Adrian Magson - No Help For The Dying

‘Absolutely. You see, Katie found another path. It upset John dreadfully, of course, but he couldn’t do anything about it.’

‘Another path?’

‘Yes. For the last year we knew her, Katie rejected Christianity completely. She became a devout Buddhist.’

‘But that doesn’t make sense. I mean… ‘ Riley clamped her lips shut. Whatever Susan Pyle believed her daughter had been part of, now was not the time to shake those beliefs. ‘How devout was she?’

‘Very. She had posters in her room and a small prayer wheel, and she used to meditate a great deal. It was no passing fad — I could tell. Some girls her age go through that kind of thing, but not Katie. She was very serious about it. There was the incense, which stank the house out all the time. John hated it, but he could never have forbidden her to use it. Anyway,’ she smiled faintly with the memory, ‘I quite liked the smell — it certainly made a difference to John’s awful pipe tobacco.’

‘I remember it now,’ said Riley, casting her mind back. It confirmed what the new owner of the Pyle’s house had said. But she didn’t recall the posters and prayer wheel. Maybe by then they had already been removed.

Susan Pyle seemed to read her mind. ‘We moved them after she… she left. A friend said if the police thought she had joined one of those religious sects or got involved with some outlandish group, they wouldn’t want to get involved. I said they weren’t a sect — it was nothing like that. Well, Buddhism is an established religion, isn’t it? Katie seemed to be so gentle whenever she talked about it… as if she were a different person. In the end, though, it seemed better to simply put the stuff away. But we never disposed of it completely.’

Riley wondered if a belief in Buddhism would have contributed to Katie’s leaving home. Certainly nothing she had heard about it suggested anyone would have persuaded her to go. On the other hand, maybe having to tell her new Buddhist friends that she was pregnant had been an obstacle too far. It might be worth talking to those friends. She decided to broach the subject of Susan’s recent visitor. ‘Mrs Francis said a man came to see you a few weeks ago. What did he want?’

A shudder went through Susan and she shook her head. When she spoke, her voice was as flat as iron. ‘I don’t want to talk about him. It was nothing. Just some nonsense.’

Riley said nothing, but waited, watching the older woman intently. Something in her manner told Riley she would talk, given time.

The tactic worked. Susan glanced across at Riley, and decided that keeping secrets was no longer an option.

‘He wanted to know if we’d heard from her,’ she said finally, her voice paper dry. ‘I couldn’t believe he was asking me such a thing. Not after all these years. I mean… we assumed she was dead. Of course this was before the police called the other day… and told me what they had found.’

‘So this man knew Katie was still alive.’ Riley wondered how anyone could be so callous. The effect on the old lady must have been unbearable. But why was he looking for her now? Did it mean Katie knew something that somehow made her a threat?

‘He wouldn’t say any more. He just kept demanding to know where she was… as if I was hiding her. When I asked him who he was and how he knew about Katie and where I lived, all he would say was that they knew everything about me.’

‘Did he say who ‘they’ were?’

‘No. When I told him that I hadn’t heard from Katie since she first left, and that she was probably dead, he seemed surprised, as if the idea hadn’t occurred to him. I thought that was the end of it. But then he became very unpleasant — almost desperate. He started shouting and making threats, saying he had to find her, and if she spoke to anyone, she’d regret it. We all would.’ She looked up with sad, moist eyes, her expression one of hopelessness. Her breathing had become faster, causing her thin chest to rise and fall unevenly. She swallowed and continued sadly. ‘I had no idea what he meant. All I could think of was that my Katie was alive.’

Riley touched the old lady’s arm. ‘What happened then?’

‘He said he knew why Katie had run away and how it was all going to come out. I told him to leave. I was very frightened by then and suddenly he was churning everything around. You have to understand, I had managed to shut out most of the past… about what could have made Katie leave… and what might have happened to her. Or I thought I had.’ She swallowed and wiped a tear from her cheek. ‘I still can’t truly understand, even now. Then he said he would make sure everybody knew and it would cause such a scandal.’ She stared up at Riley, her look suddenly vulnerable, like a small child. ‘Can he do that, Miss Gavin?’

‘No,’ Riley said firmly. ‘No, he can’t.’ She took the mystery man’s threats to be a last desperate effort to frighten an old lady. Who was there to harm? John Pyle was dead, and Susan was undoubtedly beyond being affected by long-forgotten secrets. There was no leverage in a purported scandal if the main participants or victims were no longer around to suffer. And who would be shocked these days by a teenager running away?

Susan seemed to relax momentarily. ‘Poor Katie. So young… but already in love. I suppose it wasn’t really her fault… ‘ Her voice trailed off, and for a second Riley thought she had misheard.

‘What did you say?’

The older woman opened her eyes again. She looked very tired now, the added strain of talking for so long showing in her face. ‘I’m sorry?’

‘You said Katie was in love? Who with?’

‘That won’t help now. He died. It was such a shame. She was very fond of him.’

‘I’d still like to know. It could be important.’

‘But why, dear?’

‘Because I want to find out where Katie was all this time. And what happened to her. I think we owe her that.’

Susan Pyle nodded at last, and told Riley the boy’s name.

Riley left an hour later. After they had finished talking, Susan showed signs of weakening and Mrs Francis suggested it might be time for Riley to go. She rang for a doctor, then walked with Riley to her car.

Riley shivered in the early spring sunlight and wondered if the Buddhists were right; that there was only impermanence.

Palmer swore softly as he faced yet another featureless south London street, and debated going back for a talk with the youth in the alleyway. He had tried three different streets now, each vaguely matching the one described by the youth, but none yielding anything concrete in the form of the mysterious Maureen. He decided to check this last one and call it a day. The kid would most likely have legged it by now, anyway.

No more than two or three cars had passed by as he’d been walking down the street, and he could easily have been in some remote rural backwater instead of close to the centre of London. A child squealed nearby, and a woman emerged from a side gate and eyed him with care before walking to a car by the kerb and slipping inside. She quickly closed the door behind her and snicked the lock.

He found a footpath bordering a small industrial unit, just like the youth had described. So maybe he’d been telling the truth. This, apparently, was one of Maureen’s regular haunts. He stopped and scanned the area carefully. On one side of the path was a high brick wall. On the other, a chain-link fence separated the path from the factory, thick with wind-blown rubbish and crumpled drink cans. Grass grew thick and spiky along the base, adding to the sense of wilderness. Just the place for a set-up if that was what the youth had planned.