Ian Rankin - Exit Music

'Going to report me for abduction, Todd?' Rebus gave another cold smile. 'DI John Rebus and Big Ger Cafferty – your family's biggest enemies, as far as you were concerned… and suddenly you saw a way to get revenge on one of them while implicating the other. You reckoned there was a chance my prints would be on the overshoe. Could have taken it from the boot any time you liked. There were three of us outside the Ox that night, Todd – you, me and Siobhan. We all knew where I was headed… no one else did. You hoofed it after me, waited till Cafferty was alone, and crept up behind him. Siobhan tells me you were shocked to learn there'd been a surveillance on Cafferty. If I hadn't tricked Stone away from the scene, he'd have had you bang to rights.'

'Rubbish,' Todd Goodyear spat.

'Doesn't really matter one way or the other, since I can't prove a single bloody word.' He turned towards the young man again.

'Congratulations – you're getting away with it, Todd. Must mean the Big Man's looking out for you.'

'I look out for myself, Rebus – me and my family both.' The tone of voice had changed, hardening along with the look in Goodyear's eyes. 'I'd been thinking about Cafferty for a long time. Then, when Sol got stabbed, it really started to rankle – thinking of how different things could've been for my folks. I knew you were close to Cafferty, so had to get close to you.' He was staring at the road ahead. 'Then you told me you'd been the one in the witness box,

the one who'd worked so hard to put my grandad away, and suddenly it all seemed to connect. I could take out you and Cafferty both.'

'Like I say, an eye for an eye.' Traffic ahead was thickening.

Rebus eased his foot off the accelerator. 'So you must be feeling pretty good now – cleansed, vindicated, avenged, all that sort of stuff…'

'“I am pure from my sin.”'

'Another of your Bible quotes?' Rebus nodded to himself slowly.

'That's all well and good, but it's not enough to save you – not by a long chalk.'

'Red light,' Goodyear stated. Meaning that they had to stop at the junction ahead. With the car stationary, Goodyear pushed open his door.

'I was planning on visiting Cafferty,' Rebus told him. 'Thought maybe you'd want to see him again. Doctors say he's improving.'

Goodyear was out of the car, but when Rebus yelled his name, he leaned down into it again.

'When Cafferty comes round,' Rebus told him, 'the first face he's going to see is mine… and guess what I'll be telling him? Better watch your back, Goodyear – and your front, if it comes to that.

Cafferty may be a lot of things, but he's not the sort of coward who'll whack you from behind.'

Goodyear slammed the door shut just as the lights turned green.

Rebus pushed his foot down on the accelerator, watching in his rearview as Goodyear fixed his cap back on to his head. He was staring at the car as the distance between them grew. Rebus exhaled noisily and wound the window down a little. He'd got the garage to connect his new iPod to the stereo. He pressed 'play' and turned up the volume.

Rory Gallagher: 'Sinner Boy'; all the way to Cafferty's hospital bed.

Siobhan Clarke was waiting for him there. 'Did you talk to him?' she asked. He nodded, eyes on Cafferty's seemingly lifeless form, the regular bleeping and blinking from the machines providing slivers of reassurance. The gangster had been moved from intensive care, but bringing all the peripheral equipment with him.

'I hear your team drew,' Rebus commented to Clarke.

'Two up till the seventieth sodding minute… not that I was taking much of it in.'

'Well, you were a bit busy with Stuart Janney – no confession yet?'

'It'll come.' She paused. 'How about Goodyear? Is he going to own up?'

Todd knows better than that.'

'I still can't believe I-'

'Hell with it, Shiv, how were you supposed to know?' Rebus seated himself on the chair next to hers. 'If it's anybody's fault, it's mine.'

She stared at him. 'Want any more weight on those shoulders?'

'I'm serious – things went wrong for Todd and his family from the minute the grandad was sent down, and I helped that happen.'

'That doesn't-' But she broke off as he turned towards her.

'They found Class A in that pub, Shiv, but Todd's grandad wasn't shifting anything half that serious.'

'What are you saying?'

Rebus gazed at the wall opposite. 'Back then, Cafferty had cops on his payroll, guys in CID who'd plant whatever he told them to.'

Tou…?'

Rebus shook his head. 'Thanks for the vote of confidence, though.'

'But you knew it had happened?'

He nodded slowly. 'And did nothing about it – that's the way things were back then. Cafferty would've been dealing and not liking it that he was being undercut in Harry Goodyear's pub.'

He puffed out his cheeks and let the air burst from them before continuing. 'A while back, you asked me about my first day in CID.

I lied and said I couldn't remember. What really happened was, I walked out of police college and into the station canteen – and the first thing I was told was, forget everything you've just had drilled into you. “This is where the game begins, son, and there's only two teams – us and them.”' He risked another glance towards her. Tfou covered for mates who'd had too many whiskies with lunch… or gone a bit too far on an arrest… prisoners falling downstairs or stumbling into walls… you covered for everybody on your team. I stood in that witness box knowing damned well I was covering for a colleague who'd set the old guy up.'

She was still staring at him. 'So why tell me? What the hell am I supposed to do with this?'

'You'll think of something.'

'That's so bloody typical of you, John! It's ancient history, but you couldn't just keep it to yourself – you had to dump it on me.'

'Hoping for absolution.'

'You're in the wrong place for that!' She fell silent for a moment, shoulders slumped. Then, after a deep breath: 'Nurse tells me you came straight here after the party, reeking of booze.'

'So?'

'There was another detective…'

'Stone,' Rebus acknowledged. 'He wanted to make sure I wasn't going to pull the plug on the patient.'

'There's not a shred of subtlety in your whole damned body, is there?'

'Are you saying I'm like a bull in a china shop?'

'What do you think?'

He considered the question for all of five seconds. 'Maybe the bull's just running from the abattoir,' he told her, readying to get to his feet. Clarke got up, too, looking bemused and watching as he leaned over the bed, willing Cafferty to wake up.

'You're really going to tell him what Goodyear did?' she asked.

'What's the alternative?'

'The alternative is, you leave it to me.' They'd started heading for the exit. 'Little turd's not going to get away with this. Things have changed, John – no cover-ups, no turning a blind eye…'

'That reminds me,' he said. 'I paid a visit to the Andersons yesterday.'

She stared at him. 'Having fully apprised them of your non combat status?'

'Their daughter was home from college. She really does look a lot like Nancy.'

'What are you saying?'

'I took Roger Anderson outside and told him I reckoned he'd recognised Nancy that night. Recognised her from the DVD, I mean.

He liked the feeling of power it gave him, knowing something she didn't. That's why he kept pestering her. He didn't like it when I added that maybe it also had something to do with her resemblance to his daughter.' He allowed himself a smile at the memory. 'That's when I told him who the girl in the bathroom was…'

His eyes met Clarke's and he broke off abruptly, knowing what she was about to say. She said it anyway: 'What DVD?'

He made show of clearing his throat. 'Forgot I hadn't told you.' He was holding the door open for her, but she was standing her ground.