Denise Mina - Resolution

"The word is Farrell's getting out," he said, "and if he does, we think he'll be coming for you."

"Oh?" she said, feeling as if he was being silly because the dark days were past now and this was just a tie-up, just a small detail that needed finishing off.

"I expect you've heard about your dad?"

"Michael? Aye."

"He's a vicious bastard." Joe reached out and squeezed her upper arm in a soldierly gesture of solidarity. "I'm sorry."

She was astonished. "It's okay, Joe."

"If Farrell gets out it won't be for long. The Fiscal's applying for an arrest warrant for the rapes right now."

She nodded, wanting to get away from him and back to her friends, back to pretending that things were fine. The Tannoy warbled through the revolving door and Kilty called for Maureen to come. "Ye coming in?" she said.

Joe shook his head. "Look, we'll be rearresting him as soon as we can."

She smiled. "He might not get off."

"If he does we'll meet you at your house, okay?"

"Okay."

Joe pressed his lips together, and backed off down the steps to the waiting taxi.

"Come on, Mauri," said Liam. "It's time."

They got good seats at the front, near the jury, and Maureen noticed that neither Carol Brady nor Elsbeth was there. The lawyers gathered around the central table, tense and nervous. Angus's lawyer was sucking a sweet. The ratchet noise of a lock being pulled back heralded footsteps on stone stairs, and Angus Farrell came up from the cells, escorted on either side by two guards. He was wearing a smart sports jacket in a small brown check and his demeanor gave nothing away. The bow-tied man came through a side door calling, "Court," and carrying a big metal mace with a little crown on top. Everyone in the room scrambled to their feet. Angus's lawyer crunched his sweetie into little bits and swallowed it. Then the judge came in and they were allowed to sit down again.

The bow-tied man disappeared through a side door and the members of the jury filed back into the court. The giggling man and woman had grown tired of each other's company or had fallen out. They weren't sitting together or looking at each other. The judge asked something and the foreman stood up and unfolded a bit of paper. The case against Angus Farrell for the murder of Douglas Brady was found not proven, a verdict particular to Scots law, which meant that they thought he had probably done it but that there wasn't enough evidence. He was found not guilty of murdering Martin Donegan on the grounds of automatism.

The court was empty long before they moved. Too early. Maureen wasn't fit for this. She'd peaked too early. She couldn't find a shred of anger in herself. She was disappointed and irritated but she wasn't angry and she needed to be. She fell forwards, muttering, "Fuck," and banging her aching head off the back of the bench in front, landing exactly on the bruise from the toilet seat.

"Let's get you out of here," said Liam, taking her arm, and they all four stood up and inched along the bench to the door.

The foyer was busy. They had to struggle to get through the crowd of bodies to the door. They were almost there when Maureen began to see flashing lights and looked up. Angus Farrell and his lawyer were coming through the lobby, trailed by his shabby family. They were walking among a crowd of journalists barking questions and holding Dictaphones up to Angus's modestly smiling face. The lawyer was talking and Maureen's legs went slack as they came past her. Angus was inches from her. He turned, quite casually, and spoke in a normal tone. "I'll see you later," he said to her, his fixed smile making the statement sound snide and lascivious. Maureen saw the lawyer hear him say it, she noticed that the journalists heard him say it, and her brother, Liam, heard him say it. But Angus didn't give a shit because Angus had a plan.

They had driven up to Balloch, fifteen miles away on the banks of Loch Lomond, in case they had been followed. Liam turned the car round and drove back to Glasgow, taking back roads to Garnet-hill. Leslie and Kilty had gone straight to Maureen's flat to let the police in. Liam dropped Maureen near the house, waiting to see if she got into the close and watching for Leslie waving at the window before he drove off to park the car discreetly. Hugh and Something McMummb had already arrived and were waiting for her upstairs. She wished it had been anyone else. Hugh had gone off her, big-time.

Liam parked half a mile away and arrived back at the house with some bread and crisps, beer and whiskey so that they wouldn't have to leave before morning. They sat in melancholy silence in the front room, sighing occasionally, getting up and looking out of the window.

Quite sniffily, Hugh asked Maureen to show him the back way into the house and she took him into the close and explained that the back court could only be accessed through a space between the buildings opposite. Liam thought maybe someone should sit and watch the alleyway, but Hugh pointed out that there were other ways into the back court.

Maureen's head was thumping; she had a rushing in her ears and couldn't break her mind from the circle of thoughts that Angus was out and Angus was coming. He had a plan, a clear plan of what he was going to do, and she couldn't fathom what it was. Her head was aching at the back, her jaw was sore and the skin on her forehead began to tingle with prolonged tension. She crossed her arms and pressed the sore skin on her arms to wake herself up. She looked up and found Kilty holding out a lit cigarette and a glass of whiskey. Maureen took the cigarette.

"Don't you want this?" said Kilty, holding out the whiskey.

"So fucking much you wouldn't believe it," said Maureen, and turned to look out of the window.

Suddenly she heard a hard wheeze behind her back and spun round to find Kilty's eyes wide in shock. She was breathing out widemouthed. Maureen caught her breath. Kilty's lips were glistening, an amber, oily slick on one side of the glass. "I don't know how you can drink that straight," she said, looking sick, and wandered off into the kitchen, leaving Maureen taking deep breaths and trying to slow her heart.

Hugh came into the room and leaned against the wall.

"How long do I have to stay here?" asked Maureen, and he shrugged. "Hugh, why are you in a huff with me?"

Hugh smiled a little and came over to her. "That makes it sound very petty," he said quietly.

"Isn't it petty?"

"No," he said seriously, "not to me. I've tried my hardest to help you. I've stuck my neck out and you've gone ahead and done whatever you wanted. I'd have to be stupid not to feel insulted."

"Well, I'm sorry," she said, apologizing because she wanted Hugh to approve of her, but she wasn't sorry at all. His tone brought her back to school again and the tyranny of the piteous.

In the street far below, black cabs nudged up behind one another at the taxi rank like fat beetles, and lunchtime pedestrians hurried by to get sandwiches or get back to work. It began to rain heavily, fat teardrops falling fast past the window. Outside, a mum stopped to zip up her child's coat, going back to push the empty buggy and letting the child splash along the pavement.

Maureen finished her cigarette, feeling sick and anxious, her heart racing. When she reached for the packet to take another she realized that she had one cigarette left. "Liam?"

He was in the kitchen with Leslie, sitting at the table.

"I'm running out of fags, have ye got any?" He didn't, and Leslie only had three left.

"I'll nip home and get a couple of cartons," he said.

"Don't drive," said Kilty. "He could pick you up at your house and follow you back here."

The three watched as Liam got into a cab downstairs. He looked up and they could see him muttering curses at them as he waved them away from the window. Leslie and Kilty went back to the kitchen to watch for intruders.