Authors: Ian Rankin
He rang the doorbell and waited. It struck him that Vanderhyde might well be dead. He would be in his early-to mid-seventies, and though he’d seemed healthy enough the last time they’d met, well, that was over two years ago.
He had consulted Vanderhyde in an earlier case. After the case was closed, Rebus used to drop in on Vanderhyde from time to time, just casually. They only lived six streets apart, after all. But then he’d started to get serious with Dr Patience Aitken, and hadn’t found time for a visit since.
The door opened, and there stood Matthew Vanderhyde, looking just the same as ever. His sightless eyes were hidden behind dark green spectacles, above which sat a high shiny forehead and long swept-back yellow hair. He was wearing a suit of beige cord with a brown waistcoat, from the pocket of which hung a watch-chain. He leaned lightly on his silver-topped cane, waiting for the caller to speak.
‘Hello there, Mr Vanderhyde.’
‘Ah, Inspector Rebus. I was wondering when I’d see you. Come in, come in.’
From Vanderhyde’s tone, it sounded like they’d last met two weeks before. He led Rebus through the dark hallway and into the darker living room. Rebus took in the shapes of bookshelves, paintings, the large mantelpiece covered in mementoes from trips abroad.
‘As you can see, Inspector, nothing has changed in your absence.’
‘I’m glad to see you looking so well, sir.’
Vanderhyde shrugged aside the remark. ‘Some tea?’
‘No thanks.’
‘I’m really quite thrilled that you’ve come. It must mean there’s something I can do for you.’
Rebus smiled. ‘I’m sorry I stopped visiting.’
‘It’s a free country, I didn’t pine away.’
‘I can see that.’
‘So what sort of thing is it? Witchcraft? Devilment in the city streets?’
Rebus was still smiling. In his day, Matthew Vanderhyde had been an active white witch. At least, Rebus hoped he’d been white. It had never been discussed between them.
‘I don’t
think
this is anything to do with magic,’ Rebus said. ‘It’s about the Central Hotel.’
‘The Central? Ah, happy memories, Inspector. I used to go there as a young man. Tea dances, a very acceptable luncheon – they had an excellent kitchen in those days, you know – even once or twice to an evening ball.’
‘I’m thinking of more recent times. You were at the hotel the night it was torched.’
‘I don’t recall arson was proven.’
As usual, Vanderhyde’s memory was sharp enough when it suited him. ‘That’s true. All the same, you were there.’
‘Yes, I was. But I left several hours before the fire started. Not guilty, your honour.’
‘Why were you there in the first place?’
‘To meet a friend for a drink.’
‘A seedy place for a drink.’
‘Was it? You’ll have to remember, Inspector, I couldn’t
see
anything. It certainly didn’t
smell
or
feel
particularly disreputable.’
‘Point taken.’
‘I had my memories. To me, it was the same old Central Hotel I’d lunched in and danced in. I quite enjoyed the evening.’
‘Was the Central your choice, then?’
‘No, my friend’s.’
‘Your friend being …?’
Vanderhyde considered. ‘No secret, I suppose. Aengus Gibson.’
Rebus sifted through the name’s connotations. ‘You don’t mean Black Aengus?’
Vanderhyde laughed, showing small blackened teeth. ‘You’d better not let him hear you calling him that these days.’
Yes, Aengus Gibson was a reformed character, that much was public knowledge. He was also, so Rebus presumed, still one of Scotland’s most eligible young men, if thirty-two could be considered young in these times. Black Aengus, after all, was sole heir to the Gibson Brewery and all that came with it.
‘Aengus Gibson,’ said Rebus.
‘The same.’
‘And this was five years ago, when he was still …’
‘High spirited?’ Vanderhyde gave a low chuckle. ‘Oh, he deserved the name Black Aengus then, all right. The newspapers got it just right when they came up with
that
nickname.’
Rebus was thinking. ‘I didn’t see his name in the records. Your name was there, but his wasn’t.’
‘I’m sure his family saw to it that his name never appeared in any records, Inspector. It would have given the media even more fuel than they needed at the time.’
Yes, Christ, Black Aengus had been a wild one all right, so wild even the London papers took an interest. He’d looked to be spiralling out of control on ever-new excesses, but then suddenly all that stopped. He’d been rehabilitated, and was now as respectable as could be, involved in the brewing business and several prominent charities besides.
‘The leopard changed its spots, Inspector. I know you policemen are dubious about such things. Every offender is a potential repeat offender. I suppose you have to be cynical in your job, but with young Aengus the leopard really
did
change.’
‘Do you know why?’
Vanderhyde shrugged. ‘Maybe because of our chat.’
‘That night in the Central Hotel?’
‘His father had asked me to talk to him.’
‘You know them, then?’
‘Oh, from long ago. Aengus regarded me more as an uncle than anything else. Indeed, when I heard that the Central had been razed to the ground, I saw it as symbolic. Perhaps he did too. Of course I knew the reputation it had garnered – an altogether unsavoury reputation. When it happened to burn down that night, well, I thought of the phoenix Aengus rising cleansed from its ashes. And it turned out to be true.’ He paused. ‘Yet now here you are, Inspector, asking questions about long forgotten events.’
‘There was a body.’
‘Ah yes, never identified.’
‘A murdered body.’
‘And somehow you’ve reopened that particular investigation? Interesting.’
‘I wanted to ask you what you remembered from that night. Anyone you met, anything that seemed at all suspicious.’
Vanderhyde tilted his head to one side. ‘There were many people in the hotel that night, Inspector. You have a list of them. Yet you choose to come to a blind man?’
‘That’s right,’ said Rebus. ‘A blind man with a photographic memory.’
Vanderhyde laughed. ‘Certainly, I can give … impressions.’ He thought for a moment. ‘Very well, Inspector. For you, I’ll do my best. I only ask one thing.’
‘What’s that?’
‘I’ve been stuck here too long. Take me out, will you?’
‘Anywhere in particular?’
Vanderhyde looked surprised that he needed to ask. ‘Why, Inspector, to the Central Hotel, of course!’
‘Well,’ said Rebus, ‘this is where it used to stand. You’re facing it now.’ He could feel the stares of passers-by. Princes Street was lunchtime busy, office workers trying to make the most of their limited time. A few looked genuinely annoyed at having to manoeuvre past two people
daring
to stand still on the pavement! But most could see that one man was blind, the other his helper in some way, so they found charity in their souls and didn’t complain.
‘And what has it become, Inspector?’
‘A burger joint.’
Vanderhyde nodded. ‘I thought I could smell meat. Franchised, doubtless, from some American corporation. Princes Street has seen better days, Inspector. Did you know that when Scottish Sword and Shield was started up, they used to meet in the Central’s ballroom? Dozens and dozens of people, all vowing to restore Dalriada to its former glory.’
Rebus remained silent.
‘You don’t recall Sword and Shield?’
‘It must have been before my time.’
‘Now that I think of it, it probably was. This was in the 1950s, an offshoot of the National Party. I attended a couple of the meetings myself. There would be some furious call to arms, followed by tea and scones. It didn’t last long. Broderick Gibson was the president one year.’
‘Aengus’s father?’
‘Yes.’ Vanderhyde was remembering. ‘There used to be a pub near here, famous for politics and poetry. A few of us went there after the meetings.’
‘I thought you said you only went to two?’
‘Perhaps a few more than two.’
Rebus grinned. If he looked into it, he knew he would probably find that a certain M. Vanderhyde had been president of Sword and Shield at some time.
‘It was a fine pub,’ Vanderhyde reminisced.
‘In its day,’ said Rebus.
Vanderhyde sighed. ‘Edinburgh, Inspector. Turn your back and they change the name of a pub or the purpose of a shop.’ He pointed behind him with his stick, nearly tripping someone up in the process. ‘They can’t change that though.
That’s
Edinburgh too.’ The stick was wavering in the direction of the Castle Rock. It rapped someone against their leg. Rebus tried to smile an apology, the victim being a woman.
‘Maybe we should go sit across the road,’ he suggested. Vanderhyde nodded, so they crossed at the traffic lights to the quieter side of the street. There were benches here, their backs to the gardens, each dedicated to someone’s memory. Vanderhyde got Rebus to read the plaque on their bench.
‘No,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘I don’t recognise either of those names.’
‘Mr Vanderhyde,’ said Rebus, ‘I’m beginning to suspect you got me to bring you here for no other reason than the outing itself.’ Vanderhyde smiled but said nothing. ‘What time did you go to the bar that night?’
‘Seven sharp, that was the arrangement. Of course, Aengus being Aengus, he was late. I think he turned up at half past, by which time I was seated in a corner with a whisky and water. I think it was J and B whisky.’ He seemed pleased by this small feat of memory.
‘Anyone you knew in the bar?’
‘I can hear bagpipes,’ Vanderhyde said.
Rebus could too, though he couldn’t see the piper. ‘They play for the tourists,’ he explained. ‘It can be a big earner in the summer.’
‘He’s not very good. I should imagine he’s wearing a kilt but that the tartan isn’t correct.’
‘Anyone in the bar you knew?’ Rebus persisted.
‘Oh, let me think …’
‘With respect, sir, you don’t
need
to think. You either know or you don’t.’
‘Well, I think Tom Hendry was in that night and stopped by the table to say hello. He used to work for the newspapers.’
Yes, Rebus had seen the name on the list.
‘And there was someone else … I didn’t know them, and they didn’t speak. But I recall a scent of lemon. It was very vivid. I thought maybe it was a perfume, but when I mentioned it to Aengus he laughed and said it didn’t belong to a woman. He wouldn’t say any more, but I got the feeling it was a huge joke to him that I’d made the initial comment. I’m not sure any of this is relevant.’
‘Me neither.’ Rebus’s stomach was growling. There was a sudden explosion behind them. Vanderhyde slipped his watch from his waistcoat pocket, opened the glass, and felt with his fingers over the dial.
‘One o’clock sharp,’ he said. ‘As I said, Inspector, some things about our precipitous city remain immutable.’
Rebus nodded. ‘Such as the precipitation, for instance?’ It was beginning to drizzle, the morning sun having disappeared like a conjurer’s trick. ‘Anything else you can tell me?’
‘Aengus and I talked. I tried to persuade him that he was on a very dangerous path. His health was failing, and so was the family’s wealth. If anything, the latter argument was the more persuasive.’
‘So there and then he renounced the bawdy life?’
‘I wouldn’t go that far. The Edinburgh establishment has never bided too far from the stews. When we parted he was setting off to meet some woman.’ Vanderhyde was thoughtful. ‘But if I do say so myself, my words had an effect on him.’ He nodded. ‘I ate alone that evening in The Eyrie.’
‘I’ve been there myself,’ said Rebus. His stomach growled again. ‘Fancy a burger?’
After he’d dropped Vanderhyde home he drove back to St Leonard’s – not a lot wiser for the whole exercise. Siobhan sprang from her desk when she saw him. She looked pleased with herself.
‘I take it the butcher’s wife was a talker,’ Rebus said, dropping into his chair. There was another note on his desk telling him Jack Morton had called. But this time there was also a number where Rebus could reach him.
‘A right little gossip, sir. I had trouble getting away.’
‘And?’
‘Something and nothing.’
‘So give me the something.’ Rebus rubbed his stomach. He’d enjoyed the burger, but it hadn’t quite filled him up. There was always the canteen, but he was a bit worried about getting a ‘dough-ring’, as he termed the gut policemen specialised in.
‘The something is this.’ Siobhan Clarke sat down. ‘Bone won the Merc in a bet.’
‘A bet?’
Clarke nodded. ‘He put his share of the butcher’s business up against it. But he won the bet.’
‘Bloody hell.’
‘His wife actually sounded quite proud. Anyway, she told me he’s a great one for betting. Maybe he is, but it doesn’t look like he’s got a winning formula.’
‘How do you mean?’
She was warming to her subject. Rebus liked to see it, the gleam of successful detection. ‘There were a few things not quite right in the living room. For instance, they’d videotapes but no video, though you could see where the machine used to sit. And though they had a large unit for storing the TV and video, the TV itself was one of those portable types.’
‘So they’ve got rid of their video and their big television.’
‘I’d guess to pay off a debt or debts.’
‘And your money would be on gambling dues?’
‘If I were the betting kind, which I’m not.’
He smiled. ‘Maybe they had the stuff on tick and couldn’t keep up the payments.’
Siobhan sounded doubtful. ‘Maybe,’ she conceded.
‘Okay, well, it’s interesting so far as it goes, but it doesn’t go very far … not yet. And it doesn’t tell us anything about Rory Kintoul, does it?’ She was frowning. ‘Remember him, Clarke? He’s the one who was stabbed in the street then wouldn’t talk about it.
He’s
the one we’re interested in.’
‘So what do you suggest, sir?’ There was a tinge of ire to that ‘sir’. She didn’t like it that her good detection had not been better rewarded. ‘We’ve already spoken to him.’
‘And you’re going to speak to him again.’ She looked ready to protest. ‘Only this time,’ Rebus went on, ‘you’re going to be asking about his cousin, Mr Bone the butcher. I’m not sure what we’re looking for exactly, so you’ll have to feel your way. Just see whether anything hits the marrow.’