A relieved Elspeth hurried them to the door and said she hoped Mrs Lomax would soon be back in the village and Knowland quickly said the same. He drove out on to the main road ahead of them, risking a barely sufficient gap in front of an approaching lorry, to a blast of protest.
‘What’s she like?’ demanded the driver, taking up the earlier conversation as if it had never been interrupted.
‘Who?’
‘The ghost.’
‘There’s nothing to see.’
‘Can you talk to her.’
‘I can’t,’ avoided Hall, unwilling to spend the entire journey under interrogation. ‘She talks to Mrs Lomax.’
‘She’s going to have to be locked up for the rest of her life, isn’t she? In an asylum?’
‘She’ll be going abroad soon,’ said Hall, the font of all false rumours. ‘To a special place in the sun.’
‘I suppose she can afford it with her money,’ agreed the driver, miserably.
They reached the station ahead of any pursuit. Hall had the fare ready, thrusting it into the driver’s hand and, avoiding the main ticket office, cutting into the underground tunnel to reach the London-bound platform. The train already there hid him from the main entrance opposite. He didn’t go on to the platform but to his right, out into the car park. He drove without direction away from the city, not bothering to look at a map until he reached Stockbridge and was sure there was no pursuit.
Only then did he begin to review his day, trying to get it into perspective. The circumstantial evidence begged for a proper investigation that could never be carried out now that Gerald Lomax was dead. But Jennifer couldn’t have been involved: he was sure she couldn’t. Or could she, he wondered, remembering a particular phrase in Gerald Lomax’s statement.
‘Eleven to one, one to eleven, eleven to one, one to eleven…’ incanted Mason, his voice measured, even, soporific. He held the watch in front of Jennifer, as he had the first time he’d hypnotized her. ‘Eleven to one, one to eleven…!’
‘ Why not go along with it? Humour the idiot? Can’t hurt me, after all. Can’t make me go anywhere.’
‘Can you hear me, Jennifer?’
‘Yes.’
‘And Jane?’
‘Yes. She’s not trying to stop me this time.’
‘ Help anyway I can, honey.’
‘Do you believe we can get rid of Jane?’
‘No.’
‘ Right! ’
‘So you’re not going to try any more?’
‘No point.’
‘You told me the last time how strong your mind was. Always better than anyone else.’
‘Not any more,’
‘ Right again! ’
‘Do you want to die?’
‘Yes.’
‘Do you want to kill yourself?’
‘Yes.’
‘You haven’t lost your strong mind, Jennifer.’
‘Jane’s there.’
‘So you’re giving your mind over to her? Letting her have it?’
‘She already has it.’
‘Not if you don’t abandon it to her.’
‘Too tired.’
‘No you’re not. You fought, in court. Made Jeremy fight. You beat Jane, because you stayed strong-minded. You can beat her again, rid yourself of her, but you must stay strong.’
‘ What a load of crap! ’
‘I can’t get rid of her. Ever.’
‘Do you want Emily?’
‘Can’t have her.’
‘Won’t you fight to have her?’
‘ Don’t listen! ’
‘Yes.’
‘But you’re not fighting. You’re letting Jane take over.’
‘She wants to hurt Emily.’
‘She can’t. Emily’s safe. Nothing can happen to her. If Jane wants to hurt Emily, throw Jane out.’
‘Don’t know how.’
‘Could you believe Mr Dawson?’
‘Not really.’
‘Jane could believe him, couldn’t she?’
‘ Shut up! ’
When Jennifer didn’t reply the psychiatrist repeated: ‘Couldn’t she?’
‘ Don’t bother to listen. It’s crap.’
‘She doesn’t want to listen.’
‘Because she’s afraid.’
‘ Shut up! ’
‘She’s getting angry.’
‘No, Jennifer. She’s getting scared.’
Mason was excited, at the animation that was emerging through the hypnotic trance. ‘Try with Dawson, Jennifer. Try as hard as you can.’
‘It’s not just that.’
‘What then, Jennifer?’
‘I don’t want to talk about it.’
‘You’ve got to talk about it, if I’m to help you.’
‘Too awful.’
‘ Oh go on! Shock him.’
‘Was it something that happened in prison?’ Mason guessed.
‘Don’t want to talk about it.’
‘Were you attacked in prison, sexually?’
‘Horrible.’ She physically shuddered.
‘You’re not in prison any longer. Never will be, again. What happened can’t hurt you.’
‘Jeremy wouldn’t want me if he knew, would he?’
Hall didn’t try to establish any contact, hurrying directly to his rooms at the clinic to telephone Humphrey Perry before the solicitor left for the day. ‘You’ve got the name? Hemels, Bury Street.’
‘There’ll never be a record, after all this time,’ protested Perry.
‘We won’t know, until we try to find one. And take a photograph of Jennifer with you.’
‘What could it prove, anyway?’
‘We don’t know that, either. Anything from America?’
‘If there had been I would have told you.’
‘You’ve got to admit it was an inadequate inquiry.’
‘All right,’ conceded the solicitor, reluctantly. Falling back on his most frequent complaint, he said, ‘But you’re still clutching at straws.’
‘And as I keep telling you, that’s what we’ve been doing from the beginning.’
Hall bumped into the psychiatrist almost immediately outside his door. ‘I was coming to see if you were back,’ said Mason.
‘I was just going to see Jennifer.’
‘I think you should.’
‘I’ve been on all the rides,’ said Emily. ‘Lots of times. And been in the pool every day.’
‘What would you like to do now?’ asked Annabelle.
‘Go home to Mummy and Daddy. And go to school with my friends.’
Chapter Thirty-two
‘Is she there?’
‘No.’ Jennifer knelt in the chapel, as Dawson told her and bowed her head under the pressure of his hand. The chapel smelled heavily of the incense smouldering in the burners. Despite the softness of the well-padded hassock her knee hurt, where she’d cut it.
‘I want to speak to you, Jane,’ declared the priest. When there was nothing he said, ‘Don’t be afraid. You know you don’t have to be afraid of God.’
When there was still no response he began the exorcism ritual with oil and holy water and salt and said, ‘Hear me, oh Lord, not in the name of this supplicant but in the name of the spirit that possesses her, a spirit in need of release and of your succour…’
‘ Stop! ’ Jennifer relayed the word, according to the previous arrangement. Ennui embalmed her.
‘Pray with me, Jane.’
‘ I don’t want to pray with you.’
‘You do. You want to pray for forgiveness for the sins you have committed. To release yourself from the terrible torment of Hell.’
‘ I’m not in torment.’
‘You’re in terrible torment, to be saying what you are. Behaving and threatening as you do.’
‘ Not true. Won’t listen.’
Dawson sprinkled holy water and intoned, ‘And in Philippians it says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”.’ The priest hesitated. ‘God exacts his vengeance, Jane. Not mortals.’
‘ I’m not mortal,’ she scored. ‘ I’m dead. Killed. Without the chance of salvation.’
‘I could save you, if you’d pray with me. Give you absolution.’
There was nothing for several moments. Jennifer’s knee was throbbing, rhythmically, like a heartbeat.
‘ Not for what I’ve done.’
‘Yes, Jane!’ said the priest, almost too urgently. The beginning of the Apostles’ Creed was too hurried as well. ‘“I believe in God, the Father Almighty…”’
‘ I don’t want to hear it! ’
The ache wasn’t any longer confined to Jennifer’s injured leg. It was suffusing her entire body, as if she was straining to oppose the man.