by Phil Rickman
‘Jeremy said Sebbie was resigned to there being a death in the wind, and he thought it was going to be either him or you.’
‘I don’t believe these hicks,’ Bliss said.
‘We use words like “superstition” in a loose, disparaging way,’ Merrily said, ‘but when superstition meets mental instability it can get way out of hand. And that’s why neither you nor Howe is going to get a motive that makes complete sense. That is, of course, unless—’
‘What?’ Bliss said.
‘Sebbie was drunk when he arrived, right?’
Brigid nodded.
‘Did he attack you?’
‘Not in any... I don’t know. It got stupid, all right? It was never really civilized from the start, but it got... When I said to him that there were these people who were trying to follow the whole curse thing back to Vaughan and wanted to deal with it once and for all, he just... exploded. Went totally berserk. This is in the van, right? How dare these fucking outsiders think they can come in and meddle, take over other people’s lives, other people’s pasts... ? And it’s snowing heavily now, I’m standing in the door of the van, trying to stay upright, and I’m going, “You stupid, drunken pig, we ARE the outsiders who came in and meddled and took over... it’s our fault!” ’
Brigid closed her eyes.
‘The Chancerys,’ Merrily said.
‘Yeah.’
‘Do you think he saw what you were proposing as an attempt to destroy his whole... power base, if you like? The Vaughan in him?’
Brigid nodded. ‘All the baggage that history and folklore had inflicted on the Vaughans, including an exorcism, a snuff-box and a big black ghostly dog – he disowned it all, and he loved it all. It was everything. It was who he was. Mr Sebastian Dacre, JP, Master of the Hunt, Sebbie Three Farms. He needed it like Hattie did. If there is a curse, they gave in to it, they clutched it all to their bosoms. Whoop fucking whoop. It’s like hunting – they know some of it’s vile, but it’s part of their... yeah, their power base.’
‘But it took a lot of booze to live with a curse.’
‘Yeah.’
‘What happened on the rocks, Brigid?’ Bliss said quietly.
‘Well, he started by breaking up my humble power base, as he saw it. He threw the oil lamp at the wall, and it went on the bed. He was set on a course by then, he made sure it all caught fire. After that, I don’t even... I don’t even remember how we got there...’
‘At the edge of the rocks?’
‘He was pretty drunk. I was thinking, what if he goes up with the petrol tank? Selfishly, I assure you, because I’d get the blame...’
‘What happened, Brigid?’ Bliss said again.
‘What happened?’ Brigid started to laugh and then choked on the smoke. ‘The last of the Chancerys – the last of the Vaughans – out on the edge like Holmes and Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls, that’s what happened. And the snow’s coming down heavily – you couldn’t even see where the edge was. And he’s going, “I’m having you out of here!” He’s going, “I’ll have the whole of the fucking press here by the morning, if not before. You can’t go anywhere, you can’t get out in this weather, but they’ll get in when they know. They’ll hire helicopters.” This kind of madness. Then he just starts backing away towards the edge, and he’s shouting, “What you gonna do now? Gonna push me over like our esteemed granny?” And I’m like, “Are you crazy?” ’Cause the snow’s built up this kind of ledge that projects beyond the edge, so you think it goes back further than it actually does.’
‘And he was crazy,’ Merrily said.
‘Oh yeah. But I mean, me too. I pushed the bastard over.’
‘You pushed him or he slipped?’ Merrily said.
‘I pushed him. I’m Brigid Parsons, granddaughter of Hattie C. What do you think, I’m going to try and save him?’
‘Yes,’ Merrily said.
Bliss said, ‘Merrily...’
‘He grabbed at your hands, your wrists, and you tried to hold on, and his nails tore your wrist...’
‘I don’t remember.’
‘You don’t want to remember.’
‘Merrily, this is not what we do,’ Bliss said.
‘This is not the interview room, I can do what I like.’ The heat was in Merrily’s spine again, all the way up. ‘This is Brigid taking responsibility again. She’s putting her hands up and she’s saying, “Yes, it’s me, I take full responsibility, it’s me, the flawed human being... it’s not the other thing.” ’
‘Merrily,’ Bliss said gently, ‘you’re forgetting the rest.’
‘No, I’m not. Brigid, did you go down that slippery, treacherous path to the bottom of the quarry in the blinding snow and beat Sebbie Dacre’s head in with a rock? Did you do that?’
Brigid rocked back in the chair, eyes tight shut.
‘I don’t remember.’
‘She doesn’t remember,’ Merrily said to Bliss. ‘You need to get Ben Foley in here.’
55
Sky’s Come Down
ON THE TV monitor, watched by Bliss and Ben Foley, Brigid was talking about life in a detention centre for young offenders where her peers regarded her with a kind of awe.
‘I was pretty much heartbroken for months. Couldn’t talk to anybody for fear of breaking down. That was seen as me being aloof and cool and dangerous. Nothing’s ever how it looks, is it?’
Merrily, crouching next to Brigid at the desk, murmured, ‘Mark and Stuart. Did they try to rape you?’
‘Get off my back, Merrily. Why would I give the parents any reason to like evil Brigid any small amount better while thinking less of their sons?’
‘You’re not evil, Brigid.’
‘Natalie,’ Brigid said.
‘Brigid...’ Bliss was sitting on the edge of the desk. ‘Do you say anything about Dacre on this video?’
Brigid shook her head. ‘He didn’t want any of the spooky stuff.’
Merrily saw Ben Foley wince.
‘I meant his death,’ Bliss said. ‘The death that occurred not long before you recorded this.’
‘No. Of course not.’
‘All right, I’ve seen enough for now, thank you, Mr Foley. Hang on to it, though. Can you make a copy?’
‘I did that before the power went.’ Ben was looking nervous, Merrily thought, his skin pale and porous.
‘Tell me how exactly you encountered Mr Largo last night, Brigid,’ Bliss said.
‘Well... I knew he was supposed to be coming back, to shoot the White Company experiment. Antony said he’d wanted to see me again before it all got going. He said he was on his way to Stanner Hall for the White Company.’ Brigid looked apologetically at Ben. ‘Actually, I don’t think that was his intention. I don’t think he’d have come back here at all last night if the snow hadn’t made it impossible for him to get out of the valley.’
‘You’re probably right,’ Ben said. ‘He was just going through the motions. I misunderstood his glee.’
‘He said he saw me in the Daihatsu, taking the track up to Stanner,’ Brigid said. ‘But then he saw this Range Rover coming up a bit later. When he saw that it was heading the same way, he decided to wait at the bottom, near the quarry, so whoever it was wouldn’t see us together. After... what happ—’ Brigid’s face tightened. ‘After I pushed my cousin off the rocks, when I was stumbling down, Antony must’ve seen me from his Shogun, and he came out to meet me, with a torch. He said he thought he’d seen somebody falling. Next thing, we both saw Sebastian lying in the snow, and it was... you know, it was pretty obvious he was dead.’
‘What did Mr Largo say?’
‘He said, “Christ, Brigid, what’ve you done?” And I was... stunned, I suppose. It was a bad dream. To find I’d... done it again. Killed somebody. Happening just like that – so fast, so unstoppable. You’re looking round to see if the world’s the same place you were in a few minutes ago. It’s like the whole sky’s come down on you. Like all the sides of everything are coming in on you. You c
an’t believe it happened, you want to turn time back. You can hardly breathe.’
She’s talking about the first time. Merrily’s fingers were clasped around the pectoral cross.
‘I really didn’t hate him, I pitied him. And there he was, killed so quick. Here one minute and ranting... and then just a piece of bloody meat. And you think... how can it—? And... and then you turn around and all your future’s gone as well.’
Bliss said softly, ‘And Mr Largo said... what?’
‘He said, “Oh my, Brigid, you’re in the shit here.” ’
‘He didn’t ask you what happened?’
‘He just said that. And then he said best not to go too near. He said I was obviously in shock. We moved the Daihatsu back to near the roadside, and he took me back to the Shogun and drove me off up towards Presteigne or somewhere. We went into this fairly big pub I’d never been in before, where there were quite a few people, and he found us a table by the fire and he bought us brandies. And he was trying to explain how it was going to be if they got me for this... like if they got me. I knew it was as good as all over, and I was hardly listening, just sitting there in front of that fire, thinking about Jeremy back at The Nant and his fire. That lovely fire. Thinking we’d never sit in front of that again, together. Thinking about Clan, what was going to happen to her now. Thinking how, when the Social Services got hold of her, there’d be nobody who could remotely understand what she was carrying around, and Clan, she doesn’t help herself, you know?’
‘He was right, though,’ Bliss said. ‘You were in a mess.’
‘He said, “Look, I want to help. I’m not going to tell you there’s nothing in it for me, that it’s any kind of selfless act, but I’m willing to up the percentage considerably.” And I’m like, “What’s the use of that, you can’t have a murderer taking a cut, there’s some law against it.” And he said no, the money would go to Clancy, in trust, or whatever. However I wanted to do it.’
‘And now the money you didn’t care about, suddenly that was meaningful.’
‘It was meaningful because I haven’t really got any money. I’ve got a farm and a man who belongs to it, so I haven’t got a farm to sell. And to keep Clan out of the System, that would take big money, to pay for somebody...’
Bliss glanced down at Merrily, then back at Brigid.
‘So you agreed.’
‘He said he had a contract already made up and he’d make some quick changes and put his signature to them, and that would legally oblige him to pay a third of the action to Clancy. He took the contract out of his pocket and he put it on the table in the pub. It looked legit, but how would I know? What was I going to do here? What would you do?’ Brigid did a swift sweep of faces, her hair swinging. ‘Any of you?’
‘So you recorded the interview.’
‘He said if we didn’t do it now, it’d be down the pan... which was pretty obvious. So we drove into New Radnor, and we parked off the bypass, which was still pretty clear, and he set up a camera with a light inside the Shogun. He had two cameras going – one he held, the other on a short tripod in the back of the car, shooting like a profile of my face. He had loads of batteries and stuff, and he clipped a personal microphone to my coat and we... we just recorded it in one go.’
Like it was being done at gunpoint, Merrily thought.
‘I just babbled on, I wasn’t really thinking about what I was saying. He asked questions and I just said the first things that came into my head, except when he asked about Mark and Stuart and I just said I hadn’t got anything to say about that. We must’ve gone on for nearly an hour and a half, with a couple of breaks so he could move the car a bit to stop us getting blocked in by the snow.’
‘And you were sworn to secrecy about when it was done?’ Bliss said.
‘He said it had to be kept under wraps or we wouldn’t make a fraction of the money. He said he’d be compromised if it came out he was a witness to the murder.’
‘Interesting,’ Bliss said. ‘What would this be worth, Mr Foley?’
‘A lot. Even now, Brigid Parsons is still big box office. Brigid Parsons back in the headlines with – I’m sorry – another conviction for a similar crime would be huge. Mega.’
‘Even an interview knocked off in a car?’
‘Makes no difference these days. You can get perfect quality anywhere. Gives it more of a sense of authenticity. By the time he’s dressed it up with other interviews, old news footage, comments from a shrink – you’ve got to have a shrink these days, and most of them will say whatever you want. Yeah, he’s looking at big bucks. Enormous bucks.’
Merrily said, ‘So how important would it be for Brigid to have done another murder?’
‘Like I said – mega. Court case of the year. Questions asked in Parliament about the monitoring of murderers who’ve been let back into society.’ Ben looked at Brigid, as if he still couldn’t absorb the idea of her as a serious killer, as anybody other than Natalie, his manager. ‘But most importantly, she’s out of the picture. This is the only interview anybody will ever get.’
Bliss said, ‘I know where you’re coming from, Merrily, but...’
Merrily looked up at Ben, saw his eyes go wide and still with sudden comprehension.
Bliss chewed his lip, then he said, ‘How successful is Mr Largo at present, Mr Foley?’
‘He... seemed to be on top. But then, in this business, nobody ever goes around telling people their careers are on the slide. I don’t really know where he is in the pecking order, I’ve been out of it for too long. Been out of it so long I trusted him. Thought he was a mate.’
‘But even if he was still successful,’ Merrily said, ‘something like this, that would still be the summit of his career...’
‘God, yes,’ Ben said. ‘Most independent producers would k—’ He swiped back his hair with both hands. ‘Figure of speech.’
Merrily wondered if Largo had heard Sebbie on the phone to Zelda Morgan from the bottom of the rocks, where he’d fallen. Probably not. Had he even thought of the risk that Sebbie’s fall could be ruled out as the cause of death and, if he had, might Sebbie still be alive? Or would he have taken a chance, anyway? She was a notorious convicted killer. Who was going to believe her denials?
She waited for Bliss to ask something, but Bliss was staring up at the window, chewing his lower lip again.
‘What would Largo’s state of mind be?’ she asked Ben Foley. ‘He’s waiting in his car, say at the entrance to the quarry. He’s seen Brigid going up there. He’s seen a Range Rover taking the same route. Perhaps he’s in the car with the headlights on, or perhaps he’s out there with the torch. But suddenly he sees a body tumbling down from the rocks through the snow. What’s he feeling? Shock? Incredulity?’
‘What do I say?’ Ben’s attempt at a smile was loose and nerveless. ‘Shock and incredulity aren’t in Antony’s repertoire.’
‘What, then?’
‘Seeing what looks like a murder happen before his eyes? A murder on a plate? A murder committed by a high-profile killer he’s been... lusting after – for reasons most of us wouldn’t like to contemplate – since he was a graduate trainee?’
‘In your own words, then, sir,’ Bliss said.
‘I would say barely controllable, very dark sexual... excitement.’
‘I see.’
‘Of course, the man has used me, lied to me, cut the ground from under my feet and left me humiliated, so I may be a tad prejudiced...’
‘Brigid,’ Bliss said, ‘when you came down from the rocks, what did Mr Dacre say to you?’
‘He didn’t say anything.’ Merrily was aware of Brigid drawing in a thin thread of a breath. ‘He was dead.’
‘All right.’ Frannie Bliss stood up. ‘I can’t let you go anywhere yet, Brigid, you realize that. But I won’t send you to Hereford. I’ll say we’ve had new snow. I’ll say something.’ He turned to Ben. ‘Where is he, Mr Foley?’
‘He’s gone, I think. Can’t have been too many min
utes ago.’
‘Back to London?’
‘He said he’d phone me.’
‘When?’
‘Sometime. Actually, it may be sooner than sometime. After I copied his video discs to VHS, I, ah, put blank ones back in his case.’
‘Naughty. What’ve you done with the originals?’
‘They’re here. I may put them under a stone at the bottom of Hergest Pool for a thousand years.’
‘Sorry, sir?’
‘Local joke,’ Ben Foley said.
Bliss thought for a moment. ‘Sod it, let’s get the bugger stopped on the road and brought back. I want his clothes.’
They went out for air, Merrily and Brigid.
They stood at the highest point of the forecourt. The view was immense and blinding under a surprising glaze of gaseous early sun. No snow had come down since dawn.
‘Is it safe?’ Brigid was staring at one of the small farms lying under Hergest Ridge like a trinket fallen from a shelf, and Merrily realized that this must be The Nant, tilted into the hillside, half submerged in snow. ‘Is it safe to tell Clancy? Is it safe to tell Jeremy?’
You could see something crawling slowly towards it like a beetle, perhaps the loyal Danny Thomas going in his tractor to see to Jeremy’s animals.
‘I think Jeremy already knows.’ Merrily gazed over the snowy forestry to Hergest Ridge: thick white icing on an old fruit cake, rich and spicy, dark and bitter and soaked in alcohol. Where was the Hound? Out there, somewhere, or existing only in the collective consciousness of mid-Border people, a shadow on the retina of the mind’s eye?
‘Can I stay here?’ Brigid said. ‘If it...?’
‘Can you?’
‘It’s a challenge, isn’t it?’
‘Everywhere’s a challenge.’
She was thinking about something Gomer had said about Jeremy’s island of calm in a sea of noise and blood. She wondered what would happen now to Sebbie Dacre’s three farms, whether some other robber baron would come riding over the horizon in his Range Rover, unable to spot the symptoms of history until the disease had set in. It was important to guard the island.
