Phil Rickman - Crybbe

'Oh, I've got most of it,' Hughes said quickly. 'And I think I grasp the social pressures which caused it.'

Col had forgotten that Hughes was one of the 'new' policemen with a degree in something appropriate.

'You look at the background,' Hughes said. 'The kid's stifled by it. Rural decline, brought up in this crumbling farm. And let's face it, this town's a good half-century behind everywhere else.'

'At least,' said Col.

'So young Preece listens to rock music and he dreams.. . without much hope. And then along comes Salvation with a capital S, in the shape of our late friend Mr Goff. He sends Goff a tape of his band, and Goff, no doubt conscious of the politics of the situation responds favourably.'

'How do you know this?'

'Letter from Epidemic in Warren's pocket. Charred, but readable. We can only assume he made another approach to Goff and Goff told him to clear off. I'm telling you all this, Colonel, in the hope you can throw a bit of light…'

'All new to me, Chief Inspector.'

'So we're assuming this is what pushed Warren over the edge. Given all the other pressures – losing his only brother and then his father's tractor accident. The boy seems to be of limited intellect – must have thought the whole world was against him.'

'Psychiatrists will have a field day,' said Col. 'Where is he now?'

'Hospital, I'd like to think he was going to be fit to plead one day, but I wouldn't put money on it. He took most of Wiley's nose off with that Stanley knife before we disarmed him.'

'Lovable little chap. I'm furious with myself. I was just yards away when he killed Goff.'

'Who would have expected it?'

'I was trained to expect the unexpected, for God's sake. Do you know how many he's killed? I make it four – Goff, the vicar, poor old Hereward Newsome… and of course that chap, Trow.'

'Tie things up nicely if he put his hand up to the Rachel Wade business, too – her signature was on the letter suggesting Warren's music wasn't half bad. But what I was going to ask you, Colonel… the Trow killing's somewhat different in style. I can't go into details, but Warren seems to have finished him off by bludgeoning him with this other skull. We thought we had another murder when he came out of the old house with that thing, but it's obviously of some age. So where did it come from? Have any graves been disturbed locally?'

Col thought this over. 'Well, he was obviously in the church and there are a couple of tombs in there. Might be worth sifting through the ruins.'

'Oh, we'll do that, all right. Obviously, it's not a major issue, but it's something we have to clear up.'

'Well, I have to congratulate you. Chief Inspector. You seem to be putting it all together very nicely.'

Hughes nodded. 'Open and shut, really,' he said.

Fay said, 'I could be making a fortune at this very moment. There'll be a hundred reporters here before breakfast, like a flock of pigeons scrabbling for crumbs. Even poor bloody Ashpole seems to have missed it all.'

'And what are they all going to say?'

'Hard to say precisely how they'll work it, but I can guarantee that, by tonight, Warren Preece will be very famous.'

'And Michael Wort?'

'Who's Michael Wort?' said Fay.

More to the point, Joe Powys thought, where is Michael Wort? Back – hopefully – in his own carefully constructed limbo. He was still unsure what had happened over the Bottle Stone – whether it had been installed at the riverside cottage and then replaced with another stone, or whether the power of suggestion had made him see the Bottle Stone in the tense, burgeoning atmosphere before Rachel's death. In that case, where was the original Bottle Stone now?

Powys looked over his shoulder, half-expecting to see the thing sprouting from the earth behind him.

Fay said, 'I have to say it didn't occur to me for quite a while that what she… what Jean was doing at the stone was trying to generate – in me – enough negative energy for him – Andy, Wort, whatever – to make some kind of final leap. To save himself.. . itself.'

'It occurred to me,' Powys said.

'Well, it would, wouldn't it. You're a clever person. And you know what we thinks about clever people yereabouts.'

Arnold limped towards them and fell over. He stood again and shook himself, exasperated.

Fay Morrison and Joe Powys looked at each other. Eyebrows were raised.

Neither of them had said a word about Arnold's remarkable turns of speed at critical moments. One day, Fay thought, she'd dare to mention that strange, glowing, phantom fourth leg. But not yet.

'He's a dowser's dog,' Joe said laconically.

As she bent down to pick up the dog, a disturbing thought struck her. 'What about the girl… Tessa?'

'She should really be taken away,' Joe said, 'and put through some kind of psychic readjustment programme. Except they probably don't exist, so she'll go on causing minor havoc, until she grows up and turns into something even nastier. Like Jean.'

'Is there nothing anyone can do?'

'World's full of them,' Powys said. 'Crybbe'll always attract them, and sometimes it'll manufacture its own.'

'We can't just leave it.'

'We bloody can.'

'Yes,' Fay said. 'I suppose we can.'

And she turned her back on the town, albeit with an uncomfortable feeling that one day they might feel they had to come back.

They got into the car. They were going to Titley, to Henry Kettle's cottage, which Joe had said was the best sanctuary he could think of. For a few weeks at least, he said, there'd be danger of residual nasties from Crybbe clinging to them. Grace type things.

Fay said, 'Can we handle that?'

'Count on it,' Joe Powys said grimly.

From the back seat, Rasputin the cat mewed in protest at his confinement in the laundry basket.

Fay said, 'When you said you, er, needed me… what did you mean exactly?'

'I don't know. It just came out. Heat of the moment.'

He turned on the engine.

'However.. Joe said, looking straight ahead through the windscreen. 'I know what I'd mean if I were to say it now.'

Fay smiled. 'What did the police say to you?'

They said, "Don't leave town." '

Joe Powys grinned and floored the accelerator.