They went into gardens that lay between a cluster of four contemporary buildings in the north-west corner of the science park. The landscaping reminded Harri of a doodle she might have absently drawn as a bored teenager. Gravel swirled in endless loops, and winding stone paths cut through beautifully manicured asymmetric lawns. A dozen benches were scattered around the space, most beneath well-trimmed trees. Only a couple were occupied, one by a man on his phone and the other by a young woman who was reading a book.
‘You want to know about Beth and David?’ Dr Abiola asked. Her tone was smooth, her accent sufficiently upper-class that Harri found herself making a conscious effort to soften her harder London edges. ‘What would you like to know in particular?’
They walked the widest path, which encircled the whole garden.
‘They both worked for you?’ Harri asked.
‘Yes. Beth was one of my first PhD students. A long time ago, when I was young and fresh,’ Dr Abiola replied.
Harri studied her closely. She could have passed for mid-thirties, but delicate wrinkles around her eyes and mouth hinted she was much older.
‘Beth was brilliant at particle dynamics. She helped build that holographic simulator you saw in there. David joined us from Cambridge eleven years ago. He was a brilliant physicist. I can’t believe what happened to them both. It’s so sad.’
‘They met here?’
‘Yes, and fell in love. They married ten years ago.’
‘What about Ben Elmys?’
Harri noticed Dr Abiola’s eyes narrow slightly.
‘Ah, Ben. A brilliant man, but not quite of this world.’
‘How so?’
‘Have you ever read The Lord of the Rings, Ms Kealty?’
‘I saw the films,’ Harri confessed.
‘Ben is like one of the Rivendell folk, the Eledhrim – the elves. A projection into this world from somewhere else. Part of this reality, but disconnected by a mind that sees beyond it.’
‘I’m not a huge fan of magic,’ Harri said. She thought she was a good judge of character, and that certainly hadn’t been her impression of him after two and a half dates, but their more recent encounter suggested he might have a looser connection to reality than she’d previously thought.
‘Neither am I. I’m a scientist, but it’s the best way I can describe him. Brilliant, but he’s different. I’m sorry he’s no longer here.’
‘He left?’
‘Shortly after David died. He said he needed to devote himself to Elliot,’ Dr Abiola replied.
‘When did Mr Elmys start here?’ Harri asked.
‘Six months after David.’
‘What was their relationship like?’
‘It’s funny – for a while I thought Ben and Beth might have had a thing,’ Dr Abiola said.
‘Why?’
‘He was always hanging around her. Even when she and David got together. And . . .’
Harri waited expectantly. The more Dr Abiola spoke, the more she made Ben Elmys sound like a weirdo. It certainly fit with what Harri had experienced when she met Ben at Longhaven, but it was so different from the man who’d inspired dreams of love a year ago. She knew she still had feelings for him because she was instantly jealous of the thought of him with Elizabeth Asha. She chided herself inwardly for feeling envious of the poor woman.
‘And what?’ Harri pressed.
‘I don’t want to disrespect their memories,’ Dr Abiola said at last.
‘The truth is never disrespectful.’
‘But rumour and scandal are,’ Dr Abiola replied thoughtfully. ‘I recognize you from the newspaper, you know.’
Harri flushed, suddenly acutely aware of her disgrace.
‘It’s OK,’ Dr Abiola said. ‘For what it’s worth, I thought you were innocent.’
‘I was, but others didn’t feel the same way as you, so I work privately now,’ Harri replied, breathing a little easier.
‘Who for? Is it Mrs Hughes, their housekeeper?’
Harri recalled the name from the article about the vigil.
‘She loves Elliot. If anyone is checking on him, it has to be her.’
Harri ignored the question. ‘Why are you changing the subject? What were you about to tell me, Dr Abiola?’
The graceful woman came to a halt and took a deep breath.
‘People often used to comment on Elliot’s resemblance to Ben, and, well . . .’
It took a moment for Harri to understand what the academic was getting at.
‘You think Ben Elmys is Elliot Asha’s father?’ Harri had registered some resemblance, and had even flirted with the same conclusion. ‘You think David Asha would have been friends with his wife’s lover?’
Harri’s mind came alive. A love triangle. The oldest motive for murder. But who killed who? And exactly who was this man? Maybe it was a good thing he’d broken up with her.
‘As I said,’ Dr Abiola continued, ‘rumour and scandal. I think Ben is a lost soul. Personally, I don’t believe he’s interested in love. Not as we might understand it. I think he lives for something else. Excellence. Achievement. I really don’t know what, and even if I did, I probably wouldn’t understand it. I think Beth and David took pity on him. He was a stray, and they gave him a home.’
Like most gossips, Dr Abiola was backtracking now that she’d planted the seed in Harri’s mind. She was talking about his honourable motives and decency, but if she truly believed that, why share the scandal? Why colour the air with tawdry suspicion? Harri went off the confident academic, but knew better than to give any sign of her feelings. This woman was a useful source.
‘What kind of work do you do here?’ Harri asked.
‘We study the tiny particles that make up the universe. A mix of theoretical modelling and practical work in the lab.’
Harri felt the germ of an idea form. She wondered what kinds of materials David Asha and Ben Elmys might have had access to.
‘I have to ask you a difficult question, Dr Abiola. The cancer that killed Beth Asha –’ Harri paused for a moment as she thought about how best to phrase such a delicate idea – ‘do you use any dangerous substances in your work? Is it possible Beth’s death could have been caused by exposure to a toxin?’
The question chilled the air between the two women, and Dr Abiola’s demeanour changed instantly. She looked at Harri with ice in her eyes.
‘We have strict safeguards here,’ she replied. ‘We would never allow our employees to be exposed to—’
‘I didn’t mean—’
‘Who are you really working for, Ms Kealty?’ Dr Abiola asked, stepping back. ‘I don’t think I can talk to you any more. Not without a lawyer present.’
She turned and walked away briskly.
Harri called after her, but the academic didn’t respond, and went inside the nearest building.
Another fail, Harri thought, before she headed for the car park.
She replayed their conversation and tried to understand why Dr Abiola would have reacted so strongly to the suggestion Beth Asha might have been exposed to a toxin. Was she worried about the university’s reputation? Or was she covering up something?
When she reached her car, Harri saw something fluttering on the windscreen. She grabbed it and was going to toss it away without reading it, but none of the other cars had flyers and the moment she touched the scrap of paper she felt as though she was being watched. She glanced round and saw Ben Elmys standing in the trees at the edge of the car park.
‘Hey!’ she yelled. ‘What are you doing?’
He froze for a moment, but found his legs when she started running towards him. By the time she reached the treeline, he was gone, swallowed by the thick woodland that surrounded the campus. Harri checked some of the paths through the trees, but there was no sign of him.
As she headed back to her car, she realized she was still holding the flyer. She smoothed out the scrunched-up piece of paper and read the typescript.
An edge
Shaving moments
To curl and wither
Doomed to decay
In flawed minds
What is
What was
And what will be
All lost
The misremembered lyrics
Of a once cherished song
Harri glanced back at the woods, conflicted. The poetry was beautiful, and it reminded her of their first date when he’d quoted Maya Angelou and they’d shared their love of the form, but the circumstances of this piece made it unsettling. Had he always been otherworldly? That was the polite way Dr Abiola had put it, but she hadn’t been spurned by him. Harri wondered whether she’d been blinded by the love hormones Isabella Tosetti’s book had talked about. Or had something happened to Ben to change him?
‘Just talk to me!’ she shouted at the trees. ‘Don’t leave me notes.’
There was no reply. Simply leaves fluttering in the wind.
Harri shivered as she got into her car.
This wasn’t the first time he’d messed with her mind.