Alex through the events of the previous evening. "And you've no idea where he might have gone?"
Alex shook his head. "He didn't say he was going out."
Maclennan gave Alex a shrewd look. "Does he go in for cottaging, do you know?"
"What's cottaging?" Weird asked.
Mondo ignored him and glared at Maclennan. "What are you saying? You calling my pal a queer?"
Weird looked even more baffled. "What's cottaging? What do you mean, queer?"
Furious, Mondo rounded on Weird. "Cottaging is what poofs do. Picking up strangers in toilets and having sex with them." He gestured with his thumb at Maclennan. "For some reason, the plod thinks Ziggy's a poof."
"Mondo, shut up," Alex said. "We'll talk about this later." The other two were taken aback by Alex's sudden access of authority, bewildered by the turn of events. Alex turned back to Maclennan. "He sometimes goes to a bar in Edinburgh. He's never said anything about here in St. Andrews. You think he's been arrested?"
"I checked the cells before I came out. He's not been through our hands." His radio crackled into life and he moved into the hall to answer it. His words drifted back into the kitchen. "The castle? You're kidding?Actually, I've got an idea who it might be. Get the Fire Brigade in. I'll see you down there."
He came back in, looking worried. "I think he might have turned up. We've had a report from one of the guides at the castle. He checks the place over every morning. He rang us to say there's somebody in the Bottle Dungeon."
"The Bottle Dungeon?" all three of them chorused.
"It's a chamber dug out of the rock under one of the towers. Shaped like a bottle. Once you're in, you can't get out. I need to go over there and see what's what. I'll have somebody let you know what's going on."
"No. We're coming too," Alex insisted. "If he's been stuck in there all night, he deserves to see a friendly face."
"Sorry, lads. No can do. If you want to make your own way over there, I'll leave word that you're to be let in. But I don't want you cluttering up a rescue operation." And he was gone.
The moment the door closed, Mondo laid into Alex. "What the hell was all that about? Shutting us up like that? Cottaging?"
Alex looked away. "Ziggy's gay," he said.
Weird looked incredulous. "No, he's not. How can he be gay? We're his best friends, we'd know."
"I know," Alex said. "He told me a couple of years ago."
"Great," Mondo said. "Thanks for sharing that with us, Gilly. So much for, 'All for one and one for all.' We weren't good enough to hear the news, huh? It's all right for you to know, but we haven't got the right to be told our so-called best mate is a poof."
Alex stared Mondo down. "Well, judging by your tolerant and relaxed reaction, I'd say Ziggy made the right judgment call."
"You must have got it wrong," Weird said stubbornly. "Ziggy's not gay. He's normal. Gays are sick. They're an abomination. Ziggy's not like that."
Suddenly, Alex had had enough. His temper flared rarely, but when it did, it was a breathtaking spectacle. His face flushed dark red and he slammed the flat of his hand against the wall. "Shut up, the pair of you. You make me ashamed to be your friend. I don't want to hear another bigoted word from either of you. Ziggy's taken care of the three of us for the best part of ten years. He's been our friend, he's always been there for us and he's never let us down. So what if he fancies men instead of women? I don't give a shit. It doesn't mean he fancies me, or you, anymore than I fancy every woman with a pair of tits. It doesn't mean I've got to watch my back in the shower, for fuck's sake. He's still the same person. I still love him like a brother. I'd still trust him with my life, and so should you. And you? he added, stabbing a finger into Weird's chest. "You call yourself a Christian? How dare you sit in judgment on a man who's worth a dozen of you and your happy-clappy nutters? You don't deserve a friend like Ziggy." He snatched up his coat. "I'm going to the castle. And I don't want to see you two there unless you've got your fucking acts together."
This time when he slammed the door, even the windows rattled.
When Ziggy