The Physics Of The Dead - A Supernatural Mystery Novel (26 page)

A few minutes later, he is finished. He gestures wordlessly to Hart, unable to meet his eye, and fumbles blindly to grip George's shoulders. Hart takes George’s ankles, and they lower him into the water. He looks very, very still and cold in there.

“Goodbye, George,” says Bowler.

They stand there looking into the water for a few minutes. A taxi drives past at the top of the precinct slope.

“We need to warn Sarah,” says Bowler, quietly. He hadn't been able to find her after he set off to do so; this is the is sixth time he's said it.

“We need to tell her, yes,” says Hart, kindly, “but we don't know yet if we need to warn her. I know Mark is the most likely suspect,” he adds quickly and firmly, not looking at Bowler but raising a hand to quieten his complaint, “But we can't go slandering him until we know for certain. He's alone here, like the rest of us. To decide this about him before we definitely know is to...well...to damn him. You know what I mean, Bowler.”

Bowler nods but doesn't let it drop.

“You know what a weird, twitchy fucker he is Hart. He did this. He fucking DID this. Look at George, Hart. LOOK at him.”

“I said I agree that he probably did. But you can't say so to Sarah. You can even tell her your suspicions, if you like. But you can't TELL her he did it. You understand why, Bowler, and you know it wouldn't be right, or proper.”

There is a pause.

“He sucked him in, Hart,” says Bowler, his voice low and angry. “He was up to something. George KNEW. And whatever it was, George paid the price. You know I'm right, Hart. They were always slinking off together. We should've warned him...he was always too,
whatsit
, too...trusting.”

“But he was no-one's fool, George. Don't forget that. I don't think Mark sucked him in, or tricked him.”

Bowler fumed quietly, staring at George and rocking back and forth on his heels. He looks at Hart in a way he never has before.

“No. No, Hart. You're wrong.”

***

            Hart fell backwards, his legs and bottom passing through the floor several inches. He didn't even notice. He wiped his face with a trembling hand in a pointless attempt to clear his vision, but of course what he saw didn't change. It was there, clear as a bell, undeniable, and devastating in its impact.

“Good God in heaven,”
he thought.
“It's
true
...”

 ***

Bowler eventually finds Sarah walking, as he'd rightly assumed, along The Wall. It had just been a matter of circling the perimeter until eventually she showed up, and the small gamble has paid off sooner than he'd thought. He's found her as he headed towards the train station to start his lap. She'd been coming the other way, as if she was done for the day. This is totally contradictory to Bowler and Hart's behaviour; they like to wander and walk at night, trying to pass the time as best as possible until morning comes and people start turning on their TVs again. She'd seemed fairly relaxed when he'd seen her, meeting him at the edge of the ring road where the slip road headed up to the roundabout. She'd responded to his greeting warmly, and had moved agreeably enough onto the roundabout with him (Bowler, like Hart, was never totally happy standing in the road) but it becomes clear very quickly that all was not as well as he'd initially assumed, and it does so most clearly when he tries to tell  her about George.

It’’s
hard, especially at first when trying to even get her to realise who he's talking about, but after several repetitions of the motion for George's bald head and round stomach, she eventually twigs it with a smile. Bowler struggles to think of the right mimes at the best of times, first struggling to think of the best way to construct the sentence, then stumbling even more when it comes to thinking of the best visual representation. He reads this charade-speak a lot better than he signs it. But this is toughness on a higher level; not only does he have to deliver bad news, and to warn her about Mark (regardless of what he'd told Hart, he's going to do just that. If Hart wanted to bury his head in the sand, that was fine, but this was a matter of survival, and of looking after the one friend they had left. Hart could be one cold bastard sometimes. You had to look out for your mates) but he has to do it sensitively. He begins to wish he'd brought Hart with him...but then Hart would have been there like always, editing and putting his own spin on it.

Bowler scowls. Hart. Always so...distant. Even in here. When all they have is each other.

He looks at Sarah's face, looking way up at him (she's short, about 5'2” Bowler reckons) searching his own, waiting for him to finish whatever he has to say. She wants to be off. More coldness here, Bowler notes, and feels his shoulders sink that little bit further. When he tells her what has happened to George, it has taken several awkward repetitions of the fact he was dead. The concept was almost impossible to grasp here, let alone express by mime. How could someone die in the land of the dead? At first he thinks she is just in denial about it, but he very quickly realises that she simply doesn't understand. After miming that he finds it confusing too, trying to get the idea over that this is a matter of
Somehow, It's Crazy But...
and THEN doing the slit throat gesture, he sees the connection register in her face. But the worst thing is that even now, when she DOES realise what’s happened, she barely seems to have an emotional response.

Sarah's face just kind of twitches, and her shoulders move in a sigh. Then she nods firmly, as if to say,
Ok, I get it.
And that's it.

No shock. Then she wants to know how it happened, where he was. That at least was perfectly understandable, but this had all been so odd. Hart was right. Sarah was on shaky ground.

Bowler offers for her to come with him, but she shakes her head firmly, rolling her hand. She wants answers, and quickly, so she can get on with whatever she's up to. This feels so uncomfortable that Bowler just wants to be out of here, and decides the best thing to do is just to get this done quickly.

And so Bowler holds up a finger, and gestures Mark's big ears. Sarah gets it straight away, holding her hand up above her head.
Big Mark
. Bowler nods, and holds up a warning finger. The ears again, then a no-no gesture with the finger. Sarah holds her hand up again, questioning, the slashes across her throat with her finger. Bowler nods emphatically. And Sarah laughs.

Bowler gawps, and Sarah laughs heartily, and tries to gesture something to him, but she can't as she's convulsing too much, and it reminds Bowler of something he's seen only a few days ago. But now Sarah's gesture is becoming clearer; the ears and the hand, then the throat-slit, then George's belly, then suddenly all the laughter stops.

Staring into Bowler's eyes, blank faced, with tears now running down her cheeks, she does a double thumbs up, then George's belly.
If George Is Dead, Then Good For George
.

She holds his gaze for a few seconds and then, now suddenly catatonic, all life and expression gone from her face, she turns and begins to shuffle away. Bowler wants to call out to her, but knows not only will she not hear him, but he won't have the words to comfort her anyway. With a twist in his gut, he thinks that Hart would have known.

It has been a hell of a day, Bowler reflects.

“Sarah...” he mutters, now strangely calm. Shaking his head, almost amused by it all. “You are one
craaaaazy
bitch…”

He sets off to find Hart.

***

It's all about energy. It really is!
thought Hart,
About
force
...I was right in the first place!
He stayed sitting and watched for a few moments more, trying to gather the full implications in his mind. He realised one thing, clear as a bell; he'd waited long enough. The guessing games were over. No more fear; he would take the very next opportunity. But that would mean finding it. Searching. For the first time in 70 years, he could now begin to commit to hope, to searching, for he knew, once and for all, that the risks were worth it.

Consequences be damned.

***

Though he doesn't know it, Hart is not too far away from Bowler and Sarah's conversation. He is, in a rare moment, enjoying the solitude of a walk by himself, enjoying the chance to collect his thoughts in quiet. It's been so long-60 years, in fact-that he's had this feeling, that despite the fact that his thoughts are of grief, the fact that the experience is so fresh and new makes it actually highly enjoyable. It's
confusin
but so different, and in The Foyer anything different is, as Hart well knows, highly palatable
.
He almost smiles to himself as he makes his way through the
Gosford
Street car park, an easy feat given the late hour and the subsequent lack of vehicles stored there, creating several acres of concrete field. The ring road overpass above casts a shadow across the white parking bays, the few overnight cars in the open air expanse lit by the street lights on the road. Despite it being nearly 3am now, there's still the odd car passing by on the street, but otherwise town is fairly still.

Bowler's gone to find Sarah, and Hart doesn't believe for one second he's going to stick to the arrangement they've made. Bowler is showing an anger, a touchiness, that Hart hasn't seen before; does it stem from frustration? Is it just a phase at this stage, a two-year Foyer itch, so to speak? Did Hart go through the same thing at this time? He can't remember, but he thinks it was likely. Hopes so, anyway. But this isn't the time to think about this. It's time to think about what on earth could have happened to George.

Does he believe Mark did it? That Mark found a way to murder George? No, Hart doesn't think that for a second; Mark is losing it badly, but he isn't Loose enough to want to do it, even if he DID know a way. Plus he seemed so genuinely shocked at the accusation. But Hart doesn't think Mark just found George like that, either. Too convenient. Why bother bringing him all the way back into town to show them? No...there's evidence of guilt there. He needed to show them...to get their forgiveness? Hart relaxes into his stride, not realising he's flexing his old mental courtroom muscles, adding to his inappropriately good mood.

Something went wrong. Mark was up to something, and George KNEW about it, hell, he WANTED to be a part of it. That much was clear. Bowler hadn't known George as long as Hart had. George gave off an air of being a good natured, simple chap, but he wasn't simple at all. People often confused an easy going nature with being easy to manipulate. It doesn't mean that. It just means they're more casual about the things they choose to do, IF they choose to do them. No...George wanted in on whatever Mark was up to, and something went wrong. And George paid the price. And Mark, not thinking straight, carries George's corpse back into town, panicking, to show them, to be told what to do. But he can't find them, so he stashes the body and goes looking properly. And that's-

A hand grabs Hart's shoulder and spins him round, surprising him. It's Mark, and he looks upset. More than upset; he looks furious. His large shoulders are rising and falling with each rapid imagined breath, his fists are clenched and his jaw is set, eyes thundering, and Hart feels a stab of concern. All of the sheepishness of the other week is gone. In its place is rage, and Hart knows he needs to be very careful indeed. He has never seen anger like this is another Guest, The Beast excluded. Mark's eyes look ready to burst from his head, stark white against the redness of his face. Hart slowly raises his hands to his chest.