The Running Grave полностью

She had dark hair, tied back in a bun, and wore a sweatshirt and jeans. Her hands were busy with something. When Robin looked at the woman’s reflection in the window, she saw that she had a book open in front of her and was rapidly counting out yarrow stalks. A white object hung on a black cord around her neck. Only when Robin focused on the reflected face did her heart begin to pound violently in her chest. With the familiar fear and repugnance she’d have felt on seeing a tarantula creeping across the floor, she recognised the long, pointed nose and dark, crooked eyes of Mazu Wace.

As water pours down from heaven, so fire flames up from the earth.

The I Ching or Book of Changes

The room had become steadily darker as Strike and Abigail talked. Now she got to her feet, flicked on a light, then returned to the detective and sat back down.

‘’Ow can she still be alive? That’s crazy.’

‘Just for the sake of argument,’ said Strike, ‘let’s say your father and Mazu wanted to put Daiyu beyond the reach of the Graves family, to prevent them getting a DNA sample from her and proving she was Alexander’s daughter, rather than your father’s. Aside from the fact that Mazu wanted to keep her daughter, the quarter of a million would have reverted to the Graves’ control if they got custody.

‘What if your father and Mazu faked Daiyu’s death, with Cherie as a willing accomplice? Let’s say, instead of drowning, Daiyu was removed from the farm long enough to have credibly changed her appearance. She then came back three years later under a different name, as a child who’d supposedly gone to Birmingham to be trained up as a future church leader. Memories grow vague. Teeth can be fixed. Nobody’s sure quite how old anyone is, in there. What if your father and Mazu passed Daiyu off as Becca Pirbright?’

‘Come off it,’ said Abigail. ‘’Er sister an’ bruvver would’ve known she wasn’ Becca! ’Er muvver would’ve known! People don’t change that much. They’d never ’ave got away wiv that!’

‘You don’t think people can be so brainwashed, they’ll go along with what the church elders tell them? Even if the counter-evidence is staring them in the face?’

‘It would’ve come out,’ insisted Abigail. ‘Daiyu would on’y’ve been – what? – ten when she got back? I’ll tell you this for free: Daiyu would never’ve kept ’er mouth shut about ’oo she really was. Pretend to be some ordinary kid, instead of Papa J an’ Mama Mazu’s daughter? No way.’

‘But that’s the thing,’ said Strike. ‘Becca wasn’t treated like an ordinary kid when she came back – far from it. She was fast-tracked to the heights of the church while the rest of her family were kept as dogsbodies at Chapman Farm. She’s the youngest Principal the church has ever had. Your father’s also made her a spirit wife.’

‘Well, there you bloody are, then!’ said Abigail. ‘’E’d be committing fuckin’ incest if ’e—’

‘Ah,’ said Strike, ‘but here’s where it gets interesting. Becca seems to have become a spirit wife around the time your half-brother Taio started showing a sexual interest in her. Robin’s also got it on good authority that Becca’s still a virgin.

‘Now,’ said Strike, to the clearly incredulous Abigail, ‘I don’t know about you, but I don’t buy the story that your father picked out Becca as a future church leader when she was only eleven, so four separate theories occur to me, to account for why she was treated so differently from everyone else.

‘One reason could be that your father’s a paedophile, and separating Becca from her family was his way of ensuring he could have sexual access to her.’

‘’E’s not a paedo,’ said Abigail. ‘Not… not a proper one.’

‘What d’you mean by that?’

‘’E’s not too fussy about age of consent, as long as they’re – you know – well developed, like that Rosie. Long as they look like women. But not eleven-year-olds,’ said Abigail, ‘no way. Anyway, Becca wouldn’t still be a virgin if ’e was fucking ’er, would she?’

‘I agree,’ said Strike. ‘That explanation doesn’t cut it for me, either. So if your father’s interest in Becca wasn’t sexual, we’re left with three possibilities.

‘Firstly: Becca’s really Daiyu. That can only be proved, obviously, if we get a DNA sample from Mazu. But there are objections to that theory, as you point out.

‘So we move on to the next possibility. Becca’s not Daiyu, but she is your father’s biological daughter, and with Daiyu gone, she was trained up to take her place.’

‘’Ang on,’ said Abigail, scowling. ‘No, ’ang on. Louise already ’ad kids, she brought ’em to the farm wiv ’er. Becca wasn’ born there.’