“He must have had expert help from an outside source,” the policeman told the television cameras, humiliated, furious and red-faced. “One minute he was there, the next he wasn’t. The police are only human. We haven’t got eyes in the backs of our heads. Our search for the man will continue. We’d be very grateful for any help the public can give us. Any information, any detail, however small, will be treated in the strictest confidence. Please ring the number at the bottom of your screen.”
Once again, Frank Jasper had done what he’d boasted he was so good at doing.
He’d vanished into thin air.
At The Riverside, Dad put new double locks on all the doors.
Security cameras were installed in the boatyard. Dad erected two on the island, mostly for Daniel’s safety: one in the car park and another on the terrace.
“I can’t do any more,” he said. “I’m running a pub, not a prison. If my customers feel uncomfortable about being under constant scrutiny, they’ll vote with their feet and go elsewhere.”
“When is Mum coming home?” Daniel asked. She’d been gone for a fortnight but he hadn’t dared to ask.
“Soon, I hope.” But Dad refused to look him in the eyes. “I’ve spoken to her on the phone every night. She always asks after you and sends her love.” He hesitated. “She says she’s been looking at new pubs in London.”
“What?”
“She says she’ll never feel safe here, not until they’ve got that Jasper fellow under lock and key… She wants us to ask the brewery for a transfer.”
“If we go back to London,” Daniel’s heart turned numb at the prospect, “I’ll have to leave the peacocks behind. Toby, Percy, Frederick. And the river. And Joshua. And Phil.” He blushed scarlet, “And Chloe… I couldn’t bear it.”
He stared at his father. He thought, I told Chloe to fight to the death. I’d better practise what I preach.
“If we move, Jasper will have won. Don’t you see? He was trying to spook us, to get us out of here. He hasn’t managed it so far. We fought back. Don’t hand him victory on a plate now, when we’ve come so far. Please, Dad… Don’t I get a say in anything?”
“Course you do, Danny.” His father gave him a sudden hug but his arms felt stiff and formal. “I don’t want to leave this place any more than you do… But I’ve only got one wife, and I can’t even imagine not being married to her. I don’t want to lose her, now, do I? But I promise I’ll do my best to talk her round.”
Wild Horses
That Sunday, Dad drove Daniel to London in his new Ford, to collect Mum.
The car was uncomfortably spotless and smelt of new leather. Dad wore a cashmere sweater Daniel had never seen before and a pair of shining new shoes. Dad had lost weight in the past few weeks, so that the sweater rolled around his waist in waves that had nowhere to go. He reeked of an unfamiliar aftershave. He seemed to be trying out a new kind of smile: one that didn’t quite fit his face and vanished the instant he stopped thinking about it, leaving him looking anxious, with drooping jowls.
“I’ve hired extra staff for the day,” he said. “I wanted us to bring Mum home. Not just meet her at the station. Everything’s clean and tidy. New machines in the kitchen. You’d never guess there’s been a fire at The Riverside – and I don’t want any of us to mention it. It’s over and done with now and we’ve got to move on.”
“What do you mean, move on?” Daniel asked, suddenly suspicious again. “I hope you don’t mean move away.”
“I hope so too.” Dad changed gears with a nasty grinding sound. “But your mother wants us to meet for lunch in a pub near Hampstead Heath. We’ll have lunch there and maybe walk on the heath. She says the pub’s worth looking at… The lease is due for renewal… She says there could be a future for us there.”
Daniel’s stomach started to churn. He stared out of the window as Wolvercote flashed by and they reached the Pear Tree Roundabout.
“My life is here, by the river and the boatyard,” he said, his voice grim and determined. “Caring for my peacocks… How many times do I have to tell you? My future’s here.”
“Course it is, Danny.” Dad glanced at him briefly and then focused his eyes on the road. “But let’s humour Mum for a few hours, shall we? Listen to what she has to say and smile… Just so we can get her to come home.”
“There’s your old school,” Dad said, an hour and a half later. “Remember?”
Daniel did not need reminding. The outside of the building, the entire London street, looked exactly the same. He remembered an incident at every crevice and corner, outside every house, down every alleyway.
That was where the gang had first captured him, realised he was a pushover: small, light, fragile, easily worn down. That was where they’d measured him against a wall and fallen about laughing. That was where they’d stolen his recorder, snapped it in half and pushed the pieces down a drain; snatched his trainers and swapped them for a pair of stinking plimsolls; pulled his exercise book out of his bag and flapped it in the rain until the ink ran and the paper became too soggy to hold.
Oh, yes, he remembered all right. Every magnificent moment.
He said, “Could you stop the car, Dad? I’m going to be sick.”
Mum said, “Danny!… I do believe you’ve grown… I’ve missed you so much!”
“You’re the one who left.” His mouth tasted disgusting.
“Yes, but you do understand why, don’t you? That fire… The sound of the flames, the smell… The thought of that man on the loose.”
She stood by the car, next to Dad but not touching him. She’d had her hair cut into a sharp bob and coloured a glossy chestnut. Daniel hardly recognised her: the short black skirt, the tight jacket, the high heels. She could hardly walk on Hampstead Heath in those…
Dad said hurriedly, “We won’t talk any more about the fire, Emma, dear… You look marvellous. Ten years younger, just like that TV show… Now, shall we go and have some lunch? Danny and I are starving.”
Mum chattered incessantly through lunch about what she’d done in London. The cinema with Annie, shopping in Oxford Street, sleeping late. She’d seen Oliver! twice. Daniel felt a pang of jealousy.
“It’s been a real holiday. I’m so grateful to you for coping, Ralph. I was so tired… And now I’m all pumped up again and ready to go!”
Daniel stopped listening. He ate his way solidly through Sunday lunch and refused to join his parents when they were shown round the living quarters upstairs.
“I won’t be moving here,” he told them, “so there’s no point in my even looking. If you move back to London, I’ll stay in Wolvercote with Josh and feed the peacocks every morning, just like I always do. In the holidays I’ll stay with Phil and help in the boatyard. Josh and Phil have both agreed. I’ve sorted everything out.” He turned his back on them. “If you move here, I’ll never see you again.”
“Daniel!” said his mother. “What on earth’s got into you?”
Dad gripped her arm. “He’s been through a lot, dear,” he murmured. “A few things happened while you were away… Let’s talk about everything when we get home.”
But Daniel refused to talk. He sat in the car in total silence all the way to Wolvercote. The moment Dad had parked the car, he opened the door and raced down to the boatyard.
There was nobody about. The air smelt sharp and autumnal. The late afternoon sun glinted through the almost-leafless trees. The river flowed flat, calm, inviting. The peacocks were strutting on the island, as if they were keeping it safe for him.
He thought, I love this place and I’m going to fight to the death to stay here. It’s going to take more than wild horses to drag me away.
“I owe you an apology,” Mum said.
They were having tea in the kitchen the following day. Dad was in the office. The Riverside was quiet.
“Dad told me the whole story last night… I had no idea you’d been kidnapped by that dreadful man… If I’d been told, I’d have come straight home. Your dad said he deliberately didn’t tell me because he wanted me to have a proper break.”
Daniel decided to take the bull by the horns.
“That ‘dreadful man’, as you call him,” he said, and then he hesitated. His courage failed.
“Yes?” Mum said, instantly worried and suspicious.
Daniel took a deep breath, looked directly at her. “That dreadful man says he could be my father.”
Mum gasped. Her cup clattered to its saucer. “He’s lying.”
“He says you had an affair. That it went on for ages. That he wanted you to go to America with him.”
Mum stood up abruptly and closed the kitchen door. “Look,” she said. “I don’t want your dad to hear any of this… Have you told him what Jasper said?”
“No.” Daniel kept his eyes on her. “Give me some credit. I’m not a total jerk. I just wanted to ask you straight.” He swallowed. “Give you a chance to explain.”
Mum slumped into her chair. “We did have a bit of a fling. But then Ralph arrived and I liked him better. He was more… ” she searched for the right word, “reliable.”
Daniel snorted. “That sounds absolutely fascinating.”
“I didn’t mean it like that. I was infatuated with Jasper… But I fell in love with your dad. There’s a big difference, as you’ll find out when you’re older.”
“Don’t be so patronising.” A knot of anger hardened in Daniel’s stomach. “Don’t talk to me as if I were a child… Why didn’t you tell me the truth when I asked you about Jasper, when he first arrived?”
“I’m sorry, I should have done. I was so astonished to see him again, he took me completely by surprise. And I didn’t want your dad to know.” The colour had drained from Mum’s face. She reached over to grasp Daniel’s hand. “Ralph is your real dad, I promise you.”
Daniel walked stiffly up to his room.
He opened the door of his wardrobe and stared in the full-length mirror on the back, glowering at himself. He looked like his mother – everyone always said so. Small-boned, narrow-shouldered, with her dark eyes and pert, upturned nose. There was no way he could look like Frank Jasper…
He’d simply have to believe Mum, take her at her word. He’d rather kill himself than have that toerag as a father.
Master of Surprise
“Jasper wouldn’t dare come back,” Phil said. “That house he was renting on Godstow Road. The one he took you to… There was a removal van outside it this morning. They’ve carted his stuff away.”
“That doesn’t prove anything.”
Daniel scrubbed at one of the sculls, his hands red and raw. It was the first Saturday in November and very cold.
“I’m still looking over my shoulder… We all are. Dad drives himself nuts every night, checking everything’s bolted down, that the fires are out, the alarms are working. He says Mum’s the worried one, but they’re both watching and waiting for something nasty to happen all over again.”
“Cheer up, Dan… They’ll soon have Jasper banged up. Just you see… And tomorrow there’s your fireworks’ party. The island’s the perfect place for the display. We had a great time last year. Baked potatoes, Cumberland sausages. Remember?”
Daniel remembered the fifth of November.
This time last year, Cora had been alive. The poplars leading to the boatyard had flourished, their line unbroken. Life had been simpler, easier, free of the man in the white cap. Mum and Dad had looked younger and happier. He’d been smaller and a great deal lighter. He’d shot up in the past few weeks. His size was beginning to worry him. If he grew much larger, being a cox would no longer be an option. If his mother insisted on a transfer to London’s Hampstead Heath, after Christmas, like she was still threatening to do, he might never go sculling again.
She said there was no question of him not going with them. He’d have to turn down Joshua’s invitation to fly to New York with him next summer. Joshua would chum up with somebody else and ask them instead.
It would be goodbye to the peacocks. Yet Dad had said that come next spring, if they were still at The Riverside, he’d buy Daniel some new chicks. He’d have a Cora the Second. He’d never be able to do that if they moved back to grimy, crowded, stinking old London. He’d never see Joshua again. Or Phil. Or his magical Chloe…
It didn’t bear thinking about…
He carried on scrubbing, close to tears.
If only Jasper would either let himself be captured, or could give him some sign, however vague, that he intended to vanish from their lives for good and all…
The lilting swirl of Chloe’s violin suddenly sang like a lark from Phil’s bungalow. Her playing had improved so much since she’d moved back to be with him full-time.
Daniel felt instantly comforted. It was as if she were talking to him, telling him not to worry, that everything was going to be OK. She’d won her battle and yes, she promised him, hang on in there, he deserved to win his…
She was sure he would.
He’d been standing on The Riverside’s terrace with Joshua, watching the fireworks.
They were spectacularly beautiful, the colours of the rainbow, not only in the sky, but also as reflections in the river. Every time another dazzling fountain of purple, silver and turquoise burst into the air and shimmered its reflection in the water, everyone clapped.
And then something weird happened.
For no apparent reason whatsoever, the hair on Daniel’s neck stood on end.
He turned sharply to look behind him.
The crowd at the fireworks’ party jostled four deep.
He looked over their heads.
Lights twinkled in the windows of The Riverside. The pub was crammed to the rafters. People stood at the windows, drinks in their hands, staring at the sky.
The car park was packed, bumper to bumper.
Another explosion of light and colour throbbed in the air. Everyone cheered.
Daniel clutched Joshua’s arm. “We’ve got to go inside. Now, this minute.”
“But why? The show’s not nearly over yet… And I’m starving… There’ll be baked potatoes—”
“I can’t explain… We just have to go in.”
They pushed their way through the crowd.
Mum was helping to serve drinks at the bar. Dad was on the island, supervising the fireworks. The door to their private quarters had not been locked.
In the hall, at the bottom of the stairs, Daniel hesitated. He could smell the scent of cigars. He remembered that afternoon, when he’d got back from school and found the man in the white cap drinking tea with his parents in the living room as if he owned the place.
“Quick! I can smell Jasper! I know he’s here!”
He took hold of Joshua’s hand and pulled him up the stairs.
They checked the rooms on the first floor.
Then the second.
Frank Jasper was nowhere to be seen.
Daniel flopped onto his bed, startled to discover he was dripping with sweat.
“You’re a total idiot.” Joshua crashed onto a chair by the window. “The man’s never going to come back. Why would he? There’s nothing left for him here any more. He’s probably on the other side of the world… You’re white as a sheet. If you go on like this, you’ll make yourself sick.”
“I can’t help it.” Daniel wiped his face. “It’s like a cold wind blowing across my forehead. Just now, out there, it was like a ghost kissing the back of my neck.”
Joshua snorted with laughter. “Crazy, man… Pull yourself together.”
Daniel looked across the room. He said slowly, “My wardrobe door is open.”
&nb
sp; Joshua turned his head. “So?”
“So I closed it before I went downstairs. I took out an extra sweater and put it on. Then I shut the door.”
Daniel stood up. He walked towards the wardrobe. He flung the door wide open.
Inside was a large, flat parcel, wrapped in crisp brown paper.
He said blankly, “What the hell is that?”
“How should I know?” Joshua said impatiently. “It’s in your closet. You must have put it there.”
“I most certainly did not.”
“Well, drag it out and open it.”
Daniel tore at the paper.
“What is it?”
He turned the painting so that it faced his friend.
“Remember this?”
Joshua whistled. “Holy cow… It’s Jasper’s. It’s the one he hung on his wall… Where we found the passports.”
“It’s the painting of The Riverside, before it became a pub.” Daniel straightened his back. “It’s the painting of the house where he was born.”
“Oh, I see,” Joshua said slowly. “This is him, saying goodbye to it for the final time. Saying he doesn’t want it any more. It’s all yours.”
“Could that be it?” Daniel choked. “I wish it was.” Relief seemed to grab him by the throat. He wanted to laugh and cry, both at the same time. “I do so wish it was.”
“Has he stuck a note on the back?”
Daniel checked. “No… Nothing.” He rummaged frantically in the brown paper. “He wouldn’t have just dumped it on me without a message.”
Joshua pointed to the back of the bedroom door. “What’s that tacked onto there?”
Daniel caught his breath. “An envelope with my name on it.”
“Well, don’t just stand there… Open it!”
Daniel’s hands shook.
He ripped the envelope from the door and opened the flap.
Where Peacocks Scream Page 13