Page 82 of Playing By Ear

Jamie jerked back to reality. Ben stood beside him at the kitchen sink. “Sorry?”

“I saw you try to give Evan a piece of paper after the match,” Ben said. “You were talking all conspiratorially, so I assumed⁠—”

“Oh, that.” He took another sip to collect himself. Ben didn’t need to know Jamie was inquiring into his mum’s and cousin’s deaths. “Yeah, just a wee thing. So what did you think of Perry?”

“Fantastic!” Ben exclaimed, seizing the subject-change bait. “And so handsome, my God. Wherever did you meet him?”

As Jamie told Ben the story, part of him wondered: If Ben had seen him and Evan conferring, had he told Perry? That would have made Perry excruciatingly curious.

Curious enough to go through the pockets of Jamie’s jacket, given the chance?

Jamie began to sweat. Perry had changed his mind about the party so suddenly. Was it his headache, or had he wanted privacy to investigate the two names written on the paper?

“Talking of Perry,” Jamie said when he finished the soaking-wet meet-cute tale, “I better phone him to see how he’s feeling.”

With some difficulty, he shuffled through the throng of bodies, opened the flat’s front door, and slipped into the corridor where it was quieter.

Perry answered his call after several rings. “H’lo?” His voice was hoarse.

“Did I wake you?”

“No, I…”

Jamie waited a few heartbeats for the rest. “You all right?”

Perry drew in a long breath, then let it out. “May I be honest?”

“Okay.” Jamie swallowed hard.

“I thought perhaps if I did something—something practical—I’d feel better.”

Oh God. He had seen the names. He had gone sleuthing. “Perry, what did you do?”

“Nothing that can’t…no, that’s not right. I could undo it, but I shouldn’t. I won’t.”

“I don’t under⁠—”

“Look, I know we said we’d see each other tomorrow night, but…will you come over later, after the party?”

Perry knew. Knew Jamie was somehow connected to Richard MacKray and Alice Robinson MacKray, and he wanted to find out how. If Jamie went there tonight, he’d be in for an interrogation.

Fucking Evan. If he’d only kept the slip of paper instead of memorizing its contents, then it never would’ve been in Jamie’s jacket pocket for Perry to find.

Perry cleared his throat. “No worries if you can’t make it. I’ll be fine.”

He sounded far from fine. And even if running to him meant facing a reckoning, Jamie couldn’t say no.

“I won’t come later,” he said. “I’ll come now.”

Chapter 16

Standing at the entrance to Perry’s block of flats, Jamie stilled his hand long enough to press the correct button. Then he waited, shivering in the breeze. His shirt was still damp from the baptism or maybe a beer spill, he couldn’t remember.

The speaker clicked. “My door up here is open,” Perry said with a strained voice, “so come on through. No need to knock.”

As Jamie climbed the stairs, he regretted guzzling that last beer before leaving the party. He’d needed the courage, but now he just felt woozy.

The flat was dimmer than usual. Jamie switched on the front hall’s big light, which revealed Perry sitting on the living room floor near the bookshelf. From the turntable, Leonard Cohen crooned his irresistible despair.