He paused, infuriatingly, but still Petra was flattered – to have the strength of her bond with Vincent recognised by a stranger. ‘What is it?’ Ellis Brown was a conman, she reminded herself – he knew what she wanted to hear and he would say it at the optimal time to gain her trust.
‘Before you get too involved with him, you should know that he doesn’t plan to be around much longer.’
He delivered it as if it were a shocking denouement, and Petra took pleasure in deflating his grand climax. ‘He already told me. He was planning to leave, but changed his mind. He might stay on a bit.’
‘I don’t think you’re quite aware of where Vincent’s intending to go, Petra.’
‘Tell me then,’ she challenged.
‘He’s leaving to join Beccie.’
13 ‘How can you plan something like this and just act normal?’ Petra pleaded. She wanted to punch him. ‘Why would you even agree to go out with me?’
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘When we met, Ellis Brown had spoken to me once. I didn’t believe him then. Not until the second show. Not until I saw her with my own eyes. He showed me the proof.’
She drew her coat tighter around her and fiddled with her scarf. The sunken park trapped the depressed cold air and swirled it around, making it even colder.
She’d left Ellis Brown where he stood on the street and gone straight back to Vincent’s house, hammering on the door until he answered. In the end, Gloria had poked her head out the upstairs window, and gathered him up and sent him out to speak to her. He’d suggested they go out for a walk – a bit of time away from his screen and the stifling miasma in the house would do him good – and they’d ended up in the dell. The children’s playground at the far side, so bright and cheerful by day, now threw menacing shadows across the dewy grass and against the stone walls surrounding them; the jagged angles reminded her of the sundered legs of a giant, crushed metallic spider. Tendrils of mist were rising, framing the silhouettes of three teens slouched sullenly around the swing set. It was precisely the sort of scene Vincent would make into art. He’d find a way to lift the green tinge in the mist and flare the scars of the street lights. This night-time world was his element, not Petra’s.
‘Even if you could join her – whatever that means – what good would it do?’
She watched the leaves eddy for a long time. She didn’t think Vincent’s silence was evasion; more a respectful consideration of the question. ‘I made a promise.’
She took his hand, not daring to look into his face. ‘I know nothing, but I know this: she wouldn’t want you to stop living. I know it because nobody would want the person they love to die. Can’t you see that?’
‘But Ellis says there’s a way. I believe him. People don’t get that chance. If they did, they’d take it. Can’t you see that?’ He withdrew his hand and clasped his forearm in a defensive girdle around his chest.