Phil Rickman - The Secrets of Pain

‘What’s he do with them?’

Cornel released the handbrake, let the Porsche creep along the lane like a hunting cat.

‘Well, that’s it,’ Jane said. ‘Nothing. He just breeds them and he’s like, Oh, I wish it was still going on. Like, Oh I’d give anything to put one of my birds in the ring again.’

‘So you told him, did you, where it came from?’

‘No. Like, I told him where I found it but not how it got there. And he had a good look at it, and he’s, like, yeah that’s been fighting.’

‘So what did you see before you took the sack?’

‘What was there to see?’ Could blow it all if he thought she’d listened to him getting humiliated by the Brummy-sounding guy. ‘I’m just coming up Church Street and I seen you toss the sack in the bin and walk off. I was, like, curious?’

‘Curious.’

‘When I seen it, I thought it was, like, one of his? My grandad?’

Inspired. She was cruising. Just don’t sound too glib.

‘So, like, that’s why I took it to him. Thinking maybe somebody shot one of his birds? But it wasn’t one of his. But when he seen it he got all excited. And, like, it’s his birthday next week, he’s, like, seventy-eight? And I was thinking if I could like arrange for him to go to a cockfight one last time?’

‘Oh, I see.’

‘It was probably stupid.’

‘That’s why you came to the Ox last night, is it? Because your grandad wants to go to one last cockfight before he dies? What did you do with the bird?’

‘Got rid of it. In the river.’

Cornel nodded. He let the Porsche pick up speed. The next time he spoke, it was kind of sadly.

‘Lies.’

‘Huh?’

‘They just come pouring out of you, don’t they, girlie?’

Merrily was ready to scream at Bliss until she saw the state he was in. Coming through the door from the stairs, his jacket trailed over a shoulder, out of breath, a harsh pallor on his face. He looked older and he looked barely in control, like a man feeling his life running away from him.

‘Frannie-’

‘No!’ Wiping his hands in the air, his voice sharp and shiny. ‘Where’s your car?’

He followed her out and they sat in the Volvo on the Bath Street car park. He had his iPhone in one hand. She hadn’t seen him since Christmas. His face was damp and his eyes looked far back. He shut them for a moment.

‘I was gonna come round and see yer.’

‘When was that?’

‘A few times.’

‘But you were busy.’ Merrily was trying to hold on to that sense of twisted relief she’d felt when Danny had told her that Lol had been arrested for damaging a wire fence. ‘Where is he?’

‘He’s in a cell, of course.’

‘Frannie, this is Lol…’

‘It’s not my case, Merrily, but if you can throw any light on the situation I’ll pass it on.’

Bliss turned to her, head on one side. She sank back into the patched seat. She’d called Sophie at home, asking if she could find an emergency stand-in for the Maundy Service. It had happened before, never exactly endearing her to Uncle Ted. Maybe it was her life that was spinning away.

‘I don’t know what it’s about. Lol tried to ring me but I was on the phone. Probably a situation where he was only allowed one call, so he rang Danny Thomas instead, you know the guy-?’

‘Merrily, I’ve got till this phone goes off, which could be four or five minutes. We’ve suspects being brought in for questioning about the Marinescu murders.’

‘You’re getting somewhere on that?’

‘Yes. Tell me about Lol.’

‘There were things he probably couldn’t say to Danny in the time he had, so I really don’t know what he was doing at Brinsop.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Bliss said, ‘I know me memory isn’t what it was, but did I mention Brinsop?’

‘Frannie, for God’s sake, you know him-’

‘All I know is there are two smashed CCTV cameras and a hole cut in a wire fence. Nothing stolen, so it could just be criminal damage or-’

‘That’s insane!’

‘No, hang on… my guess is, unless they’ve found a big pair of wire-cutters in his truck, with Lol’s prints all over them, he’ll get police bail and he’ll be out within an hour. And if the owner of the property doesn’t wanna take it any further it’ll disappear.’

‘Who’s in charge?’

‘Be Annie Howe.’

‘Oh.’

‘And I think the owner’s coming in himself later. We’ll have to see if he wants to press charges.’

‘Colin Jones?’

Bliss looked up. Merrily watched curiosity pushing through the weariness like a baby bird’s head in an old nest. Then the phone in his hand began to bleep, and he shouldered the car door open.

‘Merrily, this conversation may not be over.’

When Bliss was back in the station, Merrily stood on her own at the edge of the police forecourt, across the road from the red-brick magistrates’ court. How many other women had waited here for their boyfriends to be bailed? How many vicars?

She started to laugh. It sounded discordant, a bit manic. She left a message on Danny’s phone, saying the situation now seemed less fraught. Lol would probably be bailed. Dear God. When the mobile chimed and she brought it to her ear, she found that her cheek was wet.

‘Danny?’

‘Neil Cooper, Mrs Watkins. County Archaeologist’s Department? Jane said you might want to talk to me about Magnis. Do I have that right?’

‘Magnis, yeah. Sorry, Neil, you’ve caught me on the-’

Merrily sat down on the car-park wall.

‘Military base, on the Welsh border road from Caerleon,’ Neil said. ‘Built in the late first century, in the time of Claudius, when the occupying army was having trouble with rebellious Celts. Anything specific you’re looking for?’

‘Well… religion, I suppose. A warrior’s religion? Nothing meek and mild. Something that might put the Celts, if they’d adopted it, in a state of mind to beat the Roman army on its own terms.’

‘You’re talking about Caradog here?’

‘Probably.’

A door under the police awning had opened and Lol was coming out quite slowly, the way a discharged patient walked out of hospital.

‘You see, if you’re talking about this area,’ Neil said, ‘most of the soldiers defending Roman Britain were probably not Romans at all, just a ragbag of recruits from all over Europe. They’d been absorbed into this great disciplined military structure and taught the basics. So Caradog’s success isn’t that extraordinary. He wouldn’t exactly have been taking on the cream of Rome. Where did this religion idea come from?’

‘A novel, actually. So it didn’t exist.’

Merrily stood up, and Lol saw her, the sun finding the first strands of silver in his hair. He stood facing her, as if slightly bewildered by the fresh air and the traffic. It felt as though the whole city was watching them, as she walked across, the phone at her ear.

‘Well, of course it existed,’ Neil Cooper said. ‘It’s a Roman religion favoured by the military elite. It’s Mithraism.’

‘Neil… can I call you back? I have to… go.’

The edges of the bandage were pink. Lol pulled his sweatshirt sleeve back over it.

‘Five stitches. The cops took me straight to the hospital.’

Merrily had pulled off the road a few miles out of the city, where the suburbs leaked into the countryside. She let go of Lol’s hand, relief and compassion turning to an irritation she didn’t want to feel.

‘I still don’t see why you did it… what you expected to find.’

‘I know. It was stupid. I can see that now. It just seemed like I was being pointed at something. If I went there something significant would jump out.’