Ian Rankin - The Complaints

‘Just nipping out for pizza – do you want any?’

Fox, halfway down the path by now, shook his head. ‘It’s Annabel, isn’t it?’

She nodded and got into the driving seat. ‘There’s a bottle of wine open,’ she informed him, giving another wave before driving off. Fox rang the doorbell and waited.

‘Forgotten something?’ Jamie Breck was asking as he opened the door. Then his eyes widened. ‘Oh, it’s you.’ He was dressed in T-shirt and denims, his feet bare. There was music playing – it sounded vaguely Brazilian to Fox.

‘Didn’t mean to interrupt,’ Fox began.

‘Annabel’s just gone for pizza…’ Breck broke off. ‘How did you know where I live?’

Yes, Malcolm, good question… ‘I thought I knew the street,’ he explained. ‘Then I just got lucky – saw Annabel coming out and recognised her from Torphichen.’

‘So now my guilty little secret is out.’

‘She’s your girlfriend?’ Fox deduced.

‘Yes.’

‘Does Giles know?’

‘I reckon he suspects, not that it’s a state secret or anything. It’s just that we’ll both take a ribbing when it gets out.’

‘What rank is she?’

‘Detective constable – her surname’s Cartwright, if you want to keep things nice and formal.’ Breck broke off again. ‘Come in, won’t you?’

Fox followed him inside. The place had a very modern feel – well decorated and laid out. The music was coming from an MP3 system and there was a flat-screen TV attached to one wall. The lights had been dimmed but Breck powered them up again. On the floor by the sofa sat a wine bottle, two glasses and Breck’s shoes and socks.

‘Look, I don’t want to interrupt anything,’ Fox said.

‘Not a problem, Malcolm. I think I’m still in shock from yesterday – how about you?’

Fox nodded and slipped his hands into his coat pockets. ‘You had something to tell me?’ he prompted.

Breck had collapsed on to the sofa. He stretched out a hand towards his wine glass and lifted it to his mouth. ‘It’s your friend Kaye,’ he said before drinking.

‘What about him?’

‘Annabel told me this afternoon. I was going to phone you, but I thought maybe it was best done in person. We were heading out for a drive, so we dropped by and when you weren’t home I put that note through your door.’

‘You were saying about Tony Kaye…?’

Breck sloshed the wine around in his glass. ‘Remember you told me about your sister’s mystery visitor on the Monday night?’ He stared at Fox above the rim of the glass.

‘Kaye?’ Fox guessed.

‘Seems that a “concerned citizen” called to let police know of a car parked illegally in Jude’s street – one front and one back tyre up on the pavement.’ Breck managed the faintest of smiles. ‘You’ve got to love Edinburgh’s army of nosy parkers.’ He lifted a remote control from the sofa and used it to turn down the music. ‘Anyway, they called it in and eventually someone noticed it. Turns out our concerned citizen had made a note of the make and model of car, plus a partial registration. Nissan X-Trail.’

‘That’s what Tony Kaye drives.’

‘And his registration matches.’

‘Partially,’ Fox stressed.

‘Partially,’ Breck conceded. ‘But it’s enough to satisfy Billy Giles.’

Fox thought for a moment. ‘It doesn’t mean anything,’ he said.

‘Maybe not.’ Breck took another mouthful of wine. ‘Anyway, I thought you’d want to know, since Kaye doesn’t seem to have mentioned it to you himself.’

Fox didn’t know how to answer, so nodded slowly instead. ‘Does he know he’s been rumbled?’

‘His presence at Torphichen has been requested first thing tomorrow. ’

‘Giles has the team working a Sunday?’

‘He reckons the budget will stretch to it. Will you stay and have some pizza?’

‘I can’t. Listen… thanks for letting me know. I wouldn’t want Annabel to get into trouble…’

‘Annabel’s cleverer than you and me combined – and wilier, too.’ Breck had risen to his feet.

‘Sorry again to burst in on you…’

Breck waved the apology aside. He opened the front door for his guest and stood there as Fox made his way back along the path towards the pavement.

‘Malcolm!’ Breck called out, causing Fox to stop and turn towards him. ‘How did you know my street? The night you dropped me off, I don’t remember mentioning it.’

But instead of waiting for a reply, Breck just closed the door. A few seconds later, the music had been turned up again. Malcolm Fox was still rooted to the spot.

‘Shit,’ he said, reaching into his pocket for his phone.

Tony Kaye was in a restaurant with his wife. He seemed to have excused himself from the table and was dodging waiters and other diners as he talked. Fox was back at his car by this time, seated behind the steering wheel but with the key not yet in the ignition.

‘Just exactly what did you think you were doing?’ he asked. ‘And when were you going to tell me?’

‘I’ve got a more interesting question for you, Foxy – who the hell told you?’

‘Doesn’t matter. Is it true?’

‘Is what true?’

‘You went round to Jude’s Monday night.’

‘What if I did?’

‘Why in God’s name did you do that?’ Fox was massaging the bridge of his nose with his fingers.

‘Christ, Foxy, you’d just told me he’d broken your sister’s arm.’

‘My problem, not yours.’

‘But we both know, don’t we? We know you weren’t planning on doing anything about it!’

‘And what were you going to do, Tony? Take a swing at him?’

‘Why not? Might’ve stopped him doing it again.’

‘And both of them would think I’d put you up to it.’

‘What does it matter?’ Kaye’s voice was rising. ‘He wasn’t at home.’

Fox gave an elongated sigh. ‘Why didn’t you say something?’

‘Your sister was paralytic – I reckoned she’d have forgotten about it by morning.’

‘Instead of which, you’re now going to have Billy Giles crushing your nuts in a vice.’

‘Make a change from the wife.’

‘Don’t go thinking this is funny – it isn’t. Giles is going to want to know everything you did on Monday evening. If there are gaps, suddenly you’re a suspect. McEwan’s already lost one man, Tony…’

‘Yeah, yeah.’

‘Giles would love to blow our whole show to smithereens.’

‘Received and understood.’

Fox paused for a moment. ‘Which restaurant?’

‘Cento Tre on George Street.’

‘Special occasion?’

‘We’re celebrating not killing each other so far this weekend.

Mind you, that makes it like every other weekend. Did you catch the Hearts game?’

‘Be careful tomorrow.’

‘You mean at Torphichen? It’s a Sunday away from home… far as I’m concerned, that’s a holiday and a lotto win rolled into one.’ The background noises had changed – Kaye had obviously stepped outside. There were shrieks of drunken female laughter and the sound of a car horn. ‘You’d think people would have the decency to stop having fun,’ Kaye commented. ‘Does nobody realise this is Credit Crunch Ground Zero?’

‘Be careful tomorrow,’ Malcolm Fox repeated, watching the woman detective called Annabel returning with the pizzas in Jamie Breck’s Mazda. ‘And let me know how it goes.’

Annie Inglis lived on the top floor of a Victorian tenement in Merchiston. Her name was on the intercom, and when Fox pressed the buzzer a male voice answered.

‘Who is it?’

‘Is that Duncan? My name’s Malcolm Fox.’

‘Okay.’