The Retreat(62)

‘What do you mean, you brought this upon you? Do you know who did this?’ She had a notepad ready in her lap, pencil poised.

Just as I had with Julia last night – my God, what a long twenty-four hours it had been – I ran through the whole story, keeping it as succinct as possible. DC Hawkins interrupted every so often to ask questions. I didn’t mention any of the weird goings-on at the retreat and I tried to avoid straying into conspiracy theory territory.

At the end, I said, ‘It’s Glynn Collins. He did this.’

DC Hawkins tapped her pencil slowly on the pad. ‘Did you see him?’

‘No, it was too dark, but I’m sure it was him. Who else could it be?’

The look she gave me was inscrutable.

‘Do you know him?’ I asked. My head throbbed and I winced as I spoke. ‘Everyone says he’s a pillar of the community.’

She shook her head. ‘I’m based in Wrexham.’

‘One of your colleagues had a relationship with Zara Sullivan, the private detective I hired. I don’t know his name but maybe Zara spoke to him between talking to me and disappearing.’

‘We’ll look into it,’ she said.

There was a long silence. I broke it by saying, ‘So this is a murder investigation?’

Her expression was grim. ‘We don’t get many of those around here.’

‘Just missing children.’

She stood up. ‘Two in forty years. It’s hardly an epidemic.’ She handed me her card. ‘We’ll be in touch. If you remember anything else in the meantime, any details that can help us identify your assailant, please call me.’

‘What about protection?’ I asked. ‘For me, I mean. He tried to kill me. What if he comes here to finish the job?’

She spread her palms to indicate that I was surrounded by people. ‘You’ll be safe here, Mr Radcliffe. Try not to worry.’



I woke up later to find Julia sitting by the bed.

‘I brought you some snacks,’ she said, gesturing to a couple of bags on the bedside cabinet. ‘And some magazines. I brought your phone too.’ She handed me the phone I’d bought to replace my lost one. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘I think I’m in shock. About Max, I mean.’

She brushed a hand across her forehead and sighed. She looked terribly sad. I realised the whole thing must have taken her back to the terrible events two years before, when she watched Michael drown in that same spot.

‘Thank you for saving me,’ I said. ‘I probably would have died of hypothermia if I’d been left there by the river. I expect you were tempted to let me.’

She exhaled. ‘I understand why you did it. And I know you were trying to help.’

I smiled at her.

‘I’m still angry with you.’

My smile faded.

‘But I’m glad you didn’t drown.’

I guessed that was the best I was going to get.

‘So you didn’t see anyone? By the river?’ she asked.

I repeated what I’d told DC Hawkins and half expected Julia to be sceptical, as she’d been earlier. But this was different, wasn’t it? There was no way this could be put down to natural causes or an innocent explanation. Someone had attacked me. Someone had murdered Max.

‘You really think Glynn knows something about Lily?’ she asked. Her voice was full of longing and terror.

‘Hopefully the police will be talking to him now,’ I said. ‘Have they been to your house? Did they look at what happened to the electricity?’

‘Oh yes, they’ve been round. Two of them came and interviewed Ursula and Suzi and me, looked around. They took Max’s computer. Yours too.’

‘What?’

‘Sorry, I couldn’t stop them. They said they needed to check it. They didn’t say why.’

My novel was on that laptop, and although it was backed up to the Cloud I didn’t have access to another computer here. Still, it hardly seemed like the most important thing at the moment.

‘And the electricity?’ I asked.

‘It came on before I got back to the house,’ she replied. ‘I told the police about it and they said they’d look into that too. They’re frustratingly vague. They were like this when Lily disappeared.’

My headache was coming back with a vengeance now. My vision was soft around the edges, a steady pain pulsing out from the back of my skull. I needed whatever drugs the doctors were willing to give me.

‘How are the others? Suzi and Ursula?’

Julia shook her head. ‘Ursula has taken to her bed. I can’t get any sense out of her. Suzi . . . well, she’s really upset. She locked herself in her room after she heard about Max, but I could hear her crying.’

‘Max told me there was nothing going on between them.’

‘Did you believe him?’

I thought about it. ‘Yeah, I did. God, I’m glad I managed to apologise to him before . . . it happened.’

Julia shifted in her seat. ‘Ursula told the police about your argument.’

‘Oh, great.’

‘It’s been like a circus at the house. As well as the police, the media turned up. We’ve had photographers and video crews outside.’ Her face darkened. ‘The bastards mentioned Michael and Lily on the news reports. Tragedy strikes again in beauty spot, all that bullshit. Apparently, Max’s wife is on her way too, to collect his things and see where it happened. I haven’t been down to the river, but I’ve heard it’s teeming with rubberneckers.’