Confessional. Part 47

The jeep roared into the camp, and Murray jumped out holding his shotgun, followed by the village constable who was in uniform but had obviously not had time to shave.

'Where is he?' Murray demanded, and grabbed the boy by the hair and shook him. Tell me, you little scut!'

Donal screamed in pain. 'In the wood.'

Murray pushed him away and nodded to the constable. 'Right, let's get him.' He turned and hurried towards the plantation.

Morag didn't think, simply acted. She ducked into the wagon, found Cussane's bag and threw it into the jeep. Then she climbed behind the wheel and pressed the starter. She had driven it often and knew what she was doing. She took the jeep away, wheels spinning across the rough ground. She turned away to one side of Murray and the constable. Murray turned, she was aware of the rage in his face, the flat bang of the shotgun. She swung the wheel, brushing him to one side and took the jeep straight into the forest of young birch trees. Cussane and Finlay, alerted by the commotion, were running towards the camp when the jeep came crashing through the trees and stopped.

'What is it, la.s.s?' Finlay cried.

'Murray got the police. Get in! Get in!' she said to Cussane.

He didn't argue, simply vaulted in beside her, and she took the jeep round in a circle, crashing through the trees. Murray came limping towards them, the constable beside him and the two men dived to one side. The jeep burst out of the trees, b.u.mped across the rough ground past the camp and turned on to the road.

She braked to a halt. 'Whitechapel won't be right. Won't they block the road?'

'They'll block all the b.l.o.o.d.y roads,' he said.

'So where do we go?'

'We?' Cussane said.

'Don't argue, Mr Cussane. If I stay, they'll arrest me for helping you.'

She pa.s.sed him the newspaper Donal had given her. He looked at his photo and read the salient facts quickly. He smiled wryly. Someone had been on to him a d.a.m.n sight more quickly than he would ever have imagined.

'So where to?' she asked impatiently.

He made his decision then. 'Turn left and keep climbing. We're going to try and reach a farm outside a village called

Larwick on the other side of those hills. They tell me these things will go anywhere, so who needs roads? Can you handle it?'

'Just watch me!' she said, and drove away.

THE GLEN was mainly national forest and they left the road and followed a track through pine trees, climbing higher and higher beside a burn swollen by the heavy rain. Finally, they came up out of the trees at the head of the glen and reached a small plateau.

He touched her arm. 'This will do,' he called above the roaring of the engine.

She braked to a halt and switched off. Rolling hills stretched on either side, fading into mist and heavy rain. He got out the ordnance survey map and went forward to study the terrain. The map was as accurate as only a government survey could make it. He found Larwick with no difficulty. Glendhu, that was where Danny Malone had said the Mungos' farm was, a couple of miles outside the village. The Black Glen it meant in Gaelic and there was only one farm marked. It had to be the place. He spent a few more minutes studying the lie of the land below him in conjunction with the map and then went back to the jeep.

Morag looked up from the newspaper. 'Is it true> all this stuff about you and the IRA?'

He got in out of the rain. 'What do you think?'

'It says here you often pose as a priest. That means you aren't one?'

It was a question as much as anything else and he smiled. 'You know what they say. If it's in the papers it must be true. Why, does it worry you being in the company of such a desperate character?'

She shook her head. 'You saved Donal at the burn and you didn't need to. You helped me - saved me from Murray.' She folded the paper and tossed it into the back of the jeep, a

slight frown of bewilderment on her face. 'There's the man in the paper and then there's you. It's like two different people.'

'Most of us are at least three people,' he said. 'There's who I think I am, then the person you think I am.'

'Which only leaves who you really are,' she cut in.

'True, except that some people can only survive by continuously adapting. They become many people, but for it to work, they must really live the part.'

'Like an actor?' she said.

'That's it exactly, except that like any good actor, they must believe in the role they are playing at that particular time.'

She lay back in the seat, half-turned towards him, arms folded, listening intently and it struck him then that, in spite of her background and the spa.r.s.eness of any formal education in her life, she was obviously highly intelligent.

'I see,' she said. 'So when you pose as a priest, you actually become a priest.'

The directness was disturbing. 'Something like that.' They sat there in silence for a few moments before he said softly, 'You saved my hide back there. If it hadn't been for you, I'd have been in handcuffs again.'

'Again?' she said.

'I was picked up by the police yesterday. They were taking me to Glasgow in the train, but I managed to jump for it. Walked over the hill from there and met you.'

'Lucky for Donal,' she said. 'Lucky for me, if it comes to that.'

'Murray, you mean? Has he been a problem for long?'

'Since I was about thirteen,' she said calmly. 'It wasn't so bad while my Mam was still with us. She kept him in check. But after she left...' She shrugged. 'He's never had his way with me, but lately, it got worse. I'd been thinking of leaving.'

'Running away? But where would you go?'

'My grandma. My mother's mother. She's a true gypsy. Her name's Brana - Brana Smith, but she calls herself Gypsy Rose.'

'I seem to have heard a name like that before,' Cussane said, smiling.

'She has the gift,' Morag told him seriously. 'Second sight in all things, with the palm, the crystal or the Tarot cards. She has a house in Wapping in London, on the river, when she isn't working the fairgrounds with the travelling shows.'

'And you'd like to go to her?'

'Granda always said I could when I was older.' She pushed herself up. 'What about you? Do you intend to make for London?'

'Perhaps,' he said slowly.

'Then we could go together.' This she said to him calmly and without emotion, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

'No,' he said flatly. 'I don't think so. For one thing, it would only get you deeper in trouble. For another, I have to travel light. No excess baggage. When I have to run, I have to run fast. No time to think of anyone but me.'

There was something in her eyes, a kind of hurt, but she showed no emotion, simply got out of the jeep and stood at the side of the track, hands in pockets. 'I understand. You go on from here. I'll walk back down the glen.'