Changelings
Page 29
‘But they did it again. The villagers. When they were threatened with discovery, they took up arms again. They went after Donovan with farm implements!’
‘Did they? Or were these honest country-folk on their way home at the end of the day when they heard a disturbance at the big house? – in which case what more natural than that they should gather in the front yard to see what it was all about. When a man they hardly knew appeared to have kidnapped a village child, of course they gave chase. It was only later they learned her father had asked Donovan to take Elphie with him. At the time they thought she was being abducted.
‘There have certainly been some unfortunate misunderstandings, M’lud,’ he went on, poker-faced, ‘but all the people before you today are guilty of was failing to blow the whistle on a deception which preserved their way of life fourteen years ago. They didn’t know Simon Turner was murdered – Dr Chapel’s dying confession accepts the blame for that. Your Honour may take the view that Sarah Turner and her son have more to answer for, but as far as my clients are concerned, the interests of justice might best be served by binding them over to keep the peace …’
Liz stared at her phone in horror. She was on the hospital steps, had wanted an update without going back to Queen’s Street. She knew if she put her head through the door she’d be there until the early hours, and she desperately needed some sleep.
‘You mean, that’s it? The people who killed Simon Turner, who tried to kill Donovan, are going to get away with it? Get their wrists slapped, and then go home?’
‘It looks that way.’
‘Is it me,’ she asked after a moment, ‘or has the justice system gone quite mad?’
‘It’s you,’ Shapiro said without hesitation. ‘The justice system has always been three clauses short of a Traffic Act. It’s trying to perform two conflicting functions: to punish the guilty and protect the innocent. Sometimes it has to compromise. Stick with the essentials: the truth, or at least the greater part of it, is known now. Elphie’s safe, and no one else is going to stumble on to East Beckham’s murky secret and pay for it with his life. If that’s not a total success, at least it’s worth something.’
‘You’d better explain it to Donovan,’ said Liz. ‘You make it sound quite reasonable. Whereas if I try and tell him, he’ll think he went through all that for nothing.’
‘How is he?’
‘Asleep. They put him on a drip and he went out like a light. They say they’ll probably hold on to him for two or three days but there’s nothing to worry about.’
‘What about Tyler?’
‘A bad enough injury. He lost a lot of blood before they got him stitched up. If it doesn’t sound too mean, I was quite pleased about that. If I hadn’t dropped Wingrave when I did, Tyler’d have bled to death.’
‘And Brian?’ Shapiro was ticking off the casualties on mental fingers.
‘Also on the mend. He’ll be home tomorrow. He’s going to need some expensive dentistry but everything else’ll heal itself.’
‘Was he able to describe his attackers?’
‘Not yet. But he’s been on painkillers since it happened: I think if I showed him a publicity shot from The Wizard of Oz he’d finger Judy Garland.’ She sniffed and her voice dropped and hardened. ‘But I saw them too. I didn’t recognize any of them, but that doesn’t mean they’re not in the files somewhere. Tomorrow I’ll start looking. And if I don’t find them there, sooner or later I’ll see one of them on the street. It may take time, but they’re not going anywhere and neither am I.’
‘Go home, Liz,’ said Shapiro wearily. ‘Go home and go to bed. Tomorrow is another day.’
‘There’ll be loads to get organized. We’d better make an early start.’
‘I’ll make an early start,’ he said sternly. ‘You will have breakfast in bed, then visit Brian. Then you can go see Donovan, and after that you can take some flowers to Mr Tyler. And any of the day that’s left after that you can take off. Put your feet up, get your head straight. I don’t want to see you in the office before Monday.’
There was a lengthy silence at her end. Then: ‘Isn’t tomorrow Monday?’
‘Tomorrow is Sunday,’ Shapiro said heavily. ‘Liz, for heaven’s sake go to bed. What earthly use is a detective who doesn’t even know what day of the week it is?’
She murmured apologies and rang off.
Shapiro sat alone in his office, alone in fact on the top floor, listening. But there was nothing to hear. No trouble on the street, no querulous voices rising up the stairwell, no running feet in the corridors. He smiled gently to himself. It was over. Peace was restored.
Though not for long. Soon enough they’d all be back in the old routine. A couple of days from now Castlemere would have caught its breath and be back in business, and thieves and thief-takers would once again be trying to out-smart each other against the looming backdrop of Castle Mount. But for today at least they could all relax.
His eye narrowed and after a moment he opened a drawer, took out his diary and traced down the pages with a stubby fingernail. Then he leaned back, satisfied. ‘Sunday. I knew that.’
By the same author
The Matrix
The Winter Plain
A Cactus Garden
Striving with Gods
Mosaic
The Mason Codex
Gilgamesh
The Going Down of the Sun
Shards
Death and Other Lovers
A Bleeding of Innocents
Sins of the Heart
Burning Desires
The Lazarus Hotel
No Birds Sing
The Primrose Convention
Broken Lines
The Hireling’s Tale
The Primrose Switchback
CHANGELINGS. Copyright © 2000 by Jo Bannister. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.minotaurbooks.com
First published in Great Britain by Macmillan, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Ltd
First U.S. Edition: November 2000
eISBN 9781466812413
First eBook Edition : January 2012