Dying to Know (A Detective Inspector Berenice Killick Mystery) (19 page)

‘Not
angry.’ Virginia put down her cup. ‘Distressed I’ll have. Not angry.’

‘He’d
just been told they didn’t need him anymore,’ Mary said.

‘Distressed,’
Virginia repeated. ‘As you would be if they threw you out of your job.’ She fixed her eyes on Mary.

Berenice
turned to her. ‘Mrs. Maguire – have you seen this before?’ She pushed the plastic bag towards her, in which was visible the green-painted plastic lion.

Virginia
stared at it. ‘Where was it? He’s been looking for that.’ She reached towards it.

‘It
was at the top of Hank’s Tower.’

Virginia
met her eyes. ‘And?’

‘Can
you confirm it belongs to Tobias?’

Virginia
nodded. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I can. Now are you going to find him?’

Mary
put the lion back in its file and returned to her notebook. ‘He went missing at some point between midnight and early morning. His bed wasn’t slept in.’

Virginia
picked up her cup of coffee.

Berenice
sighed. ‘Mrs. Maguire. We want to find Tobias as much as you do.’

Virginia
flashed her a glance. ‘But for very different reasons,’ she said.

Helen held the kettle over the Aga, aware of Liam standing behind her.

‘So,
did she come back because of Murdo, Elizabeth?’ she said, as she filled the cafetiere.

‘I’ve
no idea. She was married to a fellow physicist in Geneva, a few years ago. But it didn’t last, and then she was offered the research post here.’

‘And
his marriage?’ She picked up the tray, led the way back towards the lounge.

‘No
one knows.’ He followed her out of the kitchen. ‘They seem bound together, Murdo and his wife. They had a child who died,’ he said. ‘Everyone said they were happy, before that. The little boy was a lovely boy, apparently.’

‘And
Elizabeth?’

‘Her
marriage was over,’ he said. ‘And she’s working on B-D asymmetry, and she wanted to join Manfred’s team here.’

‘And
the van Mielen name?’

‘It
was her maiden name, but she always used Eduardo’s name once she was married. Merletti, I mean, his surname…’

‘But
she inherited the book. And then gave it to Murdo.’ She bent to place the tray on the coffee table.

‘You
could ask Neil about that book,’ he said. ‘If you’re interested. Neil Parrish. His family go back years here. Local history is rather his thing.’

‘Why
not just ask Elizabeth?’ Helen met his eyes.

‘You
could.’

‘But
- ’ she prompted.

‘With
Elizabeth, there’s no relying on a straight answer.’

She
smiled up at him.

They
stood in the middle of the room.

‘I’m
sorry…’ he began.

‘For
what?’

‘Back
then… I didn’t mean to pry…’

‘You
touched a nerve, I suppose, that’s all.’

He
was silent, so she went on. ‘In London, I danced. For a living. On stage. The Coliseum, Sadlers Wells. Touring, too, France, the States… When Chad suggested we move here, I tried to explain to him what I’d lose. And he was right, of course, I was tiring of it, too many injuries, I did want a new start, I’d been saying so for ages, children, even, but what I tried to explain to him was that something had to put back what I’d lose, there had to be something else here, and he just said, we’ll find that something. He’s a man of faith, you see…’ She looked up at Liam, aware that they were standing very close together. ‘Yes,’ she went on, ‘Faith. He always thinks everything’s going to be all right.’

‘God’s
will?’ Liam was gazing into her eyes.

‘Not
exactly. It’s more intelligent than that. I don’t mean to make him sound like a carefree optimist because he’s not, and in fact these last few months he’s been as weighed down as I am, we’ve barely communicated at all and I really don’t know what to do about it. I don’t know how to help him, and every time I try to reach out I seem to say the wrong thing and it just makes it all worse and I do love him, really I do, but there are times at the moment when I think about how he used to be, and I look across the table and there just seems to be a gap between the man I married and the man he is now…’ She stopped, breathing hard.

She
was aware of two things. One was that she had never, ever, put these feelings into words until now. The other was that Liam’s gaze was burning into her and she could feel the closeness of him, standing there in the middle of the room, the carpet warm under her bare feet. So that as he reached out to her, took her in his arms, pressed his lips to hers, it didn’t seem to be surprising or unusual in any way at all, but rather, as she responded to his kiss, the most natural thing in the world.

Being on the run, Tobias thought. That’s what they call it. On the run. On the run from the Law, he thought, playing with the words in his mind. On the run from the Cops.

Law’s
better than Cops.

Except,
I’m not running. I’m not even walking. I’m just standing here with the stones between my toes, the waves licking the beach in front of me.

He
wondered if it was because he’d run out of anywhere to run to. He thought about Virginia, and how she’d be worried. But she’ll know, he thought. She’ll understand why I’ve gone. Once they find the Prof in the tower, they’ll understand why I had to run away.

The
Prof, he thought. An image of him lumbering across the stone floor, the yelling of his voice, loud in the darkness. Scary, he thought. It was scary, how he shouted at me, coming towards me like that, so tall and angry…

Tobias
held up his two hands in front of him, palms outward. Like that, he thought, both my hands up like that and then, Push, get him out of the way, put a stop to it, to the shouting and the anger.

It
was because he knows. Entelechia, he said, and then I knew that he knew about the writings in the Book, asking me how much I knew about the Red Lion and the Green, the Aether and the Irreducible Particle. Where is it, he was saying, where is it, and I didn’t want to tell him about Auntie Ginny giving it away and he was talking about the tunnel, not the big shiny fridge one, the old warm dark one, and I didn’t like him then, I didn’t like him knowing all my things because they’re private things, just me and Lisa, it’s safe there so I said Stop to him, Stop Stop Stop…

There
would be a big splash if someone fell from Hank’s Tower when the sea was up like that. When Uncle Murdo did it there was a big splash. The Prof is a bigger man than Uncle Murdo. That’s what it would sound like, a big big splash…

He
stared out at the flat grey sea.

‘We’ve tried Hank’s Tower.’ Chad turned off the car engine, leaned back wearily in the driver’s seat. ‘We’ve tried the caves. We’ve tried all the places you claim to be his usual places…’

‘It’s
because he’s frightened.’ Virginia’s voice was thin. ‘He must have found a new place. If that police woman had let me go sooner we’d have had more chance of tracking him down.’

‘She
was just doing her job.’ Chad glanced towards the clock on the dashboard.

‘Treating
me like a criminal, is that her job?’

‘It’s
a murder investigation.’ One fifteen, the clock said. Helen will be wondering where I am, he thought. Helen. How odd to think of her now. There was a worry about this, but Virginia was speaking to him.

‘There’s
another place,’ she was saying. ‘It’s further along the coast. He went there once, before we’d noticed he’d gone, it’s quite a way but if he kept walking he’d be there by now…’ Her voice was shaking.

Chad
started the car again. He pulled out into the line of traffic.

‘You
take the Canterbury Road from here,’ she was saying, ‘but then at the roundabout you turn off towards the coast.’

In
his mind, Chad saw the vicarage kitchen. Would she be sitting down to lunch? Would she have given up on him? Would she even have noticed how long he’d been away?

The
mobile had only rung twice this morning, both parish matters. No missed calls from her. No messages.

We
used to text each other all the time, he thought. Silly messages. Jokes, endearments…

‘…
it’s this road, here – ’ Virginia was pointing. She was pale, tearful, sitting tense beside him. ‘We must find him,’ she said.

He
wondered how this had happened. How was it, that he was driving along the coastal road with a woman he hardly knew in search of a man with learning difficulties who was quite seriously implicated in the murder of a physicist. That DI, Berenice Killick, made it very plain. A man was thrown from Hank’s Tower to his death, and the only witness, backed up by CCTV, was Tobias, now on the run.

As
they’d left the police station, Berenice had taken his arm. A smart woman, he’d thought, tall, bright, nicely dressed. ‘You’re the vicar?’ she’d said, and he’d nodded. ‘Keep an eye on her. I don’t think it’s sunk in just how serious this is. Two killings,’ she’d said. ‘Two men dead.’ She’d patted his arm, slipped him her card. ‘Look after her,’ she’d said. ‘And call me if you hear anything.’

And
now here he was, looking after her. Or rather, driving along the coast, watching storm clouds gather, with Virginia at his side, wraith-like and motionless.

‘We’ll
find him,’ he said. ‘Don’t worry. We’ll find him.’

He’d gone, now. He’d held her tight, there’d been another kiss, several… And now he’d gone, and she was sitting at her kitchen table wondering whether it had happened at all.

Extraordinary,
she thought.

In
front of her two cups and saucers, coffee-stained.

It
was all true.

She
remembered fragments. The feeling of his soft sandy hair. His murmured words, something about not ever doing anything like this before… She remembered her hand flat against his shirt, her mumbled explanations of marriage and morality as she took a step away from him. He’d gathered himself, apologized, ‘No,’ she’d said, ‘no need for that, no one’s fault…’

He’d
kissed her again and then he’d gone.

And
now the house was still, and she was left with only the washing up. That, and the thrill throughout her body, an ache of need for him, a deep awakening desire. So new and so familiar. It made her want to dance. It made her want to weep for what she’d had with Chad that seemed to have so thoroughly deserted her.

She
stood up, wandered through the house, into the lounge. She tidied cushions, straightened curtains, checked that everything was neat again. Then, in the middle of the room, she danced.

Tobias heard the car before he saw it, pondered what it meant, this approaching drone of engine noise. Someone after me, he thought. The Prof, come back for revenge. The Cops, the Law, but they won’t find me here.

He
ducked down behind a rock. Above him, on the beach road, the car drew nearer, stopped. Doors opening, slamming, his name being called, a man’s voice.

Tobias
shrank further down.

But
– that was her voice. Auntie’s voice. He leaned to the edge of the rock, peered out.

‘Tom…’
he heard her call.

A
wave of relief, as he got to his feet, stumbled out from the rock, along the beach, ‘I’m here,’ he cried, shouting, ‘I’m here…’

Virginia
met him at the steps, wrapped her arms around his waist, felt his hug around her neck. ‘Thank God,’ she was saying. ‘Thank God.’

‘Entelechia,’
Tobias said, into her hair.

‘It’s
all right, love,’ she said.

‘It
wasn’t my fault,’ he said.

‘Of
course it wasn’t.’ She took his arm, began to lead him back to the car. ‘You’re safe now.’

Tobias
stopped still. ‘But – him?’ He pointed at Chad, who was standing next to the car, leaning on its open door. ‘Not with him. He’ll take me back to them.’

‘It’s
all right, love,’ Virginia was saying. ‘Isn’t it?’ she said to Chad.

‘Don’t
take me back to them,’ Tobias said.

Virginia
turned to him, placed her hand on his arm. ‘Nothing’s going to happen, love,’ she said.

‘It’s
the two Lions,’ he said. ‘The Green Lion and the Red. If the Red Lion wins then it’s the end, the noble particle turns to lead instead of gold, and the waters will rise up…’