The Child Who

by Simon Lelic

  Leo’s eyes locked. He saw the notes in their envelopes in his bedside drawer. He saw his balled-up socks and his stash of emergency twenties. He saw Ellie’s blood. He saw her hair. He saw the words on that final note and he saw that the words, all along, had held the truth: who had written them, and why.

  -

  She does not need to look to be able to see it. She tries, though, to view it through her husband’s eyes, to reconcile the image with what they both, probably, would have expected.

  The woman is thin. That much is programmed into her DNA. Not a worrying, wiry thin, however. Just the wrong side, in Megan’s mind, of a size ten. A pound or two extra would not hurt, particularly on those narrow hips, but overall she appears fit, healthy.

  Her hair has been dyed dark. It has been cropped, too, into a boyish cut that Megan does not care for but hair grows, styles change. She recalls some of the hairstyles she wore when she was young. The perms, for instance. My God, the perms.

  The pallor has gone. There is a depth of colour to her freckles that worried Megan at first. In this country, she reasoned, only people who spend most of their time outdoors develop such tone to their skin. Gardeners, for instance. Street sweepers. Street sleepers. But she convinced herself, in the end, that the colour was a good thing. A lack of it, after all, would have worried her more. And anyway the shot, from the fullness of the trees, appears to have been taken in the summer. Last summer. Which made it recent, when Megan first saw it.

  Would Leo have recognised her, if he passed her on the street? Would Megan have? The answer scares her, every time. Place the woman side by side with the sketches they had drawn up, for instance, and you would not assume you were looking at the same person. Ellie might have seen her face on a lamp post and not realised she was looking in a mirror.

  Megan shifts to disguise the shiver.

  ‘Who’s this?’

  She glances at the tip of Leo’s finger, at the chin nestled on her daughter’s shoulder. She turns back to face the road.

  ‘Her friend. Samantha. Maybe more than a friend – I haven’t worked it out.’

  ‘Have you met her?’ Leo’s eyes do not move from the photograph.

  ‘No. But she keeps saying.’

  Leo shakes his head slightly, ousts air through his nostrils. It is a mannerism, in the course of the drive, she has become used to.

  ‘Look,’ he says. ‘Look at her grinning.’ Ellie, he means. Their daughter. ‘You remember what she used to be like in photos? How she used to scowl? You had to sneak up on her just to get a shot. Remember?’

  She does. She smiles.

  Leo shakes his head again. He turns to the window and seems to register for the first time where they are, where they are headed. He peers along the motorway and frowns. ‘Are we nearly there yet?’

  Megan just laughs.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Nothing,’ she says. Then, ‘An hour, I’d say. Maybe less. Are you hungry? There’re some services coming up.’

  ‘No. Keep driving. Unless you’d like me to?’

  Megan’s hands slide to greet each other on the steering wheel. ‘I’m okay.’ She glances and Leo catches her.

  ‘What?’ he says again. ‘What’s wrong?’

  This time she allows her exasperation to show. ‘You,’ she says. ‘Being nice. Offering to drive.’ She glares at the tarmac.

  ‘What? What’s wrong with that? You’re tired, I expect. I should have offered earlier.’

  ‘You know what I mean.’ She glances again and sees that he does.

  ‘Look. Meg. She wrote to you. She didn’t write to me.’

  Megan says nothing.

  ‘You only did what she asked you to. I can hardly blame you for that.’

  She shakes her head, expels a breath. Leo turns away, as though happy to leave it at that.

  Megan, though, is not. ‘I had no right.’

  ‘Meg—’

  ‘I didn’t! If it were you… If you’d been me…’

  ‘Please. Don’t start that. She asked you not to tell me. She told you not to.’

  ‘But it was up to me. Wasn’t it? Whether or not to agree.’

  ‘I’m not sure it was, actually. Knowing our daughter, I’m not sure you had very much choice in the matter.’

  ‘I could have argued, though. How do you know I even argued?’

  ‘Because I know you.’

  ‘But…’ Megan sighed. ‘So many times. So many times I nearly called you. And I was always going to, you know. It was only ever a question of when.’

  ‘You’ve told me now, Meg. I know now. Let’s leave it at that.’

  ‘I was terrified, Leo. You understand that, don’t you? I couldn’t have faced losing her again. I kept saying to myself: after the next time I see her. Or the next letter she sends. I’ll tell him then.’ Megan turns from the road, watching for Leo’s response. ‘Can’t you be angry at least?’

  ‘Because that will help, do you think?’

  ‘Yes!’

  Leo shakes his head. ‘I can’t. Not with her. Not with you.’

  Megan glowers but her husband just watches the road. ‘It was my fault too, you realise. She ran from the both of us, not just you.’

  ‘I know.’

  Megan is thrown momentarily by his answer. Which part of what she said, exactly, is he agreeing to?

  Leo notices her expression and shrugs a smile. ‘We made mistakes, Meg. Both of us, just like all parents do. But mine were bigger.’

  He does not give her time to consider an answer.

  ‘Can I see them again?’ he says. ‘The letters?’

  ‘What? Yes. Of course.’ As though he should not even have to ask. As though at any point in the past six months, all he ever had to do was ask.

  He dips into the footwell towards her handbag.

  ‘Oh,’ she says. ‘I almost forgot. My purse. It should be in there.’

  Bent double, he shows it to her. ‘What do you need?’

  ‘At the back. Behind all the receipts. There should be two twenties.’

  He rummages, finds them. They unfold by themselves and he holds them out.

  ‘They’re yours,’ she says and smiles at his frown. ‘She gave me a cheque, made me promise to cash it. Said if ever I got a chance, I should slip the money into your wallet.’

  Two twenties. The same number as were missing, when Leo finally got round to counting, from his bedside drawer. The place Ellie found them. The place, looking for the magazine article that had so angered Megan, she had discovered Vincent Blake’s notes.

  Leo folds up the money. ‘Petrol kitty,’ he says and takes his time tucking them back in the place he found them. He takes out the letters instead and leans back with them piled on his lap. He casts his focus through the windscreen, at the spots of lazy rain and the cars beginning to bunch at the approaching junction.

  ‘It’s the thing she regrets most, you know,’ Megan tells him as the car slows. She checks for some reaction. ‘The note,’ she continues. ‘She doesn’t say so in the letters but it’s what she told me. Last time. I know she meant it.’

  Leo looks at the letters in his lap. He picks up the topmost envelope. He puts it back and flips the pile the other way up.

  ‘She was angry, Leo. Scared above all. Especially when she saw what that man wrote.’

  ‘I don’t blame her,’ Leo says. ‘I told you.’ He takes a letter – the first one, this time – from its envelope. He lifts it closer to his face as though he were short-sighted. For everything else that has deteriorated about him…

  No. Not deteriorated.

  For everything else that has altered about him, Megan knows there is nothing wrong with her husband’s eyes.

  He is smelling it.

  She turns to conceal her smile. He seems to notice and coughs his embarrassment. He angles his head to show he is reading.

  If he asked her to, she could read the letter to him. Mum, it starts. I don’t really know where to begin. She has committed
to memory all twenty-seven lines, as well as all fifty-six from the second letter, each and every one of the third, fourth, fifth. And sixth. There are six letters in total. The first arrived with the photograph last autumn, for no reason that her daughter has been willing so far to reveal. Because she is happy, is Megan’s guess. Because her happiness has given her strength. The other letters came one at a time every four or five weeks. Not enough. Not nearly enough. Especially as they say so little: gossip, mainly, about Ellie’s friends. But that she has friends is in itself wondrous. Her friends and also her smile. Plus, now, they have met. Three times; roughly once in each of the past few months. At Ellie’s suggestion. Only ever at Ellie’s suggestion. Which is fine, not fine, all Megan can ask for. It is building. Re-building. It is killing her but it is making her whole.

  Mum. I don’t really know where to begin.

  She looks at Leo. She watches him read. She turns back to face the road and recites the lines in her mind along with him.

  ‘Here. Or a bit further in. This is the nice part. The expensive part. Acton’s cheaper. Closer to Ellie, too. Although I’m not even sure I can afford Acton.’

  Leo, she can tell, is exaggerating his interest. He is impatient. He would rather not have taken the detour.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she says. ‘I’ll turn around. Head back to the ring road.’

  ‘No. Honestly. It’s fine. I’d like to see.’

  She narrows her eyes at him. ‘Now you’re stalling.’

  ‘I’m not. What kind of place are you looking for?’

  ‘You are. Just a flat. Three bedrooms, if I can.’

  ‘I’m nervous. That’s all. Three bedrooms sounds okay.’

  She smiles. She is not beyond feeling nervous herself. ‘Two,’ she says. ‘It will probably be two. I’d like a garden for Rupert but it seems like a frivolous expense.’

  ‘Rupert?’ Leo turns. ‘Rupert’s still alive? But she must be…’

  ‘…on her last legs. That’s what I mean. I have my doubts, actually, that she’ll make it to moving day. That’s why I’ve never mentioned her to Ellie.’

  ‘You should,’ Leo says. ‘She’d be pleased.’ He shakes his head again at the never-ending wonderment.

  ‘Either way,’ says Megan, thinking once more about the flat. ‘There’ll be a spare bedroom. In case you ever… I mean, if anyone ever…’

  She flushes. She turns away. She does not even pause to see whether Leo has reddened too.

  Her husband, after a moment, clears his throat. ‘I’m up here a lot, as it happens. You know. For work.’

  Work. It is how he has been referring to it since she asked about it. He is, in Megan’s opinion, belittling himself with the term.

  ‘How’s that going?’ she asks.

  ‘Oh,’ he says, ‘you know.’ He does not think she genuinely wants to hear.

  ‘Tell me. Please.’ They reach a roundabout and Megan swings the car the way they have come.

  ‘Slowly,’ Leo says. ‘The campaigning part, I mean. But we’ve made a nuisance of ourselves, got some backbench support. Lib Dems, mainly.’ He shrugs. ‘But still.’

  But still indeed. She thinks of Leo’s father. She wonders if Leo realises how proud Matthew would be.

  ‘And Karen? She’s working with you?’

  Leo nods. ‘Karen’s involved. She’s a big part of it, actually, especially after her experiences with… I mean… Given her experience.’

  ‘With Daniel.’ Megan says the name and, for the first time she can remember, she does not shudder.

  Leo looks at her. ‘That’s right. Also,’ he adds, ‘a barrister I used to work with. He was involved with Daniel’s case too. And there are others. Other lawyers, other therapists, a judge. It helps that it’s people who work with the law who are arguing that the law is an ass.’

  ‘And the pro bono stuff?’

  Leo’s face shines. ‘It’s good. I mean, Howard’s been great. He’s retired now but he was the one who helped me get it all set up.’

  ‘You work with kids, you said? Just kids?’

  ‘Exclusively. Which means I travel a fair bit. Around the south-west mainly. Also, here.’ He gestures at the North Circular. ‘Believe me, there’s plenty of work. Hardly anyone specialises in it, you see. No one’s qualified to. Which is frustrating enough in itself.’ He finishes with a shrug.

  ‘You do look tired, Leo. Are you eating properly?’

  Leo purses his lips, as though to snip off a smile. ‘When I can,’ he says. He seems to consider for a moment. His expression hardens. ‘It sounds heartless, probably,’ he says. ‘But Daniel: what happened to him. It will help. In the long run. I won’t let it not.’ There is a hint of a challenge in his tone. Megan does not rise to it.

  ‘Not heartless, Leo.’ She indicates, turns, glances. ‘Never that.’

  They have been parked, by Megan’s estimation, for thirteen minutes. If they leave it any longer, they will be late.

  ‘Leo. We should go.’

  Her husband stares at the shopfront, as though the coffeeshop signage were something outlandish.

  ‘Leo. It will be fine. I promise.’ Will it? Does she?

  Leo turns to her. ‘I shouldn’t be here.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I shouldn’t have come. It’s not fair. She should have warning.’

  The thought has occurred to Megan too. More than that: it has nagged at her, like a child growing fitful in the back seat. What if I ruin it? she keeps thinking, the very thought that stopped her telling Leo from the start.

  ‘Don’t be silly,’ she says. She opens the car door before she can stop herself.

  ‘Megan. Wait.’

  She shuts it again.

  ‘What should I say to her?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘When I see her. What should I say to her?’

  She would dismiss it as a foolish question. But she knows, having been there, that it is not.

  ‘She’s studying, you know: catching up,’ Megan says. ‘She wants to be a lawyer.’ She slightly overplays her disdain. ‘So you could tell her, for starters, to get a proper job.’

  Leo, clearly, does not get the joke. He is staring again; working himself, she can tell, into a state.

  Megan checks the clock again. She sighs. She says, ‘Leo,’ and taps her watch and then gestures through the windscreen towards…

  Her daughter. Their daughter. Standing in the coffee-shop doorway. And it is clear, now, why Leo is staring so. She has been here, too. On the brink. Toes to the edge. Dazzled by the thing before them and praying – not quite believing – it is really real.

  Their daughter. His daughter. Searching now, stepping now – and finally spotting them.

  Both.

  ‘Go.’

  He does not move.

  ‘Go. Leo!’

  She leans. She opens his door. ‘Go,’ she says again. ‘Go ahead.’

  Because she was right that this was right. She can see, with her own eyes: her daughter with her hand across her mouth; her husband, standing, trying to, hauling himself up by the door frame of the car. He takes a step. She does. And Megan watches as her family comes together.

  Also by Simon Lelic

  RUPTURE

  THE FACILITY

  Acknowledgements

  Love and thanks, as ever, to my unfailingly supportive family and friends. For their help and insight during the research and writing of this book, I owe a debt in particular to Sandra Higgison, Darryl Hobden, Andy Hood, Hanne Stevens and Amanda Thornton. Without their collective generosity, in terms of time and expertise, I would still be staring at a blinking cursor. Thank you, equally, to all at Macmillan, Penguin, the Zoe Pagnamenta Agency, Andrew Nurnberg Associates and Felicity Bryan Associates. Emma Bravo, Kathryn Court, Sophie Orme, Zoe Pagnamenta, Maria Rejt, Tara Singh and Caroline Wood all deserve an extra special mention.

  I would like, as well, to detail here the books that have most informed and guided my research for The Child Who: Bla
ke Morrison’s heartbreaking, exceptional As If; Gitta Sereny’s The Case of Mary Bell, as well as her astonishing series of articles about the James Bulger case published in the wake of the resultant trial in the Independent on Sunday Review (and available now as appendix to the aforementioned book); Alex McBride’s fascinating and entertaining Defending the Guilty; and, finally, Infant Losses, Adult Searches by Glyn Hudson Allez, a devastatingly insightful analysis.

  Last, and above all, I would like to say thank you to Sarah, my wife, and to my two sons, Barnaby and Joseph: for being there, and for being who they are.

  Review

  ‘Three possible candidates for the Granta U.K. class of 2013 are Ned Beauman, Joe Dunthorne and Simon Lelic. Lelic’s three novels are breakneck, intelligent ’social thrillers’ that even invade my dream-life.’

  David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas

  ‘Could this be Lelic’s breakthrough book? It deserves to be.’

  Guardian

  ‘Quietly excellent legal thriller.’

  Marcel Berlins, The Times

  ‘An excellent psychological crime thriller from one of the genre’s rising stars… Zest, fresh perspective, insight and often quite beautiful writing, something you rarely see in populist thriller fiction… Lelic’s gift is for immediately unsettling the reader. Just who is narrating this? Who are these people? Where is this going? This wrong-footing isn’t just gimmicky, however. It’s an essential thread in the weave of this excellent novel… Much of the joy of this book is about the disorientating nature of Lelic’s story-telling… bewitching.’

  Metro

  ‘Lelic was marked for stardom by his first two thrillers, Rupture and The Facility, and he confirms his place at the literary top table with this, his third… Told with compelling force, and at considerable pace, it reveals the frightening law of unintended consequences: even a good man can be destroyed by the best intentions.’

  Daily Mail