c6

"Oh, it will be better then? That's a fine laugh, Dick. When you've the whole bleeding farm to use as an excuse? Just like last night! You couldn't wait to get there, could you? So don't tell me about the farm! We'll never see you then when you've five hundred acres to hide in!"

Lynley rapped sharply with the rust-grimed knocker on the open door, and the scene froze before them.

With a plate on his knee, obviously attempting to eat some sort of utterly unappetising afternoon meal, a man sat on a sagging couch in a cramped sitting room while in front of him a woman stood, her arm upraised, a hairbrush in her hand. Both stared at the unexpected visitors.

"You've caught us at our very best moment. It was straight to bed next," Richard Gibson said.

★ ★ ★

The Gibsons were a portrait of contrasts: the man was enormous, nearly six and a half feet, with black hair, swarthy skin, and sardonic, brown eyes. He was bullnecked, with the thick limbs of a labourer. His wife, on the other hand, was a scrap of a blonde, sharp-featured and, at the moment, white to the lips with rage. But there was an electricity in the air between them that gave credence to what the man had said. Here was a relationship where every argument and discussion was merely a skirmish before the major battle of who would be master between the sheets. And the answer to that, judging from what Lynley and Havers could see before them, was clearly a toss-up.

Shooting a final, smouldering look at her husband that spoke of desire as much as rage, Madeline Gibson left the room, slamming the kitchen door behind her. The big man chuckled when she was gone.

"Eight stone of tiger," he commented, getting to his feet. "One hell of a woman." He extended a large paw. "Richard Gibson," he said genially. "You must be Scotland Yard." When Lynley had made the introductions, Gibson went on. "Sundays are always the worst round here." He jerked his head towards the kitchen, from which a steady wailing indicated the state of the relationship between mother and what sounded like fourteen children. "Roberta used to help out. But we're without her now. Of course you know that. That's why you've come." He hospitably indicated two antiquated chairs that were belching stuffing onto the floor. Lynley and Havers picked their way across the room to them, avoiding broken toys, scattered newspapers, and at least three plates of half-consumed food that lay on the bare floor. Somewhere, a glass of milk had been left too long in the room, for its sour smell overcame even the other odours of poorly cooked food and plumbing gone bad.

"You've inherited the farm, Mr. Gibson," Lynley began. "Will you move there soon?"

"It can't be soon enough for me. I'm not sure my marriage can survive another month of this place." Gibson toed his plate away from the couch. A scrawny cat slid out of nowhere, sniffed at the dried bread and pungent sardines, and rejected the offering by attempting to bury it. Gibson watched the animal, his face amused.

"You've lived here several years, haven't you?"

"Two to be exact. Two years, four months, and two days, to be even more precise. I could probably get it down to the hours as well, but you get the idea."

"I couldn't help overhearing the fact that your wife doesn't seem to be enthused about the Teys farm."

Gibson laughed. "You're well bred, Inspector Lynley. I like that sort of thing when the police come calling." He ran his hands through his thick hair, looked at the fl oor beneath his feet, and found a bottle of ale that, in the general confusion, had become positioned precariously against the side of the couch. He picked it up and drained it before going on, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. It was the gesture of a man used to taking his meals out in the fi elds. "No. Madeline wants the fens again. She wants the open spaces, the water and the sky. But I can't give that to her. So I've got to give her what I can." Gibson's eyes flicked over Sergeant Havers, who kept her head bent over her notebook. "Sound like the words of a man who would kill his uncle, don't they?" he asked pleasantly.

★ ★ ★

Hank finally caught up with them in the novices' room. St. James looked up from kissing his wife—her skin smelled intoxicatingly of lilies, her fingers moved silkily through his hair, her murmured "my love" against his mouth fired his blood—and there was the American, grinning wickedly down at them from his perch on the wall of the day room.

"Cotcha." Hank winked.

St. James contemplated murder. Deborah gasped in surprise. Hank hopped down, unbidden, to join them. "Hey, Bean," he shouted. "Found the lovebirds in here."

JoJo Watson appeared only moments later, struggling through the doorway in the ruined abbey, teetering dangerously on high heels. Round her neck, as a complement to the chains and trinkets, hung an Instamatic camera.

"Taking some shots," Hank said in explanation, nodding towards the camera. "A few minutes more and we'd've had a few sweet ones-a you!" He snorted with laughter, slapping St. James affectionately on the shoulder. "Don't blame you a bit, fella! If she belonged to me, I couldn't keep my mitts off her." He gave brief attention to his wife. "Dammit, Bean, be careful, woman! Break your neck in this place." He turned back to the other two and noticed Deborah's equipment—camera case, tripod, discarded lenses. "Hey, you taking shots, too? Got sidetracked, huh? That's honeymooners for you. Come on down here, Bean. Join the party."

"Back from Richmond so soon?" St. James finally managed to ask with strangled courtesy. Deborah, he noted, was surreptitiously trying to straighten her clothes. Her eyes met his, full of laughter and mischief, alive with desire. What in God's name were the Americans doing here now?

"Well," Hank admitted as JoJo reached them at last, "I gotta tell you, fella, Richmond wasn't quite everything that you promised it'd be. Not that we didn't get a bang outa the drive. Whatsay, JoJo-bean? Didn't we love it?"

"Hank loves driving on the wrong side of the road," JoJo explained. Her nose twitched. Her eyes caught the exchange of looks between the two younger people. "Hank, why don't we take a nice, long walk toward Bishop Furthing Road? Wouldn't that be a sweet way to end the afternoon?" She put her bejewelled hand on her husband's arm, attempting to draw him out onto the abbey grounds.

"Hellsapoppin, no," Hank answered pleasantly. "I have done e-n-u-f-f walking on this trip to last me a lifetime." He cocked his head at St. James shrewdly. "That was some m-a-p you gave us, fella! If the Bean here wasn't so fast at reading road signs, we'd be in Edinburgh by now." He pronounced it Ed-in-berg. "Well, there's no harm done, is there? We got here in time to show you the death hole itself."