was a near-perfect fit.
While Luke paraded around admiring his watch, Knight hung the locket around Isabel’s neck, closed the chain clasp and oohed and aahed when she looked at herself in the mirror, the spitting image of Kate as a little girl.
He changed Luke’s nappy, then bathed and fed them both before getting Isabel into a dress and his son into blue shorts and a white collared shirt. With admonitions not to get their clothes dirty, Knight set himself a record time showering, shaving and dressing. They left the house at nine, went to the garage nearby, and retrieved a Range Rover that they rarely used.
Knight drove north through the streets with Isabel and Luke in their car seats behind him, listening to the news on the radio. It was the last full day of Olympic competition with many relay-race finals to be decided that afternoon.
The announcers talked of the heavy criticism being heaped on Scotland Yard and MI5 over their inability to make any kind of a major breakthrough in the Cronus investigations. No mention was made of the war-criminal’s hands though. Pottersfield had asked that it should be kept quiet for the time being.
Many athletes who were finished with the competition were already leaving. Most others, like Hunter Pierce, had vowed to remain at the Olympic Park until the end, no matter what Cronus and his Furies might try.
Knight drove to Enfield, then east and south of Waltham Abbey towards High Beach and Epping Forest.
‘Lots of trees,’ Isabel said when they’d entered the forest proper.
‘Your mummy liked lots of trees.’
The dappled sunlight shone through the foliage that surrounded High Beach Church, which sat in a clearing not far into the woods. There were several cars parked, but Epping Forest was a popular place to walk, and Knight did not expect anyone else to be here specifically for Kate. His mother was lost in her own grief, and Kate’s parents had both died young.
They went into the empty church where Knight got the children each to light a candle in their mother’s memory. He lit one for Kate, and then lit five more for his colleagues who had died in the plane crash. Holding Isabel and Luke’s hands, he led them from the church and out along a path that led into the woods.
A light breeze rustled the leaves. Six or seven minutes later, the vegetation thinned and they passed through a tumble-down stone wall into a sparse grove of ancient oaks growing in long untamed grass that sighed in the summer wind.
Knight stood a while looking at the scene, hugging his children to him, and struggling to control his emotions for their sake.
‘Your mummy used to go to that church as a little girl, but she liked to come out here,’ he told them softly. ‘She said the trees were so old that this was a blessed place where she could talk to God. That’s why I spread her …’
He choked up.
‘It was a perfect choice, Peter,’ a woman’s emotion-drenched voice said behind them. ‘This was Kate’s favourite place.’
Knight turned, wiping tears from his eyes with his sleeve.
Holding tight to his trouser leg, Isabel asked, ‘Who’s that lady, Daddy?’
Knight smiled. ‘That’s your Aunt Elaine, darling. Mummy’s older sister.’
Chapter 86
‘I KNEW I couldn’t make the party,’ Knight’s sister-in-law explained quietly on the ride back into London while the children slept in the back of the car. ‘And, anyway, I thought meeting them there would make me feel better.’
They were nearing the garage where Knight kept the Range Rover.
‘Did it?’ Knight asked.
Pottersfield nodded and her eyes got glassy. ‘It seemed right, as if I could feel her there.’ She hesitated and then said, ‘I’m sorry. The way I treated you. I know it was all Kate’s decision to have the twins at home. I just …’
‘No more talk of that,’ Knight said, parking. ‘We’re beyond all that. My children are lucky to have you in their lives.
She sighed, and smiled sadly. ‘Okay. Need any help?’
Knight looked over his shoulder at his sleeping children. ‘Yes. They’re getting too big to carry that far by myself.’
Pottersfield took Isabel and Knight hoisted Luke, and they walked the short distance to his house. He heard the television playing inside.
‘The new nanny,’ he said, fishing for his keys. ‘She always arrives early.’
‘You don’t hear that much any more.’
‘It’s brilliant, actually,’ Knight admitted. ‘She’s a miracle, the only one ever to tame them. She’s got them helping to clean up their room and going to sleep at a snap of her fingers.’
He opened the door and Marta appeared almost instantly. She frowned to see Luke fast asleep on her father’s shoulder. ‘Too much excitement, I think,’ she said, took him from Knight and looked curiously at Pottersfield.
‘Marta, this is Elaine,’ Knight said. ‘My sister-in-law.’
‘Oh, hello,’ Pottersfield said, studying Marta. ‘Peter speaks highly of you.’
Marta laughed nervously, and bobbed her head, saying, ‘Mr Knight is too kind.’ She paused and asked, ‘Did I see you on the television?’
‘Maybe. I work at Scotland Yard.’
Marta looked ready to reply when Isabel woke up grumpily, looked at her aunt, and whined, ‘I want my daddy.’
Knight took her from Pottersfield, saying, ‘Daddy has to go to work for a few hours, but he’ll be back in time for the party.’
Marta said, ‘We’ll go and get cake soon. And balloons.’
Isabel brightened and Luke woke up. Pottersfield’s mobile rang.
The inspector listened closely, began nodding, and then said, ‘Where are they taking her?’
She listened while Marta came and took Isabel from Knight and shepherded the children down the hall towards the kitchen, saying, ‘Who wants apple juice?’
Pottersfield snapped shut her phone, looked at Knight and said, ‘A constable just picked up Serena Farrell wandering incoherent, filthy, and covered in her own excrement somewhere inside the ruins of the old Beckton Gas Works. They’re bringing her to St Thomas’s Hospital.’
Knight glanced back over his shoulder at Marta, who held Isabel and Luke’s hands tightly.
‘I’ll be back by five to help you put up decorations,’ he promised.
‘Everything will be under control by then,’ she replied confidently. ‘Leave everything to me, Mr Knight.’
Chapter 87
