Elliot followed the police officer up a flight of stairs. He noticed the man’s shoes were scuffed and worn, a far cry from the high shine he’d imagined were part of a regulation uniform. The officer swiped a keycard over a reader and unlocked a glass door that opened onto a large office. Elliot trailed the uniformed officer across the space, aware he was being watched by the men and women at their desks.
‘This is the serious crime unit,’ the officer explained.
Elliot nodded and waited while the man knocked on the door to an office. He could see Harriet Kealty through blinds that hung on the other side of a glass partition.
She nodded, then the officer came out and led Elliot into Harri’s office.
A window took up most of the exterior wall and offered a view of the rain-soaked city. Two chairs faced a desk, behind which sat Harriet Kealty, now Detective Chief Inspector Kealty, according to the plaque in front of her.
‘Thanks, Mason,’ Harri said, and the officer withdrew and closed the door. ‘Have a seat,’ she suggested. ‘It’s been a long time, Elliot.’
He took one of the chairs by her desk.
‘How have you been?’ she asked.
She hadn’t changed much. Ben used to talk about her and how beautiful she was, and time had done little to dim her looks. Elliot could understand the attraction and, despite their age difference, felt himself drawn to her. He remembered feeling nothing but hostility towards her because Ben had told him she would eventually split them up, but over the years he’d realized she was just trying to bring an evil man to justice and she’d put herself in harm’s way to do so. She was brave and selfless.
He cringed at the memory of the last time he’d seen Harriet Kealty outside the courtroom, the day Ben had been sentenced. He’d been horrible to her.
‘I’ve been well, thanks,’ he replied.
‘And Mrs Hughes?’ Harri asked.
He frowned. ‘She passed away a couple of years ago.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that.’
‘Thank you. She was a good woman, and very kind to me,’ Elliot remarked. ‘I miss her.’ And he did, but not like he missed his parents. Their loss was a festering wound that would never heal.
They sat quietly for a moment, listening to the muted sounds of the detectives beyond the partition.
‘Did you know Ben Elmys has been released?’ Elliot asked.
‘No,’ Harri replied. He sensed her sudden concern. ‘Has it been . . . it can’t . . . where has all the time gone?’
‘He sent me letters from prison every week. I never read them. Some went straight in the bin, others were gathered for a ceremonial burning,’ Elliot revealed. ‘He came to Oxford yesterday. Hand delivered one.’
He produced the envelope and gave it to her.
‘ “If you’d read my letters, you’d know it’s time. The past has caught up with you. Your future is fated,” ’ he recited as Harri read the letter. ‘I haven’t seen him for eleven years, but I know him and I know he’s planning something.’
‘I can have a word with Thames Valley Police, have them check on you,’ Harri suggested.
‘I’m not worried about me,’ Elliot said. ‘I’m worried about you. I look back on my childhood, and my memories of my parents are marred by Ben Elmys. He was always hanging around. He’s an obsessive. Those months I lived with him, he wouldn’t stop talking about you. He wrote poems for you. Said it helped him cope with things. He said you would betray him, but that he would forgive you. He said he’d complete you, heal you, and he dreamed you and he would spend eternity together. It was your destiny to leave this world, that’s what he’d say.’
Elliot saw his words had shaken Harri and he felt guilty for making her afraid, but she needed to know the truth if she was going to protect herself. ‘I found this in the cottage.’ He pulled the poem from his pocket and handed it over.
Harri read in silence until she got to the last couplet.
‘ “Hurry Harri, your time has come,” ’ she read. ‘When did you find this?’
‘Today,’ Elliot replied. ‘He left it somewhere only I would look.’
‘He’s served half his sentence and will have been released on probation. I’ll call his probation officer and find out where he’s living. I can send a couple of officers round to see what he’s up to. Let him know he’s being watched,’ Harri suggested.
She rearranged some papers on her desk while searching for her phone, and revealed an object Elliot recognized. He looked at it in disbelief.
‘Where did you get that?’ he asked, pointing to the galaxy of stars shimmering inside the sphere that was contained within the crystal cube.
‘It came in the post today.’
‘It’s from him,’ Elliot said.
‘What? No.’
‘I’m telling you it’s from him.’ Elliot picked it up and studied it reverently. The light inside the sphere ebbed and flowed as though it was alive.
‘I thought I dreamed it,’ he said.
‘Dreamed what?’
‘When you’ve lost faith, and all seems broken, the last beacon of hope will break the rock of despair,’ Elliot whispered, eyes still fixed on the sphere.
‘Why do I recognize that?’ Harri asked.
‘It was on the iPod he made me listen to as a kid. Said it was training, but it was just nonsense, the mad ramblings of a lunatic.’
‘What was he training you for?’ Harri asked. ‘What was the secret?’
Elliot wavered. What did it matter after all these years? Ben was never going to honour his part of the deal, so why should he keep the man’s confidence?
‘Come on,’ Harri said. ‘You almost told me that day at Longhaven.’
Elliot was about to answer, but something inside tugged the words out of his mouth. Desperation? Hope? Even after all he’d experienced, he couldn’t bring himself to betray their secret bond. It meant too much to him.
‘Is he your father?’ Harri asked. ‘Were he and your mother having an affair?’ She looked at the ball in the cube. ‘Is that how he poisoned her? Is that why he sent it to me? Is that Cobalt 60?’
‘I don’t think so,’ Elliot replied. ‘But I think it is the key to the secret.’
‘Which is?’
‘I can’t tell you. Not until I see where this thing leads.’
He started for the door.
Harri got to her feet. ‘You’re not leaving with that. It belongs to me.’
‘Fine. I think we’re meant to go together,’ Elliot replied. He couldn’t believe what he was holding, and kept looking at the ball as though it might suddenly disappear.
‘Meant to?’ Harri asked. ‘If you think I’m walking into a trap set by a crazy—’
Elliot cut her off. ‘Come with me. Come with me, and I promise I’ll tell you the secret before the day is out. Come with me and by sundown you’ll know why this man has such a hold over me.’