by Simon Clark
Even though the voice in the mayor’s ear now spoke with perfect clarity that gold object wouldn’t let go. For some reason it seemed important. Come to think of it, the apt word was familiar. Quickly, Wilkes picked it up. Gold links . . . a broken bracelet. Dark blobs stuck to the metal. Heart racing, he turned it over. In the middle of the links, an oblong plate perhaps an inch long; inscribed there a pair of linked names. Ghorlan~Victor.
His heart thudded in his chest as he grabbed the boy. ‘You, child. Where did you find this?’
Archer stared at the bracelet. The kid’s eyes bulged in horror.
‘Did you hear me? Where did this come from?’
‘S’mine.’ Archer glanced back at Jay. Wilkes couldn’t tell whether the look was for backup or because he was frightened of the other boy.
‘Mayor Wilkes.’ Lou advanced through the group of children, her face the picture of astonishment. ‘What on earth do you think you’re doing to the child?’
‘Nothing, he fell . . . I was just helping him to his feet. Look at the elbow. He’s skinned it, I’m afraid.’ Mayor Wilkes made light of it. ‘Worse things happen at sea, huh, young man?’
Before he could react Archer grabbed the gold bracelet from his fingers. A second later he raced down the lane toward the hostel.
‘Someone’s got an appetite.’ Although Wilkes smiled he felt nothing short of fury at the child snatching the jewellery from him. Even so, his memory had caught a perfect picture of the gold bracelet sitting there on his palm. He recalled the links speckled with brown. In his mind’s eye were those two engraved names: Ghorlan~Victor. He would remember that boy the next time they met. And there was one thing Mayor Wilkes was sure of. It would be very soon.
Twenty-Four
Victor found Laura serving lunch to the children in the hostel’s dining hall. She carried a tray piled high with sandwiches from table to table.
‘Laura, I’ve got to talk to you.’
‘And I’ve got to listen I suppose.’ She caught the eye of a teenage boy. ‘John, drink the juice, don’t squirt it at Tricia.’
‘Look, I’m sorry,’ Victor told her. ‘It’s my fault. I should have made time to talk to you.’ Inwardly, he winced at the memory of the arguments with both Laura and Lou. ‘Can we go somewhere private? I’ve got something important to tell you.’
‘All the hostel staff have the bug.’ She nodded at the sandwiches. ‘Lou’s in the kitchen making more of these. I’m going to have my hands full this afternoon.’
Victor felt as if he’d explode if he didn’t tell her about what had happened. But where to begin? The night-time encounter with his dead wife? The arguments with Lou and Laura needed resolving. Yes, he was a bonehead. Yes, he retreated into his shell at the first sign of commitment. He saw that now. And, more importantly, they simply had to do something about Jay. Victor felt a deluge of cold, stark fear when he recalled how he’d met Jay by Ghorlan’s tree, and how the jetliners had nearly converged. Also, there was the not inconsiderable matter that he’d lied to Jay that he and Laura planned to get married. Right then, he wanted to spill the beans – a vast amount of troublesome beans. Laura, however, was encouraging the sedated Max to eat.
‘Laura, this is important . . . hugely, vastly important.’
‘Victor, can’t you see how busy I am?’
‘When can we talk, then?’
‘Not now, that’s for sure. Also I promised to help Dr Nazra this afternoon. The poor man is making so many home visits he hasn’t slept in days.’
‘Laura, what are we going to do about Jay?’
Max crushed a sandwich in his hand. Tears ran down his face.
Laura hissed, ‘I can’t talk now. These children are an emotional time bomb. We’re doing everything we can to stop them blowing sky-high.’ At the next table a teenage girl burst into sobs. A boy standing by the doorway used a fork to scrape the skin on the back of his hand red raw. ‘Please, Victor, let me do my job.’ She set the sandwiches down then ran to take the fork from the boy.
Victor stood there for a moment. The words he longed to express seethed inside of him; they needed to erupt from his mouth in a torrent. Yet, he could say nothing to Laura for now. Near bursting point with frustration, he stormed out of the hostel. He knew that very soon he must do something about Jay. At that time the only remedy he could see frightened him. It frightened him badly.
Eight-year-old Archer ploughed his way across the dining hall. The gold bracelet in his hand worried the life out of him. He knew the speckles on it were blood – the dead woman’s blood. If he didn’t tell Laura about the bracelet he suspected that monster woman would find him. And probably hurt him as punishment. Archer knew that the Ghorlan~Victor bracelet was important. Evidence. He chanted the word in his mind. Evidence . . . Evidence . . . There’s been a murder. The woman’s corpse has been left in a car that’s hidden underground. He was sick of carrying the bracelet round with him. Always he had to make sure it was safe. That he didn’t lose it. This morning Mayor Wilkes had seen it. Archer hadn’t liked the look in the man’s eye when he examined it. Somehow it reminded him of the look in the eyes of the men that shot his father. A cold, mean look. One that said dirty business had to be done. Archer reached Laura who sat at a table with Ricky. She was using disinfectant wipes to clean a graze on the boy’s hand. It was vital he show Laura the bracelet.
‘Laura,’ Archer blurted. ‘Look what I’ve got.’
‘I’m sure it’s very nice, Archer, but can’t you see I’m busy?’
‘It’s important. I’ve got something to tell you.’
‘Everyone today has something important to tell me,’ she said calmly as she examined Ricky’s self-inflicted wound to his hand. ‘But it will have to wait.’
‘Laura. There’s this car, and – and I found this . . . evidence. It’s evidence about a crime.’
Ricky jerked back in his chair.
Laura strove to be patient. ‘Sit still, Ricky. You’ve broken the skin. If the fork wasn’t clean you’ll need—’
Ricky’s eyes bulged as he stared across the room. ‘It’s Jay. He’s watching me. I don’t want to be the same as Max. I don’t!’ He pushed himself away from the table. ‘Don’t look at me, you witch!’ He ran toward the kitchen door.
‘Laura . . .’ Archer ached inside, he was so desperate to show Laura the bracelet. He didn’t feel safe with it. At that moment he realized how dangerous it was to be its keeper. What if the dead/alive woman appeared in his bedroom tonight? Had Victor anything to do with the woman’s death? Was he the same Victor that was inscribed on the bracelet? Why had Mayor Wilkes demanded to know where the bracelet had come from? Whatever you do, give the bracelet to Laura, then I’ll be safe, he said to himself. ‘Laura. I found this bracelet! Look at it, Laura . . . look at the names on it!’ But all Archer saw was a swinging door. Laura had raced into the kitchen after Ricky.
More than anger Archer felt fear. He wanted rid of this bracelet. It was as if he were fastened to its gold links; they wanted to embed themselves into his flesh. ‘Bloody thing, damn thing,’ he muttered as he exited the dining hall for the hostel garden. Its picnic area was deserted with the exception of Jay. The eleven-year-old sat on a bench staring upwards like there were phantoms in the sky that only he could see. Kids from Badsworth Lodge habitually avoided Jay. Archer, however, knew he must talk to him. A cold breeze tugged at the trees, making the big old trunks groan. A sound that seemed full of pain. Archer shivered. This wasn’t good. Jay had gone into one of those trances of his, just like he did before he started repeating someone’s name. And bad, bad things would happen to that someone. Archer knew the score all right. He knew exactly how Jay’s evil power worked. Air currents tugged Jay’s black hair like ghost fingers ruffled it.
‘Jay,’ Archer began awkwardly. ‘I don’t want it any more.’ He held out the Ghorlan~Victor bracelet. ‘I want you to have this now. It’s scaring me.’
Jay didn’t respond.
Archer co
ntinued. ‘I’ve tried to give it to Laura, but she’s busy with the other kids. She hasn’t got time to talk to me, and I hate it, it’s not fair.’
Jay focused on the hand. ‘Take it to Victor.’
‘Victor? Not likely. He probably killed the woman in the car. Laura’s the only one I want to tell.’
‘When I was watching the planes in the sky, when I knew they’d crash into each other, Victor told me he was going to marry Laura.’ Jay seemed to be thinking aloud rather than addressing Archer. ‘I was sure the planes would meet in the sky, then there’d be fire, and dead people all over the fields. But when Victor told me about marrying Laura something switched off in here.’ He touched his head. ‘In a way I wanted the planes to crash, they needed to crash, it would have felt good if they had.’ He swallowed. ‘All those people . . . What Victor said stopped me making it happen. The planes flew away without anyone being hurt.’
Archer was stunned. ‘Victor’s going to marry Laura? What if he does the same to her as he did to the woman in the car?’
‘I like Victor.’
‘Jay, don’t trust anyone, except Laura . . . and Lou’s OK, but grown-ups . . .’ His face burned with anger, ‘they pretend to be nice but then they hurt you. My dad said he loved my mum but he used to punch her.’ That anger turned into a dark vengeful fury, just like it did when he told the gunmen where to find his father hiding in the cellar. That was such a good feeling when Dad got shot in the face – blam, blam – he’d never hurt Mum again. So Archer hardly knew he was uttering these dangerous words, ‘Jay, you know what will happen if Laura marries Victor?’
Jay murmured, ‘They’ll be happy. I want them both to be happy . . .’
‘No, no, no,’ Archer screeched. ‘If they get married Laura will go away. She’ll leave. She’ll stop living with us at the Lodge. Do you want her to go? Someone else will get her job; they might do rotten things to us. Remember Miss Pryke. When I was having a bath she used to hold my head under the water. Listen to me, Jay.’ He gripped the boy’s thin wrist. ‘Jay, you’ve got to stop ’em getting married.’
Jay shook his head.
‘You must!’ Archer experienced a sudden revelation. ‘I know how you can do it. Jay, look at me! This is what you’ve got to do. Keep repeating Victor’s name. Say “Victor” over and over again. Then you put your curse on him. He’ll get killed. Laura will stay with us, and everything will be all right.’
‘Victor?’ Jay appeared dazed.
‘That’s it,’ Archer gripped Jay’s wrist tighter. ‘Keep saying his name: Victor, Victor, Victor . . .’
Jay’s face grew shiny with perspiration. A tremor started in his cheek. Archer snarled his satisfaction. All the signs were there. This was just how Jay acted when he put his curse on people.
Archer urged him, ‘Stop him taking Laura from us. Say his name: Victor, Victor . . .’
Jay’s lips moved, forming a name, yet still utterly silent.
‘That’s it, Jay. Victor’s name. Keep repeating it.’
When Jay began to chant a name the one he uttered wasn’t the one that Archer expected at all. In horror, he backed away, his hands firmly clamped over his ears. ‘Don’t say that one . . . not that one.’
Twenty-Five
Mayor Wilkes strode along Main Street to the home of his PA. Heavy black cloud boiled in the sky. Gales whipped the river into angry waves that seethed white on the shoreline. Gulls screamed.
‘Damn these kids,’ Wilkes fumed. ‘The quarantine’s bad enough, now this.’ Sight of the gold bracelet this morning had shocked him. He knew exactly who the bracelet belonged to. He’d read the name inscribed on the oblong piece of gold: Ghorlan~Victor. Now he needed to investigate this further, then find a solution to this new problem. Despite his anger, he grinned. ‘Problems make me perform better. Give me obstacles: I get better results.’ He rammed open the door, then thundered upstairs to June’s apartment.
Victor Brodman watched Mayor Wilkes march along the street as if he owned the whole island. What on earth drove a human being to act in such an arrogant way? Victor shook his head as he stood on the jetty. A cold breeze jetted against his hot skin. Spray from waves, smacking against the wooden structure, speckled his clothing. The tang of salt told him that the ocean winds were carrying a storm this way.
Archer listened in horror as Jay repeated the name. The boy’s lips moved to a deadly rhythm. ‘Laura . . . Laura . . . Laura . . .’
To Archer, hearing Laura’s name uttered by Jay, the witch, the curse boy, the monster with a child’s face, was overwhelming. Archer knew the outcome. He’d witnessed Jay chanting Maureen’s name. And all the rest of those people that had been doomed by this little boy with the devil inside of him. ‘Laura . . . Laura . . .’ The soft voice had all the dark power of a tolling bell that foretold impending disaster.
Waves of fear rolled through Archer. That fear had the power to plunge him back into vivid memories of the day he told the gunmen where his father hid in the cellar. Blam, blam, blam. Bullets had exploded the face of the man who’d treated Archer and his mother so cruelly. Memory hauled him back to the dormitory at Badsworth Lodge when he’d seen Maureen loom over his bed just hours after she’d been crushed between the buses. Then he was back in the vault under the castle again. The gloomy place where it was always night-time. Spiders. Cobwebs. Fungus smells. The car with the thing in the back. The woman with the mass of black hair. Her face had been shrivelled like an old peach, yet she had beautiful blue eyes. Archer’s muscles locked tight. Yet, instinct drove him to walk away from Jay . . . bad Jay . . . witch Jay . . . because Jay chanted Laura’s name.
He should warn Laura. Nasty . . . bad . . . awful things would happen to her. Archer loved Laura. If she died he doubted if he would survive without her. The eight-year-old made it as far as the dining hall where he collapsed on to the floor tiles, dead to the world.
Mayor Wilkes glared at June. ‘This isn’t a social call,’ he hissed. ‘I’m not here with a bunch of grapes and to enquire if you’re feeling better.’
‘I never expected you would.’ June’s face bled nothing less than complete resignation. Her hands were shaking. ‘Damn, I thought I was getting better.’
He eyed her with distaste. She wasn’t an A-class employee; she was, however, loyal. Then she had to be. Without this job she’d be homeless. No one was going to employ a convicted fraudster. Just another lousy crook who had got caught.
June sipped water from a glass. ‘What do you want me to do?’
‘Nothing too arduous.’ He grinned. ‘It’ll be like taking candy from a baby.’
She stared blankly at him.
Damn idiot of a woman. Irritably, he said, ‘A child, one of the Badsworth Lodge creatures, has something of mine.’
‘Something of yours?’ Her dull eyes gazed up at him.
‘Yes, a boy called Archer. You can’t miss him. He’s tiny, almost a dwarf. Lots of blond curly hair. Only his face . . . you’d think he was forty, if he was a day. Peculiar-looking kid. Then that lot from the orphanage always are.’ He grimaced. ‘What makes them like that God alone knows. Anyway, this specimen has a gold bracelet. I want it.’
‘A bracelet?’
‘Yes, can’t you follow what I’m telling you, June? It’s blindingly simple. Archer has a gold bracelet. Go get it for me.’
‘How?’
‘Use your initiative. Offer to help out across at the hostel, they’re short-staffed so they’ll welcome even a dried-up husk like you. Get in there, find Archer. The bracelet’s in his pocket. Take it from him.’
The stare became even more glassy.
Wilkes debated whether a slap across her face would sharpen her wits. Tempting . . . Instead, he slammed his hand down on the tabletop. ‘Wake up, woman. Surely you’re over this wretched bug. Now, once you have the bracelet bring it to me at my house. Don’t let anyone else see it. Don’t tell anyone about it . . . Dear God, June. Snap out of it. This infection only lasts twenty-four hours a
t the most. Don’t go faking being ill.’
She rubbed her forehead. ‘I’m . . . uh . . . sorry. I thought I was getting better. I’m finding it hard to . . . think properly.’
‘June, take the bracelet from the boy. Where do you think you’re going?’
‘I need to lie down for a while.’ Unsteadily, she walked down the hallway toward her bedroom.
‘Heaven preserve me from imbeciles,’ he barked in the direction of the bedroom door. ‘I’ll do it myself. But don’t get too comfortable. As soon as the quarantine’s lifted you’re out of this place. Do you hear?’
Wilkes marched out into the street as the wind roared past the houses. He couldn’t delay this any longer. It was time for him to find Archer. Then take the bracelet. And no more Mr Nice Guy. His lip curled into a grin. As if I was ever such a thing.
Twenty-Six
That old tingle ran through him. One that told Mayor Wilkes the hunt was under way. Sometimes it would be the hunt of the commercial deal, or a strategy to crush a political competitor. This time the tingle came upon him as he walked briskly along Main Street in the direction of the hostel. With June, his PA, confined to her sickbed he’d find Archer himself. Then he’d get hold of the bracelet. That promise of action was enough to get his adrenalin flowing. In the hostel’s dinner hall he found commotion. Laura shepherded children out into the garden through the hall’s rear doorway. Lou sat cradling a boy on her lap. It was the boy with the middle-aged face. He appeared to be asleep. However, the concern on Lou’s face suggested there was more to this than met the eye.
‘Lou,’ Wilkes said, ‘is Archer all right?’