‘Who?’

‘A business acquaintance. Whoever did it made it look like I was behind the wheel.’

‘It wasn’t me.’

‘Try telling Telford that. He thinks you ordered me to do it.’

‘We know differently.’

‘That’s right. We know someone was setting me up, trying to get me out of the way.’

‘What was his name again, the dead one?’

‘Matsumoto.’

‘Is that Japanese?’

Rebus wished he could see Cafferty’s eyes. Even then, it was hard to tell when the man was playing games.

‘He was Japanese,’ Rebus stated.

‘What the hell did he have to do with Telford?’

‘Sounds to me like your intelligence has gone to pot.’

There was silence on the line. ‘About your daughter ...’

Rebus froze. ‘What about her?’

‘A secondhand shop in Porty.’

Meaning Portobello. ‘The owner bought some stuff from a seller. Including opera tapes and Roy Orbison. Stuck in his mind. They don’t naturally go together.’

Rebus’s hand tightened on the receiver. ‘Which shop? What did the seller look like?’

Cold laughter. ‘We’re working on it, Strawman, just leave everything to us. Now, about this Japanese fellow ...?’

‘I said I’d put Telford out of the game. That was the agreement.’

‘I’ve yet to see any action.’

‘I’m working on it!’

‘I want to hear about him anyway.’

Rebus paused.

‘How is Samantha anyway?’ Cafferty asked. ‘That’s her name, isn’t it?’

‘She’s ...’

‘Because it looks like I’ll be fulfilling my side of our bargain any day. While you, on the other hand ...’

‘Matsumoto was Yakuza: heard of them?’

A moment’s silence. ‘I’ve heard of them.’

‘Telford’s helping them buy a country club.’

‘What in God’s name do they want with that?’

‘I’m not sure.’

Cafferty was silent again. Rebus almost thought his mobile had died. Then: ‘He’s got big ideas, hasn’t he?’

Like there was just a touch of respect there, battling the sense of territorial breach.

‘We’ve both seen people overreach themselves.’

An idea formed in Rebus’s mind, a sudden notion of where everything was headed.

‘Looks like Telford’s got plenty of stretch left in him though,’ Cafferty was saying. ‘And me, I’m not even halfway through my stretch.’

‘Know something, Cafferty? Every time you start to sound beaten, that’s when I know you’re just coming to the boil.’

‘You know I’m going to have to retaliate, whether I want to or not. A little ritual we have to go through, like shaking hands.’

‘How many men have you got?’

‘More than enough.’

‘Listen, one last thing ...’

Rebus couldn’t believe he was telling his arch-enemy this. ‘Jake Tarawicz arrived here today. I think the fireworks were meant to impress him.’

‘Telford torched my house just so he’d have something to show that ugly Russian bastard?’

Like a kid showing off to his elders, Rebus was thinking. Overreaching himself ...

‘That’s it, Strawman!’ Cafferty was back to being furious. ‘All bets are off. Those two want to get dirty with Morris Gerald Cafferty, I’ll give them both anthrax. I’ll infect the pair of them. They’ll think they’ve caught full-blown fucking AIDS by the time I’m finished!’ Which was about as much as Rebus could take. He put down the phone, drank his cold coffee, checked his messages. Patience wondered if he could make it to supper. Rhona said they’d carried out another scan. Bobby Hogan wanted a word.