The Deep Dark Sleep

‘Paul Downey. He is a photographer. Of sorts. And, apparently, some kind of aspiring actor. He has dropped out of sight and has left instructions for all “bids for his scoop”, as he puts it, to be mailed to a PO box at Wellington Street post office.’ Fraser dipped into the file again. ‘Here is his last known address and a photograph of him. Reasonably recent, I’ve been led to believe.’

I looked at the photograph. Downey was a young man in his early twenties, and had the Iberian Celtic look of a Glasgow Catholic: dark hair, pale complexion. He had a faintly girlish appearance with his black hair a little too long but not Teddy Boy style, largish, soft eyes, a weak mouth and a soft chin.

‘Mr Downey is also a …’ Fraser left the word hanging in the air. ‘He is also involved in that world.’

‘I see.’ I thought it over for a moment. ‘And you say the other party in the photographs is unaware of their existence?’

‘That is correct.’

‘How long, exactly, is Macready going to be in Glasgow?’

‘He has very little still to do in the way of actual shooting, but there are some other tasks he has to perform before he returns, technical issues and publicity matters. He is scheduled to return early next month. His flight is already booked on BOAC from Prestwick.’

‘If I am to take this any further, then I have to talk to him. You do understand that, don’t you, Mr Fraser?’

‘I supposed you would, Mr Lennox. That’s why I have drawn up this schedule of the remainder of his stay in Scotland. His personal assistant is Miss Bryson. Here …’ Fraser handed me a sheet of paper. ‘I don’t suppose there is any way you could avoid the necessity of your discussing this directly with Mr Macready?’

‘I’m afraid not. Those photographs you showed me weren’t taken in a rush. I smell a premeditated set-up. Whoever took them knew what they were doing. And I guess that, knowing who Macready was entertaining, they have been fully aware of the stakes they’ve been playing. I’m going to have to ask Macready some difficult questions.’

‘I know that this is of no interest or concern to you, Mr Lennox, but distasteful as any right-minded person finds that aspect of his life, it is my opinion that John Macready is a good man.’

‘I’m sure he’s a faithful pilgrim,’ I said. ‘From what I could see from the photographs he certainly adheres to at least one Christian tenet.’

Fraser frowned questioningly.

‘It looked to me like he truly believes that it is better to give than to receive.’

CHAPTER FOUR

I wanted to find out more about Donald Fraser, and before heading back to my office I decided to telephone Jock Ferguson from a telephone kiosk on the corner of Blythswood Square. It was the regulation Glasgow ’phone box: its exterior inexpertly coated in thick red paint that was flaking where it had bubbled; its interior fuming with the regulation Glasgow call box odour of stale urine, forcing me to prop the heavy, spring-loaded door open with one foot. For some reason, Glaswegians had always been confused about how the word urinal differed lexically from telephone kiosk, bank doorway, swimming pool or the back of the raincoat of the supporter in front of you at a football match.

I was lucky and got Jock Ferguson at his desk. I asked him what he knew about Donald Fraser, which was nothing, but he said with a sigh that he would ask around. In turn, he asked why I was asking and I told him the truth: that Fraser was a solicitor in the city and wanted to hire me and that I just wanted to check Fraser’s bona fides before I took the job. Ferguson told me he would ’phone me back at my office later with whatever he could find out. He also made it plain that the next lunch I treated him to would have to be somewhere more upscale than the Horsehead Bar.

I walked back to my office. It remained unseasonably warm – and muggy, which seemed to be the only warm Glasgow did. Even in the middle of that summer’s heatwave, it had been as if the city had opened up its pores and sweated itself slick. Something in this mugginess, however, hung in my nostrils and chest; that old warning feeling I always got when a smog was on its way.

When I got back, the afternoon mail had been delivered. One envelope contained a single, plain sheet of paper with a list of names. No signature, note or anything else to show who had sent it. Isa and Violet were perhaps not as guileless as they appeared.

Of the names, I recognized only three, and one of those happened to be the name at the very top of the list. For a moment I hoped that the Michael Murphy heading the list wasn’t the one that immediately leapt to mind. I transferred the name along with all of the others to my notebook:

MICHAEL MURPHY

HENRY WILLIAMSON

JOHN BENTLEY

STEWART PROVAN

RONALD MCCOY