“He’s not my…He’s a policeman.”
Gwynder slowly clutched at the front of her pullover as she took in this detail. She said, “Why’ve you brought…?” And to Lynley, “We’re doing nought wrong. Can’t make us leave. The town council know…We’ve the rights of travellers. Aren’t bothering anyone.” And to Daidre, “Are there more of them out there? You come to take her? She won’t go without a fight. She’ll begin to scream. Can’t believe that you would do this to her. After everything…”
“After what exactly?” Daidre’s voice sounded pinched. “After everything she did for me? For you? For all three of us? You seem to have a very short memory.”
“And yours goes back to the start of time, eh?” Gwynder forced more of the liquid into their mother’s mouth. The result was much the same as before. What drained out of her dribbled down her cheeks and onto the pillow. Gwynder tried to sort this out by brushing it off, with little success.
“She can be in hospice,” Daidre said. “It doesn’t have to go on this way.”
“We’re meant to leave her there alone? Without her family? Lock her up and wait till they give us the word she’s gone? Well, I won’t do that, will I. And if you come to tell me tha’s the limit of what you mean to do to help her, you leave with your fancy man. Whoever he says he is. Because he’s not a cop. Cops don’t talk like him.”
“Gwynder, please see reason.”
“Get out, Edrek. Asked for your help and you said no. Tha’s how it is and we’ll cope from here.”
“I’ll help within reason. But I won’t send the lot of you to Lourdes or Medjugorje or Knock or anywhere else because it isn’t reasonable, it doesn’t make sense, there are no miracles?”
“Are! And one could happen to her.”
“She’s dying of pancreatic cancer. No one walks away from that. She’s got weeks or days or perhaps even hours and…Is this how you want her to die? Like this? In this place? Inside this hovel? Without air or light or even a window to look at the sea?”
“With people who love her.”
“There is no love in this place. There never was.”
“Don’t you say that!” Gwynder began to weep. “Just because…just because…Don’t you say that.”
Daidre made a move towards her but stopped. She raised a hand to her mouth. Behind her glasses, Lynley saw that her eyes filled with tears.
“Leave us to our weeks or days or hours, then,” Gwynder said. “Just go.”
“Do you need?”
“Go!”
Lynley put his hand on Daidre’s arm. She looked at him. She removed her glasses and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her coat, which she’d not removed. He said to her, “Come,” and he urged her gently to the door.
“Hard fucking cunt,” Gwynder said to their backs. “D’you hear me, Edrek? Hard fucking cunt. Keep your money. Keep your fancy boy. Keep your life. Don’t need you or want you, so don’t come back. Hear me, Edrek? I’m sorry I even asked you in the first place. Don’t come back.”
Outside the caravan, they paused. Lynley saw that tremors ran through Daidre’s body. He put his arm round her shoulders. “I’m terribly sorry,” he said.
“Who the hell’re you lot?” The question came in a shout. Lynley looked in its direction. Two men had emerged from the shed. They would be Goron and Daidre’s father, he decided. They approached in a hurry. “Wha’s this, then?” the older man said.
The younger said nothing. There seemed to be something wrong with him. Openly, he scratched at his testicles. He snuffled loudly and, like his twin in the caravan, he squinted. He nodded at them in a friendly fashion. His father did not.