'Please yourself,' she said, swinging her legs off the lounger.
'Not if, as I observe, it doesn't please you. You were asking about Walter. I saw him park his car in the usual spot and take his walk up the Corpse Road to the top of the Neb, where he stood looking down into Dendale. I had a look myself after he'd gone. It's quite fascinating to see how the valley has been resurrected by the drought. Have you been to take a look, Elizabeth?'
'Got the wrong word, I think, Arne. Resurrected means fetched back to life. And no, I haven't been.'
'I think you ought to. I'll be happy to accompany you, if you feel the experience might be too arduous.'
She stood up and stretched, yawning widely.
'Going with you might be too arduous, I reckon you're right there,' she said. 'But it might be interesting to take a look.'
She went into the house. The Wulfstans were sitting in the living room, Walter studying some papers, Chloe reading a book.
'Walter, I wouldn't mind going off to Danby a bit early,' she said. 'I thought you and me could take a walk up the Neb. You, too, Chloe, if you fancied it.'
'I don't think so, dear,' said the woman not looking up from her reading.
'You don't want to rest before the performance?' said Wulfstan.
'I've rested. Any road, you said you've fixed up a room at the Science Park for me to change and smarten up in. I might as well be there as here.'
'I suppose so. What about you, Arne?'
'Arne can bring Chloe and Inger when they're ready,' said Elizabeth firmly. 'Right. I'll just get my stuff and we'll be off.'
They didn't speak at all on the journey to Danby, but when Wulfstan slowed down as they approached the entrance to the Science and Business Park, Elizabeth said, 'Can we go straight on to the Corpse Road and come back here after?'
'As you wish,' said Wulfstan.
Passing through the streets of Danby, Elizabeth stared out of the window and said, 'Funny. I felt nowt when we came yesterday, but I thought it might just be a sort of numbness. But it's not. I really do feel nowt. It's not like coming home. I weren't here long enough for that. Three years, was it? Four? And with what happened and all, it were never home.'
They drove past the school and the church. She looked at the police vehicles parked outside St. Michael's Hall, but made no comment. When they'd bumped up the Corpse Road as far as the Discovery could take them, Wulfstan parked and they got out.
'You are sure you want to do this?' he asked.
'Why not?'
'It's very hot. And steep. You do not want to tire yourself out.'
She laughed and said, 'Don't talk daft. I'm a country lass, remember? When I went out on the fell helping Dad fold his sheep, I could cover more ground than these hikers do in a hard day's walk, and never notice it.'
He looked at her without speaking, then set out up the track.
She matched him stride for stride and wasn't even breathing hard when they reached the crest.
She stood in silence for a while looking down into the sunlit valley, then she said quietly, 'Now I'm home.'
He said harshly, 'How can you say that? What is there down there for any of us to call home?'
She said, 'The buildings, you mean? They were nowt but heaps of rock to start withand that's what they are now. Couple of months' hard work and you could raise them up again. No, this is it for me. Full circle.'
'Full circle implies completion,' said Wulfstan.
'Is that right? Time for a fresh start, eh? You and Chloe never really managed a fresh start, did you? I mean, you went off, but back you came to Yorkshire eventually, which is a bit of a full circle. But I don't see the fresh start.'
'There are things you cannot leave behind, not without amputation,' said Wulfstan.
'Mary, you mean? Little Mary. She'd be same age as me, right? But she'd never have had my voice. That's something, eh? She'd never have had my voice. Except, of course, if what happened hadn't have happened, I'd likely never have had the chance to use it. Singing down the pub. Karaoke. That would likely have been the limit. 'Stead of which, in a hundred years they could be looking back to me like we look back to Melba. First great diva of the new millennium. Could be a plan, eh? You might almost think it could have been a plan.'
He looked at her with an intensity almost tangible, but all he said was 'You are planning to raise your register?'
'What? Oh, Melba. Yeah, mebbe. I could do it, I think. We'll see what that old woman in Italy says next year.'
'That old woman in Italy is one of the finest voice coaches living,' said Wulfstan. 'And not cheap.'
'Oh, aye,' said Elizabeth indifferently. 'When she hears me, she'll likely work for IOU'S and know her money's safe. What's going off down there, do you think?'
There were men standing in the shallows close by the ruins of Heck. One of them moved out of the water and went to a parked Range Rover and took a long crowbar out of the back. As they watched, he returned to the water's edge and began to probe in the rubble.
'It seems they are looking for something,' said Wulfstan.
'Oh, aye? And is there owt to find, do you think?'
He looked at her for a moment then said, 'I saw him, you know.'
'Who?'
'Benny Lightfoot. I was up here and I saw him.'
'Down there?'
'No. Up here on the ridge. Walking toward the Neb.'
'And what did you do?'
'I followed him, of course. Isn't that why evil spirits visit us, so they can lure us to our destruction?'
'And did he?'
'Of course. It wasn't a long journey. Elizabeth…'
'Yes?'
'One thing remains. If…'
'Yes,' she said. 'I think mebbe it's time we made a start.'
'That fresh start, you mean?'
'Aye, that too. Though mebbe that's been made for us. Walter, I'm sorry.'
'For what? How is anything your fault?'
'Nay, but I always thought everything was, and I can't be altogether wrong, can I? Let's talk. But not till after I've sung, eh?'
She took his hand and turned him away from the valley, and hand-in-hand they began to descend the Corpse Road.
It had been a risk, but a small one, for Novello to leave the cafeteria to ring in for backup. She had spent enough hours in the police gym to feel fairly confident about confronting one unarmed man, but two was pushing things. And while Turnbull with a weapon other than his charm seemed unlikely, she couldn't be sure about Lightfoot.
Moving back to the entrance, she saw that she'd just been in time. The two men were rising together and making for the door. She noted that Lightfoot was carrying the leather bag, which meant he had one hand occupied. She retreated before them to the parking lot.
No sign yet of any help, but it should be close. The coast road was well patrolled. She wouldn't hear it coming, as she'd asked specifically for no siren. Sometimes she suspected some of her male colleagues learned more from cop shows than police college. No one on the telly seemed to have worked out the advantages of sneaking up on a suspect. They either rang a warning bell or simply shouted, 'Oy! You!' from a distance of fifty yards. Of course this meant you got an exciting chase or lively shootout, which was a visual plus. In real life, you wanted to be neither seen nor heard till you'd got within half-nelson distance.
Anyway, close or not, she couldn't wait. A suspect in a car was an arrest problem squared.
