The Angel Tree (60 page)

‘Thank you, Greta.’ David felt a huge sense of relief. ‘What’s she doing now?’

‘I suggested she got up and took a bath.’ Greta narrowed her eyes. ‘What’s going on, David?’

‘Nothing. Cheska just needs some help, that’s all. She’s a little . . . depressed just now.’

‘Well, I know how that feels. Now, she did ask me if she could stay here with me for a bit, and I told her that yes, of course she could. And she can, David. It’s nice having the
company. And she is my daughter.’

‘Greta, please, you have to trust me on this. Cheska can’t stay here with you. I have to take her with me now, get her the help she needs.’

‘I’m not going anywhere.’

Greta and David looked up. Cheska was standing at the door in a borrowed pair of her mother’s trousers and a blouse.

‘Hello, Cheska. Your mother tells me you’ve had a good night’s sleep.’

‘I have, and I’m feeling a lot better. And I’m staying here, with Mummy, Uncle David. You can’t make me go, and I won’t.’

‘Listen, Cheska, darling, we only want what’s best for you. At the very least, let me take you to see a doctor.’

‘
No doctors!
’ Cheska screamed, startling Greta. ‘You can’t make me! You’re not my father!’

‘No, you’re right. But if you refuse to come with me, I’m afraid I’ll have to speak to the police and tell them it was you who started the fire at Marchmont. It was you,
wasn’t it, Cheska?’

‘What?! Uncle David, how could you say such a thing!’

David tried another tack. ‘Cheska, darling, if I was expecting to inherit a house and some money because I was the only surviving child of the previous owner, I might get a little upset
when I found out I wasn’t going to. And maybe even angry enough to want to do something silly on the spur of the moment.’

Cheska eyed him suspiciously. ‘Would you?’

‘I understand that you were probably very upset because you felt you were being cheated out of your inheritance. And if you had only asked me I would have given Marchmont to you. Really, I
would.’

Cheska looked at him, seeming disoriented. She wavered for a moment before nodding in what appeared to him to be relief. ‘Yes, I was upset, Uncle David, because it should have been mine.
And I was fed up with people leaving me out. It just wasn’t fair. But it wasn’t just that . . .’

‘What was it, Cheska?’

‘It was . . . the voices, Uncle David. You know about them because I told you in LA. They wouldn’t stop, you see, and I needed to make them. So I decided it was the best thing to do.
Are you going to tell the police? Please don’t. They might put me in prison.’

David saw the terror in her eyes. ‘No, I won’t, I promise, as long as you come with me now quietly.’

‘I don’t know, I . . .’

David approached her slowly. ‘Come with me, sweetheart, and let’s try and help you feel better.’ He put out his hand towards her, and Cheska began to offer hers in return.
Then, suddenly, she screamed again.

‘
No!
I’ve trusted you before, Uncle David, and you always tell! You’ll put me in one of those terrible places again, and they’ll lock me up forever.’

‘Of course they won’t, Cheska. I’d never do that to you, you know I wouldn’t. Let’s just go and get you some help. I’ll make sure you’re safe, I
promise.’

‘Liar! You think I don’t know what you’ll do if I take your hand. I don’t trust you! I don’t trust anyone! Mummy’ – she moved towards Greta –
‘please say I can stay here with you?’

Greta was looking at David, shocked by what she had just heard and witnessed. ‘Well, perhaps, if Uncle David thinks you should go with him, dear, it’s for the best.’

‘Traitor!’ Cheska shouted, then spat at her mother. ‘Well, you can’t make me go! I won’t go!’ She bolted to the door and ran out into the corridor towards the
front door.

Greta went to follow her, but David held her back. ‘I locked it earlier, so she can’t get out. But better that you stay in here and I’ll deal with her,’ he said.

They heard Cheska trying desperately to open the front door. When she failed, she banged on it, again and again.

‘I’m sorry, Greta, but could you please call an ambulance? I think we’re going to need some back-up,’ said David, leaving the sitting room and locking Greta inside it
with the key.

‘Cheska,’ he begged as he walked towards her, ‘please try and calm down. Don’t you understand I want to get you better?’

‘No, you don’t! You’ve always hated me, all of you! You can’t make me go, you can’t! Let me out now!’

‘Come on, darling. It’s not doing anybody any good, least of all your poor mother.’

‘My mother! And where has she been for these past few years, I’d like to know?!’

‘Cheska, surely you remember? She was badly hurt in a car crash years ago outside the Savoy. Like Ava was last night. You’ll be pleased to know that Ava’s okay, at least. Now,
can you stop thumping that door before one of the neighbours calls the police, let alone me?’

At his words Cheska turned and fled back along the corridor. She dived into the bathroom and locked the door. ‘I’m staying in here! You can’t get me! Nobody can!
Nobody!’

‘All right, sweetheart, you stay in there and I’ll wait outside for you.’

‘Go away! Leave me alone!’

‘David?’ came Greta’s voice from the sitting room. ‘Why have you locked me in? What on earth is going on?’

‘Greta, did you make the phone call?’ he asked, as the sound of hysterical sobbing from the bathroom got louder.

‘Yes, they should be here any minute, but—’

‘You’re in there for your own safety, Greta. Please trust me.’

The paramedics arrived five minutes later. David briefly explained the situation, and they nodded calmly, as if they dealt with these kinds of circumstances every day. Which, David thought, they
probably did.

‘Leave her to us,’ said one of them. ‘Steve, you run down to the van and get a straitjacket, just in case.’

‘I doubt you’ll be able to get her out of there of her own volition,’ sighed David.

‘We’ll see. Now, why don’t you go and sit in the other room with the woman’s mother, sir?’

David unlocked the door to the sitting room and went to Greta, who was sitting on the sofa, pale and shaking. He sat beside her and gave her a hug. ‘I’m so sorry, Greta. I know
it’s hard for you to understand, but, really, this is the best thing for Cheska.’

‘Is she mad? She certainly sounds it.’

‘She’s what I’d call . . . disturbed. But I’m sure that, with time and help, she’ll recover.’

‘Was she always like this? Is it my fault?’

‘It’s no one’s fault. I think Cheska has always had problems. You mustn’t blame yourself. Some of us are born that way.’

‘I was so happy this morning when I woke up,’ she whispered. ‘It was nice to have some company. I get so lonely here by myself.’

‘I know you do. At least I’m back now, so that’s something, isn’t it?’

Greta looked up at him and smiled wanly. ‘Yes, it is.’

In the end, having tried every tactic to coax Cheska out, the paramedics had to break down the bathroom door. Greta and David winced at her shrieks as they restrained her.
There was a brief knock on the sitting-room door and a paramedic put his head around it.

‘We’ll be leaving now, sir. Probably better you don’t come in the ambulance with her. We’ve given her something to calm her down and we’ll be taking her to the
psychiatric unit at Maudsley Hospital in Southwark, where she’ll be assessed. Perhaps you or her mother would like to phone later on today.’

‘Of course. Should I come and say goodbye to her?’

‘I wouldn’t if I were you, sir. She’s not a pretty sight.’

Having left Greta half an hour later, promising to contact her with any news, David went back to the Savoy and explained to the girl on reception that Cheska had been called
away to an emergency and wouldn’t be returning. He said that he would take the suite for the night and pack up her belongings.

Once upstairs, he called Directory Enquiries, only to discover that there were four nursing homes called The Laurels within a ten-mile radius of Abergavenny. Taking down all the numbers, he
called each of them in turn. He finally found her when he called the last number. A woman had answered.

‘Good afternoon,’ said David. ‘I was wondering if you have a resident called Laura-Jane Marchmont staying with you?’

‘Who are you?’ The woman asked rudely.

‘Her son. So, do you?

‘Yes, she came in last week.’

‘And how is she?’

‘She’s all right. Not very talkative, but you know that anyway.’ David grimaced at her tactlessness.

‘I’m coming to visit her. Can you give me the address?’

‘How should I know if you are who you say? It was a female relative who brought her in. You could be anyone.’

‘I’ve said that I’m her son,’ David replied, his temper rising. ‘Surely you have relatives visit your residents all the time?’

David realised he was talking to thin air. The woman had hung up.

He called Mary, asking her to look up the address in the local telephone directory and get there as soon as possible. In turn, she told him that Simon was driving Ava up tonight after his
performance and that they’d be staying at her cottage.

‘I’ll get the address, and Simon and Ava will go first thing tomorrow,’ Mary promised. ‘Where’s Cheska?’

‘In hospital. She ran to Greta here in London and had to be forcibly restrained and taken away in an ambulance. It was . . . awful.’

‘There, there, Master David. Really, hospital’s the best place for her. Will you be coming this way yourself soon? The police inspector called yesterday. I told him you were back and
he’d like to speak to you. I think they want to question Cheska again. It was her that set fire to Marchmont, wasn’t it?’

‘Yes, Mary, I think it was.’

‘God forgive me, because I love her, but honest to goodness, I hope they don’t let her out of hospital for a very long time. Poor Ava, she didn’t know where she was with her
mother.’

‘I know, and this time I promise I’ll make sure she can’t ever hurt anyone again. Send my love to Ava when you see her and tell her I’ll be there tomorrow. Let’s
just pray my old ma is still in the land of the living. From the sound of the woman I spoke to, something’s not right. Thank you for everything, Mary, really.’

‘No need to thank me, David. Oh, there was me nearly forgetting to tell you. Tor called me at home this evening. She’s in Beijing and will be landing at Heathrow at eight
o’clock tomorrow morning.’

‘Then I’ll go and meet her, and we’ll drive on to Marchmont. We can stay at Lark Cottage.’

‘I’ll put the heating on for you. Goodbye, Master David. Take care of yourself, now, won’t you?’

David put down the receiver and walked over to the chair. He sat down, put his head in his hands and sobbed.

Simon drew his car up in front of the dismal terraced house off a narrow side road in a down-at-heel suburb of Abergavenny.

‘Are you sure this is the right place? Surely Cheska wouldn’t have left her here?’ Ava bit her lip.

‘Yes.’ He reached across the gear stick and squeezed her hand. ‘Right, let’s go in and get her.’

They walked up to the front door. Ava noticed there were bags of rotting rubbish piled up to one side of it. Simon tried the bell, which didn’t work, so he knocked loudly on the door. It
was opened by a fat, middle-aged woman wearing a dirty overall.

‘Yes?’

‘We’re here to see my friend’s great-aunt, Mrs Laura-Jane Marchmont.’

‘I wasn’t expecting you, and everything’s in a tip. My cleaner’s just walked out on me. Can you come back tomorrow?’

‘No. We want to see her now.’

‘That’s not possible, I’m afraid.’ The woman folded her arms. ‘Go away.’

‘Right, then I’ll have to call the police and they’ll visit instead, as Laura-Jane Marchmont is currently listed as a missing person. So, it’s them or us,’ Simon
added menacingly. Ava looked up at him gratefully, thanking God he’d come with her.

At this, the woman shrugged and let them in.

Simon and Ava walked behind her down the narrow corridor, the smell of urine and boiled cabbage making them both feel sick.

‘That’s the residents’ lounge,’ announced the woman as they passed a small room full of ancient chairs placed round an old black-and-white television. Four elderly
patients were asleep in front of
Tom and Jerry.

Ava’s eyes darted round the faces and she shook her head. ‘She’s not in there.’

‘No, she’s upstairs in her bed.’

Simon and Ava trudged up the stairs behind her.

‘Here we go.’ The woman led them into a dim room. There were four beds jammed into it and the smell of unwashed human flesh made Simon and Ava want to gag. ‘Your aunt’s
in that one over there.’

Ava choked back a sob as she saw LJ lying motionless on the bed, her skin grey, her hair unkempt.

‘Oh LJ, what have they done to you? LJ, it’s me, Ava.’

Her great-aunt’s eyes opened, and Ava saw they were dull, blank, hopeless.

‘Do you recognise me? Please tell me you do.’ Tears streamed down Ava’s face, as she watched LJ attempt to move her mouth. A hand appeared from under the covers and reached out
to her.

‘What’s she saying, Ava?’ asked Simon.

Ava leaned closer and studied LJ’s lips.

‘She’s saying, “home”, Simon. She’s saying “home”.’

December, 1985