Nelson sends everyone home early. Tanya is still checking CCTV for any sightings around Avril Flowers’ bungalow. Nelson also catches her looking on Rightmove a few times. Leah is reorganising the filing system. Nelson tells her that she can work from home, but she seems keen to stay. ‘I’ll go mad at home.’ But, by five o’clock, they are all on their way out of the building.
Nelson hardly recognises his house. Laura has been to the shops and has even bought flowers. There’s a delicious cooking smell emanating from the kitchen and Radio 1 is playing upstairs.
‘Hi, Laura,’ he shouts. ‘I’m home.’
Laura appears at the top of the stairs. ‘I’m just doing some marking and I’ll be right down.’
‘No rush,’ says Nelson. He wonders what Ruth is doing. Now that he knows their routine it’s easier to imagine her and Katie in the cottage. Ruth will be at her laptop and Katie will be building something from Lego or writing her story about a cat. He wishes that he could ring them but doesn’t want Laura to come in halfway through. Instead, he calls Judy.
‘How’s Cathbad?’
‘Not too good. He’s still coughing and I think he’s got a fever.’
‘Paracetamol,’ says Nelson, drawing on his scant medical knowledge. ‘And lots of water.’
‘He’s taking paracetamol,’ she says. ‘I hope he’ll feel better soon.’ There’s a quaver in her voice that Nelson has never heard before.
‘Of course he will,’ says Nelson, hearing his voice sounding falsely hearty. ‘He’s as tough as old boots.’
‘He is,’ says Judy, sounding more like herself. ‘It’s just. . . I’ve never known him to be ill. Everything feels wrong. The kids and I don’t know what to do with ourselves. And Thing’s going crazy.’
The dog was always slightly crazy, in Nelson’s opinion. The bull terrier does not have Bruno’s superior intelligence. The house still seems very strange without Bruno. Nelson keeps thinking he can hear his claws clicking along the wooden floors or his tail swishing things off the coffee table. Maybe he’s being haunted by Black Shuck, a spectral dog who crossed his path– in a non-corporeal sense– on another case. Cathbad would definitely say so.
‘I’ll pray to St Carlo,’ he says. ‘My mum says that he’s good on Covid.’
‘I’m praying too,’ says Judy. ‘I just wish he’d get better.’
‘Me too,’ says Nelson. ‘Tell him get well soon from me.’
‘I will. Bye, boss.’
‘Bye, Judy.’
‘Who’s ill?’ says Laura, coming into the room.
‘Cathbad. He’s got Covid.’
‘Oh no!’ Nelson had forgotten that Laura, too, has a connection with Cathbad. He’d been kind to her after Tim died and Laura had attended Cathbad’s meditation classes for a while.
‘Let’s hope it’s not serious,’ he says, although something in Judy’s tone tells him that this is a faint hope. ‘Most people recover quickly.’
‘Cathbad isn’t most people,’ says Laura. ‘I’ve made stew for supper, but shall we FaceTime Rebecca and Mum first?’
‘Where’s Bruno?’ is the first thing Rebecca says when she pops up on his laptop screen.
‘He’s staying with Jan for a bit,’ says Nelson. ‘I’ve got a lot on at work.’
‘Why?’ says Rebecca. ‘Aren’t all the criminals locked up in their houses?’
‘Sadly not,’ says Nelson. ‘What’s going on with you?’
Rebecca tells him about going for walks on Brighton seafront with Asif. ‘It’s so strange to have the whole town to ourselves. We walked around the Pavilion yesterday.’
‘Take care,’ says Nelson. ‘Wear masks.’
‘We’ve got matching masks,’ says Rebecca. ‘It’s very cute.’
Michelle, speaking from her mother’s immaculate sitting room, seems delighted to see Laura and Nelson side by side on the sofa.
