The Buried Circle - Jenni Mills [174]
He nods, slowly, as if he’s not entirely convinced. ‘Nothing’s over till it’s over. You have to let Wyrd work itself out–all the interconnections.’
‘What happened to Keir after his dad died?’ I ask.
He shrugs. ‘No idea, except that Social Services swooped on him too.’
The dinosaur bird caught him in the end, then.
CHAPTER 46
‘See, Frannie’s a great woman,’ says John, ‘but she doesn’t believe in looking back. That’s why, whatever the truth about your grandfather, you won’t necessarily hear it from her lips. And after Tolemac–well, as far as Frannie was concerned, there was nothing to discuss. The pair of you had to carry on living life as it was, not chewing over stuff that would upset you. Bet you never saw her cry when Meg died, did you?’
‘Not really.’ The scent of the bonfire on which I burned everything that was left of my mother is in my nostrils. I’m not willing yet to tell John that I never cried either–because I thought you weren’t supposed to.
The phone is painfully loud, startling me so I kick the stool, spilling cold tea from my forgotten mug. A brown stain spreads across the pale carpet. In the confusion, I fail to recognize my own ring tone, so by the time I find the mobile in my jacket pocket it’s gone silent. Half a minute later, voicemail pings.
‘Where the hell are you?’ barks Ibby. ‘You were supposed to meet us in the lay-by on the A4. Well, too effing late. I’ve called Ed and he’ll lend a hand carrying the gear. But if you care to honour us with your presence, I need someone who knows one end of a radio mic from the other. I’ll be hands full directing the presenter–when he deigns to show himself.’
John is on hands and knees with a J-cloth and a bowl of cold water, blotting the tea-soaked floor.
‘Sorry,’ I say. ‘I should be doing that.’
‘Don’t worry. You’d better run.’ He looks up at me, with a worried expression. ‘Or ring them back and tell them something’s come up…’
‘No,’ I say firmly. ‘I’m fine. But do me a favour? I hauled Frannie out of bed so early she probably thinks it’s teatime already. The more tired she is, the more confused she becomes.’
‘I’ll ring her to make sure she’s OK,’ he says. ‘I’ve…a client due in half an hour, but I’ll ask Fran if she’d like me to go over and make tea for her later, if you want.’
‘No need. Filming should be over by five, latest.’
‘Stop mithering,’ says John. ‘And…I’ll come over tonight anyway’ He has a remote look in his faded eyes, thinking through something else. ‘We should finish what we were talking about.’
I’m out of the front door and halfway to the A4 before I start wondering whether he means Tolemac or the uncompleted conversation about Bryn and the dead dog.
At the lay-by, Ed’s Land Rover is parked behind the Overview crew car. A distant figure is toiling up the slope to the Long Barrow, the occasional gleam of sun flashing off silvery lighting boxes. Ibby is at the side of the Range Rover with a phone to her ear.
There is only one other vehicle in the lay-by, at the far end. A dirty white van.
Ibby acknowledges me by lifting her fingers, and turns her attention back to the phone.
There’s mud splattered over the rear doors of the white van, half obscuring the Stargate Earth Project sticker. Wyrd is giving me the chance to put one thing right at least. I walk round to look through the windscreen, rooting in my backpack for my purse.
Karl’s in the front, eating a cold pasty. There’s no sign of Pete. Instead a black-and-white collie raises its head from the passenger seat.
‘Here,’ I say, shoving the two twenties and a ten through the window at him. ‘All I have on me. It’ll help buy another metal detector.’
He stares at me, mouth open and full of pasty, with no sign of recognition, but takes the notes, folding them and zipping them into the breast pocket of a fleece emblazoned with a logo saying ‘A2B Drains’. Then he raises the pasty in a gesture that I hope means ‘thank you’. I walk back to Ibby at the Range Rover.
‘Fine,’ she’s saying, the politeness conveying that whoever is on the other end of the phone is dead meat, ‘you do that.