Entwined (61 page)

The car stopped and Franks opened his door. Sasha bounded out, but he caught her hand. "Just wait a moment, Sasha!"

The baron was about to offer his arm to Rebecca, but Franks gave him a small signal, an indication to let her walk alone.

Rebecca walked ahead of them, at first unhurried, then she quickened her pace. Dr. Franks, Sasha, and Louis looked on as Rebecca suddenly began to run. Threading her way among the dark tombstones, across the narrow, snow-filled lanes, she knew intuitively where to find her.

Grimaldi had chosen not just the headstone, but the plot where Ruda lay. It was separated from the other graves by a semicircle of high trees. The sun broke through the gray sky, streaking brilliant shafts of light that glanced off the trees above her tomb, making a delicate white crystal cradle over the wondrous black marble head of Mamon. He roared in icy silence, protecting his beloved beneath him.

Rebecca stood gazing at Mamon, then knelt down and placed the treasured stone between his paws. She let her hand rest a moment, and closed her eyes. She didn't weep.

"Good-bye, Ruda, I'll come back," she whispered.

♦ ♦ ♦

Dr. Franks followed, watching Rebecca, now hand in hand with her husband and daughter.

The snow was melting in the wintry sun, it trickled in tears from Mamon's sightless eyes. Franks knew there were tears still to be shed, lost souls to be reunited. Memories that must not be forgotten, or hidden, but kept alive so that the living will never forget. Must never forget.

Lynda La Plante (born Lynda Titchmarsh) is a British author, screenwriter, and erstwhile actress (her performances in Rentaghost and other programmes were under her stage name of Lynda Marchal), best known for writing the Prime Suspect television crime series.

Her first TV series as a scriptwriter was the six part robbery series Widows, in 1983, in which the widows of four armed robbers carry out a heist planned by their deceased husbands.

In 1991 ITV released Prime Suspect which has now run to seven series and stars Helen Mirren as DCI Jane Tennison. (In the United States Prime Suspect airs on PBS as part of the anthology program Mystery!) In 1993 La Plante won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for her work on the series. In 1992 she wrote at TV movie called Seekers, starring Brenda Fricker and Josette Simon, produced by Sarah Lawson.

She formed her own television production company, La Plante Productions, in 1994 and as La Plante Productions she wrote and produced the sequel to Widows, the equally gutsy She's Out (ITV, 1995). The name "La Plante" comes from her marriage to writer Richard La Plante, author of the book Mantis and Hog Fever. La Plante divorced Lynda in the early 1990s.