Lucy Lockhart: The Awakening

by Bryce THOMAS

  ‘I heard her before she banged the door on her way out,’ Thin Man said. ‘Thought the floor was going to cave in on me. A right paddy she was in and no mistake!’

  ‘Phew, that’s a relief!’ said Loanne. ‘I’m so glad they didn’t find you.’

  ‘I think that is thanks to your young friend here,’ he stated, looking straight at Lucy.

  ‘I knew I was right about that horrible woman,’ Lucy gasped.

  ‘Well, I wasn’t too sure when you came knocking at my door the other day. Nobody was supposed to know who I was or what I was doing here, yet you came straight to the door and began to warn me about the detective chief inspector. That was rather bizarre to say the least. I began to realize that my being here wasn’t such a secret after all. If you knew who I was then who else knew? That’s what crossed my mind. So I was just being cautious. I had trusted them completely until then. But what you said made me very nervous. After all, I only have one life to lose.’

  Lucy reflected on what he had just said. At this moment in time she wasn’t so sure just how many lives she had been through. ‘I don’t know who you are,’ she stated bluntly, ‘but I know that the woman who called here was someone who double crossed m…’ She hesitated. She could hardly tell him what she and Loanne had been discussing. Nobody would believe that. She wasn’t sure if she believed it herself. If there had been any other explanation then it would have been infinitely better. Better for her, better for everybody.

  ‘She double crossed who?’ he asked, rubbing his stubbly chin while Lucy still contemplated what she was saying. His brow creased, sending crinkly ripples up through his bristly scalp. She realized that he had obviously not taken the time out from his intriguing disappearing act to come from his hideaway, and shave.

  ‘She killed a friend of mine,’ Lucy tried to explain whist still trying to remember just exactly what Norton had done to her. She still kept hearing the words Can she be trusted? popping into her head whenever she tried to remember what happened when Norton shot her. She remembered the sudden pain. In fact she could almost feel it. Can she be trusted? She heard the words again. Why couldn’t she remember what had happened and who had said it?

  ‘Well, whatever,’ the Thin Man went on. ‘What you said, well it got me thinking. Let’s say it made me a little more cautious.’

  ‘So how come they didn’t find you?’ asked Loanne.

  ‘How come we couldn’t find you? Or Jules?’

  He gave out a dry chuckle. ‘Well, I’ve been through this house with a fine tooth comb. I’ve had nothing else to do for the last month or more for goodness sake! And I know every inch of it. And it just happens that I wasn’t here long before I found a doorway behind an old panel next to the fireplace. It led to an old coal cellar. It took a bit of budging, but eventually I got the panel to open. It hadn’t been used for years but when I investigated, I discovered that the cellar was quite dry. Well, after I’d been down the old stone steps and had a good look around, I decided the place would make a good bolt hole if I ever needed it. Even the coppers hadn’t found it. If they had then…’ He stopped and left the words hanging in the air. ‘There’s an old coal chute that runs up into the garden and comes out at the side of the path,’ he continued. ‘It was covered by a thick moss-covered stone flagstone, but I replaced it with a thin piece of wood so that if I ever wanted to lift it in a hurry I could push my way out and run.’ He smiled proudly to himself. ‘That flag stone took a bit of shifting on my own, I can tell you.’

  ‘I didn’t see any wood there,’ Loanne stated, quite taken with the man’s ingenuity.

  ‘Ah, that’s because I covered it again with the moss. I scraped it all off the stone slab and carefully laid it back over the plywood.’

  ‘Well, the cellar was hidden so well that we were unable to find you at any rate,’ Loanne said, now feeling a little more at ease with the stranger.

  ‘Nor Ackley,’ Lucy stated.

  ‘Ah, but you knew something was amiss, didn’t you?’ Thin Man said, genuinely impressed. ‘Call themselves detectives. Pah! They couldn’t detect dog poo on their own shoes. You two are the real detectives. You had a clue and you pursued it till you found me. That’s admirable. Mind you, I am really glad they are hopeless detectives, otherwise where would we all be by now?’ He lifted his eyebrows as he asked the question.

  Lucy could see plainly now that his eye was the one she had seen through the hole in the cupboard wall. She shuddered. ‘I don’t like to think,’ she said, not wanting to say too much about what she knew Norton was really likely to do.

  ‘You knew that my friend had to be here.’ He chuckled.

  ‘Friend?’ said Lucy, and then realizing added, ‘Oh, the cat.’

  ‘Yes the cat,’ the man said with a grin. ‘I was taking no chances. Better safe than sorry, heh?’

  ‘True,’ Loanne said with a nod, encouraging him to continue.

  Thin Man nodded back. ‘From the very start of all this going-where-no-one-will-find-me business, I was determined never to answer the door to anyone I didn’t know.’ He paused and then added, ‘Except for you children that is. I’d seen you riding a few times,’ he said, looking at Loanne, ‘so I guessed you were the neighbours. But it’s a good job I didn’t call you in yesterday when I saw you peering through the windows. That could have been a bit tickly.’ He paused and thought for a moment.

  ‘Yes,’ he continued, ‘that could have been very tickly indeed.’

  ‘You saw us?’ Loanne exclaimed.

  ‘Well you were looking through the windows, weren’t you?’

  Loanne nodded. ‘I suppose you are angry with us then?’

  Thin Man laughed. ‘No, not at all. Not at all! If it weren’t for your young colleague here, I’d be worm food by now, I’m sure of it.’ He frowned. ‘But I still can’t fathom out how you knew.’

  ‘But how did you know that man was not friendly?’ Loanne asked, diverting the conversation back to him.

  ‘I was watching from the side window and saw him coming. I’ve spent the last few weeks peeking out from behind curtains. Hiding away on your own can make you very nervous; every sound, every movement when the wind blows. And I only had Jules for company. I don’t even know whose cat he is really. He just turned up here one dark night. Scared the sh… nearly gave me a heart attack, he did!’ He stroked his companion fondly. ‘I heard that bloke driving up here before he even got to the farm yard, and watched from behind the curtain to see who it was. I thought at first he might have been another police officer, but then he got the club out of his car. I don’t play any sports, and if I did, baseball certainly wouldn’t be one of them. So I guessed he wasn’t bringing it as a present, that’s for sure. I grabbed Jules and was down that cellar like a rat down a drainpipe!’

  ‘Yes, I can understand. But Lucy realized you must still be here, somewhere,’ Loanne explained. ‘She’s the real detective, Mister.’

  ‘My name is Jack. Jack Meerland.’

  ‘Well, this is Lucy and I’m Loanne,’ she said.

  ‘Then I am very pleased to have made your acquaintance.’

  Loanne nodded. ‘Likewise,’ she said, giving him one of her broad smiles.

  Lucy had been listening intently to what he had said, but she still needed an answer to another question.

  ‘There’s still one small problem,’ she stated. ‘Albright and Norton are likely to come back again. If you are here for witness protection, you do realize that they are not going to let you testify, don’t you?’

  Jack sighed. ‘Yes, you are right, of course and I am supposed to be under police protection, but the only contact I have with the police is through those two. They’ve been coming here in shifts to see that I’m okay, but they wouldn’t allow me to have a phone in the house. Too much of a temptation to call somebody, they said. Which is true, I suppose,’ he said with a shrug of his narrow shoulders. ‘But the problem is, what do I say now I know that they are working for the very people who I am suppose
d to be testifying against? How can I prove that they are working for an organization that’s so big they have a slush fund specially to pay people to make problems disappear? And if I went to a police station, one not connected with Detective Chief Inspector Norton and Sergeant Albright, what do I say? All I know is that you came and warned me. They’d be bound to ask me who you are and how you know so much. Even I don’t know why you came or who sent you, so how could I convince them!’

  ‘Well what I have to say won’t convince even me,’ Lucy said, shaking her head. ‘So going to police wouldn’t work. And anyway, we don’t know who else is under the control of…’ She suddenly froze. She had remembered now why she spoke fluent Chinese and why Dianne Derby and Michael Colson had got themselves involved with a huge and rapidly developing computer chip company. ‘You don’t happen to have anything to do with YangseTek, do you?’

  ‘YangseTek, heh?’ Jack looked at her inquisitively. ‘They haven’t been called that for years!’ he exclaimed.

  ‘They changed their name to XowiTech six or seven years ago when they were taken over by XowiSoft.’ He carried on looking at Lucy as if waiting for an explanation.

  Lucy didn’t oblige. ‘Whatever,’ she said dismissively.

  ‘We still have the problem of bringing it all out in the open, which is why you are waiting for some trial or other, I suppose.’

  ‘You are confusing me now,’ Jack said quite truthfully.

  ‘You don’t seem to know anything about me. You don’t know the name of the company that I worked for. Just what do you know?’ He paused ever so slightly and then added, ‘And what’s with all this “we” stuff? Since when did you two youngsters become involved in all this?’

  ‘I don’t think that we have time to go into detailed explanations right now,’ Lucy stated. ‘You know I was right about Norton. Let’s leave it at that for now. We have more important things to think about at the moment, such as how to make sure you survive, and how to make sure Norton pays for her crimes.’

  ‘Ah, so it’s not XowiTech you are bothered about then?’ Jack said, surprised at just how grown up Lucy seemed to be.

  Lucy shook her head. ‘Not at the moment, no. And it’s no good telling you how we are mixed up in all this, because it won’t help matters,’ she said, now quite authoritatively. ‘You know we are right and you know that you are in greater danger now than you have ever been. Do you want to stop Norton or what?’

  Jack sighed and, staring at the floor, he thought deeply for a while. Eventually, he took a deep breath as if resigned to keep following the path along which he was now helplessly being carried, lifted his eyes to Lucy and said, ‘Well you seem to be more in control of things than me at the moment, young lady, so carry on.’

  Lucy knew she had to keep off the subject of her past. She had to concentrate on getting Jack Meerland to help himself, but some explanation was necessary. ‘I know that Norton has been on the payroll of the company, whatever its name is now, for at least thirteen years,’ Lucy began. She tried to remember what year it was when Dianne Derby was twenty nine but under pressure, she just couldn’t think. ‘But it doesn’t alter the fact that, unless you stop Norton, then you’ll never stop XowiTech any more than Dianne Derby did.’

  At the mention of the name, Jack’s eyes widened. ‘You knew Dianne?’ he asked, and then answered himself.

  ‘No of course you didn’t. I’m being silly now. Dianne would have been dead long before you were even born,’ He stated quite correctly. ‘They killed her, you know?’

  Lucy nodded. She was getting used to hearing it now. It didn’t seem to disturb her any more when anyone mentioned that Dianne was dead. But she didn’t want to try to explain either. Nor did she want to start making up stories that were not true. ‘Norton killed her,’ she said bluntly. ‘I know that for a fact.’

  Jack began to open his mouth to speak but she held up her hand. ‘Don’t start asking me questions,’ she instructed, ‘I simply can’t answer them at the moment.’

  Jack closed his mouth and remained silent as instructed. He resigned himself to be satisfied that they were discussing ways of getting him out of the big hole he had dug for himself. It was possible, Lucy thought, that he was regretting ever turning on his bosses. But then, Michael and Dianne had done the same, and for some reason, Lucy couldn’t, at this particular time, decide if she regretted their actions.

  ‘You’ll just have to believe me when I say I know all about what happened in Shanghai.’

  Jack nodded. He obviously knew too. ‘But what I don’t understand is why you two youngsters are letting yourselves get mixed up in my problems. You are safe if you keep out of it. Why are you risking your lives like this?’

  Lucy just blanked him. ‘And none of this,’ she said quite slowly and deliberately, ‘none of this will help stop Norton coming back here and finding you.’ She bit her bottom lip as she thought about the problem. ‘The trouble is, Jack, Norton seems unstoppable. You are not armed and we are just a pair of puny kids who she thinks have been just a bit nosey.’

  Lucy thought of telling him what Norton had done yesterday, getting to their parents before they could, and how she had made them seem like interfering and immature children. But there wasn’t really any point. Jack Meerland seemed relieved to have some one on his side whatever their ages and that seemed the only thing they had going for them at this particular moment.

  ‘I just can’t see any way to help you,’ she said, running her fingers though her tousled hair and shaking her head.

  ‘But there is a way round this,’ Loanne said suddenly and matter of factly. ‘There is a way to stop Norton once and for all.’

  CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

  Lucy and Loanne were back at Doctor Murray’s house before eight thirty. Lucy wasn’t sure if Loanne’s infective enthusiasm and optimism wasn’t just a way to get them out of that old farmhouse and out of the way of what she thought was inevitably going to happen. Norton and her side kick would return; no doubt about it. And they would find Jack Meerland whether he hid there or made a run for it. But Loanne hadn’t explained anything. All she said was that she had a friend who would call at the old farmhouse later that morning and left it at that. After a few more reassuring words, the two girls had left him there, probably wondering if it wasn’t some kind of wind-up. But Lucy realized that Loanne was right in one respect. Staying there and going through one explanation after another wasn’t going to solve the problem; it was just going to get them killed along with Jack.

  They had hardly spoken on their way back to the house, except for Loanne stating that she wasn’t at all confident that she could help Norton’s intended victim. Despite that fact, however, she still intended to do what she could. Lucy on the other hand had never felt so completely helpless; not since Norton shot Dianne Derby, at any rate.

  The sun had burned away the fog but the grass was still soaking wet. As they got into the kitchen and took off their wet trainers, they put them to dry under the radiator, and pulled off their socks, tossing them into the laundry basket out of sight. Their reconnaissance had been successful in that they had found Jack Meerland. But the plan? What was the plan? Lucy and her mother were due to return home later that day, so what time was there to develop, never mind carry out, any kind of plan?

  Doctor Murray and Mrs. Lockhart were nowhere to be seen. They were both obviously enjoying a lie in. As Loanne left the kitchen, Lucy filled the kettle and put it on the AGA. She needed a drink and something to eat. Her energy level had dropped drastically with the stress and all the running about. She was going to ask if Loanne wanted some toast, but she didn’t want to call out for fear of waking the whole household so, instead, she wandered through to the lounge to find her. Loanne was standing with her back to the door. Lucy was just about to speak when Loanne lifted a mobile phone to her ear and began talking to someone.

  ‘Hello, is that Mr. Bamforth?…’

  ‘Okay thanks. How are you?…’

  ‘Yes. I
s Maurice at home?…’

  Lucy decided to let her get on with it while she went and made something to eat. If she didn’t have food soon, she decided, she would be too weak to lift it to her mouth. She went back to the kitchen and began to look through the cupboards. There was a packet of porridge oats begging to be opened so, quickly, she took the packet down onto the worktop, found a glass bowl and a spoon, opened the packet and went about making some creamy porridge.

  By the time the microwave oven had pinged off, she had already made two mugs of tea and prepared the bowls on the table ready to dish out the food. There was no need to call for Loanne. When Lucy turned to go and fetch her, there she was standing in the doorway, watching with a faint look of satisfaction on her face.

  ‘Porridge! Gosh, I’ve not had that for ages,’ she said and beamed at Lucy.

  ‘Er, does that mean that the box of oats was out of date?’ Lucy said, frowning slightly.

  ‘Probably,’ Loanne said, sitting down and taking up her spoon. She began to tuck in straight away. She was as hungry as Lucy.

  Neither spoke for several minutes while they ate. Perhaps, if Loanne really was feeling anything like Lucy, then they were both especially relieved when they got away from the farmhouse.

  ‘So what’s your plan then?’ Lucy asked eventually. ‘It seems like you have something in mind.’

  Loanne finished scooping up the last of her porridge and then put down her spoon. ‘You know I mentioned my tutor, Mr. Bamforth?’

  Lucy nodded.

  ‘Well he’s more of a friend of the family really. He just teaches me because he knows Daddy really well. They went to school and through university together.’

  ‘Right,’ Lucy said with a nod as if it explained everything. She took a sip of hot tea.

  ‘Well he has a son, Maurice. I don’t see him much; he’s five years older than me, but he was one of my only friends before I met you.’

  Lucy felt rather special when she said that.

  ‘And he’s a whiz at electronics and all that stuff.’