‘Any details?’
‘Not yet. Can’t say I’ve any enthusiasm to see it in my in-tray.’
‘You’ve friends in Grampian?’
‘I’ve friends nowhere, Foxy, and that’s just the way I like it.’ The Chief Inspector paused, seeming to remember something. ‘Heaton?’ he enquired, watching Fox nod slowly. ‘Good, good.’
The way he said it, Fox knew the Boss had qualms. Back in the mists of time, he’d worked alongside Glen Heaton. McEwan’s take was that the man had done solid work, earned any advancement that came his way. A good officer, for the most part ...
‘Good,’ McEwan said again, even more distantly. He roused himself with a roll of the shoulders. ‘So what else have you got on today?’
‘Odds and ends.’ Fox was blowing his nose again.
‘Have you not shifted that cold yet?’
‘It seems to like me.’
McEwan took another look at his watch. ‘It’s already gone lunchtime. Why not knock off early?’
‘Sir?’
‘Friday afternoon, Foxy. Might have something new starting Monday, so best get those batteries recharged.’ McEwan could see what Fox was thinking. ‘Not Aberdeen,’ he stated.
‘What then?’
‘Could well peter out over the weekend.’ McEwan offered a shrug. ‘We’ll talk Monday.’ He made to move away, but hesitated. ‘What did Heaton say?’
‘He just gave me one of those looks of his.’
‘I’ve seen men run for the hills when he does that.’
‘Not me, Bob.’
‘No, not you.’ McEwan’s face creased into a smile as he made for the far corner of the room and his own desk.
Tony Kaye had tipped back in his chair again. The man had ears as sharp as any bit of electronic kit. ‘If you’re heading off home, leave me that tenner.’
‘What for?’
‘Those drinks you owe us - couple of pints for me and a milkshake for the bairn.’
Joe Naysmith checked that the Boss wasn’t watching, then gave Kaye the finger again.
Malcolm Fox didn’t go home, not straight away. His father was in a care home over to the east of the city, not far from Portobello. Portobello had been quite the place at one time. It was where you’d go at the summer. You’d play on the beach, or walk along the promenade. There’d be ice-cream cones and one-armed bandits and fish and chips. Sandcastles down near the water, where the sand was sticky and pliable. People would be flying kites or tossing sticks into the surf for their dog to retrieve. The water was so cold you’d lose the ability to breathe for the first few seconds, but after that you didn’t want to come out. Parents seated on their stripy deck-chairs, maybe with a windbreak hammered into the sand. Mum would have packed a picnic: the gritty taste of meat paste on thin white bread; warm bottles of Barr’s Cola. Smiles and sunglasses and Dad with his rolled-up trousers.
Malcolm hadn’t taken his dad to the seafront for a couple of years. Some weeks he got the notion, without taking it any further. The old boy wasn’t too steady on his pins - that was what he told himself. He didn’t like to think it was because people might stare at the pair of them: an elderly man, melted ice cream running down the back of his hand from the cone he was holding, being directed towards a bench by his son. They would sit down and Malcolm Fox would wipe the ice cream from his father’s slip-on shoes with his handkerchief, then use that same item to dab at the grey-flecked chin.
No, that wasn’t it at all. Today it was just too cold.
Fox paid more for the care home than he did on his own mortgage. He’d asked his sister to share the burden, and she’d answered that she would when she could. The home was private. Fox had looked at a couple of council alternatives, but they’d been drab and acrid-smelling. Lauder Lodge was better. Some of the money Fox had shelled out had gone into the pot and come out as Anaglypta and pine freshener. He could always smell talcum powder, too, and the lack of any unpleasant aromas from the kitchen was testament to quality venting. He found a parking space round the side of the building and announced himself at the front door. It was a detached Victorian house and would have been worth seven figures until the recent crunch. There was a waiting area at the foot of the stairs, but one of the staff told him he could go to his father’s room.
‘You know the way, Mr Fox,’ she trilled as he nodded and made for the longer of the two corridors. There was an annexe, built on to the original structure about ten years back. The walls had a few hairline cracks in them and some of the double glazing suffered from condensation, but the rooms were light and airy - the very words he’d been plied with when he’d first inspected the place. Light and airy and no stairs, plus en suites for the lucky few. His dad’s name was on a typed sliver of card taped to the door.
Mr M. Fox. M for Mitchell, this being Malcolm’s grandmother’s maiden name. Mitch: everyone called Malcolm’s dad Mitch. It was a good strong name. Fox took a deep breath, knocked and walked in. His dad sat by the window, hands in his lap. He looked a little more gaunt, a little less animated. They were still shaving him, and his hair seemed freshly washed. It was fine and silver, and the sideburns were kept long, the way they’d always been.
‘Hiya, Dad,’ Fox said, resting against the bed. ‘How you doing?’
‘Mustn’t complain.’
Fox smiled at that, as was expected. You injured your back at the factory where you worked; you were on disability for years; then cancer came along and you got treated successfully, if painfully; your wife died soon after you got the all-clear; and then old age crept in.
And you mustn’t complain - because you were the head of the family, the man of the house.
Your son’s own marriage broke up after less than a year; he already had a problem with drink, but it got worse then, for a while; your daughter flew far from the nest and kept in touch infrequently, until landing back home with an unlikeable partner in tow.
But you couldn’t complain.
At least your room didn’t smell of piss, and your son came to see you when he could. He’d done pretty well for himself, all things considered. You never asked if he liked what he did for a living. You never thanked him for the fees he paid on your behalf.
‘I forgot to bring you chocolate.’
‘The girls fetch it, if I tell them to.’
‘Turkish Delight? Not so easy to find these days.’
Mitch Fox nodded slowly, but didn’t say anything.
‘Has Jude been round?’
‘I don’t think so.’ The eyebrows bunched together. ‘When was it I saw her?’
‘Since Christmas? Don’t fret, I’ll ask the staff.’
‘I think she
has
been here ... was it last week or the week before?’
Fox realised that he’d taken out his mobile phone. He was pretending to look for messages but actually checking the time. Less than three minutes since he’d locked the car.
‘I finally closed that case I was telling you about.’ He snapped the phone shut again. ‘Met with the Procurator Fiscal this morning - looks like it’s going to trial. There’s still plenty that can go wrong, though . . .’
‘Is it Sunday today?’
‘Friday, Dad.’
‘I keep hearing bells.’
‘There’s a church round the corner - maybe it’s a wedding.’ Fox didn’t think so: he’d driven past and the place had looked empty.
Why do I do that?
he asked himself.
Why do I lie to him?
Answer: the easy option.
‘How’s Mrs Sanderson?’ he asked, reaching into his pocket again for his handkerchief.
‘She’s got a cough. Doesn’t want me to catch it.’ Mitch Fox paused. ‘Are you sure you should be here with those germs of yours?’ Then he seemed to think of something. ‘It’s Friday and it’s still light . . . Shouldn’t you be at work?’
‘Time off for good behaviour.’ Fox rose to his feet and prowled the room. ‘Got everything you need?’ He saw a stack of elderly paper-backs on the bedside table: Wilbur Smith; Clive Cussler; Jeffrey Archer - books men were supposed to like. They would have been chosen by the staff; his father had never been much of a reader. The TV was attached to a bracket in a corner of the room, high up towards the ceiling - difficult to watch unless you were in bed. He’d come to visit one time and it had been tuned to the horse-racing, even though his father had never shown an interest - the staff again. The door to the bathroom was ajar. Fox pushed it open and looked in. No bath, but a shower cabinet fitted with a foldaway seat. He could smell Vosene shampoo, same stuff his mum had used on Jude and him when they’d been kids.
‘It’s nice here, isn’t it?’ He asked the question out loud, but not so his father could hear. He’d been asking the selfsame thing ever since they’d moved Dad out of the semi-detached house in Morningside. At first, it had been rhetorical; he wasn’t so sure now. The family home had needed to be cleared. Some of the furniture was in Fox’s garage. His attic was full of boxes of photographs and other mementoes, the majority of which meant little or nothing to him. For a time, he would bring some with him when he visited, but they upset his father if he couldn’t place them. Names he felt he should have known had been wiped from his memory. Items had lost their significance. Tears would well in the old boy’s eyes.
‘Want to do anything?’ Fox asked, seating himself on the edge of the bed again.
‘Not really.’
‘Watch TV? Cup of tea maybe?’
‘I’m all right.’ Mitch Fox suddenly fixed his son with a look. ‘You’re all right, too, aren’t you?’
‘Never better.’
‘Doing well at work?’
‘Revered and respected by all who know me.’
‘Got a girlfriend?’
‘Not at the moment.’
‘How long is it since you divorced . . . ?’ The eyebrows knitted again. ‘Her name’s on the tip of my ...’
‘Elaine - and she’s ancient history, Dad.’
Mitch Fox nodded and was thoughtful for a moment. ‘You’ve got to be careful, you know.’
‘I know.’
‘Machinery . . . it’s not to be trusted.’
‘I don’t work with machinery, Dad.’
‘But all the same ...’
Malcolm Fox pretended to be checking his phone again. ‘I can look after myself,’ he assured his father. ‘Don’t you worry about me.’
‘Tell Jude to come and see me,’ Mitch Fox said. ‘She needs to be more careful on those stairs of hers . . .’
Malcolm Fox looked up from his phone. ‘I’ll tell her,’ he said.
‘What’s this Dad tells me about stairs?’
Fox was outside, standing beside his car. It was a silver Volvo S60 with three thousand miles on the clock. His sister had picked up after half a dozen rings, just as he’d been about to end the call.
‘You’ve been to see Mitch?’ she surmised.
‘He was asking for you.’
‘I was there last week.’
‘After you fell down the stairs?’
‘I’m fine. A few bumps and bruises.’
‘Would those bruises be facial, Jude?’
‘You sound just like a cop, Malcolm. I was bringing some stuff downstairs and I fell.’
Fox was silent for a moment, watching the traffic. ‘So how are things otherwise?’
‘I was sorry we didn’t get the chance to catch up over Christmas. Did I thank you for the flowers?’
‘You sent a text at Hogmanay, wished me a Gappy New Zear.’
‘I’m hopeless with that phone - the buttons are too small.’
‘Maybe drink had been taken.’
‘Maybe that, too. You still on the wagon?’
‘Five years dry.’
‘No need to sound so smug. How was Mitch?’
Fox decided he’d had enough fresh air; opened the car door and got in. ‘I’m not sure he’s eating enough.’
‘We can’t all have your appetite.’
‘Do you think I should get a doctor to look at him?’
‘Would he thank you for it?’
Fox had taken a packet of mints from the passenger seat; popped one into his mouth. ‘We should get together some night.’
‘Sure.’
‘Just you and me, I mean.’ He listened to his sister’s silence, waiting for her to mention her partner. If she did that, maybe they could have the real conversation, the one they’d been dancing around:
What about Vince?
No, just the two of us.
Why?
Because I know he hits you, Jude, and that makes me want to hit him back.
You’re wrong, Malcolm.
Am I? Want to show me those bruises and the staircase where it’s supposed to have happened?
But all she said was: ‘Okay, then, we’ll do that, yes.’ Soon they were saying their goodbyes and Fox was flipping shut the phone and tossing it across to the other seat. Another wasted opportunity. He started the engine and headed home.