Macbeth

She led Duncan up the stairs to the mezzanine. If his eyes and secret thoughts were drawn to the high split in her dress as she strode ahead, he concealed them well. They stood at the balustrade. It was a quiet evening. Four customers at the roulette table; the blackjack tables were empty; four poker players at the table underneath them. The others at the party had gathered by the bar, which they had almost to themselves. Lady watched Macbeth nervously fidgeting with his glass of water as he stood with Malcolm and Lennox, trying to look as though he was listening.

‘Twelve years ago this was a water-damaged vandalised ruin after the railway administration moved out. As you know we’re the only county in the land to allow casinos.’

‘Thanks to Chief Commissioner Kenneth.’

‘Bless his blackened soul. Our roulette table was built according to the Monte Carlo principle. You can put your bets on identical slots on both sides of the wheel, which is made of mostly mahogany, a little rosewood and ivory.’

‘It is, frankly, very impressive what you’ve created here, Lady.’

‘Thank you, Chief Commissioner, but it has come at a cost.’

‘I understand. Sometimes you wonder what drives us humans.’

‘So tell me what drives you.’

‘Me?’ He deliberated for a second or two. ‘The hope that this town may one day be a good place to live.’

‘Behind that. Behind the fine principles we can so easily articulate. What are your selfish, emotional motives? What is your dark motive, the one that whispers to you at night and haunts you after all the celebratory speeches have been made?’

‘That’s a searching question, Lady.’

‘It’s the only question, my dear Chief Commissioner.’

‘Maybe.’ He rolled his shoulders inside his dinner jacket. ‘And maybe I didn’t need such a strong motivation. I was dealt good cards when I was born into a relatively affluent family where education, ambition and career were a matter of course. My father was unambiguous and plain-spoken about corruption in the public sector. That was probably why he didn’t get very far. I think I just carried on where he left off and learned from the strategic mistakes he made. Politics is the art of the possible, and sometimes you have to use evil to fight evil. I do whatever I have to do. I’m not the saint the press likes to portray me as, ma’am.’

‘Saints achieve little apart from being canonised. I’m more for your school of tactics, Chief Commissioner. That’s always been my way.’

‘I can understand that. And although I don’t know any details of your life, I do know you’ve had a longer and steeper path to tread than me.’

Lady laughed. ‘You’ll find me in the faded files of your archives. I supported myself on the oldest profession in the world for a few years — that’s not exactly a secret. But we all have a past and have — as you put it — done what we had to do. Does the Chief Commissioner gamble? If so, I’d like you to do so on the house tonight.’

‘Thank you for your generosity, Lady, but it would break my rules to accept.’

‘Even as a private individual?’

‘When you become chief commissioner your private life ceases to exist. Besides, I don’t gamble, ma’am. I prefer not to rely on the gods of fate but to merit any winnings I might make.’

‘Nevertheless you got where you are — as you yourself said — because the gods of fate dealt you good cards at birth.’

He smiled. ‘I said prefer. Life’s a game where you either play with the cards you have or throw in your hand.’

‘May I say something, Chief Commissioner? Why are you smiling?’

‘At your question, ma’am. I think you’ll ask anyway.’

‘I just wanted to say that I think you, my dear Duncan, are a thoroughly decent person. You’re a man with spine, and I respect who you are and what you stand for. Not least because you have dared to give an unknown quantity like Macbeth such a prominent position in your management team.’

‘Thank you, ma’am. Macbeth has only himself to thank.’

‘Does the appointment form part of your anti-corruption campaign?’

‘Corruption is like a bedbug. Sometimes you have to demolish the whole house to get rid of the plague. And start building again with non-infected materials. Like Macbeth. He wasn’t part of the establishment, so he isn’t infected.’

‘Like Cawdor.’

‘Like Cawdor, ma’am.’

‘I know what it costs to pare away the infected flesh. I had two disloyal servants in my employ.’ She leaned over the balustrade and nodded towards the roulette table. ‘I still cried when I sacked them. Being tempted by money and wealth is a very common human weakness. And I was too soft-hearted, so instead of crushing the bedbugs under my heel I let them go. And what was my thanks? They used my ideas, the expertise I had given them and probably money they had stolen from here to start a dubious establishment that is not only destroying the reputation of the industry but taking bread from the mouths of the people who created this market, from us. If you chase away bedbugs they come back. No, I’d have done the same as you, Chief Commissioner.’

‘As me, ma’am?’

‘With Cawdor.’