‘Uh … yeah,’ she said. ‘I guess that would help.’
‘OK. I’m doing it. I can’t hear anything.’
She went tight into the opposite corner from where he was sitting, and laid down the bag she’d had over her head. At least that would absorb most of it.
When she was through, she stood up and shuddered with relief, and then she went and sat down next to Bobby Maiden and took his fingers out of his ears and gently kissed what she hoped was the side of his mouth.
‘Thank you. That was the nicest thing anybody …’
She broke out laughing then, for a blessedly insane moment, and they held each other, sitting on his jacket on the stone floor in the cold and the darkness and the ammonia fumes.
After a while, her hands warm in his sweater, she said, ‘You know what Cindy said to me earlier? He said this was all about big egos. Egos wanting to survive death. He said you could see it being of like cosmic proportions or really small and sordid. He said it was about Kurt and Seward, but also Crole and Abblow.’
Bobby told her what Harry Oakley had alleged about Crole and Abblow. How they liked to watch the lights go out.
‘This John Hodge …’ she shivered in his arms. ‘They messed with him down here? Maybe where we’re sitting. What did they do to him?’
‘I don’t know. But maybe Campbell and Seward do. If we assume that Seward’s fascination with spiritualism is the main reason he’s bankrolling Kurt … because he thinks Kurt’s the man who can prove something to him …’
‘… then it’s in Kurt’s interest to show he can come up with the goods,’ Grayle said.
She told him what Kurt had said earlier about Abblow and Dunglas-Home; how some people had claimed to have seen him levitate, others had denied it. About the question she’d put to Kurt.
‘I think he wanted me to know. Though he couldn’t admit it, he wanted me to know how clever he’d been. I would bet money that he was with Callard until just days before the Cheltenham party and that he hypnotized her.’
‘What?’
‘I guess it was down to auto-suggestion. He wouldn’t even need to be there. You think about this. She’s psychic — I’m not gonna deny she’s psychic, she’s proved it in all kinds of ways.’
‘Yes.’
‘And … and the drawing, right? Sure, I know you could’ve gotten that from the picture in the book, but I think you got it from her. She has it. Whatever it is, she still has it. She talks about being washed up and all, but she still gets these spontaneous …’
‘She was Em,’ Bobby said.
‘You don’t have to talk about that. Bottom line is Marcus was right about Callard. She is an extraordinary person. But she’s also human and stupid enough to get involved with a slimeball like Kurt. She always said that the men who came on to her, half of them wanted to get into her pants, the other half wanted into her career. Maybe Kurt looked attractive because he already had a career, was making even more money than she was, in kind of a similar area. And maybe he was therapy.’
‘Hypnosis.’
‘Like Campbell said to me just now, he can relax you. Hypnosis can take away stress and make you feel good about yourself, all that stuff. So maybe it started with her submitting freely to it, all strung up with the stresses of communication with the dead. And then he gets into her mind and he can plant all kinds of stuff in there. Plus, all that about how you can’t hypnotize someone against their will is just smoke, you ask any professional hypnotist — if you’re a suitable subject, they can get you … any time they want. So, like, Kurt has this financially fruitful relationship going with Gary Seward — does Seward have an awful lot of money?’
‘More than anyone’s ever likely to know about. They all have, these guys. The taxman just gets the occasional gratuity …’
‘So Kurt has this thing going with the most famous and glamorous medium in the Western world. And he’s into her mind. And he knows what could really blow Seward away. What if … what if Callard could be shown to have contact with the newly murdered Clarence Judge? Think about it, Bobby. Callard’s still getting the spontaneous spirit contacts, everything’s normal… until she does a formal sitting. And then, instantly, there he is … there’s Clarence. Every time, on cue. So suppose Kurt put her under one time — maybe this is just after they got laid when she’s all compliant and softened up … and he shows her a picture of Clarence Judge.’
‘There isn’t a picture of Clarence Judge with that scar.’
‘Just because there isn’t one in the book doesn’t mean there isn’t one. So he shows her a picture — or whatever — and he’s like, You will see this face every time … Jesus … every time you say the words, “The lines are open.”’
‘Bloody hell.’
‘It’s her line, Bobby! Hers and only hers. It’s widely known. You go through Marcus’s files, you’ll see that damn line used as a headline on at least two profiles of Callard.’
‘You’re saying there’s no ghost. No Clarence outside of Seffi’s mind?’
‘I think that’s what I’m saying.’
‘So what about the other stuff. The smell? You even said you smelled it, at-’
‘Yeah, yeah, the bad dick smell. Well, she’s a powerful psychic. She can blow out windows, she can fake Chaucer. To me, that’s all entirely rational, and to a lot of scientists also. And, by the same rules, the smell’s coming out of her. She’s got this obnoxious Clarence so deep in her subconscious she’s producing an associated stink. Maybe Clarence never smelled like that in his life, maybe he washed his dick scrupulously every night, I wouldn’t know about that and neither would Callard. You have to excuse me here, Bobby. I’m thinking this out as I go along.’
‘So this “lines are open” post-hypnotic suggestion thing is angled on the seance which Kurt set up for Seward in Cheltenham, right? You think Kurt was there all the time?’
‘Probably in the back room, out of sight. Callard mustn’t know it’s him … what’s that gonna do to their blossoming relationship? Yeah, the seance … it goes better than he could have hoped … bad-dick smell, drop in temperature, exploding vase … and Callard runs out, leaving Seward knocked out and lusting for more and thinking how right he was to invest in Kurt Campbell.’
‘And maybe,’ Bobby said, ‘under normal circumstances, Kurt would have erased the instruction from Seffi’s mind. But it messed her up so much and she ran so hard …’
‘Whatever, he didn’t get to erase it, did he? So whenever she comes out with the trademark phrase, there’s old Clarence, in all his filthy glory. No wonder she went half-crazy. Hypnosis gone wrong can screw up ordinary people, hypnosis of a sensitive with psycho-kinetic abilities … that’s potentially devastating. Actually devastating. I wonder if he told her. I wonder if he told her on the phone … told her some of it … and that’s why she’s here.’
‘Because he’s promised to get rid of it.’
‘In return for one special appearance, to put a cool spin on a mock-Victorian seance? Does that sound enough to you, Bobby? Does that sound worth all this … Bobby …’ Grayle sat up. ‘You moaned. You’re hurt. Jesus, honey, they hurt you. You can’t get up, can you? That’s why-’
‘They just kicked me around a bit. I thought they’d stabbed me at first, but they just knew where to kick. Me dad wouldn’t even have felt it.’
‘You’re lying. You can’t get up …’
Dear God, for a few minutes it had felt real good, putting it all together, talking it all out. You could forget … She moved a hand lightly over Bobby’s face, feeling the bumps of dried blood.
‘Those bastards,’ she sobbed. ‘They’re like some private secret police force.’
‘That’s what they are,’ he said. ‘They are a private police force run by an ex-senior policeman who knows exactly how far he can go.’