While I spoke her gaze seemed to retreat from me. “You found what you wanted to find,” she said.
“How can you think I’d want that?”
“I wish I didn’t, but don’t try to tell me that isn’t what happened. It sounds to me as if the way they put the children to sleep affected you as well, but you had your own agenda.” Before I could attempt to refute this Lesley said “Did Phoebe Sweet actually say he needn’t attend any more, or did you simply take him?”
“What they said was that it didn’t matter. I’m sorry, Lesley, but they were never going to put right what they’d started in the first place.”
“That’s what you told him on the plane.”
Although I might have expected this, it threw me. “You did hear.”
“I heard a lot you didn’t want me to.” Her anger surfaced as she said “Well, now I know the truth.”
“I hope you do.”
“I know you’re so obsessed you’ve robbed Toby of the only treatment that helped him.”
“You can’t believe that after all I’ve told you.” When she fended this off with a stare I said “There’s more I could tell.”
“You won’t be telling it to me. You can tell it in court if you like.”
“Don’t take my word, then.” In desperation I said “Ask Toby where he goes at Safe To Sleep.”
“I won’t be asking him and you won’t either. In fact—”
While the phone provided the shrill interruption, it might almost have been speaking up for my nerves. “Don’t you wake him,” Lesley said through her teeth as she lunged to pick up the receiver. “Yes, who is it, please?”
I hadn’t heard an answer by the time she twisted around in her chair. “It’s your friend.”
However accusing this sounded, I had to take the chance to say “Why don’t you speak to her? Ask her what goes on at Safe To Sleep.”
I thought her gaze was dismissing the proposal, and I was about to urge Bobby to speak to her when she said “Not that friend.”
She held out the receiver as though she hardly cared whether I took it, and withdrew her hand so swiftly that I almost dropped the phone. “Sorry,” I said, rather on Lesley’s behalf. “Who’s this?”
“It’s Jim. I’m here in town visiting my parents.”
“Can I call you back, Jim? This isn’t a very good time for a chat.”
By now Lesley’s back was turned, and I couldn’t make out her reaction. The computer screen she faced was as blank as a void. “Can we get together in the next couple of days?” Jim said. “I wouldn’t mind a word.”
“I’m not sure what I may be doing,” I said and saw Lesley’s shoulders draw together as if to form a shield. “What did you want to talk about?”
“I’ve had Carole Ashcroft on the phone. She’s complaining you’ve got Bobby mixed up with Christian Noble’s mob and thinks I ought to intervene.” Possibly in case I might feel threatened, Jim added “I’m only doing it as a friend.”
For a moment this seemed woefully inopportune, and then I wondered if it could be exactly what I needed. “Lesley,” I said and covered the mouthpiece. “Don’t think for an instant this is more important than Toby and us, but I have to meet Jim.”
“Do as you choose, but please don’t come back here afterwards.”
“We don’t want Toby upset again, do we? Let me sort this out with Jim and maybe I’ll have more to say that you ought to hear.”
She didn’t face me as her shoulders slumped. “Just go, Dominic.”
I had to take this for agreement—resignation, at any rate. “Jim, where do you want to meet? Let’s do it as soon as we can.”
“You’ll know the Crown on Lime Street, won’t you? I’ll see you there in half an hour.”
Returning the phone to its cradle on my wife’s desk brought me close enough to touch her if she hadn’t edged her chair away. “Lesley, I wouldn’t be going if I didn’t think this may help us,” I said.
She turned her head to pin my gaze with hers. “I wonder if anything can.”
At least she hadn’t said she doubted that anything could—not in those words. As I made for the front door I heard her lift the phone. I was easing the door shut, less in a bid to overhear than to ensure I didn’t waken Toby, when she said “May I speak to Colleen, please.”
I almost went back, but Jim might well be on his way by now, and I had to believe he could help. As I drove into town the streets felt distant and brittle with jet lag. I parked three floors up beside the railway station and walked through the concourse, where an enlarged voice was announcing delay upon delay. I’d forgotten that the pub opposite the station faced the Forum, where I’d caught Jim and Bobby in the dark. The memory felt close to false after so much that had happened since, and I tramped downhill to the Crown.
The pub had just opened for the evening. A few dedicated drinkers sat by themselves in the extensive Edwardian room, beneath a ceiling like a pale inverted garden, florid with excrescences tipped with gold. I tried not to think of unnatural vegetation, but the stained-glass windows reminded me of the Trinity Church of the Spirit, however secular the images might be. Jim was sitting beside one with a pint of lager, which he raised to me as he stood up. “Same for you, Dom?”
“At least that much.”
Jim’s concern looked official but turned friendlier at once. “What’s the crisis?”
“Lesley and I may be splitting up.”
He gripped my shoulder on his way to the bar, repeating the gesture when he brought my drink. “What’s the trouble at home?” he said.
I reduced the pint by an inch before saying “Christian Noble and the rest of them.”
“You’re still pursuing that, then.”
“More like they’re pursuing me. Maybe it’s coincidental, or maybe someone recognised our name. Tina Noble works where our son was born. She gives babies a condition so she can send them to the place her father runs.”
“That’s extremely serious. Do you have proof?”
“Jim, you know how sly the Nobles are. I caught her at it once, but I’m sure that will have made her more careful about covering herself.”
“You caught her doing what exactly?”
“Performing one of their rites in the neonatal unit.” As I realised how much I was asking my old friend to believe I said “Call it some kind of hypnosis if you like.”
“Would it work on children at that age?”
“It worked on our son.”
Jim hesitated long enough to be suppressing the question he’d first thought of. “The place you’re saying Noble runs, is that where you sent Bobby?”
“I didn’t send her. She decided herself, but yes, that’s the place.”
“And what’s happened to her, do you know?”
“The Nobles have. They’ve turned her into one of them.”
“That doesn’t sound like the Bobby we know.”
“Exactly, which shows you how much power the Nobles have.”
“She did have a thing about Tina Noble, though. That could explain it, I suppose.” When I made my disagreement plain Jim said “People don’t always behave as you’d expect them to. Believe me, I see that in my line of work.”
“But you saw how rational she was last time we met. Even if I don’t agree with most of it, her writing is as well. Can you honestly imagine her being converted to the sort of thing we heard that time at Noble’s church?”
“Seems unlikely, only remember what I just said about behaviour.” Jim took a drink so measured it resembled a demonstration of sobriety. “So have you tried to snap her out of it?” he said.
“She’s in too deep, Jim. I let her persuade me to go and join in the rite they perform with the children.”
“You think she’s deluded but you reinforced what she believes. I wouldn’t have thought you’d do that to her.”
“Don’t you sometimes have to do things you really oughtn’t to get your job done?” When Jim met this with a stare that w
as at the very least a warning I said “I had to see what they were doing so I could save our son from it, and I hoped I could save Bobby as well.”
“So did you?”
“I’m afraid she’s still with the Nobles, in spirit at any rate.” I was distressed to be reminded that I had no idea what might have befallen her as a result of my visit, and could only hope her reputation would keep her relatively safe. “I didn’t even manage to save our son,” I said.
“You mean you left him with them.”
“No, it was his last session, but then I found it doesn’t make a difference. The treatment was never designed to stop the children having the seizures they have.” All I could risk adding was “It reinforces them, and that’s the state he’s been left in. He could have one whenever he’s asleep.”
“Are you saying Tina Noble gave them to him in the first place?”
I was distracted by a murmured conversation somewhere behind me in the room. Perhaps a missionary was on the prowl, asking drinkers if they prayed a lot. “I’m certain she did, Jim,” I said.
“I wonder if there’s a case for the police to investigate.”
“I was hoping you’d think there might be.”
Perhaps another man behind me was complaining that he’d paid too much for some item, but my jet lag made the low voice even harder to grasp. “Let me see if I can have a word with someone on your force,” Jim said.
“I don’t know if that would be such a good idea. Some of them are Noble’s people.”
The glass Jim was lifting stopped short of his mouth. “Where did you get that idea?”
“Two of them searched my car for no reason at all. Jim, I give you my word they let me know they were connected with the Nobles, but of course they didn’t leave me any proof.”
In my mind I saw their eyes and the threat of boundless darkness they contained, but I could hardly describe that to Jim. Were the men behind me complaining about holidays—about places they’d stayed that were hot? “Did you get their names at least?” Jim said.
“Farr and Black. I wouldn’t know what rank they were.”
“I’ve got contacts on the force. I’ll see what I can find out about your men. Maybe I can fix it so they aren’t involved in looking into this situation of yours.”
I had an unhappy sense that Jim was indulging me. Even fast choice of words seemed carefully ambiguous. I took the men behind me to be putting the world to rights, since I heard one encouraging the other to say what was what. They and jet lag meant I had to concentrate so as to respond to Jim. “Do you mind if I ask you another favour?”
“You can more than ask, Dom. If it’s legal and I’m able you’ve got it.”
“Will you come with me to the place Christian Noble runs?”
Jim frowned, though I wasn’t sure this was aimed just at me. “And do what?”
“Observe as much as you can. Maybe if someone besides me sees what’s wrong there, people will have to take notice.”
Jim brought his gaze to bear on me. “Are you thinking of your wife?”
Of course I was, but I said only “It could help.”
His attention drifted past me, and I thought he was considering my proposal, but then I grew aware of the conversation at my back. The harder I strained to listen, the more secretive the voices seemed to grow. Perhaps it was less a conversation than a series of repetitions, since so many of the phrases I thought I was hearing sounded similar: say what’s what, play a lot, say it’s hot, lay a loss, weigh a moth… By now I could have imagined my jet lag had begun to render them as senseless as a dream, and Jim was saying “It couldn’t be official. I’d just have to be with you as a friend.”
“That would be enough for me.” I had to drag my mind back to our discussion. “I hope it would be for Lesley too,” I said.
I’d almost identified the syllables the men kept repeating—not quite day of goth, I thought, and was no longer so eager to hear, never mind look around—when Jim called “Are you interested in us for a reason?”
I heard two chairs scrape the floor in unison. I felt fixed in the attitude of eavesdropping, as if the syllables I’d recognised at last had robbed me of the ability to move. I rediscovered the mechanics of my body in time to see the street door closing a last inch. Two figures so blurred that they hardly appeared to have shapes loomed on a stained-glass window and vanished. “Who was there?” I was anxious to learn.
“Two types who came in just after you and had a half of ale each. Nosey couple, but they didn’t like attention very much.”
“What did they look like?”
Jim frowned and took a drink, neither of which seemed to aid his response. “I mustn’t have been concentrating,” he admitted. “First time that’s happened since I put on the uniform, and it’ll be the last as well.”
His lapse made me nervous, and so did discovering “How much did you hear of what they said?”
“They didn’t say a thing, Dom. They just sat there trying to pretend they weren’t watching us.” Jim’s puzzlement subsided as he said “Anyway, I’m on for taking a look at Noble’s operation.”
“You don’t think someone might warn him in advance. Those two could have followed me here, you know.”
“No need to start imagining that sort of thing, Dom.” As I wondered if he might dismiss any more of my fears Jim said “And I wouldn’t care if they had. Can you take me where we have to go tomorrow? Then nothing’s going to stop us,” and I thought he sounded like we used to, not like a policeman at all.
25 - The Contents Of The Rooms
As Jim came out of his gate the sun raised its brow between two houses beyond the far end of the road. I might have taken this for a good sign if the intensified glare hadn’t blinded me while I parked outside his parents’ house. I was blinking a blank patch out of my eyes when he leaned down to me, and I fumbled to lower the window. “Shall I follow in my car?” he said.
“Let’s just use mine. One less to hide if we have to.”
Before he could comply I heard the rumble of a sash. His parents were at their bedroom window. “Enjoy your memories,” his father called down.
“Don’t be too shocked when you see how much has changed,” his mother told him, adding “And don’t get into mischief.”
As he made his way around the car I shut my window, which emitted the pinched squeak it had developed since the accident near Safe To Sleep. Once he’d strapped himself in I drove under the railway bridge beyond the junction with my old road. “What did you tell them we’re doing?” I said.
“Just taking a day to revisit old haunts.”
I saw one of those ahead—the Norris house. A recent coat of cream paint made it shine as bright as innocence, and new curtains outdid the sky for blueness, but none of this could quell the memories the sight had roused, the rudimentary fingerprints embedded in the photograph, the blurred voice that sounded as though it was struggling to shape a mouth. “Did they wonder why we were starting out so early?” I said.
“I don’t need that much sleep. I’m always up by now. I had to tell them you were too. We’re the sort who catch the worm.”
I couldn’t help recalling my first encounter with the infant Tina Noble in the graveyard. At least I’d managed a few hours’ sleep until it was time to fetch Jim. Yesterday I’d returned from meeting him at the pub to learn that Colleen Johns had been busy with a client when Lesley phoned, and had yet to call her back. I thought better of trying to ascertain how this made Lesley feel, and she proved to be no less reluctant to risk conversation than I was. Even on the subject of my move into the spare bedroom we kept up a painfully eloquent silence. I was hoping the lawyer’s lack of a response might give Lesley time for second thoughts about her when Jim said “So what’s the plan?”
“They’ll recognise my car if they see it, but that may be in our favour. Christian Noble doesn’t think I’m a threat, so he may well let me in.”
“How about me?”
“I imagine h
e won’t think you’re one either. I doubt he thinks anybody is.”
“All right, so we’ve got in. What are we doing about Bobby if she’s there?”
I did my best not to feel that, since he was a police officer, he should be planning for us. Perhaps he needed to forget he was for the duration of our mission, or simply thought our visit was my responsibility, which I supposed it was. “Maybe we can take her with us,” I said. “Maybe seeing both of us will bring her back to her old self.”
I more than hoped this could be the case. After all, we were adults now, not merely the Tremendous Three—indeed, not that any longer. Surely the three of us were equal to Christian Noble, especially given how unconcerned he was about who stayed with him. Either I’d forgotten what had happened to another journalist who’d stood up against him and his beliefs or I didn’t want to remember.
Shadows dwindled as I drove through streets lined with dark locked shops, and then the empty sky widened ahead. Jim and I seemed to have run out of comments we could usefully or even pointlessly make to each other. Well before we came in sight of Noble’s land I was wondering how to proceed if he didn’t let us through the gates. I could only pray, or at least my version of it, that there might be a way in that I hadn’t noticed and that Noble hadn’t bothered fixing. In any case, surely Jim must know a few tricks about gaining access to properties. I held off asking him—no need yet to remind him that we weren’t here by invitation—all the way to the spot where I’d crashed the car. I wasn’t far past it when my foot faltered on the accelerator. The gates that guarded Safe To Sleep were open wide.
I wondered if my approach had been observed, although why would anyone have been so eager to let me in? Perhaps somebody had just arrived, except the gates would have shut as soon as anyone had passed through them. Or was someone on their way out? When I came abreast of the gateway the avenue was deserted. “I don’t know what’s going on,” I said. “I’ve never seen the gates left open.”
Born To The Dark Page 26
