Macbeth

Malcolm saw Banquo shift his weight from one foot to the other. Malcolm’s mouth and throat were dry, he was already hoarse. ‘You can hang as many chains on us as you like, Banquo, it won’t make any difference because we’ll float to the surface. What is good rises. I swear I’m going to float to the surface somewhere and reveal your misdeeds.’

‘They aren’t mine, Malcolm.’

‘Hecate. Yours. You’re in the same boat. And we both know which river that boat will cross and where you’ll soon end up.’

Banquo nodded slowly. ‘Hecate,’ he said. ‘Exactly.’

‘What?’

Banquo seemed to be staring at a point on Malcolm’s forehead. ‘You’re right, sir. I work for Hecate.’ Malcolm tried to decipher Banquo’s faint smile. Water was running down his face as though he were crying, Malcolm thought. Was he hesitating? Malcolm knew he would have to continue talking, to make Banquo talk, because every word, every second prolonged his life. Increased the fading tiny chance that Banquo might change his mind or someone might appear.

‘Why drowning, Banquo?’

‘Eh?’

‘Shooting me in the car and making it look like suicide would be easier.’

Banquo shrugged. ‘There are many ways to skin a cat. The crime scene is underwater. No traces if they suspect murder. And drowning is nicer. Like going to sleep.’

‘What makes you think that?’

‘I know. I almost drowned twice in my youth.’

The barrel of Banquo’s gun had sunk a fraction. Malcolm estimated the distance between them.

Malcolm swallowed. ‘Why did you almost drown, Banquo?’

‘Because I grew up on the east side of town and never learned to swim. Isn’t it funny that here in a town on the edge of the sea there are people who die if they fall in? So I tried to teach my boy to swim. The odd thing is he didn’t learn either. Perhaps because it was a non-swimmer trying to teach him. If we sink, they sink, that’s how our fates are passed on. But people like you can swim, Malcolm.’

‘Hence the chains, I assume.’

‘Yes.’ The gun barrel was raised again. The hesitation was gone and the determination back in Banquo’s eyes. Malcolm took a deep breath. The chance had been there and now it wasn’t.

‘Good people or not,’ Banquo said, ‘you have the buoyancy we lack. And I have to be sure you will stay under the water. And never rise to the surface again. If you don’t I won’t have done my job. Do you understand?’

‘Understand?’

‘Give me your police badge.’

Malcolm took the brass badge from his jacket pocket and gave it to Banquo, who immediately threw it. It flew over the edge of the quay, hit the water and sank. ‘It’s brass. It’s shiny but will sink right to the bottom. That’s gravity, sir, it drags everything with it into the mud. You have to disappear, Malcolm. Disappear for ever.’

In the meeting room Macbeth looked at his watch. Twenty-nine minutes past six. The door opened again, and a person Macbeth recognised as Lennox’s assistant stuck her head in, said it still wasn’t possible to get in contact with Malcolm; all they knew was he arrived at HQ, turned round in the garage and left, and no one, not even his daughter Julia, knew where he was.

‘Thanks, Priscilla,’ Lennox said and turned to the others. ‘Then I think we should start this meeting by—’

Macbeth knew this was the moment. The moment Lady had spoken about, the moment of the leadership void, when everyone would unconsciously regard the person who took the initiative as the new leader. For that reason his interruption came over loud and clear.

‘Excuse me, Lennox.’ Macbeth turned to the door. ‘Priscilla, could you organise a search for Malcolm and his car? For the time being, radio only patrol cars. And phrase it as low key as possible. HQ wishes to contact him ASAP. That kind of thing, thank you.’ He turned to the others. ‘Sorry to requisition your assistant, Lennox, but I think most of us here share my unease. OK, let’s start the meeting. Anyone object if I chair it until Malcolm arrives?’

He scanned the table. Caithness. Lennox. Duff. Saw how they had to think before they concluded what Lennox said stiffly after a clearing of the throat: ‘You’re the next in command, Macbeth. Away you go.’

‘Thank you, Lennox. Would you mind, by the way, closing the window behind you? Let’s start with the bodyguards. Has Anti-Corruption got anything there?’

‘Not yet,’ Lennox said, trying to close the latches. ‘There’s nothing to suggest irregularities or anything one might deem suspicious. In fact, the lack of irregularities is the only suspicious thing.’

‘Nothing suspicious, new connections, no sudden purchasing of luxury goods or bank account movements?’

Lennox shook his head. ‘They seem as clean as shining armour.’

‘My guess is they were clean,’ Duff said. ‘But even the cleanest knights can be poisoned and corrupted if you can find the chink in their armour. And Hecate found that gap.’

‘Then we can, too,’ Macbeth said. ‘Keep searching, Lennox.’

‘I will.’ His tone suggested a space for sir at the end. It wasn’t spoken, but everyone had heard it.