Page 77 of The Running Grave

‘Fire Group,’ said Taio, handing his clipboard to Becca, ‘you’ll come with me.’

From the slight flicker of surprise on Becca’s face, Robin had the feeling this hadn’t been the plan, and she hoped very much that Taio’s decision to lead Fire Group had nothing to do with her.

Taio led his group out of the dining hall and turned right.

‘Laundry,’ he said, pointing at the brick building behind the dining hall.

Ahead was open farmland. Orange figures dotted the fields, which stretched as far as the eye could see, and Robin saw two Shire horses in the distance, ploughing.

‘Chickens,’ said Taio dismissively, as they turned left along a track bordered by cow parsley and passed a gigantic coop in which both speckled and brown hens were strutting and scratching. ‘Back there,’ he said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder, ‘we’ve got pigs and beehives. These,’ he added, pointing ahead at a collection of smaller brick buildings, ‘are the crafting workshops.’

‘Oooh, fun,’ said green-haired Penny happily.

Taio opened the door of the second building. The noise of sewing machines met them.

Two young women and a man were sitting at the far end of the room, using the machines to make what looked like small, floppy pouches, until Robin realised that the small group of people sitting at the nearer table were filling them with stuffing and turning them into small, cuddly turtles. The workers looked around at the opening of the door, smiling. They were sitting a chair apart, leaving space for each of the newcomers to sit between two church members.

‘Fire Group, called to service,’ said Taio.

A friendly looking man in his early forties got to his feet, holding a half-stuffed turtle.

‘Wonderful!’ he said. ‘Take a seat, everyone!’

Robin found herself a space between a very pretty girl who looked Chinese, and was sitting a little further from the table than everyone else, due to the fact that she was in late pregnancy, and a middle-aged white woman whose head was entirely shaven, only a tiny amount of grey stubble poking through. Her eyebags were purple, and the joints of her hands were, Robin noticed, very swollen.

‘I’ll see you all at dinner,’ said Taio. His eyes lingered on Robin as he shut the door.

‘Welcome!’ said the activity leader brightly, looking round at the newcomers. ‘We’re making these for street sales. All proceeds will be going to our Homes for Humanity project. As you’re probably aware…’

As he began talking about homelessness statistics, and the ways in which the church was trying to alleviate the problem, Robin took covert stock of the room. Large, framed signs hung on the walls, each containing a short declarative sentence: I Admit the Possibility; I Am Called to Service; I Live to Love and Give; I Am Master of My Soul; I Live Beyond Mere Matter.

‘… delighted to say our London hostels have now taken nearly a thousand people off the street.’

‘Wow!’ said green-haired Penny.

‘And in fact, we have a beneficiary of the scheme here with us,’ said the activity leader, indicating the pregnant Chinese girl. ‘Wan was in a very bad situation, but she found our hostel, and now she’s a valued member of the Universal Humanitarian family.’

Wan nodded, smiling.

‘All right, so, you’ll find stuffing and empty skins beside you. Once your box is full, carry it back to our machinists and they’ll seal up our turtles for us.’

Robin reached into the box between herself and Wan, and set to work.

‘What’s your name?’ the shaven-headed woman asked Robin in a quiet voice.

‘Rowena,’ said Robin.

‘I’m Louise,’ said the woman, and Robin remembered that Kevin Pirbright’s mother had been called Louise.

She wondered why Louise’s head was shaved. In the outside world, she’d have assumed she’d been through chemotherapy, but the UHC’s spiritual beliefs made that unlikely. Louise’s skin was weathered and chapped; she looked as though she spent most of her life out of doors.

‘You’re fast,’ she added, watching Robin begin to stuff the toy turtle. ‘Where are you from?’

‘Primrose Hill, in London,’ said Robin. ‘Where do you—?’

‘That’s a nice area. Have you got family?’

‘A younger sister,’ said Robin.