Daisy in Chains(63)

‘What I want to suggest, Odi, is that you and I, and Broon too if that will make you feel more comfortable, go to see a hypnotist. We’ll find a good one, someone highly recommended.’

‘Hypnotist?’ Odi says the word experimentally, stretching out the syllables, as though trying how the sound of it feels and tastes in her mouth.

‘Yes. They can be very good at helping people find lost memories. What she would do is put you in a sort of trance. You wouldn’t be asleep, exactly, just a bit detached from what’s going on, and she’d ask you questions about that night. It’s just possible that, in a state of trance, you would remember more than you’ve told us already.’

‘I don’t want you messing with my lady’s mind.’

‘Nobody wants to do that, Broon, of course not. Think of it this way. In everybody’s head, there are stacks of memories, most of them filed away so carefully that we can’t bring them to mind without some help. But they’re still there. Odi, you could be the only person who saw the real killer, who has a chance of telling us who he is.’

Odi seems to shrink further away from her. ‘I’ve told you everything already and I’m not seeing any hypnotist.’

‘Odi, I—’

‘No! Tell her, Broon. Tell her I won’t. I don’t know anything.’

Broon seems to swell, facing off against Maggie. ‘We’re leaving, Odi and me. First thing in the morning. We’ve said our goodbyes and we’re off.’

‘Where? Broon, this is really important, you can’t just leave.’

‘We haven’t told anyone where we’re going and we don’t intend to. We’ve got nothing more to say.’

‘She’s frightened, Pete. She knows more than she’s saying but I have no idea how to get it out of her. She completely freaked when I mentioned hypnosis.’

‘I don’t blame her.’

‘Oh, don’t be so ignorant. How can you live so close to Glastonbury and have such a closed mind?’

‘Are you coming up? I’ve got the kettle on.’

From the driver’s seat of her car, Maggie looks into the passenger-side wing mirror. ‘No, they’re watching me now. Waiting for me to leave. I think I’ve upset them enough for one night.’

‘I spoke to the landlord, by the way. They have a very nice double room on the second floor, a long way from mine, and the locks on the door are solid. You really should not be going back to that big spooky house on your own. Especially not tonight, not with all that palaver on Facebook.’

In the distance, Odi and Broon move out of sight. They are heading in the direction of the Town Hall portico.

‘Look, keep an eye on them, will you? It really is very cold.’

‘If you’re hinting I should offer them a bed for the night and buy them dinner, you can forget it.’

‘Oh, very compassionate. But they already have dinner. I put the stew you didn’t eat into a thermos flask.’

She cuts him off mid curse, starts the engine and drives home. If she feels a sliver of regret at leaving behind the promise of something new, she ignores it. The time for weakness has passed.





Chapter 55


‘MAGGIE, LOOK AT me.’

‘I can’t. You don’t exist any more.’

‘I’ll exist as long as you do. Look at me.’

‘No.’

Ignoring the voice behind her, Maggie lets the bedroom curtain fall back into place. Since the central heating switched off five hours ago, the house has grown a mid-winter chill. She lifts her dressing gown from the back of the bedroom door and wraps it around herself as she goes downstairs. On the front door the chain is in place.

She can’t see the street from here. She doesn’t need to. She’s already seen the car in the road.

It has become instinctive to head to the kitchen on nights that she can’t sleep. Maybe it’s the last trace of warmth that clings to the Aga that she is seeking. She places her hands flat on its hob lids, and thinks of Broon and Odi in the icy chill of the Town Hall portico. When her hands have warmed a little, she picks up the phone.

An indrawn sigh answers. ‘Hi, Maggie.’

‘I told you I didn’t need protecting,’ she tells Pete.

‘I’ve had to send someone over. A female constable. She’ll sit in the car outside if she must, but since you’re awake, I’d really prefer it if you let her in, allow her to check your doors and windows, and then sit downstairs for the rest of the night.’

‘What’s going on?’

‘I’d come over myself but there’s no way I can get away right now. I’ll explain everything in the morning, OK?’

‘No, explain it now.’

‘Maggie, I really have to—’

‘Now, or I come to find you. I’m guessing that won’t be strictly convenient.’

She hears a sharp intake of breath. ‘I’m in Wells, just outside the Crown. I got a call-out forty minutes ago.’

She closes her eyes and can see him, seeking the pale light of a streetlamp to make his call. He isn’t outside the Crown, strictly, he’s outside the Town Hall. Behind him, she can see the dark arches of the portico, concealing something unspeakable.