by Tim O'Rourke
“What’s this?” The innkeeper breathed deeply as if in shock.
I looked down at the monitor, then back at Tom. “You’d better come and look at this.”
Tom came around the other side of the bar and stared down at the monitor. The time in the top right-hand corner of the screen read 05:36 hrs of today’s date. The car park at the back of the inn was shrouded in darkness but, the image was clear enough to see Mr. Took’s gleaming red sports car. Then from the corner of the screen appeared Took. He carried something in his arms. As he got closer to his car and the camera, I could clearly see that he was carrying the lifeless body of his wife in his arms. Her long, blonde hair trailed over his arms like liquid gold. Her eyes were open as was her mouth. Her face looked to be permanently frozen with a look of fear. At his car, Took cradled his wife’s dead body in one arm as he fumbled with the door. He opened it, then glancing back over his shoulder at the inn to make sure he wasn’t being watched, he forced Melinda’s body into the car. He reached inside, and as if she was nothing more than a bundle of old rubbish, he crammed her body out of sight down into the foot well.
“Jesus,” the innkeeper whistled through his teeth. “You were right.”
Before I’d had a chance to say anything, there was a scream. I looked up to see Mr. Took leap from his chair. He pushed the young waitress away from the door. She fell against the stone wall. In a blink of an eye, Tom bounded over the bar and was chasing after Mr. Took as he fled out the door.
Elbowing the innkeeper out of the way, I raced around the bar and out of the door after Tom. Ahead, I could see Took racing over the scrubland that led to the cliffs. Tom was at his heels. Then, as if in the middle of a game of rugby, Tom leapt into the air, wrapping his arms around Took and bringing him down to the ground. Took began to kick and punch out as Tom wrestled with him. The innkeeper was a big man, but he wasted no time in racing past me and assisting Tom. He pulled Took free as Tom wrestled with him.
“I don’t like no trouble at my inn,” he said, rolling back his fist and driving it into Took’s nose.
I cringed at the hideous crunching sound that followed as blood gushed from Took’s nostrils.
“You’ve broken my nose…” Took cried.
“Shut your mouth, murdering scum!” the innkeeper said as he drove his fist once more into Took’s face. Took stumbled backwards, then collapsed unconscious into the grass.
Tom got to his feet, brushing dirt, grass, and sand from his clothes and hair. “Are you okay?” he asked me.
“Fine,” I said. “And you?”
“Never better,” he grinned at me.
In the distance I could hear the very faint sound of police sirens. I looked at the innkeeper and he looked back at me.
“I don’t know what it is with you two, but something tells me that you don’t want to be around when the police arrive,” he said.
“You guessed right,” I said. Would he cover for us? The guy didn’t like trouble.
He looked over his shoulder in the direction of the approaching sirens, then back at me and Tom. “I’ve got the CCTV evidence and I’m sure the police can figure out the rest,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, you two kids just disappeared while I apprehended myself a killer.”
“But you know my name,” I reminded him.
“Do I?” he winked back at me.
Knowing that he would keep mine and Tom’s secret, we turned away. I had only taken two steps, when I took the key to my room from my coat pocket and handed it to Tom. “Grab my case from my room and I’ll meet you be the car.”
“Why?”
“I just want to have a word with the innkeeper,” I said.
“Okay.” Tom ran back toward the inn.
Tom
With the sound of the police sirens growing ever closer, I raced across the patch of scrubland and toward the inn. The door was open and it wailed back and forth in the wind. I had been right; this place was as creepy as hell. I headed into the bar area. The young waitress was standing by the fireplace, a hand to her head. A thick stream of blood trickled through her fingers. I headed for the stairs and Kiera’s room, then stopping, I turned back.
“Are you okay?” I asked her.
“I grazed my head against the wall of the fireplace as Mr. Took pushed me out of the way,” she said, dabbing the blood away with her fingertips. She seemed to shiver as she looked down at the blood.
“The cut doesn’t look deep,” I said, taking a step closer to her, yet mindful that Kiera and me still had to escape before the police arrived. The sound of the approaching sirens grew louder with each passing second. I saw a napkin on one of the nearby tables and snatched it up.
“Use this,” I said, handing it to her.
She closed her hand around mine. Her touch was almost ice cold. No wonder she had shivered. Perhaps she was going into shock. I looked into her eyes, and where I had only moments before believed them to be a clear blue, they now sparkled hazel in the light from the nearby fire.
“Thank you,” she said, looking right back at me. Then, without warning, she leant forward and kissed me gently on the side of my neck. Her lips were soft and they lingered longer than a simple display of gratitude.
Taking a step backwards, I said, “You’re welcome.” I pulled my hand from hers, her long, cold fingers brushing one last time over mine.
I turned and headed for the stairs, and as I went I noticed that there was a small slip of paper in my hand. With the sirens close now, I pushed the piece of paper into my pocket and raced up the stairs to Kiera’s room.
Kiera
I turned to face the innkeeper. Mr. Took still lay unconscious at his feet.
“Why are you really prepared to lie to the police? You could get into trouble if the truth ever came out. You don’t even know me.”
The innkeeper smiled. “I think I met your father once. He seemed like a good man. It seems only right that I help his little girl if I can.”
“You knew my father?” I breathed.
The innkeeper looked back over his shoulder in the direction of the approaching sirens, then at me. “Go, Kiera, your secrets are safe with me.”
“But…”
“Run, before they catch you,” he whispered.
Turning, I raced back across the scrubland and toward the inn. I reached my beat up old Mini just as Tom came rushing out into the car park, my case under his arm. I took it from him.
“Follow me,” he said. “When we’ve put some distance between here and us, I’ll stop.”
“Okay,” I said.
The wailing sirens were close now. Throwing my case onto the passenger seat, I climbed behind the wheel and started my car. As always, she started first time.
“Good girl,” I whispered, backing at speed out of the car park and onto the road.
With Tom right behind me in his car, I sped away. I glanced back in the rear-view mirror just once. The innkeeper was still standing in the field. The burnt autumn sun cast long, black shadows behind him. From a distance, those shadows made the innkeeper look like he had giant black wings.
Some miles away from the inn, Tom overtook me. We drove for a short time more until Tom pulled in ahead. There was a small picnic area alongside the country road we found ourselves on. I stopped my car behind Tom’s and got out. Together we sat in the sun at one of the nearby picnic tables.
“That was close,” I said.
“Do you think the innkeeper will keep his promise?” Tom asked.
“I think so.”
“I hope so for our sakes,” Tom said. “If Phillips were ever to find out what we’d got ourselves caught up in…”
“I don’t think he will,” I said, thinking of the innkeeper and what he had said to me.
We sat in silence and looked out over the rugged hills and valleys that stretched before us.
“I don’t want to be picky or anything,” Tom eventually said. “But you were wrong.”
“About what?” I asked.
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“Took didn’t strangle his wife in the car like you thought he had,” Tom said.
“In a way, I wished he had,” I said thoughtfully.
“Why?”
“Because when we saw him in the car, he was kissing Melinda Took’s corpse.” I shivered.
“A pervert as well as a killer,” Tom said.
“I don’t think he was a perv,” I said. “Took was probably pulling his wife’s dead body from out of the foot well, when he looked up and saw us. Like I said before, he turned that moment to his advantage, or so he thought.”
We sat in silence again. Tom pulled a slip of paper from his pocket. I could see that there was a series of numbers written upon it.
“What’s that?” I asked him.
“When I went back to get your case, that young waitress gave me her phone number,” he explained.
“I knew you liked her,” I said.
Tom let the slip of paper slide from his fingers and drop to the ground.
“What did you do that for?” I asked him. “I thought you liked her.”
“She’s not the girl for me,” Tom sighed, getting up from the picnic table and heading back toward his car.
I looked back down at the slip of paper and watched it flutter away on the wind.
“Where are you going?” I called after Tom.
He stopped, turned, and looked at me. “To tell you the truth, I have no idea. But wherever it might be, do you want to come?”
“I’d love to,” I smiled at him.
The Mystery of Derren Splitfoot
Kiera
Derren Splitfoot made a gagging noise in the back of his throat. He clawed at his eyes as if they were on fire, then collapsed across the table. It was the rest of us in the room who should have been spooked, not him.
I hadn’t even wanted to go to the séance, but Tom said he thought it would be a fun idea. I only agreed because it was the first time since leaving the town of Ripper Falls that I had seen him smile. I had followed Tom across the country for miles. He had said he had no idea where he was heading next, but he’d asked me if wanted to go with him, wherever that might be. I had agreed. So sitting in my car alone, as I followed him into the night, I listened to Suzanne Vega play on my iPod. The song Small Blue Thing came on and I started to hum along. Listening to that song reminded me of a girl I once went to school with. I think her name had been Lila – or was it Lisa? I forget now. She always looked a little sad. I could see why, so I sidled up to her one day and told her she should listen to that song. She never said whether she liked it or not, but the following day I could see she looked a little less sad. I guess we all feel small and fragile at times. I do. And despite Tom’s cockiness and athletic frame, I knew that deep down he could feel fragile too. He had looked like that as he let that pretty young waitress’s phone number slip from his fingers to be blown away on the wind. Why hadn’t he kept it? Tom was a good looking guy with the charms to match. Whoever Tom ended up with would be a lucky girl. I doubted I would ever be lucky enough to end up with such a nice guy. Knowing my luck, I’d probably end up with some arrogant chain-smoking jerk who swore a lot. All the things I disliked in a guy. But maybe deep down, that was the kind of guy I was secretly attracted to. Like I said to Tom as we sat and watched the sunrise, I wouldn’t know who the right guy for me was until I met him. And perhaps, like me, Tom wouldn’t know who the right girl for him was until he saw her. Besides, I knew Tom wanted to concentrate on his career for now, and that was probably the real reason he threw that young girl’s phone number away. But if I was honest with myself, there was a tiny part of me that was glad he had.
Trying to push thoughts of Tom from my mind, I began to wonder if Melinda Took’s body had been found. Had it been washed up on some remote beach further along the shore? I hoped it had. She could then at least be laid to rest and the police would have more evidence against the vile Mr. Took. I pictured him kissing her corpse in the car. It seemed that some people would stoop very low indeed to try and get away with their crimes. I was learning a lot about the dark and cunning side of people. I was starting to understand that there was more than just seeing the physical stuff, like footprints, loose strands of hair, and blood splatters. I had to learn how to see into people’s hearts and how dark they might be. That’s where the real truth hid. That’s where we kept our darkest secrets – locked away inside of us. Were these killers born evil, or did some event in their young lives turn them toward a path that they found too hard not to follow? I guess I would only ever find out if I were fortunate – unfortunate – enough for such a killer to open up his heart to me one day.
I peered ahead, the brake lights on Tom’s car glowing red. He was slowing down. Glancing at my watch, I could see that it was just after 1 a.m. We had been driving for hours. The last road sign I had seen was pointing us in the direction of the peak district. I knew that was where Tom’s parents lived. I glanced out of the car window, but there was only darkness. While engrossed to my own thoughts as I’d blindly followed Tom, I had lost all sense of direction. It was as if I’d been driving on autopilot. Tom stopped his car just ahead. With the engine still running, he climbed from it. The headlights reflected back off a large metal gate that blocked the narrow road ahead. I sat in my car and watched Tom push it open. As he did, large spots of rain started to fall and splatter the windscreen. Shielding his eyes against the rain with one hand, he waved me forward through the now open gate.
Tom
The only place I could think of heading was home. I knew Kiera didn’t want to return to Havensfield yet and neither did I. To go back there would mean we would have to split again – keep apart – as Sergeant Phillips had ordered us to do. I had no money, so booking into another inn or motel was a no-go. Kiera had already forked out for our rooms at the Railroad Inn and I couldn’t expect her to pay again. Not because of chivalry, but because I couldn’t be a ponce. It wasn’t in my nature. I had burnt out my credit cards and had nothing until payday. I could always ask my parents for money – but I wouldn’t do that either. I wanted – needed – to pay my own way from now on. I didn’t want to be mummy’s or daddy’s little boy anymore. I wanted to be able to stand tall and proud and on my own two feet for once. That was important to me. I’d never wanted for anything in my life. My parents had always provided everything for me. Anything I’d ever wanted they had conjured up. And now for the first time there was something I truly did want and I doubted my mother and father would be able to give it to me. I wasn’t talking about money this time around.
I glanced in my rear-view mirror and saw Kiera trundling behind in her rusty old Mini. I looked away again and concentrated on the road that would lead to my parents’ house. They were away for Halloween, staying in their villa in the South of France. Both had asked if I had wanted to join them, but I said no, telling them that I wanted to spend the time studying for my police exams. I glanced in the mirror back at Kiera, then front again. I hadn’t done much studying; that was for sure. I just couldn’t concentrate and it wasn’t the mysteries we had come across that had scrambled my brains. It was Kiera Hudson who had done that. But I had to get a grip. I had to learn that I couldn’t always get what I wanted in life. You couldn’t buy love – you couldn’t buy a person – and definitely couldn’t buy their heart. And that was kind of strange. The most precious thing that anyone could give you – they gave away for free. True love didn’t come with a price tag or a sell buy date, or instructions. And perhaps that was the thing I was struggling to understand. There was no manual I could go to and read to find out what to do with the feelings I now had racing around inside of me, in my brain and in my heart. For the first time in my life, my mother and father wouldn’t – couldn’t – give me what I wanted wrapped up with a shiny bright bow. I couldn’t put what I wanted together like those construction kits I had been given for Christmas as a boy. There was only one person who could give me what I wanted and show me how to understand the feelings that now prodded a
t my heart. I glanced back at Kiera’s car, then front again. But I sensed that person didn’t feel the same.
Over the last few weeks I had solved many mysteries with my newfound friend, but I feared the greatest mystery of them all I wouldn’t be solving with Kiera Hudson.
Knowing that my mother and father were away and with nowhere else to go, I had decided to lead Kiera back to my home. The place I had grown up. The place where I had everything – but in strange way – it was the one place I had nothing at all. I steered my car up the narrow lane that led to my parents’ country mansion.
Kiera
I waited while Tom swung the gate closed. He climbed back into his car and overtook me on the wide gravel path I now found myself on. Slowly, I followed Tom, the sound of wet gravel crunching under the wheels of my car. Dark rain clouds scudded across the night sky. They drifted apart and the moon shone through. In the silver light I could see what looked like a mansion looming ahead. Vast, neatly cut lawns stretched away on either side of me. Trees swayed in the wind and rain. I remembered Tom telling me that his father was a defence lawyer and was a partner in a prestigious firm. I was now slowly realising exactly how prestigious that firm of lawyers must be.
Tom drew his car to a stop and climbed out. He pulled his coat up over his head and hunched forward. He looked like the Hunchback of Notre Dame as he stood sheltering beneath his coat in the rain. I stopped my car and climbed out, taking my case from the backseat. I looked up at the house and two white pillars were set on either side of the double front doors. The house stretched away to my left and my right, a countless row of windows looking out across the vast rain-soaked lawns like blank eyes.