A Room Full of Bones: A Ruth Galloway Investigation

27
     
    Nelson fights like a madman when he sees the tunnel approaching. He knows what this means and he’s not going to take it lying down, in bed or not. The long journey, the bright light, the departed loved ones – not this time, thank you very much. Sorry and all that, Dad. He struggles, desperately trying to stop the inexorable progress towards the light. I’m not ready, he says, fingers sliding on a surface that seems at hard yet, at the same time, liquid, like black water. I don’t want to … He makes one last effort, flailing at nothingness. He is in the tunnel.
    Michelle watches in horror as Nelson writhes on the bed, fighting for breath. ‘Nurse!’ she cries, her voice croaky with fear. ‘Nurse!’
    Very quietly, Ruth opens the door to the spare room. Cathbad lies on the bed, on his back, very still. The blinds are up and moonlight shines on the floor. Ruth tiptoes closer and touches Cathbad’s hand. His skin is cold but she can feel a pulse. Cathbad’s eyes are closed and hislong hair lies over his shoulders, like an effigy. He is smiling. If he survives this, thinks Ruth, I’ll kill him.
    She goes back into her own bedroom and lies on the bed. In her cot, Kate is sleeping peacefully. It is only half-past ten. What on earth is she going to do with all the hours until morning? She thinks that she’d even welcome Kate waking up screaming. But Kate sleeps on. Ruth goes downstairs and tries to watch television but
Newsnight
has a feature on drugs in schools and the film on Channel 4 is
Picnic at Hanging Rock
. Ruth feels that she has had enough of drugs and mysterious happenings in Australia to last her a lifetime. She wants a drink but supposes she should stay sober in case she has to rush Cathbad to hospital. Oh God, what if he dies, there in the single bed where only two nights ago she and Max … She goes upstairs again. Cathbad and Kate are still sleeping, though both seem restless. The wind is getting up. A sudden squall of rain batters the windows. Her letterbox bangs as if some ghostly postman is outside. Eleven o’clock.
    She has a bath and gets into bed, listening to Radio 4 on her headphones. Against the soothing murmur of
Book at Bedtime
she sees other, less cosy, images. Another night, another storm, a child’s hand reaching up to her. A madman with a knife. A child’s body. Then Nelson, turning towards her with troubled eyes.
I don’t want to go home. You don’t have to.
    Ruth sighs and pulls the covers over her head. If this night ever ends, tomorrow she is going to see Nelson. She will even take Kate with her.
    It’s karaoke night again at the Newmarket Arms. Caroline sits alone at the back of the saloon bar, wondering where the hell she’s got to. Eleven o’clock, she’d said. It’s not like her to be late, just as it’s not like Caroline to be on time. It’s a horrible night as well. She can hear the rain outside even above the noise of the stable hands singing
Don’t Stop Me Now
. Her glass is almost empty but she’s embarrassed to go to the bar through the knots of people laughing and talking. Funny, she has backpacked alone through the Outback but she’s scared to order a drink in a country pub. She fiddles with her phone to avoid making eye contact with anyone. She wishes she’d arranged to meet Cathbad later but he seems to have vanished. She must have left two or three messages on his phone today. She hopes he won’t think she’s stalking him. But it would be a comfort to have him here now, wearing his cloak and talking about ley lines. And at least if he were here she’d have someone to have a bloody drink with.
    Sod it. Caroline puts her phone away. She might as well go to the bar.
    Judy, driving past the brightly lit pub with her wind-screen wipers on double time, thinks it looks like an ocean-going liner sailing through a midnight sea, the ship’s band playing on, the captain blissfully oblivious of impending icebergs. The car park is full; with any luck, all the stable hands will be in the pub belting out
Take That
numbers and she’ll be able to talk to Randolph in peace. She can’t help a slight shiver, though, as she leavesthe light and noise behind and enters the woods. She remembers her father telling her about the stagecoach accident. ‘On dark nights you can hear the screams of the passengers and see the ghost horses running through the trees.’ She remembers Danforth Smith and the great snake ‘as green as poison’. What is it about