The Vows of Silence (12 page)

“What happened?”

Seeing him, tall and pushing his white-blond hair off his face in a gesture she recognised even in this short time, she felt intensely sorry for him. She saw not a man of nearly forty and a senior police officer but a boy.

“Simon, I’m sorry—first you find me in the kitchen at Hallam House and now here. I know what it looks like.”

“Oh. What does it look like?”

Children react like this, Judith thought, remembering how David had been the same. The best way was to carry on as normal and let them come round. Or not. She filled him in.

“The children have been fine. They’re all asleep now. Can I make you tea or something?”

“I’ll do it. I’ll make coffee. You?”

“Thanks. Yes, I would like some.”

He opened cupboards, took out the cafetière, set the kettle to boil, all with his back to her. She stayed on the
sofa, stroking the cat. Waiting. There was no point in saying more and making things worse. He minded. She had been in his mother’s place, and now she was here.

“Are you on duty?” It seemed all right to ask.

“Yes. Everyone is on alert at the moment.”

“The shooting, yes. Has there been another?”

“Yes. One girl shot dead, another hurt. And a false alarm. The town’s wired up with it. Every time someone coughs in a quiet street we get an emergency call.”

“All women. All young. And shot. For what? Dear God.”

She watched him pour the boiling water on the coffee grounds. There was something about the way he bent over, the set of his head, that made her feel for him even more. Richard had every right to be seeing her. She had every right to see him. But that would not be the way it seemed to Simon. He set the coffee down. “Budge,” he said, shifting Mephisto. The cat turned, rearranged himself into the small space between Simon’s leg and the chair arm and closed his eyes again.

I shouldn’t be here, Judith thought. I am an unwelcome intruder. She felt, as she had often felt as a widow, ill at ease and out of place in the midst of someone else’s family, another person’s home. It was the loneliest and the bleakest of feelings.

Twenty-five

There were six of them round the table. The Chief Constable, Chief Superintendent Gilligan, Armed Response Gold Command, a DCS from Bevham and Serrailler with one of the DIs from the Lafferton force. Simon had already done a briefing that morning. The wounded girl had died during the night without regaining consciousness. The team was out on house-to-house, questioning everyone who had been in and around the
Seven Aces
club, visiting the workplaces of the murdered young women. It was the usual routine, painstaking police work which might lead somewhere.

The Chief was grim-faced.

“Simon, are you a hundred per cent sure there is no connection between these young women killed outside the nightclub and the one …” she glanced at her papers “… Melanie Drew, murdered at her flat?”

“No. Of course I’m not sure. How can I be? But at this stage the only connection we’ve made is that they were all at the Sir Eric Anderson school. The nightclub girls were best friends. Melanie Drew was older. We’re still talking to people and we’re still checking everything—churches, sports places, societies they might have joined, even pubs and restaurants they could all have frequented. We’ve checked out Melanie’s husband and Claire Pescod’s fiancé but found no link at all.”

“So it’s coincidence?”

“Coincidence happens, doesn’t it, ma’am?” The DI spoke. “This is a lunatic with guns. He likes shooting. Doesn’t care where or who.”

Andy Gilligan shook his head. “That sounds casual and careless, and he’s neither.”

“Or she.”

“Unlikely, but all right if you want to be correct. The murder of Melanie Drew was carefully timed. Not many people about, she was alone in the flat, it may well be that it was being watched. The club shooting was from a carefully prepared spot, probably from the roof of Bladon House, though possibly from the old granary next door. There is absolutely no trace of anything or anyone—forensics are still going over it but there isn’t even GSR. Someone who is a good marksman, someone who has prepared a getaway meticulously … this isn’t a lunatic roaming round Lafferton with a pistol; this is a clever, cunning psychopathic killer.”

“Who will kill again.”

“Almost certainly.”

“But if there is no connection between his victims how can we second-guess where he will be next?”

“We can’t,” Simon said, taking a swig of water. “We can’t cover the entire town. We don’t have the justification.”

“Or the resources,” the Chief put in.

“This isn’t a terrorist.”

“And no warnings? No demands?”

“Not a thing.”

The Super leaned back with a groan. “The worst bugger of all.”

“Young women,” Paula Devenish said. “Let’s think of places where young women congregate. Let’s try to get one step ahead of him. Schools. The college. Where else?”

“There are two gyms and there’s the swimming pool.”

“The ice-rink.”

“Any more clubs?”

“There’s a place called
The Widemouth
in Monmouth Street … it’s a bar with dancing, though, not really a nightclub, and it’s more upmarket than the
Seven Aces
. It’s popular with the twenty-somethings. Stays open till midnight.”

“Any place opposite that a marksman could hole up in and get them in his sights?”

Serrailler and the DI said, “The multi-storey,” as one voice.

“Right. Let’s have some visible patrolling up there and in the streets around, especially when they’re spilling out at the end of the evening.”

Simon sat bolt upright. “The Jug Fair,” he said. “That’s coming up—weekend after next.”

“Why would he stake out the Jug Fair?”

“Why not? Plenty of young women, crowds, lots of noise to cover the sound of shots.”

“Well, it’s possible.” Andy sounded doubtful.

“There’s always a strong police presence there,” Simon said. “We’ve had some yobbishness, drunken louts causing trouble. I wonder if he would take the risk?”

“Better have ARV on high alert, even so.”

“We’re on it already, ma’am,” Andy said.

“Now, as there are two items on the agenda for this meeting, let’s move on to the second. As you know, the Lord Lieutenant’s daughter is getting married in the cathedral on the tenth of November and there are royals on the guest list. Security is tight, as always of course, but in view of all this, it’ll have to be even tighter. Royal protection will come from the Tactical Unit but Clarence House have noted the shootings and want a meeting. Eleven o’clock next Tuesday morning in my office—you too, Simon. Meeting with Sir Hugh Barr—the Lord Lieutenant and father of the bride—his PA, someone from Clarence House, someone from royal protection, the Dean and myself.” The Chief got up. “We could do without a high-profile wedding with royal guests.”

“At least they’ll pay for their own protection.”

The Chief looked over her shoulder on the way out. “We should be so lucky.”

Twenty-six

“Dr Deerbon?”

Short. Dark, close-cut hair. Clipped voice. She glanced at Cat. “And you are Dr Deerbon’s partner?”

“Wife.”

“Please sit down. Just give me a moment, would you?” She flipped open a file. Turned over a couple of sheets. Looked for some minutes at one, then a second. Turned to address Chris. “And you came in last night by ambulance to A & E?”

“No, I brought him—well, my father and—”

“Why?”

“Why?”

“Why on earth did you bring him by car? He needed an ambulance. With symptoms like that in a car without any paramedics …” She shook her head.

“I’m a doctor. So is my father.”

“GP?”

“I am—Chris and I both are. My father is a retired consultant.”

“Neurologist?”

“No.”

“Right.” She pursed her lips and was silent again, reading the file, turning the sheets over and back.

She was mid-thirties. She had not smiled. Always smile at the patient, Cat thought.

“I have the scan results here. Are you experienced at interpreting an MRI?” She looked at Chris but did not wait for him to answer. “It’s the best tool we have. It’s pretty watertight. How long have you had symptoms?”

He shrugged.

“He didn’t mention anything. We’ve been in Australia,” Cat said.

The doctor ignored her.

“Hard to say.” Chris looked at his hands. “I had a headache. All the last week we were in Sydney, but we were packing up, it was hot. I didn’t think anything of it.”

“Visual disturbance?”

“Slightly. I thought I might need stronger reading glasses.”

“You make it sound very vague. It can’t have been. Not with a scan like this.”

“I suppose I was trying to ignore it.”

“Not a good plan.”

“If it’s a grade-four glioma it wouldn’t have made any difference.”

“But I don’t think it is. Grade-three, possibly. Not a four. And though I think it’s unlikely to be benign, we need a biopsy to be sure. I could be wrong.”

But you think that is almost out of the question, Cat thought. Self-belief is your speciality.

“Thanks.” Chris stood up. “Not a lot more to say, is there?”

“Treatment. There’s that to say.”

“There is no treatment. Don’t take the piss.”

“If you’d sit down, I could go through the options. You may not be up to speed. GPs rarely are, I find. How long is it since you diagnosed a grade-three glioma?”

“About two months ago, as a matter of fact. Thirty-six-year-old man, six foot six, bronzed and fit, swimmer, diver, one of Australia’s many outdoor sports fanatics.”

“So in that case you know that in many situations we can operate to relieve pressure.”

“Depending on the site of the tumour.”

“This one looks possible.”

“There’s no point.”

“You won’t say that when the headaches become more intense, which could be any day now. We’ll also give you the maximum number of radiotherapy bursts—ten I should say. That will keep the worst of the symptoms at bay for a time. I’ll put you down to start next week. We want to get on top of this. It won’t wait.” She stood up. As she did so, Chris turned to Cat as if he was about to say something but instead was suddenly and violently sick.

In the car park he said, “Remember.”

Cat did not need to hear more. “Chris, don’t ask me. I would do anything to help you, to get you through this.”

“Anything except what I want.”

“You can’t ask your wife or anyone else to kill you—I can’t, I won’t and you shouldn’t even think it, no matter what’s happening to you. I don’t want to have this conversation again.”

He sat beside her in silence all the way home. Dear God, Cat prayed silently, get us out of this.

She made an egg salad and coffee and set the table on the terrace. It was as warm as June, the wasps sailing insolently close to their plates, but the stems of a dogwood at the far end of the garden were already turning red, blazing in the sun. The grey pony came ambling across the paddock to the near fence.

Chris said, “I didn’t understand what patients meant when they said, “I can’t take it in. I haven’t taken it in.” Well, I do now because I can’t.”

“No.”

He put down his fork. “Tell me what to do, Cat.”

She reached for his hand. The feel of his skin and flesh and bone, the utter familiarity of this man’s hand, was unnerving. She was thinking of it as the hand of someone dying, a hand she should not love too much because it was going to be taken away from her. It was unimaginable.

“I think you do as she said. She was a bitch. She should be in a lab, not dealing with people—God knows how other patients cope with her, totally bewildered by everything in there, not only by what might be happening to them but by the jargon and the procedures. She should never have to speak to a patient
again for the rest of her life. But she was right. You have to do what she said. You know that.”

“Is there any point? How long is it going to take—six months? Max. Do I want to spend that time recovering from brain surgery, exhausted by radiotherapy? I’m not sure I do.” He sounded infinitely weary, even at this stage, too tired to bother with any of it.

“Yes. They need to do a biopsy. They can reduce the size of the tumour.”

“To buy me time.”

“What’s wrong with time?”

“Oh, nothing whatsoever from where I’m standing.”

“Surgery and radiotherapy will buy you time—and good time, Chris. Maybe quite a long time. And if the biopsy is good—”

“It won’t be. They never are.”

“Rubbish and you know it.”

“Do I? What do we doctors say? Listen to the patients, they’ll give you the diagnosis. So listen to me.”

She smoothed her fingers over the back of his hand, memorising the feel of it. She said, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“No point.”

“Chris, I’m your wife.”

“You were going to find out. Why spoil the last bit of Australia, why put you through it before it was inevitable?”

She looked at him. Brown hair. Brown eyes. Long nose. Wide mouth. Flat ears. Not handsome. Not ugly. Not a face that stood out in a crowd. Not a face anyone would see and be unable to forget. Chris’s face.

He lifted up her hand and pressed it to his cheek.

“The thing is,” he said, “it’s not only that I don’t want to leave you and I don’t want to leave the children. I don’t want to miss them growing up. I don’t want not to be here, doing what we do, in this place. The thing is … it isn’t even that I don’t want to die.”

She felt the stubble on his skin. She thought that if she tried she could even feel the flow of the blood beneath it.

She said nothing. Waited. Whatever it was, he had to say it. To tell her. Whatever it was.

But he was silent. He held her hand to his face a little while longer, then let it go before getting up and wandering away across the garden towards the paddock. Cat watched him and as she watched saw that his gait was odd, uneven and slightly unsteady. She closed her eyes, knowing why, too terrified to watch any more.

Twenty-seven

The grounds of the hotel ran down to the river. There was a small hooped wooden bridge beside willow trees where almost every one had a photograph taken—the bride and groom standing romantically together with the willow branches bending over them, the water gliding by. Photographers were clever with reflections. The bridegroom would hold up a branch of willow for the bride to pass under. They would stand hand in hand, leaning over the bridge rail looking down. It never failed.