Moonlocket

by Peter Bunzl

  What a wonder it was! And it would surely be even more radiant in daylight – if they were ever destined to see it in such conditions, for the water had almost reached their chests. Without further ado, she pulled the diamond from the safe and, holding it above her head, waded towards Jack, dragging Robert along behind her.

  Jack held the lantern high and rushed down the metal steps of the platform to meet them. He snatched the diamond from her hand and was about to stuff it in his pocket when there came a clang from behind him.

  Finlo rested his crowbar against the metal rails of the platform. “I think you’d better give me that, Da,” he said. “I know the kind of tricks you’re capable of pulling. I imagine you’ve no intention of splitting the diamond, and I’m afraid I can’t let you walk away with it.”

  Jack grasped the stone tight in his fist. “I spent fifteen years inside waiting for this moment, boy, and I’m not going to let you take it from me. You’ll get what’s coming to you, if you do as I say.”

  “That,” said Finlo, “is what I’m afraid of. But not this time.”

  “What’re you going to do?” Jack asked. “Kill me? Your old dad?”

  “I will if I have to. You can’t bully me any more, Jack.” Finlo took a step towards him. “I’m my own man now.”

  “Are you?” Jack asked. “Or are you the same snivelling worm you’ve always been?”

  “Don’t underestimate me.” Finlo’s face turned purple with fury, he raised the crowbar over his head.

  Lily braced herself for the thud.

  But Jack laughed and, with a wave of his hand, the diamond vanished and a gun appeared in his grasp. A tiny pepperbox pistol.

  “You know the difference between you and me, Fin?” he asked.

  Finlo shook his head.

  “I know when to keep my powder dry.” Jack jerked back the trigger and a bullet exploded from the muzzle of his pistol. Finlo dropped the crowbar and it clattered to the floor of the platform. He clutched at his chest.

  Lily blinked in shock as Finlo listed sideways and plunged over the rail with a splash. Blood seeped into the water. His body sunk for a second then drifted upwards in the rising tide. His bowler hat bobbed from his head and bumped against the base of the metal staircase.

  Robert gasped and scrambled up the steps away from it.

  Jack had killed his son. And for what? A stone. He was no father, no grandfather either – just an evil, selfish man.

  “Time to go.” Jack raised the lantern and waved his pistol at them both. “I’ve a boat waiting in the Thames. I’m going to need someone to row me to Tower Bridge in time for the big finale. You two’ll do fine for that, I think!” He grinned, patting at a bulge in his pocket. And, with a start, Lily realized that he’d hidden the diamond there during his sleight of hand.

  Back in the main tunnel the Fleet River had engulfed the path. Here the water was fast-flowing and had already grown knee-deep. Lily felt queasy. Jack stopped to consult the engraved map on the locket round his neck, and used his fingers to trace a path. When he’d got a sense of where they were, they headed off again.

  But soon they heard the echo of footsteps, and glimpsed a faint far-off light. Jack threw Lily and Robert against the edge of the passage and crowded in behind them, blowing out the flame in the lantern. “Keep quiet, both of you, or else,” he said, raising the gun and resting it on Lily’s shoulder.

  Lily’s legs shook. She leaned forwards and narrowed her eyes, trying to see who was coming.

  In the dimmest of dim lights, she could make out a silhouette holding a lantern. As it pushed through the waters, she saw a furry creature wound around its neck like a stole. Tolly and Malkin!

  Lily’s heart ticked hard in her chest. Tolly couldn’t see them in the dark; he didn’t know Jack was armed.

  Jack took aim and cocked the hammer, and with a lurch of horror Lily realized he actually intended to shoot again. “Tolly!” she cried. “Hide! Jack’s got a gun!”

  “Don’t come any closer!” Robert added.

  Tolly threw himself behind a narrow brick pier.

  “Be quiet!” Jack shouted and pushed them both out of the way. Lily’s head bounced off the bricks. In a haze of pain, she glanced at Jack. He waved the gun about, searching the tunnel for Tolly’s light. There wasn’t much time…

  She barrelled forwards, throwing her weight against him, and pushed.

  Jack slipped on the slime-coated floor, and tumbled. He yelled and threw out his hands to break his fall, and then plunged into the stream of sewage. Ripping the gun free, he raised it and fired – but it fizzled, wet and useless.

  “Blasted thing!” he cried, tossing it away.

  Robert rushed forward in a flash, smacking one hand against Jack’s chest, and snatching the Moonlocket from around his neck with the other. While Robert had him distracted, Lily seized her chance and shot a hand into Jack’s pocket, plucking out the diamond. “OY!” Jack grabbed wildly at them both, trying to get his treasures back, but he didn’t know who to go for first.

  Suddenly, with a lurch and a scream, he slipped. His feet teetering in the current, arms flailing about the air. His face darkened as he opened his mouth to curse them all, but then fell into the raging water instead.

  Instantly he was wrenched beneath the surface and swept away.

  They waited for him to come up, but he did not.

  Lily hugged Robert and stood there, breathing heavily, shocked and relieved. Jack was gone, and they had the diamond and the Moonlocket – their map to freedom. But they weren’t safe yet.

  Tolly bounded up the tunnel towards them, and embraced them both. “We heard a splash,” he said. “Thank tock it wasn’t you!”

  Malkin, who was around Tolly’s neck, sat up and licked their faces. “Yeuch! You’re covered in sewage!”

  “We could have done with your help half an hour ago,” Lily said. “Where were you?”

  The fox looked sheepish. “We got lost in the dark,” he admitted.

  “We couldn’t find anything,” Tolly added. “And then we heard a noise coming this way and thought it might be Anna arriving with the police at last. It’s a good thing you shouted a warning to us or I never would’ve realized you were with Jack. Was that him falling in the water?”

  Lily nodded. “He never came up.”

  “Well, good riddance,” Tolly said. “I hope he washes out to sea with the rest of the sewage. What happened to the other one – his son?”

  “Jack killed him.” Robert put a shaking hand to his temple; his head was spinning fast, as if the sound of the gunshot was still echoing inside him.

  It was like his da’s death all over again. Even though he hated Finlo and what he’d done, Robert did feel sorry for him. It seemed to him that Finlo had taken part in his father’s plan not only for the money but also to please him. But you couldn’t please a father like Jack; no one could. He was a cold-hearted killer who had valued a gem over his flesh and blood. How could Robert bear to be part of a family like that? Well, he didn’t need to be. Not when he had Lily and John, who he loved and who loved him. His home was with them, and if he got out of this alive, he’d make sure they knew it. He only hoped his ma and Caddy would be fine together now that Jack and Finlo were gone.

  “What on earth…?” Tolly said suddenly, glancing over their shoulders, up the tunnel, the way they’d come. The engorged Fleet raged in a torrent over the weir. “I don’t think we can get back over that.”

  “We need to find another exit.” Lily pointed at the locket in Robert’s hand. “The opening to the Thames is marked on the Moonlocket. It’s a storm drain under Blackfriars Bridge. Jack told us he’d moored a rowing boat there. If we follow the map, we should make it.”

  “Thank goodness!” Malkin said. “And whatever happened to that clunking Blood Moon Diamond that everyone made such a fuss about?”

  “I picked it from Jack’s pocket.” Lily opened her hand and it glistened.

  “Played him at his own ga
me, eh?” Malkin said. “Perhaps his book wasn’t so useless.”

  Lily put the diamond away in her pocket. “When we get out of here,” she said, “I shall return it to its rightful owner. Until then, at least we’re alive and we have each other.”

  “Only if we get moving though!” Tolly said.

  Robert nodded. He’d been consulting the Moonlocket. “It’s this way, I think,” he said, pointing a finger off into the distance, and they set off at once, following the map.

  As they walked the main tunnel, odd blasts of fresh air blustered towards them. Lily felt relieved that they were all in one piece. They had the Moonlocket and the diamond, and soon, very soon, they would be closing in on the exit.

  “The longer I stay down here, the worse I whiff,” Malkin groused from around Tolly’s shoulders as they walked along. “I tell you, the whole place smells worse than a dog with no nose!”

  “Why?” Tolly asked. “How’s that smell?”

  “Awful!”

  Robert laughed half-heartedly, but he was starting to flag. Lily was slowing too, wary of slipping into the water that ran deep and fast beside their path. Malkin and Tolly went ahead. Tolly held the lantern aloft, and Robert called out directions as he traced their path on the back of the Moonlocket.

  They’d been following the main tunnel for a long time, but it felt as if it was finally nearing its end. When they came around a corner and glimpsed light in the distance, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. There was a large oval hole in the wall, filled with a cross-barred iron grate that let in chequered chinks of the outside. Water poured through the base of it and away into the river.

  “Look how high the tide’s got,” Robert cried in despair as they got nearer.

  “We’ll have to step into that torrent to open the grate,” Lily said.

  “Not me,” Malkin told her, as he hopped down off Tolly’s back. “I can’t get that wet.”

  “If we fall in,” Robert said, “we’ll be pulled under for sure.”

  “We’ll link arms and I’ll hold onto that,” Lily said, pointing out a ring she’d spotted that was set in the side wall beneath their path.

  With a determined breath, Lily locked arms with Robert and Tolly, and the three of them jumped into the water. The current tore at their legs, making it hard to stay upright. Lily grasped the brass ring and spread her feet wide apart to balance. The others did the same.

  Carefully, each of them put a shoulder to the grate and braced against it.

  “Three, two, one!” Tolly shouted, and they pushed.

  The grate gave slightly, making a low groaning sound.

  “Thank clank!” Lily cried. “It’s opening!” The words tumbled out of her mouth as fast as the falling water.

  She wished for a moment they’d more help – someone like Captain Springer or Mrs Rust with them, someone who’d be strong enough to rip the grate away with ease and let them out. But they didn’t, and with the torrent pounding against them, it was hard to have courage.

  It took their combined strength, and one more go, to heave the grate aside fully.

  With the barrier gone, the flume of rain and sewage plunged through the gap and over the precipice into the river. Lily, Robert and Tolly clung onto the tunnel wall to stay upright.

  Outside, the first light of sunrise bled round the edges of heavy clouds. The boats and steamers moored along the river, and garlanded with bunting in preparation for the Queen’s Jubilee parade that afternoon, rocked to and fro in a raucous wind. Fog floated about their hulls, and electricity seemed to hang in the muggy air. The storm was gathering closer, but had not yet hit.

  “When that squall breaks,” Malkin yapped, “the tide’ll rise as fast as a greased goose, and then we’ll drown!”

  “We have to row to the jetty,” Tolly said, pointing at Jack’s boat, which bobbed under Blackfriars Bridge, a few feet from the waterfall pouring from the tunnel. A rusty access ladder, screwed to the wall, led down to it.

  “I’ll go first,” Tolly said. “Then I can help you across and down to the boat.”

  He reached out sideways from the entrance and gripped the ladder.

  “Hurry!” Lily cried.

  Water spattered across him and, as he swung onto the ladder, a flash of lightning illuminated the underside of the bridge.

  “Quick!” Tolly called out. “Hand me Malkin, and I’ll carry him down to—”

  His voice was drowned out by a roll of thunder. The rain was strengthening, slashing spears of water into the river, breaking its black surface to shards. Lily grabbed Malkin from the narrow promontory and handed him quickly to Tolly, who climbed down the ladder one-handed and leaped into the boat.

  “You next, Lil,” he called. “Come across!”

  Lily glared out into the storm and turned to Robert. “I can’t do it. Lightning’s attracted to metal. If it hits my heart, I might explode.”

  “We need to go!” Robert shouted. “Before the tunnel floods completely!”

  Another fork of lightning flashed.

  “This deluge will drag us in and I can’t swim, remember!”

  Lily took a deep breath. The air was damp with fear. She waited for it to ebb away. But it would not. “Right…fine…” she said at last. “We’ll go together. Ready?”

  Robert nodded.

  She took a good look out of the tunnel entrance, gauging the distance to the ladder. Beside them, water thundered over the edge of the opening. But she didn’t let it distract her. She let go of her handhold and reached across, stretching towards the top rung.

  As Robert did the same, they heard a strange rumble coming towards them.

  “Storm water!” Lily shouted.

  They glanced upstream. A wall of sewage smashed towards them; something was swimming in it like a half-drowned rat.

  “Jack!” Robert screamed. “He’s alive!”

  The water engulfed them with a loud whoosh, but somehow Jack caught them in his arms and held them as they were catapulted from the tunnel entrance and into the raging river below.

  Lily struggled to pull her head above the waterline. She could see Robert battling beside her, kicking his legs to stay afloat, while Jack, whose eyes bulged wide with anger, grasped both of them.

  Malkin and Tolly were remote figures now, the boat swept away in the distance. The Thames dragged Lily, Robert and Jack along, spiralling them in currents and eddies, tugging them further from the bank. The storm raged on above them, rain battering their heads.

  A sudden rip tide forced Jack to let go of Robert, and he was swept away from them. Lily tried to reach out to him but Jack had her clasped firmly by the neck, the fat fingers of his other hand twitching through her pockets as he trod water.

  “Give me my diamond!”

  A shard of lightning illuminated the murky river.

  Lily was choking for air. Over her shoulder, she could see Robert flailing. “Kick your legs, Robert,” she cried. “Keep your head above water!” But her voice was hoarse and got lost in a sudden crack of thunder that sounded like the sky splitting in two.

  Lily watched Robert drift further and further away. The river was engulfing him in its watery grip, and there was nothing she could do. Jack clutched her tight as they were swept further downriver and into the eye of the storm.

  A buoy! There was a buoy bobbing on the waves. Atop its tower, a bell clanged loudly. They slipped past it and, in a fit of strength, Jack reached out and snatched a metal hoop on its side, tugging them both from the water. Lily tried to escape, but Jack yanked her up beside him, her feet dangling over the river.

  The storm was close. Lightning crackled in the sky above. A fork arced down a lightning rod on the tip of St Paul’s, and another hit the steel mast of a boat near the bank. It was flashing everywhere.

  “Give me the diamond,” Jack commanded.

  “It doesn’t belong to you.” Lily clutched it in her fist.

  “Says who?” Jack clamped his fingers round hers and squeezed hard, until
the sharp edges of the stone cut into her hand.

  The buoy rocked to and fro, the metal bell ringing out as she fought him off, but he was winning, slowly prising open her fist, until she could no longer grip the diamond. Finally it slipped through her cold wet fingers and she fell backwards, hitting the water with a splash.

  “I have it at last!” Jack crowed, clasping the diamond to his chest.

  Lily struggled in the water, gasping for breath, as a fork of lightning slid across the sky, undulating like a white snake…then it hit the buoy, fizzing through the structure and crackling through Jack himself. His mouth writhed open and the lightning bloomed from his fingertips, refracting through the diamond and arcing away in a thousand beams of red light.

  Jack stiffened. His face had become a grimacing mask. The diamond dropped from his rigid hand and rattled around the base of the buoy before coming to a stop. Jack’s body clanged once against the bell, then plummeted into the river and was sucked down by the undertow of the Thames.

  Lily trod water for a moment, almost unable to believe what she’d just seen. Then cautiously she swam closer to the buoy. The diamond glinted at her from where it had fallen. She snatched at it and it rolled further away round the base of the buoy, the glow inside it fading. She’d best be quick or she’d lose it altogether in the dark. She stretched out her hand and seized it. This time it wouldn’t slip through her grasp. Now she just had to find Robert…

  She swam hard, away from the buoy. She could see hands, flailing above the water twenty feet away…

  Then thirty…

  Then she lost sight of him.

  She struck out for the spot where she thought he was turning, glancing about.

  At the last moment, she spotted his fingers in the choppy waves, sinking beneath the surface.

  She kicked against the current and holding her breath, dived beneath the waters. It was murky and dark down there, and she could barely see. Then lightning flashed again and she caught sight of Robert floating beneath her feet, sinking into the abyss.

  She swum down and grasped his waist, hauling him upwards with all her might.