A police car waited outside the school gate, DCI Pearce leaning against it and smiling. It was a squad car not the Ford from last time, so she was making a show of the police being interested in him. For a moment he imagined she wasn’t here for him, maybe she was here to tell Ryan that his mum was dead or that she’d come out of her coma. But the look on her face as he approached made it clear she wanted to speak to Tyler. He tried to walk past but she pushed herself off the car to block his way.
‘Just a minute,’ she said.
‘This is harassment.’
‘I can harass you much better than this.’
‘Leave me alone.’
She looked behind him but Tyler resisted the urge to turn. His schoolmates would be checking him out talking to a cop, who needed to see that?
‘Get in.’ Pearce indicated the front passenger seat.
Tyler noticed she was on her own, no uniformed officer for company.
‘No thanks,’ he said.
She touched the handcuffs dangling from her belt. ‘If you don’t get in, I’ll have to use these.’
Tyler stared at her. ‘Really?’
He felt the crowd of kids now streaming out of the school gates around them, eyeballing Pearce, commenting under their breaths, two boys in the year below him running hands along the squad car paintwork as a wind up.
‘If I have to,’ Pearce said.
‘Outside the school gates? Classy.’
Tyler finally looked behind him. As he expected, Connell and the others were watching him, some of the girls from his year too.
He turned back and pointed left. ‘I have to pick up Bean from primary.’
‘Just five minutes.’ Pearce clanked the handcuffs again. ‘Once round the block for a chat.’
He sighed, walked to the passenger door and got in.
Pearce climbed in and started the engine.
The car smelt of blueberry Jelly Beans and was surprisingly clean, no Burger King wrappers or Krispy Kreme boxes.
‘Seatbelt,’ Pearce said, pulling her own one on.
They headed down Greendykes Road, away from both schools. Tyler thought about Bean waiting in the classroom with Miss Kelvin.
‘Interesting times,’ Pearce said.
‘Get on with it.’
Pearce glanced over as she drove past a fly-tipping site, then the building work.
‘We had a report of another break-in,’ she said eventually.
‘Good for you.’
‘Sometime in the last twenty-four hours.’
‘There must be dozens of burglaries in the city every day.’
‘This was in Clinton Road. Sound familiar?’
Tyler stared out of the window. They passed the derelict house where Snook would be suckling her pups.
‘No,’ he said.
‘The house belongs to a Mr and Mrs Fotheringham.’
Tyler didn’t speak.
‘It was phoned in by their son,’ Pearce said.
‘This is fascinating.’
‘Clinton Road is just round the corner from St Margaret’s Road in Church Hill.’
Tyler sighed. ‘Not this again.’
He pictured Flick, blood on her hands, glass on the floor, that piano music playing.
‘Strange one, though,’ Pearce said. ‘The boy said nothing valuable was taken.’
‘Lucky for him.’
Pearce passed the Greendykes block where Tyler lived and kept going, round into the newer houses, speed bumps on the road, small gardens, social housing. She stopped at a junction and stared at him.
‘Why would someone break into a house and not take anything?’
‘Beats me.’
She pulled out from the junction and headed up to Niddrie Mains Road. ‘Me too.’
Silence in the car as they drove, making their way back towards the schools.
Eventually Tyler spoke, his voice flat. ‘So did you get anywhere with the St Margaret’s Road thing?’
Pearce changed up a gear and looked at him. ‘CCTV and forensics, you mean?’
Tyler shrugged.
Pearce indicated left, heading back into the neighbourhood. ‘We’re getting there.’
Which meant they weren’t getting anywhere. If they had something, he, Barry and Kelly would be at Craigmillar Station right now asking for a solicitor.
They were back where they started. The crowds of kids had dispersed, just a few stragglers outside the gates, two boys joke fighting, some girls pretending not to watch them.
Pearce pulled the car into the kerb and killed the engine. Tyler went to get out but she put a hand on his arm. She nodded at his face, and it was only then that he remembered his bruised eye. His hand went to it.
‘What happened to you?’
‘Nothing.’
‘A Barry-shaped nothing?’
Tyler stared at her and removed her hand from his arm. ‘You don’t know anything.’
‘I know a lot more than you give me credit for.’
‘That wouldn’t be hard.’
Pearce sighed. ‘You’re fucked, you know that? We’re going to get Barry and Kelly for this. If you don’t give them to us, tell us what happened, then we’ll fuck you too.’
Tyler sat in silence.
Pearce shook her head. ‘Your sister will go into care without you. Is that what you want?’
Tyler had the car door open. ‘You’ve already said this. Save it. I have to get Bean, she’ll be wondering where I am.’
He was out the car now, his hand on the door, about to close it.
Pearce leaned over to see him better.
‘You know what you need to do to protect her.’
‘See you,’ Tyler said, and closed the door.
He turned towards Craigmillar Primary and didn’t look back. Eventually he heard the engine start up and the car pull away, leaving just silence.