Macbeth

‘You dreamed a lot, I think.’

‘Yes, that bloody...’

‘What?’

‘Nothing. I heard storm bells. But then I realised they were church bells. Summoning churchgoers to confession and a christening.’

‘I told you not to say that word.’

‘Christening?’

‘Macbeth!’

‘Sorry.’

‘The press conference is in less than two hours. And they’ll be wondering what’s happened to their chief commissioner.’

He swung his legs out of bed. Lady stopped him, held his face between her hands and inspected him carefully. The pupils were small. Again.

She pulled a stray hair from his eyebrow.

‘Also we’ve got a dinner this evening,’ she said, searching for more. ‘You haven’t forgotten, have you?’

‘Is it really right to have it so close after Duncan’s passing-away?’

‘It’s a dinner to cultivate connections, not a banquet. And we still have to eat, darling.’

‘Who’s coming?’

‘Everyone I’ve asked. The mayor. Some of your colleagues.’ She found a grey hair, but it slipped between her long red nails. ‘We’re going to discuss how to enforce the regulations for the casinos. It’s in today’s leader column that the Obelisk is apparently running a prostitution racket under cover of the casino and that therefore it should be closed.’

‘It doesn’t help that your editor chum writes what you want him to if no one reads his newspapers.’

‘No. But now I’ve got a chief commissioner as my husband.’

‘Ow!’

‘You should get a few more grey hairs. They look good on bosses. I’ll talk to my hairdresser today. Perhaps he can discreetly dye your temples.’

‘My temples aren’t visible.’

‘Exactly. That’s why we’ll get your hair cut — so they are.’

‘Never!’

‘Mayor Tourtell might think his town should have a chief commissioner who looks like a grown man, not a boy.’

‘Oh? Are you worried?’

Lady shrugged. ‘Normally the mayor wouldn’t interfere with the police hierarchy, but he’s the one who appoints the new chief commissioner. We just have to be sure he doesn’t get any funny ideas.’

‘And how can we do that?’

‘Well, we might have to ensure we have some hold over Tourtell in the unlikely event that he cuts up rough. But don’t you worry about that, darling.’

‘All right. Apropos cutting up rough...’

She stopped searching for unruly hairs. She recognised the tone. ‘Is there something you haven’t told me, dearest?’

‘Banquo...’

‘What about him?’

‘I’ve begun to wonder whether I can trust him. Whether he hasn’t made some cunning plan for himself and Fleance.’ He took a deep breath, and she knew he was about to tell her something important. ‘Banquo didn’t kill Malcolm yesterday, he sent him off to Capitol. He made some excuse about this not being a life we risked anything by sparing.’

She knew he was waiting for her reaction. When none was forthcoming he remarked she didn’t seem so dumbfounded.

She smiled.

‘This is not the time to be dumbfounded. What do you think he’s planning?’

‘He claims he’s frightened Malcolm into silence, but I’m guessing the two of them have concocted something that will give Banquo a better and surer pay-off than he’s getting with me.’

‘Darling, surely you don’t think that nice old Banquo has any ambition to become chief commissioner?’

‘No, no, Banquo has always been someone who wants to be led, not to lead. This is about his son, Fleance. I’m only fifteen years older than Fleance, and by the time I retire Fleance will be old and grey himself. So it’s better for him to be the crown prince to an older man like Malcolm.’

‘You’re just tired, my love. Banquo’s much too loyal to want to do anything like that. You said yourself he would burn in hell for you.’

‘Yes, he has been loyal. And so have I to him.’ Macbeth got up and stood in front of the big gold-framed mirror on the wall. ‘But if you take a closer look, hasn’t this mutual loyalty been more advantageous for Banquo? Hasn’t he been the hyena who follows the lion’s footprints and eats prey he hasn’t killed himself? I made him second-in-command in SWAT and my deputy in Organised Crime. I would say he’s been well paid for the small services he’s performed for me.’

‘All the more reason why you can count on his loyalty, darling.’