I looked at Jude. “Do you have parents?”
“Somewhere,” he shrugged. “I left home ages ago. My mum’s dead and my dad couldn’t be bothered with me – too busy with his work to spare me even a glance in the morning when I left for college. Work-work-work was all he was ever interested in. I was just an interruption to his life – a hindrance to his ever-important work. So I left and he never came looking for me.”
“Well your mum is gonna wonder where you’ve gone,” I said, staring at Raven. “When you don’t go back to her today, she’s gonna start asking questions.”
“Is she?” said Jude. “Sounds to me like mummy knew what she was doing. I guess she saw Raven’s future and pushed her in the right direction – that is if we are to believe in the power of the tarot cards.”
“You’re just saying that because your own dad couldn’t stand the sight of you,” spat Raven. “You can’t bear the thought of someone else having parents who love them.”
“So mummy is gonna go to the police about her missing daughter, or is it just that she wants the money that you were meant to get from the drug trial? Maybe that’s the only thing she’s gonna miss,” said Jude, glaring at Raven, his top lip curled up in a grimace.
“Enough!” I shouted. “This isn’t some fucking competition about who has the most loving parents. Can’t you see that there’s a bit of a pattern here? I think Middleton only picks volunteers who have no family – you know, loners, young people whose parents are dead or have drifted apart from each other. I think Doctor Middleton knew all this information about our family backgrounds. He must have checked us all out – been watching us – hand-picking the people who answered that advert in the local paper – the ones who had no one to love them, the people who would be least missed.”
I shuddered at the thought. I didn’t like the idea that I had been snooped on, and not just by any old person but by some evil, twisted demon. Middleton must have known who my dad was. Known that he was one of his workforce at some point and even that didn’t stop him from picking me – there was obviously no honour amongst Cruor Pharma and its workers – but then did that really surprise me? He had already ordered the murder of Nurse Jones’s son and she had worked quite closely with Middleton. He didn’t give a shit about his workforce. That was plainly obvious.
“If you’re right about this,” said Jude, “then how come they picked Max’s brother? They would have seen that Robert had a younger brother living with him – they wouldn’t have risked it, surely?”
“I wasn’t living with Robert at the time he volunteered,” said Max. “I was living with my girlfriend.”
“But they must have done a check on Robert’s family background,” said Jude, taking a slurp of his tea. “They would have seen that he had a brother – a brother who would start asking questions.”
“Which you did,” I said, looking at Max. “You went straight to Holly Tree police station.”
“I’m surprised Inspector Cropper didn’t deal with you there and then,” said Jude.
“I think if I had been persistent then I probably wouldn’t be here now,” said Max, watching Jude work his way through the food like a Hoover sucking up every last crumb.
“That still doesn’t explain how Robert got picked when he had a younger brother though,” I said. “Knowing how tight Cruor Pharma are on keeping their secrets – somehow you seem to have slipped through their net.”
Max sat with a frown over his face, then, as if suddenly coming up with the winning lottery ticket, his eyes widened and lit up. Pulling out Robert’s passport he waved it in the air. “If they did look into mine and Robert’s family history, I guess they wouldn’t have made a connection between us. Robert doesn’t share the same surname as me. I’m a Landy and he’s an O’Brien. It’s a long story – but my dad had an affair years ago. Robert never took the name Landy – he kept his mother’s maiden name, even though he lost contact with her – his way of hanging onto the only thing he had left of her, I guess.”
“Well that probably explains it then,” I said. “And reinforces my theory on young people getting picked who appear to have no family or family that have nothing to do with their children.”
“Maybe, I’m too tired to even think about it,” said Max, yawning, “My brain feels fried. I was kind of hoping that we’d be inside the bishop’s house by now – finding out where Robert is and getting some sleep without fear that the cleaners would turn up.”
I looked at the clock on the dashboard. We had been sat in the car for nearly an hour watching Jude devour the food like a tornado. Maybe it was time to head back up that gravel driveway and approach the housekeeper again. After all, time was short and the mention of the cleaners had my heart racing again.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
We stood outside the front door to the bishop’s house. The wind had picked up, howling through the trees, and the branches looked like a hundred arms performing the Mexican wave.
As Max was about to knock, the net curtain at the large bay window twitched and the housekeeper’s face appeared. She mouthed through the window for us to go away.
“No!” I shouted through the window. “We need to see the bishop and we’re not leaving until we speak with him.”
The housekeeper looked behind her as if making sure she was alone and then opened the window. “I’ve already told you, the bishop is busy. Please – you should leave,” she whispered, almost begged.
“I’m not going until I find out whether my brother came here and where he went after,” said Max.
“The bishop isn’t…” she started then got cut short by a loud male voice coming from behind her.
“Who are you talking to, Mrs. Gables?”
She turned away from the window and disappeared from view behind the net curtain.
“That must be the bishop,” mumbled Raven, peering out from under her black hair. “I don’t like the sound of his voice.”
“I don’t think Mrs. Gables likes the sound of his voice either,” said Jude. “She looked pretty shaken when she heard him.”
“What should we do?” I said, gripping the strap of Father Williams’s satchel as a gust of wind blew it from off my shoulder.
As if in answer to my question, the large wooden door slowly creaked open and Mrs. Gables appeared in her patterned dress and apron. She looked nervous – eyes flitted over each of us – her bottom lip trembled and she stood to the side and said, “Come in. The bishop will see you.”
“Thanks,” said Max, stepping past the housekeeper.
I followed the others through the front door and found myself standing in a huge hallway with a grand oak staircase. The room felt cold with its large stone slabs covering the floor. They looked worn in places like it had had countless feet pass over it through the many years this house had stood. A collection of old tapestries hung from the walls and a fire roared in a hearth with some kind of brass bucket containing a large pile of coal next to it.
“Follow me,” said Mrs. Gables, locking the front door and heading across the hall.
She led us through a small hallway and stopped outside a door. Knocking gently, she turned and said, “Go in, the bishop is waiting for you.” She turned away and headed back down the hallway, nervously peering over her shoulder at us before disappearing from view.
Her strange behaviour left me feeling anxious, like the bishop was someone to fear. But he was a man of god, and after spending a night at Cruor Pharma with men filled with nothing but evil, I told myself that nothing or no one could be worse than them.
“Enter,” the bishop’s voice sounded from behind the door.
We looked at each other – unsure as to whether this was the right thing to do or maybe I wasn’t the only one feeling anxious after Mrs. Gable’s timid behaviour?
“You go first,” whispered Jude, pushing Raven forward.
“No way,” hissed Raven, stepping to the side and repositioning herself at the back. “He sounds angry.”
“I’ll go.�
�� Max and I spoke at the same time, our hands both reached out for the door handle. He looked at me with a smile.
“Ladies first then.” He stepped away from the door and straightened up his jacket.
Taking a deep breath, I turned the handle and pushed open the door. The bishop sat behind a worn wooden desk. His long white beard looked like a mass of cottonweed with eyebrows to match. He wore a pale blue shirt which, was undone at the neck, and a thick Aran cardigan.
“Please, take a seat,” he said, looking at each of us in turn. “Mrs. Gables informs me that you needed to speak with me on a matter of urgency.”
“Yes we do,” I said, sitting down. The room was cold and I shuddered. There was no fireplace in here and no central heating.
“Well, how can I help you?” asked the bishop, leaning forward and placing his hands on the desk. “What brings four young people to my house? It’s not often I get visitors here. The village is pretty remote and it’s usually just the local members of my church who visit me.”
“I’m looking for my brother, Robert O’Brien,” said Max, who had taken the seat next to me. “We think he came here for help.”
“And what makes you believe such a thing?” said the bishop, straightening up in his chair. “Why would your brother come here?”
“Because Father William told him to come here,” I said, opening up the satchel and pulling out Father Williams’s journal. “It says so in here.”
The bishop held out his hand and took the journal from me. Flicking through the pages, he said, “Where did you find this?”
“In the chapel at Cruor Pharma,” I answered, “I found it beside…”
The bishop suddenly stood up and walked over to the window. He stood with his back to us. I looked over at Jude and Raven who had each taken the sofa by the door. Raven sat hunched forward, her hair draped over her face.
“Continue,” the bishop said, still staring out the window, his hands laced behind his back.
“I found it beside Father Williams’s body,” I said, feeling uncomfortable about giving him such news. I waited for his response – half expecting him to swing around – shocked – upset even. But there was no such reaction. It almost seemed like he already knew.
“So… you are all from Cruor Pharma, are you?” he said, slowly turning around to face us. His eyes had narrowed and his cottonweed eyebrows almost seemed to swallow them up. “I would like you to all leave – now.”
“What?” said Max. “Why? We came here for your help – for answers. I don’t under…”
“I can’t give you any help,” the bishop cut him off. “I don’t help people from Cruor Pharma – I don’t want anything to do with its workers, its doctors or anything else for that matter. Go – now.”
Jude stood up. “Hey, just calm down. You seem to think that we work for Cruor Pharma – well, we don’t. We were volunteers for one of Doctor Middleton’s so-called drug trials and we escaped. I’ve driven all the way out here because Max is looking for his brother and we need somewhere to stay – somewhere safe. That’s all we ask.”
The bishop stood quietly for a moment, like he was working things out in his head – putting together what Jude had just told him. “How do I believe you’ve not been sent here by Doctor Middleton? That this isn’t some kind of attempt to get at me? To find out what I really know about Cruor Pharma and its doctors?”
“Because of this,” hissed Raven, standing up and pulling the sleeve of Hannah’s leather jacket up. “People who work for Cruor Pharma don’t have black veins filled with devil’s liquid or whatever it’s called – no, they leave that for all the poor, unsuspecting volunteers to be injected with.”
The bishop’s eyes widened at the sight of Raven’s veins but didn’t seem overly shocked by it. It seemed to me that he had seen it all before, which meant that Robert had probably come here.
“You’ve seen others like this, haven’t you?” I said, standing up. “We’re not the first to come here with veins filled with VA20.”
“Is that what it’s called now?” said the bishop, taking his seat again, “The last group of people who turned up here called it VA10. This must be some kind of new batch that Middleton and Wright have concocted.”
“So you know what’s been going on at Cruor Pharma,” I said, still standing. “You’ve seen Max’s brother?”
“I have,” he answered, getting out of his chair again and walking over to something which looked like a cord hanging down from the ceiling. He pulled on it. A distant chime rang out and moments later, Mrs. Gables entered the room.
“Have the dining table set for five tonight please, Mrs. Gables, and make up some beds for our guests. They will be staying for a while.” The bishop turned to face us. “We have plenty to talk about, but let’s save it for over dinner.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The lounge which led off from the main hallway was cold, just like the bishop’s study. Its large bay window looked out onto the gravel driveway, and as I peered out I could see that it was beginning to get dark. Large rain clouds were gathering, rolling across the sky, pushed on by the wind. I sat down on the window seat and waited for Jude to appear. He had gone back to his car with the intention of bringing it up to the house. Leaving it on the roadside was not a good idea. If one of the villagers reported the car being left there then it might alert Inspector Cropper to where we were.
“Do you think we’re safe here?” asked Max, sitting on a leather armchair that looked like it had a set of wings on the back.
“I hope so,” I said, wrapping my arms about me. “If we’re not safe here, then I guess we’re not safe anywhere.”
“Do you think we’d be better off sleeping in the church?” said Max. “I mean, it’s probably holier than in the bishop’s house – we might be more protected there.”
“I’m not sleeping in the church,” mumbled Raven pulling over a heavy-looking armchair covered in red silk. “The dead are always hanging around churches. We’ve got enough dead things following us, we don’t need a freaking party of them.”
“I think we’ll be all right here,” I said, looking around at the antique furniture which dressed the room. The house smelt like an old stately home – one you might visit on a day trip. “I just wish it was warmer in here – or Mrs. Gables would come in and light the fire.” I walked over to the open fireplace. It was filled with a stack of dusty coals, and I wondered how long ago they had been placed in there. Judging by the amount of dust over them, it was obvious that this room wasn’t used often. I crouched down and looked up the chimney. It had been boarded over. Maybe they had no need for it as it appeared that the room wasn’t much lived in. I sat back on the window seat and rubbed my arms for warmth.
“I wonder what the bishop will tell us?” sighed Max. “I hope it’s good news about my brother. This is the closest I’ve got to finding out what’s happened to him and where he is.”
“Why did Robert volunteer himself for a drug trial?” I asked. “Did he do it for the money?”
“He wanted the money to set up a business. We were gonna run it together – painting and decorating,” said Max. “He knew how difficult it was to find work in Holly Tree and thought that the only way of earning money was to start up our own business.” Max stared up at the ceiling and sighed. “I wish I’d stopped him. When he told me about volunteering up at Cruor Pharma, I should have told him not to do it – but I didn’t.”
“You weren’t to know, Max,” I said. “None of us knew what we were getting into.”
“If only we could turn back the clock, eh?” Max said. “Wipe away our mistakes, regrets.”
“Fuck-ups,” Raven piped in. “If I could turn back the clock, I’d stop it where you lot stood and watched those monsters inject me on Ward 2.” Raven shifted in her seat, arms crossed tightly over her chest and her dark eyes glaring from me to Max.
I looked back out through the window. I didn’t want to get into another row with Raven. Too much had happened.
I felt like a machine that had been given too much information and was on the brink of shutting down – folding. I needed to turn off – cool down – unplug myself. Rest for a while in standby mode until all the backlogged information had processed and only then would I be able to run at full speed. It was no use me sitting here, thinking about Doctor Middleton, the cleaners, Hannah, the police, and that freak at the petrol station. My head was full to bursting and getting into another row with Raven might just push me into meltdown.
“Jude’s back,” said Max. He had stood up and was now standing next to me, watching Jude park the car underneath the swaying branches of the Ash trees. He placed his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it gently. He bent over me and whispered into my ear, “Don’t let her get to you. Raven’s just messed up – like the rest of us.”
I placed my hand over Max’s and squeezed back. Looking up into his face like it was the first time I had seen him, I realised how handsome he was. I hadn’t noticed it before, but then we had all been on the run – escape the only thing going through our heads. Now I could see him – the chase had slowed a little – time allowing me to take in more of my surroundings – more of the people I was with. His kind green eyes stared down at me and his lips turned up a little as a warm smile appeared. I suddenly wanted to pull him down – my hands holding his face - my lips pressed against his. The feel of his blonde hair brushing against my skin – his strong hands holding me tight. I broke my gaze and stared back out of the window. Did I really feel like this for Max? Or was I just in need of some love – some company – security? Someone to take me away from all this horror and give me that human touch that I suddenly craved? My thoughts turned to Ben. I could still feel his hands on me – smell him – see the stubble shading the lower half of his face. Those blue-crystal eyes eating me up as his fingers slipped under the hospital gown I had worn, making my skin melt with his smouldering touch. I closed my eyes as I remembered the soft brush of his lips over mine. But was that Ben? Hadn’t it been his demon who had held me in a trance-like state? Hadn’t it been the demon who had touched me and made me want him? I didn’t really know what to think anymore, so I stood up and tried to push away all those sudden desires that were filling me up. Now really wasn’t the time to start jumping into bed with the nearest guy. I had way too many problems going on and I didn’t need a moment of recklessness to add to them.
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