The Smile of a Ghost

‘If I started dismissing ideas that seemed ridiculous, I wouldn’t get very far in this job.’

‘Then it’s a ridiculous job.’

‘It’s apparently been estimated,’ Merrily said, ‘that one in three people has had a paranormal experience, and one in ten has seen a ghost. It all makes perfect sense to Bell.’

‘You’re saying she’s become completely insane?’

‘No, I don’t think she— OK, it’s not good, it’s not healthy, it’s spiritually… a bit squalid, frankly. But it’s not insane. In fact, it’s all been worked out very practically.’

‘I’m sorry.’ Susannah backed away, folding her arms. ‘But if there was any truth in what you’ve just outlined, she’d… in my view, she’d be guaranteed certifiable.’

‘Then how do you explain it? How do you explain her nocturnal perambulations?’

‘She’s a night person. In every sense — her albums are dark and doomy, she likes to mix with goths and weirdos and she’s a bloody exhibitionist.’

‘An exhibitionist who wants to protect her private life and won’t talk to the media, except the local media?’

‘That’s not so unusual. It’s part of the star-mentality. They like to have it both ways.’

‘Look,’ Merrily said. ‘She’s led what she calls a temporary kind of life. She says she was diagnosed at an early age with a congenital heart defect and she’s lived her whole life with the angel of death standing outside the door, sharpening his scythe. I don’t know if that’s true or not—’

‘I’d like to get her to a heart specialist, but she won’t. She has a fear of dying in hospital.’

‘Or anywhere but here. She’s moved from place to place — she’s had the money to do that — and she can’t settle anywhere. Until she arrives in the place of her dreams. Literally. All right, whether she had been dreaming about Ludlow for years is anybody’s guess, but she’s convinced herself she had. And she comes here and she connects. It’s a town where you can walk from century to century, and it’s not been over-cosmeticized. It’s as it was. And for Bell the atmosphere everywhere is dense with… eternity.’

‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, it’s pretty and it’s a good place to work. I can understand her falling in love with it.’

‘For Bell, those streets up there sing. Especially at dead of night, when she’s on her own. They sing, she sings…’

‘Oh, please—’

‘OK, you don’t get it, you don’t feel the density. That’s fine.’

‘Well, hey, I’m sorry.’ Susannah threw up her arms. ‘I’m sorry I’m not a bloody airy-fairy artist, merely a humble solicitor. We just grease the wheels that keep the world turning, and I’m really sorry but we don’t have time to drift off into the ether. Unlike poets. And priests, apparently.’

‘I’m not saying I can feel it on that level, or anywhere near.’

‘She walks around at night in unorthodox clothing and she sings sometimes. Wow.’

‘She’s feeding herself into the fabric of the town. I realize this is bollocks to you, but to her it’s everything and she doesn’t know how much time she has left, and when that time’s up she wants to…’

‘… To be a ghost?’

‘To be a ghost here. Catherine of Aragon, Prince Arthur, Marion de la Bruyere… Belladonna.’

Susannah snorted and turned away. Saul Pepper’s regular daughter, with a solid job and no weird, music- business links.

‘Did you bring this paper in here this morning?’ Merrily said. ‘I mean, you actually showed this to her?’

‘It’s all over town. Someone would have told her, sooner or later.’

‘And what exactly did she say?’

Susannah turned round. ‘She became… distressed. She told me you were in the house, upstairs. That she’d invited you into her house, and you were betraying her. I told her to let me handle it. I didn’t want her wailing and screaming at you, like one of her albums. I told her I’d get rid of you, make sure you never bothered her again.’

‘And how would you have done that? Some kind of injunction?’

‘I’d’ve had you restrained. Gone to a higher authority.’

Merrily put her head on one side. ‘God?’

‘Don’t be stupid. After I spoke to you the other morning, I wasn’t satisfied that you’d taken any notice.’

‘Damn right.’

‘So I spoke to some other people in the Church, and I was referred to your superior, the… Director of Deliverance?’

‘What?’

‘Canon Clarke? I’ve got it written down at the office.’

It felt as though the room shook.

‘She told me that you’d now virtually resigned from your official position,’ Susannah said, ‘because of personal problems. She said you were overstressed. She said if I had any more trouble I should contact her immediately.’

‘I see.’

‘She said we could deal with it between us. I hadn’t realized she was a barrister.’

‘That must’ve been a comfort to you.’

‘If you want the truth,’ Susannah said, ‘I had the feeling of some personal friction, and that’s why I decided to talk to you myself. And now I’m wishing I hadn’t.’

‘OK…’ Merrily took a breath. ‘I want to get something right. Did Bell actually use the word “betrayal”? About me.’

‘She said you’d won her trust and entered her fortress by deceit and you’d betrayed her in the worst way possible. She… she lost it for a while. I was glad to get her out of the house.’

‘How long ago?’

‘Hour or so? Hour and a half?’

‘Any idea at all where she’s gone?’

Susannah shook her head. ‘She just put on her long coat and walked away, and then, a minute or two later, she just, you know, screamed. Just once. She’s always been a screamer, hasn’t she?’

‘You mean you took no notice.’

‘I went to the window. There was no sign of her.’

‘Well, I think I have to find her, don’t I?’ Merrily said.

‘Don’t you ever give up?’

‘No, look, tell me if I’m wrong here. Robbie’s death — the way it happened, and where it happened — took something out of Bell’s life that I don’t think she’ll ever get back. Now she thinks we’re about to try and take something else away. Doesn’t she?’

‘I just can’t believe any of that.’ Susannah moved away across the flags, a trickle of sweat gleaming on her forehead. ‘It’s not rational… even for her.’

‘It’s very rational — for her. And now she thinks the town’s turned against her. Did she tell you she was attacked last night? Did you see her face?’

‘She said she tripped.’ Susannah stood with her back to the window, her mouth half open, her control slipping away fast. ‘Tripped, coming down The Linney.’

‘But now, worst of all, the town’s conspiring with the Church to have Marion exorcized. Marion. And all she represents.’

You’ll lie like carrion… I’ll fly like Marion.

‘Look, that petition’s virtually a fake!’ Susannah shouted.

‘I’m sorry?’

‘Most people here couldn’t care less about all this nonsense. Yes, there were petition forms in a few shops, but hardly anybody signed. It’s George, can’t you see that? My bloody soon-to-be father-in-law, God help me. George is behind it.’

‘Why would—?’