Astrid stepped towards the woman engrossed in her book and music. Jenny placed one hand on the table and tapped out a rhythm with her fingers. Evie Church dug her nails into the tattered pages, flopped the book over, and then peered at them with a face consumed by suspicion.
‘What?’
Astrid pointed at the image on the shirt Evie wore, a famous still from a classic movie, as Evie pulled the plugs from her head.
‘I once saw Metropolis accompanied by a full orchestra performing the original music.’
She dropped her hand to her side and smiled at the pale, thin woman, who seemed a lot younger than her twenty-five years. She recognised the physical similarities between the siblings, the same long delicate nose, the same large haunted eyes that sparked to life on hearing Astrid’s words. But whereas Adam Church looked like he ate a hearty three meals a day, his sister appeared only to have a passing relationship with food.
Evie tilted her head forward. ‘I adore silent films, but I’ve only seen them on the DVDs Adam sends me every month. When I get out of here, I’ll move to a city, perhaps San Francisco, and spend my spare time watching classic movies on the big screen.’ She bit her lip. ‘Well, not all the time. I’ll travel as well, go by train so I can read on the journey. I love reading as much as music and old cinema.’
In the space of a few seconds, Evie Church’s face had transformed from a look of suspicion to one of delight. She also spoke as if she hadn’t had a decent conversation with a like-minded adult in some time.
The receptionist played her part before leaving. ‘Evie, this is Astrid.’
Jenny slipped away and Astrid wasn’t sorry to see her go. Evie placed her book flat on the table, a copy of The Outsider by Albert Camus in its original French.
She offered her hand.
‘Do you have a surname, Astrid, or are you like Prince, Madonna, or the Queen of the fair island I detect you’re from?’
‘It’s Astrid Snow. Are you fluent in French?’
Evie placed her fingers on the cover of the book. ‘I get by in several languages. According to Mrs Moses, I’m an expert in American.’
Astrid’s eyes narrowed a little. ‘Mrs Moses?’
She nodded towards a woman talking to two staff members in the far corner of the room.
‘Mrs Moses was here when I arrived. She refuses to acknowledge that the language of this country is English. Everything has to be American, nothing else. I think her parents put her in here when her, let’s say, unusual beliefs started to get out of hand in the public domain.’
Astrid pointed at the headphones. ‘What are you listening to?’
Evie lifted her phone to display the screen, showing an album cover with no writing on it but an image of a pulsar from space. Astrid grinned.
‘That’s cheerful listening.’
‘It always gets my mind into shape. I’ll follow it with a selection of Tamla Motown I can sing along to, which will annoy Mrs Moses if nothing else.’
Astrid hadn’t looked forward to this meeting, but she liked Evie Church already. Now she had to give her the news about Adam. She took the seat opposite. After their brief conversation, it wouldn’t be fair to dump the information on her and leave. She doubted anyone in this facility would offer her any counselling.
‘Your brother sent me here with a message for you.’
Evie’s eyelids sprang into life. ‘Your expression changed from joy to despair in an instant, Astrid Snow. I’m guessing this isn’t going to be good news.’
She glanced at the cosmic image on Evie’s phone. ‘The police have arrested Adam.’
Evie raised one hand to her mouth and immediately took it away. ‘Oh, dear. Has his fixation caught up with him?’ There appeared to be moisture around her eyes, but it was hard to tell if she was upset or not. The long eyebrow stretching across the top of her nose bristled slightly. ‘I always wondered if his obsession was worse than mine.’ She didn’t appear to have grasped the gravity of the situation.
‘This is serious, Evie. The police discovered two murdered girls in his basement.’
Evie didn’t bat an eyelid. ‘That’s our basement.’
‘What?’
‘When our parents died, they left the family home to both of us. Not that I want to live there again.’
‘Are you okay?’ Astrid couldn’t quite get a handle on how Evie was taking the news.
‘I’m fine.’ She rolled up the headphones and put them into her pocket. ‘Are you just a messenger, Astrid Snow, or are you more than that?’
‘Your brother is claiming his innocence and asked me to investigate the crime.’
Evie spat air from her mouth. ‘Of course, he’s innocent. Adam wouldn’t hurt a fly, literally. When we were kids, he was always ushering insects out of the house to safety. My parents hated that. The lower creatures were placed here to be devoured. That was God’s plan according to them.’ Her laugh turned from disdain into giddiness. ‘My father thought he was devout until he met my mother. She believed it was the Creator’s divine hand that led her to a man called Church.’ She peered deep into Astrid’s eyes. ‘So you’re an investigator, a Private Eye?’
‘Something like that.’
Evie got up from the table. ‘You’re a shamus? I’ve always wanted to meet a shamus. The game’s afoot, then. Perhaps I could be Mary Astor, Veronica Lake, Jane Greer, or Barbara Stanwyck. No, wait, they’re femme fatales. As tempting as it sounds, we don’t want to be one of those, do we? Femme fatale means killer or deadly woman. That’s not you, is it, Astrid? I’ve always loved a bit of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, haven’t you?’
She spoke at ninety miles a second. Astrid gave her time to breathe before replying.
‘Reality is stranger than fiction. I have to go now.’ Hunger gnawed away at Astrid’s insides.
‘No, no, not yet. I need to get my bits in order, and then I’ll join you.’
Evie moved from the table and towards the end of the room. Astrid watched her go, unable to follow her instincts and turn around and leave. Against her better judgement, she’d felt drawn into Evie Church’s sphere of influence. She followed the younger woman out and down the corridor, watching her disappear into another room.
Astrid stepped through the door as Evie was packing a small shoulder bag. ‘What are you doing?’ Apart from a bed and a TV with a DVD player, only books and discs occupied the room.
‘I’ve tried my best to wean myself off material things, which is why I have a bunch of music files on the phone, but I still prefer real books and movies compared to their equivalents as digital versions. I’ll get the staff to pack all this away and send it to me. It will have to be at the family home at first, but I don’t think I’ll stay there for too long.’ Her shoulders trembled as she spoke. ‘We’ll stop there long enough to prove my brother’s innocence.’
Astrid surveyed her through incredulous eyes. ‘What do you mean by that?’
Evie threw the bag over her shoulder and stared at her. ‘Things will go a lot smoother with me than without me.’
‘And why is that?’
Evie reached into the drawer near her bed and removed a small box. She opened it and took out a key.
‘Because this gets you into the house where someone killed those kids.’