Peter Robinson - A Necessary End

"What were you charged with on Friday?" Burgess asked.

"You know damn well what I was charged with. It was a trumped-up charge."

"But what was it? Tell me. Say it. Just to humour me." Burgess reached into his pocket and took out his tin of Tom Thumbs. Holding Osmond's eyes with his own all the time, he slowly took out a cigar and lit it.

"I said I don't want you smoking in here," Osmond protested on cue. "It's my home and—"

"Shut up," Burgess said, just loudly enough to stop him in his tracks. "What was the charge?"

"Breach of the peace," Osmond mumbled. "But I told you, it was trumped up. If anyone broke the peace, it was the police."

"Ever heard of a lad by the name of Paul Boyd?" Banks asked.

"No." It was a foolish lie. Osmond had answered before he'd had time to register the question. Banks would have known he was lying even if he hadn't already learned, via Jenny, that Osmond was acquainted with the people at Maggie's Farm.

"Look," Osmond went on, "I'm starting an inquiry of my own into what happened on Friday. I'll be taking statements, and believe me, I'll make sure your behaviour here today goes into the final report."

"Bully for you," said Burgess. Then he shook his head slowly. "You don't get it, do you, sonny? You might be able to pull those outraged-citizen tactics with the locals, but they won't wash with me. Do you know why not?"

Osmond scowled and kept silent.

"I said, do you know why not?"

"All right, no, I don't bloody well know why not!"

"Because I don't give a flying fuck for you or for others like you," Burgess said, stabbing the air with his cigar. "As far as I'm concerned, you're shit, and we'd all be a hell of a lot better off without you. And the people I work with, they feel the same way. It doesn't matter if Chief Inspector Banks here has the hots for your Dr Fuller and wants to go easy on her. It doesn't matter that he's got a social conscience and respects people's rights, either. I don't, and my bosses don't. We don't piss around, we get things done, and you'd do well to remember that, both of you."

Jenny was flushed and speechless with rage; Banks himself felt pale and impotent. He should have known that nothing would slip by Burgess.

"I can't tell you anything," Osmond repeated wearily. "Why can't you believe me? I don't know who killed that policeman. I didn't see it, I didn't do it, and I don't know who did."

A long silence followed. At least it seemed long to Banks, who was aware only of the pounding of his heart. Finally Burgess stood up and walked over to the window, where he stubbed out his cigar on the white sill. Then he turned and smiled. Osmond gripped the tubular arms of his chair tightly.

"Okay," Burgess said, turning to Banks. "We'll be off, then, for the moment.

Sorry to spoil your afternoon in bed. You can get back to it now, if you like."

He looked at Jenny and licked his lips. "That's a fetching shirt you've got on, love," he said to her. "But you didn't need to leave it half-unbuttoned just for me. I've got plenty of imagination."

Back in the car, Banks was fuming. "You were way out of line in there," he said. "There was no reason to insult Jenny, and there was especially no need to bring me into it the way you did. What the hell were you trying to achieve?"

"Just trying to stir them up a bit, that's all."

"So how does making me out to be a bloody lecher stir them up?"

"You're not thinking clearly, Banks. We make Osmond jealous, maybe he lets his guard down." Burgess grinned. "Anyway, there's nothing in it, is there, you and her?"

"Of course there isn't."

"Methinks this fellow doth protest too much."

"Fuck off."

"Oh, come on," Burgess said calmly. "Don't take it so seriously. You use what you need to get results. Christ, I don't blame you. I wouldn't mind tumbling her, myself. Lovely pair of tits under that shirt. Did you see?"

Banks took a deep breath and reached for a cigarette. There was no point, he realized, in going on. Burgess was an unstoppable force. However angry and disoriented Banks felt, it would do no good to let more of it show. Instead, he put his emotions in check, something he knew he should have done right from the start. But the feelings still rankled as they knotted up below the surface. He was mad at Burgess, he was mad at Osmond, he was mad at Jenny, and he was mad, most of all, at himself.

Starting the car with a lurch, he shoved the cassette back in and turned up the volume. Billie Holiday sang "God Bless the Child," and Burgess whistled blithely along as they sped through the bright, blustery March day back to the market square.

They were all a bit drunk, and that was unusual at Maggie's Farm. Mara certainly hadn't been so tipsy for a long time. Rick was sketching them as they sat around the living-room. Paul drank lager from the can, and even Zoe had turned giggly on white wine. But Seth was the worst. His speech was slurred, his eyes were watery, and his co-ordination was askew. He was also getting maudlin about the sixties, something he never did when he was sober. Mara had seen him drunk only once before, the time he had let slip about the death of his wife. Mostly, he was well-guarded and got on with life without moaning.

Things had begun well enough. After the police visit, they had all walked down to the Black Sheep for a drink. Perhaps the feeling of relief, of celebration, had encouraged them to drink more than usual, and they had splurged on a few cans of Carlsberg Special Brew, some white wine and a bottle of Scotch to take home. Most of the afternoon Seth and Mara had lounged about over the papers or dozed by the fire, while Paul messed about in the shed, Rick painted in his studio, and Zoe amused the children. Early in the evening they all got together, and the whisky and wine started making the rounds.

Seth stumbled over to the stereo and sought out a scratchy old Grateful Dead record from his collection. "Those were the days," he said. "All gone now. All people care about today is money. Bloody yuppies."

Rick looked up from his sketch-pad and laughed. "When was it ever any different?"

"Isle of Wight, Knebworth…" Seth went on, listing the rock festivals he'd been to. "People really shared back then…."

Mara listened to him ramble. They had been under a lot of stress since the demo, she thought, and this was clearly Seth's way of getting it out of his system. It was easy to fall under the spell of nostalgia. She remembered the sixties, too — or more accurately the late sixties, when the hippie era had really got going in England. Things had seemed better back then. Simpler. More clear-cut. There was us and them, and you knew them by the shortness of their hair.

"… Santana, Janis, Hendrix, the Doors. Jesus, even the Hare Krishnas were fun back then. Now they all wear bloody business suits and wigs. I remember one time—"

"It's all crap!" Paul shouted, banging his empty can on the floor. "It was never like that. It's just a load of cobblers you're talking, Seth."

"How would you know?" Seth sat up and balanced unsteadily on his elbow. "You weren't there, were you? You were nought but a twinkle in your old man's eye."

"My mum and dad were hippies," Paul said scornfully. "Fucking flower children. She OD'd, and he was too bloody stoned to take care of me, so he gave me away."

Mara was stunned. Paul had never spoken about his true ' parents before, only about the way he had been badly treated in his foster home. If it was true, she thought, did he really see Seth and her in the same light? They were about the right age. Did he hate them, too?

But she couldn't believe that. There was another side to the coin. Maybe Paul was looking for what he had lost, and he had found at least some of it at Maggie's Farm. They didn't take drugs and, while she and Seth might have grown up in the sixties and tried to cling on to some of its ideals, they neither looked nor acted like hippies any longer.