Dead and Buried

by Anne Cassidy

  ‘Let’s go back to Anna’s.’

  He nodded. Rose got her mobile out and called a local cab company. Then they turned the kitchen light off and picked up the rubbish bag and the other bags from the landing and walked downstairs. Joshua locked the street door while Rose put the rubbish into the large wheelie bin along the way. They stood for a moment looking along the road for the cab. All the while Rose was thinking about Daisy Lincoln. She remembered Joshua’s story about her running across the road to meet her older boyfriend. The car hadn’t stopped where she’d been standing – it had driven past and she’d had to run up the road towards it. Joshua hadn’t seen the driver.

  Could it have been Brendan sitting in that car? Waiting for Daisy?

  ‘Here’s the cab,’ Joshua said.

  Rose picked up Joshua’s bags and headed towards the car.

  FIFTEEN

  The next morning Joshua went to hire a car.

  Rose was looking out of her study window, waiting for him to come back. It was raining, a steady drizzle. The street was empty and the house was quiet. Anna had gone out earlier. She was driving to Suffolk to see some old friends. Rose was relieved to be on her own. Joshua seemed frenetic in his wish to go and find their parents that very day.

  The previous night, after returning from the Camden flat, Joshua had found out more information about Macon Parker. He had spent most of the evening in the attic. Anna had been pleased. He’s probably sleeping it off, she’d said. Sleep is the best cure-all. When Rose went up to see him she’d found him feverishly working on his laptop, making notes by hand in a pad.

  ‘I haven’t got a printer,’ he’d said when she commented on it.

  ‘You can use mine.’

  ‘I might later. I found out some interesting stuff.’

  She’d sat down on the edge of the bed.

  ‘Parker has a number of companies. The main one, Quality Lifestyles, owns a company called Aftercare Residentials. It appears to be a hotel in Brighton where people who’ve undergone cosmetic or other surgeries can recover. It’s less expensive than staying in a private hospital but there are doctors on call, that kind of thing. Well, anyway, I put the addresses into Google to see if anything came up.’

  Rose was listening and not listening at the same time. Joshua was talking fervently, pointing at his handwritten notes. The bandage on his ear was starting to look grubby, the plaster on his cheek flicking up. He didn’t seem to be in such pain but he’d looked pale and harassed, his hand trembling slightly as he pointed to his notes. He needed to see a doctor she thought.

  ‘So this newspaper report in Brighton says that two illegal immigrants were arrested in Travis Place – that’s the road the hotel is in – and that they said they were legitimately in the country for renal surgery although no paperwork could be found for this claim.’

  He’d looked at her. She’d nodded just to please him. They hadn’t talked about DI Wendy Clarke and her mention of the Stiffkey cottage. It was as if they were simply ignoring it, getting on with other things.

  ‘Organ transplants. That’s what Macon Parker’s work is about.’

  ‘You look tired,’ she’d said, wanting to end the conversation. ‘Why don’t you have an early night?’

  ‘I will, I will,” he said, staring at the notes.

  She’d left him soon after. She’d closed the attic door and gone back down to her own room. Waking up that morning she’d felt a gloominess that was hard to shake. Today was the day that they were going to find their parents. Were they? Or was it all going to turn into another dead end?

  Staring out of the window, waiting for Joshua to return with the rental car, she wondered what it would do to him if nothing came of their search. Since Skeggsie had been killed he had been a different person, edgy, manic, full of purpose and intent that seemed to lead to nothing.

  And what would it do to her if they didn’t find them?

  Her feelings were unclear. Since seeing Brendan and her mother on the Skype recording she hadn’t wanted to find them. Their lifestyle choices had been too much for her to swallow. And yet the things she had recently found out from Brendan’s letters showed that relations between the couple hadn’t been right. Could it be, as she had once feared, that Brendan had led her mother into this? That her mother hadn’t really wanted to be part of it? And if so did it make her mother less guilty than Brendan?

  A car came slowly along the street. It was a black Ford and it pulled up outside the house. Joshua got out. He fiddled with the dressing on the side of his head as if it was irritating him. Then he saw her at the window and waved up at her. Something in her chest seemed to unfurl at the sight of him. He had no jacket on even though it was wet and cold and she wanted to go out and put her arms around him to keep him warm. He pointed the key fob at the car and she saw the sidelights flick on and off as the car locked. Moments later she heard the front door open and waited as his footsteps came up the stairs. He pushed her study door open.

  ‘Rosie?’ he said. ‘You ready? I’ll get my stuff and we can go.’

  His hair was wet. His shirt looked damp. She walked across to him and slipped her arms around him and put her face against his chest.

  ‘What’s all this?’ he said in a half jokey way.

  But she held on tightly and after a few moments he put one arm firmly around her, his hand gripping her ribs, the other hand holding her head, his fingers touching her hair. After a few seconds she tipped her head back and looked up at him.

  He kissed her.

  His mouth was warm and she felt the heat radiate through her, her head dizzy, her chest aching. After a few minutes he stopped and his mouth was at her ear.

  ‘We should go,’ he whispered. ‘We can’t do this now.’

  She stepped back, her skin flushed and tingling. He walked out of the room and she heard him head up to the attic. Up above her he was moving around no doubt picking up his laptop and his maps and notebook. Distractedly she got hold of her things. Before going out on to the landing she closed her eyes and placed the backs of her fingers on her lips and ran her tongue along the skin. Why go out at all? Why not just stay here, the two of them together, in the warm, wrapped up in each other’s arms?

  Then she heard him coming downstairs, his footsteps determined. Later there would be time for just the two of them. Later. She picked up her coat and followed him out to the car.

  The Ford was bigger than Skeggsie’s Mini. She had masses of leg room and seemed to be sitting further apart from Joshua. On her lap were the maps that Joshua had previously printed out. The car had no satnav but Joshua was used to the journey and in any case he’d told her he preferred to find his own way to places. The radio was on and they drove mostly in silence. The drizzle was turning into rain, coming at an angle and pitting the windscreen, making it glitter for a second before being cleared away. Even though it was only twelve the dark clouds gave it a feeling of being later in the day and made Rose feel a little tired. She stared out of the side window and felt her eyelids heavy. Joshua was driving steadily, not too fast. Cars and lorries were passing them, sending spray up into the air which washed across the windscreen and blurred their view for a second.

  They left the motorway and the traffic lessened.

  Rose felt hungry and they stopped at a garage and bought sandwiches and coffee. The man who served them looked at Joshua’s dressing and said, ‘You been in the wars, mate?’ and Joshua brushed it off with a mumbled reply. They ate the food sitting in the car. Then they were driving along country lanes and Rose recognised some of the landmarks from when they’d gone there before. She saw a sign for Wickby and they followed it and drove through the village, passing the green where the collectables market had been. Rose glanced to the side at the lane where she’d seen Frank Richards go a week before.

  ‘We’re going to drive through Two Oaks,’ Joshua said, turning the radio off. ‘Then we’ll park up and take a short walk through the wood to look at Macon Parker’s property. I want y
ou to see how grand it is.’

  She didn’t answer. Joshua had worked out a plan and she would just follow it. There was silence in the car except for the squeak of the windscreen wipers. There were no other cars and it seemed for a moment as if it were just the two of them out on the Essex lanes. Two young people staring through a curtain of rain, searching for ghosts from their past.

  They went through Two Oaks. A line of houses which bordered a winding road. There were no shops and no pubs. Then they were out in the country again.

  ‘I told you it was small,’ Joshua said.

  The indicator was going and Rose saw a turning off the road. They turned into it and the lane narrowed. They slowed down as they followed the track. After a few minutes they came to a wood and then there was a pulling-in place that was deeply rutted with potholes. Joshua carefully steered the Ford into a space and then turned off the engine and they sat in silence as the rain pattered on the roof of the car.

  ‘It’s a five-minute walk, mostly under cover. Then we’ll come back to the car.’

  ‘How is this going to find Mum and Brendan?’ she wanted to say. As if reading her mind he carried on.

  ‘There are twenty-six houses in Two Oaks. We’re going to knock at each one of them and show photos. If they are staying round here then someone will know. After that there are twelve houses in a one-mile radius. We’ll do all of those as well. It’ll be light until about five so we’ve got hours.’

  They got out of the car. Rose put her hood up and shoved her hands in her pockets. She followed Joshua on to a footpath which led them through some trees and then on to a straight path which was much firmer than the muddy terrain at each side. They walked for a while, mainly sheltered from the rain. Around them the trees were mostly bare so it was possible to see through them. Up ahead Rose thought she could see a solid wall. As they got closer something scuttled across the path and made her jump.

  ‘That’s the wall of his garden. If we go left here into the wood it takes us a bit higher and it’s possible to see over the top.’

  She followed him up a sloping path. It was less sheltered and the rain was heavier. After a while she turned around and could see the periphery of the garden and close by it a huge tree house with two platforms.

  ‘Wow,’ she said.

  The tree house was the kind children fantasised about. It was wooden, as solid as the tree it was built on. The lower structure was like a playhouse with a veranda. There was a door and a window and someone had hung wind chimes on a nearby branch.

  ‘Look at the size of that garden,’ Joshua said.

  It seemed huge with its own section of wood and lawn. On the lawn were swings and an elaborate climbing frame. In the far corner she thought she could see water shooting into the air – maybe a pond with a fountain.

  ‘Where’s the house?’ she said.

  ‘Beyond that wood. The garden’s so big you can’t see the house. That’s the house of a millionaire businessman.’

  Something moved at the corner of Rose’s eye and she swung round to see a dog shoot out of the wooded area of the garden. It was a black Rottweiler and it stood its ground and began to bark. It was followed by three more dogs all running towards the wall and barking angrily.

  ‘Get back,’ Joshua said, grabbing her arm and pulling her into some bushes. ‘Look, on top of the tree house.’

  Rose looked. Her eyes focused on the roof of the tree house. She saw the camera then. It was small and black and, as she looked at it, it seemed to move as if making eye contact with her.

  ‘Come on, we’ll go back to the car on a circular route. If anyone is looking it’ll seem like we’re walkers.’

  ‘In this rain?’ Rose said.

  ‘Walkers are a hardy bunch.’

  She moved away, the sound of barking dogs in her ears. By the time they got back to the car she was wet through. She took off her coat and put it on the back seat. She got into the car and Joshua started it up.

  ‘I’ll put the heater on,’ he said. ‘Then we’ll drive round to the front of the property.’

  They reversed, dipping in and out of potholes and went back along the lane. Joshua headed towards Two Oaks and turned off before they reached the village. The road was barely wide enough for one car. He drove for a couple of minutes then pulled over into one of the passing places that had been put there in case two cars came face to face in the lane. He left the engine running and slowed the windscreen wipers so they cleared the glass intermittently. Rose could see, about twenty metres along on the right, two large wooden gates. On one side of them was an electronic keypad and above it an audio link. At each side of the gates sat cameras that were meant to be seen from a distance. It all gave a look of fortification.

  ‘This guy’s seriously rich.’

  ‘Might he just be a businessman?’

  ‘No, for two reasons. His name is on one of the notebooks. So they’ve picked him out for some crime or other. Two, he started work as a normal salaried doctor. No one rises to this kind of wealth in ten years. Unless they’re doing something dodgy.’

  Rose couldn’t help but shake her head. It was a statement built on such slight evidence. A house of cards provided by a tatty notebook and a list of Google links.

  ‘Shall we go and show the photos round?’ she said, keen to get it over with.

  ‘Yep,’ Joshua said.

  The lights of a car showed in the distance. It was coming from the far end of the lane. It had its headlights on and wasn’t moving particularly fast.

  ‘I’ll just let this car pass then I’ll turn around,’ Joshua said.

  It came closer. It was a large black car and when it got nearer Rose could see the three-pointed star badge of Mercedes. She tapped her fingers impatiently as they waited for it to pass. Now that the sightseeing was done she wanted to get on with the rest of the day. She wasn’t looking forward to knocking on people’s doors and holding up photos of her mum and Brendan but if it pleased Joshua then she was prepared to do it.

  The car wasn’t getting any closer, though. It had slowed down and stopped just before the gates of Macon Parker’s property.

  ‘Why has it stopped?’ Joshua said lowly, as if talking to himself.

  He switched the windscreen wipers to a faster setting so that they could see clearly out of the window. The Mercedes was almost level with the wooden gates. There seemed to be two people in it but Rose couldn’t make out whether they were male or female. The car flashed its lights at them.

  ‘They want us to pass. Maybe they’re going into the property.’

  ‘Do you think it’s Macon Parker?’

  ‘I don’t know. Let’s drive past and see. I’ll keep my eyes on the road – you look around. The notebook is there, with his photo. Find it. Then tell me if it’s him.’

  Joshua moved the car out slowly as Rose rummaged through the papers and pulled out the notebook. She opened it. On the first page was the photo of Macon Parker. She looked up and saw that they were getting closer to the Mercedes. Their windscreen wipers were flicking from side to side. One moment the window was dappled with damp, the next it was clear.

  ‘The man in the driver’s seat is talking on a phone,’ Joshua said. ‘Maybe that’s why he’s pulled in. Maybe it’s nothing to do with the house. He’s just taking a call.’

  Rose looked down at the photo and then tried to keep her attention on the man’s face as their car approached the Mercedes. The Mercedes’ windscreen looked steamed up but cleared as the wiper sketched a half circle and then went back again. They were a couple of car lengths away and Rose thought she could make out a woman in the passenger seat but she let her eyes go back to the man to focus on him and the photograph.

  She was suddenly distracted, though. The wooden gates began to open. Small lights flashed on and off on the top of the gateposts and they inched back slowly.

  ‘The car is going into the grounds. It must be Macon Parker,’ Joshua said.

  She leant forward as the Ford came
up to the Mercedes. The man’s head was turned to the woman and she could see his phone clamped to his ear. The Mercedes started to move forward. The woman was staring out in front. Then the man lowered the phone and looked out of the window.

  Rose felt a jolt of recognition. It went through her like an electric shock. She turned forty-five degrees in her seat and kept her eyes clamped on the two figures in the car. The rain smeared the windscreen but then it cleared and she stared hard at each face for a few seconds until the Ford passed the Mercedes and headed slowly on down the lane. Rose unhooked her seat belt and turned round, hanging over the back of the seat so as to keep her eyes on the disappearing Mercedes.

  ‘Was it him?’ Joshua said, pulling into the side of the lane.

  She couldn’t answer. Her mouth was dry and she was holding on to the seat as though she might tumble back at any moment.

  ‘No,’ she said.

  ‘You all right?’ he said, puzzled.

  She turned round and grabbed his hand.

  ‘It was Brendan and Mum. They were in that car. Both of them. Together.’

  Joshua’s face tensed as the words sank in.

  ‘In that car?’

  She nodded.

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘I saw them on Skype. I know what they look like now. It was them, Josh.’

  The rain came down, drenching the car. In the lane she could see small rivulets forming, water running down the side and across the middle. The surface of the road seemed to glow.

  ‘It was. I’m not mistaken. I know my own mum.’

  ‘And Dad?’

  ‘He was driving. It was him.’

  SIXTEEN

  Joshua got out of the car.

  ‘Wait,’ Rose said.

  He left the driver’s door hanging open and walked quickly up the lane towards the wooden gates of Macon Parker’s house. Rose leant across and pulled the door shut. Then she opened her door and followed him out. She called to him.

  ‘Josh, what are you doing?’