by S J Bolton
Talitha pursed her lips and breathed out a heavy sigh.
‘Any news on Megan’s dad?’ Felix looked from one to the other.
‘He’ll live,’ Talitha replied.
‘Anyone here want to say anything about that?’ Xav, Amber noticed, was keeping his eyes on Talitha as he spoke.
‘Good question.’ Tal held Xav’s stare.
‘What’s going on?’ Amber asked.
‘Tal thinks I beat up Megan’s dad,’ Xav replied. ‘I think she did.’
‘What am I missing?’ Amber turned to Felix, who shrugged.
‘Guys, I don’t give a shit who beat up Megan’s dad,’ Felix said. ‘The bloke was scum, probably into all sorts of stuff we know nothing about, and anyone could have done it. If he takes a turn for the worst, that’s one problem out of the way as far as I’m concerned. So, Tal, what did you want to see us about?’
They were standing, conspicuously, in the middle of the square of grass, surrounded on four sides by medieval stone walls. Amber wanted to suggest they move to a bench or walk along the towpath, anything to draw less attention, except they weren’t all here yet. ‘Shouldn’t we wait for Dan?’ she asked. ‘Is he actually coming?’
‘OK, I’m going to start.’ Talitha ignored Amber. ‘First, Megan is still in the area. She’s been seen at the JR, in the ward where her dad is.’
‘Are you sure?’ Xav asked.
‘Unless Macdonald has another daughter. The ward sister I spoke to said his daughter had been in once to check on him. She didn’t stay long.’
Amber said, ‘So, she’s just avoiding us. Well, we can’t exactly blame her.’
‘I think she might be stalking Ella,’ Xav said. ‘She came home the other day with a daft story about the market. She’d been waiting at a wholefoods stall and when it was her turn to be served, the stallholder, who she knows a bit, asked if her sister was staying with us for long. He said there’d been a woman standing right next to Ella while she was waiting who was the absolute image of her, only a bit older. They looked around, but whoever it was had gone.’
‘So?’ Felix looked mystified.
‘Ella is the image of Megan when she was younger,’ Xav said. ‘I didn’t realise it until – well, until recently, but she is.’
‘Mate, the pressure’s getting to you,’ Felix began.
‘No, he’s right,’ Amber interrupted. ‘I spotted it when the two of you met. It gave me the chills, to be honest.’
Xav turned to Amber in surprise. ‘You never said anything.’
‘What purpose would it have served? You were so happy – why would I risk spoiling that? But if Megan’s hanging around Ella, that is a worry.’
‘Was that it, Tal?’ Felix asked. ‘Because I have other places to be.’
‘Oh, there’s more,’ Talitha said. ‘I can’t find Daniel.’
She waited for the news to sink in.
‘Sorry, what?’ Xav said.
Talitha seemed ruffled for once. ‘I’ve been phoning him for three days,’ she said. ‘He doesn’t answer my texts and the school are being very circumspect. I finally got them to admit that he’s had to take some unexpected time off to deal with a family emergency, but they wouldn’t tell me anything else over the phone.’
Amber felt as though she was struggling to absorb the fresh news. First Megan, now Daniel?
‘Well, I felt sure he would have told me about a family emergency,’ Talitha went on. ‘So I called his parents.’
‘You’re still in touch with them?’ Felix asked.
‘We’ve acted for them a few times,’ Talitha said. ‘They still have the farm at Waterperry. Anyway, they haven’t heard from him. Don’t you think they would know about this so-called family emergency?’
‘He doesn’t have any other family,’ Amber said. ‘No brothers or sisters.’
‘I went to school,’ Talitha continued. ‘It’s a lot harder to fob people off when they’re right in front of you. I told them I was his solicitor and worried that he’d missed some appointments. They brought the usher down and he did his best to get rid of me, but in the end, they let me see an email message they got from Dan early Tuesday morning.’
‘And,’ Felix prompted, when Talitha stopped for breath.
‘First of all, it was sent from his phone.’
She looked around for a reaction, letting a flicker of annoyance show when she didn’t get one. ‘It said he’d been called away to a family emergency and would be gone a couple of weeks. Could they please reschedule any urgent meetings and arrange cover for the classes he took? They were obviously embarrassed. It’s not the sort of behaviour you expect from the master of All Souls.’
‘You think he’s hiding out somewhere?’ Xav asked. ‘What would he gain?’
‘No, I don’t think he’s hiding out,’ Talitha snapped. ‘That message was all wrong. It wasn’t the way Dan speaks.’
Still, Amber felt the rest of them were playing catch up.
‘School wouldn’t have noticed,’ Talitha went on. ‘They don’t know him like we do. And it was sent from his phone. How do we even know Dan sent it?’
No one spoke.
‘So, first things first, has anyone heard from him since Monday morning?’ Talitha said. ‘That’s when I last spoke to him.’
‘Me too,’ Felix added.
Xav said, ‘I saw him Monday afternoon. He came to my house.’
Talitha turned on Xav, almost angrily. ‘Why? What did he want?’
‘To ask if I knew where Megan was, to tell me that she’d done a disappearing act too. Christ, what is this, the Harry Houdini show?’
‘Focus,’ Talitha snapped.
‘I told him she was staying at the Travelodge.’
Talitha’s face twisted with strain. ‘Why the hell didn’t you tell us?’
‘You didn’t ask.’ Xav’s voice, too, was rising. ‘I didn’t know she’d gone AWOL till Dan showed up. The two of us drove round there. Her car was outside, but there was no sign of her. And for what it’s worth, that was the first I heard about Megan’s dad. I haven’t been near the bloke, so wind it in, Talitha.’
Amber took a nervous look around. No one was close enough to hear them, but their body language would be giving a lot away. She said, ‘Is it possible they’re together?’
Felix said, ‘Dan and Megan? What the hell for?’
‘No, I’m her co-conspirator according to you lot,’ Xav said. ‘What is it you think the two of us have planned, exactly?’
‘Mate,’ said Felix, ‘this isn’t helpful.’
Energy seemed to seep out of Xav. ‘Don’t you think we’re beyond help?’
‘Stop it,’ Talitha said. ‘We need to—’
‘Hold on,’ Felix held a hand up to silence Talitha. ‘There’s something I need to tell you guys.’
‘What?’ Talitha didn’t like being interrupted.
‘Just over a week ago, I put a tracking device in Megan’s car.’ Felix looked around the group, as though daring any of them to object. ‘I had a feeling we should know what she was up to.’
‘Why didn’t you tell us?’ Talitha again.
‘Because he doesn’t trust us, either,’ Xav answered her.
‘No, you’re right, Xav. I don’t. You didn’t tell us she spent the night at your house a matter of hours after I installed the device. What else haven’t you told us?’
Talitha’s mouth fell open. ‘Are you kidding me?’
‘He told me,’ Amber said. ‘Back off, Felix. You too, Tal.’
Felix held up both hands in mock surrender.
‘So, where is she now?’ Talitha asked.
In response, Felix took out his phone and stared at the screen for a few seconds. ‘Blackbird Leys,’ he said, naming a housing estate on the Oxford ring road. ‘Her car’s been there
, more or less permanently, for the last twenty-four hours. She must have left the Travelodge.’
‘New bedsit?’ Talitha said. ‘She said she was flat hunting.’
Felix shrugged.
‘OK, thanks for telling us,’ Talitha said. ‘It will help. Keep an eye on her, won’t you? For now though, we need to find Dan. I’m going to his order, see if I can bullshit my way in. Amber, you’d better come too. If they don’t find a government minister intimidating, I won’t have much luck by myself.’
‘I’ve resigned,’ Amber said.
Felix and Xav allowed their surprise to register on their faces. Talitha didn’t so much as blink.
‘Is it public knowledge?’ she asked.
‘Not yet.’
‘Then we’re good to go.’
46
The Holy Innocents order of lay brothers lived in a sixteenth-century house set some way back off the Cowley Road but within walking distance of the school. The two women sought admittance via the intercom at the front gate, a huge, wrought-iron affair that swung open silently before slipping back into place behind them.
‘Have you been here before?’ Amber found herself whispering.
The courtyard felt austere, more like the yard of a prison than the garden of a medieval house, in spite of the lines of lavender and the neatly trimmed box hedging. The stone wall that surrounded them on three sides looked close to twenty feet tall and along its length, Amber could see the outline of inner walls and arches long since demolished. Ahead lay a mill-like building, three storeys high, through which ran a central archway.
‘Never.’ Talitha too seemed unnerved by the place. ‘He told me visitors aren’t encouraged.’
Maybe it was the silence. The huge stone walls were holding back the sounds of the city, giving the illusion of a time when motor vehicles hadn’t even been dreamed of.
‘It’s not exactly homely,’ Amber said. ‘Where is everyone?’
Bees danced around them as they crunched their way over the gravel and, gradually, the smell of traffic fumes became the scent of lavender, but as they stepped into the shadow of the archway, the insects fell back. ‘This far we’ll go,’ they seemed to say, ‘but no further.’
All heat fled from the day, as though the sun had been turned off, and Amber glanced nervously at two wooden doors tucked away into the sides of the archway. Hoping Talitha wouldn’t notice, she stepped a little closer to her.
The second courtyard, smaller and without planting of any kind to soften the endless stone, had even more resemblance to a place of confinement, only this time the walls were replaced by wings of the building. Dozens of black, mullioned windows glared down at them.
From a door directly opposite, a man emerged, dressed as a monk in a long robe of a colour somewhere between brown and grey. He looked about fifty, close-shaven, with short cropped hair. His eyes were grey and his skin pale; his hands, peeking out from very wide, long sleeves, reminded Amber of hands she’d seen on waxworks and his fingernails were unusually long. When they were close, he looked from one to the other without speaking.
‘Thank you for letting us in,’ Amber said.
The monk made no sign of having heard her.
‘As I explained at the gate, we’re looking for Daniel Redman,’ Talitha said, after a moment. ‘We’re old friends of his. I’m also his solicitor. I expect you know Amber Pike, the junior minister?’
The monk’s eyes flickered to Amber’s face. ‘I’m afraid I can’t help you,’ he said, in a voice that carried the faintest hint of a stutter. ‘Perhaps you would be good enough to ensure the gates close firmly on your way out?’
Talitha took a sharp breath. ‘He does live here?’ she asked.
The monk inclined his head.
‘We’ve been to school. They told us he hasn’t been in for some days. Is he ill?’
‘I’m afraid I can’t say.’
Talitha took a step closer to the monk. In her heels, she was almost his height. ‘Well, I’m afraid that isn’t good enough. We’re concerned for Daniel’s wellbeing. If you can’t tell me anything, I’m going to insist on being shown to his room so that we can speak to him directly.’
The monk stood his ground. ‘Impossible.’
‘Why?’
‘This is a holy order. Women are not allowed within our confines. Daniel has a telephone, although it is against our rules for it to be switched on when he is here. I suggest you call his number and leave a message.’
‘We’ve tried, many times,’ Amber jumped in. ‘We’re very worried about him. We’ve been seeing him regularly for weeks now, and suddenly he disappears. It’s unheard of for him to leave school before the end of term and, if he was ill, I’m sure he would have told us.’
For the first time, the man seemed hesitant. His eyes fell, and when they rose again, they’d lost some of their conviction.
‘I understand that we can’t go to his room,’ Amber pressed on, ‘but is it possible that someone else could go? To put our minds at rest?’
‘I’m afraid it would be pointless,’ the monk said. ‘Brother Daniel isn’t here.’
Sensing Talitha was about to start speaking again, Amber put a hand on her arm. ‘So can you tell us where he is?’ she said. ‘Or how long he’s been gone?’
‘Neither, I’m afraid, because I don’t know. He was seen at dinner on Monday evening, but I can’t say further than that.’
Monday evening – directly after he and Xav had gone to the Travelodge to look for Megan.
‘Have you spoken to the police?’ Talitha asked.
A frown line had broken the monk’s complacency. ‘No. At this stage, we’ve no reason to be alarmed. Our brothers are free to come and go as they please. It’s possible that Daniel felt the need for some solitude and reflection and consequently has gone to one of several retreats that we use.’
Amber shared a look with Talitha and knew exactly what the other woman was thinking. Wouldn’t it be typical of Daniel to run away when it all got too much?
‘Can you give us any details?’ Amber asked, ‘So that we can try to get in touch?’
‘I’m afraid not. When our brothers go on retreat, they have deliberately chosen to eschew the modern world.’
‘What if he’s come to harm?’ Talitha asked.
‘Then he’s in God’s hands,’ the monk replied.
This was too much for Talitha. ‘Are you kidding me?’ She looked around, as though planning her next move. Short of pushing her way past this monk, though, there wasn’t one. ‘Come on, Amber, we’re done here.’
Amber felt herself pulled, faster than felt comfortable, back along the path.
‘I can tell you one thing,’ the monk called after them.
The two women turned on the path.
‘Daniel has left most of his personal effects behind,’ the monk said. ‘His wallet and telephone are both in his room.’
47
In the days that followed, Talitha was taken by surprise to learn how much she missed Daniel. It was a bit like having an annoying little brother who’d been sent away to school – thank God, at last – but after the initial hour of euphoria, you remembered how he always came to find you when meals were ready, and that he was OK with you having first scoop out of the chocolate ice cream and that he hadn’t told your parents about that time you’d accidentally, OK, on purpose, broken his DS.
On their first day at pre-school, Daniel had sat beside her in the lunchroom and said that he’d liked her hair. He’d shared his chocolate buttons with her and had been a constant presence in her life since. They’d spent a while – university years and immediately after – some distance apart but had never lost contact, and the arrival of social media had meant they could be in touch daily, even several times a day. She was closer to Daniel, she realised, than to her husband.
&nbs
p; She simply couldn’t get her head around the fact that he’d gone, without telling her.
After leaving his order on Thursday evening, Talitha had instructed her private investigator to look into religious retreats, but few were publicly listed, even fewer answered the telephone and none, none at all, would divulge details of who might be staying with them. By close of play Friday, she’d reluctantly agreed that she wasn’t going to find Daniel’s retreat. If indeed he’d gone to one. Somehow, she didn’t think he had, because that was something he would have told her.
Sometime on Saturday, she concluded that it was her fault; she should have noticed how badly Dan was taking Megan’s return. He’d never been emotionally strong, and the stress of the last few weeks had been too much for him. She should have realised, taken more care of him. But he’d always been the one to demand the least attention, the member of the gang they never really worried about because he was so self-contained, and he had his school, and his God. She should have seen beyond that. Daniel had been driving the car. However much they might say they shared the blame, his hands had been on the steering wheel.
By late Sunday, the thought that had been lurking in the deepest part of her subconscious could be ignored no longer. Daniel did tell her everything, and there was only one reason she could think of why he might not. One by one, she called the others and told them to meet her the following evening.
This wasn’t something she could do alone.
48
Daniel’s parents lived in a medieval millhouse, on a tiny island in the River Thame, not far from the village of Waterstock, and Amber had been to it many times before. Not, though, since the girls were born, because even thinking about its steep garden walls plunging into deep water gave her the horrors now that she had young children to worry about.
Remembering Talitha’s instructions to park away from the house, she pulled up in the lane. She was five minutes early, but Felix was ahead of her. As she was getting out of the car Xav pulled up.
‘I’m not sure I can face Dan’s parents,’ she said, when the three of them had gathered in the lane. ‘And why worry them before we know anything?’
