Lois Meade 03: Weeping on Wednesday (1987) (31 page)

Edward stood motionless. Steady now. Think clearly. I’ve always outwitted them before. Open the door, yes. They’ll break it down, otherwise. Open the door, stand back and let them in, and then…yes, then make a run for it. Take them by surprise. I’m fitter than they are, idle lot.

“Coming!” he shouted, and then walked through to open the door. It went exactly as he had planned. Edward triumphs again! But he was still heavy-limbed from the pills. He missed his footing on the narrow spiral steps, and with a terrified yell, went spinning down and round, on and on, crashing against the stone walls, until he ended up a tangle of twisted limbs at the foot of the stairs.

At exactly that moment, hundreds of miles away, his twin Enid stopped mid-sentence and stared at Cowgill. All colour drained from her face, and she screamed.

“Ed…ward! No!
No!
Ed…ward!”

Cowgill, toughest of policemen, said afterwards that it was the most chilling sound he’d ever heard.

“W
hat’s all that commotion?” The Midlands woman came through from the kitchen, where she had been washing up after a late breakfast.

“Can’t hear anything,” said her husband. He was studying a town map, planning their itinerary for today.

The woman went to the window, and gasped. “Oh, good heavens!” she said. “Come here quickly! There’s been an accident!”

They stood at the window, united for once in their curiosity, and looked down.

“Oh no,” the woman said, and put a hand up to her mouth. “It’s that man…I can see it’s him…Now they’re covering him up…oh, no, right over his head. He must be dead!”

The man took his wife’s arm and led her away from the window. “Sit down, dear,” he said. “We should just let them get on with it, I think.”

“I want to go home,” she said, beginning to cry.

“But we’ve paid for the full week,” he said.

She looked up at him, tears streaming down her face. “They’ve left the washing out…on the balcony…and it’s raining again,” she said.

“I know,” he said. Silence fell.

§

Lois sat in her office. She had heard Enid scream and began to get up. Then she heard Cowgill’s calming voice, and sank back into her seat. The telephone rang.

“Hello? Mrs M? Bill here. Just checking where you want me to fill in next week. No news of Enid yet?”

Lois couldn’t speak for a moment. “Well, yes,” she said. “There is news. Not good, I’m afraid. But go on over to the Charringtons, and I’ll speak to you later. I’ll speak to you all later. Thanks, Bill.”

Something sticking out of her desk drawer caught her eye. It was Mrs Abraham’s journal. She opened it near the beginning, and began to read.

Walter gave me this diary, and told me to write it every day. He said it would help. And he said to tell the truth, because only the truth would do.

Lois frowned. As on other occasions, she felt ashamed, as if overhearing a private conversation. Probably why I’ve not handed it over to Cowgill, she thought. Perhaps she should give it back to Walter, let him decide whether to make it public. But no, it had to go to Cowgill. Should have gone before. She read on, leafing through a few pages.

So here goes. The truth is that I don’t love Walter any more. Edward is everything to me. I don’t need anyone else. Walter knows it, too, though he won’t admit it, won’t let me go. I don’t want him near me any more. There, Walter! You said to tell the truth, so that’s it. All for now.

Lois realized she was trembling. Poor old man. She opened it again at random. The handwriting was wild, all over the place.

I wish Walter and Enid would go away and leave me with my Teddy! While she’s here he loves her more than me. He says he doesn’t, but I know different. Always the same, even when they were babies! That look between them! Why did I have to have twins? Walter’s fault…Twins in his family, not in mine. I wish…

The entry ended with smudged ink. Tears. What a pitiful woman, thought Lois, and shut the diary wearily. She left her office and met Cowgill coming to find her.

“I think Enid needs help,” he said.

She looked at him bleakly, handing over the diary. “She always has,” she replied.

§

Weeks later, weeks of tension and unhappiness for all of them, and another staff meeting had come round. Monday, midday, and the team was assembled in Lois’s office.

“Right,” said Lois briskly, “let’s get on with it. I’m interviewing some new possibles, you’ll be glad to hear. Now let’s look at the schedules for next week. Bill…”

There was a light knock at the door. “Come in,” said Lois, irritated at the interruption.

“Hello, everybody.” It was Enid, and she came forward tentatively, apparently unaware of their shocked faces. “Move up, Sheila,” she said, sitting down in her usual place. “Sorry I’m late.”

Lois hesitated. “Are you sure you’re…?”

“Quite sure,” said Enid quietly. “Now, Wednesday at the Charringtons, as usual?”

EOF