy. You know what models are like.’

‘Overpaid and underfed, you mean? Would that be the opposite of yourself, DI Rebus?’

‘Ha ha.’

‘Careful now,’ Cafferty warned. ‘This time of the season, a split side can take ages to heal.’

Somehow, they’d been moving while they talked, and Rebus was surprised to find that he’d picked up his carrier bags, too. Now they stood by the Jag. Cafferty yanked open the driver’s door, slid in behind the steering wheel in a single, practised movement. Rebus stood there a moment longer. Hogmanay, last day of the year: a day for paying debts, balancing the books... a day for finishing things.

He made to get in.

‘Sling the booze in the back,’ Cafferty suggested. ‘I’ve a hip flask in the glove compartment, twenty-five-year-old Armagnac. Wait till you taste this stuff. I’m telling you, it would turn a heathen into John the fucking Baptist.’

But Rebus had extracted the Macallan from one of his bags. ‘I’ll stick to my own,’ he said.

‘Not a bad drop either.’ Cafferty was making a great effort not to be offended. ‘Make sure you waft some of it my way, so I can at least inhale.’ He turned the ignition. The Jaguar purred like the cat it resembled. And suddenly they were moving, looking to the outside world like nothing more suspicious than two friends out for a jaunt. South to the Grange, and further south to Blackford Hill, then east towards the coast. And Rebus talked, as much for his own benefit as Cafferty’s. About the pact two business friends had made with a devil called Bryce Callan, a pact which would lead to a killing. About how the killer waited in vain for his friend to return, living rough — a disguise against detection, or a route to penitence? Past lessons learned by Barry Hutton, now a successful businessman, seeing an opportunity for fresh riches and increased fame: replaying that game from twenty years before, determined that his man on the council would become his player in parliament...

At the end of the story Cafferty seemed thoughtful, then said, ‘So it’s tainted before it begins?’

‘Maybe,’ Rebus replied, putting the bottle back to his mouth. Portobello: that’s where they looked to be headed, maybe park by the harbour and sit with windows open. But Cafferty headed on to Seafield Road and started driving towards Leith.

‘There’s some land up this way I’m thinking of buying,’ he explained. ‘Got some plans drawn up, builder called Peter Kirkwall did the costings.’

‘For what?’

‘Leisure complex — restaurant, maybe a cinema or health club. Some luxury flats parked on top.’

‘Kirkwall works with Barry Hutton.’

‘I know.’

‘Hutton’s sure to find out.’

Cafferty shrugged. ‘Something I just have to live with.’ He gave a smile Rebus couldn’t read. ‘I heard about this plot of land next to where they’re building the parliament. It sold for three-quarters of a million four years ago. Know what its price is now? Four million. How’s that for a yield?’

Rebus pushed the cork back into the bottle. This stretch of road was all car dealers, wasteland behind, and then the sea. They headed up a narrow, unlit lane, its surface uneven. A large metal fence at the far end. Cafferty stopped the Jag, got out and took a key to the padlock, pulled the heavy metal chain free and pushed the gates open with his foot.

‘What’s there to see?’ Rebus asked, uneasy now, as Cafferty got back into the driving seat. He could run, but it was a long way to civilisation, and he was dead beat. Besides, he was done running.

‘It’s all warehouses just now. If you coughed too loud, they’d collapse. Easy enough to bulldoze, and there’s a quarter-mile of seafront to play with.’

They drove through the gates.

‘A quiet place for a chat,’ Cafferty said.

But they weren’t here to chat; Rebus knew that now. He turned his head, saw that another car was following them into the compound. It was a red Ferrari. Rebus turned back to Cafferty.

‘What’s going on?’

‘Business,’ Cafferty said coldly, ‘that’s all.’ He stopped the Jag, pulled on the handbrake. ‘Out,’ he ordered. Rebus didn’t move. Cafferty got out of the car, left his door open. The other car had pulled up alongside. Both sets of headlamps stayed on dipped, illuminating the cracked concrete surface of the compound. Rebus focused on one of the weeds, its jagged shadow crawling up the wall of one of the warehouses. Rebus’s door was pulled open. Hands grabbed at him. He heard a soft click as his seat belt was unlocked, and then he was being dragged out, thrown on to the cold ground. He took his time looking up. Three figures, silhouetted against the headlamps, breath billowing from their dark faces. Cafferty and two others. Rebus started getting to his feet. The single malt had fallen from the car, smashed on the concrete. He wished he’d taken one more hit of it while he had the chance.