‘You shouldn’t be here,’ says Judy.
‘Let’s pretend I’m not,’ says Clough.
They are walking on the beach, keeping the regulation two metres apart. Even so, Judy is meant to be in quarantine, Clough shouldn’t be in Norfolk at all. ‘Go for a walk,’ Maddie had said. ‘You’re safe when you’re in the open air. And it’ll make you feel better. You can take Thing. You’re allowed to go for two walks a day if you have a dog.’ Judy doesn’t know where Maddie gets her scientific facts from but one thing is certain; Maddie is becoming as wise as her father.
‘I’m so pleased to see you,’ says Judy.
‘I thought you would be.’ Clough sounds smug. ‘Your last message sounded a bit . . . a bit like you needed company.’
‘I do,’ says Judy. ‘I mean, I know I’ve got the kids but . . .’
‘But you have to stay strong for them,’ says Clough. ‘You don’t for me.’
They walk along the sand in silence. Thing doubles back to check that they’re still there. His nanny instincts have become more pronounced in Cathbad’s absence. Apart from another dog-walker at the water’s edge, there’s not a soul in sight. The multicoloured beach huts are empty, and the only sound is the hiss and sigh of the waves breaking.
‘I just can’t imagine a world without Cathbad,’ says Judy.
‘Nor can I,’ says Clough. ‘Do you remember when we first met him? Bloody great tempest raging on the Saltmarsh. Thunder and lightning. Cathbad gets out of the car and says to the boss, “I’ll be your guide.” And then they disappear into the night. I honestly thought it would be the last time I saw either of them.’
‘Cathbad says Nelson saved him that night.’
‘Something happened,’ says Clough, ‘that’s for sure.’
‘Cathbad likes you,’ says Judy. ‘He says that you’re a positive life force.’
‘Cassie says that I’m a pain in the neck,’ says Clough. ‘Maybe that means the same thing.’
‘The boss misses you,’ says Judy. ‘Specially now he’s stuck with Tanya and Tony.’
‘Tony’s the new boy, isn’t he? I thought he seemed OK.’
‘He’s great. He’s just very enthusiastic. Tanya’s OK too. She’s sent me some very kind messages.’
‘The boss must be hating lockdown,’ says Clough, ‘especially if it stops him seeing Ruth.’
‘I think he is seeing her,’ says Judy. ‘Michelle’s in Blackpool. I think Nelson’s been staying with Ruth. Or he was until Laura came back home.’
‘He’s taking a risk,’ says Clough. ‘If Super Jo finds out.’
‘Jo hasn’t been into the station since this started. She keeps sending Nelson emails that he ignores. Tanya says that, with Leah off, Nelson doesn’t answer anything from head office.’
‘Leah’s off? Is she sick?’
‘I don’t know. I hope not. Sometimes I think that everyone’s going to get this thing eventually. I mean, if Cathbad can get ill, anyone can.’
‘They’ll find a vaccine,’ says Clough. ‘I was talking to someone at the university the other day. He says that Oxford are near to developing something. And that’s quite something for a Cambridge man to admit.’
‘It’ll be too late for Cathbad,’ says Judy.
‘He’ll pull through,’ says Clough. ‘And you know I’m always right.’
Once this remark would have induced actual physical rage in Judy. But, just for that second, her biggest regret about Covid is that it stops her from giving her ex-colleague a hug.
In the end Ruth takes Kate shopping with her but leaves her in the car when she goes into the supermarket.
‘Text me if you’re worried about anything,’ she says. ‘I won’t be long.’ Ruth looks at the line of socially distanced shoppers. ‘Not that long anyway.’
‘I’ll be OK,’ says Kate. She’s playing a game on her phone that seems to involve a bird flying over a series of low hills.
Should Ruth lock the car? But what if Kate is trapped in it? But, if she leaves Kate with the keys, someone could steal her and the car. In the end she does lock it but tells Kate how to open the doors if necessary.
‘I know, Mum,’ says Kate, not looking up from the bird’s aerial adventures.
Ruth queues, looking back at the car every few minutes. Kate’s head is bent over the game. Would she even notice if an axe murderer tapped on the window? But axe murderers are in short supply in King’s Lynn this morning. ‘How would you know?’ Nelson would say. Ruth looks at her hands on the handle of her shopping trolley. She’s wearing plastic gloves today, which makes them look rather sinister. Maybe other people in the queue have hands that have been put to evil, murderous use. She stares hard at the elderly woman in front of her (surely, she should be shielding at home?) until the force of her scrutiny makes the woman turn and give her a timid smile, recognisable even behind her mask. Stop it, Ruth tells herself.
Once she is finally granted admission, Ruth throws food into her trolley without much regard for price or quality. She does remember the gourmet cat food though and scores the last packet of penne.
In the payment queue Ruth looks at the newspaper stand. ‘Shambles,’ says one headline. ‘Get a grip Bozo,’ says another. Ruth’s beloved Guardian has, ‘Virus patients more likely to die have ventilators taken away.’ Ruth doesn’t buy a copy. Eventually she is through the checkout, once again marvelling at the assistant’s unruffled good humour, and zigzagging her trolley through the car park. Kate is still intent on her game. Ruth opens the boot and starts heaving the bags in.
‘Did you get Jaffa Cakes?’ asks Kate.
‘Of course.’ She’s not about to forget the essentials.
‘Dad rang,’ says Kate. ‘He said he was trying to get through to you. He said to be careful because there are lots of funny people in supermarket car parks.’
Ruth doesn’t ring Nelson until she is home with a cup of tea and a Jaffa Cake. She knows he can’t have news of Cathbad because she has just had a text from Judy saying, ‘no change’. She assumes that he’s just ringing to check up on her because she mentioned the perilous supermarket trip that morning.
But Nelson starts out with, ‘What do you know about the Grey Lady?’
‘The Grey Lady of Tombland?’
‘How many Grey Ladies are there? No, don’t answer that one. Bloody Norfolk is probably full of them.’
‘Probably.’ It’s on the tip of Ruth’s tongue to say, ‘Ask Cathbad’ but no one can ask Cathbad anything, possibly ever again. ‘She’s a ghost that haunts Augustine Steward’s House by the cathedral,’ she says. ‘Why?’
‘Eileen Gribbon left a note for her friend in halls. It was a postcard of the Grey Lady. I wondered if there was a link to Joe McMahon. Didn’t you say he was obsessed with her?’
‘I don’t know about obsessed but my friend Janet said he was asking questions about her. And she’d seen Joe hanging around Tombland. I told you that.’
‘I rang Janet Meadows,’ says Nelson. ‘She said she didn’t think there was any harm in McMahon. Not that I trust her opinion. She kept going on about living in a haunted house. Practically said she was kept awake by ghoulies and ghosties.’
‘Janet is perfectly rational,’ says Ruth. ‘Just because she believes in things you don’t.’
‘I might try ringing her again,’ says Nelson. ‘Just in case McMahon has turned up. Or the girl. Eileen. I don’t like the fact that she seems to be a fan of this Grey Lady too.’
‘Janet’s actually living in Steward’s House,’ says Ruth. ‘I can’t say I’d like that very much.’
‘Tombland,’ says Nelson. ‘The address is enough to put you off.’
Ruth doesn’t tell Nelson the origin of the place name. Why spoil his fun?
‘Joe was also very interested in the skeleton we excavated in Tombland,’ she says. ‘He insisted we call her Martha.’
‘Martha was his mother’s name,’ says Nelson. ‘It’s in the case notes.’
‘Eileen said that his mother committed suicide.’
‘Did she?’ says Nelson. ‘That’s interesting. No sign of your missing neighbour, I suppose?’
Ruth doesn’t like the way his mind is working.
‘No,’ she says. ‘I’m still feeding her cat.’
‘That’s not a cat,’ says Nelson. ‘It’s bigger than Bruno.’
Ruth doesn’t protest because she understands that Nelson is missing his dog.
‘Any news from Judy?’ she says, though she knows the answer.
‘No,’ says Nelson. ‘But I think Cloughie might have gone to see her. He said he was thinking about it. I know I should have told him not to, but I didn’t. I wouldn’t often say this, but I think Cloughie might be just what Judy needs.’
Ruth thinks so too. She imagines Clough’s tactless kindness blowing away some of the fear and embarrassment that surrounds serious illness. She sends out another message to the Gods of the Marshes. Just in case.
The day passes agonisingly slowly. Kate has almost completed the jigsaw, adding the lopsided roof of Steward’s House and the dark entrance to Tombland Alley. Ruth gives a lecture on Skeletal Age Determination and checks to see if Eileen or Joe have been in contact. Neither of them has. Fiona, Eileen’s tutor, is worried about her. ‘I rang her mother, but she said she hadn’t been in touch. She thought she might be staying with friends but couldn’t think who they were.’ Ruth doesn’t judge Eileen’s mother for this. She doubts if Jean could have named any of Ruth’s university friends. David, Joe’s tutor, is more abrasive. ‘He’s a troublemaker. I could tell that from day one. Always going on about plague victims.’ Ruth rings off before David can start lecturing her about the Norwich plague pits.
Ruth goes to feed Derek, who now greets her affectionately. There’s no sign of him running out of his special food. Had Zoe bought it in bulk specially? She said that she’d done a big shop just before lockdown started. But, surely, if she’d known she was going away, Zoe would have asked Ruth to feed her cat? But, Ruth reflects, shutting the stable door behind her, there were lots of things that Zoe didn’t say.
Back home, Ruth switches on the television for the news. With Boris Johnson still unwell, it’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s turn to give the daily briefing, himself just free from quarantine. Hancock has a curiously bland face, like a computer simulation. He leans forward on the lectern, which is adorned with a yellow and green flag saying, ‘Stay home, protect the NHS, save lives.’ ‘We have listened,’ says Hancock, ‘and put the interests of healthcare staff first . . . These are unprecedented times . . .’ The government now say ‘unprecedented’ so often that the word seems to have acquired the opposite meaning. The number of people with the virus who have died in the UK has risen by 569, taking the total number of deaths to 2,921. There is, seemingly, no way out of the Covid nightmare. No vaccine, no cure, just the soaring death rate. Ruth doesn’t object when Kate wants to change channels.
Ruth checks her phone. She hopes that there will be something from Judy saying that Cathbad has made a miraculous recovery. But there’s only a text message. From Janet Meadows.
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