Midnight for Charlie Bone

by Jenny Nimmo

  Charlie reckoned it was one of the worst meals he'd ever eaten. It was bad enough, trying to avoid looking at Manfred, but the older boy wouldn't let them talk either. "You're not supposed to be enjoying your detention," he said sourly So while they ate, there was no conversation to drown out the biting, chewing, gulping, and swallowing that went on.

  At the end of the meal, when the plates had been stacked and cleared, they filed out of the dining hall as demurely as they could. But, as soon as the door closed behind them, Olivia said, "We've got two hours before bed. Where shall we start exploring?"

  Charlie and Billy didn't have any ideas, so Olivia suggested the Da Vinci tower. Charlie wanted to know where it got its name, but Olivia shrugged and said, "It's always been called that. I think the art department used to use the room at the top, but now it's empty Someone told me it wasn't safe. It's old and crumbly inside." Charlie wondered why they were exploring an unsafe and crumbly building, but he didn't like to appear anxious. Besides, Olivia had made her mind up. She showed them a flashlight she'd hidden in the inside pocket of her cape, explaining that there might not be any lights in the tower. It took them half an hour to find a likely-looking way into the Da Vinci tower. There was a very small door at the far end of a passage on the third floor. "Same floor as my dormitory,” Olivia told the others, "so if we're caught here, we've got an excuse."

  The door was bolted but, surprisingly not locked. Olivia slid back the bolts, which were stiff and very rusty.

  "No one's been here for years," Charlie observed.

  "Exactly It makes it all the more interesting, doesn't it?" Olivia's eyes were sparkling. "Come on!"

  The door creaked as she pulled it open. A dark passage curved away from them, disappearing around a corner hung with gray cobwebs. There was no light switch to be seen, nor any lamps or lightbulbs.

  They crept through the door and found themselves walking on wide, dusty floorboards. A smell of damp, decaying things wafted out of the shadows.

  "We'd better close the door," said Charlie, rather reluctantly.

  "Must we?" asked Billy.

  Olivia flicked on her flashlight and its powerful beam lit up the passage before them. "It's OK, Billy,” she said. As Charlie closed the door something made it stick, and when he looked down to see what it was he noticed Olivia's shoes. She was wearing black patent leather shoes with very high heels. Charlie hoped they wouldn't meet too many old staircases. As it happened, as soon as they'd passed the cobwebby corner, an old staircase was the first thing they met. It was the only way out of the passage. They would either have to climb up a steep curving spiral, or down a sequence of narrow, rocky steps.

  "Let's go up," begged Billy. “It looks horrible down there."

  "Intriguing, though," murmured Olivia. She shone the flashlight into the dark shaft below them. There seemed to be no end to it.

  "Up not down!" said Charlie, noticing Billy's anxious expression. He remembered that Billy couldn't see too well. "I'll go first, Billy you come right behind me, and Olivia last. That'll be safest." Billy looked relieved and Olivia happily agreed. "You'll need the flashlight if you're going first," she said, passing it to Charlie.

  The spiral steps were extremely narrow and uneven. Charlie practically had to crawl up them. He could hear Billy panting nervously behind him, and the occasional scrape of Olivia's shoes on the stone. All at once there was a clatter, several muffled thumps, an echoing moan, and then a gruesome silence. It was quite obvious what had happened.

  "Do you think she's dead?" Billy whispered.

  The moan started up again, so at least that question was answered. But how badly wounded was Olivia?

  "We'll have to go down backward, Billy,” said Charlie. "Do you think you can?"

  "Yes," Billy said uncertainly.

  Slowly and carefully they retraced their steps. The moaning began to fade and Charlie called out, "Hold on, Olivia. We're coming." They had reached the small landing before the rocky steps plunged down into the shadows.

  "I'll go first," Charlie offered. "Do you want to wait here, Billy?"

  "No. Not alone." Billy quickly clambered after Charlie.

  The rough staircase began to curve and Charlie, directing the flashlight downward, found Olivia at the bottom, huddled against an ancient-looking door.

  “Are you OK?" was Charlie's first question.

  "?Course I'm not. My knees hurt and I've bumped my head. I couldn't see where I was going, could I?"

  Charlie didn't want to mention the high heels. "Shall we pull you up? Do you think you can stand?"

  "I'll try." Olivia grabbed the door handle above her and gradually pulled herself upright. She must have been leaning rather heavily on the rotten door because there was a sudden crack and the old door fell inward with Olivia on top of it.

  "Yeeeee-ooooo-ooow!" she yelled.

  There wasn't much point in telling her to be quiet. Charlie scrambled after her. As he stepped onto the fallen door, the flashlight shone into the room beyond and Charlie saw something so extraordinary he had to ignore Olivia for a moment and aim the light farther into the room.

  "Wow!" he murmured. "It's amazing."

  "What is?" Olivia rolled over and got to her feet. Now she, too, could see. The room was full of armor, or rather pieces of armor. There were also pieces of metal figures. They lay on tables and chairs; they littered the floor and hung from the walls. There were shiny skulls with hollow eyes and terrible metal grins; steel fingers clinging to boxes; metal feet dangling from cabinets; arms, legs, ribs, and elbows all in tangled heaps on the floor. Worse than all that were the skeletons hanging from the ceiling.

  "Ugh!" said Olivia. "It's like Frankenstein's workshop." Billy who had squeezed between them, asked, "Who's Frankenstein?"

  “A doctor who made a monster out of a dead man," Olivia told him.

  "Dead pieces," Charlie corrected.

  Olivia grabbed his arm. "Did you hear that?"

  Charlie was about to ask what, when there came the thin tip-tap of approaching footsteps. They weren't coming from the rocky steps behind them, but from a door at the far end of the room.

  "Quick!" Olivia pushed both boys off the fallen door and into a closet with a door standing slightly open. As soon as they were inside, she pulled the door shut, but not before they'd had a glimpse of the things in the closet.

  Olivia and Charlie both clamped their hands over Billy's mouth. He was, after all, much younger than they were. And the closet was full of skeletons.

  Charlie switched off the flashlight just as someone entered the room. A light came on. It shone through the cracks in the closet door and the children were painted, like zebras, in stripes of light and shadow. Olivia just managed to stop giggling. Squinting through a crack, Charlie saw Dr. Bloor moving between the stacks of armor and metal figures. The shapes were now easier to see, and Charlie noticed that some were animals - dogs, cats, and even a rabbit. They're Dr. Tolly's, he thought. But how did they.

  end up here, in a secret room in Bloor's Academy? Were they bought or given or stolen?

  The big man swung around. He began to walk in the direction of the closet. As he passed a metal dog he picked it up and wrenched off the tail. He bashed the dog's body against a table. It broke apart and a stream of wheels, cogs, springs, and screws poured out. Dr. Bloor peered at the shiny heap, grunted, and then swept them off the table. He was obviously searching for something and angry because he couldn't find it. He turned his attention to the closet again, and walked purposefully toward it.

  They hardly dared to breathe. Olivia, Charlie, and Billy clutched one another's hands. Olivia's long nails bit into Charlie's palm and he was on the point of yelling out, when a door opened with a loud squeak and a voice said, "I thought I'd find you in here."

  CHAPTER 11

  CLUES AT LAST

  That "old door's fallen in," said Dr. Bloor.

  "Oh? Has someone been prying?"

  "I doubt it. It's just the damp and old age."


  "Mm. I wonder," said a familiar voice.

  “All this junk Tolly sent us..." Dr. Bloor kicked at a metal arm, and it rolled across the floor toward the closet. "Tricks, all of it. Where's the real thing?"

  "I told you, Dad. Miss Ingledew gave it to Charlie Bone."

  "You can't be sure."

  Olivia's grip relaxed and Charlie was able to drag his hand away from the painful nails. Billy had momentarily forgotten the skeletons hanging behind him and was now peering through the largest crack in the door.

  "It's Manfred," he whispered.

  Charlie had already recognized the voice. "Shhh!" he whispered. "Listen."

  "Of course I'm sure," said Manfred. “Asa was watching.

  He saw Charlie come out of Ingledew's with a large black bag. Who else would she give it to?"

  Dr. Bloor grunted and lowered himself into an ancient-looking chair. Clouds of dust billowed around him as he sank into the cracked leather cushions. "Beats me how the boy knew where to go. How he knew it was at Ingledew's."

  "It was the cats, naturally,” said Manfred. "You know what they do -knock things off tables, distract people. Somehow the boy got hold of that photograph and then, of course, he had to take it back to the Ingledew woman. I bet you anything one of those cats got into Kwik Foto when they were packing. A moment's distraction and -poof-wrong photo in wrong envelope."

  "I'll skin those animals alive if I ever get hold of them!" Dr. Bloor punched the arm of his chair and another cloud of dust whirled out. "The very smell they leave makes me feel ill."

  "Sulfur," said Manfred.

  “Age," said his father. "Nine hundred years of sneaking and meddling."

  “And stealing and burning," said Manfred.

  In the eerie gloom of the closet the three children gaped at one another. "Nine hundred years," mouthed Olivia. Billy shook his head in disbelief. Charlie frowned and shrugged. Why not? he thought. Stranger things are happening every day in this place.

  "Talking of burning," muttered Dr. Bloor. "Do we know for sure it was the cats?"

  "I told you, I saw them under my window when I was trying to put out the flames."

  “And you think the girl had something to do with it?"

  "Of course. I'd just given her a good beating."

  "You shouldn't have done that, Manfred," Dr. Bloor said sternly. “It won't help."

  "I lost my temper. It makes me mad when she's not responding. She's waking up, you know I can't keep her out for much longer." Manfred gave a sigh of impatience. "It's not as if I haven't got enough to do, keeping an eye on Pilgrim."

  “And how is that little problem coming along?"

  "I'm not sure. I may be imagining it, but I think he's changed since the boy arrived. Perhaps we shouldn't have brought him here."

  "We had to, Manfred. Couldn't leave him out there once we knew he was endowed."

  "I know I know"

  Inside the closet, Olivia made a face and pointed at Charlie. "You," she mouthed.

  Charlie shrugged again. What did Dr. Bloor and his sinister son mean? Who was the girl who was waking up? Why was Manfred keeping an eye on Mr. Pilgrim? He listened intently for clues.

  But Manfred and his father were beginning to move away It seemed that Charlie was not going to learn any more about himself or the waking girl. And then, just before Manfred left the room, he said, "It won't be long now Asa's been very vigilant. He's pretty sure that kid with the dog is hiding it. We just have to get the parents out of the way and we'll have it."

  "Manfred." Dr. Bloor's voice was distant now, but his words could be clearly heard. "It has to be destroyed before it wakes her up." The light in the room went out and the door closed.

  For a few seconds the three children remained silent. When they were sure they were alone, Olivia said, "Well, that was interesting, wasn't it?"

  "Let's get out of here," said Charlie. "I've got a lot to tell you." Billy was the first to leap out of the closet. He ran over the fallen door and up the rocky steps before the others had even dusted themselves off.

  They needn't have bothered with the dusting. By the time they had crept out of the Da Vinci tower, they were, all three, covered in cobwebs again. Olivia had a swollen ankle and cuts and bruises on her knees, but she refused to make a fuss. Charlie was impressed. "I think you should see Matron," he said. "There might be something nasty in all that dust, you know, an ancient bug or something."

  "Matron? She's a dragon," said Olivia. "She's bound to ask me what I've been doing. I'll just hide my knees under some tights and Mom can deal with it tomorrow"

  Billy reminded Charlie that he had something to tell them.

  "You bet I have," said Charlie. “All that stuff Manfred and Dr. Bloor were talking about, well, it made everything that's been happening to me make sense."

  Olivia suggested they go to her dormitory as it was closer than the boys'. "It's just three doors down this passage," she said. "We can get cleaned up before Matron starts her rounds."

  She spoke too soon. Matron had already started her rounds. Just as they reached Olivia's dormitory the door opened and Matron came out. Only then did Charlie discover why her voice had seemed familiar. Matron was LucretiaYewbeam.

  Of course, Billy and Olivia simply recognized her as their school matron, but Charlie was so shaken he felt as though he'd gotten punched in the stomach. He took a desperate gulp of air and stuttered, “Aunt L-L-Lucretia!"

  "Matron to you!" snapped Aunt Lucretia.

  "I d-didn't know you were a matron," said Charlie, still in shock.

  "We've all got to earn a living these days," said Matron Yewbeam. Clearly puzzled, Olivia and Billy turned from Charlie to Aunt Lucretia and back again.

  "You're all filthy,” Matron went on. "Where've you been?" Olivia was ready for this one. Without a moment's hesitation she said, "We were out in the garden and when we tried to come in, the door was locked, so we went around and found a window and climbed into this empty really dirty room. Well, really we fell in, because the window was quite high."

  Matron frowned. Did she believe Olivia? It was just possible that someone had locked the garden door.

  She said, "I'd put you all on detention for another twenty-four hours, but as it happens I want my day off too. So this time I'll let you off with a warning."

  "Thank you, Matron," Olivia said gushingly.

  "However!" Matron Yewbeam wasn't fooled that easily. “You can all go to bed, right now"

  "But we've got another hour," Billy said bravely.

  "It'll take you a whole hour to clean yourselves up," barked Matron.

  "Off you go, right now" She turned to Olivia. “And you'd better have those knees cleaned up!"

  Leaving Olivia to Matron's far from tender care, Charlie and Billy made their way back to their own dormitory.

  There was something to be said for an almost empty school, after all. The water in the taps was hot. So far Charlie had only managed to get one cold bath. Not that he enjoyed baths. But today he had the longest, hottest bath he could remember.

  Five minutes after the boys had climbed into bed, there was a knock on the door and Olivia bounced in. She was wearing a white velvet nightgown with big purple flowers all over it, and her purple hair had turned a mousy brown.

  "Matron made me wash it," she informed the boys. "It was just spray-on dye." She plopped herself at the foot of Charlie's bed. "So, what have you got to tell us?"

  "It's like this," began Charlie, and he told them everything that had happened to him, from the moment he saw the photograph of the strange man and the baby until he reached Bloor's Academy. “All the time I've been thinking that the thing in the case was valuable, a precious thing that could be exchanged for Miss Ingledew's niece, whoever she is. But it seems that Dr. Bloor just wants to destroy it."

  "Before it wakes the girl up," added Olivia. “And the girl must be the stolen baby."

  "So, in a way what's in the case is still valuable," said Billy, “because of
what it can do. It's like a kind of spell."

  "Hmm." Olivia swung her legs. "Do you know what I think?" She didn't wait for them to ask. "I think Manfred's hypnotized her. Perhaps she's always been hypnotized, ever since she was stolen, or swapped, or whatever But it's wearing off a bit, so Manfred has to keep doing it, to make sure she doesn't wake up and run away or remember who she really is."

  "Olivia, you're brilliant," said Charlie. "To tell the truth, for a while, I thought it was you."

  "Me? No way I think I'd know if I was hypnotized." Olivia grinned. "I'm pretty sure I can find out who she is, though."

  "How?" asked Charlie.

  "Observation. I'm good at that. If the baby was swapped eight years ago and she was almost two, then she's going to be about the same age as us. She's bound to be endowed, because that's why Dr. Bloor would have wanted her. So, who fits the description? There aren't that many of you, are there?"

  "Twelve," said Billy. “Five are girls. Zelda's too old, she's thirteen. So's Beth. That leaves Dorcas, Emilia, and Bindi."

  "Can't be Dorcas," Olivia declared. "She's so cheerful. I've never seen anyone less hypnotized."

  "It's Emilia," Charlie exclaimed. "Of course, it is.

  Think about it. She always looks as if she's in a kind of trance, and she's afraid of Dr. Bloor."

  "Who isn't?" asked Olivia. "But I think you're right. She's in my dormitory so I'll keep my eyes open. Better go now Good night, boys. See you in the morning." Olivia bounced off the bed and out the door. She had hardly left the room when the voice of Lu-cretiaYewbeam barked, "Lights out!" And a white hand snaked around the open door and snapped off the light.

  For a moment, both boys were silent. There were four empty beds between Charlie and Billy On the other side of the room all the beds were empty It gave Charlie the creeps. He wondered what it was like to be Billy alone in this big, dark room every weekend.

  "Billy,” he whispered. "Next weekend, can you come home with me? Will they let you?"

  "Oh, yes," said Billy eagerly. “I've been to Fidelio's house. So, I'm sure they'll let me come to yours."