What if the last five years existed only in his head? What if Arnold Avery had won after all, that misty morning up at Blacklands …
Tears filled Steven like water in a jug, and poured out of his eyes in what felt like a never-ending stream.
‘I’m sorry,’ he sobbed. ‘I’m sorry.’
Through the blur, he saw Jonas’s stricken face become surprised, and then concerned. He moved as close as his tether would allow him and reached out to touch the wire between them.
‘What’s wrong?’ said Jonas.
‘I think I might be dead,’ said Steven, and kept on crying.
48
KATE GULLIVER CAME TO Shipcott and had dinner with Reynolds and Rice. Rice had never met her before and was taken aback by how attractive she was – with a mane of dark hair, Spanish eyes, and legs that were needlessly lengthened by spike-heeled patent-leather boots.
Rice felt
The Red Lion only had one vegetarian option and it was always an omelette. Kate made a townie face and ordered two salad starters instead.
In a defiant countermeasure, Rice ordered pizza and a dessert. She could run it off in the morning. Or not.
Kate had spoken at length with Rose Hammond, the psychologist who had helped Steven in the year following his ordeal. She made little quote marks in the air around ‘helped’, leaving them in no doubt what a crappy therapist Kate considered her to be.
In his turn, Reynolds had spoken to the officer who’d dealt with the aftermath of the Arnold Avery case – a taciturn chief inspector, who seemed to hold Steven Lamb personally responsible for depriving the Avon and Somerset force of the pleasure of bringing Arnold Avery down in a hail of officially sanctioned bullets. Apart from that, he’d grudgingly conceded that the experience of being attacked by a psychopath must have been traumatic for a twelve-year-old boy.
Kate thought it was a trauma that might not necessarily have been resolved by a twice-monthly session with a country psychologist. Especially one who came cheap enough to be paid for by some Irish gardener who claimed to be the boy’s uncle.
She put air-quotes around ‘uncle’, too, and Reynolds laughed as if she’d been witty.
Rice felt like a stupid spare part. She wished there was someone across the table for
Just thinking about it made her feel warm. Everywhere.
After a lot of psychobabble that Reynolds nodded at eagerly – and that Rice largely tuned out – Kate said, ‘The legal system failed Steven and allowed a killer to track him down and almost kill him. I think any finger-pointing at a symbol of that system should be treated with the utmost caution.’
‘I agree,’ said Reynolds.
‘There’s another thing.’ Kate’s voice took on a sombre tone. She speared a cherry tomato before going on. ‘A child so traumatized, so
‘Great minds!’ said Reynolds, smiling at Kate like a smug puppy.
Rice didn’t have the letters after her name to argue with them. But, although she was relieved that suspicion seemed to be falling further and further from Jonas, she hated the drama that Kate Gulliver had squeezed from the moment with her cherry-tomato pause. Triumph disguised as concern. Kate and Reynolds were peas in a bloody pod.
Unless she was very much mistaken, she was the only person at this table who’d ever actually
‘Interesting,’ said Kate. She put down her fork and clasped her elegant hands under her chin. ‘On what basis do you make that assessment?’
Reynolds snorted. ‘On the basis of a five-minute chat with a towel on your head, wasn’t it, Elizabeth?’
He and Kate showed each other their teeth.
Rice took her cheesecake upstairs. She ate it with her fingers, sitting in the bath.
49
THERE WAS A reason why Davey Lamb got up before his alarm every morning and often slipped from the house before his mother had stirred. Davey’s instincts told him that if he didn’t get out of the house while his mother was all doped up and watching bad TV, she might never let him leave again.
