Phil Rickman - The Cure of Souls

Eirion said, ‘Where is Amy?’

Layla turned to appraise him. ‘Boyfriend?’ She walked right up to Eirion, gazed arrogantly into his eyes from about three inches away, her breasts almost touching his chest. Eirion blinked. Jane tensed.

‘Hey, this boy’s had nooky tonight!’ Layla spun away from him. ‘Was that with you, Jane?’

Jane said nothing.

‘Where’s Amy?’ Eirion said stolidly.

‘You want to keep this boy, Jane? You’d like to stay together? I can actually fix that, if you like. I can show you kitan-epen . I fixed it for Eagles and Sigourney, did you know?’

‘Ms Riddock,’ Eirion said, ‘is Amy Shelbone with you?’

‘She’s probably in there.’

‘In the barn?’

‘She’s got a key. She’s very trustworthy. She’s got a key to the main gate and a key to the Barnchurch itself. She comes on the bus. Isn’t that sweet?’

Jane stared. ‘She’s been here ? All the time?’

‘Just for a couple of nights, approaching the full moon. Making things ready for Justine. You remember Justine, Jane?’

‘Her… mother. Murdered.’

‘Oh, you know all that. Who’ve you been talking to? Kirsty?’

Jane said nothing.

‘There was a full moon the night Amy’s daddy slaughtered Amy’s mummy, did you know that? The moon’s great for that stuff. It moves the tides, and we’re nearly all water – but you’d know all that.’

‘Sure.’

‘You want to go in and see? Talk to little Amy?’

Jane looked back at the wire-mesh fence and the BMW. Actually, she didn’t. She wanted to go home.

‘After you,’ Eirion said to Layla.

‘Tell me something.’ Layla put the flat of a hand on Eirion’s chest and spread her big, fleshy fingers. ‘Do you get asthma at all?’

She didn’t wait for an answer, let her hand fall and walked away towards the brick steps, big hips swaying, the sliver of gold breaking up and reforming as she tossed back her hair.

Eirion swallowed. Jane looked at him questioningly.

‘Haven’t had an attack in years,’ Eirion said uncomfortably ‘Jane…’

‘What?’

‘I don’t think it would be a good thing to annoy her, do you?’

They didn’t make it to the house, only as far as the vardo in its little clearing, to one side of the drive.

Allan Henry noticed Merrily looking at it.

‘She’s not in there, vicar. Believe me.’

‘Can I see, anyway? Would you mind?’

‘The holy of holies?’

‘Please.’ What she needed was to get him talking about Layla. Now, while he was hyped-up, aggressive, his back to the wall. Outside the gates, he’d picked up what looked like the plastic cover of a car’s tail lamp and thrown it far into the bushes, without comment.

Allan Henry tutted. ‘Can’t believe how amenable I’m being to everyone tonight.’ There were two wooden steps up to the vardo . The door was locked, but he had a key. ‘She doesn’t know I had this cut. Thing is, I don’t like there to be places I can’t go. ’Specially not on my own property.’

He went in first. There was electricity: a flicked switch turned on a couple of erstwhile Victorian brass oil-lamps, one on a dresser, one on a wall bracket.

‘Gosh,’ Merrily said. ‘It’s a complete little world.’

It was beautifully kept but not like a museum. Although everything – from the decorated and lacquered panels on the dresser to the vaulted ribs in the bowed ceiling – was polished or at least shiny, there was a used feel about the place: a pan on the cast-iron stove, a mortar and pestle on the dresser with powder scattered around it, a silk scarf spread on a small camping table, with a pack of Marseilles tarot cards at its centre.

And books: over a hundred on shelves, floor to ceiling, either side of a red-and-black-curtained window. Merrily checked out a few of the titles: a couple of dozen on gypsy lore but mainly general occultism. One was laid horizontally on top of a row: A Manual of Sexual Magic .

‘How old is she?’

‘Coming up to eighteen,’ Allan Henry said. ‘That means she’s been a grown woman for five, six years.’

‘Erm – in what context are we talking here?’

‘Gypsy girls mature earlier. By Layla’s age, most of them are married, with two kids. By my age, there’d be a bunch of grandchildren. Like you say, a different world.’

‘Which sounds like as good an excuse as any.’ Merrily looked at Lol, who was still standing out on the steps. Lol’s eyes narrowed.

‘However, this is not really any of your business.’ Allan Henry picked up the tarot pack and then dropped it quickly, as if it was hot. ‘No blood relationship between me and Layla. Don’t even have the same surname. I’ve never been a father to her. She never wanted a father. But, like I say, not your business, Reverend.’

‘No, it’s between you and Layla and… Mrs Henry.’

‘Mrs Henry’s well taken care of.’

‘I bet.’

He grinned. She saw he was still wearing the wheel medallion, representing wealth.

‘Where’s Layla now?’

‘I wouldn’t know. She’s a free spirit.’

‘Just I had a feeling you always liked to know where everything was. Where you could put your finger on it.’

Allan Henry turned and glanced at Lol. ‘Before we go any further – some things I don’t talk about in front of a third party. Legal safeguard.’ The lines either side of his nose were parallel, like a ladder without rungs.

Lol looked at Merrily. ‘Go for a walk, shall I?’ Merrily nodded.

‘Don’t go anywhere you shouldn’t, my friend,’ Henry said over his shoulder. ‘The boy in the bungalow’s nervy tonight.’

There was a Victorian sofa opposite the cast-iron stove. Merrily sat at one end of it, with her hands on her lap. Henry was at the other, an arm flung over the backrest.

‘Costly, this little vehicle?’ she said.

‘You wouldn’t believe.’

‘Beats a Wendy house. But she’s worth it, is she? Layla?’

‘You’re not wired, I suppose?’

‘I’m certainly not going to invite you to check.’

‘Sometimes she’s solid gold,’ he said. ‘Sometimes she’s plutonium. We had a big bust-up after you left. She drove out of here during—when my back was turned, but I don’t want to talk about that.’

‘She gives you Romany talismans to wear, and decorates your house accordingly.’

‘Where’s the harm?’

‘Does it have any effect?’

‘On a personal level.’ He smiled. ‘You bet.’

Merrily glanced up the bookshelf. A Manual of Sexual Magic .

‘How long have you and she been…?’

‘Longer than I’m ever going to admit to the likes of you, my dear. Like I say, they mature early, and not only physically. I have no guilt about this. She made the running, in the early stages. She knew what she was doing. And I’m a businessman, not a teacher, not a politician. I’m not obliged to set an example to anyone.’

‘But she’s still at school.’

‘And will be until she gets her four A levels. It’s a changing world, Reverend. That’s all right by me. You only have one life, live it on the outside track.’ He jabbed a finger at the window. ‘He famous, that guy?’

‘Not especially.’

‘Too old to make it now. Nobody in that business sees first-time action the wrong side of thirty. What would you want with a loser?’

‘He’s not a loser. He just doesn’t make much money. Maybe you’re the loser.’

‘How do you figure that?’

‘Just my warped Christian way of looking at things.’

He shook his head irritably. ‘What do you want, anyway? Not to help the Shelbones. Nobody wants to help the Shelbones.’