But still, Matt couldn’t remember exactly when Jerry died. He just remembered hiding his own face, right into hands that were drenched in animal and human blood, and he was unable to speak or look on anything else. And Larry and the other policemen stood there patiently, not rushing it. Just looking at the floor in silence, waiting for Matt to open his eyes again.
It took a while.
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
Matt looked up. Larry was walking into the hospital cafeteria to join him. He nodded to a night nurse with a doff of some invisible cap, like some 1940s gentleman. He had a Tesco Express carrier bag dangling from his hand. He’d taken off his tie.
Matt spun the wheelchair in his direction, but Larry hurried toward him, palms up. ‘Don’t strain yourself.’
‘Nah, I’m fine. I’m pretty good on this thing.’ Matt nodded to a high-backed chair. It was pushing midnight, so they’d stopped serving drinks from the counter. He had an insipid tea from the machine instead. ‘Pull up a pew.’
Larry laughed and slid into the chair next to Matt, sinking into it with a groan.
‘How’s the foot?’
‘Throbbing like hell, but it seems like I’ve avoided rabies. Which is a bonus.’
For a moment they said nothing. They just looked out of the large glass windows of the cafe that stretched from ceiling to floor, with black and orange streamers hanging. The lounge overlooked a hill swooping down to a stretch of grass and a crop of trees. The branches swayed silently in the darkness. In the corner a TV screen was playing some late night Halloween movie. It looked like Night of the Living Dead from here.
‘So, do you reckon you’ll actually get home tonight?’ Matt said.
‘It’s hectic. Lots going on downstairs, but I’m okay. I’m really okay, actually.’
‘You want a coffee?’
‘I got you a present.’ He lifted up his plastic bag.
‘You know I didn’t really want that dead bird back. You can keep it.’
‘Shhh.’ Larry looked left and right, then opened the bag up and pulled out two mini bottles of Jack Daniel’s. ‘Bit small, I know. And you’re probably on medicat—’
‘I’d lick whisky off the floor right now.’
‘That’s the ticket.’ Larry spun the tops off. For a few moments they just sipped and breathed, sipped and breathed. Smiling at the occasional staff member who wandered up to the vending machines. Whenever that happened they’d both clasp their hands completely around the contraband mini bottles and give solemn nods, as if in prayer.
‘Are the Hodges still okay?’ Matt said. ‘And Keech?’
‘Keech is going to be fine. And at least they’re going to be able to save Bob’s leg. He appreciates what you did for him. Oh, and he says he’ll wash your jacket and get it—’
‘I don’t want the jacket.’
He laughed. ‘I told him you’d say that.’
‘And Kassy?’
‘Physically speaking, fine. Mentally, though? God knows.’ Larry waited for a few moments and took another sip. ‘She wants to see Rachel; says she wants to talk about Holly.’
Matt looked down at his hands. ‘Rachel was in here a couple of hours ago, sitting with her mum. They were talking for ages. Both of them were sitting upstairs with the Hodges.’ He nodded to the wards above. ‘Joyce says Holly wasn’t angry with Rachel – or any of them, in fact. She was just trying to warn them.’ He sniffed and shook his head. ‘It’s just all so miserable, isn’t it? Little boy gets warped by a bunch of perverts with full access. I’m not excusing what he did, but …’
‘At some point you’ve got to take the blame.’
‘True, and I guess Jerry never could.’ Matt flexed his fingers. They were still stiff from holding that bloody brick.
‘They do stuff like that, sometimes. Killers. They act like they never really did the things they did. Like it was someone else’s fault. Sometimes they blame God or the devil …’
‘And sometimes they blame witches.’
‘… and sometimes they blame witches.’
Larry blew out a long, sad breath. ‘He must have snagged some vault keys when he was a kid and held on to them all his life. Probably hid them locally while he was in prison so when he got out he could go back.’ Larry stopped speaking and took a quick drink. ‘To where he felt safe, I guess. Weird.’
‘Did you save any of the newspapers he had? The list of names?’
‘Most of them, and the photocopies of the naked boys.’ Larry cleared his throat. ‘You realise he slipped a copy of that into the Hodges’ bag at school.’
‘I was starting to wonder that.’
‘I guess he thought Holly might tell Bob or Joyce what he’d done to her. Maybe he told Holly that he’d hurt them, and so he did, in his way. Got them in the shit at school, at least.’ Larry ran his hand through his hair. ‘As for those reports of other girls … we’re working through them, but they’re scattered all over the country. He must have travelled. Tried to get away from here, though he couldn’t really get away. Not in the end. Obviously we’ll contact the families and follow them all up. And just hope to God that none of them spiralled down like Holly Wasson did.’