CHAPTER 12
‘Wholiest Wholefood Store,’ said Ella. ‘Can I help you?’
‘Hi.’
‘Franz? I’m glad you rang. Sharma’s here.’
‘Oh, okay. What’s happening with the boys?’
‘D’you want to talk to him and come back to me afterwards? I’m with a customer at the moment.’
‘Sure.’
‘Hi, Franz.’
‘Sharma.’
He sounded exhausted, Franz thought. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Yes. I’ll just take the phone in the back, Franz; hold on. Okay, now I can talk. I found the place where the boys were being held, but they’ve been taken somewhere else.’
‘You’re sure they were there?’
‘Yes. I found the house and the police found evidence in the communal bins behind it – burnt shreds of school uniform belonging to the boys – but nothing in the house itself, which is divided into flats. One of the flats had been cleaned very thoroughly.’ He paused. ‘Also there were traces of blood on the pavement outside.’
‘Oh no.’
‘They’re not dead. I couldn’t pick up any signals from them for a long time. There was a vague terror, that’s all. They were terrified but they weren’t pinning their fear on to anything concrete. It was as though they couldn’t find anything at all familiar to hang on to.’
‘Have you been out on the streets all this time? All night?’
‘No. I went into a church to sleep and the priest came and spoke to me and made up a bed for me in the sacristy.’
Franz gave a short laugh. ‘It’s as well for you he didn’t know who you are or what you do!’
‘He knew. I told him. He phoned round and got all his folk praying and fasting for me. They’d already been praying for the boys to be found, since the TV news went out. He said he would do anything he could to help. He offered me a meal but I didn’t feel like it. But I did get some sleep. I woke up, I think when the boys were moved. I heard one of them screaming.’
Franz still couldn’t quite believe it. ‘Is this a Catholic priest we’re talking about?’
‘Yes. A nice fellow. I told him I’d let him know what happens. I’d found the house because the boys left an imprint on it but that must have been as they were leaving. I got there too late. But there were fear imprints at various places leading away from the house. The priest drove me. We had to go very slowly and keep stopping but eventually we got back here. I think they’re near here now, Franz.’
‘A Roman Catholic priest offered to drive a psychic halfway round London to help him follow his extra-sensory perception?’
‘He was a human being helping another human being.’ Sharma sounded weary.
‘Sorry. Sharma, is there anything I can do to help?’
‘I don’t think so. Ella’s offered to make me a meal, back at the flat. Maz said she’d cover for her for an hour or two.’
Ella had invited another man back to his flat when he was not there, without asking him? Franz caught himself and stopped the thought. Neanderthal. He replaced it immediately with positive thinking. Ella was helping their friend - his colleague - by taking him to their shared home. She was doing this kind thing not only for Sharma but for Franz.
‘I’m glad to hear it,’ he said heartily. ‘You chill out for a while, Sharma. I’ll catch you later. Call if I can do anything to help.’
‘Did you find someone yet to cover the first session of my courses?’
‘I drew a blank. Tried everyone I knew and quite a few that I didn’t.’
‘You don’t need a clairvoyant, necessarily. Not for the first session. The students can be given some background material to read when they get home, and I usually start with a question session about what their expectations are and their experience, if any. I have some questions written out, so you could give them those as a written questionnaire to fill in for the first twenty minutes. Then give them some visualization exercises. I can give you those too.’
‘Are you suggesting I do it?’
‘You could do it, if you were willing to.’
‘I’m going away for a week or so.’
‘Oh.’
Franz could sense Sharma’s spirits sinking at this news. The poor guy didn’t have much support and was involved in something dangerous and difficult. It wasn’t a good time to leave him. Franz didn’t need to go to Ireland really. Did he?
‘That’s okay,’ Sharma said. ‘I forgot. Ella told me. Ireland, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, but I’m having second thoughts now. Did Ella say we were both going?’
‘No. She wasn’t sure what you wanted. Are you okay, Franz?’
‘Yes, fine. No – I don’t know. I don’t want to let you down, with these courses.’
‘How soon are you planning to go?’
‘Soon, if I do go. In the next day or two.’
‘The first session is scheduled for five days’ time. You wouldn’t be back by then.’
‘I could be.’
That was an idea. He could go for a couple of days, get it over with – however it turned out – and be back before anyone had really missed him.
‘Is there any way you could get the material to me, Sharma, before I go, so I could take it with me and study it while I’m away? No – sorry – forget that. You’ve got enough on your mind without that.’
‘I can get it to you. It’s all on the computer. I can either email it to you or give it to Ella. I’ll do that today, as long as there are no more sudden developments. Okay?’
‘You’re a hero,’ Franz told him.
Sharma laughed, and for the first time sounded lighter. ‘Are you sure you’re all right, yourself, Franz? I feel concerned about you.’
‘You just worry about yourself and the boys. I’m cool.’
He had put the phone down before he remembered Sharma was meant to be handing him back to Ella. The phone rang almost immediately, with a query from Alison about a visitor, so he didn’t have a chance to call Ella back.
‘He says you asked him to come by and take a look at the ceiling in the main hall,’ Alison said.
‘Right. I’m on my way.’
He left the office unlocked and went to the front desk where a tall burly man stood waiting. It wasn’t Rory, the contractor Franz had called.
‘Franz Kane,’ Franz introduced himself, smiling and shaking the man’s hand. ‘Has Rory sent you?’
‘My brother Mick sent me. Mick Murphy. I’m Sean.’
‘Mick Murphy?’
‘Maria’s – Marisa’s - da. Said you had a problem with the ceiling that needed more than a coat of plaster.’
‘He did offer to ask his brother to take a look,’ Franz said carefully, ‘but I said I would have to contact the original builder, and I’m expecting him any time now.’
‘He hasn’t come, then?’
‘Not so far.’
He would have to call Rory again. Going away on this trip would cause more delay. He doubted whether it would be more than a formality anyway; Rory would be unlikely to admit that his firm could have made a major mistake.
‘I might as well take a look at it anyways, seeing as I’m here?’
As Franz hesitated, Sean added, ‘No charge for taking a look, sure.’
‘Okay. Alison, what’s going on in the hall at the moment?’
‘A Pilates class.’
‘With Gerda?’
‘Sharon. Gerda’s off with disc trouble.’
‘Oh yes.’ Not a great advert for Pilates, the instructor getting back trouble, Franz thought. ‘Will Sharon mind if we interrupt the class for a few seconds?’
Alison raised her eyebrows. ‘Probably! Want me to go in ahead and ask her?’
‘Good thinking!’
Sean grinned and shook his head at Franz. ‘Women, huh?’
Franz was defensive. ‘It’s their private space. You can’t expect them to like the builders walking in while they’re in leotards.’
Sean grinned even more widely. ‘Sounds great to me!’
‘You might have to come back another time,’ Franz said. He was angry again.
It was more with himself, he recognized. He had thought nothing at the time of putting Marisa in a vulnerable position. He had made suggestive remarks to seekers who were clearly not on any kind of path to enlightenment and they had taken his tone as permission to treat her as a potential target for their sexual gratification. Hearing the same tone coming out of Sean’s mouth made him find himself repugnant. Even before almost hitting his girlfriend without any provocation. He was in a position of trust at The Healing Place and he had taken it lightly and put women at risk.
It wasn’t fair to take his anger with himself out on Sean. Sean had not come into The Healing Place seeking enlightenment but through the kindness of his brother, seeking to help with a building problem – though seekers came in all kinds of ways for all kinds of reasons, Franz reminded himself. Sean might turn out to be a genuine seeker, for all he knew, and return sometime to use The Healing Place’s facilities or education programme.
He had a sudden vision of Sean, all beer belly and biceps, performing the studied and graceful movements in a Tai Chi class and was seized by an urge to laugh but stifled it. It was another sign to Franz that he was not in control at the moment.
Alison returned. ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘You can go in now.’
‘You’re a magician!’
She laughed. ‘I’ll sign up for white witch classes, shall I?’
Franz smiled reproachfully at her, and she took the point and blushed. No jokes were allowed about Healing Place courses by Healing Place employees in front of outsiders, however implausible the staff member might find a particular set of beliefs.
Franz took Sean into the hall, where the Pilates students huddled in a corner and waited defensively while Sean surveyed the ceiling. Despite his joking remarks he did not, Franz noticed, give more than a cursory nod to the leotard-clad ladies, though his eyes widened slightly when he saw the one male member of the class, also clad in a leotard of a particularly bright shade of shiny pink. Sean seemed more embarrassed than lascivious and kept his eyes, after that first quick glance, on the ceiling. In fact, Franz thought, he hardly did more than glance at that. The two men were out of the hall and back in the foyer in seconds.
‘What do you think?’ asked Franz.
‘Serious problem,’ said Sean. ‘Don’t let your builder pull the wool over your eyes, now. That’s not a matter for plastering. Call me if he tries to wriggle out of it by saying it is. Here’s my card. I’ll bid you good day now. Thank you, lady.’ He nodded to Alison and was gone.
Franz’s heart sank.
‘That doesn’t sound good,’ said Alison.
Franz tried to think of some positive thing to say, and failed.
‘It may not turn out to be too bad,’ he managed finally. He had a clear recollection of Ella saying something about positive thinking becoming denial. If there was a serious problem in the construction of The Healing Place building, there would be no denying it.
He would have to get a surveyor in, sue the contractor, or the architect possibly. Even if he won compensation, it would take a very long time. In the meantime the premises would become a building site, too dangerous for public use, and he would default on his loans and go bankrupt. Ella and he would be homeless, with a newborn baby. He wondered what the Positive Thinking – Change Your Life guide and the Name Your Dream And Claim Your Destiny guide would make of that one. Whatever it was, he didn’t think he’d find it helpful at present.
Ella. He must ring her. It sounded as though she wasn’t expecting to go to Ireland with him. Did she want time apart from him or would she like to go with him? Did she still want them to be a couple at all? He thought so, and not just because of the baby. She loved him; he was almost sure of it. He went into the office ready to call her and saw there was somebody in there already, standing by his desk, looking through his mail.
He had never seen the man before but he knew as soon as he set eyes on him, as well as by the instant return of that unprecedented lethargy that had settled on Franz each time he had spoken to him on the phone, that this was Leroy Watson. Waiting for him.