Ian Rankin - Mortal Causes

'Maybe guns.’ He pointed to some of the east European ports. 'See, these days things being what they are, there are a lot of weapons in and around Russia. If you cut back your military, you get excess. And the economic situation there being what it is you get people who need money.’

'So they steal guns and sell them?’

'If they need to steal them. A lot of the soldiers kept their guns. Plus they picked up souvenirs along the way, stuff from Afghanistan and wherever. Here, sit down.’

They sat at Smylie's desk, Smylie himself spilling from a moulded plastic chair. He brought some photographs out of a drawer. They showed machine guns, rocket launchers, grenades and missiles, armour-piercing shells, a whole dusty armoury.

'This is just some of the stuff that's been tracked down. Most of it in mainland Europe: Holland, Germany, France. But some of it in Northern Ireland of course, and some in England and Scotland.’

He tapped a photo of an assault rifle. 'This AK 47 was used in a bank hold-up in Hillhead. You know Professor Kalashnikov is a travelling salesman these days? Times are hard, so he goes to arms fairs around the world flogging his creations. Like this.’ Smylie picked out another photograph. 'Later model, the AK 74. The magazine's made of plastic. This is actually the 745, still quite rare on the market. A lot of the stuff travels across Europe courtesy of motorcycle gangs.’

'Hell's Angels?’

Smylie nodded. 'Some of them are in this up to their tattooed necks, and making a fortune. But there are other problems. A lot of stuff comes into the UK direct. The armed forces, they bring back souvenirs too, from the Falklands or Kuwait. Kalashnikovs, you name it. Not everyone gets searched, a lot of stuff gets in. Later; it's either sold or stolen, and the owners aren't about to report the theft, are they?’

Smylie paused and swallowed, maybe realising how much he'd been talking.

'I thought you were the strong silent type,' Rebus said.

'I get carried away sometimes.’

Rebus wouldn't fancy being on stretcher detail. Smylie began to tidy up the photographs.

'That's basically it,' he said. 'The material that's already here we can't do much about, but with the help of Interpol we're trying to stop the trafficking.’

'You're not saying Scotland is a target for this stuff?’

'A conduit, that's all. It comes through here on its way to Northern Ireland.’

'The IRA?’

`To whoever has the money to pay for it. Right now, we think it's more a Protestant thing. We just don't know why.’

'How much evidence do you have?’

'Not enough.’

Rebus was thinking. Kilpatrick had kept very quiet, but all along he'd thought there was a paramilitary angle to the murder, because it tied in with all of this.

'You're the one who spotted the six-pack?’ Smylie asked. Rebus nodded. 'You might well be right about it. If so, the victim must've been involved.’

'Or just someone who got caught up in it.’

'That tends not to happen.’

'But there's another thing. The victim's father is a local gangster, Big Ger Cafferty.’

'You put him away a while back.’

`You're well informed.’

`Well,' said Smylie, 'Cafferty adds a certain symmetry, doesn't he?’

He rose briskly from his chair. 'Come on, I'll give you the rest of the tour.’

Not that there was much to see. But Rebus was introduced to his colleagues. They didn't look like supermen, but you wouldn't want to fight them on their terms. They all looked like they'd gone the distance and beyond.

One man, a DS Claverhouse, was the exception. He was lanky and slow-moving and had dark cusps beneath his eyes.

'Don't let him fool you,' Smylie said. 'We don't call him Bloody Claverhouse for nothing.’

Claverhouse's smile took time forming. It wasn't that he was slow so much as that he had to calculate things before he carried them out. He was seated at his desk, Rebus and Smylie standing in front of him. He was tapping his fingers on a red cardboard file. The file was closed, but on its cover was printed the single word SHIELD. Rebus had just seen the word on another file lying on Smylie's desk.

'Shield?’ he asked.

'The Shield,' Claverhouse corrected. 'It's something we keep hearing about. Maybe a gang, maybe with Irish connections.’

`But just now,' interrupted Smylie, `all it is is a name.’

Shield, the word meant something to Rebus. Or rather, he knew it should mean something to him. As he turned from Claverhouse's desk, he caught something Claverhouse was saying to Smylie, saying in an undertone.

`We don't need him.’

Rebus didn't let on he'd heard. He knew nobody liked it when an outsider was brought in. Nor did he feel any happier when introduced to the bald man, a DS Blackwood, and the freckled one, DC Ormiston. They were as enthusiastic about him as dogs welcoming a new flea to the area. Rebus didn't linger; there was a small empty desk waiting from him in another part of the room, and a chair which had been found in some cupboard. The chair didn't quite have three legs, but Rebus got the idea: they hadn't exactly stretched themselves to provide him with a wholesome working environment. He took one look at desk and chair, made his excuses and left. He took a few deep breaths in the corridor, then descended a few floors. He had one friend at Fettes, and saw no reason why he shouldn't visit her.

But there was someone else in DI Gill Templer's office. The nameplate on the door told him so. Her name was DI Murchie and she too was a Liaison Officer. Rebus knocked on the door.

'Enter!' It was like entering a headmistress's office. DI Murchie was young; at least, her face was. But she had made determined efforts to negate this fact.

`Yes?’ she said.

'I was looking for DI Templer.’

Murchie put down her pen and slipped off her half-moon glasses. They hung by a string around her neck. 'She's moved on,' she said. 'Dunfermline, I think.’

'Dunfermline? What's she doing there?’

'Dealing with rapes and sexual assaults, so far as I know. Do you have some business with Inspector Templer?’

'No. I just… I was passing and… Never mind.’

He backed out of the room.

DI Murchie twitched her mouth and put her glasses back on. Rebus went back upstairs feeling worse than ever.

He spent the rest of the morning waiting for something to happen. Nothing did. Everyone kept their distance, even Smylie. And then the phone rang on Smylie's desk, and it was a call for him.

'Chief Inspector Lauderdale,' Smylie said, handing over the receiver.

'Hello?’

'I hear you've been poached from us.’

'Sort of, sir.’

'Well, tell them I want to poach you back.’

I'm not a fucking salmon, thought Rebus. 'I'm still on the investigation, sir,' he said.

'Yes, I know that. The Chief Super told me all about it.’

He paused. 'We want you to talk to Cafferty.’

'He won't talk to me.’

'We think he might.’

'Does he know about Billy?’

'Yes, he knows.’

'And now he wants someone he can use as a punchbag?’

Lauderdale didn't say anything to this. 'What good will it do talking to him?’

'I'm not sure.’

'Then why bother?’

'Because he's insisting. He wants to talk to CID, and not just any officer will do. He's asked to speak to you.’

There was silence between them. 'John? Anything to say?’

'Yes, sir. This has been a very, strange day.’

He checked his watch. 'And it's not even one o'clock yet.’

Big Ger Cafferty was looking good.

He was fit and lean and had purpose to his gait. A white t-shirt was tight across his chest, flat over the stomach, and he wore faded work denims and new-looking tennis shoes. He walked into the Visiting Room like he was the visitor, Rebus the inmate. The warder beside him was no more than a hired flunkey, to be dismissed at any moment. Cafferty gripped Rebus's hand just a bit too hard, but he wasn't going to try tearing it off, not yet.