John Harvey - Cold Light

There was a whoop from the dance floor, an attempt at a Michael Jackson going badly out of control, legs and arms akimbo.

“For heaven’s sake, sit down, Charlie. You’re like a spare prick at a wedding.”

Resnick took the chair beside her, calculating how much she had likely drunk, how soon before leaving she’d got started. In all of their infrequent social meetings, stretching back ten years, he had never heard her raise her voice or swear.

“Send you over, did he, Charlie?”

Resnick shook his head.

“Keep an eye on me. Get me talking. Do me a favor, Charlie, keep her happy. Give her a bit of a spin, out on the floor.”

“Alice, I don’t know-”

Her hand, the one not holding the glass, was on his knee. “Come on, Charlie, don’t play naive. We know what it’s like, all boys together, doesn’t matter how old. You cover my back, I’ll cover yours.” She drank and exchanged the glass for her cigarette. “That’s what it all comes down to, Charlie. In the end. The covering of backs.”

Smoke drifted slowly past Resnick’s face. At the edge of his vision he could see Jack Skelton leaning lightly against the farthest wall, Helen Siddons turned towards him, both heads bowed in conversation. As Resnick watched, Skelton’s hand moved towards his jacket pocket, inadvertently brushing the DCI’s bare arm on its way.

“Aren’t you drinking, Charlie?” Alice Skelton held the bottle towards him.

Resnick nodded back to where he’d been sitting. “I’ve got one over there.”

“Abstemious, too. Abstemious and loyal. No wonder Jack’s so keen to keep you where you are.” She emptied the bottle into her glass, little more than the dregs.

“I’ll get you another …”

Her hand had moved from his leg but now, as he made to rise, it was back. Resnick was starting to sweat just a little; just as some would be clocking Skelton and Siddons, how many were noticing himself and Skelton’s wife, putting the numbers together to see how well they fit?

“Alice …”

“What you have to see, she’s not just fucking him, Charlie, she’s fucking you too.”

“Alice, I’m sorry …” He was on his feet, but she still had hold of him, fingers pressing hard behind the knee. Squeezing past on the other side of the table, one of the civilian VDU operators laughing on his arm, Divine caught Resnick’s eye and winked.

“What do you need to know, Charlie?” He had to bend towards her to catch what she was saying above the noise; didn’t want her raising her voice any further, shouting it out. “Rules of evidence. How much proof d’you need? Catching them doing it, there in your bed?”

“I’m sorry, Alice, I’ve got to go.”

He prized away her hand and pushed his way between the backs and chairs, the laughter, all the huddled promises and thoughtless betrayals hatching on the night.

Lynn Kellogg was wearing a strapless dress, royal blue, and had done something to her hair Resnick had not noticed before. The man in the dress suit, between them at the crowded bar, was clearly taken. “Let me get those.” Smiling, twenty-pound note in his hand. “No, thanks. You’re all right,” Lynn said, turning away. “Later, then?” “What?” “Let me buy you a drink, later.” She shook her head and pushed through the crowd.

Resnick watched her go over to where Maureen Madden was standing, Maureen wearing a dark frock-coat and jeans, looking more like a country singer on the loose than the sergeant who supervised the rape suite. Reg Cossall was shouting at him from the far end of the bar and waving his empty glass.

“A pint of whatever he’s drinking,” Resnick said to the white-coated barman, “and a large Bells to go with it. Bottle of Czech Budweiser for me, if you’ve got it.”

He had. Resnick pushed his way along and listened for a while to Cossall laying down the law about the unemployment rate, young offenders, overpriced imported beer, Brian Clough, the social benefits of castration. Half a dozen younger officers stood around, drinking steadily, gleaning wisdom. Resnick remembered when he and Cossall had been like them, eager to ape their elders and betters; back when you had to be six foot to get on to the force and either it was draught Bass, draught Worthington or you didn’t bother going back for more. Twenty years before.

When he’d heard enough, Resnick moved away and found Lynn Kellogg and Maureen Madden, sitting now on the stairs near the entrance to the lounge.

“Quite an admirer back there,” Resnick said to Lynn, nodding back towards the bar.

“Oh, that. He’d been drinking. You know what it’s like.”

“I wish you’d stop doing that,” Maureen said.

“Doing what?”

“Putting yourself down. Assuming that for some man to fancy you he has to be half-pissed.”

“It’s usually true.”

“Don’t you think she looks great?” Maureen asked Resnick, craning her neck to look up at him.

“Very nice,” Resnick said.

Lynn felt herself starting to blush. “Have you been out on the floor yet?” she asked, covering her embarrassment.

Resnick shook his head.

“He’s waiting for you,” Maureen teased.

“More like waiting for them to turn the volume down,” Resnick said. “Play a waltz.”

“Now that’s not true,” Lynn said. “My first year, you were out there bopping till everyone else dropped. ‘Be-bop-a-hula,’ stuff like that.”

Despite himself, Resnick smiled: something attractive about the idea of Gene Vincent in black leathers and a grass skirt, strumming away at an Hawaiian guitar.

“Well,” Maureen announced, setting her empty glass on the floor, “I’m in the mood. What d’you say, Lynn? Game? Before your admirer over there comes and asks you.”

The man in the dress suit, glass in hand, was sitting in one of the easy chairs in the lounge, making no pretense of not looking in their direction.

“Come on,” Lynn said, getting to her feet “Let’s get out of here.” Maureen was already on her way. “Coming with us?” Lynn asked.

“You go ahead,” Resnick said.

With a last look back, Lynn followed Maureen Madden towards the main door.

“Like watching ’em leave the nest, Charlie?” Reg Cossall said at Resnick’s shoulder.

“How d’you mean?”

“You know, young ones, fledglings …”

“She’s scarce a kid, Reg.”

“No matter.”

“Old enough to be …”

Cossall’s hand squeezed down firm on Resnick’s shoulder. “You can be a literal bugger sometimes, Charlie. When it fits your purpose.” Cossall treated Resnick to his best philosophical stare. “Kids. Families. Can’t get ’em one way, we get ’em another. More’s the bastard pity.”

He lit a small cigar and cupped it in his hand. “Not on for one in town, I suppose?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Please yourself, then. You always bloody do.”

Resnick turned back to the bar and prepared to wait his chance to order a final beer.

Back in the Friar Tuck Room, things were throbbing towards some sort of climax. Whitney Houston, Rod Stewart, Chris De Burgh, the Drifters-hands clutched shiny buttocks that were not their own. Divine, tie forsaken, shirt all unbuttoned, was executing a limbo dance to “Twist and Shout,” sliding his legs beneath a line of brassiere straps linked together. Off to the side of the room, Skelton and Helen Siddons scarcely seemed to have moved, the same urgent conversation, heads angled inwards; one strap of Helen’s dress had slid from her shoulder. Lynn and Maureen Madden were dancing with a group of other women, laughing, clapping their hands in the air. Oblivious of the tempo, Kevin Naylor and Debbie were dancing cheek to cheek, bodies barely moving. Resnick couldn’t see Alice Skelton anywhere and was grateful.