The Cold Calling

XXVII

Cindy’s vague sense of unease about the funeral was reflected in the brittle smile of the vicar, who greeted Marcus with a perfunctory handshake.

Big and red-faced, the vicar was the country-parson type you rarely seemed to find any more; you imagined him drinking copious amounts of port, going off hunting with the nobs.

This vicar would like it here. A nice, discreet little church. Set back from the centre of the village on a small, grassy mound, possibly prehistoric, it had a strong, ancient resonance in its rusty pink stone, its squat tower glistening in the slow rain. You wouldn’t prise this vicar out of here; any guilty feeling that he really ought to be helping to rehabilitate drug addicts in Brixton would be very firmly sat on.

Marcus looked ill at ease in a creased grey suit and a floppy black bow tie. And Bobby …

Bobby was turned away from the mourners under their umbrellas. Bobby was gazing up at some sort of gargoyle set into the gable of the church porch. There was a sudden heaviness around him. He was very still.

A strange boy. Two things apparent: he was not the nephew of Marcus Bacton. And he was, or had been, connected with the police.

Cindy, who had replaced his red beret with a black one and wore a black suede jacket buttoned over the lambs on his jumper, wandered over and followed the boy’s gaze. At once, his unease became solid; breath piled into his chest so hard he choked.

‘Sorry.’ Pulling a handkerchief from his sleeve. Oh lord. Oh heavens. Chipped and pockmarked he might be, but there was no mistaking him. Old foliage-face himself.

‘What’s that, Cindy?’

‘A Green Man, Bobby. It’s a Green Man.’

‘Which is …’ His voice cracked. ‘… what?’

‘He isn’t anybody in particular. Simply the Green Man. A symbol often found on ancient churches. No-one knows what he signifies. Fertility, perhaps. Quite … quite terrifying, isn’t he? Why does he bother you?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘But you’ve seen him before.’

He breathed out, didn’t reply.

‘In a dream, perhaps? In one of your dreams?’

He closed his eyes. He shook. His face was grey. He looked as if he might pass out. Several of the thirty or so mourners had noticed his discomfort. The locals. The ones with farmer-faces, red-veined and weathered.

The mourners began to filter into the church, a few likely relatives pausing to speak to Marcus, the locals avoiding him as you would a cranky old bull.

‘Go home, Bobby,’ Cindy said gently. ‘Not your day for a funeral. You’ll only upset people.’

Roger Falconer had apologized that he had a commitment this afternoon. Anxious, however, that Grayle’s article should be a true reflection of his work and his ideas, he’d invited her to dinner.

Grayle had thought uh-oh. Thanked him but pointed out she had some people to see tonight. Maybe some other time …

‘Wise decision, probably,’ Adrian said, seeing her out. ‘Bit of a ladies’ man, old Roger. I mean, not that … you know …’

Grayle smiled. Adrian was just about the most English person she’d ever met. He’d shown her round the centre, which essentially was confined to the outbuildings and Portakabins. She’d seen the Geiger counters and magnetometers they used to measure radiation and electro-magnetism in old stones, the infrared cameras and video equipment for capturing anomalous light effects and related phenomena.

‘I will admit,’ Adrian said, ‘that it’s become rather an obsession with me to show that our so-called primitive ancestors had an instinctive grasp of scientific principles our society is only just starting to reach. And to show that, compared with Neolithic people, we’re hardly alive any more. We’re just not in touch with our surroundings. Roger understands this very well, he just likes to play devil’s advocate.’

‘I’m just glad he agreed to speak to me without an appointment,’ Grayle said now.

‘That’s because he overheard your accent. He’s very keen on attracting Americans to the courses. They’re more open-minded and they often leave donations as well. Oh, gosh, I keep forgetting who I’m talking to … you won’t use this, will you?’

‘Adrian, most American tabloids aren’t at all like your British tabloids. I’m a, you know, a very straight person.’

‘Oh. Right. That’s all right then. Sorry to seem, you know …’

But he’d given her an opening and Grayle moved into it. ‘Though I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t kind of hoping for an American angle. When my paper called, they spoke to an Ersula … Underhill?’

‘Oh. Yes.’

‘I figured maybe we could nose off the piece on her, but, uh, Magda said she’d gone.’

‘Yes. She’s gone. Some weeks ago.’

‘Would you know where? Maybe I could catch up with her, talk about the stuff she did here.’

‘No, I’m sorry.’ Adrian shook his head. ‘I don’t know really where she’s gone. She left in rather a hurry. I think. We all assumed she’d gone back home to the States.’

‘Did she say she was going home? I mean, you know, I don’t want to cause any trouble. Like, if she was fired or something-’

Adrian looked shocked. ‘Oh, no. People don’t get sacked. Ersula was just a temporary person, anyway. She was studying the subject and so it was convenient for all of us.’

‘It’s just …’ Grayle figured she could go further with Adrian than she’d have dared to with Falconer, without arousing suspicions. ‘… just that Ersula Underhill was building quite a reputation in the States as an archaeologist and when our guy spoke to her on the phone, she seemed so blown away by what was happening here.’

‘Blown away?’ Adrian frowned. ‘I don’t really think she was that type. In our debates she tended to take Roger’s side.’

‘Right.’ Grayle took a deep breath. ‘Maybe it was Roger?’

‘Roger?’

‘That she was blown away with? He’s a … charismatic guy.’

‘Oh, now, look.’ Adrian’s shoulders went back; he looked stern. ‘It’s not going to be that sort of article, is it? When the People came, they were sort of sniffing around, you know, whether Roger was sleeping with his students, that sort of thing. Really not on.’

Grayle assured him again that she didn’t write that kind of stuff and swiftly spread some balm by telling him about the real nice people she’d met at the Rollright Stones.

‘Oh, they’re awfully good news,’ Adrian said earnestly. ‘Matthew and Janny are just the sort of people I’d like to see more of on the courses. Committed. Absolutely.’

‘Got to be committed if they’re even getting married in the stones.’

‘This weekend, in fact! Are you going? I am. I think it’s a really positive thing to do. All the times they’ve slept in that circle, committing their inner selves to the Earth. That’s what a wedding should be … a joining of a man and a woman with the Earth.’

And that was the moment — man … woman … Earth — when Grayle got the feeling. Like she’d swallowed a whole ice cube.

Adrian’s face shone with honest fervour. She thought, These guys have no real idea what they’re messing with. It’s like Cindy and his shamanic stuff; these stones are magnetic, all right, they attract airheads and fruitcakes like iron filings.

‘Well, thanks,’ she said. ‘You’ve been real helpful. Perhaps I will go.’

It’d be lovely if you could come, if you’re still around, Janny had said. We did invite Ersula, but…

‘To the wedding? Terrific!’ Adrian said. ‘We could go together.’

‘Yeah … well … maybe. Just one thing before I leave here …’