unfathomable eyes.
‘Are you going to arrest me again? There are no young lasses
J o o o o
in these woods, you know — not at diis time of day.’
‘I don’t think it’s a subject to joke about, Mr Dickinson. Do you?’
‘Aye, maybe you’re right, lad. Maybe I’ve had enough enjoyment for one day.’
The hint of bitterness in the old man’s voice made Cooper’s ears prick up. Evidence of emotion was rare enough from Harry. There was an air of finality in his words too, a feeling of something coming towards an end. He’d had enough — but enough of what?
‘They had Jess in a cage at that police station,’ said Harry. ‘Shut up in a cage with a lot of mongrels and strays. What has she ever done wrong to anybody? Tell me that.’
Cooper felt a strange sensation coming over him, a powerful physical surge that sent a shiver of excitement up his spine. His eyes were drawn down to the ground, where Jess, the black Labrador, was lying on the grass at Harry’s feet. Her lolling pink tongue was the only splash of colour in a tangle of black fur.
‘Right,’ he said, catching his breath. ‘Yes, that’s right.’
Harry looked at him sharply, suddenly suspicious at the silence. Cooper shook himself and stared back at the old man, beginning to smile for the first time in days.
329
Gwcn Dickinson saw Ben Cooper coming up the path. She had been watching for Harry from the kitchen window. Her face was drawn, and her eves were red from lack of sleep and too many tears.
Cooper remembered that she, too, had been questioned in an interview room at tdendale, to be informed that her husband was a suspected rapist. Suddenly, he felt sick at the thought of hat was done to people like Gwen innocent people who happened merely to find themselves on the sidelines of a major enquiry as unwilling witnesses, possessors of some snippet of information the police were determined to get hold of, while the foundations of their lives were being pulled apart in front of their eyes. For Gwen, he knew, life with Harry would never be the same.
‘What did he saw?’ asked Gwen, when he reached the back
J ‘
door of the cottage. She clutched at his sleeve as if expecting him to put everything right. ‘I saw you speak to Harry.’
‘He didn’t say anything. I’m sorry.’
Cooper didn’t know what he was apologizing for. But he knew he had disappointed Gwen by the way her face fell and she turned to go back inside, shuffling her feet in a pair of old
O O I
slippers decorated with pink roses.
‘Come in. Helen’s here.’
‘Oh no, it’s all right. I don’t want to intrude.’
He began to back away, out into the sunlight. But Helen herself appeared in the kitchen at the sound of his voice. She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt and had a polishing cloth in her hand. Her red hair was tied back in a ribbon.
‘Come in, Ben. Don’t stay out there, please.’
‘Helen’s been doing a bit of cleaning for me,’ said Gwen. ‘I can’t seem to be bothered with it any more.’
As the old woman shuffled through into the sitting room and settled herself with a sigh into an armchair, Helen turned troubled eyes on Cooper.
‘None of this was because of me, you know,’ he said.
‘I know. I’m sorry, Ben.’
‘I’m off the enquiry anyway. They don’t need me now.’
Helen laid a hand on his arm, sensing his pain. ‘I’m really
330
worried about Granddad now. I think he’s planning something. That’s why he’s kept out of the way ever since he came back from die police station. Because he’s worried I might be able to tell what he’s thinking; he kr.ows that I can understand him.
o’
We’re too close, you see. I think that’s the reason he’s been behaving so strangely. He’s trying to keep me and Grandma at arm’s-length, so we can’t guess what he’s up to. But he’s certainly up to something. Can you help us, Ben?’
‘Hasn’t he said anything to you at all?’
‘There was just one thing he said, when he first came back. It worried me even more. He said, “It was meant for Vernon.”’
The sound of the phone was loud and jarring in the little cottage. Gwen jumped with alarm, but stayed in her chair, gripping the arms, her eyes turning pleadingly towards Helen. Her granddaughter went to answer it, and Cooper watched Helen’s face change as she listened, turning pale under her tan. It was obvious there was more bad news.
Helen turned slowly back to Gwen and Cooper as she replaced the phone. But she couldn’t meet Cooper’s eyes. ‘That was Mum,” she said. ‘The police have been and taken Dad in for questioning.’
DCI Tailby smiled wolfishly at Andrew Milner, noting the nervousness in his posture and his gestures and the sheen of sweat that had broken out on his forehead. A cup of tea stood going cold on the interview room table in front of
