They complied, Seth helping Judy who was still trembling, until Malc gestured that they were far enough.
A figure flitted across the edge of Seth’s vision. In his hand he held a bottle with a burning rag shoved into the end. He was running towards the back door. He stopped as he got to within thirty metres, then like an expert bowler, he over armed the bottle, aiming for the open kitchen door.
“Get down!” Malc shouted to the assembled escapees. He clambered on top of Joe, shielding him from the inevitable.
Seth saw the petrol bomber flying towards them, then there was a bright light, a whoomph as the escaped gas caught fire, then a huge fireball blew out through the kitchen door. Seth turned and dropped but still felt the burning gas across his back, the heat from the explosion warming the surrounding air. Glass from the exploding windows rained down around them. The sound moved through him, shaking his body with the vibration.
When he was sure it had passed, he groggily got to his feet and helped Judy to hers.
The house was no longer a house. Ruin would be a better term. The explosion had taken the roof off the structure and blown out the side walls nearest to them. The space that had once been the kitchen was now totally exposed to the elements and fires were burning. Against the dark background, the fires provided enough light for them to see each other.
“Do you think that’s finished off the painting?” Seth asked Malc.
“Whatever’s left, we’ll take it and make sure it can’t harm anyone again.” Olivia stepped forward and stood beside Seth. Together they surveyed the fire. “The authorities will be here soon.”
“It probably isn’t a good idea for me to still be here when they turn up. The police aren’t a big fan of mine,” Seth said. "How big is the Vigilance Society?”
“There’s nothing to be gained in revealing our numbers. It makes more sense for us to continue as we always have done.”
“Playing behind the scenes.”
“It’s how we’ve endured. It’s how we’ll survive.”
“How dangerous are the Adherents?”
“They’re desperate. They’ve been without a leader for so many years that Adam returning has caused a stir. They will make their presence felt. With or without Adam.”
Seth looked around. There were flashes of movement back by the tree line. Figures were walking along the path to the main road. “Did your people find him?”
“Not yet, but they’ll keep looking.”
The ball in Seth’s stomach grew heavier, and he wanted desperately to sit down and watch the house burn. But knowing that Adam was still out there was crushing. How effective were the Vigilance Society if they couldn’t even apprehend their biggest target?
“How you doing, Joe?” Seth asked. The boy was standing close to his father’s side, their hands clasped.
“Am I in trouble? For the explosion?”
Malc drew his son in close and squeezed his shoulder. “No. You’re not in trouble. I think that explosion came at the perfect time.”
“Once the emergency services have gone, we’ll get in there and clear out anything dangerous. They’ll be no need for the Adherents to return.”
“So, they’ll go someplace else. Somewhere you don’t know.” Judy’s voice was strained. She sounded exhausted. “And whilst Adam is out there, you can be confident they won’t be sitting around on their arses. They want this Unravelling. I got a taste of what that might mean when Kain was in me and we should all be very scared. This will not end well for anyone. It’s too early to pat yourselves on the back for a job well done.”
“We should get you checked over at the hospital,” Seth said.
“I just want to get home. I’m drained. Way too tired to handle any more of this.” And she turned and began the walk back to the main road.
Seth was ready to follow her. He couldn’t let her make her way down there in the semi-darkness. Olivia may have claimed that any Adherents in the vicinity had been taken care of, but she couldn’t know that for sure.
A hand touched his arm. Olivia. “We had a deal.”
“I’ve not forgotten,” Seth replied. “But I want to make a change.”
She frowned. “I’m not sure that’s how deals are done.”
“If you want the collection, you can have it,” Seth began. “But my uncle left it in my charge. I will not go against his wishes.”
“That’s not what we agreed.”
“Like I said, I’m changing the deal. You can have the collection but I come with it.”
Her eyes widened. “That’s not what I expected. You’re asking to join us, to join Vigilance?”
“I have certain abilities that might come in handy. You’ve got resources that would be useful to me. Sounds like a good match.”
“What do you think?” She was addressing Malc and despite not turning to face him, Malc responded anyway.
“If you don’t let him in, he will be a constant pain in the arse.”
“I rather thought you would say that.” She stopped to consider. Then slowly nodded. “OK. You’re in.”
Seth nodded, then began the long walk back to the car with Judy. “And I want a salary. But I need a week or two off. Starting now.” He glanced once more at the burning building. There was work to be done. He didn’t trust Vigilance any more than he trusted the Adherents, but if he was going to bring all of them down, he had to start somewhere.
Go Back to Sleep
Robert Scott-Norton
1
La Gustosa was alive with the murmurs from a crowded dining room. Laughter erupted on a nearby table and cutlery clinked against dishes filled with steaming pasta. None of it was able to mask the pain in Adrian’s voice as he looked at his daughter, fork adrift from his mouth, linguine hanging like greasy string.
“I don’t understand,” Adrian said, his eyes blazing.
Judy couldn’t take her gaze from Lisa. Her sister-in-law’s face had turned ghostly white. Judy wanted to reach across the breadbasket and take her hand and tell her she was doing the right thing, but she held back, mesmerised by the scene unfolding in front of her.
“I want to find my birth parents,” Lisa repeated.
Lisa’s mum, Faith was sitting across the table from her and her eyes glistened as her hand grasped Adrian’s.
“But why?” Faith asked, “I mean, why now? It’s been so long.”
What she wanted to say, Judy reckoned, but wouldn’t say, because no middle-class mother who loved her children would ever really say what came to mind in situations like this, was “What’s wrong with us? We’re your parents.”
Those words wouldn’t ever leave Faith’s lips, but they were there all right, balanced on the tip of her tongue. But maybe Faith didn’t need to say anything at all. Adrian’s response was proving to be just as effective at causing a scene.
Lisa glanced at Judy, a flash of disappointment in those hazel eyes. Eyes that would forever remind Judy of Phil, Judy’s husband and Lisa’s twin. A brother that had died less than twelve months ago. A man that was missed by four of the people around this table. Jemma squeezed her mum’s arm, gently so the others wouldn’t notice, and without thinking or looking, Judy handed over her daughter’s phone. A distraction would be a good thing for her daughter right about now.
“It’s been on my mind a lot recently. Ever since Phil died.” Another look at Judy. Was there something else left unsaid? Perhaps. “I know he had said he had no interest, but I think he did, really. I mean it’s hard to explain but unless you’re in our situation, it’s impossible to know what it’s like, not knowing where you came from.”
Adrian placed his fork on the rim of the bowl where the pasta slipped off. Adrian took his wife’s hands in his own and clasped them. A solid unified front.
“We love you. You know that.”
“I do. You’re my mum and dad. That will never change. You will always be Mum and Dad. I don’t want that to change. It won’t.” And she wiped the edge of her finger under
her eye and flashed a sad smile. “But that shouldn’t mean that I don’t want to find out the rest of my story. It’s like there are some pages missing, and as much as I love who I am and who you are, and everything we’ve done, it doesn’t stop me wondering, what was at the beginning? Why was someone willing to give us up, and so young?”
The waiter chose the wrong moment to return to the table and ask whether he could get anyone more drinks. Adrian dismissed him with a wave of a hand like he was a fly bothering them. Lisa picked up her empty glass of diet coke and swirled the almost melted ice cubes around the bottom. Judy wondered whether now would be an appropriate time to put some money on the table and slip out with Jemma. It was a school night after all, and Jemma was looking exhausted.
Adrian let go of his wife’s hands and reached across for his daughter’s. He clasped them and bounced them gently on the table like one might with a distracted toddler. “We love you.”
“I know.”
“And I fully support what you choose to do.”
“Good.”
“But.”
The temperature dropped.
“But what, Dad?”
“There’s nothing left to know. The adoption agency has long since gone. There’s no one to get in contact with. And even if it was still there, you’re talking over forty years ago. Record keeping wasn’t what it is now. I don’t want you to be disappointed.”
Lisa laughed a sort of half laugh, an escape of tension, that could so easily have turned into a cry.
“Mum,” Jemma whispered beside her. The phone had not been a great distraction. She knew what was going on and it was uncomfortable. For a twelve-year-old, she was remarkably astute about other people’s feelings and motivations.
“OK,” Judy murmured. “One minute.”
“Listen to your dad, love. He just doesn’t want you to get upset. It was so long ago; you’re not going to find out what you need.”
“There’s this thing called the internet now, it’s good for more than online shopping.” Lisa shot her mum a look across the table and Judy stood up.
“Thanks for having us,” Judy said, “but I think now might be a good time to be going. You’ve clearly got a lot of stuff to sort out.”
Adrian looked up but didn’t say a word. Yes, Judy thought, you may not have been Phil’s biological father, but I know where he got his tantrums from. Tonight is not going your way but you’re nothing to me and I don’t have to be here any longer.
She’d wanted to say that and more to him for months, but her life had not been a quiet one over the last year. First there was losing Phil, then there was the nightmare of Ravenmeols and her brushes with near-death experiences.
No one seemed to care that Judy had stood and was about to leave. The restaurant was busy, La Gustosa’s always was, but that didn’t stop Judy noticing the shadow at the rear of the dining area, a woman possibly, difficult to tell in the low lighting. She didn’t think it was one of the waiting staff, so it had to be a customer. But why were they staring in their direction?
Judy took her purse from her bag.
“Put that away,” Faith commanded. “You’re our guests.”
“I can’t. Don’t be silly.”
“Put it away,” Adrian said. A flash of irritation crossed his eyes, and he shifted in his chair, before pushing the rest of his dish away and dabbing at the edge of his mouth with his napkin.
Judy complied, not wanting the focus to shift to her. She glanced at her watch, then smiled at Jemma.
“Aren’t we going?” Jemma asked.
Judy nodded, then dived in. “I think it’s very brave of you to want to do this,” she said to Lisa. “And I know Phil would have supported you.”
Lisa’s smile was unsteady, but her gratitude was clear. “Thanks, Judy. I’m doing it for him as well. And of course, I’ll share everything I find out.”
“There will not be anything to find out. I’ve told you.” Adrian’s voice was firm. The kind of controlling tone that Phil had used all too well. He wore that authority like a policeman wore his uniform. “You can look on the internet all you like, but those papers weren’t digitised. They’ll be lost, buried in some filing cabinet somewhere, if they even exist at all.”
“Why are you taking this so badly? I’ve told you it doesn’t change how I feel about you. But you’ve got to respect that I need to know.”
“Why now? What’s changed?”
“You don’t get it. Why are you being so bloody obtuse?” Lisa banged her fist on the table and the wine glasses shook. At the table next to theirs, two middle-aged couples made a concerted effort not to notice but the surreptitious glances and their pause in conversation indicated they were revelling in every moment.
“Don’t speak to your father like that. There’s no need, Lisa.” But Faith’s support was too late as Adrian got up, knocking the table with his thighs as he moved.
“I’m going for a vape.”
The silence in the aftermath could have drowned them all.
“I’m sure he doesn’t mean it,” Judy said.
“He means it,” Lisa said.
“He just needs some time to get his head around the idea. I’m sure he’s wrong, there’s bound to be paperwork. And there are organisations that can help reunite families.”
She could feel Faith’s eyes burning through the thinned atmosphere. “Our family is united,” she said simply.
“I know it is. Of course it is. That’s not what I’m saying.”
“It was a stressful time for all of us. That’s why Adrian’s upset.”
Judy didn’t have an answer that she felt wouldn’t pour fuel on the fire, so took her purse out and dropped two twenties on the table. Faith didn’t protest, instead she picked up her wine glass and took a sip, then another, before picking up the bottle and pouring herself another half-glass.
“I’ll be in touch. Thanks for dinner.” Judy leant down and gave Lisa a kiss on the cheek.
“Thank you,” Lisa whispered in her ear.
“Never a problem.”
As Judy walked out with Jemma, a light breeze caught the back of her neck and she pivoted. That same figure was standing by the pass at the back of the restaurant, watching them leave. A waiter crossed in front of her view and when she tried to spot her again, she couldn’t. The figure was gone.
2
Judy felt the cool February air outside the restaurant and shivered as she led Jemma to their car in the small car park. She unlocked, let Jemma in then noticed Adrian four cars over, sitting inside his car. Sparks lit his face as he held a lighter to a cigarette in an attempt to get a light.
“I’ll be one minute. I’m just going to say bye to your granddad.”
Jemma groaned, but complied and sat back in her chair, her phone already open on YouTube.
Judy knocked on the window of Adrian’s car and he glanced up, a guilty look as he saw who it was. He got out from the car then managed to get a light from his lighter. He lit the cigarette tip and inhaled before flipping the lighter closed and extinguishing the flame.
“Stupid lighter. Would do better with a cheap one from the petrol station.”
“So, what’s stopping you?”
“My dad bought it me when I left school,” he said, holding the silver lighter up and turning it. Judy caught sight of initials on the side and a message she couldn’t make out. “It’s the only present he ever got me.” He pocketed it, then took another drag of the cigarette. “Don’t tell Faith. She thinks I’m only vaping now.”
“Yeah, well, unless she’s noseblind I think she probably knows.”
“That bad?”
Judy shrugged.
“I’m sorry about back there. Is Jemma all right?”
“Jemma’s in her own world. I don’t think she knows what all the fuss was about to be honest.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to her. We don’t get a chance to go out for meals very often. I thought tonight would be fun.”
&nbs
p; He was not a bad man. Yes, there were those moments when his mannerisms smacked of Phil’s, and truth be told, even his expressions reminded her of her dead husband. But it hadn’t even been a year since Phil had died, and it was too easy for Judy to forget that his parents were grieving too. Coming up to the anniversary was as difficult for them as it was for her.
“Lisa loves you both very much.”
He nodded. But there was that haunted look behind the eyes and a shine to his forehead that could have been sweat despite the chill air.
“This isn’t a rejection,” Judy continued. “This is just her finding her own place now that she doesn’t have Phil around.”
“They were close. I understand that.”
“And no matter how much she loves you, remember that she’s grieving just as much as you and Faith. I think this is just another outlet for her. It sounds like it might help her come to terms with what happened to Phil. Help her move on. Maybe help you all move on.”
“And what about you?”
“What about me?” she replied, confused.
“What if she finds something she doesn’t want to find?”
“What like?”
“What if her parents want to stay in touch? What if they want to be a part of Jemma’s life? Are you ready for that?”
No, of course she wasn’t ready for that. Christ, Lisa had sprung this surprise on all of them at once, she’d not yet considered what this meant for her and Jemma.
“Adrian, I will support Lisa. And I suppose if the answers she’s looking for aren’t what she’s hoping for, I guess we’ll deal with that as well.”
He nodded. “I’m sure you’re right,” he said, and leaned in to give her a hug. His jacket smelt of the discarded cigarette, and she recoiled.
When they separated, Lisa was approaching with Faith. There was a moment of awkward silence, then Lisa froze before heading towards Lisa’s car. “Would you mind dropping me off home?”
The Dark Corners Box Set Page 47