FLINDER'S FIELD (a murder mystery and psychological thriller) (23 page)

‘I’m ready, Dr Talbot,’ a faint, tremulous Sylvia Tredwin said.

‘I want you to
cast your mind back to October 15
th
1974. You’re waking up that morning. What do you see?’

There was a silence las
ting five seconds or more. Sylvia Tredwin’s eyes remained closed. Her lips a tight line. So Arthur Talbot tried again, gently repeating his words.

‘It’s cold and dark outside,’ said Sylvia Tredwin dreamily.

‘What time is it?’

‘It’s five-thirty in the morning.’

‘Are you alone?’

‘Yes. Bruce has gone out to the fields
already. He had to check on the fences and the sheep.’

‘How do you feel? Are you happy or sad this morning?’

She smiled. ‘Oh, I’m happy,’ she said. ‘It’s early and it’s pitch-black outside, but I like living here. It’s so much better than being in the city.’

‘And your husband, Bruce? How does he make you feel?’

‘Bruce?’ she gave a little chiming chuckle. ‘I love him, silly! He’s my husband.’

‘So you can’t think of any reason why you’d want to leave him, to leave Petheram?’

‘No!’ she said. ‘Why would I want to do that?’ She frowned slightly. ‘Though some of the villagers don’t like me at all. I haven’t done anything to them, but somehow I get the impression I’m not liked at all. I don’t know why.’

‘And does that upset you?’

She nodded slowly. ‘I try to be nice to them when I see them, but that doesn’t seem to matter. I put on my best clothes for them, make myself look presentable. The woman at the shop all but turns her nose up at me when I go in. She never smiles.’

‘So you don’t have many friends in Petheram?’

‘I don’t have any friends yet. Oh, I do have one man who likes me…’

‘And who is that?’ Talbot asked.

‘Jeff Lee. He’s married with a teenage daughter – or she’s coming up to that age. His wife is alright, but she’s one of those that always looks at me suspiciously, gives me a face like she’s sniffed up a bad smell.’

‘So how did you and Mr Lee get to be friends?’ She hesitated, swallowed. He sensed she was approaching some kind of emotional hurdle, so he pressed again, gently. ‘How did you come to be friends, Sylvia?’

‘He’s teaching me to read.’

Talbot raised a brow. ‘He’s teaching you to read?’ he repeated. ‘Can’t you read?’

She shook her head. ‘Mother drank, dad…’ she paused. ‘I never got the opportunity. But I always wanted to read. To be able to read to my children when I have them – you know, bedtime stories, fairytales, that kind of thing. I never had them read to me as a child, so, well, you know…’

‘Does your husband know you can’t read?’ he asked.

‘Oh yes.’

‘And?’

‘He says it doesn’t matter to him whether I can or not. But he doesn’t want me to mention it to anyone.’

‘And why is that?’

‘Because I guess he’s embarrassed about it. Even his mother doesn’t like me, so I suppose he doesn’t want to give them any more ammunition to dislike me than he has to.’

‘Does he know this Jeff Lee is giving you lessons?’

‘No. No one does. We meet in secret. Sometimes Jeff comes to the house when I know Bruce will be away. We first met when the mobile library came to the village. I always loved the smell and feel of books, the possibility they offered, so I went inside the big yellow van and just stared at the spines. Then Jeff Lee came inside. We got to talking, and somehow he spotted that I couldn’t read. Don’t ask me how. Maybe it was in the way I reacted to someone asking me about what books I like. He met me some time later and came straight out and asked me about it. I said not to be silly, of course I could read, sent him away with a flea in his ear. But I relented. He is such a nice man. That’s when I went back and asked him to help me, and he agreed.’

‘And it’s going well?’

‘Oh, Yes!’ she said, her face lighting up. ‘I’ve got books of my own now that I am trying to read. I’m attempting to read
Billy Bunter’s Brain-wave
, but Jeff tells me not to run before I can walk.’

‘That’s good,’ said Talbot. ‘But I take it the lessons are still a secret from everyone?’

‘Absolutely. I don’t want anyone to find out that I can’t read. It’s been a horrible thing to live with, to hide from people day to day. My ambition is to one day read out an entire book to my husband, one of his favourite paperbacks. He’ll be
so
pleased, I know he will.’

‘So will you be meeting Jeff today?’

She nodded. ‘Yes, we arranged to meet at a place on the other side of the village. It’s an old lime quarry and there are the remains of an old house there.’

‘It’s November. A bit cold though, isn’t it?’

‘No, not really. We’ve had a really mild snap for a week or so. It’s been T-shirt weather, but it will change. That’s what the weather forecaster says. And there’s nowhere else to go when we can’t meet here. It’s not been bad during the summer but now that winter’s here it’ll start to get cold, that’s for sure. But we only meet for half an hour or so now. To exchange books, for him to give me a tip or two, listen to me read, that kind of thing. I’ll try to get back before Bruce notices I’m missing. I’ll say I’ve been a walk or something.’

Talbot was making notes, scribbling on a pad, though he leant across to the table to ensure the tape recorder was working properly. ‘What time did you arrange to meet Jeff?’

‘Five-thirty this evening.’

‘Alright, let’s move forward, shall we? It’s now five-fifteen in the evening. What are you doing right now?’

‘I’m looking at my coat, wondering whether I should take it. It’s getting a bit cold. I decide to leave it there, so that if Bruce comes in he won’t think I’ve gone far. I look at the clock and go out of the house.’

‘Are you going to meet Jeff Lee?’

She nodded. ‘Yes, and I have to hurry or I will be late. I pick up my book and a torch, because it’s getting dark outside already.’

‘Tell me where you go now.’

‘I leave the house and turn on my torch. I take the lane that cuts by our cottage. It’s dark, what with the trees over the road.’

‘Are you scared of the dark?’

‘No, why should I be? There are too many other things to be afraid of. The dark isn’t one of them.’

‘OK, Sylvia, so you’re going up the lane. Where are you headed now?’

‘Out into the fields, across a stile, heading for the lime quarry.’

‘How far is the quarry from your house?’

‘Half a mile? I don’t know. Not that far.’ Then her entire frame stiffened, her eyes beneath her lids working away.

‘What’s wrong, Sylvia?’

‘I thought I heard something in the bushes by the side of the road. I shine my torch over them but I can’t see anything. I’m just being silly. I carry on, but every now and again I shine my torch behind me, just to make sure. It’s probably a fox or a badger.’

‘Have you far to go now?’

‘No. Wait a minute. There’s someone in the lane in front of me.’

‘Can you see who it is?’ Talbot pressed.

‘No, they’re in shadow. Oh, they’ve turned on a torch.’

‘Can you see who it is now?’

Sylvia squeezed her eyes tight, as if squinting in the dark.

‘I
’m shining my torch… I see that it’s Jeff’s brother-in-law.’

‘His brother-in-law? What’s his name?’

‘I can’t see which one it is yet, because he has two, but he’s coming towards me. He’s smiling at me. I see now. It’s Robert Cowper, from the garage.’

‘Do you know
Robert Cowper?’

‘Oh yes. Not a lot, but he seems a nice enough man.’

‘What’s he doing now?’

‘He’s asking me if I’m alright. Hopes I’m not getting lost in the dark. I tell him I’m fine. Then he tells me I won’t find Jeff up at the lime quarry. I start to get nervous, tell him I don’t know what he means.
I don’t know how he knows about us, see? But he smiles and says that it’s fine and that Jeff is waiting for me elsewhere. I don’t know what to say at first, then I try to make out I don’t know what he’s talking about, but he says it’s OK, he knows about me and Jeff. Do you, I say? He’s telling me not to worry, that he’ll take me to Jeff, make sure I don’t get lost in the dark. I tell him it’s OK, but he’s taking my arm, quite firmly, and leading me away from the lane. He’s chatting quite amiably. But now we’re entering a field. Where’s Jeff, I say?’

She fell quiet, her jaw muscles tensing.

Talbot tapped his pen against his lips, waiting. ‘Please go on, Sylvia. What is happening? Can you see Jeff?’

She shook her head quickly.
‘I’m suddenly blinded by bright lights, shining into my eyes. I put my arm over them to shield them from the glare. I realise they’re a bank of lights from a tractor parked on the field by the hedge. Robert is grabbing me by the arm. It hurts. I feel his nails digging in. His voice changes. Now he’s saying something horrid close to my ear…’

‘What is he saying, Sylvia?’

She wriggled uncomfortably in the leather chair. ‘He’s calling me a whore, a good-for-nothing harlot. I’m trying to scream, but he’s putting a hand over my mouth and I see another figure rushing from the tractor, a dark shadow bursting through the bright lights. As soon as he speaks I know who it is…’

‘Go on, Sylvia…’

‘It’s Christian Phelps… His dad runs the White Hart pub in the village.’

Sylvia Tredwin’s body twitched and jerked as she appeared to struggle with invisible attackers. Talbot was speechless for a second or two. ‘Are you sure, Sylvia? I want you to tell me the truth now.’

‘Of course I’m telling the truth!’ she said, tears being squeezed from her closed lids. ‘They’re both holding me. I can feel a sharp pain in my arm. They’re injecting me with something. I’m struggling to break free but I’m held fast. Christian Phelps is telling Robert Cowper to be fast about it. And now I’m coming over all drowsy. I don’t feel like fighting anymore. I don’t feel afraid. I see bright colours, flashing all around me, like a beautiful fireworks display put on just for me. Then the lights from the tractor – they seem to rise up into the air, so that they’re shining down at me from the sky. I look up, and a big black cloud gradually turns into a giant spaceship, with lights all round it…’

‘And you’re not afraid?’

She shakes her head. ‘Not at all. The two men have let me go now. In fact they’re not Robert Cowper and Christian Phelps at all, I’ve been mistaken all along – they’re two beautiful, tall, elegant beings with kindly faces, dressed in silver-grey costumes, and they tell me they’ve come to take me away from here. I tell them yes, take me. Take me away from this cruel place. I feel myself floating, up into the sky, wrapped in the warm, comforting light that’s shining down on me…’

Her face
muscles relaxed, became peaceful, as if she’d fallen into a deep, untroubled sleep.

‘Sylvia, what is happening? Can you hear me? Sylvia?’

She gave a lazy nod. ‘I hear you…’

‘Where are you now, Sylvia?’ Talbot was leaning close, hardly believing what he was hearing.

‘My clothes are being taken off.’

‘How does that make you feel?’

‘I don’t know. My head is still fuzzy. I can feel the cold across my naked body, and I’m being strapped down to a table or something. The walls, they’re metal…’

‘Where do you think you are, Sylvia?’

‘I don’t rightly know – it looks like the inside of a grain silo. Yes, it’s becoming clearer now. My head’s starting to come out of a fog. It is a grain silo, a large domed grain silo. I can hear voices, but I can’t move to look at them, because my hands and feet are strapped down. I’m screaming. I’m afraid…’

Her teeth began to chatter, as if through a combination of fear and cold.

‘What’s making you afraid, Sylvia?’

‘Christian Phelps, he’s here
again, and he’s coming towards me. I don’t like the look in his eyes. He’s asking Cowper what they’re going to do with me. Cowper says that everyone will think I ran off, left Bruce, so no one will know or care where I’ve gone. People will just be glad that the dirty whore has left Petheram. Now he’s telling Phelps they have to get rid of me, eventually. Dump me somewhere. I want to shout, but Phelps has his hand over my mouth. He’s bending close to me, and I can smell his breath he’s so close. He says that they can have some fun in the meantime. There’s no rush. He shoves his hand between my legs…’ She started to sob. ‘I tell him to stop it, but he continues, pushing his fingers deep inside me. He tells me he’s always had his eye on me. He whispers he loves me. He’s unbuckling the belt on his trousers. Now he’s starting to climb up on top of me; I’m fighting to get away. I try to bite his face as he comes near me and he strikes me across the cheek with a fist. Give the bitch more of the drug, Robert, he shouts, and I feel someone grab my arm and stick a needle into it… I try to fight the drug I know they’re putting inside me, but I can’t, I find I don’t want to… I want to sleep…’