Much later, Ruth feeds the cat and double locks the front door. She can hear Nelson in the bathroom upstairs. The security light comes on outside but she knows that it抯 just a fox. Or Derek. Or the Grey Lady. Nothing can scare her tonight.
Chapter 24
Judy is surprised when the boss says that he isn抰 going to work at the weekend. They are still meant to be investigating the Avril Flowers case and Judy expected Nelson to be at the station every day, chivvying and chasing every last scrap of information. Instead, he told her, when she was leaving for the day, that he was going to take Bruno to Jan抯 house and 慼ave the weekend off? Why is Nelson choosing this moment to slacken off from work? It抯 not as if he has anything else to do. Has he?
Nelson has been strange ever since he got back from the halls of residence, thinks Judy. He kept ranting on about some student who had pictures of Ruth plastered all over the walls. They tried to trace this boy, Joe McMahon, but to no avail. Besides, as Judy ventured to say, it抯 no crime to have someone抯 photo on your wall. She抯 never been a student but her bedroom at home had been a shrine to Michael Praed as Robin of Sherwood. Come to think of it, that probably explains a lot, from her son抯 first name to her relationship with Cathbad.
Judy should be happy at the idea of having some free time. She, after all, is driving home to a house full of people. Cathbad will have cooked supper. Michael and Miranda will want to tell her about their day. Maddie will be on hand for some heavy-duty Grey抯 Anatomy viewing later. But Judy knows that, some time over the weekend, she will be looking over the files on Avril Flowers. And on Samantha Wilson and Karen Head.
The family are all in the garden. Judy goes into the downstairs loo to wash her hands several times and then she goes out to join them. Maddie is tapping at her laptop, protected by a parasol. Michael and Miranda are digging their vegetable patch and Cathbad is siphoning recycled rainwater into a watering can. It抯 such a peaceful scene, the air smelling of grass and newly turned soil, that Judy almost wants to stand and observe it without anyone seeing her. But Thing notices her immediately and rushes over to welcome her. Cathbad follows more circumspectly.
慓ood day??
慜K. Strange. I抣l tell you later.?She doesn抰 want to discuss Joe McMahon or the Lean Zone breakthrough with Maddie in the background, probably online to the Chronicle at this very moment.
慦e抮e making a bug hotel,?says Miranda, pointing at a ramshackle collection of boxes in the middle of the lawn.
慖t抯 more like a bug homeless shelter,?says Cathbad.
Judy thinks of Nelson抯 description of the UNN halls of residence. 慙ike a hotel in a war zone.?She is very glad, once again, that her children are still at home with her, surely too young to be traumatised by this weird limbo-like time. For them, right now, it seems more like paradise than limbo.
慉nd we抮e going to have a worming,?says Miranda.
慉 worm bin,?corrects Michael. 慖抦 going to grow peas and broad beans in my bit of garden.?
慖抦 going to grow an enormous tree,?says Miranda, determined to outdo him. 慦ith silver bells and cockle shells. Like the rhyme.?
慣hat抯 about torture,?says Maddie. 慣he silver bells are thumbscrews. I read it somewhere. 揗ary, Mary, Quite Contrary? Mary is Mary Tudor.?
The boss had mentioned a poem too, Judy remembers. Stone walls do not a prison make. Nor iron bars a cage. It had been on Joe McMahon抯 wall, alongside the pictures of Ruth. She realises that Cathbad is watching her and forces a smile.
慔as anyone made banana bread? I抦 starving.?
Banana bread, followed by a delicious supper, white wine and several episodes of Meredith Grey saving lives all put Judy in a better frame of mind. On Saturday morning they go for a walk on Wells beach, revelling in the miles of sand and the complete absence of tourists. I抦 so lucky, thinks Judy, watching Thing run to collect a piece of driftwood. Imagine being locked down in London, or even Norwich. Surely you would go mad without this stretch of blue, this healing space between you and the horizon.