by Gordon Snell
CHAPTER NINE
As Maria turned the corner, the road into town stretched ahead. There was nobody beside the road near the petrol station. Disappointed, she rode on towards it. Suddenly, when she was about fifty metres from the petrol station, she saw the figure of Davy appear, sitting on the wall. He looked towards her and waved. Maria stopped beside him.
She told him all about her meeting with Lily, and the photograph on the mantelpiece, and how she might have to leave because of the landlord putting up the rent.
‘Where will she go?’ Davy asked.
‘I don’t know. She seemed pretty hard up, I thought.’
‘It’s outrageous!’ Davy was angry. ‘We’ve got to stop it. But what can we do?’
‘I know where we can start. I saw the landlord’s name on the letter: PJB ESTATES. Let’s go to the library and look it up on the Internet.’
***
In the library, Maria sat at the computer while Davy hovered behind her. She soon found a register of property owners in the town, and scrolled down the screen.
‘There it is!’ she cried. ‘PJB ESTATES!’
She realised that several people near her were looking at her because she was talking. They thought she was on her own. Maria forgot that only she could see Davy.
She smiled sweetly at them, as Davy said: ‘Look what it says!’
Maria gazed at the screen. She read:
PJB ESTATES: PROPERTY.
CHAIRMAN & CHIEF EXECUTIVE:
PATRICK JEREMIAH BREEN.
‘Paddy Breen!’ Maria said softly.
‘We’re going to get him, Maria,’ said Davy grimly. ‘There’s no way I’ll let him turn Lily out of her home.’
‘Roll on tomorrow,’ Maria whispered, ‘when Patrick Jeremiah Breen gets our letter!’
***
Next morning when Maria arrived in the shop with her father, Paddy was chatting with Rose. Rose looked bored and Paddy was cheerful. Maria guessed the post couldn’t have come yet. When it did, he would not be so calm and cheerful!
Davy appeared, and beckoned her. She followed him into the old store-room.
‘I’ve been thinking,’ said Davy. ‘The letter won’t be enough to scare Paddy Breen. We must do more. You see that pile of old newspapers under the bed? There might be one with the report of our accident on the lake.’
‘Nearly twenty years ago.’
‘That’s right. It will be twenty years ago on Wednesday.’
‘It must have been big news, all right,’ said Maria, dragging the pile of papers out and looking through them. They were dusty and faded. Finally Maria found some from the right year – twenty years ago.
‘What was the date of the accident?’ she asked.
‘The twentieth of July.’
‘So it would have been in the paper the next day … Here it is!’ Maria held up the old paper.
Davy knelt down beside her. They read the headline: FAMILY DROWNED IN BOAT TRAGEDY
There was a description of the accident, and eyewitness accounts by people on the shore, and by those in other boats who had gone out to try and help. The report told how the bodies of Davy’s parents had been dragged from the water, but there was no sign of Davy’s.
‘I’m so sorry, Davy,’ said Maria tearfully.
‘I know, thank you. We can use this to help scare Paddy, if we could only make some copies …’
‘There’s bound to be a photocopier in Paddy’s office at the back of the shop. Maybe I can sneak in and make copies there.’
Maria went back into the shop. Again, it seemed that no time had passed. Paddy was still at the front, talking to Rose and looking at her till receipts. Maria’s father was loading the shelves with bread. She went quietly down the short corridor at the back of the store, and opened the office door. A photocopier was in the corner.
It didn’t take Maria long to make several copies of the old paper. She folded them and put them in her rucksack.
She was just going back to the door when she noticed the computer at the side of Paddy Breen’s desk. She remembered the picture of the family photograph she had taken at the cottage, and had an idea.
She took the card from the digital camera and put it into the computer. Soon she had the photo of Davy and his parents enlarged on the screen. That should really put the wind up Paddy! She took out one of the newspaper photocopies and laid it down on the desk beside the computer.
***
Back in the room, Davy was delighted.
‘We’ll put the other copies around the shelves where people will come across them. What are you doing?’
Maria was kneeling down and rummaging under the bed.
‘Davy, what’s this? It’s a box,’ Maria said as she pulled a heavy box from under the bed. ‘Oh look, look, it’s got some old tins in it!’
Davy gasped as he leant over the box. The tins were old and rusty, but as Maria picked them up she could just read the faded labels. There were baked beans, tins of tomatoes, mushy peas and tinned tuna. She showed them to Davy.
‘Just a minute!’ he said excitedly. ‘Show me the top of that one again.’ He peered at it closely and cried: ‘Maria, I think we’ve found the evidence to nail Paddy Breen once and for all!’
CHAPTER TEN
‘Nail Paddy Breen? How?’ asked Maria.
‘See the top of that tin? If you look closely you can see a hole in the top, just near the side, and another one opposite.’
‘Yes, like it was made by a small nail.’ Maria said, getting excited.
‘You see, somebody taking that off the shelf when it was new wouldn’t notice. But with air getting into the tin, whatever’s inside would go bad quite soon.’ Davy explained.
‘And when it was opened, YUK!’ Maria wrinkled up her nose.
‘Paddy must have been regularly piercing tins and putting them in among the good ones. Nobody realised they’d been messed with. They just thought my parents were selling rotten goods.’
‘And they stopped shopping here.’
‘That’s right,’ said Davy. ‘This box of tins must have been one he’d started using, and then forgot about, after his plan succeeded. Of course there’s no smell now, the stuff inside will have long dried up and crumbled away. This box of tins is our evidence!’
‘So what’s your plan now?’
‘If you can secretly put some of these old tins around the shop on different shelves, customers will soon start complaining. And when Paddy sees the tins, he’ll know he’s been found out, and he’ll think the Duffs have come back to haunt him.’
‘Well, one of them has!’ Maria grinned.
‘Yes, indeed.’ Davy smiled.
***
Maria wandered around the shop, putting the photocopies and the tins on various shelves. Innocently, she strolled past Paddy at the check-out, and went outside. The carpenter was at the top of the ladder, taking away some of the wood above the shop sign, to repair it. Maria stopped and looked up, and noticed that Davy was beside her. He pointed.
‘That’s where our sign was, up there,’ he said. ‘It hung from two short chains, just where that gap is. I’ll show you.’
Davy climbed up the ladder behind the carpenter. He leaned out and pointed to the gap. Then he climbed down again and stood beside Maria. He was very excited.
‘It’s there!’ he said. ‘The sign is still there!’
‘What do you mean?’
‘It must have been lifted and pushed in behind the new boarding they put up. I could see the edge of it.’
He asked Maria to call up to the carpenter and ask was there anything hidden in the gap. The carpenter laughed, but decided to humour her.
‘You’re right, girl! There is something there!’ the carpenter said with a surprised laugh.
He tugged at the heavy piece of wood. It clattered down, nearly knocking him off the ladder. He jumped clear. The sign was still held by its chains, and just fell a short way until it stopped. They all looked up.
I
t was a long rectangle of green wood, with gold letters on it, saying: DUFF’S GROCERS. The carpenter decided to take a tea break to recover. Maria and Davy punched the air in triumph. They were just admiring the sign when the postman stopped his bike outside the door of the shop, and went inside with a bundle of letters.
‘The letter!’ said Davy and Maria together, as they followed him in.
Paddy was too busy to take any notice of the postman. He was standing beside Rose at the check-out, with a piece of paper in his hand. It was one of the photocopies of the newspaper article that Maria left around the shop.
The postman said:
‘Here’s your post, Paddy,’ and put it down beside him on the counter.
‘Thanks,’ Paddy muttered, and went on staring at the paper. He glared at Rose and barked:
‘Where did you get this?’
‘I told you,’ Rose was impatient. ‘It was there beside the till.’
‘You did it yourself!’ Paddy Breen snapped. ‘It’s some kind of sick joke, isn’t it?’
‘Don’t be stupid! I’ve got better things to do than play tricks on you,’ Rose snapped.
Maria saw Paddy glare around the shop – so she dodged behind some shelves.
‘I’ll find out, I’ll find out!’ he snarled. Maria peered out and saw him riffle through the bundle of letters.
‘Bills, bills, bills!’ he grumbled. Then he stopped. He was looking at the spidery dark-red writing on Maria’s envelope. He tore it open and took out the letter.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Maria thought Paddy Breen was going to explode. His hand shook as he gripped the letter and stared at it. His face went red and he began cursing under his breath.
‘Mind your language, Paddy,’ said Rose. ‘There are customers around.’ Rose was right – some of the customers nearby were staring at him.
‘Well done, Maria,’ whispered Davy beside her.
Paddy just stood still.
‘The Duffs!’ he said, glowering.
‘Calm down, Paddy,’ said Rose. ‘The Duffs are dead, long ago.’
Davy winked at Maria, and went quickly across to the check-out counter and stood behind Paddy Breen. Maria saw Davy brush his hand to and fro across the back of Paddy’s neck. Maria had remembered how cold she had felt when Davy’s hand touched hers.
It worked. Paddy shivered, and looked around uneasily. He gazed at the letter again, then suddenly crumpled it into a ball, and shouted:
‘I’ve got it! There’s only one person who could be doing this!’
‘Paddy, quiet!’ said Rose sharply, as the customers looked startled.
Davy was back beside Maria. They looked at each other in alarm. They were both afraid Paddy might attack her, guessing that she was the culprit.
‘I’d better make myself scarce!’ she whispered, turning to go.
But Paddy, clutching the letter, went stomping up the aisle past them towards his office. As he passed they heard him say furiously:
‘Lily Marsh! Lily Marsh!’
‘Wow!’ said Davy. ‘He thinks Lily organised all this.’
‘Oh no, this could make it worse for Lily,’ said Maria.
‘Paddy must be going to ring her,’ said Davy. ‘I’ll go in and hear what he says.’
‘Okay, I’ll wait for you in your old room,’ said Maria excitedly.
Maria watched Davy follow Paddy Breen up the corridor, and when he slammed the door behind him, Davy walked straight through it.
***
A few minutes later, Davy joined Maria in the room.
‘Paddy went crazy,’ he said. ‘He was shouting and swearing at Lily on the phone, and saying he didn’t know how she’d done it, but he knew she had organised it all to scare him.’
‘I wonder what she said.’
‘I was able to lean close to the receiver and listen,’ said Davy. ‘Lily was very brave. She said Paddy must be going mad and he’d imagined it all. It must be his guilty conscience, and the past was coming back to haunt him.’
‘Haunt is right.’
‘Yes, he was shaken by that word all right, especially as I started stroking his neck again and his bald head too! By the end of the call, he was shivering and shaking like jelly. He shouted at Lily that he was going to get her and turn her out on the street. Lily just said he was crazy, and hung up.’
***
When they came back into the shop, Paddy Breen was striding down the aisle, he was flushed and muttering. The customers were giving him very odd glances. Just as he reached the front of the shop, he met the carpenter coming in.
‘Paddy, come and take a look at this,’ he said.
‘Not now, not now. What is it?’ Paddy asked impatiently.
‘Come out and see.’
Paddy Breen was very flustered as he followed the carpenter out to the front of the shop. Maria and Davy followed Paddy outside, just in time to see him staring up at the sign and shouting at the carpenter and raising his fist. The carpenter shouted back, and grabbed hold of Paddy’s wrist. Maria saw Davy suddenly appear behind Paddy, and stroke his neck. Paddy shuddered, dropped his arm and hurried back into the shop.
He was just in time to see Rose at the check-out counter having a row with a customer, a big red-faced woman in a green cardigan, who was holding up one of the rusty old tins.
‘What kind of a shop do you call this?’ she asked. ‘Trying to palm us off with something you dug up from the ground, by the look of it.’
An old man with a cap and a tweed coat said:
‘Yeah, I’d say that’s passed its sell-by-date, all right!’
Customers nearby laughed.
‘It’s not funny!’ said a large woman in a flowery dress, holding a chubby smiling toddler. She held up another rusty tin. ‘You could poison people with this.’
‘Well, here’s the man to ask about it.,’ said Rose, pointing at Paddy Breen. All the customers turned on him, holding out the tins and shouting.
Paddy Breen took one of the tins. He went very pale, and his eyes flickered from side to side.
‘Where did you get these?’ he asked in a low voice.
‘Off your shelves – you chancer!’ snapped the big woman.
‘And look, there’s another one!’ said the old man in the cap, pointing to a shelf nearby. Paddy Breen seized the tin. He stared at the top of it, and opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. He just stood there, gulping like a goldfish.
‘We should get the Guards, it’s a criminal offence to sell goods in that state!’ said the woman with the toddler.
‘Yes, the Guards!’ chorused the other customers.
‘No, no, we don’t need the Guards!’ Paddy was sweating now. ‘I’ll sort this out. There’ll be compensation for everyone. Just wait a moment.’
Still clutching the tin, he hurried back into the office. Davy followed.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Maria went into Davy’s old room. Davy came back in a few minutes, very excited.
‘I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it!’ he cried.
‘What’s happened?’
‘Paddy rang Lily again. He’s totally spooked by the whole thing, and afraid he’ll be found out. He’s promised not to put up her rent. In fact he even said he’d decorate the house for her, and let her live there as long as she wants, rent-free.’
‘He must think she knows all about what he did to put your family out of the business,’ said Maria.
‘But he’s still got the business,’ Davy looked grim.
‘Maybe we can do something about that,’ Maria smiled.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I’ve got an idea. Follow me.’
Maria led him back into the shop. They could see Paddy frantically going up and down the shelves, trying to find more hidden tins, and grabbing the photocopies.
Maria picked up a photocopy and boldly went up to Paddy and said innocently:
‘Mr Breen, can I say something?’ She held out the photocopy.
Paddy snatched it and snapped:
‘Not now, girl! Can’t you see I’m busy?’
But Maria went on:
‘It’s just that I noticed the date on that article. It’s exactly twenty years tomorrow since the accident happened.’
‘Yes, yes, what about it?’ said Paddy impatiently. But he seemed to go a bit pale.
‘The anniversary,’ said Maria sweetly. ‘Imagine. Davy would have been twenty-nine now.’
‘I suppose so,’ Paddy muttered. Then he let out a shriek. Davy had come up behind him and was running his hand across Paddy’s neck and head.
‘What’s wrong, Paddy?’ called Rose from the check-out.
‘He doesn’t look well at all,’ said one of the customers.
Paddy was clutching a shelf to steady himself.
‘I … I’ll be all right in a minute,’ he said.
Maria beckoned to Davy. She led him down the aisle towards the office. They slipped inside. Soon, Maria had the picture of Davy and his parents up on the computer screen again. She began to type.
When Davy looked over her shoulder, he saw that under the picture in big black letters, Maria had written:
TWENTY YEARS TOO MANY!
TIME TO GO! TIME TO GO… OR ELSE…
Davy laughed, delighted.
‘You’re the greatest, Maria!’ he cried.
‘Let’s go and leave him to find it!’ said Maria. They left the office and looked down the aisle, where Paddy was now sitting on a stool Rose had brought for him. She was giving him a glass of water.
As they saw Paddy get up unsteadily, they hid behind the nearest stack of shelves. Peering round, they saw Paddy walk slowly up the aisle, staggering a little. He opened the office door and went in.
Soon afterwards, there was a loud scream from inside the office, then another. Then they heard Paddy cry:
‘No! No! No! I give in, I give in!’
They heard a large crash as Paddy pushed the computer off the desk. He flung open the door and stumbled down the aisle and out of the shop.