‘Did you say that to Kate Emery?’
She nodded. ‘The last time I saw her. She said she wasn’t going to sicken. She said she would never let Chloe down. And I said that wasn’t the point. I told her she couldn’t know what the future was going to hold.’ Raina gave a long sigh. ‘It gives me no pleasure at all to know that I was right.’
13
The Church of the Modern Apostles was a square, cream-painted building set back from the South Circular Road. It looked like a former bingo hall. A billboard outside read ‘Christians: Keep the Faith … But Not From Others!’ I walked up to the main door. It was uncompromisingly closed, with a padlocked chain wound around the handles inside the door. I stood on the steps for a moment, looking at the cars glittering in the strong morning sun. I recognised Oliver Norris’s Volvo beside a van with a What Would Jesus Do? bumper sticker, so I knew I was in the right place.
There had to be another way in.
At the side of the building, I found another door, this one with a ramp leading up to it and a sign that read ‘OFFICE’. This door opened easily and I found myself in a narrow corridor decorated with posters. You are not too bad to come in – you are not too good to stay out. It smelled musty, like a school locker room. The best things in life aren’t things. My footsteps sounded uncertain on the tiled floor and I made myself walk confidently. It’s hard to stumble when you’re on your knees. Derwent would have liked that one.
That, in itself, was a good reason for not letting him come along.
There was a murmur of voices coming from a room at the end of the corridor. I walked down and tapped on the door.
‘Come in.’
I recognised the deep, warm voice immediately. Gareth Selhurst was standing in the middle of the room, facing a desk where a woman was working. She was in her thirties, with threads of grey in her dark hair. Her hands were poised above the keyboard of her computer: I had interrupted them in the middle of some dictation, I guessed.
‘Can I help you?’ This time Selhurst sounded sharp and distinctly less welcoming.
‘DS Maeve Kerrigan. We met on Sunday.’
‘At Oliver’s house. I remember.’ He was shorter than I’d expected now that I saw him standing up, but the hair was magnificent, a white mane swept back from a high forehead. ‘It’s official business, I take it.’
‘I’m afraid so.’
‘You’ll want to speak to Oliver.’
‘Actually, I’d like to start with you.’
His eyebrows drew together. ‘Me?’
‘I have a few questions,’ I said firmly. I glanced down at the woman, who was watching us closely, her mouth hanging open. ‘Here, or in private. Whatever you prefer.’
Mr Selhurst preferred to talk in private. He led me down the corridor to a small, spotless kitchen. I waited for him to offer me a cup of tea or a glass of water, but he looked around as if he’d never been in the kitchen before and wasn’t sure how any of it worked. He folded his arms and leaned back against the counter.
‘We can talk here. I can’t give you much time, I’m afraid. I’m needed elsewhere at ten.’
‘That’s fine.’ I took out my notebook and sat down on a stool in the corner, beside a table with a chipped laminate top.
‘I really don’t see how I can help you anyway, if it’s about Oliver’s poor neighbour.’
‘Did you know her?’
‘I met her. Briefly.’
‘Once? More than once?’
He pulled a face. ‘More than once.’
‘Twice? Three times?’
‘I don’t recall.’
‘Where did you meet her?’
‘She came to worship with us once. She wasn’t ready to hear God’s call, I’m afraid.’
I waited, my eyebrows raised.
‘She found it hard to let go of her preconceptions. To lose herself in talking to Christ, our saviour.’ He smiled. ‘We are an evangelical church, Miss Kerrigan. We sing and make music. We pray out loud. When the spirit moves us, we pray in tongues. Christ is a very real presence in our gatherings. He heals us, he speaks to us and through us. He walks ahead of us and we follow in his footsteps. He cleanses us of our sins and our faults when we beg him for salvation. When he dances, we dance.’
‘And Kate didn’t dance.’
‘No. She was full of doubt and confusion. The devil had a firm grip on her.’ His lip curled. ‘She wore immodest clothes. She questioned many of the things we see as truths, such as a man’s place as the head of his family. She, of course, had a broken marriage. I pointed out to her that if she had come to God earlier, she and her husband could have stayed together, in the proper relationship between man and wife. The head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God, as St Paul said.’
I was very glad Derwent wasn’t there to hear that. ‘It’s not a very popular opinion in this day and age.’
‘This godless age,’ Selhurst thundered, slipping into preacher mode. ‘At least in our spiritually bankrupt country. There are countries in the world where the word of God holds sway, where people have turned to him for help in times of need. It is my constant prayer that the same feeling will sweep over this nation, this once-great Christian country, and wash all of the unworthy away. The bible tells us that a great flood happened before. There are many recent prophecies that it will happen again, that a wave will come and destroy the south of England. It’s sheer arrogance to think it won’t, that we can behave as we wish without angering God.’ He leaned forward. ‘You’re not married, I see.’
‘No.’
‘Are you a Christian?’
‘I was brought up a Catholic,’ I said.
Selhurst physically recoiled. ‘Well, that’s not quite the same thing.’
‘I’m sure it’s not.’ I checked my notes, secretly pleased to be the embodiment of all that was unholy. ‘So Kate came to church here on one occasion.’
‘I asked her not to return until she was ready. She was a disruptive influence. People were inhibited by her presence. It’s a small congregation, still, but then the church hasn’t been here for very long. In a group of fifty, one discordant presence stands out.’ Selhurst shook his massive head. ‘We must leave our earthly concerns behind when we enter the house of God. Lose ourselves in the Lord. We must not be self-conscious in the presence of God, but conscious only of him.’
In other words, she had interfered with the collective hysteria that Selhurst relied on to make his congregation feel euphoric.
‘And she never returned.’
‘No.’
‘You said you’d met her more than once. Did you speak to her after that?’
‘I went to her house a number of times, with Oliver. Kate was reluctant to speak to me, but Oliver convinced her.’ He shook his head again. ‘There are none so deaf as those who will not hear. As I explained to Oliver, it can take many visits before a heart is opened to God, but it was worth fighting.’
‘Even though Kate wasn’t really interested.’
‘Kate wasn’t the only one we were concerned about.’