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.’

8

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.

'Strawman.’

'Hello, Cafferty.’

They sat down at opposite sides of the plastic table, the legs of which had been bolted to the floor. Otherwise, there was little to show that they were in Barlinnie jail, a prison with a tough reputation from way back, but one which had striven to remake itself. The Visiting Room was clean and white, a few public safety posters decorating its walls. There was a flimsy aluminium ashtray, but also a No Smoking sign. The tabletop bore a few burn marks around its rim from cigarettes resting there too long.

'They made you come then, Strawman?’

Cafferty seemed amused by Rebus's appearance. He knew, too, that as long as he kept using his nickname for Rebus, Rebus would be needled.

'I'm sorry about your son.’

Cafferty was no longer amused. 'Is it true they tortured him?’

'Sort of.’

'Sort of?’ Cafferty's voice rose. 'There's no halfway house with torture!'

'You'd know all about that.’

Cafferty's eyes blazed. His breathing was shallow and noisy. He got to his feet.

'I can't complain about this place. You get a lot of freedom these days: I've found you can buy freedom, same as you can buy anything else.’

He stopped beside the warder. 'Isn't that right, Mr Petrie?’

Wisely, Petrie said nothing.

'Wait for me outside,' Cafferty ordered. Rebus watched Petrie leave. Cafferty looked at him and grinned a humourless grin.

'Cosy,' he said, 'just the two of us.’

He started to rub his stomach.

'What do you want, Caferty?’

'Stomach's started giving me gyp. What's my point, Strawman? My point's this.’

He was standing over Rebus, and now leant down, his hands pressing Rebus's shoulders. 'I want the bastard found.’