by Tana French
I phoned him anyway. We had already talked that night and it was late, but he answered fast. Yeah? You OK?
Im fine, I said. Sorry, didnt mean to freak you out. I just wanted to ask you something, before I forget again. Has the investigation turned up a guy about six foot tall, solid build, late twenties, good-looking, fair hair with that trendy quiff thing going on, fancy brown leather jacket?
Frank yawned, which made me feel guilty but also slightly relieved: it was nice to know he actually slept sometimes. Why?
I passed a guy in Trinity a couple of days ago, and he smiled at me and nodded, like he knew me. Hes not on the KA list. Its not a big dealhe didnt act like we were supposed to be bosom buddies or anythingbut I thought Id check. I dont want to get blindsided if we run into each other again. This was true, by the way, although the guy in question had been small and skinny and redheaded. It had taken me about ten minutes of racking my brains to figure out how he knew me. His carrel was in our corner of the library.
Frank thought about this; I heard the rustle of sheets as he turned over in bed. Doesnt ring any bells, he said. The only person I can think of is Slow EddieDaniels cousin. Hes twenty-nine and blond and wears a brown leather jacket, and I guess he could be good-looking, if you go for big and dumb.
Not your type? Still no N. Why the hell would Slow Eddie be wandering around Glenskehy at midnight?
I like them with more cleavage. Eddie says he never met Lexie, though. Theres no reason why he would have. He and Daniel dont get on; its not like Eddies popping over to the house for tea or joining the gang on nights out. And he lives in Bray, works in Killiney; I cant see any reason why hed be in Trinity.
Dont worry about it, I said. Its probably just someone who knows her from around college. Go back to sleep. Sorry for waking you.
Its grand, Frank said, through another yawn. Better safe than sorry. Put a report on tape, with a full descriptionand if you see him again, let me know. He was already about half asleep.
Will do. Night.
I stayed still in my tree for a few minutes, listening for out-of-place noises. Nothing; just the undergrowth below me tossing like ocean in the wind, and that prickle, faint and unignorable, scratching at the top of my spine. I told myself that if anything was going to send my imagination into overdrive, it would be the story Sam had told: the girl stripped of her lover, her family, her future, knotting a rope to one of these dark branches for everything she had left, herself and her baby. I phoned Sam back before I could think too hard about that.
He was still wide awake. What was that all about? Are you OK?
Im fine, I said. Im really sorry about that. I thought I heard someone coming. I was picturing Franks mystery stalker with a hockey mask and a chain saw, but no such luck. This was also true, obviously, but twisting facts for Sam wasnt like twisting them for Frank, and doing it made my stomach curl up.
A second of silence. I worry about you, Sam said quietly.
I know, Sam, I said. I know you do. Im grand. Ill be home soon.
I thought I heard him sigh, a small resigned breath, too soft for me to be sure. Yeah, he said. We can talk about that holiday then.
I walked back home thinking about Sams vandal, about that prickling feeling, and about Slow Eddie. All I knew about him was that he worked for an estate agent, he and Daniel didnt get on, Frank didnt think much of his brainpower, and he had wanted Whitethorn House badly enough to call his grandfather a lunatic. I bounced a few scenarios around in my headHomicidal Maniac Eddie picking off the occupants of Whitethorn House one by one, Casanova Eddie having a dangerous liaison with Lexie and then flipping out when he found out about the babybut all of them seemed pretty far-fetched, and anyway I liked to think that Lexie had had better taste than to boink some dumb yuppie in the back of an SUV.
If hed wandered around the house once and not found what he was looking for, the chances were that he would come backunless hed just been taking a last look at the place he had loved and lost, and he didnt strike me as the sentimental type. I filed him under Things to Worry About Some Other Time. Right then, he wasnt at the top of my list.
The part I wasnt telling Sam, the new dark thing unfurling and fluttering in a corner of my mind: someone was holding a high-octane grudge against Whitethorn House; someone had been meeting Lexie in these lanes, someone faceless who began with an N; and someone had helped her make that baby. If all three of those had been the same person . . . Sams vandal wasnt too tightly wrapped, but he could well be smart enoughsober, anywayto hide that; he could be gorgeous, charming, all kinds of good stuff, and we already knew that Lexies decision-making process had worked a little differently from most peoples. Maybe she had gone for the angst boys. I thought of a chance meeting somewhere in the lanes, long walks together under a high winter moon and branches filigreed with frost; of that smile slanting up under her lashes; of the ruined cottage, and shelter behind the curtain of brambles.
If the guy I was picturing had found himself with a chance at getting a Whitethorn House girl pregnant, it would have seemed to him like a God-given thing, a perfect, blinding symmetry: a golden ball dropped into his hands by angels, not to be refused. And he would have killed her.
* * *
The next morning someone spat on our car. We were on our way to college, Justin and Abby up front, me and Rafe in the backDaniel had left early, no explanation, while the rest of us were halfway through breakfast. It was a cool gray morning, dawn hush left in the air and soft drizzle misting the windows; Abby was flipping through notes and humming along to Mahler on the CD player, switching octaves dramatically in midphrase, and Rafe was in his sock feet, trying to disentangle a massive knot in his shoelace. As we went through Glenskehy Justin braked, outside the newsagents, to let someone cross the road: an old guy, hunched and wiry, in a farmers tired tweed suit and flat cap. He raised his walking stick in a kind of salute as he shuffled past, and Justin waved back.
Then the man caught Justins eye. He stopped in the middle of the road and stared through the windscreen at us. For a split second his face contorted into a tight mask of pure fury and disgust; then he brought down his stick on the hood, with a flat clang that split the morning wide open. We all shot upright, but before any of us could do anything sensible the old man hawked, spat on the windscreenstraight at Justins faceand hobbled on across the road, at the same deliberate pace.
What the Justin said, breathless. What the hell? What was that?
They dont like us, Abby said evenly, reaching over to switch on the windscreen wipers. The street was long and deserted, little pastel houses closed down tight against the rain, dark blur of hills rising behind them. Nothing moved anywhere, only the old mans slow mechanical shuffle and the flick of a lace curtain down the street. Drive, hon.
That little fuck, Rafe said. He was clutching his shoe like a weapon, knuckles white. You should have floored it, Justin. You should have splattered whatever hes got instead of a brain across this wretched street. He started to roll down his window.
Rafe, Abby said sharply. Roll that up. Now.
Why? Why should we let him get away with
Because, I said, in a small voice. I want to go for my walk tonight.
That stopped Rafe in his tracks, just like I had known it would; he stared at me, one hand still on the window handle. Justin stalled the car with a horrible grinding sound, managed to jam it into gear and hit the accelerator hard. Charming, he said. There was a brittle edge to his voice: any kind of nastiness always upset him. That was really charming. I mean, I realize they dont like us, but that was completely unnecessary. I didnt do anything to that man. I braked to let him cross. What did he do that for?
I was pretty sure I knew the answer to that one. Sam had been busy in Glenskeh
y, the last few days. A detective swanning down from Dublin in his city-boy suit, walking into their sitting rooms asking questions, patiently digging for their buried stories; and all because a girl from the Big House had got herself stabbed. Sam would have done his job gently and deftly, he always does; it wasnt him they would hate.
Nothing, said Rafe. He and I were twisted around in our seats to watch the old man, who was standing on the pavement outside the newsagents, leaning on his stick and staring after us. He did it because hes a knuckle-dragging bog monster and he loathes anyone who isnt actually his wife or his sister or both. Its like living in the middle of bloody Deliverance.
You know something? Abby said coldly, without turning around. Im getting really, really sick of your colonial attitude. Just because he didnt go to some fancy English prep school, that doesnt necessarily make him your inferior. And if Glenskehy isnt good enough for you, youre free to find somewhere that is.
Rafe opened his mouth, then shrugged disgustedly and closed it again. He gave his shoelace a vicious jerk; it broke, and he swore under his breath.
If the man had been thirty or forty years younger, I would have been memorizing his description to pass on to Sam. The fact that he wasnt a viable suspectthis guy had not outrun five students out for bloodsent a nasty little ripple across my shoulders. Abby turned up the volume; Rafe tossed his shoe on the floor and shoved up two fingers at the back windscreen. This, I thought, is going to be trouble.
* * *
OK, Frank said, that night. I got my FBI friend to have his boys do some more digging. I told him we have reason to believe that our girl took off because she had a nervous breakdown, so were looking for signs and possible causes. Is that what we think, just out of interest?
I have no idea what you think, Frankie boy. Dont ask me to climb into that black hole. I was up my tree. I wriggled my back up against one half of the trunk and braced my feet against the other, so I could lean my notebook on my thigh. There was just enough moonlight, between the branches, that I could see the page. Hang on a sec. I clamped the phone under my jaw and hunted for my pen.
You sound cheerful, Frank said, suspiciously.
I just had a gorgeous dinner and a laugh. Whats not to be cheerful about? I managed to extract the pen from my jacket pocket without falling out of the tree. OK, shoot.
Frank made an exasperated noise. Lovely for some. Just dont get too chummy. Theres always a chance you may have to arrest one of these people.
I thought you were gunning for the mysterious stranger in the black cape.
Im keeping an open mind. And the capes optional. OK, heres everything weve gotyou did say you wanted ordinary stuff, so dont blame me. On the sixteenth of August 2000, Lexie-May-Ruth switched mobile-phone providers to get cheaper local minutes. On the twenty-second, she got a raise at the diner, seventy-five cents extra an hour. On the twenty-eighth, Chad proposed to her, and she said yes. The first weekend of September, the two of them drove to Virginia so she could meet Chads parents, who said she was a very sweet girl and brought them a potted plant.
The engagement ring, I said, keeping my voice easy. This was setting ideas exploding in my head like popcorn, but I didnt want Frank to know that. Did she take it with her when she split?
No. The cops asked Chad at the time. She left it on her bedside table, but that was normal. She always left it there when she went to work, in case it got lost or fell in the hash browns or whatever. It wasnt a big fancy rock or anything. Chads the bassist in a grunge band called Man From Nantucket, and they have yet to get their big break, so he makes a living as a carpenter. Hes skint.
My notes were scrawly and went at a funny angle, on account of the light and the tree, but I could just about read them. Then what?
"On the twelfth of September she and Chad bought a PlayStation on their joint credit, which I suppose is as good a statement of commitment as any, these days. On the eighteenth, she sold her car, an 86 Ford, for six hundred bucksshe told Chad she wanted to get something a little less beat-up, now that she had the extra money from the raise. On the twenty-seventh, she went to her doctor with an ear infection, probably contracted from swimming; he gave her antibiotics and it cleared up. And on the tenth of October, shes gone. Is that what you were looking for?
Yeah, I said. Thats exactly the kind of stuff I had in mind. Thanks, Frank. Youre a gem.
Im thinking, he said, something happened between the twelfth and the eighteenth of September. Up through the twelfth, everything says shes planning on staying put: shes getting engaged, shes meeting the parents, she and Chad are buying stuff as a couple. But on the eighteenth she sells her car, which tells me shes getting together the money to split. That the way youre thinking?
Makes sense, I said, but I knew Frank was wrong. That shifting pattern had slid into focus with a soft, final click, and I knew why Lexie had taken off running from North Carolina; knew it as clear as if she were sitting weightless on a branch beside me, swinging her legs in the moonlight and whispering in my ear. And I knew why she had been about to take off running from Whitethorn House. Someone had tried to hold her.
Ill try and find out more about that week, maybe get someone to re-interview poor old Chad. If we can figure out what changed her plans, we should be able to put our finger on the mystery man.
Sounds good. Thanks, Frank. Let me know how you get on.
Dont do anyone I wouldnt do, he said, and hung up.
I angled the screen of my mobile towards the page, so I could read over my notes. The PlayStation meant nothing; its easy to buy on credit with no plans to pay it off, no plans to be anywhere within reach. The last solid thing that said she intended to stay put was the phone-provider switch, back in August. You dont care about cheaper minutes unless youre going to be around to use them. On August 16, she had been tucked snugly into her May-Ruth life and going nowhere.
And then, less than two weeks later, poor grunge Chad had proposed. After that, not one thing said Lexie was staying. She had said yes, smiled and bided her time till she got the money together, and then run as far and as fast as she could and never once looked behind. It hadnt been Franks mystery stalker after all, it hadnt been some masked menace slinking out of the shadows with a glinting blade. It had been as simple as a cheap ring.
And this time, there had been the baby: a lifelong tie to some man, somewhere. She could have got rid of it, just like she could have turned Chad down, but that had been beside the point. Just the thought of that tie had sent her slamming off the walls, frantic as a trapped bird.
The missed period and the flight prices; and, somewhere in there, N. N was either the trap trying to hold her here or, in some way I needed to find, her way out.
* * *
The others were sprawled on the sitting-room floor in front of the fire, like kids, rummaging through a wrecked traveling case that Justin had found somewhere. Rafe had his legs flung companionably across Abbysthey had apparently made up their fight from that morning. The rug was strewn with mugs and a plate of ginger biscuits and a medley of small battered things: pockmarked marbles, tin soldiers, half of a clay pipe. Cool, I said, dropping my jacket on the sofa and flopping down between Daniel and Justin. Whatve we got?
Odd oddments, Rafe said. Here. For you. He wound up a moth-eaten clockwork mouse and sent it ticking along the floor towards me. It ground to a halt halfway, with a depressed scraping sound.
Have one of these instead, Justin said, stretching to pull the biscuits across to us. Tastier.
I got a biscuit in one hand, dipped the other into the traveling case and found something hard and heavy. I came up holding what looked like a beaten-up wooden box; the lid had said EM once upon a time, in mother-of-pearl inlay, but there were only a few bits left. Ah, excellent, I said, opening
the lid. This is like the worlds best lucky dip.
It was a music box, tarnished cylinder and splitting blue silk lining, and after a whirring second it plucked out a tune: Greensleeves, rusty and sweet. Rafe put a hand over the clockwork mouse, which was still fizzing halfheartedly. There was a long silence, just the crackle of the fire, while we listened.
Beautiful, Daniel said softly, closing the box, when the tune ended. Thats beautiful. Next Christmas . . .
Can I have this in my room, to send me to sleep? I asked. Till Christmas?
Now you need lullabies? Abby asked, but she was grinning at me. Course you can.
Im glad we didnt find it before, Justin said. This must be valuable; theyd only have made us sell it, towards the taxes.
Not that valuable, Rafe said, taking the box from me and examining it. Basic ones like this go for about a hundred quida lot less in this condition. My grandmother used to collect them. Dozens of them, on every surface, just waiting to fall off and smash and send her into a fit if you walked too hard.
