‘Yes, that would be great,’ Marcus mumbled. He followed David into the kitchen while the priest made coffee, unwilling to face Mouse alone.
‘Is he here?’
‘He’s in the drawing room, yes. Along with a few others. Let’s go through.’
Marcus followed David across the hall. Mouse was sitting in an armchair directly opposite the entrance. He looked up at Marcus and nodded glumly, then stared back at his feet, which were propped on a velvet pouffe. The Earl was seated in the corner, his fierce eyes fixed on Marcus and David. Marcus stepped further into the room and turned towards the sofa. Abby was there, sitting very upright, a hopeful smile fixed on her wide face.
‘Abby!’
She rose and embraced him.
‘I got the last flight back last night. I wanted to be here for this.’ She took his chin in her hand and looked at his face. ‘You look dreadful, darling. You obviously need me here to look after you.’
Marcus sat down beside Abby. David remained standing, moving behind Mouse’s chair and looking across at Marcus. He carried some of the awful grandeur that had once made Marcus afraid to look at him.
‘I thought we should all sit down together. Mouse has told me everything. We should listen to his story, and then discuss what to do. Mouse has been very brave coming to me like this. Over to you, Mouse.’
Mouse shifted in his chair, leaned forward, and began to speak. He wrung his hands as he talked. He clearly hadn’t slept for a while.
‘Lee’s dead. She died just after five in the morning on the Sunday of the Retreat.’
Marcus felt a wave of melancholy sweep over him. He had imagined this moment so many times that it hardly shocked him. Mouse’s words confirmed something that he felt he had known all along. Abby held his hand very tightly. The priest nodded at Mouse, who was sitting quite still, his eyes full of tears.
‘Why don’t you tell it from the beginning, Mouse? Just like you told me.’
Mouse let out a sigh.
‘It was past four. Marcus and I had come up together from the dining hall around three. I couldn’t sleep, so I wandered over to the west wing. I wanted to find the mermaid frieze that I’d seen the day before. When I came to the top of the winding stairs, I heard the sound of someone crying. I walked down the corridor and the sound grew louder. I came to a further staircase which led to a tower. The one that we saw when we were coming up from the lake. There was a wee room at the top with a desk and a few books.’
‘It’s my study,’ the Earl interrupted. ‘I rarely use it these days, but I like to have a place to work when I’m in the country.’
‘Lee was standing at the window looking down at the moon on the lake and crying. I went up behind her and tried to comfort her, but she was absolutely wild. I couldn’t get near to her. She said that the Course was responsible for her depression. That she had been happy before all the guilt. That was how she put it. She told me what had happened with Marcus on the boat and then she just dissolved in tears.
‘I thought about going to get David or you, Marcus, but she stormed back downstairs and into her room. She started to throw her clothes into a bag, said she was going to walk to the train station at Banbury. She told me that she hated us. That she wished we were all dead.’
A large tear rolled down the left side of Mouse’s face.
‘She ran away from me down the corridor and then started down the stairs. I ran after, she slipped. . or she jumped. I couldn’t tell. She rose up into the air like she was trying to fly. I almost caught her. I was close enough to catch her, but I couldn’t quite grab hold of her jumper. She thudded all the way down the stairs and landed at the bottom with a horrible crunch.’
Mouse was sobbing now and drew his sleeve across his face. Abby let go of Marcus’s hand and crossed to sit on the arm of Mouse’s chair. She stroked his hair with her large hands.
‘When I got down to her she wasn’t breathing. I tried to give her mouth-to-mouth, but there was this huge dent in her head. I couldn’t believe that falling down the stairs could do that to someone, but she landed so hard, and it was marble at the bottom. I panicked. I don’t know why, but it felt like it was my fault. Like you’d all blame me for it, you know? I carried her down to the lake. I opened the boathouse and wrapped her round with fishing line and attached weights to it. I rowed out in the little boat and pushed her into the water. Then I drove your car up to Banbury Station to make it look like she’d run away. When you came down in the morning I’d just got back, Marcus.’
He stopped and looked down at his hands, then up at Marcus.
‘I’m sorry.’
Marcus was fighting for breath. ‘Jesus, Mouse,’ he said. ‘I mean, really. What were you thinking?’
Mouse looked back at him. ‘I just didn’t know what to do. She was dead.’
Marcus looked over at David.
‘So we’re going to the police, right? I mean, we have to tell them all this. Tell D.I. Farley. Mouse can claim diminished responsibility or whatever. I’m not sure that throwing someone who’s already dead in a lake is even an offence. But we have to tell them, don’t we?’
There was a long silence. Finally, the Earl spoke.
‘I don’t quite see who it helps, telling the police.’ His voice was a whisper.
‘Well, it helps Lee’s family for one. Her parents need to know what happened to their daughter. And surely it isn’t a matter of whom it helps. It’s about doing what is right. Lee died and the police need to know.’
Abby crossed back to sit next to Marcus.
‘David told me about this yesterday. I had a chance to think about it on the flight. I agree that it’s a very complex situation.’
‘I don’t think it is,’ Marcus interrupted her. ‘I don’t think it’s very complex at all. It seems like a very simple situation to me.’
‘Let me finish,’ Abby continued, her voice very calm. ‘It is complex. Isn’t it better for Lee’s family to have the hope that she isn’t dead? Isn’t it better that they think she might have gone off to a better life, stowed away on a ship or run off with a billionaire on his private jet? Of course, they’ll always think that she probably killed herself, but I don’t want to be the one who takes their hope away from them. Especially her father. He loved her so much, you know, and Lee was always saying how fragile he was. I worry that taking away this last bit of hope might finish him off.’
‘And more than that is what this would do to the Course.’ David stood in the centre of the room with his hands clasped in front of him. ‘Nothing that we can do will change things for Lee.’
‘She’s lying at the bottom of a lake, David. Of course we can’t change things for her.’ Marcus stood up and faced the priest.
‘Exactly,’ David continued. ‘I want to go up and have a service at Lancing Manor. Just us. Set her to rest properly — that is only right. But I am God’s servant and my obligation is to do what best serves God’s interests. If the news about Lee got out, it would destroy everything we have built here. The Course is about to take off in the States in a very major way. We are now in three hundred churches across the UK. Imagine all the good we’re doing. Imagine what it means to the priests to have their churches full. Imagine how many girls there are like Lee dealing with similar problems who will find a way to peace through God, and all because of the Course. If we go public with this, I will have to resign. The whole thing will come apart.’
‘Why?’ asked Marcus. ‘It’s Mouse’s fault. He can take the blame for this. Not you.’
David looked across at Marcus. ‘Because if Mouse speaks to the police he will have to tell them that one of the reasons that Lee was in such a state was because she had been taken advantage of by her best friend’s husband.’