Bobby March Will Live Forever by Alan Parks

Author:Alan Parks
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canongate Books

TWENTY-FOUR

McCoy decided he needed a walk. Needed the air and the time to think. Most of all he needed to be away from the shop and the thought of Ronnie Elder hanging in his cell.

He found himself walking along Great Western Road. Thought he may as well head for Cooper’s. The lights changed and he crossed Park Road. A gaggle of student types passed him. Long-haired boys in cut-off denims and T-shirts, girls with cheesecloth shirts open over bikini tops. They were carrying a couple of bottles of rosé, no doubt heading for Kelvingrove Park. Looked like they didn’t have a care in the world. Wondered what they thought when they passed him. Just another sad old guy in a suit probably. Depressing, but they weren’t far wrong.

Couldn’t get the image of Elder hanging there out his head. Raeburn should have put the poor bugger on suicide watch. Too busy celebrating to think of it, and even if he hadn’t Wattie should have. Too busy burning with injustice to pay attention to his job. Supposed it was what the young did. Tried to fight the big fights while forgetting the people they were supposed to be fighting for. There’d be an inquiry, automatic with any death in custody. Had the feeling no one was going to come out of it very well.

He crossed the road at the lights, stopped. There was another one on the wall by the subway station. Same red spray paint, same big letters.

‘BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER!!’

Shook his head, was regretting giving that boy the money. He had March’s bag now, not that it was doing him any good. Nobody seemed to care much about what had happened to Bobby March, not his dad certainly. Papers had moved on. Alice Kelly was all they cared about. Was beginning to think it might be better to just let Bobby and his overdose fade away into the background.

He turned into Hamilton Park Avenue, could see Cooper’s ugly big house at the end of the road. He noticed his lace was undone, bent down to tie it and saw what looked like spots of Ribena or something on the pavement. Looked closer. It wasn’t Ribena, it was blood. The street was empty but for a wean sitting in a big Silver Cross pram on the pavement opposite. The baby looked at him, smiled. He smiled back, waved and then he heard a moan.

Then another.

He looked round. Saw a leg coming out from under Cooper’s neighbour’s hedge, black baseball boot on the end. He bent down, pushed the hedge aside and suddenly he was looking at Laura Murray. She was pale, breathing shallow, blood running down her face and a pool of it between her legs, skirt stained red.

‘Fuck sake! Laura!’

She opened her eyes, tried to smile at him.

‘McCoy,’ she said. ‘Thank God. I couldn’t make it to the house.’

Then her eyes closed and she sank back into the leaves.

*

An hour later McCoy was sitting at the kitchen table, watching the stairs.

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