On Beulah Height (46 page)

She got a coffee and found a seat a few tables behind him. Someone had left a newspaper. She picked it up and held it so that, if he should happen to glance round, half her face would be covered. If his roving eye was keen enough to identify her from the top half alone, tough.

He was waiting for someone, there was no doubt about that. He poured his tea and raised the cup to his lips with his left hand, his right never letting go of the handle of the bag on the chair next to his, and his head angled toward the doorway.

This went on for twenty minutes. People came and ate and left. A clearer-up tried to remove Novello's empty cup, but she hung on to it. She had turned the pages of her paper several times without reading a word or even identifying which title she was holding. He likewise had squeezed the last drops out of his teapot. More time passed. Whatever reason he had for being here, he was determined his journey should not have been in vain.

Then finally he froze. Not that he'd been moving much before, but now he went so still, he made the furniture look active.

Novello looked toward the entrance door.

She knew him at once from Wield's doctored photograph.

Benny Lightfoot had just come into the cafeteria.

Andy Dalziel was standing at the edge of Dender Mere, close by the pile of stones which marked the site of Heck Farm. On the sun-baked mud at his feet lay a small selection of bones. He stirred them with his toe.

"Radius, ulna, and we think these could be carpal bones, but being small, they've been a bit more mucked about," said the chief mermaid, whose everyday name was Sergeant Tom Perriman.

"Age? Sex? How long they've been there?" prompted Dalziel greedily.

Perriman shrugged his broad rubberized shoulders.

"We just pulled 'em out," he said. "Adult I'd say, or adolescent at least."

"And the rest?"

"Still looking," said Perriman. "Funny, really. Not much in the way of current here. You'd expect them to stay pretty much together even after a fairly long time. Pure chance I found them. We weren't really interested in searching near the side where it's so shallow--"

"Where exactly?" demanded Dalziel.

"Just here," said Perriman, disgruntled at having his narrative flow interrupted.

He indicated a spot on the watery side of the exposed pile of rubble and went on. "I was just coming out, stood up to walk the last couple of yards, and felt something under my foot. Of course it would have been a lot deeper here before the drought. But where's the rest, that's my question."

"Perhaps there is no more," suggested Wield.

"What? Someone cut off an arm and hoyed it into the mere?" said Dalziel. "Still means there's the rest of him somewhere, or some bugger caused a bit of comment by going out for a stroll with a full set of arms and coming back one short."

"Some very secretive folk in Mid-Yorkshire, sir. Any road, chances are it's nowt to do with our case."

"Oh, aye? So what are you suggesting, Wieldy? Chuck it back and if any bugger asks, tell 'em it got away? Listen, even if it's not our case, it's certainly another of our cases. Bag this lot and get them down to the lab, Tom. And keep looking."

The Fat Man turned and headed toward his Range Rover, Wield following.

"There's been a few suicides up here, sir," he said.

"Aye, I think of them every time I mash my tea, Wieldy," said Dalziel. "But we usually trawl them out, don't we?"

"The ones we know about," agreed the sergeant. "But anyone could come up here and take a walk into the middle with a pocketful of stones and end up a statistic on our missing persons list."

"I may have to give up tea," said Dalziel. "You know, I never liked this water from the first time I saw it. Something about Dender Mere always gave me the creeps. Here, that sounds like George Headingley laying an egg on the car radio. What's woken him up, I wonder?"

"Soon find out," said Wield, picking up the mike and responding.

"Is he there, Wieldy?" demanded Headingley. "Tell him we've just got a message in from WOULDC Novello. She says she's sitting in the cafeteria of the Orecliff Services cafeteria on the coast road watching Geordie Turnbull having a chat with Benny Lightfoot. You see what this means? They could be in it together! Two of them, not just the one. That 'ud explain a hell of a lot, wouldn't it?"

Dalziel reached over and took the mike.

He said, "It wouldn't explain what you're doing telling the world and his mother this on the open air, George. So shut up unless you're sending the four-minute warning. We're on our way!"

"So what do you think, sir?" said Wield as they drove away. "Two for the price of one?"

"I think George Headingley got his brain on the National Health and his immune system's rejecting it," said Dalziel. "But if yon Ivor really has got us Benny Lightfoot, I think I might have to marry her."

At about the same time, Rosie Pascoe woke again and announced she was hungry. When she was only allowed a very light amount of liquid intake, she started to complain bitterly and her parents looked at each other with broad smiles.

"Am I very ill?" the little girl asked suddenly.

Pascoe's heart jolted for a second, but Ellie's ear was much more attuned to the note of calculation in the question.

"You've been fairly ill," she said firmly. "But now you are much better. And if you're completely better in time for the Mid-Yorks Fair, Daddy will take you and you can go on the Big Loop. Now Mummy's got to go out for a little while, but I'll be back shortly."

Pascoe followed her to the door.

"What was all that about?" he asked.

"The trick is to make the reward for getting better, not for being ill, otherwise she'll spin the invalid state out for months," said Ellie patiently.

"Yes, I got that. I meant about the Big Loop. You know it makes me sick."

"Peter, though I'll deny ever having said it, sometimes a little more Schwarzenegger, a little less Hugh Grant, would be a useful corrective."

"Okay. Where the hell do you think you're going, babe?"

"That is pure Cagney," she said. Then, more serious, "I'm just going to check on Jill. Okay, I understand what you said before, and I'm not going to push myself on her. She'll be at home now anyway, I should think. But I wanted to talk to someone about her and try to work out what's best for us to do."

"Okay," said Pascoe. "I'll entertain the monster."

After a fairly short spell of "entertainment," the monster looked ready to go back to sleep again.

"That's right, sweetie. You have a nap, get your strength up," said Pascoe. "In hospital you need to be fit to keep an eye on all the visitors trying to steal your grapes."

"Will I get a lot of visitors?" asked Rosie sleepily.

"Depends on the quality of your grapes."

"Will Zandra come?"

Pascoe made a huge effort to keep his voice light.

"If she can," he said.

He didn't know when the time would be ripe to tell her, but he knew it wasn't now.

"I haven't seen her since Sunday. Not to talk to, anyway. She might have the photos Derek took by now."

"Yes. Darling, remember when you had your breakfast picnic on Sunday?"

He felt guilty about asking but assured himself he wouldn't have brought it up if she hadn't mentioned Zandra herself.

"Yes. And I saw the nix taking Nina," she said.

It was as if he'd somehow conveyed the trend of his thought to her.

"That's right. You were using Derek's binoculars, weren't you?"

"Yes. They make things a lot bigger than yours, you know," she said seriously.

"I'm sure," he said, smiling. "And you saw Nina down in the valley. By herself, was she?"

"Yes. No. She had a little dog."

"Then the nix came."

"Yes. He came running down the hill and he threw her into a hole in the ground. I expect his cave is down there somewhere."

Her voice was very faint and weary now.

Pascoe pulled Novello's Post out of his pocket and unfolded it so that the double page spread at its center showed.

"Just before you drop off, darling, anyone here you recognize?"

She peered through half-closed eyes, then smiled and stabbed with her finger.

"That's Uncle Andy," she said.

"Hello. What's this game you're playing?" said Ellie's voice.

She had come in undetected and her tone was light and playful. But something in her husband's manner as he looked up must have alerted her, for now she asked suspiciously, "What is that you're showing her, Peter?"

"Just a photo of Uncle Andy, that's all," said Pascoe, starting to fold the paper.

But before he could do this, the little hand reached out and the finger stabbed again.

"And that's the rotten old nix," said Rosie Pascoe.

Then she yawned hugely and fell asleep.

The Summer Festival Concert was due to start at seven o'clock.

After a light lunch, Elizabeth went into the garden, stretched out on a lounger shaded by a parasol, and fell asleep.

She was woken by a sound and opened her eyes to Arne Krog looking down at her.

"I was moving the umbrella," he said. "The sun's moved round. I didn't think you'd want to sing with your face looking like a partial eclipse. And you have such delicate skin, don't you?"

"No, I've got skin like a cucumber, but I like it to look delicate," she said. "As you, of course, know."

"I do?"

"Aye, you don't miss a lot, Arne. Especially when it comes to watching women. Not that it's just women you watch."

"What on earth do you mean?"

"What did you see when you followed Walter this morning?" She laughed as he looked taken aback. "Gotcha! I guessed that's what tha were up to."

"You are a clever girl, Elizabeth. Or perhaps I should call you Betsy when your accent is as broad as this?"

"Please yourself," she said, swinging her legs off the lounger.

"Not if, as I observe, it doesn't please you. You were asking about Walter. I saw him park his car in the usual spot and take his walk up the Corpse Road to the top of the Neb, where he stood looking down into Dendale. I had a look myself after he'd gone. It's quite fascinating to see how the valley has been resurrected by the drought. Have you been to take a look, Elizabeth?"

"Got the wrong word, I think, Arne. Resurrected means fetched back to life. And no, I haven't been."

"I think you ought to. I'll be happy to accompany you, if you feel the experience might be too arduous."

She stood up and stretched, yawning widely.

"Going with you might be too arduous, I reckon you're right there," she said. "But it might be interesting to take a look."

She went into the house. The Wulfstans were sitting in the living room, Walter studying some papers, Chloe reading a book.

"Walter, I wouldn't mind going off to Danby a bit early," she said. "I thought you and me could take a walk up the Neb. You, too, Chloe, if you fancied it."

"I don't think so, dear," said the woman not looking up from her reading.

"You don't want to rest before the performance?" said Wulfstan.

"I've rested. Any road, you said you've fixed up a room at the Science Park for me to change and smarten up in. I might as well be there as here."

"I suppose so. What about you, Arne?"

"Arne can bring Chloe and Inger when they're ready," said Elizabeth firmly. "Right. I'll just get my stuff and we'll be off."

They didn't speak at all on the journey to Danby, but when Wulfstan slowed down as they approached the entrance to the Science and Business Park, Elizabeth said, "Can we go straight on to the Corpse Road and come back here after?"

"As you wish," said Wulfstan.

Passing through the streets of Danby, Elizabeth stared out of the window and said, "Funny. I felt nowt when we came yesterday, but I thought it might just be a sort of numbness. But it's not. I really do feel nowt. It's not like coming home. I weren't here long enough for that. Three years, was it? Four? And with what happened and all, it were never home."

They drove past the school and the church. She looked at the police vehicles parked outside St. Michael's Hall, but made no comment. When they'd bumped up the Corpse Road as far as the Discovery could take them, Wulfstan parked and they got out.

"You are sure you want to do this?" he asked.

"Why not?"

"It's very hot. And steep. You do not want to tire yourself out."

She laughed and said, "Don't talk daft. I'm a country lass, remember? When I went out on the fell helping Dad fold his sheep, I could cover more ground than these hikers do in a hard day's walk, and never notice it."

He looked at her without speaking, then set out up the track.

She matched him stride for stride and wasn't even breathing hard when they reached the crest.

She stood in silence for a while looking down into the sunlit valley, then she said quietly, "Now I'm home."

He said harshly, "How can you say that? What is there down there for any of us to call home?"

She said, "The buildings, you mean? They were nowt but heaps of rock to start withand that's what they are now. Couple of months' hard work and you could raise them up again. No, this is it for me. Full circle."

"Full circle implies completion," said Wulfstan.

"Is that right? Time for a fresh start, eh? You and Chloe never really managed a fresh start, did you? I mean, you went off, but back you came to Yorkshire eventually, which is a bit of a full circle. But I don't see the fresh start."

"There are things you cannot leave behind, not without amputation," said Wulfstan.

"Mary, you mean? Little Mary. She'd be same age as me, right? But she'd never have had my voice. That's something, eh? She'd never have had my voice. Except, of course, if what happened hadn't have happened, I'd likely never have had the chance to use it. Singing down the pub. Karaoke. That would likely have been the limit. 'Stead of which, in a hundred years they could be looking back to me like we look back to Melba. First great diva of the new millennium. Could be a plan, eh? You might almost think it could have been a plan."