Free Towers of Silence by Cath Staincliffe Page B

even admission, would have been a cannier response. Mind you, sudden discovery doesn’t always lead to logical or considered reactions. Then again, maybe one of the amenable denials of the other three men concealed a secret relationship. I was getting nowhere fast with the identity of that caller and it may have been completely insignificant. The man hadn’t found Miriam at home, and there was nothing to suggest that he’d seen her later that day. I wasn’t sure that there was much point in pursuing that line of enquiry at this stage. I could always come back to it.
    And I did.
    Oh, boy, I did.
    I’d been home an hour when Patrick rang to tell me Roland was back. They had not pressed him for an explanation of his absence but told him Martina had answered all my questions.
    “Have you thought about bereavement counselling for him?”
    “We’re working on it,” he said. “There’s a teacher at school who Roland gets on really well with. He knows someone who’s done a lot of work with teenagers. Roland’s not taken him up on it yet but there’s also a book he’s recommended. Connie’s got it on order. I think Roland might find it easier to read something first of all. Talking to people ... well ...”
    “Yes. Thanks for letting me know anyway. I’ll be in touch.”
    I was glad that the lad had come back and was okay but a small crumb of doubt tickled away at me. Was it just grief that drove him away at the prospect of talking to me or was there anything else? I needed that edge of scepticism to do my work but I hated the taste it left in my mouth. I wanted to think the best of people, to find the good in them, to see that triumph. But I’d learnt enough to know that life wasn’t like a fairy tale, that people go wrong - some people. They make mistakes and mess things up; they hide and cheat and choke themselves with secrets and guilt. Suddenly, like missing a step in a dream, their world changes. And it can happen to anyone. It had happened to Miriam through her illness. That lunge for destruction, annihilation. Her act, her loss had created a tidal wave of change for her children. I wasn’t sure how Martina was dealing with it, though her tears seemed healthy enough. Connie was searching for facts, a schedule, sightings, details, anything to throw into the yawning ‘why’? She was still at the stage of anger, disbelief, almost denial.
    And Roland? Was Roland drowning? I would leave him be for now but I wouldn’t forget that sliver of uncertainty I had. I’d learnt to trust my intuition; it is a skill I use in the work, it’s imprecise, shadowy even, but when I get that tug in my gut and the tightening sensation on my skin then I know something’s going on. I hadn’t felt it when I’d been so rudely banished from Nicholas Bell’s doorstep but I had when Roland Johnstone stood me up.
    File under pending.

Chapter Nineteen
    My world seemed full of teenage boys. Unhappy teenage boys. On the second morning that I trailed Adam Reeve he wagged college. He set off in the same direction as before but as soon as he reached Kingsway he crossed the road and walked to the bus stop that was served by buses running into town.
    I followed on. There was a cluster of people waiting and although I didn’t expect Adam to notice me, the extra numbers would help. I watched him now and again out of the corner of my eye. He had a sleepy look, created in part by the way his eyes turned down at the corners. A crop of spots had erupted over his nose. He was slightly stooped and his hands in pocket and head down stance made it clear to all that he was not up for any idle chit chat.
    The two women next to me were. They talked in a desultory way about the appalling bus service and tried to cap each other’s stories of nightmare journeys. I was glad it wasn’t raining. The wind had dropped and the temperature too. The sky was airbrushed with touches of breathy cloud. A nip of frost threatened. Gloves and hat weather. I had