The Running Grave, page 57
Will Edensor, by contrast, was already leaving the hall, alone. Grabbing her porridge bowl, Robin hastened to put it on one of the trolleys before following.
It was warm, but a light summer drizzle was falling. Will was heading for the courtyard, his head bowed as he scanned the ground. Pretending to look for the lost pendant herself, Robin proceeded slowly past the barns and laundry, keeping a covert eye on Will, who soon reached the courtyard and started searching it. Robin was peering around the base of the Healer Prophet’s tomb, the rain sliding down the back of her neck, when a loud voice said:
‘Oi’ve already looked thar.’
‘Hi Shawna,’ said Robin, her heart sinking.
‘Will!’ called Shawna, whose pregnancy was now becoming evident, ‘Oi’ve looked thar, too!’
Will gave no answer, but turned and traipsed off in the direction of the farmhouse. To Robin’s disappointment, two other men joined him, and Robin guessed by their gestures they were suggesting a systematic joint search of the garden behind it.
‘I heard someone saying it might have fallen off in the children’s classroom,’ Robin lied to Shawna, determined to throw the girl off if she could. ‘Apparently Mazu was in there a couple of days ago.’
‘Come on, then,’ said Shawna.
‘I can’t,’ said Robin regretfully. ‘They told me to do the kitchen after the courtyard, but I can’t see why it would be there. I bet whoever finds it’s going to be a bit of a hero.’
‘Ah,’ said Shawna. ‘They will. Oi’m gonna do the clarsrooms.’
She bustled off. Immediately Shawna was out of sight, Robin headed, not for the laundry but for the passage between the men’s and women’s dormitories, eyes on the ground, still pretending to be looking for the fallen fish. She knew she’d be taking a risk in crossing the field by daylight to enter the woods, but as Emily and Will were currently beyond reach, she was determined to fulfil one of her objectives.
Robin kept to the edge of the field rather than taking a straight line across it, glancing back frequently and wishing she could be wearing any other colour than white, which would stand out against the hedgerow should anyone look over the gate. At last she reached the sanctuary of the trees and began her search for any trunk that seemed old enough to contain the hollow and hatchet described by Niamh Doherty.
It was strange to be in the woods by daylight, and even stranger not to be taking her usual route to the plastic rock. The woods were overgrown, untended and perhaps even dangerous for the children who played there, given the number of fallen boughs. Ducking under hanging branches, lifting her feet high over roots and nettles, feeling around trunks to check for hollows, Robin knew she’d be exceptionally lucky to find the right tree in the time she could remain there safely.
The light rain pitter-pattered on the leaves as Robin moved past a thick oak whose trunk was disappointingly solid. She soon found herself on the edge of the small clearing she’d entered once before by night, where a circle of thick posts had been driven into the ground. These had mostly rotted away to stumps, though a couple showed evidence of having been hacked at with an axe.
Robin stepped carefully into the ring, once again noting its ritualistic appearance. The ground underfoot was uneven and slippery with rotting leaves. Somebody had definitely cut down the posts, and now Robin asked herself whether this was the reason a hatchet had been taken to the woods: to try and destroy the ring. Possibly the axe had then been hidden because of the difficulty of smuggling it back up to the main farm? Better, surely, to let suspicion of theft hang over everyone, than be caught with it?
She bent down to examine something black she thought might be a lump of coal, but it wasn’t; after a few seconds, Robin decided it was a knot of charred rope. Instead of picking it up, she took a tiny pebble from the ground, which would serve as today’s marker, and was just slipping it into her bra when the unmistakeable crack of a twig breaking under a human foot made her whirl round. Jiang was standing between two trees on the edge of the clearing.
‘Jiang,’ said Robin, forcing herself to laugh, though sweat had broken out on her neck and chest, ‘you really made me jump.’
‘What’re you doing?’ he asked suspiciously.
‘Looking for Mazu’s pendant,’ said Robin. At least she’d been found bending over, staring at the ground.
‘Why would it be in here?’ said Jiang. His right eye had begun to flicker. He rubbed it to disguise the tic.
‘I just had a funny feeling it might be,’ said Robin, her voice high and unnatural in her own ears, ‘so I thought I’d check.’
‘You playing at being Daiyu?’ said Jiang with a sneer, and Robin remembered that one of the Drowned Prophet’s supposed gifts was that she could find lost objects, no matter how far away they were.
‘No,’ said Robin. ‘No, I don’t know why, but I just felt this pull to the woods. I thought maybe one of the children could have picked up the fish and brought it in here, then dropped it.’
The story sounded extremely thin, even to Robin.
‘This place is odd, isn’t it?’ she added, gesturing at the stumps of posts in their circle. ‘What d’you think this ring was for? It looks like a miniature Stonehenge.’
‘Like what?’ said Jiang irritably.
‘It’s a prehistoric monument,’ said Robin. ‘In Wiltshire.’
‘I know what you’re up to,’ said Jiang, advancing on her.
‘What?’ said Robin.
‘You were gonna meet Emily here.’
‘Wh—no, I wasn’t. Why would—?’
‘Friends, aren’t you?’
‘I barely know her.’
‘When we were up on the vegetable patch, you came interfering—’
‘I know. I thought you were going to hit her, with the hoe.’
Jiang advanced a few steps, dragging his feet through the overgrown weeds. The dense canopy overhead made dappled shadows move across his face. His eye was winking frantically. He raised his hand to hide it again.
‘Emily sneaks off, to fuck,’ he said.
It was the first time Robin had heard sex described as anything other than spirit bonding in the church.
‘I… don’t know anything about that.’
‘Were you a lesbian, outside?’
‘No,’ said Robin.
‘So how come you knew where Emily was, in Norwich?’
‘I didn’t,’ said Robin. ‘I just checked all the bathrooms I could find, and she was in one of them.’
‘Were you doing it with her, in that bathroom?’
‘No,’ said Robin.
‘Why’s she looking at you so much since Norwich, then?’
‘I haven’t noticed her looking at me,’ lied Robin.
She couldn’t tell whether Jiang’s grubby accusation was made to shock and offend, or because he really believed it: he’d never given her the impression of much intelligence, although he’d certainly just proved himself to be surprisingly observant. As though he’d read her thoughts, Jiang said,
‘I see more than the rest of ’em with my eyes shut.’
‘Can I ask you something?’ Robin said. She needed to placate him: he was potentially violent, and her interference on the vegetable patch, and her association with Emily, whose disappearance had caused him to be harangued by his brother on the way back from Norwich, had clearly left him with considerable animus towards her.
‘What?’
‘You’re obviously very high up in the church.’
She knew this wasn’t true; Jiang had no real position of authority, though he displayed a definite liking for exerting power within the limited scope he was given. He now lowered the hand concealing his flickering eye and said,
‘Yeah.’
‘Well,’ said Robin, ‘how come you seem to work harder than anyone else in…’ She deliberately let the words ‘your family’ hang in the air before finishing, ‘you know – in your position?’
‘I ain’t got no false self,’ said Jiang. ‘Don’t need any of that other crap.’
As she’d hoped, he seemed subtly flattered by her question, and she sensed a slight diminution of aggression.
‘I just noticed you kind of… live what we’re all supposed to do. You don’t just preach it.’
She was momentarily afraid she’d overdone it, but Jiang squared his shoulders, with the beginnings of a smirk on his grubby face.
‘That why you won’t fuck Taio? ’Cause he don’t live it?’
‘I didn’t mean Taio doesn’t—’
‘’Cause you’re right,’ said Jiang, aggressive again. ‘He’s full of fucking EM, him and that Becca. Both of ’em. I work harder than anyone.’
‘I know,’ said Robin. ‘I’ve seen it. You never stop. You’re out in all weathers, helping run the farm, and it’s not like you don’t know doctrine. What you told me about the kids, and materialist possession – you know, that day Will was fussing over that little blonde girl? – that really stuck with me. It actually opened my eyes to how weird and abusive the materialist parent-child thing is.’
‘That’s good,’ said Jiang. He gave the bottoms of his tracksuit an unnecessary tug upwards. His tic had subsided and he was almost smiling. ‘That’s good you remembered that.’
‘You’ve got a way of putting things really clearly. Don’t get me wrong,’ Robin added, careful to sound nervous, ‘Taio and Becca are good at it, too, but they…’
‘Taio wanted to fuck her,’ said Jiang, smirking, reverting to what seemed to be his favourite subject. ‘Did you know that?’
‘No,’ said Robin.
‘But then Papa J went with her, so Taio wasn’t allowed any more.’
‘Oh,’ said Robin, eyebrows raised, and she lied, ‘I thought I kind of sensed something between Becca and Taio…’
‘Got your eyes open too, then, haven’t you?’
Perhaps because he was so rarely praised or appreciated, Jiang now seemed almost friendly.
‘Know what I was always good at, better’n Taio when we were kids?’ he asked Robin.
‘No,’ said Robin, ‘what?’
‘There’s a game, with cards, and you’ve got to make pairs, and remember where the pictures are,’ said Jiang, with a pathetic pride. ‘I remember stuff,’ he said, tapping his temple with a filthy fingernail. ‘And I see stuff. More’n they do.’
‘I can tell,’ said Robin, her sole objective now to get out of the woods while Jiang was in this friendlier state of mind. ‘So… d’you think I should keep looking for the fish in here, or d’you think it’s pointless?’
Jiang looked pleased to be asked for his opinion.
‘Nobody’s gonna find it here,’ he said, surveying the many fallen leaves and branches, twisted roots and patches of nettles.
‘No, you’re right,’ said Robin. ‘This is my first time in the woods. I didn’t realise they were so overgrown.’
She took a step towards Jiang and to her immense relief, he simply turned to walk with her, back the way he’d come.
‘There’s a tree over there,’ said Jiang, pointing to an aged ash, visible through the younger growth, ‘with a hollow in it and there’s an axe hidden in it.’
‘Wow,’ said Robin, taking careful note of the tree’s position.
‘I found it in here, when I was a kid. Nobody else knows,’ said Jiang complacently.
‘Wonder what an axe is doing in a tree?’
‘Ha,’ said Jiang, smirking again, ‘’cause Daiyu hid it in there. But don’t go telling anyone that.’
‘Seriously?’ said Robin. ‘The Drowned Prophet hid it?’
‘Yeah,’ said Jiang.
‘How d’you know?’
‘I just do,’ said Jiang, with precisely the kind of smugness Shawna always displayed when given the chance. ‘I know stuff. I told you. I keep my eyes open.’
They emerged from the woods and began to cross the field, Robin careful to pause every now and then and poke at bits of grass, pretending she was still searching for Mazu’s mother-of-pearl fish, but also trying to think of a way of leading the conversation back to Daiyu without raising Jiang’s suspicions. The rain had gone off; the grass sparkled, buttercups and clover shining enamel bright in the watery sunshine.
‘Wanna know something else?’ Jiang said, halfway back to the five-bar gate.
‘Yes,’ said Robin, with complete sincerity.
‘There’s somebody here, right now, who was here a long time ago. They’ve come back again – and I’m the only one who realises.’
He cast a sly sidelong look at Robin out of his dark, narrow eyes.
‘Really?’ said Robin. ‘Who is it?’
‘Ha. I’m not telling,’ said Jiang. ‘I’m just keeping an eye on them.’
‘Can’t you even tell me, male or female?’ said Robin.
‘Nosy, aren’t you?’ said Jiang, his grin widening. ‘Nah, that’s for me to know. Funny how Taio and Becca are so clever and they haven’t realised. I’m gonna go to Papa J, when I’ve finished my investigations,’ he added importantly.
They climbed over the five-bar gate, Robin now burning with curiosity.
The curtains of the nearest Retreat Room were closed, meaning it was in use. Robin anticipated a ribald comment from Jiang, but his good humour seemed to fade somewhat as they passed the cabin.
‘Know why I’m not allowed in them?’ he asked her, pointing a dirty thumb behind him.
‘No,’ said Robin. It was welcome news that Jiang wasn’t permitted to spirit bond; she’d been worried her flattery of him might be taken as a sexual overture.
‘Nobody’s told you?’ said Jiang, suspicious again. ‘Not Taio?’
‘No,’ said Robin. ‘Nobody’s said anything.’
‘It’s ’cause of Jacob,’ said Jiang sourly. ‘But that wasn’t my fault, it was Louise’s, Dr Zhou says so. It won’t happen again.’
‘How is Jacob?’ Robin asked, hoping once and for all to resolve this mystery.
‘I dunno, I never see him,’ said Jiang. ‘It wasn’t my bloody fault.’
The courtyard was still full of people, all of them combing the ground for some sign of Mazu’s fallen fish, and to Robin’s relief, her reappearance with Jiang occasioned neither look nor comment.
‘Need the loo,’ Robin told Jiang, smiling at him to prove she wasn’t trying to get away from him, which she had no intention of doing, because he was proving an unexpected source of interesting possible leads. ‘Then we can look more.’
‘Yeah, all right,’ said Jiang, pleased.
Once inside the dormitory, which was deserted, Robin hurried to her bed to deposit the latest pebble beneath the mattress, marking yet another day at Chapman Farm. On kneeling down, however, she saw that several of the tiny pebbles she’d already deposited there this week had been dislodged and lay scattered on the floor.
Disconcerted, she ran her hand beneath the mattress, finding only one pebble still in place. Then her fingers touched something small, flat, loose and smooth. She pulled it out and saw a pearly bright, intricately carved fish.
Robin hastily scooped all the dislodged pebbles up, thrust them all inside her bra, leapt to her feet and ran to the bathroom. Here she clambered up onto the sink, opened the high window, checked that the coast was clear, and threw the fish outside. It landed in a clump of tall grass.
Robin jumped back down onto the floor, wiped her footprints off the sink and turned on a tap, just in time: she heard a group of women enter the dormitory.
‘Hi,’ said Robin, emerging from the bathroom and hoping that she didn’t look too red in the face. Vivienne, who was among the women, ignored her, instead saying to the group,
‘Check everywhere, OK? Even under the mattresses.’
‘How could the pendant have got under a mattress?’ Robin asked Vivienne, her heart still thumping rapidly from the shock of her discovery.
‘I don’t know, it’s just what Becca wants,’ said Vivienne irritably.
‘Oh, right,’ said Robin.
‘Aren’t you going to help?’ said Vivienne, as Robin made to leave.
‘Sorry,’ said Robin, ‘Jiang wants me to help him.’
As she walked outside to rejoin Jiang, she noticed Becca talking to Dr Zhou on the other side of Drowned Prophet’s fountain.
‘Where should we look?’ Robin asked Jiang. She had no intention whatsoever of pursuing the fish into its clump of grass: let somebody else find it.
‘Craft rooms,’ suggested Jiang, who was clearly enjoying Robin looking to him for orders.
‘Great,’ said Robin.
As they walked away, Robin glanced back at Becca, and was unsurprised to find her eyes following them.
70
Thus the superior man pardons mistakes
And forgives misdeeds.
The I Ching or Book of Changes
Strike was having an extremely trying day.
At shortly after ten, as he was following Toy Boy and the client’s mother into Selfridges, Shanker called. Hoping for confirmation that Littlejohn was working undercover for Patterson Inc, Strike answered quickly, placing a finger in his free ear to block out the sound of canned music and talkative shoppers.
‘Hi,’ said Strike, ‘what’ve you got?’
‘Reaney’s tried to top ’imself. Fort you’d wanna know.’
‘He’s what?’
‘Yeah,’ said Shanker. ‘Overdose. Me mate in Bedford jus’ called an’ told me.’
‘When was this?’
‘Few days back. Silly cunt. Bought up and nicked all the pills ’e could get ’is ’ands on and took the lot.’
‘Shit. He’s still alive, though?’
‘Just abaht. In ’ospital. Me mate said ’e was yellow an’ covered in puke when the screws found ’im.’
‘Anyone know why he did it?’
‘Yeah, ’e got a phone call from ’is wife, a week ago. After that ’e started buying up everyfing anyone could give ’im and dahned the lot.’
‘OK,’ said Strike. ‘Cheers for letting me know.’
