Page 49 of The Chapel of Bones

The girl on the reception desk was scrolling through her phone and didn’t look up as he walked past and made straight for Dale’s office, covering his nostrils against the stench of animal excrement. There he found the man he was looking for with a half-full glass in his hand.

‘Jim. What can I do for you?’

‘Thanks for telling the police I was with you on Friday night.’

‘No problem. Drink?’

Without waiting for an answer, Dale poured a second glass. Jim sat down and took a swig.

‘You know I told you I’d been involved in something really bad?’

‘Yeah. You said you’d seen something terrible when you’d taken acid, but you thought you were probably imagining things that weren’t there. A bad trip, you said.’

‘You didn’t mention that to the cops, did you?’

Dale was about to take a drink, but his hand froze in mid-air. ‘Does it matter?’

‘If they ask, don’t mention it, will you.’

Dale had a vague recollection of his encounter with the two detectives, and he was pretty sure he’d said something, probably gabbling because of nerves, filling in a conversational vacuum. ‘Sure,’ he said, not wanting to admit that he might haveunwittingly betrayed his friend’s confidence. ‘What was this bad thing anyway? You never said.’

‘No. I didn’t. If I tell you, you’ll have to swear to keep it to yourself. I told nobody about the cat that almost escaped, so I expect you to do the same for me. Swear.’

‘I swear,’ said Dale, raising his glass in a toast to nothing.

‘OK. It’s been eating away at me ever since that body was found, so I feel I’ve got to tell someone.’

‘What body?’

Jim took a deep breath. ‘The one on the news. The one in that house.’ He paused. ‘I think I saw him being murdered.’

‘You think?’

‘I didn’t think it was real at the time. I thought I must have been hallucinating, but now they’ve found a body . . .’

Dale sat forward. ‘Who was murdered?’

‘I don’t know who he was. Just some old guy.’

‘Who killed him?’

‘Lanzani. It was Lanzani.’

‘Who’s Lanzani?’

Jim shook his head as though he didn’t want to – or didn’t dare – answer the question.

‘Since I heard about that body, it’s been going round in my brain, eating it away like worms. They found it behind a wall, so what I saw must have been real. Mustn’t it? I must have really seen him do it.’ He paused. ‘And that woman from Belsham. You said she’d been here, asking questions. And now she’s dead too.’

Dale topped up Jim’s drink. ‘You’d better tell me everything.’

30

On their return to Tradmouth, Rachel parked in the station car park. But instead of heading into the building, Wesley began to walk away in the direction of the high street.

‘Where are you going?’ Rachel said, changing direction to keep up with him.

‘I want to visit Ethelred Bingley’s old shop.’