Alex Preston - The Revelations

*

The Course session after the Retreat was always a triumphant one. Friendships that had seemed tentative prior to the weekend away became firmly established: there would be more hugging and some tears, plans to meet up for dinner, for prayer sessions over the next weekend, a general sense of optimism and community. Marcus was dreading this particular session, though. He knew that David wouldn’t let Lee’s absence spoil the celebration, and was expecting the priest’s call when it came the next morning. He was going through one of the Plantagenet Partners documents with a tort law specialist when his phone began to vibrate on the desk.

‘Shit, give me a minute, will you?’

The solicitor backed from the office, shutting the door carefully behind him.

‘Hello?’

David’s voice was smooth and melodic when it came.

‘Marcus, David here. Can you talk?’

‘Yes, it’s fine.’

‘I take it you haven’t heard from Lee?’

‘Nothing, I’m afraid.’

‘OK. Well, we can’t let what I’m certain is just another Lee slump ruin the Course for this year. There’s too much at stake. I’ll ask Sally to sit alongside Mouse for their discussion, although he has been carrying that group anyway, so he shouldn’t need her. We’ll have to think about which songs the band can play without Lee. I’m relying on you to be my right-hand man tonight, Marcus.’

‘I’ll do my best.’ Marcus paused. ‘Do you think we should call the police, David?’

‘I don’t know. I’ve spoken to her parents, called her priest at home to see if she was there. I thought we’d wait to see if she turns up tonight. If she doesn’t, then I’m afraid we might have to.’

David rung off. Marcus was busy on the case all afternoon, which was growing more complicated and morally dubious by the day. He left work in a hurry and rushed westwards towards St Botolph’s. He arrived to find David standing in the entrance porch, greeting the Course members as they arrived. The priest embraced Marcus, holding on for just long enough to make him feel awkward. Inside the church everything was bathed in soft light. Sally was standing in her usual place above vats of food. Abby and Mouse moved with broad smiles between the groups of old and new Course members. Marcus saw the Earl and Neil talking in one corner. The twins were standing in front of a group of older members and Marcus watched as they struggled to get their words out, talking over each other and supplementing their speech with violent gesticulations. He sat down wearily and waited for David to start.

He thought that the priest looked old. The video screen behind him picked up the crow’s feet in the corners of his eyes and accentuated the grey tinge of his skin. His hands quivered a little as he spoke. But the words had the same extraordinary fluidity as before, and David’s eyes sparkled as he spoke of the Retreat, of the beauty of hearing the new members speak in tongues for the first time, the holiness that had suffused the service on Saturday night. No mention was made of Lee, and Marcus noticed that when they got up to play their instruments, Lee’s piano had been pushed back into the shadows of the Lady Chapel.

In the discussion that followed the music, Marcus let Abby guide the group. He sat back and listened as each of the members recounted their experience of the Retreat. Neil was the last to speak, leaning forward in his chair, bald head shining, face flushed and happy, his tie hanging loosely around his neck. He talked very quickly, a huge grin sweeping across his face each time he paused for breath.

‘While it was obviously an amazing experience, it was only when I got to work yesterday that I realised quite how much it had changed things. Because that is the point, isn’t it? We should continue to act in our everyday lives as we act here. And David made it very clear to me that this didn’t mean that I couldn’t be ruthless in business. Because that was something that did worry me to start off with. That it might clip the wings of my career if I had to start turning the other cheek on the trading floor. I mean, the markets are a jungle, you know? But it was more that everything seemed to shine. I don’t know how else to put it, but I saw God everywhere. And I felt Him telling me what to do: which trades to put on, which dealers to call. It was quite extraordinary, quite wonderful. I told everyone about the Course. Really didn’t mind what they thought of me. I’m proud to be a member. Proud and humbled.’

Out of breath, he stopped and beamed round at the group. There was a thin patter of applause. At the end of the session Neil helped Marcus to stack chairs.

‘It also helped that the Earl gave my bank some of his cash to manage. I had realised that he was rich, but not that rich. I think it’s a great idea to give each other a leg-up professionally. Do let me know if there’s anything the bank is doing on the legal side that you want a piece of.’

Marcus smiled thinly. Abby was waiting for him in the porch when he came upstairs.

‘David wants to see us in the rectory. Mouse is already over there.’ Her voice had been emotionless since the previous evening. She walked in front of him down the path to the Nightingales’ house where Mouse and the Earl were in the drawing room, sitting in large, comfortable armchairs. Mouse had one of the gold cushions clutched against his belly. David poured out glasses of wine and called to Sally, who came in from the kitchen. He addressed them in a low voice, his hands clasped in front of him.

‘I’m afraid we have still heard nothing from Lee. I’m worried and I know you all are, too. I think we will have to call the police. I spoke to her father earlier and he still seems to think that she will turn up. I'm inclined to agree, but we need to err on the side of caution. I’m going to go down to the station tomorrow morning and tell them what we know. You should all expect to be questioned, I suppose.’

He paused, reached across to his glass of wine, and took a long swig. He patted his lips with the back of his hand.

‘I probably don’t need to tell you that there is a great deal of interest in what we do here at the Course. Some think that this is a cult, a movement with political designs or something equally ridiculous. Discretion is paramount when speaking with anyone from outside our group, especially given where we are with the expansion. Any kind of scandal could scupper the whole US project. Now, I’m certain that they will find Lee very quickly. But until that point, less is more when you are speaking to the police. I hope that I’ve made myself clear.’

Marcus and Abby stayed a while longer and then walked in silence down to the King’s Road, where they hailed a taxi. Abby carried Darwin in her handbag, his pink tongue the only thing visible in the darkness of the cab. They sat in silence as the taxi moved up through Kensington. Marcus pressed his nose to the cold, shuddering glass of the window when they passed Lee’s flat. There were no lights on. Darwin was panting and Abby absent-mindedly reached out a hand to fondle his ear. They went to bed without having dinner.

Marcus had expected the police to call him the next day, but it wasn’t until Friday that his telephone rang. He was in the office trying to make sense of a legal document that had been translated very badly from Cantonese. He sat bent over the desk, tugging at a fistful of hair as he read. His phone vibrated in the pocket of his suit jacket. He fished it out and answered it.

‘Hello.’

‘Marcus Glass?’

‘That’s right.’

‘Detective Inspector Farley here, from West End Central Police.’

Marcus felt his heart quicken.

‘I was wondering whether we might meet up to have a chat about your friend Lee? Perhaps I could come and see you and your wife this evening. Kill two birds with one stone, as it were.’