Phil Rickman - The Smile of a Ghost

Enough for Saltash to avert his eyes, having dismissed him, Lol guessed. Having chosen to forget that Lord Shipston had ever been mentioned, because the one-second inspection had told him that this couldn’t be a contest.

‘I don’t think I know you at all, do I?’ Saltash said.

The Inner Bailey, enclosed in stone, was more extensive than a prison exercise yard but, with police on the gate, just as secure. And it reminded Lol of the psychiatric hospital, although that had been Victorian. But Victorian Gothic, and so just as dominating as the castle, with one tower at least as high as the Keep.

‘I’m Lol Robinson,’ Lol said.

In the hospital, daring to be a person had always been the most difficult part. Remembering you were a person, not just a file, a subject for assessment and monitoring, a lab rat for the multinational pharmaceutical industry.

‘No,’ Saltash said, smiling, starting to walk away across the great courtyard, throwing out ‘Sorry’ in his slipstream.

And if he reached the gatehouse, where two police officers stood, there would be no second chance.

‘All right.’ Lol moved in front of him. ‘If you want to take the scenic route, let’s talk about Gascoigne.’

Saltash expelled a hiss of exasperation.

‘Look, my friend, you probably know that there’s a young girl in there, threatening to take her own life. I don’t have time to talk to you or anyone, about anything. If you want to make an appointment to see me, that might be arranged.’

Only one PC on the gate now, but he was watching them. Vital to keep Saltash down here. If they reached the gate-house and the police, Saltash would have him thrown out, or maybe even…

… Detained.

Don’t go thinking you’re ever going to leave here, Mr Robinson. You see that door? One day, when I’ve been long retired to the south of France, you’ll be straining to get your Zimmer frame through it.

But Gascoigne had not retired to the south of France.

‘Didn’t know…’ Something throbbed in Lol’s gut, and he started talking, too fast, to quell it. ‘Didn’t know, until today, that he’d gone to the Department of Health. And the House of Lords, now… a health spokesman. Bloody hell.’

‘Lord Shipston,’ Saltash said, ‘is a fine psychiatrist and a former pupil of mine. Now, I don’t know how you—’

‘And a good friend?’

‘A very good friend, which is why I don’t propose to discuss him any further with a stranger. Excuse me.’

Saltash pushed Lol. But he’d been half-expecting it and moved in front again.

‘Only, I’m not a stranger.’

‘If you don’t—’

‘Not to him, anyway. Used to see each other every day, once.’

‘Ah. I see.’ Saltash smiled. His mouth smiled. ‘A patient.’

‘Makes you think that? Might have been a psychiatric nurse. Could have been a porter.’

‘You could not have been anything other than a patient. Are you in what some people still like to call the care of the community now?’

‘No, I’m one of the few people lucky enough to leave Dr Gascoigne’s ward almost as sane as when I went in.’

Saltash’s mouth kept smiling but his eyes frowned. Off balance. Lol remembering what he’d learned about facial signals in his period assisting the Hereford therapist, Dick Lyden. You’re in. Keep going.

‘And I was like… so impressed with my treatment that I wrote this song – it’s what I do; bit sad really, but we can’t all… Anyway, it’s about this guy who’s dispensing unnecessary medication like he has shares in the industry, which he probably has, and I… didn’t bother to change the name in the song. Not imagining that Gascoigne would ever hear it or I’d ever record it. It was just’ – Lol grinned – ‘therapy. And then suddenly, there it was on the CD, without me really thinking of the implications. But you knew about that, anyway.’

Saltash didn’t react. A woman came out of the castle, carrying a tray with mugs on it, as if there was nothing going on in there except minor conservation work.

‘I mean, it was bound to get back. It’s had a few reviews, and of course the reviews tend to mention the singer’s history, and a couple referred to that song specifically because it’s the only explicit loony-bin song on the album. Maybe it’s been followed up on the Net, I don’t know. Maybe another of Gascoigne’s ex-patients picked up on it. Maybe several. Things spread so much faster these days, don’t they? Who was it played you the song, Saltash? Gascoigne himself? Or maybe you just heard about it from young Fyneham.’

‘If you actually think…’ Saltash’s smile went into an incredulous slant as he shook his head. ‘If you think that a man in Lord Shipston’s position has time to even listen to some piffling pop record, you’re not exactly supporting your assertion of sanity, Mr—’

‘Robinson. It’s the name on the album.’

‘Well, get out of my way, now, please, Mr Robinson, I’ve listened to enough of this drivel.’

‘Anyway, some friends of mine… they had a long chat with the Fynehams. The Fynehams, of Breinton? Who produce a magazine in which it appears that you have a stake, along with its founder, Lord Shipston?’

Saltash sighed. ‘You’re on such thin ice, my friend.’

‘I’ll be honest,’ Lol said. ‘I don’t quite know what you’re doing, but then I’m not sure you do either. But I strongly suspect Gascoigne, as a public figure now, would feel a lot happier if my recording career ended here and neither Merrily nor I retained any kind of respect or credibility…’

‘This is—’

‘A start. A complete loss of respect in the eyes of the community would be a start, wouldn’t it? Just in case it ever got out.’

‘Do you—?’

‘And I’m guessing – because this is not the kind of smear campaign that Gascoigne, or even you, would want to be involved in – that you helped finance Jack’s little business venture and left the details to him. Sadly, he’s nowhere near as clever as he thinks he is.’

‘And neither are you,’ Saltash said.

‘No? I think I’ve become a fairly harsh judge of my own limitations.’

Saltash looked at him again. His eyes were like stone, but not this stone, not sandstone, colder than that.

‘Mr Robinson, do you know how easy it would be for me to have you removed to a… place of safety? I mean removed now. This evening. We have most of the people for the preliminaries we need close at hand. And I can tell them whatever I consider to be pertinent.’

Memory jolt. Gascoigne, who must have been quite young then – no more than late thirties – murmuring, In here, I can say what I like about you, never forget that, Laurence, and everyone here listens to me and acts accordingly, and no one will listen to you.

And Gascoigne had said many things, and written them too, and had them duplicated, passed them into the heart of the system: reports, assessments. If Gascoigne hadn’t moved on first, Lol sometimes wondered if he might still be there, on Victoria Ward, on extra medication.

‘I could tell them, for instance,’ Saltash said, ‘about your personal grudge, amounting to dangerous obsession, against people in my profession. And I can tell them about your absurd – but clinically quite explicable – suspicion that I had seduced your lady friend…’

Lol stepped back. ‘I’m sorry? What did you just say?’

‘… Your very attractive lady friend, already under immense strain after being appointed to a post for which she was quite clearly emotionally unsuitable. As a result of which I and my colleague, a senior cleric, had been unofficially assigned to try and advise her and perhaps restrain her from the kind of erratic behaviour that—’