by Ruby Loren
I’d just wished Jordan goodbye and was searching through my bag for my phone when I heard someone call my name. I looked up and saw Zara and Darren walking towards me along the path by the quay.
“Not working today?” Zara asked, the same old cheer back in place.
“I took the afternoon off to attend to some other business," I said.
I could tell from her face she was dying to ask me what the other business was, but my lack of specification made it rude to enquire.
After a moment’s thought, I relented. Most people who’d just been handed a deal with a literary agent would be shouting it from the rooftops. I wasn’t most people, but I thought I could give it a shot. “I was actually here to meet with a literary agent to talk about my comics.” I gave a little shrug to say it wasn’t a big deal. “Anyway, I’m not sure if it will come to anything. You know how it is in creative industries…” I said, deciding to play it down at the last moment.
“Awww, don’t be too upset. I know what it’s like to put everything into your hopes and dreams and then have them blow up in your face. I’ve been there,” Zara said, just as cheerfully.
“You have?” I enquired, keeping my face suitably disappointed about my own meeting.
Zara nodded. “Before Darren and I worked our way up through the PR world, we wanted to start our own jewellery brand.” She sighed. “I actually studied art at uni, not marketing. I fell in love with silversmithing. We both thought it could work, and I was lucky enough to be left a good sum of money from my dear old nan when she died. Darren had some money from his parents who gave him a lump sum early. They thought it was better put to use when you're young and all that.”
She shook her head with a small smile. “We’d been planning to use it as a deposit on a house, but we just figured we were too young, you know? We should do something that mattered to us. It's not always the right decision to take the sensible option and settle down.”
“It probably was in this case,” Darren chimed in with a smile that echoed Zara’s own.
“Shhh, I’m telling the story," she said, playfully batting him on the arm. “Anyway, we put everything into the jewellery business. We bought the raw materials, rented a studio space, and booked up stalls at craft markets like you wouldn’t believe. We even sunk a big chunk of money into getting this fancy e-commerce site set up for the business. It all looked great.”
I thought Zara sounded a little wistful.
“Of course, that was when we realised there was a lot more to it than that. We sold a couple of hundred pounds worth and that didn’t even cover the cost of the stalls, let alone everything else. We failed.” She shrugged. “It happens to the best of us. What matters, is what you do next. Darren and I were broke and upset that something we’d put our hearts and souls into hadn't worked out. We’d lost everything, but that’s what made our next business a success. We weren’t satisfied with accepting we failed. We wanted to know why. So, we tried to figure out what went wrong and realised we'd never really had a brand, and we'd never really learned how to sell. I took courses in PR and Darren trained to be a financial advisor and bookkeeper, using the last of our money to invest in ourselves. It was the best decision we ever made!”
“You certainly seem to be doing very well,” I told them both.
Zara nodded enthusiastically. “We are! And that's what I'm trying to say. Today might not have worked out for you, but that’s okay. Something better could be just around the corner."
“Did you ever think of trying to do the jewellery business again, now you’ve got the experience you need to perhaps make a better go of it?” I asked.
A dark cloud seemed to pass across Zara’s expression and I wondered if I'd made a mistake. She’d shared the story as part of her journey to success, but I wouldn’t be surprised if deep down, she and her husband might still have their share of regrets.
“Perhaps just as a hobby,” I quickly covered.
“Maybe one day…” she said, vaguely. “We're just too busy really, aren't we Darren?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe,” he told me with a big smile.
“Thanks for sharing. I needed a pick me up,” I said, hoping to rebuild a few of the bridges I’d burnt with Zara when I'd shared my views on her actions the night of the murder.
Speaking of the murder, I couldn’t help but reflect how weird it was that Zara and Darren were here, chatting away, as if they were the most normal couple in the world. It further suggested to me that they hadn’t accepted what was going on, or that they were doing their best to ignore it in the hopes that it would all go away.
If the horrific murder in the midst of the Halloween planning was anything to go by, I thought that it was incredibly unlikely that things would just go away. Instead, I suspected the person responsible would do their best to escalate things. That’s what people tended to do when they were ignored.
“How are the Halloween preparations going?” I politely asked and then regretted it when I was given yet another impromptu presentation. It was quite a relief when Zara and Darren realised the coffee shop was due to close early that day and hurried on inside.
It was only after I’d taken a long walk along the cliffs on the premise of getting some ‘fresh air' that I acknowledged I was avoiding going home. At some point very soon I was going to have to confront Lowell. I wasn’t going to trick him and catch him in a lie. It would just be another game to play. Instead, I was going to tell him what had occurred that morning and see what he had to say for himself.
I took a deep breath when I pulled into the drive and saw his car was already parked there.
I had no idea how this was going to go.
“Hey, how was your day?” Lowell asked, when I walked into the cottage.
He was bent over, placing logs onto a fire that was just starting to sputter into life.
“I need to talk to you,” I said, determined not to lie and tell him that my day was ‘fine' when it had started so horribly.
Lowell looked up from the fire and saw my expression. “What happened? Did someone else die?”
I shook my head and told him about the phone I’d heard ringing that morning and about the person who’d answered when I rang back, telling me they were from MI5. Before he could speak, I also told him I’d called up the fashion outlet and had discovered he’d solved the case on his second day there. At least… that's what I'd deduced from the story they’d clearly spun to the other workers.
Lowell looked at me for a couple of seconds before a rueful smile crossed his lips. “I should have known that in the time you've spent hanging around me you'd pick up a few tricks of the trade."
I crossed my arms and did my best to look serious, which I knew wasn’t easy when you were five foot nothing tall.
Lowell stopped stoking the fire and stood up, raising his hands in defeat. “Okay, I think I owe you an explanation. Will you hear me out?”
“I’ll listen,” I said, knowing I couldn't promise him any more than that.
Lowell nodded and sat down at the kitchen table.
“Okay the truth is, I am a private detective working for an agency, but I’m also on the government's payroll.”
“Which department of the government?” I asked, but I thought I already had a shrewd idea after this morning’s phone call.
“The Secret Service,” he confirmed.
7
Revelations
“I know we said no secrets, but I couldn’t tell you that. Everyone who works for the firm keeps a lid on it. You wouldn’t believe how many wives and husbands think their partner is a civil servant with an office job when really they’re working for British intelligence,” Lowell continued.
I kept my arms crossed, not knowing what to say. “What happens now that I know?” I said, settling on a question.
Lowell shrugged. “As far as I’m concerned, it's a relief. You're smart enough to have figured it out. I think that also means you’re smart enough to keep it a secret.”
I frowned a little.
“That’s not a threat. It’s more a plea. If you shared what you know with anyone, I’ll be dead before you know it. I can’t guarantee you’d be safe either,” he said.
I ran a hand through my wildly waving blonde hair. "You're saying that it's safe now? I don’t even know where to begin…" I bit my lip. “The stuff that’s happened to us. Has any of that been to do with… this other job?”
“No! It’s all been agency work. I’m not a full time employee by any means. I’m only ever called in if there’s an emergency, or something they really need my experience for. I used to do more when I was younger. I started out on the agency, working low-level cases, like the one at the fashion shop. Only, one of the cases turned out to be a little bigger than anyone had anticipated.
I was investigating stock going missing from shipping containers, but it was actually all tied up in gun smuggling. Water pistols intended for toy shops were being stolen from their containers. They’d be cut apart and then put back together with a real gun sandwiched inside. I didn’t realise what I’d got myself into until I got the famed ‘tap on the shoulder’ and was asked to work the case from a different angle.”
“Was that when you met Pascal?” I asked, referring to the ex-French detective, whose body had wound up in the tiger enclosure when I'd been working at L’airelle Zoological Park in France.
“It was.” He ran a hand through his dark hair. "Hardly a nice easy first job for Her Majesty. I nearly died and so did Pascal.”
I shook my head. Lowell had simply told me that he'd worked on the case as a private detective helping the police by going undercover. I couldn't believe I’d fallen for it.
“Ms Borel and Mr Flannigan, were they both secret agents too?”
Lowell shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “It's not really referred to that way, but yes. Ms Borel is rather high up in the Secret Service and Flannigan isn’t.” I didn’t fail to notice his distaste when he mentioned Flannigan. I hadn’t much liked the man myself when we'd met in France and had been astonished when he'd told me he was interested in me in a romantic way.
“What are you really doing in Cornwall?” I said, asking the most important question of all.
Lowell sucked his cheeks in for a moment and looked away at the burgeoning fire.
“I can’t tell you that,” he said.
A moment of silence passed between us before I stood up, grabbed my laptop, and walked out of the room.
“Madi…” Lowell called after me, but I ignored him.
I was fuming. I could have stayed and shouted at him to tell me, but what would it achieve? He wasn’t going to share, so I wasn't going to talk to him.
I liked to think that I was a reasonable person. If it had just been that Lowell hadn’t confided his links with the government when we’d started dating, I would have understood. Even if you promised to not keep secrets from each other, I figured that being a secret agent was an exception. But now I’d figured out the truth, I didn’t see why he couldn’t tell me what he was working on. I wasn't the best at keeping my own secrets, but I wasn't planning to blab about Lowell’s career to the world and its wife. I just saw it as a sign he didn’t really trust me.
I was still staring at the upload screen for my webcomic when Lowell knocked on the bedroom door and peered around the corner.
“I’m sorry Madi,” he began, but I just shook my head.
“I know you won’t tell me but can you at least let me know if I’m somehow involved with this case? Is it anyone I’m close to right now?” I asked, feeling like the most paranoid person in the world.
“I don't think there’s any connection at all, beyond us both working in Cornwall. I wouldn’t put you in danger," he said, but I wasn’t so sure I believed him. Sometimes you kept something to yourself in order to protect someone else, but sometimes holding onto information meant danger. What if I ended up in the middle of something that I had no clue about until it was far too late?
“I still think I deserve to know,” I told him.
He shot me a pained look. “I can’t tell you. You’re not even supposed to know about my job. Please say that you understand?"
I lowered my eyes back down to my laptop screen. “I’m not sure that I do,” I said.
A few moments later, I heard him close the door and walk back downstairs. The bubble of rage that had been burning in my diaphragm burst and turned into sadness. I pulled the covers up over my legs and put the laptop to one side, drawing my knees towards me and hugging them close.
I wasn’t sure how long I stayed that way, but when I looked out of the window again, the stars were shining brightly in the sky. Lowell hadn’t come back to try again, and I wasn't sure how I felt about anything anymore.
I sighed for what felt like the hundredth time and realised I hadn't even posted today’s comic. I rectified that and then sat and looked at it, feeling blank.
It was only now that I realised I hadn’t even had a chance to tell Lowell about my publishing deal with the agent.
I opened up my email account and decided I may as well go through the contract Jordan had sent me. Twenty minutes later, I signed it.
I promised myself that tomorrow I'd do something nice for myself to celebrate. I thought I'd do it on my own.
Things were busy enough at the zoo to distract me from the previous night’s events. Lowell had left in the morning without saying a word to me after spending the night on the sofa. I didn’t feel inclined to talk to him either, so I supposed we were at an impasse. I was glad for it. I’d have time to think about what to do next, and I hoped he'd have time to realise he was being an ass.
I shook my head and looked back down at my timeline for the day. The Johnsons had checked in on the lions and been pleased enough with their progress that they'd asked me to do the same for the tigers and smaller cats too. Today, I’d called in the contractors and there was a lot of action taking place at Pendalay.
The PR team weren’t being idle either. They’d vacated their office for the day and were busy decorating the place for Halloween and - in my opinion - generally making a nuisance of themselves.
At first, they’d come to inform me they were transforming the bat aviary into a cave of horror, complete with flashing lights and moving animatronics. I’d flatly told them they could put a few decorations up, but nothing beyond that, as it would disturb the bats. They hadn’t exactly agreed and had walked off, still carrying all of the items I’d banned. I’d checked later and found the bat cave looking surprisingly normal. When I'd caught up with Alex and Teagan, they’d told me that it smelled bad in there and that was hardly going to work for a Halloween attraction, was it?
I’d made a big effort to bite my tongue. Instead of interfering with any more animals, they’d taken over a small patch of wasteland on the edge of the zoo. It had a couple of ancient sheds and was strewn with broken wooden pallets and rubbish, but that hadn’t deterred them.
I may not be on the same page as the PR company in terms of the focus of the Halloween event, but I was impressed with the amount of graft the team put in, moving all of the junk and then building, using pallets and anything else they could lay their hands on. I was even asked if I could think of anything they could use as a token nod to the zoo and had handed over several old burlap food sacks.
When I checked back at the end of the day, I couldn’t believe it was the same space. The old sheds had been incorporated into an intriguing structure that I thought was supposed to be a maze. The sacks had been used to cover the top of it and I could hear several spooky noises emanating from the inside.
I was curious enough to get a closer look, which is when I was nabbed.
“Madi! You’ve got a moment to help us out, haven't you?” Lyra said with a wicked grin.
“I can’t think of anything I’d rather do,” I replied sarcastically, and she laughed.
“As you can see, we’ve Ground Forced our butts off today and made Pendalay
Zoo’s Halloween star attraction. Well, the start of it at least. We’ve still got a few more days to bulk it up a bit. Anyway, we need a guinea pig to try it out.” She looked at me.
“Guinea pig. Right,” I said.
“Fair warning, the structure hasn’t been safety tested yet, which is high on our to do list.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t worry! It’s fine. Probably,” Lyra said, already pushing me towards the entrance.
A roughly carved wooden sign pinned above the rather intimidating mouth of the tunnel read ‘Welcome to the gates of hell’. I knew it was just a silly amusement attraction, but it still unnerved me. There was something about the streaks of fake blood and fake rubber nails poking out that reminded me of what had happened to Jayne. There was a killer on the loose who could strike again at any time…
“Oh go on, you’ll love it,” Zara said and pushed me forwards.
I turned to glare at her but she'd shut the door tight, leaving me in darkness. For a moment, I panicked, before my eyes grew accustomed to the gloom and I realised that shutting me in was all part of the act. At least... I hoped it was.
I walked down the narrow corridor, heading towards a flickering glow of light.
A forest of rubber hands clawed at my face. Then I was walking through fake cobwebs for what felt like forever until… bam! The corridor opened out and a sack-wrapped body dropped from the ceiling, jerking on the rope which held it. I’m not ashamed to admit I gasped in horror before realising that it was quite obviously fake. I shook my head and pushed past it. Halloween was definitely not my favourite holiday.
There were a few more surprises along the way, although none of them were quite as nasty as the body had been. I was sprayed by water and squeezed through inflatable cushions that made me feel like I was being swallowed whole. When I saw daylight at the end of the tunnel, I was deeply relieved.
“So, how was it?" Lyra asked.