by steve higgs
As the strobe lights flickered back up the hill through the village and disappeared, the beach was plunged back into darkness, the gentle crashing of waves the only noise.
‘I need to tell Gina.’ I heard the man beside me say to himself. He wandered off, his ear illuminated by the screen light from the phone he was holding. Geoffrey and Tarquin were showing their photographs to anyone that would listen.
‘Tempest I need a statement from you.' Said Roberta, as she came towards me.
‘Can we make it quick?’
‘That depends what you have to tell me. It may be necessary to get a more detailed statement from you at the station in Liskeard tomorrow. For now, please just give me a chronological sequence of what happened and what you saw.' She was all business, playing the role of Police Officer again. I took no issue with that. Yes, I wanted to get her naked again, but I was too tired and too cold and too covered in someone else's blood to consider it a desirable proposition right now.
As she flipped open her notebook, I recanted hearing the scream and finding the man lying on the beach. I left nothing out but also did not add any details as I wanted to be done with the task and get to bed. Roberta asked me several times whether I had seen the ghosts myself or if I had seen anyone at all other than the man I found injured. Only when I had answered the same question many times did she seem satisfied and let me go. I was surprised that she showed no warmth towards me when the necessary interview bit was done, we had slept together just twenty-four hours ago. As she thanked me for my help and turned to go, I held back from trying to elicit further conversation simply from fear of coming off as needy.
I was cold. That was the pressing need I had to tackle. Having given up my coat and fleece I now had them back, but they were soaked with blood making them unpalatable for wearing. I had worn blood-soaked clothes before, many years back in Iraq. On that occasion, there had been no option to change into something clean. It was not my blood then either and I had put up with it for more than two days before I had been able to rotate back to a safe location where I could take the items off and burn them.
Now though, all I needed to do was wake my parents up. I crossed the road and went up to the room. Turning on the light I apologised for waking them and turned it off again a few seconds later once I had turned on the bathroom light. I locked myself in there and stripped off my clothes.
In the warmth of the shower, I reflected on what I had seen. Even knowing that the ship was not real I could offer no explanation for what I had witnessed. The images captured by the photographers were compelling. They would most likely make it onto the front page of National papers if there were no more pressing stories to tell and net the men that had taken them a decent fee.
Matthew Todd would recover from his injury in time. However, I wanted to know how the wound had been inflicted. He believed he had seen a dead pirate, had been attacked by a dead pirate. There were no other witnesses to corroborate or deny his version of events, that didn’t matter though. He had not been attacked by a skeleton returned from a watery grave, he had been attacked by a person. Of that I was certain.
I had no idea why though.
I showered thoroughly for several minutes, getting the warmth back into my limbs and extremities. Then I took my fleece and coat and ran them under the water until it was no longer flowing away tinged with pink.
When I slipped into bed it was 0315hrs. I had achieved almost no sleep so far and had been pushing myself far harder than I had intended to or imagined I would have to when I got in the car three days ago.
Sleep took me in seconds.
Breakfast with Gina. Wednesday, November 2nd 0747hrs
I had set no alarm. I rarely used one, but with my parents in the room and two dogs that would need to go out, I was confident I would be woken quite early enough.
As it was, the dogs woke me, or more specifically Bull did by standing on my chest until I woke up. His whiskers tickled my nose and as I opened my mouth to speak he licked my upper incisors. I should have expected it, the move was not a new one, but in my sleepy haze, I had not considered what he might do.
Keeping my head to one side so he could not perform the same trick twice I lifted him to the floor while yawning. He danced off across the rug in an excited manner, bumping into his brother which elicited a quick game of chase around the bedroom while they waited for me to find my clothes.
Less than a minute later I was outside in the cool morning air once more. On the beach was a white tent, in which I was sure I would find some kind of crime scene team. Roberta was probably not far away, but there was no sign of her now.
The dogs were trying to get me to take them on the beach. Crime scene tape blocked the access ramp but being dogs they were ignoring it and looking back over their shoulders at me questioning why I was holding them back.
There were other sections of beach further along the coast, so I made them hold their bowels and bladders until we reached the next one. It was less than one hundred yards west and littered with seagulls, much to the delight of my two dogs who pounced on the chance to chase them all away. They were barking madly while they did it, thankfully at nearly 0800hrs, I felt their noise would not wake too many people.
I watched them from the street, secure that their only escape route was to swim out to sea and confident neither would do more than get their feet wet. I needed a cup of tea, needed one to the extent that I was willing the dogs to get on with it, so I could get back to the pub and find some breakfast. Thinking of breakfast made me remember the granola. The wonderfully healthy granola I was going to tuck into again this morning.
I whistled for the boys, whistled again, then gave up and fetched them from the beach where they were inspecting a dead fish and probably deciding whether to eat it or not.
When I got back to the pub the dining room was already full of people. The usual crowd I had been seeing for the last couple of days were there once more, the chatter today though was all about the pirate attack last night. I made my way through the pub turned restaurant to the hot water dispenser and helped myself to a mug of tea. It was too hot to drink, so with the dogs at my feet looking up hopefully in case I wanted to share, I sipped at it and listened.
Everyone in the room seemed to know that the ghost ship had been spotted last night and that the pirates had come ashore, attacked a man that was now in the hospital and vanished again. I looked about to see if there was a newspaper anywhere. I spotted one a couple of tables over. It was being read but as I began to turn my gaze away I saw him fold it, place it on the table and get up to leave. The paper stayed on the table as he went. I crossed the room.
Snatching it up, I was surprised to see nothing about the ghost ship on the front page. I flicked a few pages but found no reference to it all. There was no other great news story that would have dominated the front page and pushed the ghost ship down the ranking. The front page, in fact, was covering a minor celebrity getting engaged. I placed the paper back down.
Time. That was why the paper had nothing in it. We were so far from the printing press in London that they could not get the late edition across the country in time for the people here to have it. Instead, they got the edition that was shipped late last night before the ghost ship showed itself.
No doubt in London they were looking at the picture of the spectral ship right now. I had only wanted to see what they had written about it. I could check it online easily enough.
Just then, I felt that I was being watched and looked up to find Gina advancing on me across the restaurant.
‘Tempest.' she said wrapping me into a hug with her childlike arms. ‘Thank you so much. You saved his life.' Her face was buried in my chest briefly, the warmth of her covering me in a very pleasant manner. ‘Danny told me what Matthew had done. How he behaved towards you. I had no idea. And you saved him anyway.' she looked up, grabbed my face with both her hands and kissed my right cheek. ‘Thank you.' She said again.
We were being watc
hed by most of the people in the room. As I looked around they each returned their gaze to the food in front of them. John the chef emerged from the kitchen carrying two plates of food. He saw me and saw Gina hugging me and made a disappointed face.
Gina broke the hug just as it was getting personal. Mr. Wriggly made a disappointed noise of his own.
‘You are quite welcome.’ I replied to Gina. It was all I could think of to say. I had not felt that I could leave the man to die wounded on the beach no matter what he had done. Being a dick is not an actual crime. ‘Are you planning to get some breakfast? Perhaps you would join me?’
Gina smiled up at me, her face radiant, ‘That sounds lovely.’
There was a table next to us that had recently emptied, the dirty plates were still there so I stacked them and left them at the end to be collected. ‘They have the best granola here. I know, I know.’ I laughed when she looked at me curiously. ‘Granola is not something you would expect a person to recommend. It is what I am having. I expect everything here is good though.’
My tea had reached perfect drinking temperature, hot enough that it was really quite hot, but not so hot that it would scald my mouth. I downed it in three swallows then went to get some more and a cup for Gina. She wanted it sweet with three sugars. I shuddered at the thought but made it as she requested.
‘Was your equipment damaged?’ I asked her as I sat down again.
Her face was glum. ‘Yeah. It looks trashed. The ghosts finally come ashore, but my equipment probably didn’t capture anything useable at all.’ I kept my mouth shut rather than comment on the ludicrous nature of her pursuits. ‘I need to inspect it properly of course. I gave it a cursory once over last night in the dark to confirm none of it worked, but it may have recorded something before they broke it.’
John the chef came over to take our order. ‘What can I get you?' he asked. He refused to make eye contact and seemed upset about something as if I had perpetrated some crime against him. Gina failed to notice. She ordered smoked salmon and poached eggs on toast while I said I would help myself to the cold buffet. I was itching to get to the granola, it was becoming an addiction, but I resisted, knowing that it would be rude to eat while Gina was waiting for her food to be cooked.
‘Tempest, I feel I owe you a debt of gratitude. Will you let me take you out for dinner?’ Gina asked.
I had not expected this. There was no need for her to do anything, there was no debt to repay to my mind. However, when an attractive woman wants to take you out what possible reason could there be for saying no? Well, on this occasion probably timing. ‘There is no need for you to feel any debt towards me, Gina. Dinner sounds great of course, but I leave on Friday.’
‘So soon? Maybe you will have time to have a drink with me tonight?’ she asked coyly, like meeting her for a drink was not what she was actually suggesting.
Before I could answer, my Mother landed at the table. I say landed because the empty space next to Gina was suddenly and quite instantly filled with my Mother’s girthful hips as she plonked her knitting bag on the table. ‘Good morning, Tempest. Who’s this?’ she enquired of me rather than introducing herself to Gina like a normal person might. Mother was staring down at Gina as one might a prize cow, taking in her attributes and trying to make a fast decision on whether said cow was worth buying.
‘Good morning Mother.’ I replied then turned my attention back to Gina. ‘Gina, this is my Mother. You could probably have guessed that though. Where’s Dad?’ I asked, swinging my gaze back up to Mum.
‘Just coming. He was taking a dump and had stunk out the room, so I left him there.’
Lovely.
Any hope of a conversation with Gina now lost, I offered to get Mother some tea. I could drop a hint the size of a house and she would not find a different table at which to eat her breakfast. I might as well just get on with it.
Mother sat herself down next to Gina and finally introduced herself properly. Against my better judgement, I left them to chat while I fetched four fresh mugs of tea.
‘Did you know Gina was rich?’ my Mother asked as I returned to the table. Quite how she had already established what Gina had in her bank account I did not wish to know.
‘It is of no consequence, Mother.' I replied. Like a steamroller, Mother ignored my reply and kept right on going.
‘She is single and has no siblings and is very well educated.’ She continued.
‘I am sorry, Gina.’ I said glumly. ‘My Mother believes that I need to find a woman to marry. Right now, like by the weekend and I very definitely need to get her pregnant by the end of the honeymoon.’
‘Are you interfering again, Mary?’ my father asked, finally joining us, his bathroom ministrations seemingly complete.
‘I am helping, Michael.’ She replied.
‘You are really not.’ I assured her.
I offered Dad the mug of tea I had made for him. Gina’s eyes had been going back and forth like she was watching a tennis match.
‘Michael, this is Gina. She and Tempest are friends.’ She said the word friends like it was secret code for about to go shag somewhere.
‘Good morning, Gina. Very pleased to meet you.’ Said my father while extending his hand to shake. He sat himself down and picked up the breakfast menu to inspect.
Thirty-Three appeared with Gina's breakfast on a warm plate which meant I could finally tuck into some granola. I took a generous portion, topped it with some yoghurt and fruit, then took an extra few spoons of the granola for good measure. I was looking forward to tucking into it and hoping that getting the healthy breakfast would combat some of the bloat I was feeling. Usually, I only get bloated when I eat a lot of carbohydrates – bread or pasta mostly, which I do not normally eat and had eaten very little of this week. Despite that my trousers felt quite snug. You might argue that the granola is carbohydrate and you would, of course, be correct, but it is little more than toasted clusters of oats in their rawest form – a very healthy and nutritious way to fuel one's body.
Anyway, I took the bowl back to the table to find my Mother regaling Gina with stories about my childhood. ‘… and he was running around the house naked, covered in poo and refusing to let anyone get near him.’
Gina looked like she wanted to eat her breakfast and not think about poop covered kids.
‘Are your chaps checking over the equipment?' I asked her to change the direction of the conversation. Really, I was trying to divert my Mother before she began talking about my penis and how it had been so tiny when I was a baby. That was probably the worst case, but who could guess what my Mother might say next.
Gina flashed her eyes at me in gratitude for the chance to speak herself. ‘They are, Tempest. Yes. I will go check on them once I have eaten. If the equipment is not repairable we will have to pack up and leave. It is all bespoke, so any parts I need will most likely have to be manufactured. Maybe I will get lucky, maybe when they get it working we will find it recorded something before it was broken.’
‘What equipment?’ Mother asked.
‘Gina is trying to capture evidence of the ghosts reported here.’ I filled in as Gina had just taken a mouthful of salmon and eggs.
‘Tempest says that ghosts do not exist. The two of you should team up.’ My Mother suggested helpfully.
‘To do what?’ I asked. ‘Constantly try to disprove one another?’
‘No. You could help each other.’ I almost asked her how but stopped myself. The easiest way out of that particular line of conversation was to just let it die.
‘Gina. You mentioned dinner. Would Thursday suit you?’ I was asking a woman out, a tactic which silenced my Mother instantly.
She cleared her mouth to speak, ‘Absolutely, that sounds great. If the kit is all broken, we will not leave before Friday anyway.’
‘Are you going on a date?’ asked Mum, sticking her nose in as usual.
Just then one of Gina’s crew came through the pub door looking around to find her. I saw h
im spot her sitting with me and begin to weave his way through the tables to cross the room. I didn’t know his name, thus far I had only worked out Matthew and Danny.
‘We've got something.' he said excitedly when Gina spotted him. He was still five metres away and had raised his voice so she would hear it. I guess everyone knew what Gina and her crew were up to as there were a lot of faces suddenly attuned to hear what the man had to say.
Gina, frozen for a nanosecond by the news, was suddenly moving. ‘Show me.’ She said as she left her chair, her breakfast abandoned and forgotten.
She glanced back at me, looking like she was about to apologise for running out, but I was already getting up to go with her. As I passed tables there were others getting up to follow us, their curiosity getting the better of them. I picked the Dachshunds up to avoid having someone stand on them.
Outside, the temperature had gone up a bit compared with last night, but it was still cool. A light mist was hovering above the water of the bay. It was thick enough to obscure the view out beyond the headland rocks to our left and right and had spread inland, the tiny water molecules visible around us as we moved through them. We left the pub, crossed the road and fetched up against the railings that stopped people falling off the edge and down to the beach. The ramp one could walk down was still taped off to keep people out and the tent was still in place with people visibly moving around inside it. There was a uniformed Police Officer stood outside the tent who had most likely come along with the SOCO team to assist Roberta rather than leave her to do all the work. He nodded towards us, giving his permission to come down onto the beach. Ivan, (I had overheard Gina address him by name) Gina and I climbed over the railing to drop down to the pebbles on the other side. Others tried to follow us but were ordered back by the Police Officer.
Ahead of us were the other two from Gina's crew, one of which was Danny from the pasty shop scuffle and the beach last night. They had cobbled together some wiring to attach a laptop to the largest piece of equipment. I tried to remember what Gina had told me it was called but the name eluded me. It was five feet tall, squat and heavy looking and appeared to be a mash of electronic gear all shoved together. I think that in essence, that was exactly what it was. On the laptop, there was an image.