The Kirkfallen Stopwatch

by J. A. Henderson

  She rubbed her hands nervously on her legs.

  “I killed, baby. In self-defence, admittedly, but I killed. And that’s why we’re hiding. Partly because I killed people and partly because the army are probably dying to know why Dan and I were the only two people on that whole base who walked away unscathed.”

  Emily dropped the fork onto the carpet and bits of chocolate spattered on the threadbare rug. She looked at Dan.

  “I killed too,” he said. “But I did it in….”

  “Enough of that. I have an early present for you.” Louise opened a drawer in the pine dresser below the window, pulled out a shoebox and handed it to Emily. “I warn you now, it’s not the training shoes you were hoping for.”

  The girl opened the box. Inside were two passports. One was inscribed with the name Emily Walton, one with Dan Walton.

  “I’ve also got you fake social security numbers and a bank account in your new names with a few thousand dollars in it,” Louise said. “That’s where most of the money’s gone.”

  Emily handed Dan’s passport to him. The young man opened and shut it again quickly.

  “This is crazy Louise.”

  “When you’re old enough, you can use it, Emily. Have a bit of an adventure. You always said you wanted to see Scotland, huh? That’s where our ancestors came from Dan. You didn’t know that, did you?”

  “Mom.” Emily cut into her mother’s rambling. “Have you got a passport too?”

  Louise took a deep breath.

  “I ain’t leaving. Got to quite like it here. It’s peaceful. That’s what I want.”

  Dan slid across the couch and put his arm round the woman’s shoulders.

  “I’m not deserting you, Louise,” he said fighting to get the words round the lump in his throat. “You saved my life. You brought me up.”

  He patted her leg.

  “You’re my mother.”

  Louise smiled gratefully. Emily scooted over, wedging herself between her mother’s knees.

  “I’m not going anywhere either. I love you more than I can say.”

  Louise put her arms round her children.

  “But, at least, you have the choice. Now, I need to go powder my nose.” Prying herself loose she went to the bathroom and locked the door.

  “Holy Mother of God,” Dan whispered. “This is some birthday.”

  “Best I ever had,” Emily said, squeezing his hand. “Best birthday ever.”

  Inside the bathroom Louise silently sobbed, a hand clasped over her mouth. She hadn’t told her daughter, but she had an inkling of what really happened at Sheridan Base.

  Emily and Dan would have to leave Diamondback someday.

  She and her little son could not.

  “I stayed another couple of years.” Apathy’s mother ran a finger round the rim of her glass. “I didn’t want to abandon my mum and my little brother, but there was a big world out there and I’d never seen it. Dan came too, of course. He’d promised Louise he would always look after me and he didn’t intend to break that promise. He never broke a promise.”

  She licked wine from her finger and held it up, letting the liquid evaporate.

  “I didn’t know it at the time, but his word was the only real moral compass he had.”

  It was late now. A small desk lamp lit one corner of the room but mother and daughter were wrapped in soft skinned shadows on the couch. Apathy could not take her eyes off Emily’s face. In the dim light she looked so much younger. For the first time the girl was getting a glimpse of the person her mum had once been.

  “My dad doesn’t sound like such a bad guy,” she ventured.

  “He was fun,” Emily admitted. “And smart. And that’s about all he would let people see. He believed that a problem shared was a problem doubled.”

  She opened the box once more and gently touched the photographs.

  “Me and Dan eventually settled in a little condo in Austin, Texas. Dan got a job in a Farmer’s Market and I worked at an auto insurance company and we tried to pretend we were normal. Even our romance, when it finally happened, was accidental. Since we had the same name, people assumed we were married and we didn’t correct them. Then, after a while, that was exactly what happened. Mum was delighted when I wrote and told her we were a couple. She loved your father.”

  She moved Louise’s picture to the side so that Dan’s image appeared underneath.

  “And, God help me, so did I.”

  18

  Austin, Texas

  1995

  The door burst open and Dan elbowed his way into the condo, a Circle K bag dangling from one arm. Emily was sprawled across the couch, still in her office clothes, her stockinged feet resting on the coffee table. She shot him a tired glance and pushed greasy hair back from her face. Dan removed his wallet from the leather jacket he always insisted on wearing, despite the Texas heat.

  “I’m from the Fashion Police, ma’am,” he said sternly, flipping it open. “We've had reports of an abnormally high polyester content in your outfit. One sneeze and you could start a flash fire.”

  He opened the carrier bag, pulled out a bottle and began struggling with the cork.

  “Never mind, this has twice the range of a fire extinguisher if you shake it hard enough.”

  “You bought champagne?” Emily struggled upright on the couch. “Can we afford it?”

  “Absolutely not. This is fizzy wine. And it was on sale.”

  Emily smiled, despite her exhaustion.

  “I got you a rose too.” Dan pulled a tattered stalk from up his sleeve. “But the petals fell off when I was climbing out of the neighbour’s yard.”

  Thank you.” Emily got to her feet, grinning. “I’ll get a vase.”

  “Yeah. And fetch some glasses.” Dan was still struggling with the cork. “The dusty ones with the decorative soap rings.”

  Emily stopped on her way to the tiny kitchen and put her arms round Dan’s neck.

  “Thank you, D.B.” She kissed him on the lips. The bottle gave a loud pop and the cork shot into the air and bounced off the low ceiling. Emily vanished into the kitchen and returned with a couple of plastic tumblers. She set them on the coffee table, brushing away a sprinkling of crumbs onto the floor.

  “Sorry about the mess.”

  “Don’t worry.” Dan poured wine into each tumbler. “The mice will get it.”

  Emily sipped the sparkling liquid and wrinkled her nose.

  “This is nice.” She leaned back and stretched wearily. “God, I’m pooped. Put up the Christmas tree though. She nodded towards the window where a tiny sapling decorated with a few haphazard baubles rested dispiritedly on the sill.

  “You think Santa will spot that without a telescope?”

  “Hard to get into the Christmas spirit when its ninety degrees outside.”

  Emily raised her glass and chinked it against Dan’s.

  “We should be with mom in New York State. Christmas is a time for snow and families.”

  She felt awkward as soon as the words were out of her mouth. Dan’s real parents had died when he was young – something he refused to talk about. Louise, when questioned by her daughter, had been equally tight lipped.

  You know Dan she had told Emily. If he doesn’t want to dredge up the past, that’s his decision.

  “Sorry. That was insensitive,” Emily said.

  “S’all right.” Dan tapped the rim of the glass on his teeth and grinned. “I never listen to you anyway.”

  Emily hesitated.

  “Would you like a real family?”

  “Eh? I already have one. You and Louise.”

  “No.” Emily took a long swig of wine to fortify herself. “I mean a real family.”

  Dan tilted his head to one side. “You saying what I think you’re saying?”

  “Do I have to wave a flag? I’m three months pregnant.”

  Her partner’s mouth opened but no sound came out. Emily held her breath. Then Dan gave the biggest, brightest smile she ha
d ever seen on his face.

  “We’ll call him Norman D. Landing Walton,” he enthused. “Norm for short!”

  “What if it’s a girl?”

  “Eh… Apathy Amazon! I don’t care!”

  And Emily knew things were going to be OK.

  Tears had begun to run down Emily Walton’s face again. She sniffed and wiped them away with the back of her hand.

  “Glad I put on waterproof mascara this time.”

  “What happened mum? What went wrong?”

  “My mother called a few days later. We were both out and she left a message on the answering machine. Not for me. For Dan. It was just two sentences.

  Dan, you have to come back. The ants are gathering.

  “He took a plane that night. He wouldn’t explain and he made me solemnly promise to stay in Texas ‘till he got back.” She gave a thin smile. “Well, you know me.”

  “You followed him?” Apathy did indeed know her mother.

  “Couldn’t afford a plane fare, so I took the car.” Emily lit a cigarette and puffed a swirling spiral towards the ceiling. “It was a three day drive.” Her voice became flat and cold. “I arrived at Diamondback in time to catch him red handed. Literally.”

  Apathy took another sip of wine and let her mother continue.

  “He was in the middle of a bloodbath.”

  19

  Diamondback Trailer Park. Upper New York State:

  1995

  The car made sputtering noises as it wound its way up Scharges Pass and levelled out at the top. Mountain summits, ringing the forest like open jaws, were covered in pristine snow - but here it was heaped in dirty grey banks on either side of the road.

  Emily turned onto the dirt track that led to Diamondback Trailer Park and the vehicle shuddered its way up the incline. The whole landscape was frosted, the branches of the pines laden with snow - a living Christmas card.

  A few hundred yards from her destination, she heard the crackle of gunfire. Living a large part of her life surrounded by hunters, it was a sound the young woman could not mistake. But this noise was staccato like a typewriter.

  Someone was using a semi-automatic.

  With a gasp of dread she put her foot on the gas and the car leapt forward. She could make out the sound of more than one weapon now.

  The car crested the rise leading to the trailer park and Emily let out a shriek as it thumped over a body lying in the middle of the road. She glanced into the rear-view mirror in time to see the corpse settle back into the snow, one broken leg sticking in the air. She spotted at least three more bodies littering the park.

  Dan was crouched behind a log pile, shooting at the ring of trailers. Puffs of smoke from under one of the vehicles betrayed the position of the person returning fire. Dan jerked round and saw Emily sitting, rigid with shock, behind the wheel.

  “Get out of the car!” he screamed, waving his arms at her. There was a burst of fire from the trailer and pock marks sprouted across the hood.

  Dan stood up, still shooting, giving the assailant a better target, trying to draw fire away from Emily. She didn’t need a second warning. Tearing loose her seat belt she launched herself across the passenger seat and flung open the door. As bullets thudded into the driver’s side, she slid out of the car and collapsed in the snow.

  Dan ducked down again and pulled a pistol from his belt.

  “Stay there! Stay down!” He tossed the weapon to Emily. It landed between her outstretched arms and she pulled it to her chest. Using the wheel as shelter she cocked the weapon, rolled under the car and began firing at the underside of the trailer. Emily had grown up handling weapons and instinct took over before she had time to question her own actions. Someone was firing at Dan and that filled her with a sudden, overpowering rage. She noticed, with detached horror, that the snow was speckled with little black dots. They were ants. Writhing in their thousands, dying in the cold.

  “Fire at the propane tanks!” Dan shouted. “They’re out of my line of sight. I’m pinned down.”

  Gobs of snow bounced into the air in front of Emily as the assailant targeted her again. She took careful aim at the large blue tanks that fuelled the trailers and squeezed the trigger three times.

  The propane tank exploded in a ball of blue flame and, seconds later, the trailer went with it. Emily curled into a ball, hands covering her head, debris raining around her. Plumes of fire shot into the air, heat from the blast scorching her exposed hands. All around her, ants shrivelled into black ash.

  Dan sprinted from his cover towards the car, threw himself headlong to the ground and rolled underneath. He wrapped his arms round Emily and held on until the flames began to subside. Eventually, he slid back out, pulling her with him.

  The trailer was a blazing hulk, oily smoke ballooning up from the wreckage and curling over the surrounding trees. There was no sign of life in or around the inferno. Nobody could have survived.

  “You all right?” Dan checked Emily for injuries, recoiling when he saw her hands. “My God, why are you here?”

  “What in Christ’s name is happening?”

  “You have to go!” Dan began pushing her towards the driver’s side of the car. Emily shook him off, staggering back.

  “D.B.! There are dead people everywhere! Did you do this?”

  “I haven’t time to explain.” Dan scooped up a handful of snow and rubbed it into her scalded hands. “Please get in the car! You have to leave!”

  “What do you mean?” Emily was shaking all over. “Why are people shooting at you?”

  “You have to trust me. I know how this looks, but you have to believe I was doing the right thing!” Dan’s words tripped over themselves in his urgency to get his message across. He patted the snow from Emily’s body, dead ants still stuck to the white patches. “You’ve got to leave!”

  “Where’s mom?”

  “These people. It’s like they’re possessed!” He dragged her round the car by the shoulder and hauled open the driver’s door. “I’m immune. You’re not. Get out of here!”

  “Possessed by what? Where’s my mom and my brother?”

  “I’ll find them. But you have our baby to think about.” He put a hand on either side of Emily’s face and stared into her eyes.

  “This is what your mother and I have been afraid of for years. No, look at me!”

  His fingers curled into her hair forcing her to keep her face inches from his own.

  “The people we were running from have been waiting too! They’ll know what this means and they’ll come here, looking for survivors – just like they did sixteen years ago. Go back to Austin and destroy anything that links us to the place. Then you have to move immediately. Withdraw all our money and use your fake passport while you still can.”

  “I’m not leaving you!”

  “I’ll find you. I promise! Do you hear? But you have to stay under the radar. Not let anyone know you’re connected to me.”

  “Are you crazy?”

  “Emily.” Dan let go and swept his hand a savage arc. There were bodies everywhere and great curtains of acrid smoke hung over the trees. “I can’t explain right now, you can see that. I should have done it a long time ago, but I hoped this day would never come.”

  He pushed the woman, still resisting, into the driver’s seat. “When we’re together again I’ll tell you everything, and I mean everything!

  But, if you don’t disappear completely, they will find you. They’ll make you vanish. They’ll take your baby from you and you’ll never see it again.”

  “When will I see you?”

  “I don’t know, but I’ll find you, I promise. You know I always keep my promises!”

  He kissed her gently on the lips and she tasted smoke and gunpowder.

  “Now go. Hurry, before it’s too late.”

  “I don’t understand!”

  “Then you have to trust me!”

  “I love you D.B.” Emily touched his cheek gently

  “I love you too.
” Dan whirled round and marched back to collect his gun.

  Emily started the car. She reversed, spun the vehicle around and looked through the rear view mirror. Dan was leaning on the rifle, sorrow and exhaustion etched into his face and posture. He waved at her with one hand.

  Go!

  With a sob she crunched the car into gear and roared off down the hill.

  “And that was it.” Emily stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray and rested her head on her daughter’s shoulder.

  “I never saw your father again.”

  20

  Edinburgh 2000

  “I had to drive at nights to get back to Texas. There were bullet holes all over the car.” Emily looked at her watch.

  “Christ, it’s three o clock in the morning,” she said, astonished. “Honey, we have to go to bed.”

  “What? But you haven’t told me anything! What was this possession dad was talking about? What happened to him?”

  “I think you already know. I’m betting you were on the internet while I was in the shower. I could hear the click of the keys when I came out.”

  Apathy tried to hide a look of guilt.

  “You’re smart like your father and curious like your mother.”

  Emily didn’t seem angry, just exhausted.

  “Now you know as much as I do. The police found Dan’s fingerprints all over the place. They ran them though the national database and got his real name - D.B. Salty. He murdered his parents when he was thirteen.”

  “I know,” Apathy admitted. “I Googled him,”

  “Yeah,” Emily couldn’t conceal her scorn. “That was something he’d neglected to mention in the years I knew him.”

  “What happened to Louise?”

  “The police found two bodies in their cabin near Diamondback. Louise’s best friend in Port Henry identified them as my mother and my brother, Colin.”

  “That doesn’t mean my dad killed them,” Apathy protested, unsure why she was defending a man she’d never met.

  “I didn’t want to believe it either.” Emily took a final cigarette from her packet and lit it. “Then I remembered Dan saying he would go to the cabin and find Louise.”