The Grotesques (14 page)

Rob looked furious.

Ella met Danes’ eye. “Understood. However, all I have to offer at the moment are unfounded allegations. When I have facts, I guarantee I’ll pass the information on to police.”

“Better you leave it alone. The police are more experienced at gathering information than you.”

Don’t bet on it
, Ella wanted to say but held her tongue as well as her gaze. She breathed a sigh of relief when Danes strode off to wait by the nurses’ station, where a carved pumpkin and plastic skeleton were on display.

She tried to make light of the exchange. “He’s obviously not keen on journalists.”

Rob looked her up and down. She was incredibly sore and imagined she looked infinitely worse. Her experience with high risk situations had not empowered her enough to calm her nerves. Nothing prepared you for being the victim.

“Are you sure you’re fine to leave?” Rob asked.

She was about to reassure him, when someone behind them screamed. She jumped. A nurse flashed them a nervous smile and went to investigate.

“Someone’s probably got a stomach ache,” Adam said.

Ella followed the confident tread of the nurse’s soft shoes. She managed a sympathetic smile. It was cut short by another scream which made all the staff pause at their tasks. Two more unseen but obviously scared patients joined the chorus. Danes jogged after the nurse. Rob placed a hand on his gun and put himself between them and the rest of the corridor.

The nurse reappeared, a hesitant smile on her face. Danes was right behind her, looking less than impressed.

“Nothing to worry about,” the nurse said, striding down the corridor, her motherly clucking helping to calm patients. One or two short shrieks interrupted her placations. Danes ignored them and slunk back to the nurses’ station.

“Really. Nothing to worry about,” the nurse repeated. “A bat found its way inside. Heaven knows how.”

Ella felt the blood drain from her face.

“I don’t think you’re fine to leave,” Rob said, misinterpreting her response.

“Do you think I’m going to stay?” She glanced nervously in the direction of the screams. The last thing she wanted was another entanglement with a bat.

“Not unless you’re on your deathbed. I’ll take you to a hotel.”

Adam turned in to her so as to exclude Rob. “There’s a spare room at my place.”

Ella considered the offer. What it came down to was that she didn’t want to be alone if there were any more surprise visitors. “Yes, thank you.”

“Call if you need anything.” Rob turned and walked past the nurses’ station. Danes swung round to join him. Then they were gone.

Adam guided her to the entrance. The nurse was on the phone, insisting maintenance attend to the vagrant immediately. She jumped as a black shape darted past her shoulder, heading for the door. Ella squealed and threw her arms up. The bat circled her way. She spun into Adam’s embrace, but not before a wingtip had brushed her shoulder, wrenching her mind away on a flight to a starry night with raging bonfires along swampy shores and dancing people mimicking flames that curled orange and red around a writhing dragon of fiery blue.

Ella’s knees buckled. She would have fallen if Adam was not holding her up, half dragging her into a chair. She dropped her face into her hands and hunched over. The hallucination had shaken her as badly as the fire. Fatigue and nerves were playing havoc with her mind. She had not eaten properly either. Deep down she knew if she’d taken a sedative she would have blamed the drug. Anything to avoid the impossible truth that bats were responsible.

Adam laid a comforting hand on her back. “They can be quite scary close up if you’re not used to them.”

“Are you sure nothing’s going on? I mean, why me, twice in a day?”

“I’m beginning to wonder.”

She took a deep breath and righted herself. All she wanted was to blot the experience from her mind.

The nurse cast a worried eye on her as the argument over whose job description covered the removal of a bat escalated. “This thing is giving our patients heart attacks. Literally!” she griped into the receiver.

Ella stood but needed to take hold of Adam’s arm. “Get me out of here.”

THE OLD-FASHIONED
kitchen with melamine cupboards felt homely. Neat but cluttered, it sported a battered fridge plastered with photographs of Adam enjoying every extreme activity from parachuting to scuba diving. At its centre, a pine table was strewn with research papers and reference books on bats. When Ella came in after freshening up, Adam swept the lot to one side, creating a messy pile.

“I’m working on my PhD,” he explained.

Ella sat and watched him make hot chocolate. He had turned on just about every light in the house to appease her fears. The brightness combined with her fatigue made her feel dizzy and awkward. In contrast, Adam’s movements appeared graceful. He reached into cupboards confident he would find mugs, cocoa, spoons where they should be. After the mess on the table, the neatness seemed a touch odd. There had been a time, before she had broken up with Rob and been dumped from
the Nationwide Daily
, when her kitchen was as organised and her guest room as ready.

“You didn’t tell the Detectives about the grotesque.”

“Rob wouldn’t have believed me.”

Adam, two mugs in hand, nodded understanding. “You and he?” he inquired as he placed the cocoa before her.

Ella tilted her mug. The muddy liquid smelt heavenly but it could still be improved. “We used to be an item. Have you got anything stronger?”

Adam leant against the bench. “You heard the doctors. A detective and a journalist. Unusual combination.”

“It didn’t work out.” She took another sip, hoping her face was hidden behind the mug.

“You or the combination?”

“Both.” It was not the truth exactly. They had been doing fine until the court case, but with Rob under suspicion as the mole and her refusal to reveal her source, their relationship had strained to the point of breaking. Damnation, she had even testified under oath that Rob had not leaked the information. He had still piled the guilt on, both as a policeman seeking the truth and a lover feeling betrayed. The pressure had driven her out of his apartment one night with enough bitterness to warrant changing the locks to her house. He hadn’t visited; she hadn’t called. That was the end of what had been two fulfilling years. She could quite happily have lived out her life never speaking to him again. Probably he thought likewise. Unfortunately, fate had a twisted sense of humour.

“He still cares about you.”

So Adam had noticed.
“It’s over.”

A loud, sustained rumble jarred their conversation. Startled, Ella jumped. Hot chocolate slopped over the side of the mug onto her hand. She reacted to the scald by flicking her hand. The movement knocked her bag off the table and upset the mug further. Liquid ran onto the table, began to seep into the papers, and dripped onto the spilled contents of her bag.

Adam was immediately at her side. He wiped her hand with a paper towel and then led her to the sink. As he held her hand under running cold water, the rumble continued.

“It’s just someone wheeling the bin out,” he explained unnecessarily.

She attempted a laugh. “Pretty stupid, huh?”

“You’ve been through a great deal.”

Ella turned to the small window above the stove, unnerved by the pitch black outside. She noticed the stained papers on the table. “Your work.”

“They’re just notes.”

The disregard in his tone made her look at him. His blue eyes were fastened on her. She became acutely aware of his hand supporting hers under the tap. He turned his fingers so that they interlocked with hers, bent his head so that their lips met. The pain in her hand disappeared. When they pulled apart, her eyes were sparkling. There was something different in his, a tender desire to protect. She leaned forward for another kiss, and he obliged.

“You wanted to know why I chose you, Ella Jerome.”

She searched his eyes. “There’s a reason?”

“When you were starting out in journalism, you interviewed Professor Dolman about blue-tongue lizards for a science article.”

“I vaguely remember.” Creepy crawlies were not her forte but had provided an entry level job. She had worked hard to break into crime reporting. The irony that the two now seemed to be merging did not escape her.

“I was the Masters student sitting at the back of the room during the interview.”

Which explained how he had known about her high school bat encounter. The anecdote had been her excuse for her noticeable avoidance of the bat posters in the room. A weight lifted from her shoulders. She couldn’t believe her ignorant questions had impressed anyone. “Way back then?” she said.

“And possibly longer. Seeing you made it hard to concentrate on my studies.”

“We’d better not have a repeat of that.” She grabbed some paper towels and began to dab at the cocoa on the table. “I think you’ve lost some of these,” she said, holding up a sopping, stained page with running ink.

“Nothing that can’t be replaced.”

Adam bent to mop the liquid from the floor, Ella to collect the lipstick and chocolates that had rolled from her bag. Adam found a scrap of paper under the chair. As he started to hand it to her, his eye caught the sketch. He drew the paper back and studied the picture. “Where did you get this?”

“I sketched it.”

“You
sketched
it.”

“Do you recognise it?”

“Recognise?” His face had become red. He seemed about to explode. “How did you know Cecily had a bracelet like this?”

“I didn’t.”

“It’s got her name on it, Ella.”

She felt at a loss as to what to say.

He closed his hand tightly around the paper. One damp edge protruded from his fist. “I want to know where you saw this.”

“Sit down, Adam.”

“I will not sit down. Where did you see this?” He was looking at her like she had betrayed him.

“Sit down. Please. If it belongs to Cecily, it’s proof she was in the church.”

He stared at her. His chest was working hard. Slowly, he sank into a chair. “Where did you find it?” His rage had ebbed. The space that created opened the way for pain. It was there in his eyes again.

“It was on one of the grotesques at the church. I noticed it while Genord was showing off the statues.”

“You could have asked me about it.”

“I did.” He looked about to argue. “You said she wasn’t wearing any jewellery,” she added quickly.

“It has her
name
on it.”

“I’m sorry, Adam. I didn’t want to inflict further pain on you.”

“If her gold bracelet is on a grotesque, that will be enough for the police to search the church again.”

“But it’s not.”

“What more do they need?”

“I mean the bracelet isn’t on the statue.”

“You just said it was.”

“No. A copy of this bracelet is carved around the gargoyle’s wrist. Genord mentioned Romain models his statues on real people. When you said she didn’t have any jewellery on, I just assumed he’d seen it on her sometime earlier. He has an eye for detail.”

“Cecily has never been inside that church. She was only there that night because she wanted to spend time with me. She arrived in Australia three days previously, and she only got this bracelet the day before.”

Ella felt her knees wobble. “Are you sure?”

“My mother bought it for her as a late birthday present. I was with them when they picked it up from the engravers.”

“Why are you so sure she wasn’t wearing it?”

“Because when she put it on, there was a problem with the clasp. My mother told her to take it off so they could return it to the jeweller.”

They looked at each other.

“You need to check,” Ella said. Adam was already rising. He exited the kitchen and returned with a phone.

“Hello, Mum. Yes, everything’s all right. No, really, I’m fine. Yes, I know what time it is, and I’m really sorry to wake you, but it’s about Cecily, and it’s really important. No, I’m sorry, it couldn’t wait until morning. Did Cecily wear the bracelet you got her the night I took her out?” There was a pause. “Can you check, please?”

There was silence. Ella held her breath. Adam closed his eyes and let out his own.

“Thank you. Yes, everything’s fine. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

He hung up. The air in the kitchen seemed to have solidified. He dropped back into his chair and cradled his forehead in his palms. Ella gave him time. Finally, he looked up. “She says the bracelet is missing. I guess it’s possible Cecily was wearing it.”

His vulnerability had returned. Ella went around the table and hugged him.

“I’ll tell Rob in the morning. But Adam, there’s one more thing.” She paused, then plunged ahead with trust. “I spoke to a witness today—yesterday. For various reasons this person cannot go to the police, but he saw Cecily enter the church.”