The Last Winter of Dani Lancing: A Novel (47 page)

Jim snatches Dani’s diary back. “Where is my wife?”

“Toward the back, she’s perfectly safe—Mr. Ronson is with her.”

Jim gives Keyson a filthy look and leaves the two men. He walks quickly, almost running, though he has to take care; the flagstones are smooth like ice, and he can’t see where they dip and bow from a thousand years of wear. His head is full of the rushing of his blood as he fights the panic that threatens to overwhelm him. Ahead of him the room stretches forever—the size of a football pitch at least. Jim’s footsteps echo throughout, filling the air like a million insects scuttling through the house of God. As he rushes forward, toward the enormous rose of stained glass that beckons him on, for a second he sees Dani sitting in a pew, her hands linked together in prayer. She turns to look at him; her face is so pained, and then she is gone. Ahead he sees an area fully lit, a room off the main throughway—a chapel. He heads to it.

He steps inside, amazed to see it isn’t electric light that illuminates the room but more than a hundred small votive candles, which have been lit around a massive sculpture carved from driftwood. It is of a woman who seems to be cut more from pure pain than wood. Her face is long, her lips pursed and her eyes weep. The wood itself seems weathered by a thousand years of sun and sea and salt; the form appears to bear the scars of humanity. At the
woman’s feet lies a man, twisted, half on his side; he looks emaciated—stripped of hope and life. Mary, the mother, and Jesus, her murdered child. Jim does not appreciate the theatricality of all this. He walks up to the figures until he stands by Jesus’ head and the mother towers over him, almost double his height. Then he sees her. With her hands tied and mouth taped, sitting directly before the mother and child, is Patty. Grant Ronson stands beside her like some cut-price nightclub bouncer, his hands cupped in front of him. Jim moves to untie her, but Ronson pushes him back.

“It’s fine, Mr. Ronson. Let him untie her,” Keyson calls out as he and Tom step inside the chapel.

Ronson steps aside and Jim scrambles forward. He quickly gets the rope undone and pulls the tape off her mouth.

“Patty. Oh Christ, Patty, I am so glad to see you. I was so worried.” He hugs her and she holds on to him tightly.

“Jim, I am so sorry to drag you into all this mess.”

“I don’t care. Just as long as you’re safe and we’re together.”

She pulls him into her so tight they become a single entity for a moment.

She buries her head in his neck. “I’m not confessing—I’m not giving in, I want to be with you.”

“You will be,” he tells her.

“I told his wife—she needed to know and I had to tell her.”

“Of course you did.”

“Keyson taped it … me admitting to killing Duncan Cobhurn.”

Jim feels all the blood drain from his face.

“And she told me—oh Christ, she told me something, Jim. She told me something awful and then. Oh God, she killed herself.”

“His wife?” Jim asks.

“She jumped in front of traffic or something—I could hear the truck.”

Both Jim and Patty heard the death of Audrey Cobhurn and Jim saw her body fall. The sight will haunt him for the rest of his life.

“They were lovers—Dani and Duncan Cobhurn. And she was pregnant, Jim. Dani was going to have a baby. That Christmas she was pregnant and I screamed at her, told her she was wasting her life, but I didn’t know. Jim, I didn’t know she was carrying our grandchild.” Patty has tears streaming down her face.

Jim grips her tight, his throat closing up as he thinks of Dani that last time he saw her—the rounded tummy he thought was too many chips.

“Audrey found out and confronted Dani, telling her to leave him alone, and when she wouldn’t … when she wouldn’t …” Patty dissolves in tears.

Keyson kneels down next to Jim. “Audrey Cobhurn had your daughter beaten until she miscarried. I wouldn’t waste a tear on Mrs. Cobhurn if I were you.” Keyson then removes the final pieces of rope from Patty and helps her and Jim up, before dropping a hand onto his shoulder.

“There we go. I am sorry for the inconvenience. Don’t worry that you missed Audrey’s revelation, Mr. Lancing, there are many more to come.”

Keyson walks across to Ronson and whispers in his ear. Keyson gives him the recording machine from his pocket and Ronson walks off.

“Mrs. Lancing, I apologize. You are my employer after all and I really have acted badly—but I think ultimately you will thank me.”

“I can’t see that happening, Dr. Keyson,” Patty says, trying to keep her voice level.

“We shall see, because I am about to tell you who killed your daughter.”

Despite herself, Patty feels her heart stop for a second.

Tom steps forward with his arm outstretched and places his hand on Keyson’s chest, his back to Patty and Jim.

“Marcus, I think this has gone on long enough.”

“Mr. and Mrs. Lancing …” Keyson begins, ignoring Tom.

“Don’t, Marcus.” Tom is insistent.

“… your daughter, Danielle, was murdered …”

“Please, Marcus,” Tom says in a whisper, pleading with his old friend.

“… by Police Constable Tom Bevans.” Keyson steps back. “Now Detective Superintendent Tom Bevans, of course.”

“Tom?” Jim shakes his head. It is unthinkable.

“Tom?” Patty barely manages to get the word out, her face contorting with effort.

From the shadows Dani walks forward and circles Keyson, until she can see into the face of her best friend.

“Tom?” she breathes.

Tom Bevans looks through Dani, and slowly turns to face the parents of the woman he has loved almost his whole life. Tears coat his face. Dani walks over to stand between her parents. The Lancing family waits.

“Did you?” Patty asks.

Tom cannot speak. He nods slowly.

Dani seems to crack, like fine porcelain in a fire—hairline cracks that twist throughout her entire form.

“Oh my God.” Jim steps back, lurching sideways. He walks away, into the shadows and sits on the floor, lost in thought. He recalls the look on Tom’s face when he saw him that morning, over twenty years ago. The look of total distress as they faced each other on the street—how is it possible that he … that he …

“Dani.” Jim holds his head in his hands. He can’t bear it.

Patty watches Tom’s face, sees the tears and the pain that eats
him. It’s genuine—she knows the purity of his anguish; he is, after all, the Sad Man. He was transformed by Dani’s death but for the first time she wonders what caused that pain? Is it something more than grief? Is it guilt? Her face hardens—like her heart. Her eyes are ice.

Keyson watches her and licks his lips. From his pocket Keyson takes a knife, sharp like the blade Patty used on Duncan Cobhurn. He walks over to her and bends his lips to her ear and whispers, “Twenty lost years. A life snuffed out. Jim lost to you—your whole life ruined, and you yourself turned into a murderer. Responsible not only for the death of Duncan Cobhurn but Audrey Cobhurn too. And the broken heart of Lorraine Cobhurn. Tom Bevans has done that to you. He made you trust him, he wormed his way into your family and then …” He takes her hands and uncurls the fingers, wrapping them around the knife handle. “He kills the thing you hold most dear, he killed your daughter, Dani.”

Keyson takes a step back. Patty stands there holding the knife before her. Keyson moves to her side and takes her softly and walks her forward.

“He said he loved her but he killed her and left you in anguish for more than twenty years.” Keyson’s voice is seductive as he leads Patty, knife in hand, to face Tom.

“Is it true, Tom? Did you kill her?”

Tom stands his ground, his eyes red and his mouth in constant motion, yet no words come.

“Tell me, Tom!” she hisses at him.

He closes his eyes and breathes. “I did.”

Patty’s jaw clenches; it looks like it could shatter. She steps forward to bring the knife up to his chest, level with his heart. The tip cuts into his clothing and, through them, to his skin. He cries in pain but does not move.

“Do it, Patricia. Do it,” Keyson urges.

“You killed Dani?”

Tom doesn’t answer. His head is bowed to the floor.

“Jesus, Tom.” She pushes forward, feels flesh split, and sees red pool on the knife and start to soak into the cloth. Tom sobs with pain. She moves a hand up to his chin and forces his head up; she wants to see his eyes. The blood pools on the hilt and three drops of blood fall to the ground. Patty looks into his eyes and yells into his face—the sound of deep pain.

Jim looks up, hearing his wife’s anguish, his own pain broken for a second as he watches her hold a knife to the heart of the man who killed their daughter.

Jim sees Dani walk forward. She seems to flare bright like the sun, filling the chapel with daylight. Tears drop from her cheeks, three perfect teardrops that fade into nothing before they hit the stone ground.

“No, Mum,” she whispers, and her light seems to shimmer around Patty for a second.

Patty howls, and throws the knife away. It bounces on the hard stone and skittles along the floor, coming to rest by stone steps close to Jim.

“You didn’t kill her.”

Patty wraps her arms around him and he sags into her—his sobs loud like screams. “Tom, Tom … poor pup.” She strokes his hair.

Dani turns and walks away, the brightness fading once again until she is normal. Normal for a ghost.

Keyson looks like he will spit blood. “What the—You stupid woman. He killed your daughter. What the hell is wrong with you—what are you?”

Patty looks up at Keyson. “A parent. That’s all.” She turns back to Tom, who has calmed a little. “Tom, tell the truth. What happened?”

He whispers so softly that only Patty can hear him.

“I wish you had done it, Patty.” He kisses her lightly on the cheek. Then he begins.

“Dani was pregnant with Duncan Cobhurn’s child. She told me and Izzy that Christmas she came home. She said she couldn’t tell you, didn’t know how you’d react as he was married.”

Patty nods her head, knowing she would have exploded.

“She planned to take a year out—have the baby and then go back to uni. They were going to live together, he was leaving his wife and everything. I couldn’t …” Tom closes his eyes and lets the memories flood back.

Duncan Cobhurn hurries, his heart beats fast, she is not chasing him—that’s good. It’s hard to rush with the case. He feels so ashamed. Telling Audrey was the hardest thing he has ever done. He loves Dani, will do anything to be with her—but … no, he has made his choices. Audrey will find it tough but eventually she’ll get over it. It will work out for the best, he knows it will. He just needs to get to Danielle, hold her and tell her it will be all right. They can have another baby.

Up ahead in the shadows there is a movement. A policeman who …

“Mr. Cobhurn, Duncan Cobhurn?” He steps directly in Duncan’s way, stopping him dead.

“Yes, that’s me. Do I know you, Officer? How do you know my name?”

“Duncan Cobhurn. Husband of Audrey and father of Lorraine.”

Duncan feels something’s wrong. “I’m on my way to something important, if you’d just let me pass.” He tries to get past the policeman, but he bars his way.

“Sweet kid, your Lorraine. Awful if something happened to her.”

“What the hell are you—”

Tom is quick, he swings his arm and from nowhere a truncheon slides into it. He catches Duncan Cobhurn on the leg just below the knee. An inch higher and the blow would have shattered his kneecap.

“Christ.” Cobhurn falls, grabbing at his leg and rolling on the ground in pain.

“This is no idle threat, Duncan. You are not going to see Dani Lancing again. You are going back to your wife and daughter and you’re going to keep your dick in your pants. If you don’t, Lorraine is going to get a visit from some lads I know and they will fuck her up—do you understand what I’m saying? She will wish they’d killed her by the time they finish.”

Duncan grabs at Tom, but he’s quicker. The truncheon catches him hard on the shoulder.

“Jesus. Why are you doing this?”

“Because Dani Lancing is owned by someone else and they will destroy anyone who hurts her.”

“I love her.”

“You have caused her nothing but pain. Leave her alone, you bastard. In fact—”

Tom grabs him by the collar and pulls him up on his injured leg—Duncan screams with the pain.

“Come here.” Tom drags him toward a phone box close by and throws him inside. “Where are you meeting her?”

“Her home. She’s going there by cab …”

Tom dials the number. “You are gonna tell her you’re finished
with her, that she means nothing to you. That you can’t imagine having a baby with her—she’s just a kid.”