Page 69 of The Mercy Chair

‘I think there’s an impenetrable fog of secrecy around those courses, Sergeant Poe. No one talks about them. And I meanno one. Cornelius Green and Israel Cobb ruled the Children of Job with a rod of iron and even now, with Cornelius dead and Israel in the wind, I don’t think anyone will speak out. Something happened on those courses and I think everyone now wishes it hadn’t.’

Which sort of fitted with what Joshua had said about now being the time to redirect the narrative. He had clearly wanted to move on from the Children of Job’s Cornelius Green era. But Poe hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d told Israel Cobb the truth was like a swamp bubble. In his experience, particularly when Bradshaw was on the case, it always rose to the top. And the longer it had been under the mud, the smellier it often was. Poe wondered if that would be the case this time. He suspected it would.

‘You say Bethany couldn’t have killed her parents because she wasn’t capable of killing her brother,’ Poe said. ‘But, given what you know, do you think she would be capable of killing Cornelius Green?’

Alice considered the question carefully. Eventually she said, ‘If she held him responsible for Aaron’s death, then yes, I think she would.’

‘But do you think shedidkill him?’

‘On my lighter days, when the sun is shining and the lambs are gambolling about the fells, I sometimes imagine the life Bethany made for herself. I like to think she found her peace, somewhere far away from here. She’s with people who love her and she has a job she enjoys. Maybe she even has children of her own.’

‘And on your darker days?’

‘The same, but it’s cloudy,’ Alice said. ‘You have to understand, Sergeant Poe: Bethany is a survivor. She experienced something neither of us can truly comprehend and yet, despite her problems, she never stopped smiling. You ask if she was capable of killing Cornelius Green – absolutely. Do I think she did? Absolutely not. I have no doubt Cornelius Green’s death was a long time overdue – the man was monstrous – but I don’t think for a second Bethany returned to the life she left to do it. Why on earth would she?’

‘Maybe she wanted to pop a swamp bubble,’ Poe replied. He swigged down the last of his coffee. It was muddy and bitter, and like a shot of adrenaline to the heart. ‘What things?’ he said.

‘Excuse me?’

‘You said Bethany wouldn’t have left without stopping at yours to collect her things.’

‘Andyousaid how would you know if I was spinning you a yarn? That it’s possible I’m making this whole thing up.’

‘Poe says until he’s hit a witness at least three times with his interrogation truncheon, whatever comes out of their mouths is as much use as white dog . . . dirt,’ Bradshaw explained. ‘Except he doesn’t say dirt. And his interrogation truncheon is a metaphor for shouting at someone.’

Poe shrugged. ‘I’m a police officer,’ he said. ‘Not trusting people is my default position.’

‘I just want to know what happened to my . . . friend,’ Alice said. ‘That is my only concern. It’s why I’ve spent so long as Mad Alice and it’s why I left that note under your windscreen wiper.’ She reached into her tote bag. She removed something bulky and placed it on the table. It was a book; thick, tatty and leatherbound. ‘And luckily, you don’t need to take my word for it.’

‘What’s this?’

‘The inside of Bethany’s mind, Sergeant Poe.’

Chapter 59

‘What was it?’ Doctor Lang asked.

‘It was Bethany’s journal,’ Poe replied. ‘Alice had kept hold of it all those years. The pages were stiff with age and the ink had faded a little, but it was perfectly readable.’

‘At that point you didn’t fully trust Alice, did you?’

‘I still had concerns about her motivation.’

‘Is trusting people a problem for you, Washington? It seems to be a recurring feature in this case.’

‘It does?’

She nodded. ‘You thought the Bishop of Carlisle had ulterior motives for sharing his information on the Children of Job.’

‘Yeah, but—’

‘And you never trusted Linus.’

Poe showed Doctor Lang his oil-stained, scarred hands. ‘With good cause,’ he said after a short delay.

‘And yet you trusted the journal’s provenance. Why was that?’

‘I didn’t trust it. Not immediately.’

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