The Invisible Code(45)
‘She used to play the game with her brothers,’ Andrew explained. ‘It’s an RPG. We vetted it, of course. My wife doesn’t approve, but I don’t see the harm in it. It’s historically accurate, rather like those books, the Horrible Histories, so the kids learn about the English Civil War. I didn’t know you still played it, darling.’
‘I don’t, but Tom had the cards on him, and we were waiting for you and Tom’s dad so we played.’
‘How do you play the game?’ asked Longbright.
‘You pick if you’re going to be a witch or a hunter. Hunters ride to a town in a place called Suffork and listen to accusations from the villagers, and then they find the person who’s a witch. It doesn’t have to be Suffork. It can be wherever you like.’
‘How do players know who’s a witch?’
‘There are lots of questions you have to ask, but you can tell ’cause of the way they look. We couldn’t ask a lot of the player questions because we didn’t have a witch, because Tom wanted to be a witch hunter as well as me.’
‘So you found someone you thought was a witch? Why did you pick her?’
‘Because she was pretty and witches can change their skin, and she was reading a book about eating babies.’
Longbright remembered that a bookmarked paperback of Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby had been found in Amy O’Connor’s handbag. ‘Then what did you do?’ she asked.
‘We pretended to be playing ball so we could get up very close, and I had a good look at her, but I still couldn’t tell if she was a witch. And then we killed her. Can I go now?’
Longbright frowned. Lucy had deliberately skipped the part she needed to hear. ‘Why would you kill her if you couldn’t tell whether she was a witch?’
‘I talked to Tom and he thought she was.’
‘How did you kill her?’
‘We put a curse on her.’
‘How do you do that? Did you talk to her?’
Lucy shook her head. ‘No. We did this.’ She rubbed her fingers together. ‘And we said the thing on the card called an incant … an incant—’
‘An incantation.’
‘Yes, but I can’t remember what it was. Tom has the cards.’
‘I think you did talk to her, Lucy,’ said Longbright.
‘No – she just told us off. That’s not talking, is it? Ask Tom, he’ll tell you about her.’
‘Then what happened?’
‘She got up from the seat, put her sandwich box in the bin and went into the church. And then me and Tom went back into the office.’
‘All right, what about yesterday, when you went to Coram’s Fields? Why were you in the park?’
‘I was bored of waiting. Dad was being a grump and wanted to look at the books on the stall, so I walked away.’
Longbright addressed Lucy’s father. ‘Had you taken your daughter to Coram’s Fields before?’
‘No. I knew there was a garden square opposite but I only had a vague idea there was a children’s park there.’
‘Lucy, how did you find the park?’
‘I crossed the road and there it was.’
‘Have you seen it before?’
‘I can see it when we drive to Waitrose. We never have time to stop.’
‘There’s a camera by the road that photographed you with a man. Who was he? How did you come to meet him?’
Lucy thought for a moment, but there was something too pantomimic about her performance. A finger on the chin, a roll of the eye. ‘Oh, I remember now. He asked me where the farmers’ market was so I told him.’
‘Are you sure? How did he get into the park?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Because the camera shows the two of you entering through the gates at the same time.’
‘He must have been walking close to me or something.’
‘And that’s all that happened? He didn’t say anything else to you?’
‘No. He asked me the way and I told him.’
‘Why would he think you knew the way?’
‘Don’t know.’
‘And then what happened?’
‘I heard Dad calling and ran back to the road, but I had to go all the way around because there’s no gate on that bit.’
‘Did you see what happened to the man?’
‘No. Daddy, we have to go now or I’ll be late for the optician.’
She’s lying by omission, thought Longbright. She spoke to Waters, but maybe he told her not to tell anyone. She might even know why he was killed. Something else must have happened at St Bride’s when the children were putting a curse on Amy O’Connor.