Midnight

57

W hen Nightingale had finished telling her what he’d seen on the CCTV footage in Mitchell’s house, he picked up his glass and toasted her. ‘So what do you think?’

She ran her fingertip around the rim of her glass. ‘How am I supposed to answer that?’ she said. ‘Nothing that’s happened over the past few weeks makes any sense, not really. It’s like the whole world has turned upside down for us but for everyone else life just carries on as normal.’ Jenny sipped her wine, then put down her glass. ‘I don’t think you imagined it,’ she said. ‘I know that’s what you think I’m thinking.’

‘I wouldn’t blame you.’

‘Just because the CCTV didn’t show Proserpine, doesn’t mean that she wasn’t there.’ She leaned towards him. ‘I believe you, Jack.’

‘I know you do. But there was a hell of a lot of video of me just standing there with a blank look on my face.’ He shrugged. ‘Maybe it was all in my head. Maybe I imagined the whole thing.’

‘You’re not a man given to making things up, Jack. I know that much about you.’

‘You didn’t see the video, Jenny. There was just me, standing on the patio. But that’s not what happened. At least, it’s not what I remember happening. She was there. Mitchell came out through the French windows and she… she did something. He was frozen to the ground and then she sent him to Hell. Mitchell’s people tried to stop her. And her dog, it became this… this thing. This three-headed dog-thing.’

Jenny chuckled. ‘You see, if you were making it up you’d come up with something better than that.’

‘The dog-thing killed Mitchell’s men. But there were no bodies. No nothing.’

‘You don’t take drugs, do you?’

‘Of course not.’

‘And you’re not prone to hallucinations, are you?’

Nightingale shook his head.

‘So no, I don’t think you made it up and I don’t think you imagined it. I think it’s more likely that something was done to the video. Either by Mitchell’s people or by Proserpine. Someone who didn’t want people to know what happened.’

Nightingale swirled the ice cubes around his glass. ‘Just so long as you don’t think I’m going mad.’ He drained his glass. ‘Another?’

‘You said one drink, Jack. You’ve had two already.’

‘One more won’t hurt. It’s not as if I’m driving far, is it?’

‘Jack…’

‘Okay, okay. I’ll have a Coke.’ He stood up and kissed her on the cheek. ‘I don’t know what I’d do without you.’

‘Carry on like this and pretty soon you’ll be finding out,’ she said.

Nightingale winked at her and headed for the bar.