A Dark Devotion

by Clare Francis

  Once the decisions were taken, we worked in silence, avoiding each other’s eye, getting on with the task in hand, needing no reminder of the enormity of what we were doing.

  When everything had been dealt with, we put the two piles into their separate bin liners, along with the newspaper, and sealed them tight.

  Finally we sat back and looked at each other.

  Will reached out as if to grip my hand. I’m sorry I was so angry with you, Ali. I was so desperate to protect Charlie. I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry.’

  I realized I had no idea if he knew the truth about Maggie or whether he believed she had been covering for Charlie. ‘The jacket was badly torn,’ I said in a rush.

  For an instant he looked at me blankly, then understanding stole over his face. ‘Oh, I guessed most of it on the night of the storm. Well, I guessed quite a lot before that. I realized that

  both sluices had been opened, it was obvious from the flooding. And the one that was only half closed—it wasn’t broken, just stiff. I knew from the state that Charlie was in that something appalling had happened. And from Maggie, too. With her I put it down to the flooding, to whatever was wrong with Charlie, but later…Well. And Grace’s car. I thought I’d glimpsed it that night when I drove past the cottage. And then it wasn’t there. I didn’t say anything to you because Maggie was so adamant. And then, on the day of the storm, when I heard that Grace had been seen coming back—I knew where to look then. I knew.’

  There was a pause. He took my hand solemnly between both of his and said, ‘I should have told you. I thought…well, I thought that you wouldn’t take us on. I thought at one point that Charlie might even have been there, seen her die, that for some reason he hadn’t been able to help her. I thought that it would crucify him if he had to tell a court. I panicked. I took it out on Maggie, I blamed her for making such a mess of her statement, for making the police suspicious. And then, when I guessed the truth, when I realized about Maggie—well, that was no better. Whatever’d happened, I couldn’t let her go through the hell of it all either.’

  ‘In the end, you probably did the right thing. With someone like me, the truth isn’t necessarily the best place to start.’

  He smiled. ‘Ali. Always so practical.’

  ‘You make it sound like a failing.’ And I smiled back because this time it was the best compliment in the world.

  He released my hand and stood up suddenly. ‘I’d better go and get rid of these things.’

  ‘I’ll go and check on Maggie, shall I? And Charlie.’

  He said, ‘You’ll be there when I get back?’ He added quickly, ‘You’ll stay?’

  I remembered Jason coming up at Clerkenwell in the morning. ‘I wish I could. But…’

  He leant forward and kissed me gently on the mouth. ‘It would be so good if you could stay, Ali.’

  ‘I suppose…I could stay till four,’ I said.

  ‘Well, it’s a start,’ he said.

  I drove him to Marsh House to pick up his car and stood at the gate in the soft summer night to wave him off.