“I understand.”
“And the knock at the door never came. Which, I suppose, is why I’m telling you all this now. Because no one knocked at my door, and surely someone should have? In my dreams they knock every night. There have to be consequences. So what do you think? Please, just be honest with me.”
“Be honest with you?” Matthew Mackie lets out a long, slow sigh. “I’ll be honest. I don’t believe a word of it, Elizabeth.”
“Not a word?” queries Elizabeth. “There was a lot of detail, Father Mackie. The date, the gunshot to the leg, that very particular grave. What a peculiar thing for me to make up?”
“Elizabeth, you didn’t work here in nineteen seventy.”
“Mmm.Youdid, though. I’ve seen the pictures.”
“I did, yes. I’ve sat here before. And I’ve sat where you are too.”
Elizabeth decides to start turning the screw.
“You sound like a man who wants to talk. Anything I’ve said triggered any memories? Convinced you I might just know something?”
Matthew Mackie gives a sad laugh. Elizabeth keeps at him.
“If you don’t mind me saying, Father Mackie, you gave quite the little jump when I mentioned the Garden of Eternal Rest?”
“I do mind you saying that, Elizabeth, but I suppose I would like to talk. I’ve always wanted to. And since we’re both here, why don’t you play your real cards and see where that gets you?”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m at home here, Elizabeth. In God’s house. Let’s talk awhile, shall we? Two old fools? You just start somewhere, and I’ll join in where I can.”
“Shall we start with Ian Ventham? Shall we talk awhile about him?”
“Ian Ventham?”
“Well, let’s start there, at least. We can always work backward. I might start with a question, Father Mackie, if you don’t mind?”
“Ask away. And call me Matthew, please.”
“Thank you, I will. So, first things first, Matthew. Why did you kill Ian Ventham?”
98.
Joyce
I have been given express instructions, and Elizabeth has been gone too long. I wish Ron and Ibrahim were with me. I’m writing this down while I wait for Donna to arrive, which I hope will be very soon.
It’s beginning to feel like this isn’t all some jolly lark. An adventure where everything resolves itself and we all come back for more of the same next week. Elizabeth said two hours, and she has now been gone two hours. A bit more than two hours. What had I been thinking when I agreed to this in the first place? There have been lots of things we had kept from Chris and Donna, but this is by far the most dangerous. I am not one of nature’s liars. I can keep my secrets to myself, right up until the time someone asks me about them.
So I made the call to Donna, and I told her where Elizabeth had gone, and I told her she hadn’t returned.
Donna was very angry, and I understand that. I told her I was sorry for lying, and she said that Elizabeth had been the liar, I had simply been a coward. She then called me something which I wouldn’t want to repeat, but which, I have to admit, was fair comment.
I am so keen for people to like me that I chose that moment to say how much I had always liked her eye shadow, and to ask her where it was from. But she had already put the phone down.
Donna is on her way. I know she is very worried, and so am I. I have always thought Elizabeth was indestructible. I hope I’m not wrong.
99.
Elizabeth has made this walk many times before, along the curving path, through the avenue of trees, and up to the Garden of Eternal Rest. She can feel Matthew Mackie’s hand in the small of her back, guiding her forward.
It is always quiet, but she can never remember it being this quiet. Even the birds are silent. What do they know? It looks like rain. The sun is doing what it can to pierce the cloud cover, but she still shivers. There was police crime tape here until a matter of days ago. A fragment has been left tied to a sapling, flapping its blue-and-white tail in the wind.
