Naming the Bones Read Online Free PDF

say his personality was split?’
    ‘Jekyll and Hyde? That would be convenient for your book, wouldn’t it? No, nothing as dramatic as that, not when I knew him anyway.’ He paused and took another sip of coffee, more thinking time. ‘But you could say that Archie had two sides to him, the Glaswegian who wasn’t going to take any shit and the mystical islander. Neither of them was a perfect fit.’
    Murray scribbled in his notebook.
    2 personas, hard v mystical, but not J & H
    ‘I’m not sure what else to say. We were just two young blokes who liked a drink and a craic.’
    ‘At a risk of sounding like Julie Andrews, start at the very beginning. How did you and Archie meet?’
    Meikle shook his head. His expression was still stern, but Murray thought he could detect the hint of a smile behind the straight-set lips.
    ‘That was typical Archie. I had a room up in Newington at the time, not so far from where we are now, student digs, a bed, a Baby Belling, an excuse of a sink and a shared lavvy in the stair. I was coming home along Nicholson Street one night. It was late, but not quite pub chucking-out time. That road’s not so different now than it was then, unlike the rest of Edinburgh, that’s turned into a bloody theme park.’ Meikle took another sip of coffee and gave Murray a half-apologetic glance, as if he hated these tangents as much as his listener. ‘Aye, well, as I was saying, it was typical Archie, but I wasn’t to know that then.’
    George grinned, getting into his stride, and Murray realised that this was a story he had told before. He wrote in his notebook, Well-established anecdote.
    ‘I turned off into Rankeillor Street. It was a rare night, cold but clear, with a full moon. I could see the outline of Salisbury Crags beyond the end of the street. I remember that distinctly because it was a Friday night and I’d been thinking about taking a climb up there in the morning. Maybe it was the full moon, they say that does funny things to you, but suddenly I felt like I had the energy for the climb right then. I was half-wondering if I should go ahead or if it was the drink that was doing my thinking for me and whether I might end up falling face-first off some cliff or catching my death from hypothermia. Maybe I was aware of the group of lads at the other end of the street, but I wasn’t really paying any attention, I was imagining what it would be like at the top of the hill in the dark with only the moon and the sheep for company. I’d more or less decided to go for it when I heard shouting. It was Archie, though I didn’t know that at the time. I couldn’t make out what he was saying, but what I could see was that the other three lads were laying into him. I’ve never been much of a fighter, but it was three-to-one, and even from that distance and in the dark I could tell that Archie had a body more suited to wielding a pen than a pair of boxing gloves. So one minute I’m in quiet contemplation, the next I’m running towards the four of them, yelling my head off. They had your man on the ground by this time and they were beginning to put the boot in. I don’t know why my appearance on the scene should have made any difference. It still wouldn’t have been even odds, not with Archie on the ground the way he was. Maybe they’d finished with him, or maybe they didn’t have the stomach for more, because the lads kind of jogged off, not running, but moving at a faster-than-walking pace. They shouted some abuse, but I wasn’t going to let that bother me. Truth be told, once I stopped running and yelling, I started to get the shakes. Still, I think I was pretty pleased with myself, a bit smug, you know? Archie was still on the pavement. I leaned down to give him a hand up and that’s when it happened. He landed me a good one square in the face.’ George laughed and shook his head as if he still couldn’t believe it. ‘Before I knew it, the two of us were scrapping in the street. Then came