Robert Goddard - Name To a Face

“No. That’s right. She never did. They switched her off. I stood there when they did it. I watched her die. I went to her funeral too. Which is more than any of those many friends I’m sure she had bothered to do.”

“Maybe they didn’t know about it.”

“Maybe. But Barney here knew. Didn’t you?” Lawton’s look defied Tozer to deny it. “According to Hayley you paid for Kerry’s treatment. And then you stopped paying.”

“I did it… for her parents’ sake.” Tozer shifted uneasily on the sofa. “When they were killed, there was no point going on. I checked with Dr. Hanckel. There wasn’t a hope in hell she’d ever recover.”

“No. But then there never was, was there? Luckily for you.”

“What d’you mean by that?”

“Well, you must’ve wondered what she’d say-about you-if she ever woke up. I mean, as I understand it, we only have your word for what happened to Kerry during that dive.”

“Now just a-”

Tozer was halfway out of the sofa when Harding grabbed his elbow. “Sit down, Barney,” he urged. “We’re just talking, OK?”

“I’ve had seven years of people who know absolutely bloody nothing insinuating that I murdered Kerry.”

“I know.”

Tozer stared across at Lawton as he slowly sat back down. “I was careless. But so was Kerry. Which no one ever mentions. It was an accident. They happen. But she’s always the victim. And I’m always the villain.”

“What was Hayley’s… state of mind… when you met her, Gary?” Harding asked, endeavouring to steer the conversation into smoother waters.

“Calm. Rational. Curious.”

“Curious about what?”

“Kerry’s last days.”

“Which you described to her?”

“Yeah. The switch-off at the clinic. The cremation at Ostfriedhof. I talked her through the whole thing. She seemed… glad to hear about it. Like it was… the next best thing to being there at the time.” Lawton sighed and looked across awkwardly at Tozer. “Maybe I was… out of line… just now. Maybe I… went too far. Sorry.”

“That’s OK,” said Tozer, with a hint of sarcasm. “I’m used to it.”

“When you parted,” Harding resumed, “did she give you any idea… what she meant to do next?”

“No.”

“Or where she meant to go?”

“No.”

There was something in Gary’s tone-in his manner and his posture-that made Harding doubt this neatly wrapped version of their encounter. He sensed there had been more to it, more said, more imparted, more declared. “Surely she-”

Harding was cut off by the bleeping of Tozer’s mobile. He pulled it out of his pocket and glanced at the screen. “It’s Carol. I’d better take it. Sorry.” He stood up and pointed enquiringly towards the patio doors.

“Go ahead,” said Lawton. “They’re open.”

“Won’t be long,” said Tozer, clapping the phone to his ear as he strode past Lawton to the doors and slid them apart. “Hello, princess. Everything OK?”

Tozer was still absorbing the answer to this question as he slid the doors shut behind him. Harding looked steadily across at Lawton. “It must have been a shock, learning Kerry had a twin. Then meeting her. Almost like what you said: Kerry waking up one day and speaking to you.”

“Almost.” Lawton dwelt on the thought for a moment, then went on. “She was wearing a brooch that had belonged to Kerry. One of the things her parents had brought over from England. Hanckel gave it to her, apparently.”

“So Ulbricht said.”

“Yeah. It’s a fox cub. Chosen as a gift because of their surname. Nice little thing. Jet and mother-of-pearl, I remember Mrs. Foxton saying. I’d seen it dozens of times, lying with the other things where she used to arrange them beside the bed. But never worn. I’d never seen it worn before. That was… weird.”

“Did Hayley mention me?”

“No. Unless…”

“What?”

“I asked her… y’know, if there was anyone… in her life.”

“What did she say?”

“‘Not sure.’ I mean, that’s what she said. ‘I’m not sure.’ Is it you she’s not sure about?”

“Could be.”

“Yeah. And you tagging along with Barney Tozer could be the reason.”

“That’s not-”

One of the patio doors jerked open. Tozer stared in at Harding, still clutching the phone in his hand, several inches away from his ear, as if the call had not yet ended.

“What is it, Barney?”

“Hayley She’s been in touch. She wants to meet us. You and me. Here in Munich. Tomorrow.”

Where’s Nymphenburg?” Tozer demanded of Lawton the instant he ended his conversation with Carol. Harding was still waiting for some clarification of Hayley’s message, including why it had come via Carol. And it seemed for the moment that he would have to go on waiting.

“It’s the suburban palace of the old Bavarian royal family” Lawton replied. “Out to the west.”

“Ever been there?”

“Once or twice.”

“Is there a park behind the palace?”

“Yeah. Acres of it.”

“And a canal?”

“Er, yeah. I think so. An ornamental affair. Beyond the garden.”

“So, her directions made sense.”

“How about letting me in on them?” asked Harding.

“I’ll fill you in on our way back into town, Tim. No sense keeping our taxi waiting any longer, is there? And we’re done here, aren’t we?” Tozer looked at Lawton with an expression that suggested their host had suddenly become irrelevant-and that this was a welcome development.

“Hold on,” said Lawton, evidently no less confused than Harding. “That wasn’t Hayley on the phone.”

“No. But she’s left a message for me. We’ll meet tomorrow. And sort all this out. No need for you to worry about it anymore, squire.”

“Are you sure about this? She’s going to meet you at Nymphenburg tomorrow?”

“I’m sure. And like I said: you can leave it to us.”

“Was needling Lawton such a good idea, Barney?” Harding asked as their taxi pulled away from the house.

“Tit for tat. He’ll get over it.”

“And what did you mean about the message from Hayley? Did she phone Carol?”

“No. Nathan Gashry phoned Carol.”

“Nathan?”

“Hayley didn’t want to speak to any of us direct, apparently. Not over the phone, anyway. It has to be face to face. She got Nathan to pass the message on. Ten o’clock tomorrow morning, at Nymphenburg. We’re to take the path through the park along the north side of the canal. She’ll be waiting.”

“How did she know we were in Munich?”

“Maybe Ann Gashry told her. You didn’t leave her in any doubt you meant to follow Hayley here, did you?”

“No. But I never said you’d be coming with me. At the time, I didn’t know you would be.”

“Guesswork, then. Or a tip-off from someone at the clinic.”

“Something like that, I suppose. Or else…”

“What?”

“I don’t know.” That was not quite true. The other possibility, in its way the most worrying, was that Hayley knew they were together because she had already seen them together. Which put her very much one step ahead. And meant she was likely to view Harding as Tozer’s friend, not hers. He had not abandoned her. But he was going to have his work cut out convincing her of that. “I just don’t know.”

Tozer did not share Harding’s disquiet-nor indeed the reasons for it. Over dinner and several drinks in the bar opposite the hotel afterwards he struck a confident note, apparently convinced that Hayley’s desire to meet them signalled a willingness on her part to admit she needed professional help in coping with the demons the past had left her with.