A Finer End

symbol of an upstanding tower, and the Old Gods held their own.
Dion Fortune, from
Glastonbury: Avalon of the Heart
     
    Faith felt very odd from the moment she woke on Tuesday morning. She wondered if any of the others sensed the heaviness, the oppression, in the air. She felt an urgency, as well, a sense that her time to take care of unfinished business was swiftly running out. And the baby, so violently active the past few days, was suddenly quiet, giving her only the occasional gentle nudge.
    She felt her abdomen carefully, the way Garnet had taught her, but she couldn’t be sure that the baby had dropped. Why wasn’t Garnet here when she needed her? And how was she going to manage without her?
    Fighting back tears of anger and frustration, she finished getting ready for work, then went looking for Duncan. She found him in the last bedroom, surrounded by opened boxes, his face already dirty and set in a scowl of discouragement.
    Last night Nick had turned up at last, with a curt apology for his absence. He and Simon had joined in the attic search, carrying the smaller items down to Faith and Winnie in the sitting room. After a long evening’s work, they had all declared the attic thoroughly sorted, with a disheartening lack of results. Now Jack and Duncan had begun working their way through the remainder of the house.
    Anything?’ Faith asked Duncan, knowing what the answer would be.
    An old album with some photos of my mother as a child. But other than that, no. Are you ready for me to run you to the café?’
    They had developed a comfortable routine in just a few short days, and Faith realized with a pang that she would be sorry to see it end. Nor did she like the idea of the deception she meant to practise today, but she could see no alternative. She must find proof that someone besides Nick had had reason to harm Garnet. And Duncan had told her that the police had sealed the farmhouse, so she couldn’t very well ask him to take her to root through Garnet’s things.
    ‘I’ll see you at five,’ he said as she climbed out of the car at the café, and she lifted her hand in a wave as he drove away in Gemma’s purple car.
    It was a slow morning, much to her relief, because she grew progressively more uncomfortable as the day wore on. Her legs ached, and her pelvis felt as if her ligaments had turned to jelly. Buddy fussed over her, coming in from the shop to give her a hand as often as he could.
    After lunch she waited, tidying and watching the clock. When the hands crept round to two, she gave the counter a last wipe and went into the shop.
    Buddy looked up from his jewellery counter. His face creased instantly with concern. Are you okay, kiddo?’
    ‘I’m not feeling very well. Would you mind if I left early today?’ It isn’t a lie, she told herself. Just bending the truth a bit.
    ‘Is it the baby?’
    ‘No, I don’t think so,’ she said uncertainly. ‘But I think maybe I should take it easy.’
    ‘Have you called someone to fetch you?’
    ‘Yes,’ she lied outright this time, forcing a smile, ’I’ll wait outside.’
    She slipped on her cardigan and went out into the light drizzle that had kept the climbers away. There was nothing for it but to walk, so she turned resolutely uphill and began.
    The pavement grew more slippery and the rain heavier as she climbed. By the time she reached the farmhouse she was gasping, and a dull, heavy pain had taken root at the base of her spine. But she had done it! No one had passed her on her way up the hill, but still she looked round furtively as she ducked under the blue and white crime-scene tape that had been stretched across the gate.
    She picked her way across the yard and unlocked the back door with her key. All three cats trotted hopefully out from the shelter of the barn and she stooped to stroke them as they rubbed about her ankles, purring. ‘Are you hungry, poor dears?’ she said, and sang the silly little dinner song she had made up for them as she let them in the house.
    Every surface in the kitchen was covered with a fine black dust, and the room looked as if a hurricane had raged through it, littered throughout with the objects from the shelves and cabinets. Faith grimaced as she lit the lamp and put food in the cats’ bowls, trying to touch as little as possible. The sight of the casserole Garnet had made the day she died almost undid her.
    The evidence of the police search was even more overwhelming in Garnet’s office. There