"Mrs Marsh! Yvonne!" Yvonne!"
Jonas dropped to his knees in the icy water and cleared her mouth, then started to breathe into the woman he knew was already dead.
s.h.i.t.
He dragged her to the water"s edge. He couldn"t get her up the bank - not alone - but he needed a firm surface. He balanced her awkwardly, knelt over her and pumped her chest, then breathed into her again.
"Mrs Marsh Marsh!"
He slapped her face hard, then breathed again, pumped her chest, then breathed again ... felt everything in the world going awry.
The three boys from the ramp were above him, pale-faced and big-eyed.
"Call an ambulance!" he yelled.
The t.i.thecott boy fumbled his phone open and said, "No signal."
"Run to the houses!" Jonas yelled, before forcing more air into Yvonne Marsh"s spongey lungs.
The boy took off, running. Without a word, Dougie Trewell slid down the mud into the stream and helped to keep Yvonne Marsh"s upper body on the bank while Jonas worked on her. Steven Lamb sank to his knees in the white gra.s.s and just watched.
Jonas knew it was pointless. Yvonne Marsh was dead and had probably been dead for hours. Now he thought about it, there had been a little crackling sound as he"d tugged her body over on to its back - the sound of ice breaking around it. She had been there for a while, held still by the branches of the blackthorn and by the delicate ice that had embraced her. Maybe overnight. Who knew?
Danny Marsh might know. Or his father. And even if they didn"t know that that, thought Jonas wearily, they would know this this for sure - that all their vigilance and their locks and their love and their care had not been enough to stop one vulnerable woman from wandering out into the freezing winter in bare feet, knickers and a baggy T-shirt, to drown in a freezing stream. for sure - that all their vigilance and their locks and their love and their care had not been enough to stop one vulnerable woman from wandering out into the freezing winter in bare feet, knickers and a baggy T-shirt, to drown in a freezing stream.
Everybody had to sleep some time, and that was the truth.
It was this thought that finally made Jonas give up. He looked across the stream at the rising moors, keeping all his air for himself now.
"Is she dead?" said Dougie Trewell tremulously.
"Yes," said Jonas. All the energy he"d been filled with this morning had gone. "You"d better get out of the water, Dougie."
Dougie let go of the body and Jonas felt how much of its weight he"d taken in trying to help. "Thanks," he said, and the boy nodded mutely. He was Ronnie Trewell"s younger brother and so always skirting the edges of delinquency - but he"d shown some character today. Something to hope for. Jonas turned to the other boy, who looked a million miles away. "You want to help Dougie home, Steven? Make sure he gets warm?"
Steven focused slowly on him again.
"What?"
"Help Dougie, Steven. Take him home."
"OK.".
Steven reached out and helped Dougie up the bank, and they walked away in a daze.
Jonas realized he hadn"t given them instructions on getting help for him him. The ambulance could take ages on icy roads. The boys might not have the presence of mind to think about him. He tried to manoeuvre his phone from inside his jacket, but the operation proved impossible while he was holding Yvonne Marsh. Finally he knew he"d have to let go of her body to do it, so he did, and felt the slow current start to pull it away from him. Her legs were still in the water. Jonas clutched at the yellow T-shirt with one hand while he flipped open his phone. There was one bar of signal. Miraculous. Maybe he should make all his mobile-phone calls from running water. He had been half kneeling on the bank, but now stood up in the water; his legs almost gave way under him, they were so cold. He stood in the way of the body and called Marvel while the current pressed the dead Yvonne Marsh insistently against his legs.
It wasn"t until he spoke to Marvel that Jonas realized he might be standing up to his knees in a crime scene. He"d only called him because he was police and there were no police closer to Shipcott than Marvel was, and he needed help getting the h.e.l.l out of this water before his legs fell clean off. But Marvel was immediately suspicious. Jonas figured that was how it was to be a homicide detective - every death was guilty until proven innocent.
"Don"t touch the body!" Marvel snapped as soon as Jonas told him he"d found one.
Jonas said nothing, feeling guilty - and angry at himself for feeling that way.
"You f.u.c.king touched it, didn"t you?"
"I tried CPR."
If there was a Scorn Olympics, Marvel could have sighed for England.
"Well, don"t touch it again, for Christ"s sake! Stand by and wait for me!"
Jonas was wet, cold, traumatized and tired of being spoken to like a car-park attendant. "Listen, sir sir. I"m up to my a.r.s.e in ice, trying to stop the body floating downstream, so either get down here fast here fast and help me out, or I"m going to let it go and your crime scene"ll stretch all the way from here to b.l.o.o.d.y Tiverton!" and help me out, or I"m going to let it go and your crime scene"ll stretch all the way from here to b.l.o.o.d.y Tiverton!"
Jonas snapped his phone shut and hoped Marvel wouldn"t be churlish enough to take his time.
He wasn"t.
In less than five minutes, Marvel was watching Pollard and Reynolds help a shaky Jonas Holly out of the water.
He sent Grey and Singh down the icy bank to retrieve the body. There was little point in leaving it in situ now that Holly had already altered the scene by dragging it from the water.
The ambulance tipped off the village that something was happening down at the playing fields, and within ten minutes of its arrival the entire populace, made jumpy by one murder, was standing on the playing field, craning to see from behind the blue-and-white tape that Rice had rolled out from the lamp-post outside Margaret Priddy"s across to the far goalpost, making a single cordon which now encompa.s.sed two crime scenes.
Maybe.
Marvel was unsure for about sixty seconds, and then he nodded as Dr Mark Dennis pointed to the livid finger-shaped bruises under Yvonne Marsh"s wet hair.
"Not the throat, see?" Marvel told Reynolds. "He held her like this ..." He clawed his hands and hovered them over the back of the dead woman"s neck. "I think he held her face-down in the water and drowned her."
"Could be," said Mark Dennis.
"Pathologist will tell us for sure," nodded Reynolds.
"I"m telling you for sure," snapped Marvel. "He"ll just confirm it." telling you for sure," snapped Marvel. "He"ll just confirm it."
Reynolds pursed his lips and tried hard, but finally couldn"t help himself. "Do we still like Peter Priddy, sir?"
"f.u.c.k off, Reynolds."
Reynolds withdrew a few paces from the scene and took out his notebook.
"That"s F-U-C-K," Marvel said and Reynolds put his notebook away again without writing in it.
"Pollard"s in charge of the press," Marvel told him.
"There is is no press," said Reynolds - and to all intents and purposes that was true. Marvel was all for the new breed of lazy, desk-bound journalists who Googled instead of bothering him for proper answers. Margaret Priddy"s murder had elicited a few calls from the local rag, the no press," said Reynolds - and to all intents and purposes that was true. Marvel was all for the new breed of lazy, desk-bound journalists who Googled instead of bothering him for proper answers. Margaret Priddy"s murder had elicited a few calls from the local rag, the Bugle Bugle, but the Western Morning News Western Morning News had been content to pick up a few paragraphs from that. had been content to pick up a few paragraphs from that.
"There will be," said Marvel in a doom-laden voice. He knew that one old woman being murdered was a shame, but two in the same tiny village in just over a week had the thrilling ring of serial violence about it, and it was only a matter of time before reporters started to arrive with their pushy ways and their c.o.c.k-eyed views. He wanted Dave Pollard in charge of the press because he was the dullest and least forthcoming of the team. He had no fear that Pollard would suddenly get all star-struck and blab too much at a press conference just because the reporter who"d asked the question was wearing a push-up bra.
Two paramedics, finding their intended patient was past help, had instead turned their attentions to Jonas and stripped his trousers, socks and boots from him with professional disregard for his dignity. They had wrapped him in a foil blanket, followed by a scratchy grey one very like the blanket he himself had draped around the shoulders of Yvonne Marsh just a couple of days ago. At that thought, Jonas stopped trying to fight the chattering of his teeth and let them drown out all sound, like snare drums between his ears.
He"d known as soon as he saw the body in the water that it was Yvonne Marsh. He could have saved her. Could have followed her into the house that day and talked with Danny and his father about their options, the help available, safety locks. He could have given them the number of Social Services for respite care, or quietly asked Rupert Cooke up at Sunset Lodge whether he had room for another resident.
Could have, would have, should have. Now that Yvonne Marsh was dead, Jonas could think of a million ways of keeping her alive.
Because once Marvel pointed out the bruises to Reynolds, Jonas knew that the man who had killed Margaret Priddy had also killed Yvonne Marsh. Knew it in his gut.
More easily, too, he imagined. Jonas would bet good money that the killer had not had to break into the Marsh home to find his second victim. No doubt Yvonne had just wandered out into the confused night of her mind to go to the shops, or to pick little Danny up from school, or to find her sandals in the lake.
Instead she had found her killer, or he had found her.
And Jonas had failed again.
""Vonne!" He heard a jolting, whimpering sound and looked up to see Alan Marsh running awkwardly across the playing field in the oily blue overalls and steel toecaps he wore to work. The man"s usually dour face was twisted open by emotion. Twenty yards behind him was his son, barefoot in jeans and a T-shirt, careless of the cold - and the Reverend Chard, too tubby to travel at more than a brisk walk.
Grey tried to stop Alan Marsh from just rushing the scene, but the older man ran past him as if he wasn"t there, and fell to his knees beside his dead wife.
Jonas expected tears and wailing, but Alan Marsh calmed right down when he saw his worst fears confirmed. He didn"t even touch the body - just knelt and looked at it and shook his head. Danny allowed himself to be slowed by Grey, and then stood with his hand on his father"s shoulder.
Jonas wished he had his trousers on, but this wasn"t about him. Holding the blanket around his hips like a sarong, he went over to the tableau of sorrow and stood in Danny"s eye-line.
"I"m sorry, Danny. Mr Marsh."
Danny looked at Jonas, dazed. "What happened?"
"We"re not sure yet. I found her in the stream."
"She drowned?"
Jonas ignored Marvel"s unnecessary warning look. "We don"t know yet. I tried CPR but I think she"d been in the water a while. Hours, maybe."
Danny nodded and bit his lip until he could speak again. "We didn"t even know she were gone. Not until we heard the ambulance."
Jonas nodded.
"You can"t watch her all the time," said Danny dully.
"I know," said Jonas. "I know."
He saw the tears gather in his former friend"s eyes and looked away.
"You can"t watch her all the f.u.c.king time all the f.u.c.king time!" Danny shouted suddenly. "Every f.u.c.king DAY!" "Every f.u.c.king DAY!"
Jonas touched Danny"s shoulder. His hand was knocked away but he put it back and this time Danny let it stay. He led Danny away from the crowd and towards the stream. The two of them stood and stared across the singing water at the white-frosted moor. Jonas didn"t look at Danny as he cried. There was very little sound from behind them, considering the whole village was just a hundred yards away. The morning was still beautiful - facing this way, at least - and Jonas was seized with a sudden notion to take Danny by the arm and lead him through the stream and up on to the moorland opposite and just keep walking, leaving everything behind them and never looking back to see the horror of reality.
He didn"t, of course, but he could taste in his mouth what it would be like to do it.
Finally Danny spoke softly.
"She hated being that way."
Jonas nodded.
"You remember what she was like?"
"Of course," said Jonas and Danny sighed.
"Sometimes she she remembered. How she"d been. That was the worst part, you know? Not her going nuts, but her remembered. How she"d been. That was the worst part, you know? Not her going nuts, but her knowing knowing that she was going nuts." that she was going nuts."
Jonas nodded. He understood.
"At least that"s over now," Danny said, and turned back towards the surreal scene of his mother lying dead near the corner flag while the whole village watched silently from the far touchline, as if they"d come to see a match and stayed to watch a murder. His father was in the back of the ambulance now, with the two paramedics fussing over him.
Jonas saw that someone had put a blanket over Mrs Marsh"s body and he was stupidly grateful, because it was a cold day, despite the sunshine.
Danny sniffed, sighed, and shook a B&H out of a crumpled pack he found in his jeans.
"You all right, Jonas?"
Jonas glanced at him, perplexed. He He was all right! was all right! He He wasn"t the one whose dead mother had just been hauled out of a frozen stream like an Arctic seal. Why the h.e.l.l would Danny ask him wasn"t the one whose dead mother had just been hauled out of a frozen stream like an Arctic seal. Why the h.e.l.l would Danny ask him that? that?
He said nothing and Danny didn"t ask again.
Nearby a blackbird burst into song and Jonas allowed it to fill him up. With his back to the body there was nothing but beauty in the world.
Danny squinted as he blew the only cloud into the clear blue sky. "We should have a drink," he said.
"Some time," said Jonas, and hoped Danny realized that that meant "never".
Danny smoked half the cigarette and flicked the rest into the stream. "Yeah," he said. "I"ll see you soon, Jonas."
Marvel watched Danny Marsh walk away from Jonas Holly and back to his father. Without averting his gaze, he spoke quietly to Reynolds, who stood beside him with that d.a.m.ned notebook open.
"What"s the link?"
"Pardon, sir?"
"The link. Between Margaret Priddy and ..." He nodded at the corpse.
"Yvonne Marsh."
"Yes. a.s.suming this is murder and it"s the same killer. What"s the link?"
Reynolds thought for a second. "Both in their sixties. Both women ..." He dried up.
Marvel looked at Reynolds directly now. "Both a burden on their families, wouldn"t you say?"
Reynolds nodded his thoughtful agreement.