The toilet door opened inwards, and was quite heavy, which would make breaking it down nigh on impossible. Edward had heard the sound of others arriving in the house – and at least one man’s voice – but it was impossible to make out details of the exchanges through the thick wood he pressed his ear to. After the horrible scream and then a sound on the stairs which could have been Kim escaping, falling or being dragged, it was too quiet to hear more. The keyhole was too near the door jamb to allow him space to press his good ear against that. He tried an eye against the keyhole, saw nothing but blurred shapes. Worried about Stevie’s phone again:Don’t ring.They would know she was in the house if it did.
He began to despair. No sound was bad news, he was sure of that. Was the new arrival the other Hearst twin? He put the lid down on the toilet seat and sat there, willing himself to concentrate. The loo window was tiny, and jammed shut. Still, he could hear the sea on the other side of the door. Wendy seeing the police photo of the undrilled tree trunk had been a disaster of the first order. But until he had seen it himself, he had not understood how completely the doctor’s widow had suckered him. And for what? She needed to clear her name, but what was the connection to the Toppings crash? How the hell could she be involved in that?
At the loo door, he heard a voice.
‘Temmis, I’m going to unlock the door and open it slowly.’
‘Who is this?’ he asked.
‘Charlie Hearst.’
As the door inched open, Kim came into view. She was in the armchair at the other end of the hallway, gagged, eyes bulging. Beside her was Hubert Hearst, recognizable from his shock of white hair. He was holding a syringe.
‘Kim?’ asked Edward.
A movement to his left, his brain sparked and he was unconscious.
Chapter Forty-Six
When Edward came round, he was on a chair in his garden facing the sea. His head thumped and his temples burned. How long had he been out for? The ocean came into a kind of focus, though it was ten miles of blackest water beyond the cliff. The moon hid its face behind a long strip of grey cloud. He was tied thoroughly to the chair, but not gagged. He opened and closed his mouth, feeling the pain as his jaw worked. He moved his elbow and it touched something. Kim was beside him, similarly bound but gagged.
Charlie Hearst moved slowly around the front of the pair. The vague light of the moon framed him as he spoke. He had the unquestionable authority of the surgeon. His voice was calm.
‘I feel we should give you an explanation before you die. And a choice.’
Hubert appeared at his side. Edward was staggered again at the incredible physical similarity, save the hair colour. ‘We work together,’ said Hubert. ‘In everything.’
‘And we believe in choice, don’t we, Hub?’ said Charlie. ‘That’s how all this started. Why don’t you tell us, Edward?’
‘Tell you what?’
‘What you worked out. I want to know.’
He looked sideways at Kim. There was now a fresh plaster on her neck, as if the twins had treated her for the injuries Wendy had caused.
‘I spoke to a lady with dementia opposite Lev Malnyk’s house. I now understand what she told me. The day after the crash she saw people removing a box – Lev’s dialysis machine. The man in the mirror. I’m looking at the man in the mirror now. That’s you two.’ His voice, he knew, sounded slurred. But he had to talk. He had just noticed, in Hubert’s right hand, the syringe. Moonlight jumped in the plastic stem like a lanternfish. ‘She said something like, “Four people went in and two came out.” It was like a crossword clue. She was seeing double. Identical twins.’
‘Okay, that’s good. So she saw us both.’
‘You gave Lev the dialysis machine,’ Edward continued, head still spinning, ‘because you wanted him to do something in exchange. My guess is that he was supposed to deliver those capsules for you. I just don’t know why.’
Kim was trying to speak.
‘For God’s sake,’ he snapped at last, ‘let her say what she wants to say!’
There was a pause and then the twins nodded to a figure behind Edward and Kim. Wendy, out of view, put her fingers to the back of Kim’s head. She loosened the gag until it hung around Kim’s chin like a neckerchief.
‘Assisted dying.’
Edward asked, ‘What?’
‘Wendy started telling me. That’s what they were doing.’
‘Assisted dying?’ Edward’s brain spun and he tried to grasp the threads. ‘So … you were helping people die? With the capsules. You gave people radioactive capsules … so they couldchoose. You believe in choice and you wanted to let people choose when they died.’
The twins nudged each other, with a little smirk.Look at the clever radio guy.Edward flexed his fingers against his bonds, impotently furious.
‘And Lev delivered the radioactive capsules for you, did he?’
