Whisky and soda.
MUSIC: Lonely This Christmas by Mud
I'll get that.
No, you won't.
Sorry.
What for?
I'm guessing it was a man.
If he won't say sorry, then I'll say it for him.
That doesn't help.
No.
I'm Albert.
Always the same, this time of year.
It's when the memories come in.
The regrets.
It's when weak men get weaker.
Aye, it is.
Let me get you another one.
Come on, it's Christmas, eh?
Not yet, it's no'.
Ten minutes.
I don't want a drink.
I want revenge.
But maybe that could start with a drink.
Er, not here.
# I'll be cold, so cold
# Without you to hold
# This Christmas. #
# Ah
# Now, I don't hardly know her
# But I think I could love her
# Crimson and clover
# I
# Wish she'd come walking over
# Now, I've been waiting to show her
# Crimson and clover... #
That wasn't part of my plan.
I'm not...
It was booze and loneliness, and I don't want to talk about it.
What I want to talk about is the land.
What about it?
It's a bit of a departure for him, is it not?
I...I suspect that's the point.
He wants a legacy to be proud of.
Well, he's not getting it.
And if that wasn't your plan...
..then what is?
CHATTER
..but I'll leave that up to you.
Thanks for seeing me.
Why am I seeing you?
Ah, I couldn't understand you going legit.
Erm...
I couldn't see the motivation, but now I can.
And I'm impressed by you.
By Phoenix.
Why didn't you ask me to help you?
Why didn't you tell me to help you?
Because it's honest.
HE INHALES
It's too honest.
They're too professional, too precise.
There's no imagination, no artistry.
When they try and muddy the waters...
..I can see through it without trying.
What if the council do the same?
The press.
You can't be Phoenix.
Not in public, not in the city.
You cannot, surely to God, be working your way to a threat?
I'm just saying that they can't give you what you need.
The protection.
Subterfuge.
What is it with you, Max? You're a moth to a flame.
You know, Kenny.
You've seen our office.
I can't begin to tell you the...
..detritus that walks through that door.
It's not me.
It can't be me.
Let me work for you, full-time, on Phoenix...
..and I can keep you invisible.
What about your partner?
Fuck him.
Thank you for your concern.
Safe journey down the road.
I saw Dad here.
I know.
I'm leaving Edinburgh.
We're not young, your father and I.
I'm not young either.
I'm running out of time to find another life.
You could find one right here.
The new development down at Leith.
Your father and I own the land.
We hoped it could bring us together as a family. That's why he was here.
You and him?
Only recently, only with this...
You could build any life... How could you?
Because I didn't want to die without trying to bring us back together.
Look... You think it was a choice...
..the life your father's led, but it wasn't.
He wanted to give us a good life.
From where he came from, he took the only road he could.
He spent decades working towards this,
working towards something to be proud of.
For you to be proud of.
If I can sit in that thing and forgive him...
..then so can you.
I want my own lawyer.
Then I'll know if it's something to be proud of.
OK.
And not someone who works for Dad, not someone who owes him a favour.
I understand that, but it's sensitive.
There are lots of people in this city who wouldn't want to see
your father have this opportunity.
Well, that's the only way I'll do it.
Then I'll find you a lawyer.
I'm not asking you to trust him.
I'm asking you to trust me.
I was thinking that later, if you can handle Pilton,
I could attempt a wee bit of dinner.
It's Pilton borders, really.
Er...
Can I let you know?
It depends on work.
Y-yeah, of course.
Hi. She wants her own lawyer.
I'll give her one of this lot.
No, her hackles are up.
She wants someone independent and she'll check that they are.
We can't. We have to. She's talking about leaving.
I had to work to get her to this.
We can't bring in an outsider.
We need someone who looks like an outsider,
who looks clean and who is neither.
I've just heard Max McCall in.
Now there's a man in search of something.
He came out awful early.
I'm checking that.
If we use him, we'll need to call in the insurance.
You were always ambitious about the three of us.
About how it might end.
I'm right.
I hope so.
Jackie Thompson.
Heads up undercover. Right.
What do you know about her?
I know what she does.
I'm working with her.
OK. I can't tell you too much about it.
I'd imagine not. But as part of our investigation, I need to pull a file
without a record of having done so, so I'd like you to do that.
What's the name?
Max McCall. Bent lawyer. He's just got out.
There will be a note in the file about ongoing cooperation.
Take that out and give the file to Stevie.
Your operations, in terms of protocol, do you have any...
Carte blanche.
He served two years of a seven-year sentence.
Hence the note.
Take it out and give him the file.
There's something else.
Your live address near Leith Walk?
I know someone who works there.
Kenny from the place I go.
That could be a useful relationship.
It is a useful relationship.
Don't worry, it's his partner I'm interested in.
Who's his partner?
Max McCall.
Does Kenny know that you do this?
Thanks for your help.
No. You're exposed.
No, Stevie is digging his grave and I want to help him.
That's not enough.
I-if Kenny is clean and I'm careful...
..he could be useful.
You'd work Kenny? If needed.
Stevie's working for Roy Lynch.
Max used to. Kenny, I don't know.
Do you want to help me get Roy Lynch and take down Stevie along the way?
Very much so.
Then work Kenny.
They're misty, those years.
Always will be.
But every so often, the mist clears, gives you a wee peek at something.
It's never good, right enough.
So it took a while for the card to come through the mist.
What card?
You see, sometimes when I was particularly drunk, I'd go to the
casino on Rose Street for a late drink.
HE CLEARS HIS THROAT This casino.
And there he is - Teddy's brother.
What have you done?
I looked into it.
The old investigatory.
It's a button I can't turn off.
Jesus Christ. Just a quiet peek.
I know the security guy, threw me out a few times.
He's not a bad lad... Is this a bag?
Yeah. I don't know who that one is yet,
but here's what I think happened...
No.
Max? No, Kenny.
We don't want to know anything about Terry's brother or what that
bag's doing there or how we fit into this.
If we don't know, if we don't lie to him...
..then maybe we get out of this.
We need to know what we're dealing with.
I saw Teddy put four men in hospital because they disagreed with him
over the lyrics to My Boy Lollipop.
They were his friends.
And they were right about the lyrics.
Though I suspect that wasn't of any consolation.
He was my cellmate.
He slept above my head and I lay there in the dark,
listening to him breathe,
and it felt like I was in a grave
and he was standing watch upon me.
That's who we're dealing with.
So we tell him we found nothing and we move on, OK?
Fucking right!
DOOR OPENS
Do you dae divorces?
Absolutely!
Max is clean. There's no record of cooperation in his file.
He got out early.
He's a lawyer.
Zinc.
That was her excuse.
She said there was a problem at the water treatment plant in Niddrie,
so they put zinc in the tap water
and that played havoc with...
..men's equipment.
So she reckons it was the zinc that reversed my vasectomy
and brought about the wee man, Nathaniel.
But now there are a few cracks in her story.
Cracks? Aye, cos I spoke to my GP and he says there's nae way,
there's nae way that zinc could have done that.
Well, he knows his stuff.
I confronted her during the commercials on You've Been Framed!
She says she wants a divorce, so I'm going to call her bluff
by giving her one.
That sounds like a dignified way out.
Well, I'll draw up the papers if you give me a few days.
Cheers, pal.
This is a huge weight off my shoulders.
Let's hope that's not too fleeting an experience for you.
Hello? When you say Hilton borders...
It's Pilton, you need to know that.
You need to steal yourself and check your travel insurance.
I think I can handle it.
So do I. See you tonight?
See you tonight.
That was the Yvonne.
She's...well, we've got a wee thing going, I suppose.
Where does a man like you meet a woman?
She's a fellow traveller on the road to clarity.
You met her there? I did.
The mind boggles.
Obviously, this place, what we do as entirely confidential.
PHONE BUZZES
Of course. This is just you and me, Kenny.
Leith's finest.
Yeah? I require a little subterfuge.
I had a tough night with Papillon last night.
He was trying to get to Colombia from Trinidad...by raft.
That sounds difficult.
It's a thousand nautical miles.
It's a wee bit more than difficult.
You've actually just missed Max, he's... Two months he was at it.
Lost his oars in a storm.
Used his hands as paddles till the salt cut them to ribbons,
so he took off his shirt and made a sail.
And there was just about enough wind to keep on moving.
And there he is...
..two months in, thin as a rake...
..hands cut to ribbons, half dead from dehydration.
Then he looks up and he sees it.
Colombia.
And right then...
..right then...
..the wind turns on him.
Fucking...
..turns on him.
And Papillon drifts away, like a feather in the wind.
And I was up half the night thinking what that must have done to him...
..to watch Colombia...
..slip away over the waves.
I've actually got to head out. Betrayal...
..that's what it must have felt like - between him and the wind.
Betrayal.
The sin of omission.
The judge said that in my trial, he was talking about a set of skeleton keys
I had hidden in my tumble dryer, but I think it works here, too.
Well, we're still working out...
Do you know what I never get?
Silence.
It's busy up here...
..always has been.
Voices, opinions, a cacophony.
Max told me that one - a cacophony.
Am I saying that right? Spot on.
And, right now, that lot are ganging up on you and Maxie.
If you can fit us in tomorrow... Where's the casino?
No idea.
Here they are again.
Rose Street, next to Pizza Hut.
Parking's a nightmare.
Just stick it in George Street and cut through the lane.
You tell Maxie what's inside me. That's a guarantee.
And I'm worried that this time, when it takes over,
it's never going to stop.
Coriander...
BUZZER RINGS
I remember this floor.
The blood...
..and the anger.
Does it help? You knew what you are doing, get me drunk like that,
dripping your poison into my ear, bringing me here all coiled
up and ready to go.
It wasn't the plan.
No, it wasn't.
And, no...
..it doesn't help.
This is going to be a disaster.
Don't worry about it.
Would you like a...? Hmm. It's only temporary. Hmm.
Grew up in the worse place in this.
How did you end up in Edinburgh?
My ex was Scottish. Huh. He persuaded me to move to Edinburgh,
and things collapsed nicely from there. Hmm.
How's work? Fine.
You? Well, today we had the guy who reckons his barren testicles
have been reawakened by the water supply.
But, other than that, it's mostly wills. Who is we? Max, my partner.
He's an investigator? A lawyer, a proper one.
He runs the practice.
I work the punters.
You must trust him.
Aye, more or less. He cuts a few corners, right enough.
That's probably not appropriate.
I'm not here is that. I should hope not.
Right...
Please. Thank you.
OK, let's give it a go.
Aw, for fuck...
Congratulations.
As of tomorrow, the land's all yours.
And you get your cut.
Don't look like that.
I like you getting a cut - helps me understand you.
A little, anyway.
How did it come to this between you and them?
When I was 16...
..my mum let me have a drink on Christmas Eve.
It didn't agree with me, so I went downstairs in the middle
of the night and I saw my mum washing blood
off my dad's hands at the sink.
They looked to me, she said something about an accident,
but I was looking at dad - the guilt in his face.
He looked like a child. And you didn't know what he'd done?
Kids said things,
the brave ones, but I just ignored them.
Maybe I would have ignored that night too, but...
..a few days later, Dad's car was forced off the road.
Mum was driving...
..she hasn't walked so well since,
so it wasn't hard to join the dots.
I told them I was going to call the police -
Mum persuaded me not to.
She said Dad was leaving.
It was just going to be me and her.
And the police were already after Dad - some woman - so...
I didn't call the police.
And it's just been me and her until...
..till all this.
That's why I want to take it from him - his legacy...
..stolen from beneath his feet by his own daughter.
That's how it got to this.
And to you.
I know you paid a price...
..but so did I, so did Maggie.
You didn't pay a price.
You got what you wanted.
Didn't even have the guts to do it yourself.
I cleaned up and now I'm cleaning up again.
This place will be a park...
..because a park doesn't require foundations.
You don't dig down into the soil...
..into the secrets.
And it will be a place of joy.
Of children, happy children...
..safe children...
..to dance on his bones.
My lawyer will make contact with the church,
the church will make contact with you and you will tell them
that the godless people of Leith no longer require your services.
I need to tell his family.
They're innocent.
They spent 20 years wondering where they went.
We would be voluntarily reopening a case which could send us to prison.
And, as wee bonus, opening a crime scene in the middle
of my development.
Well, that's what it is - a crime scene.
Maggie and I are taking one of the flats.
I could have chosen any one of them and I chose one that looks right
over that park because I want to know that he's there.
I want to know that we put him there.
That's what I find my peace.
Well, you didn't do it. Neither did you.
What does that mean?
You were out before this, out of my world and the terrible things
that happen in it.
Sell us the church and stay out.
I need to tell Albert's family...
..that's my redemption.
I can't protect you.
From what? From whom.
Do you think it's in the genes? What we've got?
Erm...
There was, there was a birthday, I must have been seven or eight.
I was supposed to be getting a Scalextric, right?
Mum had put the money away, Dad went out to get it and there it was
in the morning, all wrapped up.
But then I opened it and it wasn't a Scalextric,
it was a dressing gown.
It was my... It was my dad's dressing gown.
He'd spunked the money, woken up drunk and wrapped up
the first thing he saw, which was his dressing gown.
And it's hard to get my head around it now
but he tried to brazen out. He said, "That looks just like mine."
Sitting there in his pants with red eyes and no dressing gown
observing that the dressing gown in my hands
happened to look like his.
And then my mum banjoed him with a breakfast tray and...
..that was my birthday.
So, yeah, I think it's in the genes.
Odd, isn't it, doing this without a drink inside us?
Yeah. Scary. Very.
I suppose it's going to be odd doing a lot of things without that.
Yeah. And they'll be scary too.
Maybe better.
Are you sure you need to go?
This house just seems to get emptier.
I've got to get ready for tomorrow.
Fraudulent legal documents don't write themselves.
All right, Sandy. You all right, kids.
TYRES SCREECH
DOOR SLIDES OPEN
If you don't turn up, I come and find you.
I was busy.
I could see that.
I thought the daughter had skipped town years ago.
She looks pretty in red.
I'm working on something.
And I'm sure you enjoy doing so,
but now you're here and you're not going home.
We gave it a go.
I'm close. I've been close for a long time.
I don't need you to be close.
Roy killed someone.
You'll have to be more specific.
Christmas Eve, maybe 20 years ago, I don't know.
His daughter knows about it.
That's what I'm working on.
Every time I see her, I get a little more.
They'd need a confession or a body.
Well, I'll try and get both.
You need to focus, Max.
Two weeks.
Can't do it in two weeks!
My advice would be to stop.
Whatever it is you're doing, whatever you're hiding from me,
I'll find out. So my advice would be to stop.
You know, I've been lying here all morning.
Listening to the seagulls.
Nothing happens in Edinburgh that Roy doesn't hear about.
We'll put you on a train back.
Nice wee journey over the bridge.
73 men died building that bridge.
The least you can do is enjoy the trip. The seagulls made me wonder...
..if maybe you're doing a bit of hiding yourself.
Everyone has a boss.
I wonder if your boss knows about me being here.
I wonder if they know about you and Roy.
I wonder if you're worried that they will,
and that's why I've only got two weeks.
I wonder if they see that Roy's inside you.
Like he's inside me. With me it's revenge,
with you I don't know.
But it's not normal.
This isn't normal.
Two weeks.
A confession or a body.
It's just it's Nathaniel's swimming lesson the night.
Max isn't in, but...
I can't find the papers.
I shouldn't think they'd be ready yet.
I thought if I serve them on her there. You wouldn't be serving her.
Then I could say something about her being in the deep end,
like a pun sort of thing.
Right. I'm still working that bit out.
Fucking perfect.
I'm just saying to your man here that it's Nathaniel swimming lesson
tonight, you see, and I've got this whole pun thing
that I'm playing with. Give us a couple of days, OK?
Aye, all right, pal.
We'll get there, eh?
I've been trying to get a hold of you. My phone died.
What's up? Teddy came in, which was as much fun as it sounds. And?
He found the photo from the casino.
I haven't got time to deal with Teddy.
I don't know if that's a situation that you control.
Their business is clean.
Whatever Max is doing, Kenny's not involved.
I want you to look into something for me.
A disappearance.
Here's the name. Pull the record.
See if anything jumps out.
When? Christmas Eve, '98.
He was last seen drinking alone in the pub in the Cowgate.
He'd retired a week before. Social services at the council.
Before that, he taught at the children's home
in Salamander Street, the one that burnt down.
I can't lose my past, but maybe I can find an ending to be proud of.
An ending which might right some wrongs.
You've made your mother very happy.
She deserves it.
Here we are then.
Erin. Max McCall.
So, it's a standard agreement.
Land is held in trust,
which is divided equally
between the three of them. We can take them.
I paid this lot enough, let them have a wee look.
Good idea.
Is that a problem?
No.
Well? She signed it.
But?
There's something about her and Max.
You had him checked?
Yes.
But?
She stood up.
When she saw Max in the corridor, when she saw him for the first time,
when lots of other men had walked down the corridor, but...
..for him, she stood up.
The insurance? Arrives today.
And the Messiah? He wants redemption.
Why do men take their lives so seriously?
Fear.
I'll go. I thought you might.
As your daughter round for her tea.
She won't eat with me.
She will with us.
I'm going to sell the land on your behalf. When?
Next few days.
What's the rush? Surely it's worth more when it's finished.
Well, the quicker we get it done,
the less chance we have of getting caught. Your ex...
What about him?
He looks like a complete fanny.
Where is he?
No idea.
Drugs would be the short answer.
What about you?
Well, getting served divorce papers in prison felt like a nadir.
I've been thinking about you and your parents
and wondering what it was that brought you back together,
back into contact.
The only thing I could imagine was that you got yourself
into a position that only your father could help you out of.
And I wondered if you wanted to talk to me about that.
I've been thinking about you, too.
About how you want to send my dad to prison.
And I keep thinking whether or not that's something
you'd be doing alone.
And I wondered if you wanted to talk to me about that.
Or...
..we move forward together.
Don't look too closely at each other's scars.
MUSIC: Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby by Cigarettes After Sex
Did you finish the book?
I'm twice through it.
And you know what happened when he left the jungle?
Aye.
He was free.
Free and happy and safe
in the jungle.
But he wanted revenge.
And it ate him up.
Till he couldn't take it any more.
And so Papillon left the jungle to take his revenge.
You saw how that went.
I need it.
Same way you do.
I'm still working it out.
So am I.
I was in her house.
She's awfully bonnie.
That's Roy Lynch's daughter.
Might as well get hung for a sheep as a lamb.
That's right, isn't it?
Or is it the other way round? It wasn't her.
I'm worried you might be a wee bit biased.
I'm worried you think you're safe from me.
You're not safe from me.
Not by a country mile.
I'll find out what happened to your brother.
I'll give you what you need. I need you...
..to tell me where to send the anger...
..before it takes over.
I will.
I promise.
I haven't forgotten, Teddy...
..what you did for me.
You didnae belong in there, Maxie.
But when I look at you now...
..I don't know if you belong out here either.
DOOR OPENS
DOOR CLOSES
HE EXHALES SHAKILY
PHONE LINE RINGS OUT
JACKIE: Yes?
I pulled the original witness statement.
The barman had two goes at it.
First time, he said the victim left the pub
with someone else on Christmas Eve,
someone the barman recognised.
Roy? Close.
His wife.
The barman identified Maggie Lynch, then came back the next day
and asked to change his statement.
I bet he did. SHE CHUCKLES
What do you want me to do? Pull back from Kenny.
Let's give Max all the space he needs to give us Roy.
That's not easy.
It's very easy.
Pull back or you're off the investigation.
Unless Kenny is worth more than Stevie.
JACKIE HANGS UP
You deserve it.
What?
Redemption.
PHONE LINES RINGS OUT
PHONE RINGS
I was just thinking about you.
What happened can't happen again.
Right...
The meetings, all that, that's...that's great,
but we can't...
We need to stop the other thing.
I don't...
I don't want to, but we have to stop.
I'm sorry, Kenny.
I spent 30 years
watching Roy fight it.
Sometimes he won,
a few days, the odd month,
then it came back,
the nightmares, the fear of the dark.
I tried to help in my own way.
Had it burnt down -
that was a birthday present, and it seemed to help,
he seemed to have got past it.
But then that man retired and got his photo in the paper,
and they talked about everything he did for the kids in there,
the orphans and the unwanted,
the stricken wee souls.
Then after that, well, Roy couldn't come to bed at all.
He just sat up watching his westerns.
That night...
..Roy thought the same as you,
that you were going to talk to him,
confront him,
seek solace in a confession,
but I knew that wouldn't end it.
So before you got there...
..and it was just me and that man...
Well...
..you must remember the blood.
He was dying when you got there.
What you did, Sandy,
it was a mercy.
And the guilt you've carried wasn't meant for you.
It's not just him that brings the guilt.
I know.
It's me, it's this.
That was a mercy too.
When you drove me off the road and I woke up in the infirmary,
do you know what I thought?
What luck! What fortune!
Because they were coming for us.
The police, she was after Roy.
And soon enough, she would have seen through Roy to me.
You gave me a way to hide.
You liberated me
to do what I'd always done from behind a curtain
from behind this.
You gave us a story to tell...
..which is all it ever was...
..a story.
I remember the man you where.
And you remember the women I was, don't you?
And I'm still that women.
And I think, behind it all...
..you're still that man.
There we go.
There you are.
Still with us.
Still a man who understands the world,
our world,
with all its confusion,
all its betrayal.
You didn't kill him.
And you didn't cripple me.
And your betrayal,
our betrayal...
..can stay here with you.
There's your redemption.
Now sell us the fucking church.
Did you get parked OK? Yeah.
It's supposed to be allocated,
but it can be a bit of a free for all.
Where's Mum?
She's a wee bit poorly.
Migraines, you know how she gets.
Drink.
# Count me out I'm heading to Ecuador
# No more letters
# We destroyed them all
# Counting coins
# Bits of copper crime
# Stare at the stars
# Feeling out of line
# Out of time
# Out of my body
# Out of my mind
# Maybe I've lost it
# Who even cares?
# Bury my head
# Until this life becomes fair
# And I grow tired
# But dare not fall asleep
# Who knows what will await
# If I fall too deep?
# Call it a mission
# Call it a inner fear
# But I am awake
# I am awake, I am awake... #
HE CHUCKLES
MUSIC: Police and Thieves by The Clash
# They're going through a tight wind
# Police and thieves in the street
# Oh, yeah
# Scaring the nation with their guns and ammunition
# Police and thieves in the street... #
KNOCK AT DOOR
# Oh, yeah
# Fighting the nation with their guns and ammunition... #
KNOCKING
# From Genesis to Revelation
# The next generation
# Will be, hear me... # HE SIGHS
DOOR BREAKS OPEN
RECORDING: Let me work for you full time on Phoenix,
and I can keep you invisible.
What about your partner?
Fuck her.
PHONE RINGS SIREN WAILS
I was serious.
Why did you ask if I could trust Max?
We have to stop.
You know, the reason I enjoy the Westerns so much,
the reason they give me a little serenity
in the middle of the night,
is their simplicity.
If you don't know who the good guys are,
then look for the white hats.
The white hats are good, the rest are...
..different degrees of bad.
And I suppose I wish the world was like that,
but I realised, when I was just a wee boy...
..that it isn't...
..that evil is always looking for a more surprising place to hide.
What is this, Dad?
I understand, Erin, if Max came to you, persuaded you...
..if he told you that he was a man in a white hat...
..and that he was going to bring me down...
..and maybe that you should help him.
But life isn't simple.
He's not as good as you think, and I'm not as bad as you think.
Everything is in between,
everything is murky in this world, Erin,
and you are lost within it.
So let me help you find your way out,
and we'll do the same for him.
Where's Mum?
Dad.
Where's Mum?
Migraines.
You know how she gets.
We've never liked risk, Roy and I.
Everything we've got, every inch we've gained,
our first thought is how to defend it,
how to insure it,
and whoever we work with, we do the same,
we have insurance.
Your bent copper can look at me all day, he'll never find anything.
I'm not talking about bent coppers, that's nothing.
That's admin.
I'm talking about you...
..about your weakness.
DOOR OPENS AND CLOSES
FOOTSTEPS
There it is.
There's our insurance.
There's year weakness.
# Roller-roller-coaster
# Buy a ticket for a fancy airplane
# Won't get you nowhere
# Won't catch you no fame
# Mother, I know it's hard to let go... #