Simon Beckett - The Restless Dead

With a sigh, I picked up the coffee mugs and took them to the sink. As the water splashed on to the metal bowl I thought I heard something outside. I turned off the tap to listen. There was only the blustering wind. Then, as I reached for the tap, there was another noise, this one unmistakable. A short scream, quickly cut off.

It was Rachel.

I ran and tore open the door. Rain beat against me, plastering my shirt to my skin as I rushed outside. In the spill of light that came from the doorway I could make out the pale shape of the white Land Rover. The driver’s door was open, but no lights were on.

‘Rachel?’ I called, straining to see into the darkness.

‘I’m here, it’s—’

There was a scuffle and a gasp from the direction of the road. My eyes had started to adjust, and as I ran towards the sound I could make out two figures struggling in the shadows. Before I reached them the larger of the two broke away. I made a grab for it as it lurched past, but my fingers closed on oily, wet cloth. I caught a glimpse of wild eyes in a cadaverous face and then the figure pulled free. I slipped and went down on one knee on the mud as slapping footsteps disappeared into the rain.

‘David?’

I climbed to my feet as Rachel hurried over. ‘I’m here. Are you hurt?’

‘No, I’m... I’m fine, just...’ Her voice was unsteady. ‘That was Edgar.’

‘I know,’ I said, wiping mud off my hands. I’d recognized the gangling man even in the dark, and been close enough to smell his rank, animal odour. So much for him being harmless . ‘What happened?’

‘He just appeared when I was getting into the car. I yelled, so perhaps that startled him, because he grabbed hold of me and started gabbling nonsense. I tried to pull away, and that was when you came out.’

She sounded almost normal now. ‘You sure you’re OK?’ I asked.

‘Yeah, I’m fine, just a bit shaken. I don’t think he was trying to hurt me. He seemed more scared than anything.’

He wasn’t the only one, I thought, as my heart-rate began to slow. There was no sign of Edgar, but it was so dark he could have been standing ten feet away and I wouldn’t have known it. The rain drowned out any sound he might have made.

‘I’ve never seen him like that before. Do you think he’s all right?’ Rachel asked.

Edgar’s well-being hadn’t been my main concern until then, but she had a point. Whether he’d meant to hurt her or not, he wasn’t fit to be wandering around on a night like this. There had been enough tragedy already. I stared off into the darkness where he’d disappeared.

‘Have you any idea where he was heading?’

‘No, but it’s the wrong way for his house. And it’s high tide, so if he blunders off into the marshes it could be really bad.’

That settled it. It was hard enough trying to negotiate the Backwaters in daylight, and with the tide out. At night, with the creeks and ditches swollen and full, it didn’t bear thinking about. I sighed. ‘OK, I’ll go and look for him.’

‘I’ll come with you.’

‘There’s no need, I’ll find him.’

‘And then what? Drive into the creek again? You don’t know your way around here.’ She gave my chest a little push, but she was smiling. ‘You’re soaking. Go and get your coat while I start the car.’

I didn’t argue. Hurrying back into the boathouse, I took off my wet shirt and pulled on a sweater, then grabbed my jacket and went back outside. Rachel was already backing up the Land Rover, the beam of its headlights turning the rain into fine silver wire.

‘Does he often wander around at night?’ I asked as we pulled away.

Rachel slowed as she came to a bend, only accelerating when she saw there was no one in the road ahead. ‘Not as far as I know. I’ve come across him once or twice at dusk, but not this late. I don’t think even Edgar would go into the Backwaters in the dark.’

Yet here he was. And now an idea had started to form, something that should have occurred to me before if I hadn’t been so distracted by everything else that had been going on.

‘People around here know about Edgar, don’t they?’ I asked. ‘That he wanders around on the roads?’

‘Everyone around here knows everything about everybody,’ she said drily. ‘Edgar’s practically part of the scenery, nobody really notices him any more. But people generally know to watch out for him if they come over here. Unless they’re strangers like you, or...’

She trailed off as she made the connection. It had taken me long enough, and it was only a few days since I’d had to swerve to avoid knocking down Edgar myself.

If I’d been going faster I might not have been so lucky.

Rachel eased off the accelerator. ‘God, you don’t think that’s what happened to Stacey, do you? That she nearly hit Edgar?’

‘I don’t know,’ I admitted.

But now it had occurred to me the idea was hard to shake. Lundy had said tyre marks showed the car had swerved on a bend, so the assumption was that Coker’s daughter been going too fast and lost control. Which was entirely possible. Or she could have taken the bend and suddenly found Edgar in front of her. At the speed she had been going when I’d seen her, there would have been no time to think, only react. The instinct to swerve would be automatic.

‘You said he was gabbling something. Could you tell what it was?’

‘Not really. It sounded like something about lights on the water. Or in the water. I couldn’t make much sense of it.’

I knew Edgar’s words might not mean anything. They were probably just the ramblings of a disturbed mind, and it would be a mistake to read too much into them. Except that something else had occurred to me by now. I thought back to the previous evening, when the little white car had buffeted me with its slipstream as it tore past. As it disappeared into the dusk, I’d seen a yellow glow lighting up the overhanging hawthorn tunnel ahead of it.

The car’s headlights had been on.

There was no more time to worry about that now, though. Up ahead of us, Edgar’s shambling figure was caught in the Land Rover’s full beam.

He was in the middle of the road, scurrying along with his head down. He must have noticed the headlights but his only concession was to hunch his head deeper into his shoulders. The Land Rover grumbled as Rachel slowed, winding down her window as she eased up behind him.

‘Edgar? Edgar, can you stop, please?’ There was no response; if anything he seemed to hurry his pace. Rachel breathed out. ‘Bloody hell. Now what?’

‘Let me out.’

She stopped but left the engine running. I got out of the car, blinking in the cold wind and rain as I hurried after the retreating figure picked out in the headlights.

‘Hello, Edgar.’ I kept my tone easy and conversational as I caught up with him. ‘Are you OK?’

Nothing. He kept his eyes averted as he carried on walking, his breath steaming in the headlights’ cold glare. The lank hair was plastered over his skull and water streamed down his face. Despite the rain, his long coat was unbuttoned, the greasy oilskin flapping like a loose sail in the wind.

I moved in front of him until I was walking backwards. Now I was facing into the headlights as Rachel crawled along behind us in the Land Rover. Squinting against the glare, I spread out my hands in a gesture I hoped was calming as I blocked his path.

‘It’s late to be out. Where are you going?’

The frightened eyes flicked to me then darted away again. He’d slowed but tried to move around me. I backed up, trying to keep the same distance between us without seeming threatening.

‘Rachel’s in the car,’ I said. ‘You remember talking to her earlier? She’d like to talk to you some more. About the lights you saw.’