‘Barbara?’ said Nightingale, hoping that she would support him.
‘I really don’t want to get dragged into this,’ said Barbara.
‘You’re the one who got my sister to talk about Fairchild and what he did,’ said Nightingale.
‘Your sister was in a mental hospital,’ said Jenny. ‘Let’s not forget that.’
‘Accused of murders that she didn’t commit,’ said Nightingale. ‘Murders that your uncle carried out.’
‘You’ve only got your sister’s word for that and she’s not around to back you up.’ She glared at him. ‘I don’t know why you keep banging away at this. Your sister was deranged, probably still is.’
‘Barbara?’ said Nightingale. ‘You were the one who did the regression thing.’
Barbara shrugged. ‘It wasn’t really hypnotic regression; she was in a deep trance and she talked through what she remembered.’
‘What she thought she remembered,’ said Jenny.
‘So now you’re saying that she was making it up?’
‘I’m saying that your sister has a lot of problems. You too. You both found out that your real father was a Satanist who gave you up for adoption at birth and you’re both having trouble dealing with that. Jack, you’re talking about a man that I’ve known for as long as I can remember.’ She put a hand over her heart. ‘I swear to you, I’d trust Uncle Marcus with my life.’
‘I can see that,’ said Nightingale. ‘And I can see how quick you are to defend him.’
‘You don’t know him. You’ve met him twice, that’s all. I’ve known him for ever.’
Nightingale nodded slowly. ‘Jenny, you’re not going to like what I’m going to say, but I want you to listen to me very carefully. There are two possibilities here. It might be that I’m completely wrong. It might be that Marcus Fairchild is a great guy and that my sister is crazy and that everything she said under hypnosis was just plain wrong. I admit that’s a possibility.’
‘Thank you,’ said Jenny.
‘But there’s the other possibility and I want you to just think about it. What if I’m right? What if he is something else? What if he’s able to conceal his true self?? What if he’s able to control what people think about him? What if he really did manage to convince my sister that she killed those kids?’
‘And what if pigs can fly?’
‘Please, Jenny, just hear me out. Suppose he is evil. Suppose he can affect the way people see him. What if he can use hypnosis or mind control or something?’
‘You should listen to yourself. Have you any idea how crazy you sound?’
‘Can you at least consider the possibility that he might have done to you what he did to my sister?’
‘What are you saying, Jack?’
Nightingale took a deep breath. He had no idea how Jenny was going to react to what he was about to say, but he was pretty sure that she wouldn’t be happy. ‘I’m saying that maybe he’s hypnotised you, the way that he hypnotised my sister. And that maybe you’re the one who told him about the books in the basement.’
Jenny looked at him coldly, picked up her glass, and threw her drink in his face.
53
Nightingale wiped his face with the tea towel that Barbara had given him after Jenny stormed out of the kitchen and upstairs to her bedroom. ‘She didn’t take that well, did she?’ he said.
‘What did you expect, Jack? You accused her of betraying you. That’s not something you say lightly.’
‘I didn’t mean that she did it deliberately,’ said Nightingale, dabbing at his soaked shirt. ‘I think Fairchild has conned her. Maybe even hypnotised her.’
‘Jack, she’s known Marcus since she was a child. He’s been a close friend of Jenny’s father since before she was born. He’s her godfather, for goodness sake. You can’t go making vague accusations like that.’
‘I don’t think I was that vague, actually.’ He dropped the tea towel onto the worktop. ‘I’m serious about this, Barbara. She told him that the police had taken me for questioning. Why would she do that?’
‘He’s a lawyer, and a bloody good one. She wanted to help you.’
‘But after what happened with my sister, she must have known that I’d want nothing to do with him. So why talk to him about me?’
Barbara shrugged. ‘I can’t answer that. I don’t know.’
‘And the first time I met him, at her parents’ house over Christmas, he’d already talked to her about my sister.’
‘Well, he was on your sister’s legal team.’
‘And you don’t think that’s a coincidence?’
Barbara frowned. ‘You’ve lost me, Jack.’
‘Fairchild was on my sister’s legal team, but from what you got out of her under hypnosis it’s clear that he was responsible for her conviction in the first place. He killed at least one of those children, maybe all of them.’
‘That’s if you believe what your sister said. And that’s a very big if, Jack.’
‘I heard the recording, and that seemed pretty definite.’
‘I’m sure that your sister believed what she told me, but that doesn’t mean it’s true.’
‘What do you think, Barbara? Do you think my sister’s making it up? Or do you think that Marcus Fairchild framed her for murder?’
Barbara threw up her hands. ‘I don’t know, Jack. I’m sorry.’
Nightingale looked towards the stairs. ‘She’s really pissed off, isn’t she?’
‘Do you blame her? Her dad’s been best mates with Marcus Fairchild since the year dot. If you accuse him that’s as good as accusing her dad.’
‘This is nothing to do with her dad. Barbara, there’s something not right about that man, and I need you to help me prove it.’
‘Me? What can I do?’
‘Same as you did before.’
Barbara’s mouth fell open. ‘Jenny’s never going to agree to that,’ she said.
‘She might,’ said Nightingale. ‘If you asked her.’
54
Nightingale looked up as Barbara came down the stairs, He was about to say something when he realised that Jenny was behind her. Her eyes were red as if she’d been crying. ‘I’m sorry, kid,’ he said. ‘I didn’t want to upset you.’
Jenny pointed a finger at him. ‘I’ll do this because Barbara asked me to, but once it’s done I’m going to want an apology from you and a promise that you’ll never, ever, mention my uncle again.’
‘It’s a promise,’ said Nightingale, getting off his stool.
Jenny looked at Barbara. ‘This is crazy. It really is crazy.’
‘You have to go into this with an open mind,’ said Barbara. ‘It’s not going to work if you’re negative.’
Jenny nodded. ‘Okay, I’ll get myself into a more positive frame of mind.’ She walked over to the breakfast bar and poured champagne into her glass.
‘I hope that’s not for me,’ said Nightingale.
Jenny flashed him a tight smile, drank it all in one, then refilled her glass.
‘Is she okay drinking?’ Nightingale asked Barbara.
‘What do you mean by that?’ said Jenny. ‘I’m not the one with the drink problem.’ She drank half her champagne.
‘I meant for the hypnosis. Doesn’t drink affect the process?’
‘In moderation it can actually help,’ said Barbara. ‘It’s a relaxant.’
