I gave him the beer. His old companions all started moving towards him, but he raised the glass and downed the remainder of the beer in two gulps, laughing like a maniac as he showed them the empty glass. I moved away in case he threw up, while the rest of the old men hurled enough abuse to turn the air blue.I turned back to the concert hall doors. They were locked...from the outside...with a huge padlock. I stepped over and peered through the smoked glass. All was dark and quiet."There's been naebody in there for a fortnight," the old man said. "The Police had it closed down after a drug raid.""You didn't see me coming out?" I asked, but I already knew the answer."Round about here, son, naebody ever sees anything."Five minutes later I was in a bar just off Argyll Street. Although it was barely ten o'clock in the morning, there were already four middle-aged men downing whiskies with beer chasers as if today was the last day of their lives. And with the rate they were going, it just might be.The incident in the ballroom was already taking on a dream-like quality in my memory, and I might even have written the whole thing off as a stress reaction to recent events...but when I put my hand in my pocket for my cigarettes, I found the CD case.
