He was wrestling with a two-headed dog, its faces snouted versions of Barry and Kelly. Their fangs snapped at his face, tearing skin from his neck and cheek, claws ripping his body. Another dog with Bean’s face had his arms pinned while the first one savaged him. Bean smiled at him as all the flesh, sinew and muscle was torn from him, leaving only a blood-soaked skeleton. Bean-dog leaned down and licked the blood from his skull then sucked at his eyeballs until they popped out.
His phone was ringing. He bolted awake and looked round. He was in Flick’s parents’ bed, with Flick at the other side and Bean snug between, hugging Flick’s elephant. Lying across the bottom of the bed were Snook, Mario and Luigi.
Light slipped through the gap in the curtains, it was morning already. He grabbed his phone and looked at the screen. A quarter to nine, Bean was late for school, not that he had any intention of taking her today. Then he remembered it was Saturday. The weekend. When real families did stuff together, went out on their bikes, trips to the park or beach, shops or the cinema.
He recognised the number calling him. He worried that the ringing would wake the girls so he got out of bed and answered it as he left the room.
‘Tyler?’ Pearce. Voices in the background.
‘Yeah.’
‘Where are you?’
‘What’s it to you?’
‘We’ve been to your flat this morning, your mum doesn’t know where you or Bethany are.’
‘Where?’
‘A friend’s house.’
A pause down the line. He couldn’t work out if she was sighing or talking to someone else with the mouthpiece covered.
‘The same friend as before?’
‘Maybe.’
This time definitely a sigh.
‘I need you to come back to the station.’
Tyler pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘Why?’
‘I think you know why.’
‘Try me.’
‘Barry is dead.’
A long pause. ‘How did it happen?’
‘We don’t know yet. He was found in his burnt-out car along with his dogs.’
‘Right.’
‘You don’t sound very upset.’
‘Should I be?’
‘Or surprised.’
Tyler looked at the doorway of the bedroom, where Flick and Bean were still sleeping. He heard a gentle thump then one of the pups came tottering out of the room and up to him, tail wagging. He bent down to stroke it and it snuffled at his fingers.
‘Barry was into a lot of bad stuff,’ he said. ‘You know that as well as I do.’
The puppy licked the palm of Tyler’s hand and it tickled.
‘Just get down here,’ Pearce said. ‘Do I need to send a car?’
Tyler looked around at the Ashcrofts’ house. ‘I’ll get a bus.’
Same meeting room as before, so still not an official interview. The door opened and Pearce came in carrying two mugs of coffee. She hadn’t asked if he wanted anything, had just presumed. She put one in front of him then sat down across the table, blowing on her own. Like two pals having a chat, apart from all the dead bodies they had to discuss.
‘So,’ she said.
Tyler raised his eyebrows. He looked out of the window, remembered the squabbling seagulls from last time, wondered if they hung out in the car park all the time, creatures of habit like the rest of us. Or if they’d managed to break the cycle of their lives. If that was even possible.
‘So,’ he said.
He sipped the coffee. It was too milky. He put the mug down.
Pearce studied him over the steam of her mug. ‘What can you tell me?’
‘About what?’
‘The death of your brother.’
‘Are you sure it’s him?’
Pearce nodded. ‘Your mum identified the body this morning.’
Tyler swallowed. ‘How was she?’
Pearce paused and stared. ‘How do you think she was? It wasn’t easy, given the nature of his remains. Want to know the details? The top half of his body was completely burnt, pretty much a melted puddle of flesh. But bodies burn in weird ways, and there was less damage to his lower half. She mentioned a birthmark on his foot and there it was, a bit charred but recognisable.’
Tyler hadn’t even known that Barry had a birthmark on his foot. It made him feel queasy. Of course Angela had known, Barry was her son just like Kelly was her daughter. She wasn’t the best mother in the world but she was the only mum they ever had. Her two eldest children were now dead. Tyler tried to get his head around that.
Pearce took a sip of coffee. ‘So what do you know?’
‘Where was the car?’
‘You tell me.’
‘You think I did this?’
‘You know more than you’re telling me.’
Tyler wrapped his hands around his mug.
Pearce examined him. ‘The car was in Craigmillar Castle Park, hidden in the woods.’
‘How do you get a car in there?’
He looked around the room at the dull walls and furniture. Pearce kept her eyes on him the whole time.
‘It appears the car smashed through a single bollard across the footpath next to the Old Dalkeith Road recycling centre. It’s at the end of a dead-end road, the centre was closed. The bollard was loose in the concrete anyway, according to complaints to the council.’
Once you were inside the park grounds in a car you could hide it anywhere, it was a labyrinth with a hundred different cubby holes and quiet spots. At night no one would be there to see the flames, and the smoke wouldn’t register in the dark skies. It could burn for hours, destroy as much evidence as possible. Deke had been smart.
‘And the dogs were in the car too?’ Tyler said.
‘They were in the back, badly burnt.’
‘So what do you think happened?’
Pearce was lifting her coffee mug to her lips when she hesitated, then lowered the mug back onto the table without taking a sip. ‘Forensics will find out. And phone records. Police work, you know.’
Tyler tried to think. Presuming the Holts hadn’t reported anything about the attempted arson, that left the sound of gunfire at the house. Maybe the family’s reputation would mean that neighbours kept their noses out of business that didn’t concern them. If any of them reported anything, the Holts would soon go round and have a word. So that left CCTV and phone records. He couldn’t think if there was CCTV of him anywhere near the Holt house, but it was everywhere these days, it seemed likely. But how would the cops know exactly when and where to look? He thought about the phone. He’d called Barry yesterday evening, that was the last time. And the Holts had called Tyler, but using Flick’s phone, so there was no connection to Barry there.
Pearce leaned forward. ‘Where were you last night?’
‘I told you, me and Bean stayed at a friend’s house.’
Pearce shook her head. ‘You’re going to have to do better than that. I need a name and address, this is your alibi.’
‘I don’t need an alibi, I haven’t done anything.’
Pearce fixed him with a stare and lowered her voice, looking at the closed door behind him before she spoke. ‘Look, don’t you get it yet? We don’t give a shit about Barry. Why should we care when a nasty little prick like him dies? And we don’t want you either, you’re just trying your best as far as I can see. But you need an alibi so we can do this properly. I need a name and address, someone who will confirm your story.’
Tyler looked out of the window and saw a seagull lifting into the sky, just one. He wondered if it was one of the same ones from the other day, without its adversary. Maybe it didn’t know what to do without that daily struggle against its nemesis, maybe it had lost its purpose.
‘The Holts have an alibi,’ Pearce said.
Tyler turned back to Pearce. ‘What?’
‘The whole lot of them, Deke, Monica and Ryan were at home all night watching television. It’s not airtight, but unless we come up with evidence it’ll do them for now.’
Tyler thought about Monica, Flick and Bean on the sofa, Barry and the dogs soaking in their own blood through in the kitchen.
‘Her name is Felicity.’
‘Surname?’
‘Ashcroft.’
‘And you and Bethany stayed at her house last night?’
‘Yes.’
‘All night?’
‘Yes.’
‘Felicity will confirm this?’
Tyler nodded. ‘There’s no need to talk to Bean, is there? She was asleep all evening anyway.’
Pearce stayed silent. Eventually she spoke. ‘No. We won’t have to speak to your sister. Little kids can get confused anyway, can’t they?’
Pearce had a pen and pad out. ‘What’s the address?’
‘20 Hope Terrace.’
‘In Morningside? No offence, but how do you know a Morningside girl?’
Tyler pictured her standing in the living room surrounded by broken glass, her hand dripping with blood, and smiled.
‘We just bumped into each other,’ he said.