INCARNATION Read Free Page A

the receiver with numb fingers. ‘David Laing.’
    ‘Dad? It’s Maddie.’
    His daughter’s voice brought him fully awake.
    ‘Maddie! Thank God. Where the hell are you? I’ve been trying to get hold of you for days. I’ve been worried sick. Barbara said you’d gone off without leaving an address. Are you all right?’ He rattled the words out, barely pausing for breath.
    ‘Calm down, Dad. I’m fine.’
    Ice trickled through his heart. She sounded drugged.
    ‘Where are you?’
    There was a pause. The pause worried him. It was in pauses like that, he’d found, that the darkest revelations lurked to make themselves known.
    ‘I’m with Dr Rose. At his clinic. He’d like to speak to you.’
    David felt his heart fall like a coffin sinking into a grave.
    ‘Put him on,’ he said.
    There followed a series of bumping sounds, then a man’s voice came on the line.
    ‘Mr Laing? I’m glad I caught you at home. I tried all yesterday, but there was no reply and no answering machine.’
    David closed his eyes. He’d been at GCHQ for two days, all day Monday and Tuesday, working with one of the Chinese-speaking cryptographers, trying to crack a new military code they were using during tank manoeuvres in Kansu. He had to go back again at the weekend.
    ‘I’m sorry. I was away on business. When I got back I found I’d forgotten to switch on the answering machine.’
    No, he thought, not forgotten. He just hadn’t wanted to come back to any more abuse from Elizabeth. She’d taken to using up the machine’s entire memory with long tirades about why she’d left him, how he’d driven her to it, why she wouldn’t pay him a penny. It was like having her living with him again.
    ‘Well, it’s all right. We’ve got you now. How are you keeping?’ The all too familiar voice came down the line like a memory leaping out of some inner darkness. How many years had it been? Six, seven? David had thought all that behind them. Rose had saved Maddie’s life and sanity before. He sounded just the same. As though nothing had changed.
    ‘I’m fine,’ said David. He sat on the edge of the bed now, fully alert. ‘How is Maddie? Why is she at the clinic?’
    The brief pause told him everything.
    ‘I’m afraid Maddie’s not too good.’
    ‘She sounded ...'
    ‘I have her under sedation at the moment. I thought it was important for her to speak to you. Later, I’d like you to come over.’
    ‘What’s happened?’
    ‘Another breakdown. She was brought here about one o’clock on Monday morning.’
    ‘Jesus.’
    ‘I’d say her mother was the more likely culprit. I need to talk to you about that.’
    ‘Yes, I rather thought that’s what you were going to say. How’d she end up at the clinic?’
    ‘The police found her in a street off King’s Cross. She was in a distressed state. They were planning to have her admitted to St Pancras, but when she got there she mentioned my name. They’re under too much pressure there as it is, so they were only too glad to be able to off-load her.’
    ‘You don’t off-load people.’
    Rose’s shrug could almost be heard down the line.
    ‘A lot of people get off-loaded nowadays. Usually they don’t end up somewhere as comfortable as this. I take it her mother will be paying.’
    ‘Elizabeth? You can bank on it. In every possible way.’
    ‘Well, that’s for you to sort out. I’ll be happy with a few cheques.’
    ‘Has she been sectioned?’
    ‘No, we’re treating this as voluntary. But if she tries to leave, it’ll have to be done. This is worse than the last time.’
    ‘And you think it’s because Elizabeth has left me?’
    ‘Maddie has referred to that, yes. It seems to be what’s preying on her mind most at the moment.’
    ‘Has she told you the circumstances?’
    ‘Some of them, yes. I’d much rather get those from you and Mrs Laing.’
    ‘I understand. When can I see her?’
    ‘Not at the moment. I want her to adjust to being back in the clinic. Possibly