The Tooth Tattoo Read online

  This silenced them for a beat or two.

  Cat said, ‘Such as?’

  ‘What’s the name of your quartet?’

  Even more hesitation.

  Ivan said, ‘One matter we must discuss at an early stage is whether to adopt a new name.’

  Mel gained in confidence. ‘What’s wrong with the old one?’

  ‘We had a quartet, a successful one, but it no longer exists.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘Our violist left.’

  No one added to the bald statement. Mel could hear them breathing.

  ‘Over a disagreement?’

  ‘Not that I’m aware of.’

  Finally Cat said, ‘You don’t have to be so mysterious, Ivan. Harry went missing in Budapest four years ago when we were playing there. Nobody has seen him since. He’s a missing person. We’ve been marking time ever since in the hope he’ll walk in one day. It hasn’t happened so we faced reality and started looking for a replacement.’

  Mel turned to Ivan. ‘And you want to buy more time in case he does turn up?’

  Ivan reddened.

  ‘He won’t,’ Cat said. ‘We would have heard by now. Something final must have happened.’

  ‘Was he acting strangely?’

  ‘We’re all strange, ducky, as you must have worked out for yourself by now. If you want my opinion, Harry was the closest to normal.’

  ‘Was there a disagreement?’

  ‘Disagreements are the stock-in-trade of string quartets. We’re strong-minded people, even Anthony, as you’ll discover. But there was nothing more than the usual to and fro over the score of whichever piece we were playing. We all bring something to the party and it makes for a more exciting performance.’

  ‘Then you haven’t played together for how long?’

  ‘A couple of years, give or take. We tried, but for one reason and another – most of them crap viola players – it hasn’t worked out, so we’ve had to do our own thing – teaching and orchestral work and stuff we wouldn’t want anyone else to know.’

  Ivan said, ‘We haven’t made it public that the quartet stopped appearing. We’ve been fading away.’

  ‘Faded,’ Cat said.

  ‘I’d still like to know the name.’

  ‘The Staccati.’

  Mel’s skin prickled. The Staccati had been an international name. He owned some of their recordings. The only reason he’d overlooked them when he’d racked his brain for likely quartets was that nothing had been heard of them recently. Their great period was five or six years back. They’d been in demand at all the great music festivals across the world. ‘I know about you, of course, but never had the pleasure of hearing you in concert.’

  ‘We do most of our playing abroad,’ Ivan said. ‘You’re able to travel, are you?’

  ‘I enjoy it.’

  ‘You won’t when it seems never-ending, one hotel after the next.’

  ‘The best deal is a residency,’ Cat said. ‘A few paid months in one place. Time to chill out, go shopping, get your hair done and find the hottest clubs in town. Heaven.’

  ‘We give a fixed number of concerts and do some teaching,’ Ivan said. ‘It isn’t all about self-indulgence.’

  ‘Listen to him talking,’ Cat said. ‘Who was always in the park playing chess with the old men?’

  Mel said, ‘How soon would you want me to make a decision?’

  ‘Yesterday isn’t soon enough,’ Cat said. ‘We need to be concert-ready when Doug swings into action and gets us some gigs. Let’s talk about repertoire. Any obvious blind spots?’

  ‘I wish I knew more contemporary music.’

  ‘Put it there, buddy. We stop at Schoenberg.’

  ‘I haven’t specialised in quartet music. I had to work hard at this.’

  ‘You think we were playing off the cuff? I haven’t watched TV all week. You can play. You should have heard some of the others.’

  ‘Your standard is very high.’

  ‘Bollocks.’ She pointed her bow at Ivan. ‘What do you say, Rasputin? Do we give it a whirl with Mel on full membership?’

  A sigh. ‘Very well.’

  ‘Anthony?’

  Anthony managed a nod.

  ‘He’s easy,’ Cat said. ‘Why don’t we call in Doug and start on the salmon sandwiches?’

  The deal was sealed. A verbal agreement would do, Doug said. And, just as Ivan had promised, Mel would earn one-fifth of the profits. The only undertaking he had to give was that the quartet’s engagements had priority over everything short of acute appendicitis.

  ‘And what if the original violist turns up?’

  ‘I wouldn’t worry about Harry,’ Doug said in his nonchalant way. ‘He’s history. Nice man, wonderful musician, but out of the picture now.’

  Years of working in an insecure profession had toughened Mel. ‘Sorry. If I’m going to give up all my freelance work I need more of a guarantee.’

  ‘I’ll speak to the talent.’

  ‘They said full membership. Can I take that as permanent?’

  ‘If they already agreed, yes.’

  ‘Then it has your approval?’

  ‘Let’s shake on it.’ His grip reinforced the pact.

  Mel still felt he had a right to know more. ‘Has Harry ever gone missing before this?’

  ‘Missing? No. They all go their own ways in free time on tour. They don’t live in each other’s pockets. The embassy kept asking us where he was supposed to have gone that evening and nobody knew. Ghastly time. We had to bring in a local musician to play the viola part in the last three concerts and he wasn’t terribly good. I was forced to cancel the rest of the tour. Endless wrangling with the Hungarians over breach of contract and compensation claims. Made my life hell. If Harry had turned up at that point I’d cheerfully have shot him. Have another sandwich.’

  ‘So will you make it clear to the others that I’m the permanent replacement?’

  ‘Absolutely.’

  Mel raised another concern. ‘Won’t it be difficult getting engagements after so long?’

  A shake of the head. ‘The name still has plenty of currency.’

  ‘They want to change the name.’

  Doug almost dropped the plate. ‘Who does?’

  Some inner censor stopped Mel from naming anyone. ‘You’d better ask them. Personally, I’d be proud to join the Staccati.’

  But Doug wasn’t there to hear the last words. He was striding across the room to speak to Ivan.

  The clash of wills was won by Doug. They would continue to be known as the Staccati Quartet. Once again, Cat waded in with a wisecrack: ‘Staccato is all about sharp, disconnected notes and no four people are more disconnected than we are.’ The dynamics of the group were becoming clearer. Ivan was not so dominant as he had first appeared. Cat could undermine him with her streetwise humour. Anthony allowed the others to make all the running, but might yet pounce. For the time being, Doug was the decision-maker.

  ‘How soon will you be up to concert pitch?’

  ‘We need to prepare,’ Ivan said with all the earnestness of Noah before the rains came. ‘Weeks, maybe months.’

  ‘Why don’t you fix up some gigs and tell us?’ Cat said to Doug. ‘Give some focus to the preparation.’

  ‘I have a few ideas already,’ Doug said, and any half-decent manager would have said as much. ‘I was thinking of letting you in gently. There are various festivals coming up in this country – Cheltenham, Cambridge, York. Their programmes will already be arranged, but I can’t see any of them turning down a chance to slot in the Staccati at short notice.’

  Ivan was shaking his head. ‘Too soon.’

  ‘Tucson, Arizona? That’s an awful long way for a single performance,’ Cat said. ‘Doug, I think you’ve got it. Better still, how about trying for a residency? Would you care for that, Anthony?’

  Anthony said, ‘Cool.’

  ‘That’s two of us, then. Mel, are you on board?’

  ‘If there
’s half a chance, yes.’

  ‘Three.’ She turned to Ivan. ‘We’d get paid to rehearse in a practice room. Isn’t that better than weeks and months squatting in Doug’s house?’

  He still looked doubtful. ‘I suppose if it could be arranged …’

  ‘Sponsors, endowments. There’s money out there. That’s why we employ the best manager in the business.’

  Doug almost purred. ‘No promises. I’ll do my best.’

  With that settled, and the sandwiches all but gone, Ivan suggested they should rehearse another quartet while Doug went off to make phone calls.

  Another quartet? Mel’s heart sank and it must have been obvious.

  ‘No sweat, kiddo,’ Cat told him. ‘When we rehearse, we take the thing apart, bar by bar, as if we never played it before. We’re all learning together.’

  ‘I didn’t bring any other music.’

  ‘You see that printer over there on Doug’s computer desk? It’s also a photocopier.’

  Not long after, they were back with their instruments. They worked on a Schubert quartet familiar to most chamber musicians. Cat’s reassuring words on a first rehearsal were borne out. The playing was in fragments, every phrase open to analysis. Strong views were voiced, but the arguing was of a different order from the debates on how the group was managed. These were points of interpretation and nuance, each player speaking with the authority of the score. Anthony found his voice and made clear that the term ‘second violin’ is misleading. He was not subordinate to Ivan or anyone else. And Mel, for his part, made sure that the viola was given its due.

  Quite when Doug returned wasn’t clear. By then the concentration was pretty intense. He must have been standing nearby for some minutes waiting for a break. He wasn’t fussed. He was like the cat with the cream.

  ‘Sorry to interrupt. Breaking news, as they say. You asked for a residency and I may have got one, a university with a substantial endowment for a series of masterclasses and concerts. They are willing to engage us for six months when the new term starts.’

  ‘Who are?’ Ivan said.

  ‘Bath Spa University.’

  ‘Bath.’ Ivan spoke the word as if it were Lubianka Prison.

  Cat overrode him. ‘Not a bad place to spend half a year. Is there enough for us to live on?’

  ‘Approved lodgings, all meals found and twenty grand each plus concert fees.’

  ‘I could survive on that. When do they need to know?’

  ‘I said I’d give them an answer today. It’s a fantastic deal. To sugar the pill I said you’d also make a recording in aid of university funds.’

  Cat looked at the others. ‘Any objections?’

  Anthony said, ‘How many concerts?’

  ‘You’re going to like this,’ Doug said. ‘What they suggest is a series of soirées, fortnightly musical evenings in private houses, chamber music as it was originally performed. The audiences will be limited to the size of the venue and in most cases this will mean twenty-five to thirty at most. There are some beautiful houses around Bath. I can picture you by candlelight in gracious rooms of the sort the composers themselves must have known.’

  ‘By Jesus, you’re a wicked salesman,’ Cat said.

  ‘That’s what you pay me for.’

  ‘I’m in. How about the rest of you?’

  Ivan was straight to where the shoe pinched. ‘Fortnightly, I think I heard you say. With a new programme each time? That’s a tall order.’

  ‘What I’m suggesting is no more than one string quartet per evening, followed by a champagne interval and then some solo pieces. How does that seem?’

  ‘I could endure that,’ Cat said.

  ‘If you like, you can repeat the programmes,’ Doug said. ‘Your audiences will be different each time, I expect.’

  ‘Presumably they pay for the privilege?’ Ivan said.

  ‘The sale of tickets and all profits are handled by the university. They intend to put it towards the sponsorship – which I may say is very generous.’

  ‘So we perform for nothing?’

  ‘It’s all part of the deal, Ivan, as I’ve tried to explain. Personally, I’d be thrilled to play in such surroundings if I had your talent.’

  ‘You think Ivan plays the fiddle well?’ Cat said. ‘His main instrument is the cash register. He’s a virtuoso.’ She turned to Mel. ‘Are you up for it, new boy?’

  Mel was still in a spin from being admitted to the quartet. Right now, he would have agreed to anything.

  Doug asked for a show of hands.

  Nobody objected. Ivan seemed to have changed his mind about Bath.

  ‘I’ll confirm, then,’ Doug said. ‘That was a good sound, by the way. What’s the piece?’

  ‘That’s our manager talking,’ Cat said, ‘and he doesn’t know what we were playing.’

  ‘Schubert,’ Ivan said. ‘Quartet Number 14 in D minor, better known as “Death and the Maiden”.’

  7

  Ingeborg Smith said, ‘Something is up with him.’

  The rest of the CID room must have heard, yet nobody else spoke. The central heating was set too high for a mild October afternoon. Lethargy was the prevailing mood.

  ‘He’s been out of sorts all week. Longer really.’ No one could be in any doubt who she meant. Ingeborg was the Diamond-watcher on the squad.

  And on a day like today no one except Ingeborg cared much.

  She tried a third time. ‘I don’t think he’s had a civil word for any of us.’

  DI John Leaman finally responded with, ‘Tell us something new.’ Which was rich coming from the misery-guts of CID.

  From across the room, Paul Gilbert, the youngest on the team, said, ‘It’s the trend, isn’t it? All those Scandinavian detectives, so depressed you wonder if they’ll hold out until the last chapter.’

  ‘What the hell are you talking about?’ Leaman said.

  ‘Don’t you read?’

  ‘Read what?’

  ‘Some of them get on TV as well.’

  ‘I don’t have time for that stuff. I look at science-based series like CSI and Bones.’

  ‘Be fair, you guys,’ Ingeborg said. ‘The boss treats us right and he can be amusing when he’s on form. You have to tune in to his sense of humour, that’s all.’

  ‘My tuning must have gone to pot, then.’

  ‘Bosses come a lot worse than him.’

  Gilbert was quick to take her up on this. ‘Why do you say that, Inge? Do you know something we don’t?’

  ‘I’m wondering if he knows something we don’t.’

  Leaman swung round in his chair. ‘Hang about – do you think Diamond’s on the way out?’

  This possibility galvanised everyone. Keith Halliwell, the most senior man present, said, ‘Get away. He’s said nothing to me.’

  ‘Whatever is bugging him, he’s internalising it,’ Ingeborg said. ‘With all the government cuts he could be looking at early retirement.’

  ‘Voluntary, you mean?’

  ‘He wouldn’t walk,’ Halliwell said. ‘Not the guv’nor.’

  ‘But he’d take it badly if they forced him out.’

  Mental pictures of Diamond being dragged from the building.

  ‘There is another possibility,’ Gilbert said.

  ‘Give it to us, then.’

  ‘It could be some of us for the chop. He’s been told and he doesn’t want to break the news to us.’

  Rumours of redundancies had been circulating for months and now something close to panic ensued.

  ‘They can’t do that,’ Leaman said. ‘We’re overstretched already.’

  ‘Overstretched when there’s a major enquiry,’ Halliwell said, ‘but that isn’t every week of the year. We could be vulnerable.’

  ‘All the public services are taking cuts,’ Gilbert said. ‘We can’t expect to escape.’

  Leaman said, ‘And it’s always last in, first out. So don’t look so pleased with yourself, young man.’

  By now every head was b
uzzing with thoughts of unemployment. Some twenty minutes later, Halliwell stood up. ‘I’m going to ask him.’

  Diamond was at his desk with his chin propped on both hands like a medieval gargoyle, but chunkier. He’d discarded his jacket and loosened his tie. ‘What is it now?’

  ‘Nothing special, guv. I was wondering … do you fancy a cuppa?’

  ‘A cold drink would suit me better. They never get the heating right in this place.’

  ‘Want to slip out for ten minutes?’

  ‘While you mind the shop?’

  ‘Actually I was thinking you might want company.’

  ‘Something on your mind, is there? All right. John can hold the fort. It’s not as if we’re snowed under. Be better if we were.’

  In the Royal Hotel just down the street, Halliwell brought the drinks to the table where Diamond had resumed his chin-in-hands posture.

  ‘Did you want crisps or anything?’

  ‘No. What’s your problem?’

  ‘Not mine specially, guv. There were some murmurings in the office about lay-offs.’

  ‘Why? Do they know something?’

  ‘They’re thinking maybe you do, and you don’t want to tell us.’

  Diamond grinned faintly. ‘Have I ever shied away from passing on bad news?’

  ‘So we’re safe?’

  ‘I wouldn’t bet on it, but I haven’t heard yet, and if I do I’ll fight tooth and nail to keep the squad together, even the layabouts.’

  ‘That’s all right, then.’

  ‘What put this into their heads?’

  ‘Nothing really.’ Now that the team’s concerns were put at rest Halliwell was ready to talk about the weather, or television, or the quality of the beer.

  But Diamond wasn’t. ‘Murmurings, you said. Who was murmuring?’

  ‘No one in particular.’

  ‘Leaman, I bet.’

  ‘To be fair, he isn’t the only one, but I didn’t come here to tell tales. They study your moods and they reckon you’ve been under a cloud these last weeks.’

  ‘Study my moods sounds like Ingeborg.’

  ‘So the general opinion is that there has to be something you’re hiding from us, such as redundancies.’