Beyond Recall by Robert Goddard

Author:Robert Goddard
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Mystery, Historical, Thriller
ISBN: 9780552164184
Publisher: Corgi
Published: 1997-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

"I thought at the time your grandmother wanted to make sure her brother's murderers didn't wriggle out of answering for what they'd done. But later, when I heard how much came down to her from old man Carnoweth' swill, just how much richer he' dbeen than any of us had thought, well, I felt sicker than a whipped dog, I don't mind admitting. I'd helped her make sure, all right, of putting more noughts on her bank balance than I ate boiled eggs in a week. For the sake of barely a hundred pound thrown away on Doreen's glad rags."

"You could have spoken out."

"With Michael Lanyon dead and no-one likely to believe me? Talk sense, boy. Your grandmother could have denied the Holy Ghost without turning a hair. And there was Doreen to consider. She didn't know, see. Not a thing. Thought I'd cleared the debt with back pay from Killigrew's.

She was a simple soul, with no head for figures, so she never questioned it. Besides, I'd been taken for a fool right enough, but there's worse things than that to suffer."

"Like being hanged for a crime you didn't commit on the basis of false evidence."

"But Michael Lanyon did commit it. You know that sure as I do."

"If you're so certain on the point, why are you telling me this?"

"Cos doubts creep in here with the draughts and the unaccountable noises I hear when I lie awake at night recollecting his face as he stared at me across the courtroom. And I don't see why I should be the only one to bear them."

To that extent, I realized as I walked through the woods at Trelissick, Vigus had got what he wanted. I shared the burden with him now. I knew. Worse still, I suspected. Had Gran confided in any other member of the family? Dad had told Mum to ignore Vigus, to forget all about him. Why? Why so very adamant? I looked down through the trees at the King Harry Ferry and listened to the steady clanking of its chain as I wound in the thread left trailing down the years. One lie was a single crack that could become a thousand shatter-lines in the smooth mantle of my family's past and present. It didn't prove anything. It didn't vindicate anyone. But it meant I couldn't stop.

Tully still held the key, more firmly than ever. Treffry had told me, and Nicky before me, that he could never be found. But then Treffry had called Sam Vigus a reliable man. The truth was that he didn't want to find Tully, whereas I did. Maybe, if Nicky had heard Vigus's confession, he wouldn't have given up so easily. Maybe he'd have done what I was now determined to do: track down Edmund Tully, wherever he might be hiding.

Trust was another victim of Vigus's revelations. I didn't know who I could rely on and who I couldn't. Gran had spoken to me, no-one else.

She'd been dumb and inert for the best part of two days prior to my arrival, garnering her strength, perhaps, ordering her thoughts.

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