The Turnarounders and the Arbuckle Rescue (40 page)

‘What about Brindle? I know it’s difficult for her to get any nastier but have you seen her?’

‘Oh! That old cow!’ Valen exclaimed, relieved to get back to her normal emotions of angry and very angry. ‘You were right. She definitely had the opportunity to have done any or all of the things that have happened. She was out walking, without her dogs, on Hallowe’en, Grianstad
and the night the boats were set adrift. Hettie confirmed it.’

‘So do we think it was her then? All of it?’ Ralf asked.

‘Well it’s difficult. It’s like those vile dolls on Hallowe’en?’ Valen said. ‘Mr Picken says Brindle bought a box of steel dressmaker’s pins a few days before but she does actually sew her own clothes so it’s not proof. I still think it’s her, though.’

Leo frowned, not quite willing to agree. ‘Well, whichever way you look at it, her behaviour is seriously suspicious. But what about the Muntons? Heard from Alfie yet?’

‘He’s on it,’ said Valen. ‘He said you gave him orders?’ She looked to Ralf for confirmation. ‘I said we’d meet on the Green tomorrow.’

‘Good thinking. I’ll tell the others,’ he said.

‘At least there haven’t been any more accidents,’ she said. ‘So far all the Righteous Echoes are still alright...’

‘But they’re not alright, Valen! Winters is having some kind of breakdown! And who’ll be next, eh?’

‘I was trying to be positive,’ she said quietly. 

At that moment there came a loud crash and a torrent of
curses from aboard
The Fisher King
. The Arbuckles had just docked and were unloading their catch. It was so unlike any of them to swear that the three ran to
The Sara Luz
’s prow to see what the fuss was about.

For a second Ralf, was distracted by the spotlight of colour that danced on the jetty. As he’d suspected, the Arbuckles
colours were as bright as Winters’. Ron’s was an azure blue and Tom’s a swirling turquoise. Old Bill had one too. Once, Ralf thought, it must have been a deep sea green but it was weak now and faded with age. Leo elbowed him in the ribs and pointed.

Ralf tore his eyes away from the light round the Arbuckles and looked in the direction of Leo’s pointing finger. There, on the quayside, was a splintered crate. No one rushed to pick it up, though, and it lay forgotten where Old Bill had dropped it. Instead, all eyes were on its scattered contents. A startling array of deformed and mutated sea life had spilled out on to the stone flags; anaemic looking fish with shrivelled fins, eyeless shrimp and clawless crabs, two headed mackerel, eels with the stunted vestiges of legs and rays dotted with deep red scabs and weeping sores.

Heedless of where he was, Old Bill dropped to his knees.

‘Lo, though I walk through the valley of death’s dark shadow, I will fear no evil. The Lord is my shepherd and forgive us our trespasses…’

The old man’s mangled prayer continued as the children watched in speechless alarm. Overhead, gulls swooped and dived in a dense, swirling cloud. Their raucous caws drowned his words, their voices harsh and mocking.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

The Rise of The Fear

‘Well this is flippin’ weird!’ said Alfie, when they met the following weekend. ‘Where the heck is everyone?’

Ralf, Seth and Leo were with him waiting for Valen to show up. They looked across the deserted Green in disbelief. It was two thirty on a sunny Saturday afternoon. The village should have been alive with noise. 

‘They’re all inside with their doors locked,’ said Leo. ‘Everyone’s heard about the bottom dwellers. Hettie thinks they were sent by the Nazis.’

‘Yeah,’ said Alfie. ‘A poisonous invasion army sent to crawl outta the sea at midnight!’ He lurched towards Seth on stiffened limbs to do a jerking zombie-like walk, his colour flashing a bright, leafy green. ‘They drag themselves up the beach like creatures from the Black Lagoon!’

The others grinned but Seth was distracted, cleaning his glasses and squinting into the distance. ‘Is that Valen now?’

‘Hardly!’ Leo laughed. ‘It’s Gloria.’

Ralf turned and gulped. Gloria had a colour too, a bright flame radiated out from her body as she approached. He adjusted his gaze to see it better and was struck dumb by the brilliance of it. Gloria didn’t seem to notice his dazed expression.

‘Darlings!’ she cried, hurrying towards them. ‘So glad I caught up with you. I have news!’ She embraced each of them in turn and then got to the point. ‘Look, I really think you need to think carefully about this whole Echo business,’ she said.

Ralf snapped out of his daze to pull a face at her. ‘We have been!’

Gloria gave him an additional squeeze. ‘Of course you have! It’s only I’ve just heard something that might change your minds about things. Captain Keen, would you believe! He’s only gone and volunteered for France!’

‘France?’ Seth repeated. ‘But I thought his arm wasn’t better yet?’

‘I know,’ said Gloria. ‘I’ve seen him trying to hide it but he’s still in a lot of pain. I feel dreadful about it! If the poem had something about frightfully irritating Echoes then he’d have been top of my list for sure, but I never imagined!’

‘So when does he go?’ Leo asked.

‘I’m not certain. Fairly soon, I’d imagine, but he hasn’t actually told anyone yet. It’s only because I happened to be passing the door while he was on the telephone. I shouldn’t have eavesdropped, I know, but it was awful. Assuring them he was fighting fit when he so obviously isn’t. Telling them he was ready for immediate deployment and he understood the importance of his mission! I really think you should consider him as one of your Righteous sorts don’t you? Honestly, I don’t know whether I want to hug him or box his ears!’

Ralf couldn’t begin to think how Keen would cope with fighting.  But the thought sobered him.

‘It must be him,’ said Alfie, begrudgingly. ‘My flabber’s well ghasted! I never thought he had it in ‘im!’

‘Just so,’ said Gloria. ‘Listen, I can’t stay. I just wanted to tell you and give you this.’ She handed Seth a slip of flowered notepaper. ‘A list of all the ghost sightings, since that ghastly blood bath at Christmas. You are still keeping that map, I take it?’

Seth stuffed the paper in his pocket. ‘For all the good it’s doing.’

‘Oh!’ Ralf gasped. Had he imagined it, or had Gloria’s colour faltered at that? ‘I think he’s a lot closer to working this out than he admits.’ He added with enthusiasm he did not feel.

‘That’s more like it!’ she smiled. Ralf squinted and was relieved to see her colour flare bright. ‘How can you fail with the village genius on the case?’ she said, giving Seth a squeeze. Seth flushed and
adjusted his glasses. ‘Oh Heavens! Is that the time?’ Gloria cried as the clock struck the quarter. ‘I really must dash. And I was so hoping to see Val!’

‘What’s the hurry?’

‘Didn’t I say?’ Gloria trilled. ‘I’m off again, already. I’ve another meeting with Daddy’s American friend, Ike, but I can’t talk of it, honestly. Mother’s having fits but it can’t be helped. We must all do our bit, mustn’t we? Say typing or filing or some such if anyone should ask... On second thoughts, probably best not to say anything at all. Won’t leave you empty-handed though, have you tried some of this, yet? It’s all the rage! It’s called ‘chewing gum’. It’s the strangest stuff you know. You don’t swallow it; just chew it until the flavour goes. The clue is in the name, I suppose,’ she grinned. ‘Oh, there’s Val! I’ll catch her on my way!’

She gave them all a whirlwind round of hugs, patted Alfie’s
tam o' shanter, and was going to peck Ralf on the cheek when she pulled up short.

‘Goodness! What have you done to yourself!’ she cried.

‘I didn’t do anything, actually,’ said Ralf. ‘Your brother’s friends tried to rearrange my face on the run.’

Gloria blanched. ‘That little ratfink! He really is the limit!’

‘Forget it, Gloria. It doesn’t hurt.’

Another round of rib cracking hugs followed, then she was running across the damp grass, waving at Valen who hurried to meet her.

Where was Gloria going really, Ralf wondered. He stood for a minute and watched her farewell to their friend from a distance. The hug Gloria gave her was fierce and almost final. Eventually she released a rather stunned looking Valen and hared off up the pathway. Even though the path was gravel, Ralf noticed, her feet made hardly any sound at all.

‘Seriously, mate, how comes your eyes are different colours now?’ asked Alfie.

‘Let’s wait for Valen...’

Valen Shifted to join them. ‘Relax,’ she said. ‘There’s no one here to notice.’

‘What kept you, anyway?’ Seth asked.

‘I had a hard time getting away,’ she said. ‘The Hatcher’s were funny about me coming out. What’s happening?’

Ralf told them about his meeting with Ambrose.

‘Sorry I didn’t say anything before but the whole thing’s been doing my head in,’ he admitted sheepishly. ‘It was all so quick and he told me a load of new information which I think I was supposed to understand but didn’t.’

‘Ambrose was here!’ Valen breathed. ‘I’d almost given up on him.’

‘The important thing is that he came,’ said Leo.

‘The important thing is that he confirmed what we thought about the Hidden and the Righteous Echoes.’

‘They’re called
the Natus, then?’ said Seth. ‘And one, or all, of them helps stop the war?’

‘That’s what he said,’ Ralf confirmed. ‘He said to use our ‘Skills’. He kept going on about colours and keeping an eye out too. I didn’t understand him at the time but I think I do now.’

‘Wolf’s got himself another Power,’ Leo grinned.

‘It’s since the massive clunk I had on the run.’ He pointed to
his face. ‘Echo Eye,’ he said.

‘Echo Eye?’ Alfie repeated. ‘
Echo
Eye?’

‘It’s not just the colour change,’ said Ralf, ignoring the feeble joke. ‘I can now see which people are Echoes.’ As he said it, he knew he was right. ‘Only Echoes have a colour and some of them are much brighter than others. I’m guessing the brightest ones must be
the Natus.’

‘So, from what you’ve seen the Arbuckle lads, Winters and Gloria are still top of the list of candidates?’ asked Seth.

Ralf nodded.

‘But what about Gordon Kemp and Walter Sedley?’ Valen asked. ‘Seen either of them yet?’

‘No, nor Keen for that matter, but I can’t believe anyone’s colours can be brighter than Winters’ and Gloria’s.’

‘It feels right,’ said Seth.
‘But from the state Winters is in…’

No one knew quite what to say to that, so Ralf pressed on. ‘I’ve been thinking about the date too. May 27th. Ambrose said we were right about that too. From what I remember, that’s right at the start of the British evacuation from France. In our time, Gloria had a newspaper article about the Arbuckles being at Dunkirk.’

‘Wow! That’s got to be it!’ said Seth.

‘I’d be sayin’ that too if I knew what it was,’ said Alfie.

‘Sorry Alf,’ said Ralf. ‘So the Nazis are marching across Europe, right? At first everyone’s thinking we might be able to hold them back, but they keep pushing forward. They’ve got loads of men and they’re moving fast. They circle round in a pincer movement and a lot of British and French soldiers get cut off on the coast. It all looks really bad for a while but then there’s a huge rescue operation at Dunkirk and we manage to get most of our guys back here.’

‘It’s a turning point in the war,’ said Seth. ‘If we hadn’t got our soldiers out then we wouldn’t have been able to fight on later.’ He turned to Ralf, frowning. ‘I’m assuming the German High Command follow the Blitzkrieg into France?’

‘Absolutely. Good publicity for them back home, I suppose,’ Ralf said. ‘There’s pictures of Hitler walking on the beaches.’

‘And that would be end of May?’

Ralf shrugged. ‘I suppose. Early June, maybe. Why?’

‘No reason,’ said Seth shrugging. ‘So, we’ve got a good idea who
the Natus are and why they’re important. What do we do now?’

It was a good question, but not one that Ralf could answer.

Every night that week, Ralf dreamed of
the Black Door. He couldn’t see it but he knew it was there, crouching in the darkness. There was something behind it, trying to get out. He shuddered at the sound of claws on wood. Scratching...scratching...

‘Ralf! Come quickly!’ The words filtered into the dream and then suddenly, without knowing where the dream ended and reality began, Ralf’s eyes opened.

There was more scratching and then the clunk of the kitchen door being flung open.

‘Oh Lord! Ralf! Are you awake? You’d better come down!’

He threw on his dressing gown and raced down the stairs. He just had time to see Hilda, face flushed and hair uncharacteristically messy, wrestling with a large dark shape before it broke free of her grasp.

He braced himself for the inevitable impact. Cabal launched himself at Ralf and slobbered joyfully all over his face. Ralf scratched behind the dog’s ears and found the remains of the choke chain, which looked as though it had been torn from a wall. He gently pulled the awful thing free, threw it aside then patted Cabal’s huge head. He ran his hands over the dog’s dirt-matted fur to feel ribs sticking out each side of his giant frame.

‘He’s starving!’ Ralf exclaimed.

‘A blind man on a galloping horse could tell as much,’ said Hilda, already placing a bowl of scraps on the floor by the range. ‘But that’s the least of our problems. Look who’s coming down the lane!’

As Cabal snorted up a gallon of leftovers, Ralf hurried to the door. Brindle, her overalls spattered with dirt, her face puce, barrelled over the cobbles, threatening to fall on her backside at any moment. Ralf narrowed his eyes in search of her aura and when he saw it, he wished he hadn’t. It pulsed round her like a clot of thick, dark blood. If he touched her, he thought, he’d see the stain of it on his hands.

Oddly, Ralf didn’t feel frightened. He was too angry to be nervous about what she might say. Brindle arrived, puffing, at the open door and opened her mouth to shout at him but before Ralf could speak, Hilda had thrust him firmly to one side.

‘Zilla,’ she said, briskly. ‘I was just going to call on you. It seems your dog has escaped again. But we’ve given him some breakfast, as you can see.’

Brindle’s eyes flicked from Hilda to Ralf and back again. ‘The lock on Rex’s kennel has been forced from the wood and the gate to my pigpen opened. And I have it on good authority that Ralf here did it!’

‘That’s not true!’ Ralf exclaimed

Hilda put a hand on his arm. ‘Whoever told you that is mistaken, Zilla. As you see, Ralf has only just woken up and he was as surprised as I was to hear the dog scratching at the door.’

‘Not this morning, you goose!’ Brindle cried. ‘Last night! He took the path across my field and left the gate open. He was seen, Hilda, loitering by my pigsty!’

Ralf blanched.

‘I’ve been up since five,’ Brindle continued, ‘getting pigs out of my spring greens!’

Hilda’s eyes met Ralf’s. The look of indignation she saw there clearly satisfied her as to her brother’s innocence because her next words took them all by surprise.

‘Ralf has never left a farm gate open in his life, Zilla! And he would no more have let your pigs out than fly! Whoever told you he did is mischief making. As for the dog, perhaps if you fed the poor thing a decent meal once in a while, he’d be less inclined to break out in search of one!’

‘Well, really!’ Brindle gasped.

But Hilda wasn’t finished. ‘And I’m not giving you the dog back until I’m satisfied you can take care of him! Now, Good Day, Zilla,’ she said with curt politeness.

Brindle’s face changed to a colour Ralf had never before seen on a human being but he didn’t see it for long. Hilda shut the door on her.

‘It wasn’t me, honest,’ said Ralf, when she’d gone.

‘Of course it wasn’t!’ Hilda exclaimed. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with the woman. Spring greens, indeed! That field’s still under a foot of water!’

After thanking Hilda profusely for standing up to Brindle, Ralf promised her that he’d be responsible for Cabal and not let him get in the way of his own duties. He found it quite hard to concentrate on his chores that morning, though, because Cabal was following him around like – well, like a dog. He yapped round Ralf’s heels as he emptied his lobster pots and skittered around the deck of
The Sara Luz
when he hosed it down. Chuckling at his antics, Ralf finished up and was just considering stopping into the butchers for some bones when he saw Alfie coming down the quayside.