Part 25 (1/2)

Farr shook his head in disgust.

'b.l.o.o.d.y Burrthorpe! The Russkis should send the KGB there for training. Who told you? One of your Action Women, was it? Or that other gabby tart, Downey? All right. Sorry again. Look, what did Stella want?'

'Just to see how you were, she said. Me, I'm not sure she knew what she wanted. She seemed a bit mixed up. One thing she said was that you'd phoned her last night as well as that Mrs Pascoe.'

'She said that? And what did she say I said?'

Mrs Farr hesitated, then replied, 'That's where she seemed mixed up. I couldn't make right sense of it. I sent her packing. We've got enough trouble without having jealous husbands looking for you with pick-handles.'

'Gav?' The young man laughed. 'Gav's no bother. We understand each other, me and Gav.'

May Farr looked at him uneasily.

'I wish I knew what was going on in that head of yours.'

'Like you wished you could have known what was going on in Dad's head?' said Farr savagely.

'Oh no. Not like that.'

'But you said we were the same, always hiding ourselves.'

'Aye, but there were a difference. I knew your dad's limits. Even if I didn't know what he was thinking, I knew what he could and what he couldn't do!'

'And with me you don't?' He didn't seem displeased with the thought. 'So you just knew he couldn't have anything to do with Tracey's disappearance? That must have been grand for you. Saved you having to lie awake nights wondering why he just dumped her at the bottom of the lane and never bothered to see her properly home!'

She shook her head sadly at his vehemence.

'Of course I wondered. Of course I asked him. Of course he told me.'

'Told you? What? And if there's something to tell, why have I never been told it?' he demanded.

'Because of what you are, Colin. Because there's a wildness in you . . . and I didn't want trouble. But it doesn't matter any longer, does it?'

'What doesn't, for Christ's sake?'

So she told him. He listened without interrupting and when she had finished, he shook his head and forced a smile and said, 'Even then? By G.o.d, you've got to give it to them. They must have been real clever, else it would've been scrawled all over pit-yard wall.'

'Is that all you can say?' demanded May Farr pa.s.sionately. This is about your dad, about what was going on in his mind, about what he could and couldn't do! But I shouldn't need to be telling you this, not you, his own son . .'

Her voice broke under the weight of her emotion.

'Mam, Mam,' said Colin, drawing her to him. 'Don't upset yourself. You're right. I knew he couldn't have done it. I've always known it. Sometimes you lose sight of things a bit. It's like being down that b.l.o.o.d.y pit. Sometimes the dark seems to get inside you so that a lamp's no good, nowt but the sun will clear it away. You're the sun, Mam. I see things clear now!'

He kissed her forehead. She pushed him away and wiped the tears from her eyes.

'You talk daft sometimes, Colin, always did. Is this the way you charm that schoolteacher with your fancy words?'

But she smiled as she spoke to take any sting out of what she said. Now she rose and said, 'I'll be off now. I want to talk to that solicitor again. And I want to see the doctor. Is there owt you need, son?'

'Here? No. I'll be discharged tomorrow, they reckon. As far as cop-shop at least. Take care, Mam.'

'You too.'

They exchanged smiles, hers loving, his loving also but with an admixture of something else. She hesitated uneasily, then opened the door. Constable Vessey rose from the chair outside.

'Did you get a draught from the keyhole then?' she asked caustically.

He cupped his ear and said, 'What?' and grinned, but she was paying no attention to his antics. She'd spotted Gavin Mycroft standing at the end of the corridor, framed against a swirling autumn sky which the tall narrow window tried in vain to give hospital corners to.

'What's he doing here?' she demanded.

'He's come to see your boy,' said Vessey. 'It's all right. He's got permission, like you.'

'I don't care if he's got a letter from the Queen, get him out of here!'

Mycroft had advanced and caught her words. He said, 'It's all right, Mrs Farr. No trouble, I promise you. I've just come to see how he is. Col says he'd like to see me.'

She looked at him doubtfully. He looked pale and strained but returned her gaze unflinchingly.

'No trouble.' he repeated.

'Hey, is that Gav Mycroft out there?'

It was Colin's voice through the half-open door.

'Aye, it's me,' said Mycroft, raising his voice.

'Well, send the b.u.g.g.e.r in. If I can't have a telly, I might as well try a bit of live entertainment.'

'Excuse me,' said Mycroft, edging past May Farr and into the room. He closed the door firmly behind him. May stood irresolutely looking at it for a while, till Vessey said slyly, 'Like to take a peek through the keyhole, missus? Be my guest.'

'Sorry. I can't get low enough for your kind of work,' she said.

The constable watched her walk away. Once she was out of sight, he resumed his seat, pulling the chair forward so that his ear came close to the jamb of the door. Not that he could hear anything more than a murmur of voices. It was all right for b.l.o.o.d.y Wishart telling him to listen, but in these days of electronic bugging, why was he expected to manage without as much as an ear-trumpet? Also it was embarra.s.sing to be spotted by pa.s.sing nurses in this farcical position.

He jerked upright now as one approached, a little Scottish girl with a satirical tongue.

Busy again, I see,' she said. Too busy for a cup of tea, I dare say.'

'I could murder one,' he answered. 'And I'd make it a ma.s.s murder for a quick drag.'

'Light up here and there'll likely be a ma.s.s murder,' said the girl. 'But if you have your cuppa in Sister's cubby- hole, you'll be all right with the window open. She's not around just now.'

Vessey was tempted. Sister's room was just round the corner and there was no way out from this blank end of the corridor without pa.s.sing it. With the door open, he could keep as good a watch there as here. As for listening ... he applied his ear to the jamb once more. Only the indistinguishable murmur of voices. He looked up into the nurse's face. The child was choking back her giggles! It was too much.

'Right,' he said rising. 'I reckon I've earned a f.a.g. Lead on!'