“Urgh!” said Chloe.
Ahead and below he could definitely hear the sea, and the wall of cobwebs seemed to breathe – which made it even more unpleasant.
Behind him Chloe’s feet tapped on the stone steps and Bella’s claws made a scuffling sound. She sniffed and sneezed at the dust, but she wasn’t growling or whining, which made Aiden feel bolder.
“What can you see?” asked Chloe.
“Nothing, just—”
“Don’t say it,” she said. “Not if you’re going to say spiders.”
“I wasn’t. It’s just all white.”
“That’s almost worse.”
They carried on for another few seconds in silence. “I’ve been counting,” she said. “Fifteen steps.”
Aiden didn’t answer. He’d been counting too – and he’d been thinking about the small table that they’d put into the gap, and hoping that it would stop it blowing shut again if someone came into the church. He’d also been thinking about the cat and the hole and just how on earth he or Mr Tibbs had managed to open the door.
“There must have been a lever,” he said.
“Did you pull or push anything?”
“No,” he said, puzzling and counting, until at fifty steps he lost count and the cobwebs seemed to grow greyer and the ground beneath his feet yellower. The whiff of the sea became stronger, mixed with a damp smell of sea caves and dead fishy things.
“I think we’re nearly at the bottom,” he said, feeling the floor of the passage change from paving to something grittier. On either side the stone walls continued, but now there were no more steps, and there was definitely some light at the other end.
“We don’t need the torch any more,” he said, taking off his glasses and cleaning away the cobwebs. Ahead and slightly below him was a long horizontal slit of yellow, and the cobwebs had changed from thick and white and strong, to traily and grubby, as if perhaps the spiders down here had moved on.
“Yay!” said Chloe. “I can properly see the end. Come on.” She and Bella squeezed past him and charged towards the light. Aiden stumbled along the last few metres of the passage, and had to take his glasses off again to remove the last of the cobwebs. Ahead of him, Bella raced through the slot and ran back, barking. She repeated the exercise several times and then sat panting, and possibly grinning. Kneeling down, Chloe stuck her head through the hole. “We’re at Fire Bay, right down low – I don’t know how we never saw it!
Aiden crouched next to her. She was right. There were some bushes in front of the entrance, and rocks, and actually, when Chloe said “low” she meant some metres above the actual beach, so it would be a scramble to get down, but for a moment they stayed there looking over to Jake and the bonfire builders and the boats coming and going from the harbour, and Pearl’s kayaks lined up waiting to go out.
“We could…” started Aiden.
“Cat,” said Chloe. “We can’t leave it there. I’ll go in front this time.”
It took only a few minutes to make the return journey, and somehow the spiders’ webs were less horrible this time. They reached the top of the steps and Aiden stood next to the pulpit holding the door open. “That’s much quicker than walking through the village,” he said, as Chloe crouched on the inside of the door, looking for a catch.
“There must have been a way of closing it from the inside. But yes, it is.” She fumbled inside the spidery space, feeling for anything that might trigger the door.
“I can only think of one reason for it,” said Aiden.
“Smugglers,” said Chloe, peering into another spidery hole behind the door. “Do you think this is it?” She had found an old metal hook inside the hole on the wall. Somehow it looked as if it wanted to be pulled.
“Try it!” said Aiden.
“Will you get me out if it shuts? I don’t want to go back down there on my own in the dark.”
“Here, take my phone just in case, and I’ll jam my foot in the door.”
Chloe pulled the hook. It grated on the stone, but when she tried a little harder it came towards her and the door began to swing shut.
“Hey!” The door closed quickly against Aiden’s foot. “Get out of there!”
“No!” Panicking, Chloe pushed the hook the other way, and to her relief, the door reversed direction. “Phew,” she said, tumbling out on to the flagstones. The door closed behind her, echoing in the church as it snapped shut.
“You’re covered in cobwebs!” said Aiden.
“So are you!” And he was – swathes of grey dust-filled silk coated his back and arms, and Chloe shuddered.
“Ugh!” she said, twisting round to sweep them off. “Ugh!”
“Let’s take Mr Tibbs back to his owners. If we go outside, the wind might blow some of this off.”
Mr Tibbs was quite chilled when Chloe lifted him out of the basket. He stretched and settled comfortably in her arms. Bella, perhaps exhausted by her visit to the tunnel, perhaps finally bored of the cat, paid him no attention, which is how they managed to walk down the high street, shedding their ghostly trails along the way. From time to time Chloe shuddered as something tickled her neck or touched her cheek, but she clung firmly to the cat.
They passed the burned-out post office and had nearly reached the hotel where they knew Mr Tibbs’s owners were, when a bus pulled to a stop in front of them.
Josh climbed down on to the pavement. He was covered in something browny green, and was holding his arms out like he didn’t want to touch anything.
“Josh!” shouted Aiden. Josh didn’t turn but walked over to a low wall where he started brushing something off his arms. Chloe looked back at the bus. “Where’s Ava?” she said.
She watched as a string of villagers poured from the doorway and then at the very end – Ava. “Thank you!” she said to one of the women with shopping bags. “I’ll drop the money in tonight. We’re so grateful!”
“No bother, dear. Found myself without the bus fare lots of times at your age – anyway, I know your granny.”
“Oh! Um, if you wouldn’t mind … not telling her?” said Ava, screwing up her face. “It’s just … she doesn’t know we went for such a long walk. She might not be very happy.”
The woman winked. “Your secret’s safe wi’ me,” she said, smiling. “Bye, Josh. Bye, Ava.”
The cousins stopped and stared at each other.
“You’ll never guess what we discovered!” said Josh and Chloe simultaneously.
They met Mr Tibbs’s family outside the hotel. They’d just come back from a search of the net sheds. Little Tom cried and grabbed the cat for a hug and Mr Tibbs looked as if he’d quite like to leave and go back to sitting in the hamper in the church.
“That’s so kind,” said the mum.
“Wonderful,” said the dad.
“Marvellous,” said the mum.
“Are you all right?” said Tom, pointing at Josh. “You’ve got something brown all over you.”
“He’s fine,” said Ava.
“Ooh,” said the girl. “Is that poo?”
“Bye now,” said Aiden, thinking that Josh really needed rescuing, and a second later the four cousins were heading towards the beach, laughing while Josh stamped disgustedly on the tarmac in an attempt to dislodge some of the sticky gunk from his trainers.
“You’ll be able to scrape it off on the pebbles! Anyway, look – we haven’t told you. We found the smugglers’ tunnel,” said Chloe.
“What?”
“Actually, Mr Tibbs found it,” said Aiden. “We were trying to rescue him from Bella.”
“I don’t get it,” said Ava.
“Doesn’t matter,” said Chloe. “But the tunnel goes to Fire Bay, just like Pearl said.”
“Wow,” said Josh and Ava at the same time.
“Was there anything in it?” asked Josh. “Doubloons? Brandy?”
“Spiders,” said Chloe. “Millions of them.”
“Big as a plate, some of them,” grinned Aiden, splaying his
hands to show just how big they were.
“Seriously?” said Ava. “Show us!”
“It’s this way,” said Chloe, pointing, and they crunched on to the beach, Josh kicking up pebbles as he tried to clean his shoes. “What happened to you? We didn’t tell Grandma, by the way.”
“We lied for you,” said Aiden, feeling quite proud.
“We,” said Ava, “ended up going quite a long way across the moor, to a petrol station.”
“And then got lost. Because of her…” Josh tilted his head towards Ava.
“And then caught a bus because of me,” snapped Ava. “And he fell in sheep poo.”
“Yeah, so – anyway, it turns out that they are together,” said Josh. “Frogwoman and Mushroom-head. They’re the same set-up.”
“And the back of their van—”
“The white one with the yellow string,” interrupted Josh.
“Is full of cardboard boxes, with some other random address on them. That’s the real manufacturer. Some place that’s nothing to do with Xarca.”
“What?” said Chloe.
“And they’ve got a load of printed labels that say Xarca – which look exactly like the real Xarca ones – that they’re sticking on the boxes that aren’t Xarca,” said Josh. “If you see what I mean.”
“So they’re passing off something that isn’t Xarca as Xarca?” asked Aiden.
“That’s fraud,” said Chloe. “Isn’t it?”
“Glad I didn’t buy one,” said Josh.
“Glad Grandma didn’t buy you one,” said Chloe.
“But they’ve sold loads of them,” said Josh. “There were masses of boxes in there, and he said something about another hundred and fifty – so if they did cause the fires, then there are a hundred and fifty of them out there in people’s houses.”
“Or a hundred and forty-eight,” said Chloe, catching on, “because two have already caught fire.”
“And there are another hundred and forty-eight out there that haven’t…” said Aiden.
“Yet,” said Josh.
“Oh yeah – and there’s another ‘shipment’ this afternoon,” added Ava.
“Where?” asked Chloe.
“We didn’t hear that bit,” said Ava, glancing at Josh.
“Josh!” said Chloe turning. “What about the girl on the beach, the one who told us about them in the first place?”
“Jasmine?” asked Josh.
“Did she get one? Did you see her this morning?”
They all stared at Josh. He stared at the sea wall and Aiden watched as his expressions went from hopeful to furious. “Yes – she did. She looked really smug. She walked away with the last one! And she said something – something about racing back to a chalet?”
Aiden stopped. They were still a few minutes from the cliff, and although it wouldn’t take very long to explore the tunnel, it would probably take an hour – and an hour was important if the shipment was coming in today… An hour was important if people’s houses were going to catch fire. And where were there any chalets?
“She must live in Sunnyday Park,” said Chloe, as if she was reading his mind. “I think we should run and warn her – now!”
“You’re right. I know you really want to see the tunnel, Josh, Ava – but I think we need to tell the police now. I think that if they’re causing the fires, the police will want to know who the people are that are selling them. And I think we need to stop anyone else’s house burning down. Where did you find the policewoman this morning, Chloe?”
“What?” said Josh, looking ready to lie down and cry on the beach. “But she’s not even very nice.”
“Aiden’s right,” said Ava. “Come on Josh, let’s find the police. Chloe, Aiden – I think you need to find Jasmine – and fast.”
But as they were about to leave, Ava stopped. She pointed at a filthy blue trawler belching black smoke which had avoided the harbour and was chugging in towards the beach. “That’s weird. Why’s it missed the harbour?”
“Doesn’t have a local registration number,” said Chloe. “I don’t think it’s from here.”
Ava watched it heading towards the shore. There was no jetty at the beach so it wouldn’t actually be able to land.
“They’re going to run aground!” said Aiden.
The wave on the bow of the boat changed and Ava realised that they were turning, and slowing. “You’re right, they are going to run aground,” she said, stepping back on to the beach and jogging towards the mountain of wood. “Perhaps they don’t know how close to the shore they are!” She started to wave madly at the boat, jumping and shouting as she ran.
Behind Ava, the others crunched on to the beach until they were all stumbling over the rocks and pebbles and waving and racing across the flat sandy stretches, heading for the fishing boat and the bonfire.
“Hey! It’s the tar barrels,” said Josh. “See?”
Ava slowed. He was right. The back of the boat was heaped with wooden casks, some big, some smaller, and two people on board seemed ready to unload them.
Bella overtook her, galloping past, aiming for the people on the shoreline. She charged into the sea and galumphed back, stopping to shake herself and spray them all with water.
“Bella!” said Ava, stepping backwards, tripping, and falling on her bum while Bella shook the sandy seawater all over her. “Eeeew! Bella.” Ava wiped sand from her face and looked over at the boat. She could see quite clearly now that there was a man and a woman rolling barrels up a ramp and over the side on to Pearl’s small dinghy. Then the dinghy was dragged in on a rope and the barrels were lined up on the pebbles. Most of the barrels were light enough for one person to handle, but three of them were obviously much heavier and Jake and Pearl had to help each other to move them. All three of them had crosses marked on them.
There was shouting between the boat and the shore, and the boat chugged slowly away, while Jake left the beach and Pearl stayed with the barrels.
“But this isn’t how they came last time,” said Josh, sliding to a halt beside Ava.
“Don’t they always come on a boat?” asked Chloe.
Aiden shook his head. “No, last year Jake drove them in from somewhere.”
“They’re all different sizes this year, and they’re going to have to get them up to the church somehow,” said Ava.
“Some of them look really heavy,” said Chloe.
“That man,” said Josh, slowly peering towards the boat as it headed out to sea.
“What man?” asked Ava.
Josh stared harder. “Nah – nothing.”
“What about the woman on the boat?” asked Aiden. “Anyone recognise her?”
“S’not Frogwoman,” said Josh. “Frogwoman’s got blonde hair. This one’s got dark hair – unless Frogwoman has a sister – or she’s a shape-shifter or…”
“Or she’s wearing a wig,” said Ava.
“You wouldn’t wear a wig on a boat. Too windy,” said Aiden. “I’m imagining things.”
Ava stared at the people on the boat until they became tiny dots. Something was bothering her too, but she couldn’t make it add up. She was bothered by Pearl and Jake, the strange boat, the barrels – kind of excited and terrified about carrying one tomorrow, and wondering if Grandma would let her. But she was also tired. They had walked miles, and she was hungry, and now she was wet and covered in sand. She sighed. It was time to warn Jasmine, find the police, and then they could eat something delicious and explore the tunnel.
“Give us a hand up,” she said to Josh, who pulled slightly harder than was necessary and left Ava staggering forward over the shingle. “Josh!”
“You asked,” he said, doing his innocent smile. The one that made Ava want to put salt in his cereal.
“Hey, look,” said Chloe, pointing towards the harbour. Jake’s pickup bobbled slowly towards them, trying to avoid a policeman wandering down on to the beach. The policeman headed past the cousins straight towards Pearl and the barrels.
Ava watched as Pearl looked up at him and then stopped, hands on hips, while he struggled over to her.
Ava brushed the sand from her legs and wandered over so that she could join the conversation. Aiden came with her and they stood nearby, listening.
“What you after then?” Pearl asked the policeman.
Ava nearly interrupted but decided the policeman might take her more seriously if she didn’t.
“’S’cuse me madam.” He’d arrived out of breath and spoke to Pearl in little huffs. “We’re just making some enquiries. Have you or any of your lovely children here purchased a –” he consulted his notebook – “virtual-reality headset from a market stall in the last few days? Xarca was the brand.”
“They’re not mine!” laughed Pearl. “And I wouldn’t know what virtual reality was if it jumped up and hit me in the face!”
Ava opened her mouth to speak. “Why?” interrupted Josh. “I wanted to, but the man sold out. I tried this morning.”
“Ah – and did you see him? Would you be able to describe him?” The policeman turned to Josh.
“Yes, I would,” said Josh, pulling his little red notebook out of this pocket. “Hairy, mushroom-head hair, rude, grey eyes, yellow teeth.”
The policeman looked at his notebook. “Mushroom? Interesting. Someone else said he looked like he had a bowl cut – is that what you mean?”
Josh nodded vigorously.
“And did you by any chance see the van?”
Ava and Josh looked at each other.
“Yes…”
“And?” The policeman looked expectant.
“We…” said Josh.
“Got very close,” said Ava. “Very close indeed.”
“And we took their number plate.”
“But they changed it,” said Ava.
The Fire Bay Adventure Page 5