Chapter 29
‘Out of the blue.’ Frank stood on the terrace, passing thick fingers through hair matted by his hardtop.
‘You can tether Light Amber in the field.’ Alec’s lips were compressed into white. ‘Use the electricity pole. She can’t come to any harm with that.’
The grey jodhpurs winged stiff and wide as Frank walked slowly towards the paddock. ‘Get going, Amber. Us baint got all day.’
‘You need a drink,’ Alec said gently. ‘Tether her, then come and sit down; I’ll get it for you.’
‘How on earth could it have happened?’ Lisa asked.
Even though she hadn’t known Susan Andrews all that well, she was shocked - dumbfounded - to hear she’d drowned. Susan had been a staunch support for Lisa during the two weeks after James was ‘born’; she’d helped out intermittently after that. She’d sorted out the best feeds, arranged the switch from goat’s milk to soya. Lisa knew there had always been a bond between them, a feeling of comradeship. But the midwife had never probed, never asked direct questions.
‘Weather’s been that wet.’
‘But Susan must know these roads well enough to drive blindfold. She’s out on her rounds here all the time.’ Meg had repeatedly warned Lisa about the dangers of slipping into the rhynes or the Sheppey in rainy weather, but Lisa hadn’t expected someone to die because of that.
‘Don’t matter how well her knows ’un; they verges do give when wet.’
‘Too exhausted to feel the car sliding, you mean? Tired out by yet another late night call?’
‘Could be; don’t think that be it. Her’s been a bit depressed; Meg reckons as the night-hag were about.’ Frank shivered slightly, in spite of having ridden over. ‘Misled she, Meg says.’
‘Night-hag? What on earth is that?’
‘Barn owl.’ Frank looked uneasy, as though an owl was some sort of bad omen which might have brought about Susan’s death. ‘Saying be that seeing the night-hag means her be after newborn babes. Susan’s been that worried. Us reckons they banks gave way without she noticing. Old Beetle must have slipped, right by the bridge; knocked she out, I daresay. Police said her drowned.’
There was no question that Frank was deeply disturbed. It seemed out of character to Lisa. The man was pretty callous, death was something he lived with every day. He hadn’t shown the slightest twinge at slaughtering his entire livestock, yet he was visibly shaken by Susan’s death. Why? He hardly knew her.
‘I can’t believe it. She was so strong and capable. She always looked as though she could handle anything,’ Lisa said, trembling, remembering Susan’s brisk practicality.
‘Her were up on Blight Moor, delivering Jennifer Sims. Another emergency; month or so early. Twins.’
‘Twins? Jennifer Sims had twins?’ Lisa looked at Alec, but talk of more twins didn’t seem to alert him to anything unusual. Susan, Lisa remembered, was Don’s nephew’s wife. Had Don talked to her about the large numbers of multiple births on Crinsley Farm?
‘Them be very small. Probably that be what fashed Susan, made she less careful, like.’
‘Did Jennifer know she was going to have twins?’ Lisa’s voice sounded strained. Was this another pre-birth cloning? And if so, was Susan’s death really an accident? Could it have been a way of silencing a witness, someone who might draw attention to the appearance of unexpected twins? Her clinical notes could have shown cause for an investigation. And that could lead to Flaxton...
Frank lowered the glass he was about to put to his lips and stared at Lisa over it. A deep penetrating stare she found distinctly unnerving. Challenging her; he was challenging her to say something. She dropped her eyes hastily.
‘Us reckon her knew; them allays do they scans. Anyways, it were all sorted out as far as Susan goes. Her’d sent for the flying squad. Them took over and her be driving home. Bit of a mist on the moor; nothing special.’
‘How could someone like Susan Andrews possibly drown in the Sheppey? It’s still fairly shallow, in spite of all the rain,’ Alec said, clearly puzzled.
‘Who’s to say?’ Frank muttered, truculent. ‘Happened, right?’
‘I still can’t understand why no one saw her,’ Lisa thought aloud, then bit her lip to stop herself from saying anything more.
‘T’were pitch dark that night; no moon nor nothing,’ Frank went on, dogged. ‘Be them rear lights as did give she away. Tim Graves did spot that old Beetle downalong somewhen. Him be that cackhanded, but him fetched the police.’
‘Is there going to be an inquest?’ A vivid image of Don’s eyes, troubled, sad, came into her mind. Don had died in an odd accident as well.
‘They full works,’ Frank said shortly. He poured the whisky down his throat and reached his glass out for more. ‘But what us really come about be Don’s widow.’
It was as if he’d read her mind. Lisa, startled, could not stop herself sounding astounded. ‘How d’you mean, Don’s widow?’ she asked, excited. ‘Something’s happened to her as well?’ She was sure she was on to something tangible at last.
‘Eh?’ He stared at Alec, turning away from Lisa. ‘Her be fine; just do need a bit o’ financial help.’
‘You mean you’re making a collection for her?’
‘No call for that.’ Frank looked at Alec carefully. ‘Us thought as Flaxton’s be offering she a little something. Spread the word how generous them be.’
‘You want me to put it to them.’
‘Thought maybe yer could think on some clever money angle as would suit they.’
‘And get you off the hook.’
‘Not right to let she starve.’
‘What I suggest you do, Frank, is let her keep that cottage she and Don lived in. They must have been there for years.’
‘Eh? That there be a tied cottage. Us’ll need it more than ever, now Don’s gone.’ He stared out across the moors. ‘Great worker, Don. Us been taking on three others to do hisn work. Them can’t hold no candle to he.’
‘Pay you to build. No young man would want that old cottage, anyway. Not modernised enough, and too far off the road.’
‘Reckon us’ll have to sharpen un up. Anyways, Ella wants ter join her sister down in Cornwall; looking to be shot of this place. She be saying her and Don did have nothing but bad luck this past year. Her do say its acause Don cut down they elders by the cottage. “Never cut they down without permission”, her told ’un. “Never burn they or there be a death.” Don cut they down and burned they. Made quite a stink; just like corpses, Meg said. Her thinks him worried that much, him baint paying proper attention at the hunt.’
‘Meg did mention Don wasn’t very happy with the new fertiliser,’ Lisa said. ‘That he’d burned the first batch with the old elders.’ Was there something to these superstitions after all, Lisa wondered? She swept curses aside. Something atrocious, but not paranormal, was going on. She was sure these ‘accidents’ had been arranged. She was only too right to be apprehensive on Janus’s behalf, to keep him by her at all times.
‘Meg did go on ‘bout that?’ Frank was on to it like a bullet. That sharp, calculating look. ‘No call for that. Don did see the benefit of Multiplier just like the rest of we.’
Lisa, annoyed with herself for betraying Meg, wondered again how she could ever have thought of Frank as an easy-going man. ‘Well, you know, Frank; she doesn’t like it for her hens.’
‘Not doing no harm,’ he said, glaring at her. ‘Us be getting more eggs than ever us did.’
The man would do anything for money. Could he be implicated in Susan’s death? Not really; his reaction had been one of fear, not guilt. Frank was distinctly frightened, and for himself. Just like he was after Don’s accident.
Lisa couldn’t stand his small currant eyes staring at her a moment longer. Some instinct told her to attack his weak spot, talk about the little girl he bullied Meg into keeping in irons.
‘How’s Phyllis? Meg said the brace was coming off at last.’
His face jerked round, eyes slunk into his head. ‘Us made they doctors do another operation; them don’t rightly know what them be about. Don’t want no cripple for a young’un. Her be a real goer, though. Don’t make no difference what brakes us put on she, still gets about as best her can. Plucky little maid.’ His voice was steady, under control.
‘And doing so well at school,’ Lisa put in. ‘You must be very proud of her.’
‘Trevor! This is a surprise.’
Lisa pricked up her ears as Alec leant over her to pick up the receiver before she could reach for it. Trevor in Bath again, perhaps.
‘Of course you can. We’d be delighted. You driving?’
The noises from the other end of the phone suggested he wasn’t.
‘Look, I’d pick you up if I could get away, but Lisa isn’t up to scratch.’ She saw her husband fiddling with the phone, turning his back to her, voice lowered. She couldn’t quite catch what he said. ‘There’s a bus to Wells. I’ll pick you up from there. Five past every hour. What? From the bus station, yes. Can you catch the eleven-five?’
‘Trevor in Bath again?’
‘Day after tomorrow. Wanted to spend the night. I grabbed the chance to have a chat with him. You won’t listen to anything I suggest; maybe you’ll listen to what he has to say.’
‘I’ve mentioned a couple of things to him myself, about the animals and that.’
‘Animals?’
‘You know that fertiliser’s a disaster, Alec, and that the clonings have been happening on the Graftleys’ farm. It’s just that their stock is always slaughtered before any of them get a chance to clone, and – ’
‘Hold on a minute, Lisa.’ Alec walked up to her, looking into her eyes. ‘What, exactly, do you imagine Multiplier does?’
She took a deep breath, braced herself. ‘I think it’s a catalyst for irreversible changes in the embryonic stage of a living organism.’
‘That’s pure conjecture, Lisa.’
‘In particular, I think it stimulates the germ of living matter in a different way from any compound used before.’
‘Fair enough; it does. It energises both plant and animal growth, and encourages the shedding of extra ova – ’
‘No, that’s not it, that’s my whole point, Alec. It activates a single, fertilised ovum, to split in two…’
‘So what’s the big deal on that?’
‘Let me finish. To split in two not only inside, but outside the womb, even when the organism is complete. You must see that that’s potentially catastrophic.’
‘It would be if it were true!’ He laughed. ‘And just how did you get infected by all this?’
‘I ate Meg’s produce. It was supposed to be clear of Multiplier. There must have been seepage, or maybe Frank used it behind Meg’s back. To get more eggs, or something.’
‘You’ve got a splendid imagination, Lisa. We all know you’re a superb artist.’
‘No, Alec. I researched it.’
‘Wells Library, I suppose?’
‘Bath Reference, actually. And the Internet, of course.’ She sighed. ‘I know what effects it has. And so does Frank. He’s killed off virtually everything that moves on that farm. He wouldn’t even allow the kittens to survive.’
‘Kittens?’ He paused for a moment, looking at her. ‘For goodness sake, Lisa! All farmers drown kittens when they have too many.’
‘Frank promised Seb one, and he still drowned the lot.’
‘So he forgot. Anyway, what about the horses? How come he sells horses, then. Why are they exempt?’
‘They’re shod, Alec, that’s why. I told you animals can’t clone if something’s fixed tightly to their bodies.’
‘You’ve got an answer for everything,’ he said slowly, then drew in his breath. ‘This really is absurd, Lisa. If anything of that sort were going on, the Graftleys would have mentioned it. What about Meg?’
‘I’m pretty sure Meg only knows about cloning in the womb. She told me about one of their ewes having seven identical lambs. Don always knew about it happening outside the womb as well. He knew right from the start, I’ve told you that. Maybe Susan knew as well; she is - was - married to Don’s nephew, you know. And both she and Don are dead.’
‘And Frank? Why’s Frank keeping quiet?’
‘He stands to gain enormously by keeping it a secret. If it came out, he would be ruined. Money, Alec. The stuff your life revolves around.’
‘Do me a favour, Lisa!’
She shrugged. ‘You heard Don yourself. He said, first thing, that the lambs only multiply if he doesn’t tag them. But he’s dead; he can’t back me up.’
‘This is utterly insane. There’s absolutely no question that such unbelievable consequences would all have come to light by now. That’s the idea of a testing site!’ He laughed. ‘You don’t suppose for a moment that Flaxton would just carry on if there were side effects like that?’
‘They aren’t just carrying on. The launch was delayed for ages because they needed to modify the stuff. You told me that yourself.’
‘Quite right. There were too many multiple births.’
‘Not multiple births - I told you, splits - in the womb and out of it. They’re trying to cover up the evidence.’
‘What!?’
‘If even a hint of their being involved in this horror got out it would be a disaster for them. Ruin their plans for expansion, scotch their going public.’ She took Alec’s hand in hers, looked at him earnestly. ‘Just think of it; all kinds of wildlife cloning. Insects as well as mammals, you know. Millions of them, completely uncontrolled.’ She stopped, dropped Alec’s hand. ‘I think they murdered Don. He’d got proof, you see.’
‘Don died in a hunting accident.’
‘Maybe they even had Susan killed.’
‘Susan? What was she supposed to know?’
‘About unexpected twins,’ Lisa said, thinking back. ‘It shouldn’t really happen nowadays.’
‘Country women have bees in their bonnets about home births,’ Alec said sourly. ‘Like some nearer home that I could mention.’ He grinned. ‘Probably don’t bother with proper checkups.’
‘And they’re watching me and Janus.’ It was becoming clearer to her now. ‘They had me followed to the Priddy Woods.’
She played it all back in her mind’s eye again. The deep hole she’d skirted in the Priddy Woods as she’d wondered where she was, had heard something slipping on the other side of her − down, down − what had that been? An odd plopping sound, a yapping, something snuffling, a bark.
‘They were the ones who hid the clone so I couldn’t find him again!’ Lisa cried out. ‘And then, no doubt, they got a terrier to maul him to death!’ She could not restrain the anguish in her voice.
‘For God’s sake, Lisa!’
And then it came to her. Of course. She knew where to find the proof. She could show Alec a clone. A gruesome one, but a clone all the same. She turned to him again, eyes bright.
‘I can prove it to you, darling.’
Why hadn’t she thought of it before? Don had buried the dead clone’s body in their garden. The remains would still be there.
‘Prove it?’
‘Yes; prove it beyond any doubt.’ She drew herself up - she had to be brave. ‘I haven’t told you about the cloning in the bath.’
‘I see.’ That pitying look again. ‘There was a cloning in the bath? Tonight, d’you mean?’
‘Tonight? Of course not. Then there’d be a clone...’ She stopped. He was just humouring her. So let him. This was her big chance to convince him. ‘On the twins’ first birthday,’ she smiled at him, excited now. The body might be putrid, but it wouldn’t yet have completely decomposed. There would be traces. It had all happened, after all, less than a year before.
‘The twins’ first birthday?’
‘The first anniversary of the day Janus and Jeffrey were born, the day we chose for celebrating the triplets’ birthday. There was a cloning in the bath. That time when Geraldine just left me to it.’
‘After the party.’ He paused. ‘When you were so exhausted?’ This time he was taking notice.
‘That’s right. I took Janus’s bracelet off because it was cutting into him. Then he cloned in the bath, while I was seeing to the others in the nursery.’
‘So what happened to the clone?’ Alec asked softly.
‘He died almost immediately...’ Her voice broke as she remembered the little face turned back to look at her. She forced herself to carry on. ‘I was quite beside myself; I had no idea what to do. Meg had borrowed the Volvo, and Don brought the car keys back. He saw me all upset, and with the loose bracelet dangling from my hand. He just put two and two together. That’s when he told me clones often don’t survive and the only thing to do is bury them. So I knew he’d guessed what had happened. I didn’t really want to believe him, so I went back to the nursery, and you phoned. When I finally got round to the bathroom again, the body had gone.’
‘Gone? You mean disappeared?’
‘At first I was relieved. I thought I’d imagined everything. So I went to my bedroom, stood by the window, drinking in the night air to calm myself. That’s when I heard a voice. It seemed to be directed to someone at the bottom of our garden. Mark Ditcheat in his field, I recognised. And then I heard Don answer; Don was there, pretending to plant a tree.’
‘Must have been dark by then,’ Alec said. ‘How could you tell?’
‘I could hear everything, every syllable, every movement of the tools Don was using. You know how sound carries on the moor, especially at dusk.’
Alec was staring at her. ‘Why didn’t you ring me?’
‘You were somewhere in London, Alec, unavailable, as usual. And Don was there, and he already knew what was going on, and I was terrified for our children. So I just let it ride.’
‘You didn’t even try to tell me.’
‘It was the only way to make sure no one took the others from us, Alec. What was the point of telling you then? I thought I could prevent it happening again.’ She turned to him, deep tension on her face. At last - at last she could prove she wasn’t crazy. ‘He buried him between your new fruit trees, the apricot and the nectarine. You remember, one of the nectarine leaders got broken and you got annoyed.’
‘Several of them were broken. And you said that that was Duffers digging about.’
‘True enough; but Don may have broken some as well. I had to cover up for him.’
‘And now you don’t?’
‘Now I have to convince you I’m not mad. Janus is getting ready to clone again; it’s his nature, he can’t help it. If we leave him without an earring, or some other device, he’ll manage to get his clothes off and split - split into two identical children, which we won’t be able to tell apart.’
‘Lisa,’ he said. ‘Lisa, darling. We have to get some help for you.’
‘Just humour me one more time, Alec. It won’t take long. All we have to do is unearth the body.’