She looked at him. ‘You become part of his game.’

Never get personally involved: it was the golden rule. And practically every case he worked, Rebus broke it. He sometimes felt that the reason he became so involved in his cases was that he had no life of his own. He could only live through other people.

Why had he become so involved with Candice? Was it down to her physical resemblance to Sammy? Or was it that she had seemed to need him? The way she’d clung to his leg that first day ... Had he wanted - just for a little while - to be someone’s knight in shining armour, the real thing, not some mockery? John Rebus: complete bloody sham. He phoned Claverhouse from his car, filled him in. Claverhouse told him not to worry. ‘Thanks for that,’ Rebus said. ‘I feel a whole lot better now. Listen, who’s Telford’s supplier?’

‘For what? Dope?’

‘Yes.’

‘That’s the real joker in the pack. I mean, he does business with Newcastle, but we can’t be certain who’s dealing and who’s buying.’

‘What if Telford’s selling?’

‘Then he’s got a line from the continent.’

‘What do Drugs Squad say?’

‘They say not. If he’s landing the stuff from a boat, it means transporting it from the coast. Much more likely he’s buying from Newcastle. Tarawicz has the contacts in Europe.’

‘Makes you wonder why he needs Tommy Telford at all ...’

‘John, do yourself a favour, switch off for five minutes.’

‘Colquhoun seems to be keeping his head down ...’

‘Did you hear me?’

‘I’ll talk to you soon.’

‘Are you heading back?’

‘In a manner of speaking.’

Rebus cut the call and drove.

11

‘Strawman.,’ said Morris Gerald Cafferty, as he was escorted into the room by two prison guards.

Earlier in the year, Rebus had promised Cafferty he would put a Glasgow gangster, Uncle Joe Toal, behind bars. It hadn’t worked, despite Rebus’s best efforts. Toal, pleading old age and illness, was still a free man, like a war criminal excused for senility. Ever since then, Cafferty had felt Rebus owed him.

Cafferty sat down, rolled his neck a few times, loosening it.

‘So?’ he asked.

Rebus nodded for the guards to leave, waited in silence until they’d gone. Then he slipped a quarter-bottle of Bell’s from his pocket.

‘Keep it,’ Cafferty told him. ‘From the look of you, I’d say your need was greater than mine.’

Rebus put the bottle back in his pocket. ‘I’ve brought a message from Newcastle.’

Cafferty folded his arms. ‘Jake Tarawicz?’

Rebus nodded. ‘He wants you to lay off Tommy Telford.’

‘What does he mean?’

‘Come on, Cafferty. That bouncer who got stabbed, the dealer wounded ... There’s war breaking out.’

Cafferty stared at the detective. ‘Not my doing.’

Rebus snorted, but looking into Cafferty’s eyes, he found himself almost believing.

‘So who was it?’ he asked quietly.

‘How do I know?’

‘Nevertheless, war is breaking out.’

‘That’s as may be. What’s in it for Tarawicz?’