Complicity

They haven't got much from last night. Inside the fish shop the display got even more bizarre — Andy had used the doc's fingers to spell out I LIED on the counter (only the «E» gave him any problems) — and somebody saw a white Escort driving away from the plinth on North Bridge shortly before Lingary's body was discovered. The car was later found abandoned on Leith Walk. They're dusting the fish shop and the car but I don't expect they'll find anything.

McDu

"I'd get to a doctor about that cough," McDu

"Yeah," I wheeze. "Good idea." After I've had a walk and a few pints, maybe, I'm thinking.

"Mr Colley," the Lothian cop says. He's a serious-looking guy, a bit older than me with very pale skin and thi

I look at McDu

McDu

"I would advise you to say yes, Cameron," McDu

The door swings opens and a uniform guy rushes in, glances at me and whispers into McDu

"What sort of present for you would he leave at Torphin Dale?"

"Torphin Dale?" I say. The sickness comes back. Oh Christ oh Christ oh Christ. It's like I've been kicked in the balls. I have to struggle to make my mouth work. "That's where William and Yvo

McDu

"Four Baberton Drive," I tell him.

He glances up at the uniformed guy. "Got that?"

"Sir."

"Get some cars out there, and get one for us." Then he's up out of his chair, nodding at Burall and me. "Come on."

I stand up but my legs don't work too well as we walk quickly out of the station into a bright, cold afternoon. A uniformed driver runs out ahead of us, pulling on a jacket and blipping the doors on an unmarked Cavalier.

A present for me, at Torphin Dale. Oh, sweet Jesus, no.

"Come on! Get out the way!"

"Now, Cameron," McDu

Burall puts the radio handset down. McDu

"Come on!" I mutter under my breath, willing the road to clear for us.

The driver's doing his best; we've a siren going and blue lights flashing behind the grille, we're darting in and out of the traffic and taking a few risks, but there's just too much traffic. What are all these people doing on the road? Why aren't they at work or at home or on public transport? Can't the bastards walk?

We go wailing across the red lights at Tollcross, snarling traffic up in all directions, take the right-turn lane heading up Home Street, dodge a little old lady on the pedestrian crossing at Bruntsfield and scream down Colinton Road through thi

We sweep across the by-pass. I'm sitting back in the seat, staring at the headlining of the car's roof, coughing now and again, tears in my eyes. Oh Christ, Andy, please, no.

We enter the executive development of Torphin Dale between the tall sandstone gateposts of the old estate; on Baberton Drive, everything looks the way I remember it apart from the orange-and-white parked in the short driveway from the bottom of the cul-de-sac to the house. The three garage doors are all tipped open. I don't know why but this gives me a bad feeling.

William's Merc is there; Yvo

We pull into the drive. It takes a second for me to remember that I'm not handcuffed to anybody. The driver stays in the Cavalier, talking into the radio.

A uniformed cop comes down the drive from the front door, nodding to Burall and McDu

"No answer, sir. We haven't looked inside yet; my mate's round the back, looking in the garden."

"There a door from the garage to the rest of the house?" McDu

"Looks like it, sir."

McDu

I shake my head. "Pretty security-conscious," I tell him.

McDu

We walk into the garage under the tip-up doors. The usual garage stuff, if you're filthy nouveau riche; packing cases, golfing gear, the Jet Ski on its trailer, a work bench, a grid on the wall holding neatly arrayed car and garden tools, most of them gleaming and unused, pairs of ski-boot bags and ski bags hanging from the wall, a steam-cleaning outfit, a little mini-tractor lawn mower, a big grey-black wheelie bin and a couple of mountain bikes. The triple garage is huge but still cluttered; if Yvo

McDu

"In the car," Burall says, and jogs back to the Cavalier.

"You've been here before, have you, Cameron?" McDu

"Yes," I say, coughing.

"Right; let us know about any nooks and cra

I nod. Burall comes back with a handful of the sort of gloves you can buy at service stations for working on the car. We all get a pair, even me. McDu

The four of us spread through the house; I stay with McDu

McDu

Clothes. Just clothes, hats and a few boxes.

We go to the main bedroom. I try not to think about what we were doing here the last time I was in this room. I have that roaring noise in my ears again and I've got a cold sweat and I feel like I could just collapse at any second. I have a weird, invasive feeling, being here with the detective inspector, clumbering around the expensively delicate domesticity of this house with no William or Yvo

I look in the dressing room while McDu