Dying to Know (A Detective Inspector Berenice Killick Mystery) (41 page)

‘
No
,
’
he
said
.

‘
Your
wife
needs
you
,
’
the
doctor
said
,
and
then
Gabriel
realized
.

‘
That
noise
…
Amelia
–
that
weeping
…?
’

‘
Please
go
to
her
,
Sir
.
’
Alice
touched
his
sleeve
.
He
stood
,
unmoving
,
until
Doctor
Knox
took
his
arm
,
steered
him
out
of
the
laboratory
,
into
the
house
.

He
found
himself
pushed
into
the
nursery
.
Amelia’s
wailing
had
settled
to
a
quiet
sobbing
.
She
was
kneeling
on
the
floor
,
her
arms
around
their
daughter
.
He
could
see
the
child’s
curls
,
the
folds
of
her
nightdress
.

‘
Tell
me
it’s
not
true
,
’
he
said
.

She
looked
up
.
Her
expression
was
vacant
,
as
if
she
could
barely
see
him
.

‘
Amelia
…
’
he
tried
.

She
began
to
sob
again
,
bent
over
the
body
of
their
child
.
He
knelt
down
beside
her
.
Grace
looked
oddly
limp
,
the
fabric
of
her
nightdress
lying
in
strange
twisted
folds
.

‘
No
,
no
,
no
…
’
Amelia
cried
,
her
mouth
buried
in
her
daughter’s
curls
.

His
wife
.
His
daughter
.
This
was
to
be
the
future
.
This
light
,
this
cleanliness
,
these
golden
curls
,
leaving
behind
the
chaos
and
the
bleeding
,
the
screams
of
pain
,
the
choking
mustard
smog
.
There
was
to
be
order
,
and
rays
of
energy
,
the
experiment
that
would
control
chaos
,
that
would
channel
the
light
at
the
heart
of
things
,
that
would
keep
the
darkness
at
bay
.

But
now
all
is
revealed
.
There
is
no
escape
.
The
truth
lies
in
the
darkness
and
the
chaos
.
When
they
led
me
,
limping
and
resistant
,
out
of
that
ditch
,
I
left
the
truth
behind
,
in
the
broken
body
of
the
man
I
loved
.

Amelia
had
stopped
weeping
.
She
raised
her
eyes
to
his
.
He
saw
,
in
her
odd
expression
of
polite
restraint
,
a
gap
too
wide
to
breach
,
the
beam
broken
,
the
particles
too
weak
to
jump
across
.

‘
It
is
too
late
,
’
she
said
.

‘
But
–
’
He
put
out
a
hand
,
touched
her
arm
.

She
shook
her
head
. ‘
Grace
is
dead
.
It
is
too
late
.
’

Elizabeth drove fast. Tazer shuffled and whiffled in the back seat. ‘Soon be there,’ she cooed at her. ‘We’ll get a nice police officer to look after you.’ Although he probably won’t give you best beef steak like you had for dinner last night, she thought to herself. ‘And then you’ll be reunited with your mistress,’ she added. That was the most important thing, she thought, glancing at the red hair band on the seat next to her.

‘No dogs, Madam,’ the duty sergeant said.

‘But
- ’

He
gestured to a tattered notice on the wall behind the reception desk.

‘This
dog is evidence. The missing girl, daughter of the main suspect in the physics case…’ She spoke loudly, and people turned to look.

‘Ah.
Well, in that case, Ma’am…’

He
left his post, went through a security door and came back a minute later with a tall, suited man with slicked back grey hair and an unfriendly expression.

‘Stuart
Coles.’ He offered her a hand, unsmiling, then ushered her into a tiny, windowless room.

‘So,’
he said. ‘What’s all this about?’ He glanced at the dog, who was sitting close to Elizabeth’s knees. The dog eyed him.

‘The
missing girl’s dog?’ He placed his phone on the desk in front of him.

She
nodded. She placed the hair band on the desk. ‘We found both at the caravan where she lives.’

‘We?’

‘Her ballet teacher. We were looking for her.’

He
glanced at his mobile.

‘Is
Berenice here?’ she said. ‘DI Killick?’

His
gaze seemed more distant. ‘She’s on another case,’ he said. He looked at the hairband. ‘Did you do that? Wrap it up like that?’

‘I
thought it was best – contamination, you know…’

He
gave a small smile. ‘Sure. Well…’ He put his phone in his jacket pocket. ‘Hand them both in at the desk.’

‘The
dog as well? But do you - ?’

‘Sure.
We’ll look after him.’

‘Her,’
she said.

Tazer trotted at her ankles as she went back down the corridor. The duty sergeant at the desk had changed, a woman now. She barely looked up.

‘I’ve
been told to hand in this dog - ’

‘We
don’t take lost dogs.’

‘But
- ’

She
had straggling blonde hair. She peered at Elizabeth.

‘I
was told you’d - ’

‘Don’t
like dogs, me.’

‘No.’
Elizabeth tightened her grip on the lead. ‘I can see that.’

She opened the car door, and Tazer jumped happily back in. More muddy footprints, Elizabeth thought. ‘Just don’t expect more steak, OK?’

Tazer
wagged her tail.

‘We’ll
wait for DI Killick,’ Elizabeth said to her.

Ashford, Berenice thought. I wonder if the Chief has told them to expect me. I wonder how long it’ll take until they call me in.

The
kettle had boiled. She poured more coffee.

She
flicked through the book, again.

Perhaps
I’ve brought this on myself, she thought.

This
God, that van Mielen believes in, his daughter too. Those physicists… they don’t seem to need God.

And
that nice vicar…

And
me?

My
God is a loud, angry God, the one I was raised with. The one who took my brother up to Heaven because I wasn’t good enough, because I didn’t deserve a brother…

Did
they say that? Did I just think it? Did my mother make it clear, without putting it into words?

Is
that my God now?

She
reached for the plastic folders that contained the hate mail.

I
wonder how long it’ll take before the Chief misses these, she thought.

She
read them, again, holding the plastic covers flat.

There
were six, all saying roughly the same thing. That the lab was bringing evil upon us. That it had to be stopped.

Whoever’s
writing these notes believes that the lab is dangerous. Whoever killed these physicists believes that murder is the lesser harm.

The
most recent looked slightly different. Same red pen, but the writing a bit neater, the wording more correct.

She
stared at it. It was Liam Phelps who’d reported it. It had come from Iain Hendrickson. And then Iain…

The
last note. The last death.

And
the notes had stopped.

Perhaps
the killer believes they’ve done their job.

Or,
he’s done a runner, and taken the poor kid with him.