DARIAN GOT something to eat because that was the reason he had gone home in the first place. He would have described it as dinner but the word sandwich would also be true and his definition of what constituted a meal was not widely shared. When he had finished the feast of bread and ham he called up Vinny.
The cop said, “I’m working tonight, but it’s okay, come to the Darks on Conrad Drive, meet me backstage.”
So Darian was out of the flat again, walking back down to Bank Station and taking the train, this time on his work card, up to Three O’clock Station in Whisper Hill. It took five minutes just to get off the overcrowded platform and along the concourse to the door and from there another twenty to get down to Conrad Drive, a street that ran across from Docklands Street to the train tracks. Dark, Dark, Dark was a graceful music venue with a long history and strong reputation, one of few venues in The Hill that work had never taken him to but his social life had.
At the entrance Darian asked a woman working there if she had seen Vinny and she told him to go up the stairs at the side of the foyer and follow the corridor along to the back. Darian did as he was told and found himself turning onto a walkway with an open space looking down from above the stage where a man was playing guitar and singing beautiful songs to a couple of hundred quietly happy people. Vinny was standing watching.
“So why does this gig need a police goon like you to work it?”
Vinny whispered, “It doesn’t. I know the owner, Lyall Maddock, a reformed cop, he’s a mate. Every time there’s a gig on I want to see but I’m working he calls up the station and asks for me to come along and keep the peace. They know it’s a swizz but they let it slide, means I can’t say no when they send me to police a venue populated by screaming nutjobs trying to bottle each other.”
They had been whispering low and fell silent as they listened to the song “Stained Glass.” When it was finished and the crowd below applauded Vinny turned to Darian and said, “So what’s the news?”
“Speculative. Every avenue we’ve gone down has been a complete dead end except maybe Dent and Simon Sutherland, and they’re both maybes at best. We went to Simon Sutherland’s house and got in and he was as odd as every other number. That’s probably an offensive way to describe someone with his issues but…”
“True?”
“Aye.”
“Did he know anything about Freya?”
“He said no, but there wasn’t a convincing word in him. Add to that the housekeeper letting us inside in the first place. She didn’t have to but she wanted to, and I don’t think it was to help us. There are secrets in that barn of a house and we’d need to have a proper sweep of the place to find them.”
Vinny nodded with the expression of a man about to make a friend do something he didn’t want to. He led Darian along the corridor and down the stairs, out through the front door and across the road to The Whaler’s, the sort of all-night café that served you a plate of grease which, if you were one of the lucky ones, might have something solid in it. It was a good place to go if you wanted to test the mettle of your digestive system, and Phil Sutherland was already there. Vinny and Darian sat opposite him and his usually distant expression took another backward step.
Vinny said, “Darian has a wee update on the case and you’re not allowed to piss your pants about it.”
Darian said, “I’m sorry that I went to your cousin’s house.”
“You what? You went to Simon’s house? What for?”
“You hadn’t heard already?”
“No, I’m not in contact with Simon.”
“But you speak to your uncle and your uncle speaks to Simon. I would have guessed he’d have called your uncle as soon as we left and your uncle would be straight onto you. We were round there this morning.”
“Right after I specifically asked you not to go.”
“Pretty much.”
“Maybe my uncle hasn’t heard yet. I don’t know his exact relationship with Simon, how often they speak. I don’t know what anyone’s relationship with Simon is like.”
“I’d be surprised if your uncle didn’t know something because when I got home this afternoon there was a Raven agent at my flat flapping his dark wings, offering me a job with them that I’m sure would have involved leaving every member of your family the hell alone. When I turned it down he all but threatened to peck my eyes out.”
Vinny said, “Raven, that shower of pissants. At least you and Sholto are honest in your dishonesty. I can’t stand people who pretend to play fair.”
Phil said, “They tried to buy you? That does sound like it might be Uncle Harold’s style. He would try to put out a fire with money before he thought about water. But that’s just him trying to protect the company.”
“Not him trying to protect his driver, or his nephew?”
“You can’t actually think Simon had anything to do with Freya going missing? The poor sod hasn’t left the house in years. How could he do it?”
“With the help of a shifty driver who treats violence as casual amusement.”
Phil shook his head. “I don’t buy that. Simon, the way he is, he would never get involved in something as messy as this.”
“Simon the way you think he is, perhaps. Maybe there’s more to him than we know, like what does he need all that space for?”
“The story I heard is that he keeps everything that comes into the house and doesn’t have the ability to walk back out. Every single thing he’s ever owned. If Freya had gone into the house and, worst-case scenario, wasn’t able to walk back out, she would still be there, which means the housekeeper would have seen some sign of her.”
“The housekeeper who let us in, like she wanted us to see something?”
Phil didn’t look at all ready to be convinced by that. He shook his head but said, “There’s a simple enough way to solve this. I go to the house tomorrow and have a look around and if I see something I’ll let you know. If something happened in that house, and I think you’ve wandered off the edge of the map looking for a clue there by the way, then we’ll know.”
Darian nodded and said, “Maybe Simon has nothing to do with it, but Dent might and he has access to that property as well. It’s a huge space, and I think you, me, Vinny and Sholto should all go.”
Phil said, “No, no way will he let four in and I wouldn’t try to force him. You and me then. Vinny, you stay out because it’s too personal; I don’t want you putting heat on a fractured mind. Me and you, Darian, and any link to Freya will stand out like a sore thumb in there. We go and we put an end to this one way or the other.”
“Okay, fine, just us two. I’ll meet you there at nine.”
Phil stayed in the café to finish sucking mouthfuls of grease off his fork and Vinny went back across the road in less of a mood for the music. His mind, Darian knew, wasn’t on Freya but on their son, Finn. What was he going to tell the boy if the worst ended up being confirmed? Darian tried not to think about it on the train home.