The Locked Room (Ruth Galloway #14)(73)
Ruth doesn’t protest because she understands that Nelson is missing his dog.
‘Any news from Judy?’ she says, though she knows the answer.
‘No,’ says Nelson. ‘But I think Cloughie might have gone to see her. He said he was thinking about it. I know I should have told him not to, but I didn’t. I wouldn’t often say this, but I think Cloughie might be just what Judy needs.’
Ruth thinks so too. She imagines Clough’s tactless kindness blowing away some of the fear and embarrassment that surrounds serious illness. She sends out another message to the Gods of the Marshes. Just in case.
The day passes agonisingly slowly. Kate has almost completed the jigsaw, adding the lopsided roof of Steward’s House and the dark entrance to Tombland Alley. Ruth gives a lecture on Skeletal Age Determination and checks to see if Eileen or Joe have been in contact. Neither of them has. Fiona, Eileen’s tutor, is worried about her. ‘I rang her mother, but she said she hadn’t been in touch. She thought she might be staying with friends but couldn’t think who they were.’ Ruth doesn’t judge Eileen’s mother for this. She doubts if Jean could have named any of Ruth’s university friends. David, Joe’s tutor, is more abrasive. ‘He’s a troublemaker. I could tell that from day one. Always going on about plague victims.’ Ruth rings off before David can start lecturing her about the Norwich plague pits.
Ruth goes to feed Derek, who now greets her affectionately. There’s no sign of him running out of his special food. Had Zoe bought it in bulk specially? She said that she’d done a big shop just before lockdown started. But, surely, if she’d known she was going away, Zoe would have asked Ruth to feed her cat? But, Ruth reflects, shutting the stable door behind her, there were lots of things that Zoe didn’t say.
Back home, Ruth switches on the television for the news. With Boris Johnson still unwell, it’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s turn to give the daily briefing, himself just free from quarantine. Hancock has a curiously bland face, like a computer simulation. He leans forward on the lectern, which is adorned with a yellow and green flag saying, ‘Stay home, protect the NHS, save lives.’ ‘We have listened,’ says Hancock, ‘and put the interests of healthcare staff first . . . These are unprecedented times . . .’ The government now say ‘unprecedented’ so often that the word seems to have acquired the opposite meaning. The number of people with the virus who have died in the UK has risen by 569, taking the total number of deaths to 2,921. There is, seemingly, no way out of the Covid nightmare. No vaccine, no cure, just the soaring death rate. Ruth doesn’t object when Kate wants to change channels.
Ruth checks her phone. She hopes that there will be something from Judy saying that Cathbad has made a miraculous recovery. But there’s only a text message. From Janet Meadows.
HELP ME
Chapter 37
A shock of light makes her open her eyes. What’s happening? She feels dazed and disorientated. She thinks she was dreaming about the Grey Lady again. Has she come to escort her into the other realm?
But then she realises that the door is open. He’s standing framed in the aperture. His face is still in darkness and something about it makes her more scared than ever. She knows she should rush forward, to try to reach the light, but she’s too weak and shocked to move.
He puts a plate on the floor. Why hasn’t he put it through the grille like he usually does?
‘It’s nearly time,’ he says.
‘Time for what?’ She doesn’t even know if she said it aloud.
‘You know what to do,’ he says. But does she? She doesn’t know anything any more. She shuts her eyes again.
When she opens them, he’s left the room. But he’s left something else too. Something that glows like a secret jewel. A phone. She waits but, as usual, she can’t hear any retreating footsteps. She steps forward, knowing that she’s shaking. Is it locked? Password protected? No, the screen comes to life. She types two words but her hands are so cold that the phone falls to the ground.
‘I’ll have that.’ He’s back in the room, picking up the phone and putting it in his pocket. ‘You didn’t touch it, did you?’
‘No,’ she says. ‘Please. Let me go.’
‘There’s no one who’ll miss you,’ he says. ‘Just take the pills like a good girl.’
Should she? In their red and white packet, the painkillers look more enticing than the dry biscuits.
‘I’ll be back later,’ he says. ‘And we’ll make an end to this.’
Nelson has had another frustrating day. They have been unable to trace Eileen Gribbon or Joe McMahon. There was no answer from Janet Meadows and no news from Judy. Nelson leaves at five thirty, leaving Tanya and Tony behind in the office. It’s as if he’s working part-time. At this rate, he’ll be making Jo’s dreams come true and retiring before the end of the year.
Nelson drives through the empty streets thinking about the missing students and the Grey Lady. He’d googled the legend after talking to Ruth. It was a particularly nasty story, he thought, even for Norfolk. The girl trapped in her house and then possibly eating her parents. It’s no wonder the poor soul walks the streets at night. What would Cathbad say about it? Clear as day, in the quiet of the car, he hears the druid’s voice, ‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.’ Cathbad sometimes calls him Horatio, after the original Nelson. He likes to have his own names for everyone. Ruth is Ruthie and Katie is Hecate. What does he call Judy? Nelson will probably never know.