Dying to Know (A Detective Inspector Berenice Killick Mystery) (37 page)

‘
There
is
a
gap
.
Where
there
was
love
…
’
She
stopped
.

‘
You
mean
us
?
’
His
voice
was
sharp
. ‘
Nothing
has
changed
,
my
dear
.
’

‘
A
nothingness
,
’
she
said
. ‘
It
is
as
if
Love
has
died
for
you
.
’

A
flicker
of
confusion
in
his
eyes
. ‘
Our
love
?
’
he
tried
.

‘
Or
another
love
,
’
she
began
. ‘
A
love
that
died
on
the
battlefields
.
’

He
found
himself
silenced
,
his
throat
constricted
.
He
stared
at
her
. ‘
Your
brother
…
’
he
could
barely
say
the
words
.
’

‘
I
don’t
want
to
know
anymore
.
’
Her
eyes
burned
with
rage
. ‘
How
can
our
child
thrive
?
’

‘
I
don’t
accept
-
’
he
began
. ‘
Our
Grace
…
She
is
my
salvation
.
She
will
live
.
She
must
live
.
’

‘
How
can
you
ask
that
?
A
mere
child
,
and
you
ask
that
she
saves
you
?
’
Her
eyes
filled
with
tears
,
and
she
turned
away
.

‘
Amelia
…
’
He
lifted
a
hand
towards
her
.

She
went
to
the
door
,
un
-
clicked
the
latch
.
The
door
closed
behind
her
.

He
stared
into
the
silence
. ‘
Amelia
,
’
he
said
,
to
emptiness
.

He
turned
back
to
the
machine
,
switched
on
the
coil
,
watched
the
growing
green
glow
of
the
aether
waves
.

Chapter Twenty-Four

The
caravan seemed to have sunk further into the mud. Helen tried the door, which was locked. At the windows, a curtain had come unhooked. Inside she could see an unmade bed, empty beer cans.

The
heavy sky threatened more rain. She wished she’d eaten lunch. She wondered what to do.

Then,
footsteps approaching, hurried. She turned, fearful, saw no one, then heard a snuffling, growling noise.

‘Tazer
– ’ she called. And there she was, bouncing towards her.

‘What
are you doing here?’ She bent to pat her, and she jumped up, tail wagging, sniffing at her hand. ‘Where’s Lisa?’ she was saying, ‘Where’s she gone?’ realising as she spoke that she had an unfed, unkempt look. Realising, too, that if Lisa had had any choice in the matter, she would keep her dog with her.

She
looked around the muddy site.

I
don’t know what to do, she thought.

A
flash of colour, at the edge of the field. A figure, approaching – Lisa? She wondered, but this was older, thinner, a woman, she realized, as she drew nearer, as the dog barked, ran to greet her. The woman bent to pet the dog, called her by name, then looked up at Helen.

‘You’re
– ’

‘Helen.
We’ve met.’

The
woman put out her hand. ‘Elizabeth. Merletti. Of course, we met at the lab. You’re the vicar’s – ’

Helen
accepted the oddly formal handshake.

‘Sorry.
Not the vicar’s anything,’ Elizabeth was saying.

‘I’m
looking for Lisa,’ Helen said.

‘So
am I.’

‘I
think she’s in danger,’ Helen said.

‘I
think so too.’

Elizabeth
was in a short tailored wool coat, and smart brogue shoes. Helen felt rather underdressed in her jeans and sheepskin boots. They sat on the damp caravan steps.

‘I’d
light a cigarette,’ Elizabeth said. ‘If I still smoked.’ She turned to Helen. ‘How do you know her?’

‘I
– I teach her.’ It sounded rather thin. ‘I don’t know her very well, but she was injured, she turned up on my doorstep the other night, with Tazer here, and her friend Finn, then she left. I wanted her to stay,’ she added.

‘Injured?’
Elizabeth stared at her. ‘Her horrible father?’

Helen
nodded.

‘Her
mother’s so hopeless. She gets passed from one to the other, and neither of them are any good for her at all. Actually… actually Clem is probably better for her than Andrea. Which isn’t saying much. But all she’s ever known is running away, that kid.’

‘How
do you know her?’

Elizabeth
fiddled with a button on her coat. ‘We’re kind of related. That house over there – ’ She tilted her head towards the wall. ‘The Voake house. One of my distant ancestors lived there.’

‘The
van Mielens - ’ Helen stared at her.

Elizabeth
nodded. ‘I met Lisa through Tobias, you know, that sweet kid who worked at the lab, Murdo’s kind of ward. Anyway, we established the link. I’ve tried to keep in touch with her.’

A
whining made them both turn, as Tazer appeared, carrying something in her mouth. It was red fabric, and she shook it from side to side.

‘Here…’
Elizabeth bent and took it from her.

‘Lisa’s
– ’ Helen said. ‘Lisa’s hairband. She was wearing it when…’

Elizabeth
passed it to Helen.

‘…
when her father went for her.’

Elizabeth
looked at Helen. ‘Oh God.’ She glanced up at the sky. ‘Look, it’s raining again. There’s no point us getting wet here. Let’s go and look for her at the house. She may have gone there.’

‘The
house?’

Elizabeth
got to her feet, smoothed raindrops from her coat. ‘The old Voake house. It’s just over the wall there, Lisa might well be hiding there. Come on Tayze… It’s a silly name for a dog, isn’t it? And a girl dog at that. Lisa spells it with a ‘y’, like T-A-Y-Z-A but no one else does.’

Tazer
jumped to her feet too. She trotted at their side along the leaf-strewn path.

‘He saw what?’ Berenice stared at Chad. He looked tired, or perhaps it was just the flat strip lighting of the interview room.

‘One
man carrying another. Towards Hank’s Tower.’

‘I
thought that’s what you said.’

‘The
impression Tobias gave was of a limp body being carried towards the steps by a much stronger man. He said it was difficult to tell, and he thought maybe it was a ghost, so he fled.’

‘A
ghost.’ Berenice nodded. ‘Easily done.’

‘Don’t
mock him.’ Chad was thin-lipped and tense.

‘I
wasn’t. Believe me. My brother…’ She stopped.

‘Your
brother - ’

She
interrupted. ‘So, Reverend Meyrick. What do we do?’

‘We?’
He met her eyes. ‘All I know is, Virginia didn’t want anyone to know. She’s worried enough about him, so if this causes any further trouble for him, she’ll be upset…’

‘Of
course. It will go no further.’

‘Promise?’
He looked doubtful.

She
nodded. ‘For reasons I don’t yet wish to share, I have no reason to discuss this information with anyone else at all.’

‘Will
you go and see him?’

‘Yes.
I think so. But I’ll go alone. Informally. No powers of arrest or anything like that.’

He
seemed to breathe more easily. ‘Good. Good.’ He got to his feet. ‘I appreciate it. I just couldn’t have lived with myself if I didn’t tell anyone…’ He paused, his hand on the door. ‘Thank you, Inspector,’ he said.

Inspector,
she thought, as the door closed behind him. I’ll think about that later. For now, there’s work to do.

She
pulled out her lap-top, tapped at the keyboard. There were some results from the Imaging Department, a series of car number plates, tracked along the coastal road. A fuzzy image from the sea front, time-matched. A tall-ish, male figure.

Could
be anyone, she thought.

The
TV news had gone mad. At lunchtime they’d had local reporters camped outside. Now, getting on for four o’clock, there were vans, OB units, reporters three deep on the doorstep… Can you tell us anymore? Why do you think the lab has been singled out? What measures are you taking to prevent a fourth killing…?

Berenice
scrolled through her e-mails. And what do we tell them? Every patrol car is out, combing the streets. Door-to-door officers, although the nearest door to the lab is about four miles away, and the only report we’ve got so far from the neighbours is from an elderly couple who reckons ‘they kept themselves to themselves…’ The Chief’s sent everyone back to the lab, interviewing every physicist again. And every time, the same answer. ‘What can anyone have against us? We’re doing sums, that’s all.’

An
e-mail from the Chief. She scanned it, leaned back in her chair.

‘Yeah,
yeah,’ she said to her screen. ‘I get the picture. “Assigned to Ashford for the next month”. Sure, whatever you think best…’

“We
can’t afford another death,” she read.

Rain
hammered against the window. She switched on the desk lamp.

No,
she thought. We can’t.

She
bent to her briefcase, pulled out the book. She flicked through the pages, catching at words. “For if gravity can be said to be the force that acts upon all matter, we must assert that it is put in motion by the Lord…”

She
went to her screen, clicked on the photos, the threat letters that had been sent to the lab.