Free The Eidolon by Libby McGugan Page A

character. He leans across the table and, with a voice just above a whisper, says, “Did you find it?”
    He’s followed the research every step of the way. In fact, he’s the reason I ended up in physics. He has a telescope, and when I was young, and whenever I wasn’t helping him with his bees, I’d spend hours stargazing, listening to all he knew about the cosmos, which was a vast amount for a man who never had enough money to go to university. It didn’t stop him learning, though. He had books on all kinds of things – astronomy, particle physics, archaeology, philosophy. A real thinker. The idea of finding dark matter always intrigued him. A hunch, he said, that it would change everything. I wish I’d something more to tell him. “No, not yet. We came close, though. They pulled the funding at the last hurdle, so my services are no longer required.” I take another gulp of beer, as bitter as my mood.
    He looks crestfallen. “The bastards.”
    “The bastards.”
    “Why did they do it now?”
    I shrug. “I’ve no idea. We were so close, Casimir. I reckon we’d have found it, if we’d had a bit more time. We had some provisional results – encouraging results – I mean, we were onto something concrete for the first time in years. We just needed to verify what we found. That was the last phase.”
    He rubs his thumb across his chin, his habit when he’s thinking. “Maybe they didn’t want you to find it, after all.”
    “Who knows how these things work.” I turn back to my pint. I’ve stopped asking that question. All it does is wind me up. “Anyway, how have you been? You’re looking well.”
    “You’re lying,” says Casimir. “Ach, you know, getting on with it. I’m on a health kick at the minute – you see?” He fumbles on the table to find his glass of tomato juice and holds it up.
    “Where’s the fun in that?”
    “Aye, but the doctor says I’ll live to be a hundred if I keep off the drams.”
    “And is it worth it?”
    I don’t know what he’s thinking as he looks at me. Finally he says, “Life’s too sweet, Robert.”
    “Aye.”
    He lets out a sigh. “And what’s this I hear about you and Cora?”
    The mention of her name turns the stone in my chest. “Och, I don’t know. We’re just too different.”
    “Are you?”
    “Well, she’s into all this New Age hippy crap and I’m... well, you know me.”
    “She’s a free spirit.” Casimir raises his eyebrows. “Maybe you could do with a little more of that.”
    “Oh, don’t you start.”
    “You might see things differently when you get a bit older.”
    “Oh, come on, Casimir. You’re a man of science. You can’t buy into all that shit.”
    “Layman’s science. Maybe science isn’t the whole story.” He sips his juiced tomatoes.
    I lean back against the hard curve of the chair. “When did you start thinking like this?”
    “It’s always been there, I suppose.”
    “You’re not going all religious on me, are you?”
    “No, I’m not going back to that. Too many of man’s opinions muddy the waters and obscure the point, if you ask me. But that doesn’t mean I don’t believe in something else.”
    I’ve never heard him speak like this. He was always comfortable in a world without a God. In his lifetime of prolific reading, he found too many other things to take its place. “Like what?”
    Casimir leans forwards, his elbows resting on the table. “Well, that’s the Big Secret, isn’t it? If I find out first, and I probably will, given that I’ve got a good few years on you, then I’ll let you know.”
    “I’ll hold you to that.” I raise my pint to him.
    “Aye.” Casimir nods, lifting his glass of red sludge. “You know Cora’s minding the pottery just now? I bumped into Frank not long ago – they’re away to Barcelona for a holiday.”
    “Yeah, I know.”
    “Hmm. Have you seen your mother yet?”
    “No, I’m just off the train, but I should be getting home soon.”
    “It’s her