Close Quarters by Jeff Gulvin

Author:Jeff Gulvin [Gulvin, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4804-1834-9
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2013-03-28T16:08:00+00:00

Thirteen

VANNER DROPPED RYAN OFF back at the Trade Hall and asked him to speak to his contact in the Anti-Terrorist Branch to see if he knew anything about Eilish McCauley. Ryan nodded, closed the door and walked through the rain to his car. Vanner drove home, late. He called Ellie but got the engaged tone.

When he got there the house was in darkness. It disturbed him, the first time he had not come home to lights in three months. She had left him a note in the kitchen, telling him that an old friend had called and they were having a drink in the pub across the road.

The silence of the house seemed to resonate inside him like an empty noise in itself. He shook the feeling away, sat down on the couch and thought about phoning his father. Instead he dialled Jimmy Crack’s mobile number. The sound of children crying emanated down the line.

‘Vanner, Jimmy. You’re obviously at home. Sorry.’

Jimmy laughed. ‘Twilight zone, Guv.’

‘What?’

‘You’ve never had kids have you.’

‘No.’

‘The twilight zone. Sort of lost time between four thirty and seven thirty. They’re tired but not tired enough to go to bed. I’m told it gets better.’

‘Right.’ Vanner stared at his reflection framed in the darkened glass of the window. ‘Eilish McCauley, Jim. She’s a patsy for the posse.’

‘Slippery’s snout?’

‘Yeah. She’s been over the water just recently. He reckons Stepper-Nap’s trying to supply them with coke.’

‘That’s serious, Guv.’

‘Indeed.’ Vanner heard the children’s noise subside as a door was closed. ‘What happened at the house?’

‘Got her brother. He told us Young Young hadn’t been there.’

‘And Eilish?’

‘Gone home to visit her mother.’

Vanner gripped the phone that little bit tighter. ‘Where’s home?’

‘Ireland.’

He phoned his father and got Anne. His father was resting. Anne told him he wasn’t any better but he wasn’t any worse. Vanner said he would drive up again at the weekend. Anne told him his father would be glad to see him.

‘He’s dying isn’t he, Anne?’

She was silent for a moment. ‘Yes, I think he is.’

A crushed feeling in his chest as he put the phone down. He had been hungry when he came in but now a knot filled the space in his stomach. Father dying. He stood up, rationalised with himself and paced the room in the half-light thrown out by the lamp. He lit a cigarette, smoked it quickly and lit another. He looked out of the window, across the empty street to the lights of the pub on the corner. He wanted to see Ellie, needed her suddenly to hold him and hated himself for his weakness. He exhaled heavily, crushed the second cigarette and unscrewed the cap on the bottle. He thought of the Coalman’s eyes as he splashed whiskey into the glass.

For a while longer he sat on the couch, smoked a third cigarette and memories of unfulfilled childhood wove images in his head. He thought about the black and white photograph of the mother he had never known and wondered what regrets he would have when his father finally died.

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