At moments like this, the memory of Nathalie returned. He missed her so badly that he wanted to cry. As he stepped back into the foggy drizzle, he decided to avoid the theatre in order to spare Elspeth embarrassment, and walked off into Soho to buy himself a mug of cocoa.
When he reached the corner, something made him stop and glance back at the theatre. He looked up at the pairs of mullioned windows, and had the briefest impression of being watched through the mist. A pale twisted face, a fleeting presence, like the fading heat of a handprint on glass. It dipped back from the window, and the thought of his aberrant imagination chilled him. He was starting to believe that buildings held ghosts.
‘There’s something in there I don’t understand,’ he told May later. ‘I want to take someone in with me after dark.’
‘Don’t say it,’ warned May. ‘Don’t tell me you want to go ghost-hunting in a theatre at midnight with one of your clairvoyant pals.’
‘That’s exactly what I’m going to do, how did you know?’ asked Bryant innocently. ‘Edna has a good sense for these things.’
‘Not your alternative theologian, the woman with the cats,’ groaned May. DS Forthright had told May about the eerie afternoon she had once spent with Bryant and Edna Wagstaff in a rundown slum flat filled with feline familiars.
‘We’re lucky she’s had a cancellation and can fit us in so soon. She doesn’t normally make house calls.’
‘You’ve already spoken to her? What have you arranged?’
‘She’s meeting us outside the stage door at midnight tonight.’
‘No, Arthur, you promised Davenport you wouldn’t. No mumbo-jumbo, he said.’
‘I think she might be able to do some good. Sensations of pain and harm are as visible to her as the walls around us. She doesn’t charge, but I usually drop her something. Mrs Wagstaff is tormented by her gift. Past, present and future are all the same. Everything crosses over. The only way she can relieve the pain her gift causes is by using it to help others.’
‘And you really believe this?’ asked May.
‘With all my heart.’ Bryant’s pale blue eyes were so wide, so honest that he had to be telling the truth.
‘I’m sorry I’m late. The blackout and the fog. I had to follow a tramline to get here, and then I followed it too far.’ Tall and ascetic, wrapped in a frayed black coat and carrying a cat box, the old lady looked considerably more frail than when Bryant had last seen her.
‘Hello, Edna,’ he said jovially, ‘I hear you’re still living on the Isle of Dogs.’
‘Oh yes, Arthur, one of the last. I’ve been bombed out twice now, and I lost my Billy, my proud boy, at Dunkirk. At least he saw service.’
‘I’m so sorry,’ said Bryant, taking her hand.
‘He was happy to be mobilized. The air force and the navy have no chance to stop and think because they stay on duty around the clock. My boy spent so much time confined to barracks, he was so terribly bored with the endless drills. At least it was an active end.’
‘But how are you?’
‘Oh, they keep trying to rehouse me. I had people round from the council, telling me my cats were insanitary. I explained they were all dead, what harm could they do? How could you catch fleas from them? They were sprayed for parasites when they were stuffed. They want me to go to a home in Stepney. That’s miles away.’
‘Can’t your daughter take you in?’
‘She’s gone to the WRNS. I’m very proud. I wouldn’t want to bother her.’ She made her way up the stairs with awkward slowness. ‘You know, I haven’t been to the theatre in years.’
‘Edna, this is my new partner, Mr May.’
She reached over and shook his hand, then hastily released it.
‘I do beg your pardon, Mr May. What a jolt. I get very strong feelings from some of the people I come into physical contact with, mostly the young ones.’
‘Oh, really?’ said May, rubbing the static shock from his fingers with some embarrassment. ‘What did you get from me?’
‘Best not to say, just in case I’m wrong,’ said Edna mysteriously. ‘Let’s not dwell on what hasn’t happened yet. I brought Rothschild with me. He’s an Abyssinian, the lion of cats.’ She raised the cat box high.
‘Are you sure this is a good idea?’ whispered May.
‘Edna sees things.’
‘And I can smell something.’ May grimaced. ‘I think it’s her.’
‘I just need to pick up the psychic scent,’ she called over her shoulder.
‘I don’t know how she’ll do it, she’s wearing so much of her own. She needs a bath, Arthur. And she’s got her wig on back to front.’