Anne said nothing. It was hardly state of the art, but at this stage it was adequate. She took off her coat and put on her glasses. She picked up the remote control hooked over the head of the bed and pressed a button. With a deep, resonant hum, the bed began to move and Alison was raised up until she was virtually sitting.
'Alison, I've got Dr Bishop with me this afternoon. You might remember him. He treated you the night you were brought in.' She turned to look at Bishop. He was studying the lines of letters, drawn in chalk.
Anne moved up to the top of the bed and took Alison's hand. 'Right, let's see if we can speed things up a bit. Can you see the blackboard, Alison?'
Alison's right eyelid crinkled immediately. She half shut the eye then opened it. Then, five seconds later, a blink.
Anne squeezed her hand.
'Good. A to Z in two lines and I've listed a few other things along the bottom. Later on we can increase the list as I get better at this but for now just the basics. 'Tired','in pain', 'hungry', 'thirsty', 'nauseous', You'll have to bear with me, I'm afraid, until we get used to the speed of your responses. I know it'll be frustrating at first, but I think it's going to be worth it. OK, Alison?'
The vein on Alison's forehead was standing out. 'Ten seconds. A blink.'
Anne moved round to the other side of the bed and closed the blind. 'Right, let's just make things as comfortable as possible for you. Can you get the lights, Jeremy?'
Bishop moved to the door and turned out the lights. The room was in semi-darkness. From her pocket Anne produced what looked like a large fountain pen as she moved to the blackboard.
'Right, Alison, this is a laser pointer. It should make it easier to define the letters for you and it makes me feel a little bit less like I'm giving a military briefing. Let's just start at the bottom, make sure you're feeling all right.' She moved the laser pointer until the dot of light lay directly below 'in pain'. 'Don't bother with no if you're not. Just yes if any of them apply.'
Slowly she moved the pointer along the bottom row of words, highlighting each one for nearly a minute. As she waited Anne looked intently at Alison. She could hear the drone of the traffic outside. There was no reaction. She glanced across at Bishop. He nodded.
'Right, let's have a crack at this, shall we?' She began to move the pointer. Bishop removed a small pad from his top pocket and sat holding a pencil, waiting. Anne held the pointer under each letter for nearly a minute but after the first five or six she began to speed up a little. P… Q… R…S.
A blink.
Anne wanted to cheer. 'S. OK…'
She reached the end of the alphabet without any further reaction.
Bishop cleared his throat. 'It's a shame there aren't more words in alphabetical order, Jimmy.'
Anne turned to face him, the light from the pointer passing across his chest like the laser dot on a sniper's rifle. He was busily scribbling. 'Almost…'
'Almost what?' She could feel herself starting to get snappy.
'Almost is one. A word where the letters occur in alphabetical order. And billowy. Aegilops is actually the longest, which, amazingly enough, is an ulcer in part of the eye, though I can't see her bringing that up.' He smiled. 'Back to the beginning, I think.'
Anne felt stupid for not having considered this. Perhaps there was a more efficient way of laying out the letters. She'd have to work on it later. A second pass added H, O and R.
Anne tried to help. 'Short? Alison… short?'
Alison blinked. Anne waited. Alison blinked again. Back to the beginning.
On the third pass Alison blinked as the laser pointer reached M. Anne looked across at Bishop, who was scribbling in his notebook. He stood up, smiling, and moved towards the bed. 'I think she's being a bit over-eager. She's blinking in advance of some Of the letters in case she misses them.'
Anne looked at him. There was a hint of impatience when she spoke. 'And?'
'If the S is a T and we go one letter on from the M…'
Anne thought for a moment, worked it out, and blushed. Bishop smiled mischievously at her. 'She's asking how our friend the detective inspector is. If I were you I'd add a question mark to the board.' He was standing at the head of the bed. He looked down at Alison. 'And you might want to draw a smiley face on there somewhere as well. There's a definite twinkle in that eye.'
Anne picked up a piece of chalk, a little irritated. Perhaps she shouldn't have asked Jeremy to come along. She'd wanted a colleague who was also a friend to back her up and he'd been only too glad to help, but fond as she was of him, he could be awfully smug. She began to write on the blackboard. 'I'm glad all that time doing The Times crossword hasn't been wasted, Jeremy…'
Bishop wasn't listening. He was leaning down, his face close to Alison's. 'Do you remember me, Alison?'
A blink.
'From when you were admitted?'
Nothing. Then, a blink.
Bishop nodded. His voice was low and eminently soothing.
'That's good. Now what about before, Alison? Can you remember anything from before?'
A blink.
Anne turned back from the board.
Another one.
Bishop walked back towards Anne, shaking his head. He held out the notepad to her with a grin. Around the single word THORNE he'd drawn a heart with an arrow through it. Anne snatched it from him with part-mock, part-genuine annoyance and moved to open the curtains.
'Mr. Thorne is very well, thank you, Alison. I'm frankly disturbed that my private life is of such immediate concern to you.' She walked to the bed and looked down. Alison's eyes were still locked on the blackboard. 'Not that I should expect a great deal else from a shameless Geordie hussy with a one-track mind!' She put her hand gently on the girl's shoulder. Her smile was huge and just for Alison. She turned to look at Bishop, who was staring at the blackboard and smiling at something. She felt sorry for being irritated with him. 'Do you want to pop over for something to eat later?'
He answered without turning round. 'Sorry, Jimmy, I have a date.'
She moved to join him, her eyes wide at the prospect of intrigue. 'Sounds mysterious?'
'Not really.'
'Suit yourself. I'll get it out of you later, though, you know I will. What's so funny anyway?'
Bishop was snorting as he stared at the letters on the blackboard. Anne stared at him, still smiling. 'What?'
'Remember that night in your flat twenty-odd years ago?'
'No…'
'Raising the dead, me, you and David. And that girl from Leeds, what was her name?'
'Oh, God, that was freaky.'
'No, it wasn't. David was moving the glass.'
Anne pretended to shudder but felt a genuine chill at the memory. She turned to include Alison, pointing at the blackboard. 'He thinks this looks like a Ouija board.'
The smile on Bishop's face died a little, as he muttered to himself, 'Might just as well be.'
Thorne picked up the Backhand contact list from the kitchen table and walked through to the living room to call Dave Holland. The Bill was on with the sound turned down. As good a situation comedy as ITV would ever have.
'Hello…'
Holland's girlfriend. Christ, what was her name?
'Oh, hi, is that Sophie?'
'Who's this?'
'Oh, sorry, it's Tom Thorne, I work with Dave. Is he around?'
He heard the distortion in sound as she put her hand over the phone. He couldn't make out what she was saying. As Holland came to the phone he could hear the television being turned down.
