At any other time, Beresford and Crane would have grasped this opportunity to learn more about Meadows’s secret life with both hands, but now it didn’t seem to matter.
‘We’ll be miserable, each and every one of us,’ Crane said.
‘Yes, we will,’ Meadows agreed.
It occurred to them all – practically simultaneously – that the one circumstance they had not factored into their future plans was Monika Paniatowski coming back to work, and that the reason was that, though they knew she could come out of her coma at any time, none of them thought she would.
‘Phone call for you, Inspector Beresford,’ the barman called out. ‘Do you want me to transfer to the phone in the corridor, like always?’
‘Yes, please,’ Beresford said, standing up.
Meadows grabbed his arm. ‘If it’s some woman offering you a night of hot, uncomplicated sex, take it,’ she said.
‘I couldn’t,’ Beresford told her.
‘It’ll make it easier for us,’ Meadows insisted. ‘If you’ve gone, Jack and I can piss off, too.’
Beresford made his way to the corridor, where – between piles of beer crates and the men’s toilet – the other pub phone was to be found.
He thought about all the messages that had reached the team via this phone – and of all the cases which had been solved as a result of those messages. But it wasn’t going to be like that this time – there was no way it could be like that.
‘Speak to me,’ he said fiercely, into the mouthpiece.
‘Meester Colin, is that you?’ asked a worried female voice.
‘Yes, it’s me, Elena. What can I do for you?’
‘I have a problem, Meester Colin,’ the housekeeper/nanny said. ‘Mrs Monika is my boss, but Mrs Monika is not here, and even though I am two years older than my cousin Louisa, I think that she is in charge now.’
‘It surely doesn’t have to come down to that,’ Beresford said, wishing he’d decided to duck this particular phone call. ‘Can’t you just act as if nobody is the boss, and you’re just two girls sharing a house?’
‘But it is not right, this thing that she is going to do, Meester Colin, it is not right at all.’
‘What’s not right?’
‘Inviting that boy to stay with us.’
‘What boy? Do you mean John Green?’
‘Yes.’
‘Are you sure you’ve got that right, Elena?’ Beresford said. ‘You’re certain she didn’t just say John would be calling round?’
‘She is upstairs making up her mother’s bed for him, even while we are talking,’ Elena said.
‘I’ll be right over,’ Beresford promised.
Louisa was leaning against the garden gate when Beresford pulled up in front of her house.
‘You look like you’re waiting for something,’ Beresford said.
‘I am,’ Louisa told him. ‘I’ve been waiting for you. Elena told me she’d called you.’
‘Ah!’ Beresford said.
‘I want John to stay here, and he’s going to stay here,’ Louisa said. ‘And there’s nothing you can do about it, Uncle Colin.’
‘Would you mind if I came inside for a few minutes?’ Beresford said, heading towards the gate.
‘Yes, I would mind, as a matter of fact. If I let you inside, you’d only lecture me – and I refuse to be lectured.’
‘This boy’s just been involved in a very nasty murder case, and two particularly unpleasant suicides,’ Beresford reminded her.
‘No, he hasn’t,’ she said. ‘He’s not been involved at all. Through no fault of his own, he was trapped in the middle of them, and like the hero he is, he’s come out the other side unscathed.’
He should have sent Crane, Beresford thought. Crane spoke in the same way she did, because he thought in the same way she did. He would have known how to handle her.
But it’s not Crane’s problem, he rebuked himself. It’s my responsibility, and I should deal with it.
But how? Louisa had already turned around and was starting to walk back to the house.
‘How would your mother feel about this?’ he called out desperately. ‘Have you thought about that?’
Louisa stopped and turned around. ‘As a matter of fact, Mum rather likes John,’ she said.
‘Pull the other one,’ Beresford said harshly. ‘I’ll bet she’s never even met him.’
‘Well, no, she hasn’t, exactly,’ Louisa admitted, ‘but the last time she came to school for a parents’ evening, I pointed him out to her – and she said he looked rather nice.’
‘Is that what you did on parents’ evenings – pointed out all the boys so your mother could grade them for you?’
‘Why are you being so mean to me?’ Louisa asked, her lower lip trembling slightly.
Because I love you, and I don’t want you making a mistake, he thought.
‘Because not only are you being very stupid, but you’re lying to me to cover just how stupid you’re being,’ he said. ‘You didn’t point John Green out to your mother at all – you’re just saying that.’
‘I did point him out,’ Louisa said firmly. ‘I pointed him out – and nobody else.’
‘And why would you do that?’
‘Because of Thomas and James.’
‘Who?’
‘Thomas and James. They’re the twins.’
‘I know who they are, but I still don’t understand …’
‘Because she’s got twins of her own, I thought Mum might be interested to see some older twins.’
‘Are you saying that John and Mary were twins?’
‘Well, you knew they were in the same class,’ Louisa said, ‘didn’t it ever occur to you that they might be twins?’
No, it hadn’t.
‘Oh, dear God,’ Beresford moaned.
‘What’s the matter, Uncle Colin?’ Louisa asked, sounding slightly worried.
‘I want you to do something for me,’ Beresford said shakily. ‘There are things I need to set in motion, and I can’t do that while you’re here, so I need you to get into my car right away.’
‘This is some kind of trick, isn’t it?’ Louisa asked.
‘It’s not a trick,’ Beresford said. ‘Please, Louisa, trust me on this.’
‘It’s just a way of stopping me preparing a room for John,’ Louisa said. ‘Well, I’m not falling for it.’
Beresford moved fast, opening the gate, and grabbing her arm before she knew what was happening.
As he dragged her back down the path towards his car, she dug her heels in.
‘If you resist me, I’ll handcuff you,’ Beresford said.
‘Who do you think you are – and just what do you think you’re doing?’ Louisa screamed at him, as she lost another few inches in their tug of war.
Beresford stopped pulling her, though he did not release his tight grip on her arm.
He looked into her eyes.
‘Who do I think I am?’ he asked – and there was fury in his voice. ‘I’m your mother’s best friend. And what do I think I’m doing? I’m trying to save her life!’
EIGHTEEN
He entered the hospital through one of the service doors, just as dusk was falling. Already, only just inside the building, he was encountering a problem he hadn’t anticipated – a difficulty he hadn’t previously considered – because though he knew how to get to Monika Paniatowski’s room from the main entrance (he had cleverly made sure of that the previous day), he had no idea where he was in relation to the room now.
He looked down at the red line, painted on the floor to guide visitors. Where did that connect with the yellow line, which was the one he needed to follow? Did it ever connect with the yellow line?
He was tempted to beat a retreat, to come back again the next day, when he was feeling stronger and more resolute, but he knew he simply did not have that luxury – had known it ever since the moment he’d heard the news item on the local radio station.
‘The hospital reports that DCI
Paniatowski is showing definite signs of coming out of her coma, and the police expect to be able to talk to her tomorrow,’ the newsreader had said.
And he could not allow that to happen, could he? – especially now he was starting his new life.
He was still standing there, on an empty corridor, with a bunch of flowers in his hand. If any of the staff saw him, and asked him what he was doing there, he might just be able to persuade them that he was a visitor who had got lost. But that wouldn’t be good, either, because once Monika Paniatowski’s body was discovered, the staff member was bound to remember him, and it was not enough for him to kill Paniatowski – he wanted to get away with it.
The overhead lights flickered, and then went out. For a moment, the corridor was in complete darkness, and then the orange emergency lights came on, generating enough illumination for him to see where he was going, but not much more.
‘We are experiencing a temporary loss of power,’ said a reassuring voice over the loud speaker system. ‘Please keep calm. If you are attempting to reach the post operative recovery wing and can see a green line at your feet, take a left turn and keep walking until you reach the yellow line. If the line at your feet is red, take a right turn and keep walking until you reach the yellow line. If you are attempting to reach the emergency room, and there is a purple line at your feet …’
He stopped listening, because now he knew everything that he needed to know.
He silently repeated his instructions, just to make sure he didn’t forget them.
Take a right turn and keep walking until you reach the yellow line …
Take a right turn and keep walking until you reach the yellow line …
The power cut not only meant that he now had directions, he thought, it also offered him the perfect excuse for being lost, though, in these conditions, everyone involved in the hospital would be so distracted that it was unlikely any of them would even take the time to challenge him.
It was almost like divine intervention, he thought.
No, it was divine intervention – God was on his side as He had always been on his side.
By the time the full lights came on again – four minutes later – he had managed to find the corridor on which Monika Paniatowski’s room was located. Now, his only problem would be if there was someone with her – but looking through the small window, he could see that she was quite alone.
Though he knew he shouldn’t, he hesitated.
What would happen if someone came in when he was finishing Paniatowski off? he asked himself.
Then he was doomed, he thought, in answer to his own question – but when it was a choice between certain exposure and possible exposure, it was really no choice at all.
Besides, God would not let it happen – God would keep them all away until he had done what he needed to do.
He stepped into the room, and closed the door behind him.
The last time he’d seen Paniatowski, she had been breathing without any external aid, but now she had a large oxygen mask clamped over the lower half of her face.
He thought it strange that now she was so close to recovery she should need something that she hadn’t needed when she was in a deeper coma, but they had said on the radio that her condition had improved dramatically, so he supposed it must have.
He walked over to the bed, and placed his hands around her throat. He did not begin to strangle her immediately, but instead, just stood there, revelling in his feelings of power.
If I squeeze, she dies, he thought, and if I walk away, she lives.
He could understand now why God probably liked being God so much, and – accepting that if you didn’t use the power, you didn’t really have it at all – he began to squeeze.
What should have happened was that Paniatowski should have started to convulse as she began fighting for air. What actually happened was that Paniatowski’s arm suddenly appeared from under the sheet, and her fist slammed – hard – into his nose.
Hardly able to believe what had happened, he staggered backwards. He had a vague impression that Paniatowski was ripping her mask off, and a second later that she had pulled the top of her head – or at least, her hair – away from the rest of her, and then she was out of the bed, and he could see that she was much slimmer and lighter than Louisa’s mum.
‘Turn around and put your hands behind your back!’ Kate Meadows said. ‘Do it now!’
But somehow he was so pained and confused that he was unable to follow her instructions even if he wanted to, and he might have tottered around for some considerable time, had not a kick to the stomach sent him falling backwards in a somersault.
He hit the floor hard, and was still fighting for breath when Meadows turned him over and cuffed his hands behind his back.
‘John Green,’ Meadows said, ‘I am arresting you for the murder of Mary Green, and the attempted murder of Monika Paniatowski. You are not obliged to say anything, but anything you do say may be taken down and used in evidence against you.’
John Green, patched up by the nurse, sat looking across the table in Interview Room B at Crane and Meadows.
‘We should have been onto you the moment we started to understand the way the Hidden works,’ Meadows said. ‘All the children have a nearly perfect attendance record at school, because, that way, they’re likely to draw less attention to themselves. Yet when we went to your house on Monday morning, you were there, even though you were clearly not sick. And why were you there? Because you knew we’d be coming. How did you know we’d be coming? You knew because you knew that Mary was dead. And how did you know that – because you’d killed her.’
‘I will not deny it, because God does not wish me to,’ John Green said.
‘The boss tried to warn us about you, as well,’ Meadows said. ‘She knew that you’d visited her with Louisa.’ She paused. ‘By the way, it was very clever of you to trick Louisa into showing you where her mother was, so you could find her again when you needed to.’
‘I was led by the Lord,’ John said.
‘Interesting justification,’ Meadows said. ‘Anyway, as I was saying, the boss tried to warn us. She kept repeating “Loui’a” and “twin”. She got very upset about it. We thought she meant the twins – her children – but of course she didn’t. “Twin” was you, and she had to call you that, because though she’d seen you in the woods, just after you’d strangled your sister, she didn’t know your name.’
‘What do you want from me?’ John Green asked.
‘We’d like you to tell us the whole story. Can you do that?’
‘Why not? I first became suspicious of my sister Mary when I saw her using the pay phone in school.’
‘Why?’
‘Because only the Trusted Ones are ever allowed to use telephones.’
‘I see. Carry on.’
‘She was calling him, of course – that filthy outsider – though I didn’t know it at the time. I noticed that she always called at the same time, and I got Jennifer Black to stand near the phone the next time she made a call.’
‘Why did Jennifer Black agree to help you?’
‘Because she knows that soon I will be a Trusted One.’
‘Ah, yes, of course.’
‘Jennifer heard enough for me to work out that my sister and this creature were going to Stamford Hall the next Sunday, and I made up my mind, then and there, that I would go there myself.’
‘Why?’
‘To catch her in the act – to confront her with her betrayal of everything we believe in.’
‘How did you get there?’
‘I took the shuttle bus, and walked from the main gate to the woods.’
‘And did you catch them together?’
‘No, as I was approaching the woods, the animal was already driving away on his motorbike.’
‘So you went into the woods to look for her?’
‘Yes.’
Even from some distance away, he can hear her crying, but her tears fail to me
lt his heart.
When he finally reaches her, he finds her sitting on the ground, with her head buried in her knees. It is only when he coughs that she looks up.
‘What … what are you doing here?’ she asks.
‘I came to catch you in your wickedness,’ he says.
‘There’s been no wickedness,’ she tells him.
‘Don’t lie to me!’ he screams. ‘You have let that beast – that filthy creature – have his way with you, and now he has slaked his lust, he has abandoned you, like the whore of Babylon you have proved yourself to be.’
‘No,’ she sobs, ‘it’s not true. The reason he left me was because I wouldn’t do what he wanted.’
But it is obvious to her that John is not really listening.
‘Why did you offer your precious fruit to him?’ John asks. ‘Why didn’t you offer it to me?’
His words shock her so much that she stops crying.
‘To you?’ she says. ‘But you’re my brother!’
‘You must know I love you,’ he says. ‘You must know I watch you.’
‘What do you mean – you watch me?’ she asks.
‘I’ve drilled a hole in the wall between my bedroom and yours,’ he says. ‘I watch you through it. You’re even more beautiful than I imagined you to be.’
‘And you’re sicker than I ever thought anyone could be,’ she says.
He falls down on his knees beside her. ‘His poison is inside you, but it is not too late for us to purify you,’ he says.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I am God’s servant. In three years’ time, I will be a Trusted One. Allow me to travel up the same passageway as that beast, and I will cleanse you.’
‘I’m still a virgin, and you’re my brother,’ she screams.
‘How can you prefer him to me?’ he roars, grabbing her by the throat. ‘How can you?’
She tries to fight back, but he keeps on squeezing until there is no life left in her.
‘Why did you wash out her vagina with boiling tea?’ Meadows asked.
‘She still needed to be purified after what she had done with that creature,’ John said. ‘I intended to cleanse her dead body as I would have cleansed her live one, but I … but I …’
The Hidden Page 21
