‘I will,’ said Wendy.
‘Not now,’ Hubert reassured. ‘Not if it’s too much.’
It was a tender moment. But Edward’s mind was elsewhere. Almost as soon as Wendy was gone, head down, leaving the place quietly with Hubert, he said to Kim, ‘This is nuts.’
She was still worrying about his double commitment on Saturday. ‘What are you going to do?’
‘Talk to the church.’
‘How will that help?’
‘You don’t know what I’m talking about, do you? I saw them. I’m sure I saw them.’
‘Who?’
‘Those two beasts who beat me up in my garden. He just wheeled her past me. Then she was up out of her chair and I saw the stick. They both look like the Honey Monster. It was them.’
‘Wait, I thought it was two men. You said “her” – so one of them’s a woman, and in a wheelchair?’
‘Yes.’
‘How could that be?’
‘When they beat me up, one of them kept screaming. Maybe she was in pain herself.’
Kim looked doubtful, almost amused.
‘It’s not funny, Kim.’
‘It just sounds unlikely.’
‘They were wearing latex masks and they were both six foot six. That’s got to narrow it down. Come on, I want to ask inside the church if anyone knows them.’
The church was empty when they walked back into it, except for two or three helpers who were buzzing around with lengths of cable and chairs. The long trestle table used for the press conference under the nave had been split into two pieces and the legs folded below it. The halves were leaning against the narrow spiral steps that led up to the pulpit.
‘Is the vicar in?’ asked Edward when a volunteer approached. He was a young man with a thin polo-neck jumper.
‘I think he left straight after the press conference. How can I help?’
Kim said, ‘We saw a couple leave earlier and we think they dropped something.’ She pulled a fountain pen from her handbag.
The volunteer looked. ‘That’s nice. Do you want me to take it?’
‘I’d be happy to drop it off if you know them,’ said Edward.
An older woman arrived, dressed as if she had just left a tennis court, with a sleeveless yellow jumper, white shirt and jogging bottoms. ‘Who are we talking about?’
‘Two people, one in a wheelchair.’
‘Oh yes?’
‘We saw them emerge from the church,’ said Edward, suddenly feeling the pain of his lie, all the more serious for being in a house of God, ‘and the man was helping the lady manoeuvre her wheelchair and he didn’t see the pen drop.’
‘Was this … quite a large couple?’
‘Yes,’ said Edward.
‘I think I saw them,’ said the young man. ‘But I don’t know who they were.’
