Darkside

propped against a jumbled pile of clean laundry, like some kind of shrine to the memory of housework.

‘So what was that all about the other day with Danny and Jonas Holly?’ said Marvel, jerking his thumb randomly at the ugly striped wallpaper behind him.

Alan Marsh sighed and opened his hands in a ‘beats me’ gesture.

Elizabeth Rice had taken Danny Marsh to the pub. It wasn’t difficult – she’d told them he had a little crush on her and she’d promised to buy.

Marvel said nothing further, allowing the aching silence slowly to reveal to Alan Marsh that this was not a social call.

‘Well …’ the man started haltingly, then stopped. He was in overalls even though Rice had reported that he wasn’t working. Apparently the habit was just too much to break while his mind was already distracted by the murder of his wife. He was wearing slippers rather than steel toe-caps though, Reynolds noticed – as if he’d remembered halfway through dressing that his wife was dead and he wasn’t going to work after all.

Reynolds sighed and wondered why Marvel was going all round the houses before asking more relevant questions about Danny. It wasn’t like him.

He wished he couldn’t feel Marvel’s hip against his.

‘Them used to be friends. When ’em were nippers. Dunno what happened there …’

He trailed off again.

Marvel realized he was going to have to tweeze information out of Alan Marsh like splinters. It was a job he hated. He preferred blunter tools.

‘How old were they then?’

‘’Bout ten, I suppose.’

‘Were they very close?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean, were they best friends?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Alan a little dismissively. ‘I was working mostly. Yvonne would know that.’

Yeah, but she’s dead, Marvel felt like pointing out, but didn’t. He could be pretty sensitive when he tried.

‘Would they play here much?’

Again Alan Marsh made an all-purpose gesture of ‘who knows?’ ‘It was a long time back,’ he said. ‘Seemed like it. Why do you want to know, anyway?’

Marvel hadn’t expected the question and was annoyed that he hadn’t anticipated it. He blustered a little. ‘We’re always concerned when a serving officer gets into a public brawl, Mr Marsh. Aren’t you?’

The man shrugged. ‘Danny was mazed. And he took the first swing.’

That was the countryside for you, Marvel supposed. In town, Jonas Holly would already have been suspended and have a lawsuit pending. Here the victim’s own father thought he deserved a good beating by the police.

Refreshing.

Reynolds sighed again and Marvel glared at him before turning back to Alan Marsh, who looked disinterested in life itself, let alone this particular conversation.

‘Have you ever seen Officer Holly behave in that way before, Mr Marsh?’

‘No, but I seen Danny behave like that plenty!’

‘Well, he’s just lost his mother in tragic circumstances.’

‘Bollocks to that,’ said Marsh. ‘Just the way he is. Has been for years.’

Marvel was surprised and looked it, so Alan Marsh went on.

‘He’d bin under the doctor sometimes. Psychiatrist. You know.’

Marvel did know. His nose for motive started to quiver.

‘What’s wrong with him, Mr Marsh?’

‘Not much. Just a bit here and there, you know. Not dangerous or nothing like that. Just a bit down sometimes, that’s all.’

‘Depressed?’

‘I suppose so. A bit down.’

‘Has he ever been hospitalized for depression or something like that?’

‘Oh, no,’ said Alan Marsh definitely. ‘He’s not a nutter, see? Just a bit up and then a bit down.’

‘Manic depressive,’ suggested Reynolds, who thought he’d have to get up and leave if Alan Marsh said ‘a bit down’ one more time.

‘If that’s what you call it.’

‘Always?’

‘Not always,’ said Alan Marsh, looking as if he was thinking about it for the first time. ‘Since he were about twelve or thirteen. About then.’

‘And that’s about the time he and Jonas fell out?’ said Marvel, back on track.

‘Suppose so.’

‘Can you think of any specific reason?’ said Marvel, without one single ounce of hope that Alan Marsh would.

‘No.’

Of course he couldn’t. That would be too bloody easy.

They left.

‘What’s this interest in Jonas, sir?’

Marvel clamped his teeth together. Trust Reynolds to leap to the right conclusion.

He thought his left little toe was getting damp – just on the short walk to the car! He’d have to throw these shoes away. Beyond the village the snow was a Christmassy white blanket. Here it was just ridges of icy slush and running water. Wherever they went, whatever they did, they were accompanied by the gurgling of drains working overtime. At night it all froze again and made every step a hazard. Damn the doglegs that kept him from wellingtons and dry feet.

‘He bothers me.’

Reynolds smiled. ‘We like him now, do we, sir?’

Up until that very second, Marvel had only had a suspicion. A hunch. An intuitive feeling that all was not quite right with Jonas Holly.

But the moment Reynolds said that – in that amused, condescending tone – Marvel decided that he really did like Holly after all. Liked him a lot.

And that he was right.

And that he would do almost anything to prove Reynolds wrong.

* * *

It was over.

Danny Marsh knew it.

He’d known it the moment he’d run across the playing fields behind his father and seen his mother lying in the frost like a downed footballer waiting for a magic sponge or a stretcher.

Danny had known it was the beginning of the end for him; that he would never make it alone.

His mother had known him. One of only two people who did.

For years she had let him know – by her look, by her touch, by the stories she pointed out casually in newspapers – that she knew, and even understood. And although they’d never discussed it properly, knowing that had helped.

Boy, 15, Admits School Arson in Exam Dodge.

Choirboy Stabbed Paedo Priest 26 Times.

Murdered Pervert Preyed on Own Children!

She would toss down the newspaper beside him on the table and mutter darkly, ‘Got what he deserved!’ or ‘Poor boy. If only he’d told someone.’

Danny would say nothing. He had nothing he cared to tell. Just knowing she still loved him was enough. All