The Running Grave полностью

‘Oh, of course you were, yes,’ said Noli, but Robin could tell Noli had no memory of Will at all. ‘Well, it’s just something I think could be really interesting. We could make sure a big cut of the profits go to the UHC, obviously. I think it would be an incredible way to bring awareness of the church to a wider audience. Of course, he doesn’t think anyone would watch a movie about him,’ she said, with a giggle. ‘That’s the funny thing about him, he doesn’t realise what he is, does he? He’s so modest, it’s one of the things I really admire about him, it makes a really nice change from the people I meet in my business, I can tell you.’

‘Would you be Daiyu, in the film?’ said Will.

‘No, of course not, I’m too old,’ said Noli. ‘I’d quite like to play his first wife, because he’s told me a bit about her, and she sounds like a – well, she was no Lady Rowena, put it that way.’

‘D’you think it’s strange,’ said Will, still dicing onions, ‘that Papa J married twice and nobody in the church is supposed to marry?’

‘What?’ said Noli. Her knife slipped off the onion she was mangling.

‘Will!’

One of the older women had spoken, her tone a definite warning. The kitchen workers around the onion choppers seemed to have come back to life: there was a resumption of the usual clanging and clattering as they moved away.

‘Of course it’s not strange,’ said Noli. ‘His first marriage was before he even – anyway, it’s a Higher-Level Truth, isn’t it?’

‘What is?’ said Will, still looking at the onion he was chopping.

‘Papa J and Mama Mazu, you can’t – it’s not the same. They’re, like, our parents – all of our parents.’

‘Materialist possession,’ muttered Will again.

‘Oh, come—’

‘Have you read the Bhagavad Gita?’

‘Yes, of course,’ said Noli, clearly lying.

‘Lord Krishna talks about people of demonic nature. “Self-conceited, stubborn, intoxicated by pride in wealth, they perform sacrifice in name only, with ostentation.”’

‘Ohmigod, there are so many people in acting like that,’ said Noli. ‘The last show I did—’

But her voice was drowned out by another. Somebody outside the kitchen was screaming.

Nine in the third place…

The woman carries a child but does not bring it forth.

Misfortune.

The I Ching or Book of Changes

The kitchen door banged open to reveal Penny, whose once-green hair was now straggly and brown, and the front of whose sweatshirt was stained with what looked like blood.

‘It’s Lin,’ she wailed. ‘In the women’s bathroom. She’s – oh my God—’

Robin and Will were the first to move. Robin followed the younger man at a sprint, her apron slightly impeding the motion of her knees, and behind her she could hear some of the older women also running. They dashed down the pathway into the courtyard, but at the dormitory door, Will checked. Men weren’t supposed to enter the women’s dormitory. Robin pushed him aside, ran through the empty dormitory and through the bathroom door.

‘Oh Jesus,’ she said aloud.

There was a puddle of blood seeping from under one of the toilet cubicle doors. She could see Lin’s bloodstained legs, which weren’t moving.

‘Lin,’ Robin yelled, pounding on the locked door, but there was no answer. Robin dashed into the neighbouring cubicle, jumped up onto the toilet seat, seized hold of the top of the partition and pulled herself over it.

‘Shit,’ said Robin, landing and slipping in the blood surrounding the teenager, who sat slumped against the toilet.

She’d expected suicide, but saw at once that the blood, of which there seemed a terrifying amount, seemed to be issuing from Lin’s vagina. Her tracksuit bottoms were sodden and she was wheezing, while her neck, face and hands were covered in an angry red rash.

‘Lin,’ said Robin, ‘what’s happened?’

‘Leave m-m-me,’ whispered Lin. ‘J-j-just leave m-m-me.’

Robin heard footsteps outside the cubicle and hastily unlocked the door to reveal the worried faces of Penny and assorted female kitchen workers.

‘I’ll get Dr Zhou,’ said Sita, who disappeared.

‘N-no,’ gasped Lin. ‘N-n-not Zhou, n-not Zhou…’

‘You need a doctor, Lin,’ said Robin. ‘You’ve got to see a doctor.’

‘N-n-not him… I d-d-don’t want him… I’m fine… it’s fine…’

Robin reached for Lin’s hand, which was hot, and held it.

‘It’s going to be OK,’ she said.

‘N-n-no it won’t,’ said Lin faintly, now gasping for breath. ‘N-n-not if she g-g-gets Zhou… p-p-please…’

Robin could hear men talking outside the dormitory and a few minutes later, loudest of all, she heard Dr Zhou.

‘Get out of the way!’ he shouted as he entered the bathroom, and the women surrounding the cubicle scattered. Robin remained exactly where she was, and felt Lin’s fingers tighten on hers as Zhou appeared in the open doorway.