The Voices Read online

  THE

  VOICES

  F. R. TALLIS

  PEGASUS CRIME

  NEW YORK LONDON

  November 1974

  The newsreader’s voice was solemn, his delivery self-consciously measured. Two bombs had exploded in Birmingham the previous evening. They had been left in pubs: the Mulberry Bush and the nearby Tavern in the Town. Nineteen people had been killed and over one hundred and eighty injured. Most of the casualties were teenagers and police believed that the Provisional IRA was responsible.

  Christopher Norton glanced at Laura, his wife. He knew what she was thinking. What a world. What a world to bring a child into. They spoke for a while about how terrible it was, bandied around words like ‘atrocious’ and ‘horrific’, but neither of them confessed their deepest fear. The baby – nameless, unborn – was already arousing their protective instincts.

  The road ahead was dappled with shadow like a country lane. It penetrated the southern edge of Hampstead Heath and led down to a collection of villas nestled at the foot of a wooded slope: a hidden village, concealed in a pocket of London’s complex topography. The houses were clean, well maintained, and produced a typically English impression of quaint gentility. Even the lamp posts were old-fashioned and resembled gaslights.

  Christopher stopped the car and peered through the windscreen. Set apart from the other dwellings was a substantial Victorian edifice. It had bay windows decorated with stone tracery, a magnificent porch and tall, ornate chimneys. Laura unfastened her handbag, removed a powder compact, and studied her face in the small, circular mirror. A swarthy man wearing a bright blue suit was approaching. The collar of his shirt was dark and projected out onto the broad lapels of his jacket.

  ‘Mr Petrakis,’ said Christopher.

  Laura looked up and snapped the powder compact shut.

  They got out of the car and Christopher introduced his wife. The estate agent commented on the bombings and added that a member of his family lived in Birmingham: a cousin studying to be a dentist at the university.

  ‘Is he all right?’ Laura asked.

  ‘She,’ Petrakis corrected. ‘Yes, she’s fine. But we were very worried, as you can imagine.’ Petrakis led them up a path and pushed open an iron gate. The hinges squeaked. ‘Be careful now. Don’t trip.’ Tiles had fallen from the roof and shattered pieces of slate lay on the ground. The garden was wild and full of litter. Mr Petrakis produced a bunch of keys and unlocked the front door. ‘After you,’ he said, ushering them into the hallway.

  The house smelt of damp. All the carpets were rotten and upstairs one of the ceilings sagged ominously. Nevertheless, the stately grandeur of the original features was redeeming. There were marble fireplaces, carved banisters and exquisitely moulded cornices; four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a drawing room and a vast kitchen.

  When Christopher had viewed the property for the first time, he had appreciated its possibilities, but was disinclined to commit himself to such a major restoration project. The house needed a lot of work to make it habitable. Even though the investment would probably pay off in the long term, he had realized the initial outlay would be punitive. His reservations, however, had been mitigated by the airy room on the top floor that he instantly recognized as a potential studio. It was perfect. He had seen, at once, where everything would fit: the guts of an old piano, the mixing desk, the VCS3, the tape recorders. He had imagined himself seated within a horseshoe arrangement of equipment, working on new compositions and pausing to enjoy the view over the treetops.

  After Petrakis had finished showing them around, Christopher asked him why the house was in such a dilapidated state.

  ‘It hasn’t been lived in for years,’ Petrakis replied. ‘Developers acquired the property in the sixties. They wanted to knock it down and build a block of flats, but the local residents objected and planning permission was refused. The company had a large portfolio – too large, actually – and they forgot about this place. As you know, many businesses have been struggling. The company went bankrupt in January. There was a lot of legal wrangling and eventually the receivers were called in.’

  Christopher and the estate agent talked for a little while longer but eventually their conversation stalled. ‘I’m just going outside for a cigarette,’ said Petrakis. He had sensed that the couple wanted to be alone. ‘Have another look around. Take your time. I’m in no hurry.’

  Laura was standing by the French windows, leaning backwards and pushing the tight, unusually rounded bulge of her stomach forward. She pressed the base of her spine with both hands. It was curious, Christopher thought, how pregnancy hadn’t really affected her figure. She was just the same as before, lithe, supple, the only difference being the odd, ball-like distension. Christopher walked over to her and kissed her on the lips.

  ‘Well?’ he asked. ‘What do you think?’

  Laura smiled. ‘It’s amazing, but . . .’

  ‘What?’

  ‘How long would it be before we could move in?’

  ‘I don’t know. A while.’

  ‘Six months?’

  ‘I don’t know. Maybe more. We can manage until then, can’t we?’

  ‘Yes. I suppose so.’

  Laura turned away from him and looked through the grimy French windows into the rear garden, which was a jungle of apple trees, bushes and weeds encircled by a high wall. The original landscaping was buried beneath the overgrowth, but an open space – roughly in the middle – might have once been a lawn. At the far end of the garden was a dilapidated gazebo.

  ‘I expect you’ve already chosen the nursery,’ said Christopher.

  Laura glanced over her shoulder. ‘Of course. The room with the striped wallpaper.’

  Christopher went over to the fireplace and examined the maculated red marble surround. Even the corbels had been carefully crafted. They were shaped like waves and decorated with a scallop shell relief. Many of Christopher’s friends had had their old fireplaces ripped out, because they considered them to be too fussy, too ugly, too ostentatious. Victorian excesses didn’t go well with plain brown walls, white curtains, and the compulsory acreage of shagpile carpet. Christopher’s modernism rarely accompanied him out of the studio. He didn’t like the cold uniformity of contemporary design. He found it soulless.

  Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Laura gasping – an intake of breath that signalled surprise. He looked across the room and saw her cautiously approaching the French windows.

  ‘What is it?’ he asked.

  Laura removed a layer of dirt from the glass with her sleeve, creating an arc of improved visibility.

  ‘Laura? What is it?’ Christopher repeated.

  She met his concerned gaze with a puzzled expression.

  ‘I thought I saw something.’

  ‘What? An animal?’

  ‘No. It was nothing.’ She suddenly appeared embarrassed. ‘I was mistaken.’

  ‘Shall I get Petrakis?’

  ‘Whatever for?’

  Christopher realized he was still reacting to her initial alarm. He moved to her side and surveyed the green expanse. ‘It could have been a fox.’

  ‘No. It wasn’t anything. Really.’ Laura smiled and promptly changed the subject. I’ve always wanted to live in a house like this.’

  ‘It’ll look great. When everything’s done. And so much space. More space than we’re ever going to need. Even if we decide to expand. Plenty of room for brothers and sisters.’ Christopher rested his hand on Laura’s stomach. He felt the impact of a small heel in his palm and Laura raised her eyebrows, smiling at him.

  ‘Did you feel it?’

  ‘Yes. I felt it.’ He kissed her again. ‘Of course, we’re not near any shops here.’

  ‘That’s OK.’


  ‘Pushing a pram up and down the hill isn’t going to be easy.’

  ‘It’ll keep me fit.’

  Christopher took Laura’s hand, and together they walked out into the hallway and up the stairs.

  ‘A lot of famous people have lived in the Vale,’ said Christopher.

  ‘And now you,’ said Laura, playfully.

  Christopher ignored the compliment. Or at least he pretended to ignore it. In fact, he found his wife’s loyalty and support deeply satisfying. He continued: ‘D. H. Lawrence, Compton Mackenzie . . .’

  ‘D. H. Lawrence?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I read Women in Love when I was at school. It felt like I was reading something completely wicked. I thought I’d be arrested if anyone found out.’

  ‘Who gave it to you?’

  ‘One of my friends – Imelda Cartwright. Her parents were old-fashioned intellectuals and quite eccentric. They, didn’t mind her reading Lawrence.’ Laura frowned. ‘Not like my parents. Sanctimonious prigs.’

  ‘Forget them.’

  ‘I have. Though . . .’ Laura paused and it seemed to Christopher that she wasn’t sure whether to express what she was thinking. ‘Though it’s a shame the baby won’t have grandparents.’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said Christopher, remembering his own mother and father – a rather stiff and undemonstrative pair. Even if they had survived their respective illnesses, he didn’t think they’d have been very interested in a grandchild: hospital visits and ongoing treatment had become an almost exclusive preoccupation. Towards the end of their lives, there hadn’t been much room for anything else.

  After reaching the first-floor landing, Christopher and Laura entered the room with striped wallpaper. Laura let go of Christopher’s hand and walked over to the sash window. She looked down into the garden, albeit briefly, but Christopher noticed the casual glance. He couldn’t help but think she was, in some sense, checking.

  ‘The cot will go here,’ said Laura, approaching a corner. ‘And the chest of drawers over there.’ She pointed at the opposite wall.

  Christopher tried to imagine how the room would look after it had been redecorated. Pink for a girl, blue for a boy? Laura occasionally held a pin on a thread above her bump and observed its movements; however, she had never been inclined to share the results of her divinatory experiments. Christopher found it easier to picture pink surfaces rather than blue, and this, perhaps, reflected a slight gender preference on his part, although the idea of producing a daughter aroused many anxieties. Little girls grew up; they became interested in boys and stayed out late. The sexual threat that inevitably attaches itself to an attractive young woman (and Christopher had no doubt that his daughter would be attractive, if only because of her mother) touched the rawest of parental nerves. A daughter would mean many sleepless nights.

  When Laura had finished planning the nursery, she walked briskly out onto the landing and then into an adjacent bedroom.

  ‘I’m just going to the top floor,’ said Christopher. ‘OK?’ He wanted to look at his studio again.

  ‘OK,’ Laura replied. ‘When you’re done, maybe we should let Mr Petrakis get back to his office?’

  ‘Sure.’

  Christopher climbed the stairs, eager and excited.

  That night, they made love. The bedroom curtains were only half drawn and admitted a haze of neon luminescence: a jaundiced city light that transformed objects into floating, pale grey forms. Christopher and his wife lay side by side, both facing the same way, their movements eliciting a slow metallic accompaniment from the mattress springs, a rhythmic see-sawing of pitches. Paradoxically, Christopher’s pleasure was amplified by Laura’s condition, because it necessitated restraint. Frustration seemed to make him exquisitely sensitive.

  Laura curled around her swollen stomach and raised her knees.

  ‘I love you.’

  It was said with unusual force, as though she were making a demand rather than a declaration. Christopher embraced the taught, hard surface, the curved drum of skin. Their hands slid together and locked tightly.

  Sex had never felt so strange: so carnal, and yet so exalted.

  Laura began to breath faster and lowered her knees. The upper half of her body twisted away and she buried her face in a pillow. She emitted a low moan. He raised himself on an elbow in order to watch her climax. In everyday life, she was so careful about her appearance. Her make-up was always applied with fastidious precision, her hair reinforced with lacquer and cunningly trained into a semblance of felicitous neglect. To see her like this – febrile, dishevelled, beaded with perspiration, and lost in abandonment – was unbearably exciting. She closed her eyes and Christopher felt her shudder. He could no longer hold himself back and his explosive release left him feeling deliciously spent.

  The room smelt of joss sticks and fresh linen. Christopher traced a line down his wife’s spine and she acknowledged the contact with a soft sigh. His mind was pleasantly vacant, but it soon filled with recollections of the day: the house, the room he had chosen as his studio, and Petrakis. He needed to get a surveyor, an architect and a reliable builder. The garden could wait.

  This last thought reminded him of Laura, standing by the French windows. The memory reconstructed itself in the soft pastels of his imagination. He saw her once again leaning back and pressing the base of her spine. He remembered her gasping, her agitation as she looked through the glass.

  ‘Laura?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘When we were at the house today . . .’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘What was it that you saw in the garden?’

  ‘I told you. It was nothing.’

  ‘All right, what did you think you saw?’

  ‘A man. A man coming out of the gazebo.’ She paused. ‘But there was no one there. Not really.’

  ‘What did he look like?’

  Laura showed her irritation by striking the duvet. ‘There was no one there.’

  ‘What are you saying? That you were hallucinating?’

  ‘Maybe.’

  ‘Maybe?’ Dismay made his voice climb to a falsetto.

  ‘It happens,’ Laura replied, unperturbed by her husband’s reaction. ‘It’s not uncommon during pregnancy.’

  ‘Since when?’

  ‘Lots of women see things. Dots, shapes . . .’

  ‘You’ve never mentioned that before.’

  ‘Would you have been interested?’

  ‘Yes. How many times has it happened?’

  ‘Only once or twice. I’ve seen the dots – out of the corner of my eye. They move very fast.’ She replicated their trajectory with her hand.

  ‘What’s the cause?’

  ‘Hormones, I suppose. They seem to account for everything.’

  Christopher was silent for a few moments. Then he said: ‘Seeing dots is one thing. But a man? Seeing a man—’

  ‘Hormones,’ Laura cut in. ‘Chris, it doesn’t matter. He wasn’t there.’ She turned to face Christopher. The change of position was difficult for her to accomplish and the effort made her slightly breathless. ‘Why are you going on about this?’

  ‘I’m not going on about it.’

  ‘Yes, you are.’

  ‘All right. What if you weren’t hallucinating? What if there’s a tramp living in the garden?’

  ‘There was no one there,’ Laura said firmly.

  ‘But what if there was?’

  ‘He’ll move on. That’s what tramps do. As soon as the builders turn up.’ A car passed and Laura yawned. ‘Besides, I didn’t see a tramp.’

  ‘What did you see?’

  ‘A man wearing an old-fashioned coat. A frock coat. I blinked – and he wasn’t there anymore. OK?’

  Christopher stroked Laura’s hair. ‘OK.’

  ‘Can we go to sleep now?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Christopher closed his eyes and entered a state that was neither wakefulness nor dreaming, but somewhere in between. He heard fragments o
f conversation and saw flickering images of red double-decker buses, but he remained tethered to reality. He knew all along that he was still in his bed.

  ‘Oh my God!’ Laura screeched.

  Christopher was wide awake in an instant. ‘What? What is it?’

  Laura sat up and put her hand between her thighs.

  ‘Oh my God,’ she repeated, this time less hysterically. ‘I think my waters have broken.’

  ‘Jesus Christ,’ said Christopher. ‘What do we do now?’

  A West Indian nurse, smiling broadly, was standing in front of him, holding out a bundle of terry cloth. Buried in a loop of towelling was a tiny pink face: eyes, nose, lips and ears, compressed into an unfeasibly small space. Christopher took his daughter and sat down on an orange plastic chair. Without breaking the spell of this first, special communion, the nurse repositioned his elbow so that the baby’s head was better supported. Her ministrations were performed with such sensitivity that Christopher was completely unaware that she had intervened. Time became meaningless. Each subjective moment stretched beyond the arbitrary limits of measurement. Christopher, entranced, stunned, placed his index finger into the palm of his daughter’s hand. She opened her mouth and emitted a small cry. Her vulnerability was simply too much to bear. Something seemed to rupture in his chest, the world blurred and tears began to stream down his cheeks. ‘Faye,’ he said very softly, struggling to control himself. ‘Hello, Faye.’

  March 1975

  Four months later

  The door of the house was wide open. Christopher could hear the sound of hammering and loud, distorted music. He locked the car and made his way through the front garden between a yellow skip and piles of stacked timber. After entering the hallway, he turned into the drawing room, where he found two carpenters replacing floor-boards. The air was opaque with cigarette smoke. One of the men noticed Christopher and nodded.

  ‘Where’s Mr Ellis?’ Christopher shouted above the din.

  ‘The governor’s upstairs,’ the man hollered back.

  Christopher climbed to the top of the house where he found a ladder angled into the attic. Footsteps crossed the ceiling and Mr Ellis’s face appeared in the square outline of the hatch. He had long, greasy hair and uncultivated sideburns that grew down to his jawline. ‘Ah, Mr Norton. How are you?’