‘I was going to say like you’re having a heart attack.’
‘That sounds preferable.’ He tried to fill a glass of water but his hands were trembling too much.
Clare took the glass, filled it and held the water to his mouth. ‘You need to calm yourself.’
‘Easier said than done.’
‘Come back to bed, try to get some sleep. I’m sure things will look better in the morning.’
‘Sleep, are you kidding me?’ He pushed away the glass and staggered back to the bedroom, sat on the edge of the bed. The flesh on his arms was pimpling, he slapped his palms together.
Clare followed him through. ‘Should I call a doctor?’
‘Maybe. Is there a psychiatrist on call at this time?’
‘I don’t follow …’
‘It all seemed so real.’
‘What did?’
‘I was there, I mean like the last time … with the Janie Cooper case.’
‘That was the little girl that went missing, wasn’t it?’
‘Everywhere, I saw her everywhere. Christ above, if this is a rerun of that, I don’t think I can stand it, Clare.’
‘The dreams again? The visions, that’s what this is about?’
Valentine rose and started to pace the room. He needed to talk, to tell someone what he’d been going through. He relayed the story about the man in the hospital room when Agnes Gilchrist died and the visit to Hugh Crosbie.
‘Who’s Sylvia?’ said Clare.
‘My DS … Why do you ask that?’
‘And why is she taking a special interest in your problems?’
‘Are you seriously making a thing of this?’
‘I’m just asking, because I would have thought your first port of call might have been your wife.’
Valentine raised his hands. ‘I’ve just told you everything.’
‘But you told her first.’
‘Yes. She has experience, she’s worked with precognitives before. It was Sylvia who put me in touch with Crosbie.’
Clare moved from the bed to the other side of the room and started to remove her dressing gown. As she turned back towards Valentine she stared briefly then slit her eyes towards the bedside lamp. She didn’t return her gaze as she got into bed and switched out the light.
30
Jade stood in the darkness beyond the hospital car park, just far enough into the copse of trees to be able to see lights burning in the building. The rain had stopped but some drops clinging to the leaves above her managed to dislodge themselves and fall on her. She looked up, towards the pale moon, and the cold night’s wind touched her face.
She tried not to think about Niall, about the way she had left the flat, but his voice seemed to be following her. He would be OK, he would get over her running off like that, and anyway, it wasn’t his battle to fight. She’d decided that the moment Niall went for Darry with the bat. Her brother had so effortlessly disarmed him, pushed him to the ground, that it was obvious to her Niall was out of his depth. He was a nice boy, a good friend to have and she had needed him once but not now.
Jade didn’t need to use Niall as cover anymore, she had passed the point where it mattered if her mother or brother found out the truth.
‘Jade … Jade, where are you?’ It was Darry.
‘Over here.’ She rushed to the fence at the edge of the car park, the grass was long and wet and slowed her movement.
‘God, you’re soaking wet, girl.’
‘It’s been raining.’ She pushed back her wet fringe. ‘Did you see Mum?’
‘Of course I did.’ Darry leant a hand over the fence and helped his sister to climb up. She stumbled at the top wire and he lifted her down. He looked into the field behind her. ‘Where’s Niall?’
‘He’s not coming.’
‘What?’
‘It’s nothing to do with him, Darry.’
‘But he was supposed to be helping you.’
She raised her eyebrows to the sky. ‘He’s just a boy, he can barely look after himself.’
‘Jade, is everything OK? You don’t look well.’ He placed a hand on her arm; Jade knocked it away.
‘I’m fine. Just wet that’s all.’
‘Have you been sick again?’
‘No, I’m fine I just told you.’ She started to step away from her brother, ‘Are you coming or are we staying out in the cold and wet all night?’
Darry ran after her. ‘Wait. We can’t go in there.’
‘I thought you said I could go and see her, once you came back.’
‘Not now. There’s police in there now.’
‘Police? … Why are the police in there?’
Darry tried to steer his sister away from the conspicuously lit hospital. ‘Come on, we’ll get a taxi out of here.’
‘No. I want to see Mum.’ She yanked her arm away and started back towards the hospital.
‘Jade, that’s not going to be possible. That copper was fuming, in a minute or two the place is going to be crawling with police. Now come on, we need to get going or we’ll be locked up.’
‘We haven’t done anything.’ She struggled with her brother, a woman in a blue Corsa rolled down her window and stared over.
‘Jade, you’re making a scene. Calm down.’
‘I want to see Mum, you’re hurting my arm.’
‘Jade, I mean it. We need to get out of here.’
Her voice rose, ‘Why? What have we done? Why are the police with Mum?’
‘Jade, I’m supposed to be in barracks. They’ll break my bloody legs for this.’
Darry’s mention of the army stopped his sister’s struggling. He’d risked a lot for her and he saw that she understood that. ‘They think she did it, don’t they? The police think Mum killed him.’
Norrie Leask leaned onto the dashboard and pointed to the turn-off, ‘Here, Joe, take this one.’
‘You sure now?’
‘They all look the bloody same to me, especially in the dark.’
‘Cumnock countryside’s a black hole in the daylight as well.’
‘Those miners must have wanted to stay underground, bloody shite-hole.’ The car shuddered on the uneven track, slowed by a shallow trench and scattered gravel. ‘Aye, this is the spot. That’s the milestone for the old road pithead, there.’
‘You sure no one ever comes out this way?’
Leask put another hand on the dash, steadied himself as the track got bumpier. ‘Are you kidding me? Why would anyone come out here? It’s an abandoned pit. Fraught with danger these places, we could be taking our lives in our hands just driving up here.’
Joe fired him a glower. ‘Now you tell me.’
‘Look, it’s like this, if you want to keep him in the boot, stinking out your car and marking a big pointy finger to plod then be my guest. Me, I’d sooner not do time for this wee arsewipe.’
The car halted abruptly. Joe yanked on the handbrake and flicked his cigarette through the open window. ‘Right, that’s it. We can see the pithead from here. We’ll carry him.’
‘We? Who pays your bloody wages?’
Joe released the lock and pushed open the door. ‘I don’t remember that bit in my contract about disposing of dead bodies in the night, remind me about that, time-and-a-half is it?’
‘Aye, that’ll be right.’ Leask exited on his side of the car. ‘I want a pint out of you for this, mind.’
The pair walked around to the rear of the vehicle, their shoes sunk into the wet earth. Neither carried a flashlight, the only illumination came from the car’s headlights. As he opened the boot Joe stared into the deep space, located the white-skinned features of Niall. The body was an inconvenience, it might once have been alive – a human being – but the connection had been lost. ‘Just looks like he’s sleeping, there.’
‘He does as well.’ Leask, turned his head to the side, squinted. ‘Doesn’t look too bothered about it all.’
‘He was bothered when I had the pliers on his fingernails.’
‘That’s what I mean, the boot of a car’s an improvement on his last few hours. Christ, are we going sentimental here? Let’s get the wee shite in the ground. He’s served his purpose.’