“Neither can I.” Willow stretched up and grabbed the knot, jumping back as the ladder descended. “But I also can’t see why he wouldn’t turn up to his tour or why we haven’t found him already. We have to search his home thoroughly because the next stop is to report him missing.”
Harmony wrung her hands together, still staring up at the cavernous hole above their heads. “Wouldn’t he need to be gone for twenty-four hours before we do that?”
Thanks to Miss. Walsham Investigates, Willow knew that wasn’t the case. “Not if we have genuine concerns for his safety, and if he’s not up there, then we do.
Her friend made a noise halfway between a gasp and a sigh. “Do you really think that’s necessary? He might still turn up on his own.”
“Or he might not.” Willow’s voice became clipped as she stepped onto the first step of the ladder. “Can you imagine how we’d feel if we didn’t report it, then it turns out the hurt himself while out spotting in some random field at night? It’s so cold now…”
She let the words trail away, not wanting to confront the realities of the rest of the thought for the moment. Instead, Willow concentrated her attention on climbing the ladder. A task which seemed a lot harder than it ever appeared when someone else was doing it. By the time she reached the top and could stare into the attic, she was quite out of breath.
Within a second, Willow knew Reg wasn’t up there. Although the room was spic and span, thick dust coated the floor and would have revealed clear tracks if anybody had gone into the room. The boxes—some full of old clothing, others containing broken odds and ends, all carefully labeled—sat in mournful silence in the low light from the dust-streaked window, with no expectation of being disturbed.
Willow shook her head down at Harmony and dismounted with great care, smacking her hands together at the base to rid them of the dust. “I think we’d better get Sheriff Wender on the phone.”
The handset in the kitchen was off its cradle and Willow walked back through into the bedroom—the most obvious place she could think it would be. As she lifted the pillows, thinking all the while she was wasting time and her friend Reg could be outside, hurt, alone, freezing half to death, she heard a faint noise. When she glanced back at Harmony, her friend had tilted her head to one side. She’d heard the sound as well.
“What do you think—?”
Harmony cut off Willow’s question with a finger raised to her lips. “Shh.”
Willow fell silent, funneling all the concentration from her five senses into the one—hearing. The main noise in the house was the low whoosh of an air pump heater going in the lounge. Aside from that, the occasional car passed by on the road outside and birds chirruped like town gossips to each other. Just as Willow was about to open her mouth again, she heard the same low noise as before. A whimper.
“The closet!” Harmony leaped for the door and pulled it wide open. Reg sat inside, hugging his legs to his chest and his head bent down, forehead to knee.
“Reg?” Willow said in a soft whisper. “Are you okay?”
A stupid question to ask. As Reg whimpered again, it was clear that he wasn’t all right.
Chapter Three
It took a good ten minutes to talk Reg into unfurling his body and stepping out of the wardrobe. Willow could see from his stiff motions he’d been holding the same position for a long time.
Although curiosity nibbled away at Willow’s mind, concern for her friend took charge and she put aside her questions long enough to lead him through to the lounge. After making him sit next to Harmony, she excused herself to the kitchen to make them all a hot drink to relax.
When she reentered the room, Willow raised her eyebrows at Harmony, who gave a brief shake of her head in return. “Here we are,” she announced, laying a tray down on the coffee table. “I’ve made you a hot chocolate to warm you up.”
Reg’s hand shook as he took the offered mug from Willow’s hands. The brief touch of their fingers told her he was cold to the bone. With the closet door closed against unwelcome intruders—or welcome ones for that matter—the warm air circulating through the rest of the house hadn’t been able to penetrate, while the wall facing the cold outdoors had transmitted a chill.
“You had a few disappointed tourists this morning,” Willow observed. She wanted to breach the subject of Reg’s mysterious retraction from society without alarming him further. The canceled tour seemed the simplest part of the weird behavior. “They were really looking forward to the tour, so word must be getting out and about.”
“I’m not taking the tours anymore.” The words weren’t imparted with coldness, but they seemed backed up with unmoving bedrock.
Willow exchanged a quick glance with Harmony, each of them puzzled. The strange response didn’t advance their understanding any further.
“Did you have a shock?” Harmony asked. “I remember when I was little, the closet always seemed the place most likely to harbor monsters. In all the movies, though, it seems to be the hiding place of choice.”
“Only when there are guns involved,” Willow said, joining in with the inane small talk just for something to do. “If you hid in there during a horror movie, I wouldn’t rate your chances.”
Harmony snorted. “As though you ever watch horror movies. I remember when we were at the pictures and a preview for Scary Movie came on. You were so terrified you wanted to leave, and that was for a comedy horror.”
“I’ll admit, given the choice I’d opt for anything else.” Willow sat back on the couch, giving Reg a quick pat on the knee before picking up her cup again. “All this action and thriller movies are pretty bad too, but I’d choose one of them any day over a scary film.”
“Still, children’s movies can be just as bad, sometimes.” Harmony rolled her eyes at Willow and wrinkled her nose. “I remember bawling my eyes out while watching Watership Down.”
“That must’ve come out when you were a teenager, surely?”
Harmony frowned. “Don’t you go harping on my age. I might have been a tween, or even a bit older. It hardly changes the point.”
“I suppose not.” Willow finished up her drink and gave Reg a light elbow in the side. “Do you fancy another?”
He handed the cup over wordlessly and she decided that meant yes. Given the redness in his face, she’d prefer to be heating some nice hibiscus to help lower his blood pressure, but she could hardly run across town to grab some from her house.
She decided to just make up the next cup with a lot more milk and a smidge less cocoa. Besides, a bit of color in Reg’s face was probably a good thing. When he’d first taken his hands away, the poor man had been as white as a sheet.
“Why don’t I give you a hand, this time,” Harmony suggested. When Willow cast a frown her way, Harmony jerked her head at the kitchen. We’ll talk in there. Willow nodded.
“It might be time to call a doctor,” Harmony whispered after checking that Reg’s gaze was still fixed on the floor. “Unless he talks soon, I’m scared we’ll do or say something which’ll just make the whole situation worse.”
Willow nodded. Although she’d been happy to find Reg, his state and comparative muteness were freaking her out. “Do you know who his regular doctor is?”
Harmony shrugged. “If I call the medical center, I’m sure they’ll be able to sort it out. Besides, I think any doctor would have a better idea of what to do in this situation than I do.”
“Add me to that list.” Willow took a few steps to the doorway and peered through at Reg again. He didn’t appear to have moved. “I might just give it one more shot. Maybe a direct approach is best.”
She walked back through when the new supply of hot chocolate was ready, this time Harmony bringing the tray along. Willow sat down next to Reg and tried to catch his eye, a difficult task with him so intent on staring at the floor.
“I don’t know what’s going on with you,” she began, trying to work out how to put her concerns into words. Blunt seemed the easiest option.
“But if you don’t tell us what’s wrong right now, we’ll have to call a doctor in to see if they can work out what’s happening. Do you want me to do that?”
Reg shrank back in the couch, shaking his head.
“Then please explain to us what’s happened. Did somebody hurt or threaten you?”
At her words, Reg flinched away and adopted a pained expression. He opened his mouth, closed it again, then opened it once more, all without uttering a word.
“Don’t sit there with your mouth gaping like a fish,” Harmony said in a stern tone. “We’re both worried sick about you. If you can’t or won’t tell us what’s going on, then we’ll have to call a stranger to worm the truth out of you.”
Reg shook his head, then turned his watery eyes toward Willow. “I failed,” he said, his mouth pulling down at the corners. “That’s why I can’t take the tour any longer. All these years spent out and about, trying to find evidence of alien activity and other phenomena. Finally, when the opportunity presented itself, I ran away and hid, like a little girl.”
“Bit sexist,” Harmony said, the attempt at levity falling flat in the room as Reg started sobbing.
Willow put her hand on his knee again, pulling a pocket pack of tissues out as the tears streamed down her friend’s face. “Here. Wipe yourself down and then tell us all about it. I’m sure it’s not nearly so bad as you think.”
* * *
Reg wiped his tears away and got himself under a bit of control. “It was out in the Prebbleton farm. You know the area?”
Willow nodded. Of course, she did. Everyone knew everywhere in Aniseed Valley. Part of the charm or part of the drawback in living in a small town, depending on your position.
“There’s been some strange stuff happening out there lately. More activity than I usually see. I’ve been noting it all down in my book and compared it with other years to make sure I wasn’t making up the excitement. I can show you, if you want.”
As he said the words, Reg jutted his chin out as though they’d tried to challenge the validity of his observations. Another sob caught him off guard, leaving him struggling to swallow for a second, then he stood up and walked over to the window, staring out at the dull sky.
“What did you think was going on?” Willow prompted when it seemed he’d completely lost track of the fact he’d been talking. “Were there some lights in the sky?”
Lights were the most common phenomena Reg reported. That, or strange electrical charges in the air, which he picked up on a meter he’d fashioned for exactly that purpose.
“More than that. Things were getting moved about. You know the old rust heap out by the highway, just past the farm?”
Willow half-closed her eyes, then nodded as she traced the road in her mind. “You mean, the red one?”
“Used to be red,” Reg said with a half-smile that soon fell off his lips. “Now, it’s mostly gray and orange.”
“What about it?” Harmony said, impatience creeping into her voice.
Willow could sympathize. After the shock of finding Reg in such a state, all she craved was to know what put him there. This meandering tale wore her nerves thin, too.
“Somebody pushed it a good yard out of place. I could tell from the dead grass where it’d been sitting previously.”
He fell silent again, as though this would mean something to them. Willow was nonplussed. “Maybe the Prebbleton’s moved it to see if they could get it off their land?”
“I thought that at first, too, so I asked them, and they said they hadn’t been near it. Someone or something else was to blame. Then I found the old shed door nearby had been half-ripped off its hinges. The couple said they hadn’t touched that, either. It looked just like somebody had been trying to get inside and used a bit too much force.”
“I know the sheriff had concerns there were a few homeless in the area,” Harmony said. “We were talking about the town shelter not being used as much, and he said he thought some folks were arranging their own alternative accommodation.”
“Why wouldn’t they just go to the shelter?” Willow looked over to her friend in confusion. “Free room and board is what it’s there for, surely?”
“It comes with rules attached. We’ve tried to talk to the shared operators to loosen up on some of them, but nobody will budge. It’d be hard enough for someone to obey everything they set out when they’re in a good mental state. Considering most of the people who need the space have untreated disorders, it can be a hard call.”
“It wasn’t homeless people!” Reg turned from the window, his hands on his hips. “This was something tampering with a lot of stuff and it was nothing to do with wanting a place to stay the night, okay?”
Even though Willow understood something had upset her friend badly, the sudden loud outburst took her by surprise. “Why don’t you explain what you think happened, then,” she said softly. “So we can understand.”
“It was aliens, of course.” Reg turned back to the window, folding his arms across his chest and shivering. “And it’s not something I thought was happening. I saw one. With my own eyes. Last night.”
His voice caught, and Willow could see him fighting to regain control. “After all these years, I finally got to meet an alien being from another planet and instead of welcoming him as a traveler, I turned and ran squealing in fright.”
Chapter Four
In theory, Willow believed there was every chance that life existed elsewhere in the Universe.
In theory.
Despite being Reg’s friend for a few years now, and therefore subject to lots of observations of potential other-worldly beings, she’d never taken the time to consider if something was out there—let alone, whether it would be interested in coming to Earth to meet the locals.
It seemed like a lot of bother, after all. Wouldn’t an alien prefer to explore its own world and meet the creatures it had a planet in common with, rather than shooting itself out into space to travel for years, or centuries, in order to greet some humans at the end?
Not that humans were a bad thing. Just, perhaps, not worth all that effort?
Whatever the thoughts flooding through her mind now, of one thing Willow was certain. Reg believed he’d seen an alien last night. Out of solidarity, she decided until someone showed her otherwise, she might as well believe he’d seen one, too.
With a nod to Harmony, Willow crossed the room and gave Reg a long hug. “Don’t you worry about the first impression you made on an other-worldly being.” She hoped it was a reassuring tone. “For all we know, first impressions don’t count nearly so much on other planets.”
But Reg wouldn’t be talked out of his feelings as easily as that. He hung his head, shame coloring his cheeks. “I’ve trained for this for ages,” he argued. “It’s what I prepared for and hoped for and now I’ll probably never get another chance.”
A tear rolled down his cheek, and he swiped it away with a violent brush of his hand. “I can scarcely believe I got one opportunity. It would be foolish to hope for a second.”
“How about we go down to the Prebbleton’s farm, right now?” Harmony joined them by the window. “If the girls don’t mind looking after the tea shop for an hour or so longer, then we can try to work out exactly what it was you saw.”
Willow saw Reg’s jaw tighten and hastened to add, “If the alien is still there, of course. We’ve no reason to think an extraterrestrial would stick around in the same place for half a day. I know if I travel a long distance, it’s not so I can stand about in the one spot when I arrive.”
“Sure,” Harmony said in a musing tone. “But we might be able to find some evidence from last night, even if they’ve moved on now. The longer we leave it, the less chance we have.”
Reg looked at Willow then Harmony. His face ran through a myriad of emotions, changing so quickly that Willow couldn’t keep track. Finally, it settled on hopeful.
“I do want your word that if we see an alien, you won’t run away and leave me and
Willow stranded,” Harmony continued. “It’s fine to be scared away at night when you’re alone, but , as you said, you’re the one with all the experience.” She shook Reg’s arm and smiled. “Do you accept my terms?”
“I accept. I can promise you, if we encounter any danger, I’ll be a perfect gentleman and the creature can feast on me while you both run away.”
“Or walk away,” Willow said with a laugh. “I’m far too old to take up running!”
* * *
The day was so miserable the small group decided to take a car, though they could easily have walked the distance if they’d had the mind to. The old wheat stalks, long ago harvested of their crop, were dry and dismal, taking on the gray coloring of the murky sky above them. Willow would be pleased when spring made an appearance and added the bright colors of early blossom into her days.
“Is that the car you were talking about?” Harmony asked as they grew closer to their destination. A black vehicle sat on the side of the road, pulled far enough over to be crushing the dry husks in the field.
Reg barely flicked an eye to see what she was pointing to. He shook his head, then jerked his chin a hundred yards farther down the street. “That’s the one I was talking about.” He slowed the vehicle as they passed so the two of them could take a good look.
He’d been right about the movement. One of the blocks previously holding the front wheel in place was sitting alongside, now back by the rear passenger door. The other three corners of the car had no need of the makeshift brake—their tires had been removed a long time before.
“I didn’t realize it was so close to the Prebbleton’s house,” Willow said as Reg began to speed up again. “They must be fed up with the eyesore. Poor Tess has to be sick of staring at it from her kitchen window every day.”
“Only during the winter.” Harmony had turned to look back over her shoulder as Willow spoke and now pointed. “If the wheat was growing instead of fallow, it wouldn’t take long to block the rust heap out of sight.”
Tea Shop Cozy Mysteries - Books 1-6 Page 43