Come Clean (1989) (17 page)

‘What?’ Ralph gasped. ‘Which question, Mr Iles? So many questions, for God’s sake. I don’t remember.’ He did not struggle. A pulse was visibly banging away at
the side of his head.

‘That’s because Mr Oil-on-troubled-waters, here, Harpur, took you off on a long, useless saunter, a digression. What I asked you was if my wife made a habit of coming here to find
Aston.’

‘Mr Iles –’

‘I trust you won’t lie to me, Ember, or this knife mark on your face will be the least of your scars.’

‘You’ve had a visit, have you, Ralph, people suggesting you’d better keep quiet?’ Harpur asked. ‘Darken ship for silent running.’

‘Silent about what, Mr Harpur?’

Iles released him. Ralph adjusted the dressing-gown, then drew himself a large vodka and downed it like medicine. He did not offer them anything more.

Iles said: ‘They’ll know we’ve called on you, Ralph. Thought of that? They’re going to suspect you got in touch with us. You might need some protection. You talk to me,
and I’ll make sure they’re never too busy at the nick to answer your emergency call. Very nasty delays can happen, I know.’

‘Suspect I got in touch with you about what, Mr. Iles?’

Loxton said: ‘Ralphy, what I asked Phil to bring you out here for regarding, we heard you had a visit. This would be Mr Desmond Iles and Harpur, the side-kick? That kind
of visit, Ralphy, I can’t really be happy about, if I’m frank.’ Christ, but Ralph looked bad. You’d think his whole world had suddenly gone right-through-rotten, yet he had
to keep feeding on it because that’s all there was, like a dog locked in with a corpse. Yes, a dog: the way his head hung down, and the big brown eyes full of nothing, you could say he was a
sick dog, and the only thing to have him put down.

Loxton did not want that, not necessarily. Although Ralphy was total nothing, he was local nothing. Ralph Ember had been hanging around so long, and making a fair-to-middling go of things, you
had to feel tied to him, sort of, not close, for Christ’s sake, not anything that meant much, but you didn’t want him knocked over brutal like that, except there was very special
reasons. It wouldn’t be in order. There could be reasons coming to light, yes, but do nothing hasty, nothing inconsiderate. Of course, Phil Macey might feel different, and Loxton had to see
to it Phil was all right. With his mouth open, Ralph could do Phil big damage. Well, with his mouth open Ralph could do them all big damage, and not just the end of the silver wedding party. Things
lead to each other, no question, Phil on the police list one day, Loxton himself the next. Ralphy might be nothing – but a nothing with a singing voice.

‘What Benny wants to know, why you never told us them two been out to see you,’ Macey explained now. ‘That would be a simple courtesy, Ralph, you got to agree. You must of
known this is the kind of visit we would be interested in. We got the feeling that if we didn’t find about that visit by our own ways you would never of told us about it.’

Ralph raised his big, dark-haired head and cried out; ‘No, Benny, that’s not –’

‘What we got is some worries to do with your club, haven’t we?’ Macey continued, reasonable: no rage or evil in his words yet, but Loxton could feel them not far away. ‘I
got personal worries, you must of realized that. I mean, we had a troublesome time there. Admitted, it sorted itself out, but them troubles could come alive again, any time, and they could lead to
Benny himself, everyone. That’s the thing about troubles, they get all over in no time at all, like poison in the blood. When I say “come alive”, well, obvious, I don’t mean
he’s ever going to – What I mean is, inquiries, Harpur, that sort of thing, bringing it all back into the forefront, waking up them problems again. People like that Harpur and the crazy
one with the grey hair, they don’t leave the office for a mugging in the underpass. This got to be important. It’s obvious that a visit like that, we would expect to be kept in the
picture.’

‘I got to say I’m disappointed in you, Ralphy,’ Loxton told him. Today he, Phil Macey, Norman and Bobby were dressed for a funeral, Loxton in a heavy, dark three-piece suit,
stiff-collared white shirt, black tie and shoes. They were seated around the lounge of his ranch-style house on the Loam private estate, Loxton again occupying his big, lop-sided armchair, looking
somehow wilder, less governable, because of the perfect, sombre clothes.

Ralph was hunched forward on the sofa, moving his feet twitchily about in front of him over the carpet, as if trying to kill a very tough bug. People of Ralphy’s sort, God, yes, they were
a bit of familiar scenery, but Loxton always tried all he knew to keep from getting real involved with such out-and-out, lost dribbles, and then something happens like that up at the Monty,
something you could not foresee, no way, and so here he is, not just anywhere, but right into the house, them suede boots and a suit like something from a Don Ameche film, in a room Loxton really
thought a lot of: pictures he chose himself, not Alma’s florals. Ralph’s sitting there, waiting to get his words going, winding up his lies and excuses, shaking and frothing and staring
about, like a kid at a nude show, it was disgusting. Get the air freshener going here afterwards.

Loxton went on: ‘It’s a grief to me, a day like this, when we’re in mourning, that I got to be doing this sort of business, Ralphy, sending for you, requesting a conference,
urgent. Well, it should not be forced on me, that’s the truth, we ought to be allowed to spend time uninterrupted turning our minds to thinking about the much-admired deceased and giving
proper respect. Instead of that, all this rush and stress. What it does is unsettle me, Ralphy, and others likewise. This is not just a selfish feeling.’

Fervently, Ember replied: ‘Benny, I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have had it happen for worlds, take my word, please do, I mean, the unfortunate coincidence of this misunderstanding
– and believe me, it’s only that, nothing more than a misunderstanding – this misunderstanding with a particular day of sorrow for you, and the others.’

‘What misunderstanding?’ Macey asked.

‘Well, I would certainly have informed you about the call by those two,’ Ralph said. ‘It was just that I had to make a few inquiries before I contacted you, Benny.’

‘That could be reasonable, Phil, a time for extra trawling.’

‘That’s it exactly,’ Ralph said, smiling with gratitude. It made him look so much worse, Loxton thought. What the hell been happening to Ralph, his kidneys on stop?

‘What we don’t know, how they come to be there at all,’ Macey asked. ‘I mean, you been in touch with them, Ralph, initiating?’

‘Ralph, we’re concerned about you, your condition, one way and the other,’ Loxton said.

‘How they came to be there?’ Ralph said. ‘You’re not asking, did I send for them, surely?’

Macey left his chair and went and stood as if covering the door, a little behind Ralph and to his right. ‘What we’re asking for starters, Ralphy, is did you send for them?’
Macey said. After a moment, Bobby joined him there. Looking at them, the hard bodies behind mourning ties and gleaming shirts, Loxton thought if funeral parlours ever needed bouncers them two would
be dead right, yes, dead right. Phil Macey was alongside a print portrait on the wall of a poet, Lord Byron, with great burning eyes that you could see was concerned with big thoughts about Mankind
and rhymes. That was quite a contrast with Phil. It took all sorts, though.

Ralph turned his head slowly and with great effort to look towards Macey and Bobby but made his reply to Loxton: ‘Benny, would I, for God’s sake? Would I invite a contact of that
sort? Don’t we know each other better than that? Benny, we’ve seen a lot together these past years. How long would it be?’

Again he was smiling, but in a grieved way now, and it still did not do anything for him, like somebody hearing his dear old mother had passed on and all the money left for neutering cats.
‘That’s true enough,’ Loxton said.

‘Yes, we do know you, Ralphy, and you gets scared, unfortunate,’ Macey replied. Ralph was still half-turned to watch him and Bobby. ‘It’s a recognized fact, in the
form-book. Nobody’s saying you’re yellow, nothing extreme, but you expect the worst, like CND, and it makes you jumpy. So, you could of felt a bit frightened, that incident at the club,
then myself coming to see you subsequent, all that sort of thing building up, so you’re looking for some help, you’re looking for guardians. And where do you turn, Ralphy? Well, to the
law, of course.’

Loxton said: ‘Myself, I got an open mind on this. Phil, he’s excited, natural, there could be a lot of time in it for him. Show Phil Macey a couple of high-rank pigs and he’s
ready to emigrate.’

‘Look, pardon seeming to go off the subject a minute,’ Macey said, ‘because it’s not really. I’ll show you why, subsequent. But this funeral Benny’s attending
today, it’s his old schoolteacher from way back, just some ordinary retired chalk pusher, that’s how it might look to others, but Benny thinks a lot of that very venerable teacher, and
he’s going to be there to pay last respects. That’s the kind of man Benny is, ready to make the selfless effort for somebody who don’t really add up to a bar rag. Now, Ralphy,
don’t you think it would of been the decent thing, a piece of normal politeness, to let a man of them qualities know fast that two top bastards had been sniffing? Don’t he deserve that
kind of elementary consideration, Ralphy?’

‘I do, I do,’ Ember cried, ‘and I –’

‘Benny thinks of others, and others, like you, Ralphy, ought to think of him, same way. Look, he wants us all to go to the funeral, so there’s a fine turn-out for this old
fart,’ Macey went on. ‘I mean, that’s how some would regard her, this teacher. All right, we need a little team there, anyway, because Leo and his lot could be parading, too. This
is Leo’s teacher as well. But it’s not just in case of trouble Benny asked us to go, that’s the point – it’s a tribute to this fine old lady schoolie. You see what I
mean about the kind of grand person you’ve hurt by being so inconsiderate, Ralph?’ Macey still sounded very calm.

Ember said: ‘Not for the world, I wouldn’t –’

‘Always looked up to the educated kind,’ Loxton said. ‘Books, fair copies, historical depth, parsing, all that. So, what they there talking to you about, Ralphy, them two
gorillas? Which way’s it all pointing? We got a legitimate interest in these matters, you got to admit. So, all right, you didn’t call them, we accept that, don’t we, Phil, so
what they there for, what they asking you?’

‘It’s routine, Benny,’ Ralph replied. He tried to relax a little and turned back to look directly at Loxton. ‘They’ve been up before. I know the drill now. They
have a squint at the membership list in case there’s someone they want to lean on. Simple as that. If you ask me, they’re out on a long booze-up, moving through all the clubs, taking a
couple of free drinks every time, throwing their weight about for the sake of it. They call it showing the flag, an echo of the Empire. That’s how they see themselves, arrogant
pair.’

‘Nothing about that little incident?’ Macey asked.

‘Nothing at all.’

‘Anybody go out to the yard, Ralphy?’ Macey said.

‘The yard?’

Loxton, watching him, saw what looked like Ralph trying to work out how much they knew. What he had to keep in his poor, panicky brain was that there had been a tip from somewhere about these
police calling, so what they said and did up at the Monty could be known, too. Ralphy probably been through all this sort of questioning and covering with the police already. Stress all ways. No
wonder he looked like a day in the life of a nervous breakdown.

‘That builder’s rubble thing, the skip,’ Macey went on. ‘Any interest in that? You see the way my mind is going, do you? If you didn’t call them, it could be Sarah
Iles said something to her husband, regardless. You was supposed to have made her silent, but you might not of done a very good job there, Ralph. And if she mentioned that skip one of them might
want to see It. I mean, it don’t matter because there’s nothing there and never was – would we be so stupid and obvious? – but if they’re interested in it it’s
because they been told something, isn’t it? Or could be.’

In a while, Ralph replied, ‘Well, yes, I think one of them went out to the yard. Iles. It’s a thing about the licence, fire doors, all that. They always do it. It’s nothing,
Benny.’

‘They mention the skip?’ Macey asked.

‘No interest at all,’ Ralph replied. ‘Not a word. Why should they? I’m telling you, Benny, it’s a social call, a free-loaders’ call, dressed up as a routine
inspection.’

Loxton, speaking very gently, said: ‘My trouble, listening to you, Ralphy, to put it frank but not impolite, I hope, my trouble is, this sounds like a parcel of outright fucking balls.
Lies from the word go.’

Ember sat frozen forward, sitting on the edge of the sofa, his head still twisted around to keep an eye on the two by the door, not able to talk for a moment, his breath gone. Briefly then,
Loxton feared Ralph might have a stroke.

‘You lie to us because you want to stay out of it, don’t you, Ralph?’ Loxton said. ‘You’re the poor sod in the middle, yes, lying to everyone I shouldn’t
wonder, police, us, your aunty, trying anything for the quiet life. The way you always been, the way nearly all the world is.’

‘Our tipster says this Iles went and had a good look in that rubbish container, Ralphy,’ Macey told him. Sharpness was into his voice now. ‘We got someone hanging around
constant, inspecting your place, since the incident, well, what you’d expect.’

‘Benny, I don’t know,’ Ralph replied. ‘I assumed it was just the usual quick look-over.’

‘Do you get the point, though, Ralphy?’ Loxton replied. ‘The skip itself don’t matter. But if he’s interested in the skip it must be because his wife told him
something. If she told him what she thought about the skip, she’ve told him all the rest, and we can expect a lot of difficulty. We don’t want no difficulty just now, because we got
something of considerable importance in view. Let’s leave it at that. This is apart from the trouble Phil could have and Norman, they was both up there that night, as you know. And any
trouble that comes to them comes to me eventual. I’m the governor. Whatever they’re doing they’re doing because I told them.’