10 Great Rebus Novels (John Rebus) Read Free

neighbourhood,’ he said.
    Michael, turning from the drinks cabinet with the glasses ready, suddenly remembered, or did a good impersonation of just having remembered.
    ‘Oh, John, I forgot all about it. Why didn’t you tell me? Shit, I hate forgetting about Dad.’
    ‘Just as well you’re a hypnotist then and not Mickey the Memory Man, isn’t it? Give me that drink, or are you two getting engaged?’
    Michael, smiling, absolved, handed over the glass of whisky.
    ‘Is that your car outside?’ asked Rebus, taking the glass. ‘I mean the big BMW?’
    Michael, still smiling, nodded.
    ‘Christ,’ said Rebus. ‘You treat yourself well.’
    ‘As well as I treat Chrissie and the kids. We’re building an extension onto the back of the house. Somewhere to put a jacuzzi or a sauna. They’re the in thing just now, and Chrissie’s desperate to keep ahead of the field.’
    Rebus took a swallow of whisky. It turned out to be a malt. Nothing in the room was cheap, but none of it was exactly desirable either. Glass ornaments, a crystal decanter on a silver salver, the TV and video, the inscrutably miniature hi-fi system, the onyx lamp. Rebus felt a little guilty about that lamp. Rhona and he had given it to Michael and Chrissie as a wedding present. Chrissie no longer spoke to him. Who could blame her?
    ‘Where is Chrissie, by the way?’
    ‘Oh, she’s out doing some shopping. She has her own carnow. The kids will still be at school. She’ll pick them up on the way home. Are you staying for something to eat?’
    Rebus shrugged his shoulders.
    ‘You’d be welcome to stay,’ said Michael, meaning that Rebus wouldn’t. ‘So how’s the cop-shop? Still muddling along?’
    ‘We lose a few, but they don’t get the publicity. We catch a few, and they do. It’s the same as always, I suppose.’
    The room, Rebus was noticing, smelled of toffee-apples, of penny arcades.
    Michael was speaking:
    ‘This is a terrible business about those girls being kidnapped.’
    Rebus nodded.
    ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘yes, it is. But we can’t strictly call it kidnapping, not yet. There hasn’t been a demand note or anything. It’s more likely to be a straightforward case of sexual assault.’
    Michael started up from his chair.
    ‘Straightforward? What’s straightforward about that?’
    ‘It’s just the terminology we use, Mickey, that’s all.’ Rebus shrugged again and finished his drink.
    ‘Well, John,’ said Michael, sitting, ‘I mean, we’ve both got daughters, too. You’re so casual about the whole thing. I mean, it’s frightening to think of it.’ He shook his head slowly in the world-wide expression of shared grief, and relief, too, that the horror was someone else’s for the moment. ‘It’s frightening,’ he repeated. ‘And in Edinburgh of all places. I mean, you never think of that sort of thing happening in Edinburgh, do you?’
    ‘There’s more happening in Edinburgh than anyone knows.’
    ‘Yes.’ Michael paused. ‘I was across there just last week playing at one of the hotels.’
    ‘You didn’t tell me.’
    It was Michael’s turn to shrug his shoulders.
    ‘Would you have been interested?’ he said.
    ‘Maybe not,’ said Rebus, smiling, ‘but I would have come along anyway.’
    Michael laughed. It was the laughter of birthdays, of money found in an old pocket.
    ‘Another whisky, sir?’ he said.
    ‘I thought you were never going to ask.’
    Rebus returned to his study of the room while Michael went to the cabinet.
    ‘How’s the act going?’ he asked. ‘And I really am interested.’
    ‘It’s going fine,’ said Michael. ‘In fact, it’s going very well indeed. There’s talk of a television spot, but I’ll believe that when I see it.’
    ‘Great.’
    Another drink reached Rebus’s willing hand.
    ‘Yes, and I’m working on a new slot. It’s a bit scary though.’ An inch of gold flashed on Michael’s wrist as he tipped the glass to his lips. The watch was expensive: it had no