Blood & Baltazar

by Liam Inscoe-Jones

  “But you just said....”

  “He was here yes, but not headed towards the place where he’d hidden Jessica - he was walking away. This hut may be nowhere near where he's taken her; he could have come from anywhere, be headed anywhere.”

  Lylith was unconvinced. “How can you know that was Edgar though? That ash might have been left by any random walker.”

  “Common sense should tell us nobody would be walking a) at this time of night and b) on the moors when every paper in the valley is telling us there are killers out here, but if you want the answer that would stand up in a Justice Trial…” Josiah pointed toward the floor where four black marks were left in the dirt. “The same drops. They were in Jessica's bedroom too. Before Edgar killed her, Hope Finnegan told me that he has an allergy; pollen, cauliflower, anything like that and his eyes swell up like a goldfish - so he has to take eye drops. There was a sunflower in Jessica's bedroom, he couldn't have expected it, it is the middle of winter after all but the girl has looked after it well, it was in full bloom and Edgar must have reacted badly. His eyes inflamed and so before he took her away he stopped to take his medication. It never all goes in; some ran off his cheeks and onto her carpet. I saw the stains, I tasted them and they do indeed contain non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs. In other words: eye drops. That’s how I knew he was the one who survived the Repo Glacialis I for them. Clearly the reaction to the flower has been bothering him for some time now, the whole time he was traveling with Jessica infact. So in this hut, the first place where he could stop to rest far enough away from where he’s hidden Jessica, he had a puff of a cigarette and took his eye drops too.”

  “Okay...” She nodded, backing towards the doorway and stepping outside, examining the floor carefully. “So there must be some tracks around here.”

  Hartt shook his head, making his way outside too and glancing around the path. “There's nothing here Lylith, people don't always leave a mark, especially if they were in the army, especially if they've been trained.”

  She turned to him sharply. “But we're running out of time!”

  He sighed hopelessly. “I know.”

  “They will kill her Josiah!” Lylith snapped, running her hands through her hair. She fell quickly silent though as a strange noise filled the air. Hartt rummaged in his pockets and pulled out the small black box, its red light flashing at it emitted a sharp electronic buzz.

  He pressed the button down and put it to his ear.

  “Hello?” He asked reluctantly. “Jessica?”

  “Hello hunny.” The voice was crackled and the signal weak but Josiah recognized the tones of Edgar Mulligan instantly, from his voice alone Hartt could imagine the smirk.

  “Edgar...” He mouthed quietly.

  “How are you doing Josiah, have you worked it out yet? And what about finding little Miss Baltazar, close are we? Or really not very close at all...?”

  “Give her back to us!” Josiah snapped sharply, bellowing into the mic. “You hear me Edgar? Your point is made, so don't you touch her!”

  “Ah, it's a bit too late for that. Extracting her wasn't all too pleasant I'm afraid; she fought back a little off course, the little monkey bit me infact so I made sure the straps were real tight.”

  Lylith turned away with disgust, but Josiah wouldn't let that overcome him as he spotted something at the base of the wall.

  Edgar Mulligan continued. “You know, I thought you and little Jessica knew each other intimately, yet it seems you only met once. I was going to leave you a note on her bed, but then I saw you'd given here one of these radios and I thought we should stay in touch, I don’t know, you can listen to her blow. She can't even remember your name Hartt, but she does recall one thing you said to her, do you remember? The last thing you said as you walked through the door? You said you were better than a superhero...”

  Josiah groaned himself now, it had sounded so clever when he'd said it at the time, but now it seemed a little pathetic, standing clueless and alone in the middle of a wreck. “I was only trying to help.” Josiah muttered.

  “Aaaw, how quaint.” Edgar moaned. “Not helping now are you? When the girl’s father butchered my fiancée it was quick, out of the blue - in her final moments she wasn't in pain, I have that comfort at least. But Jessica Baltazar’s - they're going to sting. I just thought you should know. Hold on a minute, I'll put you through, I think she has something to say.”

  Suddenly Josiah’s ears pricked up and he pressed the device closer to his ear, Lylith rushed to hear too. “Jessica?” Hartt asked hopefully.

  There was a sniffling at the other end of the line. It was a little girl, the mic so close it was distorting her voice. “Thirty.” She said, her voice trembling.

  Lylith looked at Josiah with confusion. “I'm sorry sweetheart.” She spoke into the grill. “You'll have to speak up.”

  “Thirty minutes.” Jessica coughed. “Twenty nine.”

  “Listen, we'll be there way before then.” Hartt stated a calmly as he could. “We've found a trail; we're coming for you Jessica, so just sit tight. We'll find you.” He realized as his words died in his mouth that the line had fallen silent.

  Lylith and Josiah were alone again.

  “Why did you say that?” She turned on him and snarled. “Now she thinks she's going to be okay, she's waiting for us to step through the door but we're not coming! It’s hope for her at least but even so that’s cold-”

  “I didn't lie.” Josiah muttered.

  “Sorry?”

  “I didn't have to lie.” He crouched down beside the wall and pointed to a spot on the rock. “Look what I've found.”

  Most the stones that made up the wall were covered in moss and were battered black but Hartt was pointing at a section where the vegetation had been rubbed away and the stone worn until it was fresh and white.

  “What are they?” Lylith asked.

  “Just scratchings.” He replied, scooping his hands into the grass. “Good word that, scratchings. This is the interesting part.” He showed her a tiny jagged stone which had been lying in the dirt.

  “A pebble?”

  “Yes!” He grinned, the old excitement back. “And look where the markings are - about a foot off the ground. In other words, exactly the height you raise your foot backwards to rub your heel against a wall...”

  “He had a stone stuck in the sole of his shoe!” Lylith realized.

  “Quite, he scratched the wall as he attempted to get it out and when it fell, it landed right here....” His eyes lit up. “...But this is the best bit!”

  The wind was biting as he ran across the mud, laying across the dirt and rubbing his hands over the hard earth. She leant in to examine the patch and there she saw lines, thin as those drawn by a pencil though more repetitive, each one lasting just a couple of inches but as she stood she saw they stretched out across the plain of rock hard mud, a new line every foot or so.

  Hartt grinned. “Edgar didn’t leave a footprint - but he definitely left a mark...”

  “Every time he put his foot down, he scraped the stone against the dirt…”

  “He came straight from where he left Jessica all the way here, that beautiful little stone caught in his shoe the whole way back. It must have driven him mad! And if we're lucky Lylith, if we're very, very lucky - that will lead us to her.”

  They walked for ten minutes, both pairs of eyes scanning the dirt and watching the lines that were scored deep along it. The night was full in form now, the pencil like trees in the distance faded into shadows.

  Lylith wondered then how Jessica was feeling, but they had to resist the urge to run towards her, they couldn't move too fast for fear of losing the track in the dark. Yet even so they were aware that every second stalled was a second too late.

  Lylith White pondered aloud. “Why do you think they're doing this?”

  “As revenge-”

  “No,” She corrected. “I mean why not just kill her instead of giving us this chance, letting us go i
n the first place?”

  “I don't know Lylith.” Josiah Hartt admitted. “I can only presume they want to make Cedric suffer, to give him an idea of hope that his child might survive this and then snuff it out at the very last second. They must be pretty confident though, even to allow anyone to get this close…” He smiled. “…But then I don't suppose they reckoned on us.”

  Lylith checked the marks were still there on the ground and then placed her feet carefully along them. She breathed heavily, the last five days still spinning in her head. “I can't believe it,” Lylith remarked. “If hadn't of met you I would be sitting at home while Aunty Eloise moaned about how the snobs were gathering at the Hall but I was there, with you, chasing a murderer and talking to the Patriarch...”

  “Oooh yeah...” Josiah snorted. “My life is very glamorous.”

  “But there's one thing I still don't get.” She said, almost trampling over his words. “Why me? Of all the people, over all these years, it could have been anyone...”

  “Because you're special Lylith, you're funny, you're clever, you've helped me along the way and once you were involved... I could hardly turn my back could I?”

  “Like a dog you'd taken in over Christmas?”

  He grinned jokingly. “Yeah, maybe,”

  She snorted. “Really though Josiah, that was it, I was 'special'?”

  “Oh not just that, I'd seen you before of course, around the village, head down, doing your job. The day you turned sixteen you were straight down the mill and you just never stopped. You had an Aunty with a severe case of bitterness, a crappy wage - it was hardly sweets and roses but you never said a word...”

  “You've been watching me?” She spluttered, unsure whether to be honored or concerned.

  “Oh, not exclusively.” He smiled reassuringly. “From the top of my tower you can see it all. When you're hiding from the world there's nothing more you can do but just sit and watch it go by. And you were just there, along with everybody else. Although I can't say you hadn't caught my attention. It wasn't hard to notice. The very first winter after I hid here it started to snow and every kid was out in their garden, rolling in it, making snowmen, as they do. You were there too, rolling up balls and throwing them into heaps, listening to the children next door laughing with their brothers and their sisters while you playing out in the dark. Alone. An only child in a village full of siblings.” He turned to her and smiled slightly. “Why you, Lylith? Because you're just like me.”

  She paused for a moment, on the brink of a tear. “You felt sorry for me…”

  “No, no I didn’t feel it.” Hartt hastily corrected. “I just recognised it. Saw we were alike, saw that we’d think the same, grew to like you. I didn’t feel anything.”

  “But you can do, even I thought you couldn’t, and at times you’re stupid and shallow like all men are but you can’t deny you care about things now. I saw it, the way Hope looked at you before she died; how much you’d won her over, how you turned her from what she was. You did that – you cared and you changed her.”

  He nodded and smiled proudly. “You’re right; I got the tone spot on.”

  “The tone?”

  “You know, what people would say to someone broken and distraught like that. If you really want to know, I based that one on you.”

  “So the things you said that convinced her, you didn’t mean them?”

  He looked at her, bemused. “No. Of course not-”

  The walkie burst into life in Josiah's hand. He was almost glad; it broke instantly the inevitable silence that was bound to follow his admission. He pressed the button and put it to his ear. Lylith slid off further down the trail.

  “Fifteen.” The speaker was filled with the little girl’s voice. “Fifteen minutes.” The line went dead.

  “Josiah!” Lylith called from ahead, to which he chased after her, slipping the device back into his pocket.

  “What's wrong, what is it?” It was like he didn't already know the answer. Lylith pointed to the ground. “The trail.” She explained. “It's gone, it has just… disappeared.”

  “And I can see why.” Josiah muttered, kneeling down into the mud and dipping his hand into it. He pulled out a handful of pebbles, his hand caked in sticky brown gunk. “Look at the rocks here, there's thousands of them; no wonder Edgar got one lodged in his heel, how could he not? This was where he picked the pebble, and so for us this is where the lead ends.”

  “There must be another one though.” Lylith pleaded. “Quarter of an hour, we need to get to her fast. She'll be terrified…”

  “Just look at the plain ahead.” Hartt sighed. “It's like a quagmire out there; if he’d left a mark it would stand out from a mile.”

  “But you said he could make it so he couldn't be seen...”

  “On the way back yes, that’s probably what he did, but on the way there he wouldn't have even tried. He was lugging behind him at least a tonne of dynamite: that sort of think tends to weigh a man down...”

  “Then that's it,” Lylith snapped, “She dies?!”

  “Oh no Lylith, she doesn't do that, because he got there somehow and the answer’s in the question. How does a man travel without leaving a single footstep?”

  She shrugged. “Floaty boots?”

  “Hmmm...” Josiah pondered. “...Nice try, get back to me on that one, but no-” His eyes grew wide, mouth cracking into a grin. “He walks on water.”

  Lylith White waded against the tide as it broke into cream froth around her hips. She was soaked and shivering, the liquid on the brink of freezing, and it felt as if her blood was too. Her face was blue, her teeth chattering up and down inside her jaw. Josiah was a few meters ahead of her, his long coat lying above the waves as he fought bravely though them, grunting as he pushed.

  The pebbles at the bottom of the river were slippery beneath her feet, tumbling away if she pushed too hard. The forest disappeared around them, trees flickering past their view as the seemingly small waves lashed around their arms. Every muscle ached, but with time running short she couldn't help but ignore it.

  Lylith shouted out for Josiah above the howling of the wind. “When you said walk on water...”

  “Yeah...” He called back. “I kinda meant through… same difference; a tad damper maybe. Crafty moves by Edgar though; you leave no path when you're wading through here.”

  “And that’s how he kept the dynamite dry?” Lylith asked, pointing and shouting towards the shore a few meters ahead while Hartt's head was turned. For a moment he didn’t understand, but as he turned back he saw there was a boat moored on the shore, its rope dug into the mud. It was fairly large but simple with a wooden hull and no working engine from what he could see. They raced towards it and clung on, spluttering as the water’s spray splashed against their lips and then the backs of their throats as they went to breathe.

  “He couldn't use it to get back; we'd have seen it moored up and make the link right away.” Josiah mused.

  Lylith's head was turned to the shore where there was a tiny cut out in the trees. Within it stood a little wooden shack, not much larger than a shed. Its panels were painted a deep green, not that it was all that obvious now it’s every inch had been battered by the wind and the rain.

  “Oh my god.” She beamed. “We found her!”

  He turned to her with glee, with the biggest grin she'd seen him wearing. “I know!” He exclaimed, swinging onto the shore and helping her up, their clothes drenched and dripping as they moved. A similar pattern was already splattered on the ground, the dry mud soaked in a trail that led to the doorway. “It's an old military command station, from back in the war. Stripped bare now of course, an attempt to keep the secrets secret I suppose. This must be the very one.”

  Lylith sneezed. “The very one what?”

  “Officer Baltazar must have given the orders from somewhere.” He answered. “You were right Lylith, Edgar wanted this to happen where it all began, but that wasn't at Ashton town, it was here. This was w
here Cedric Baltazar told his men to fire.” He beamed at her. “You were right; I wouldn't have had a clue! Emotions, that’s the thing - you found her, not me.”

  Lylith shook her head. “But the pebble and the river… We both found her.”

  Josiah nodded. “Quite right too.” He swung his palm into the air and screeched into the night. “High-five!”

  He was left hanging as the Walkie crackled and a voice broke through.

  “Seven.” Jessica Baltazar spoke, her voice echoing from inside the hut too. She was in there alright, and more terrified than ever.

  “In a minute. Work to do.” She gestured towards his hand still hovering in the air. She smiled softly. “Better than a superhero?”

  Josiah grinned. “Better then a superhero.” He turned and walked towards the door, placing his hand on the wood. Then he stopped.

  “Oh.”

  All the happiness in his voice suddenly disappeared. His face dropped, his throat choked. He turned around and slid down the door to the dirt.

  She joined him. “Are you okay, what is it?”

  “I think I just worked out why they let me go.”

  “And why's that?” She quizzed, scared slightly.

  “Because they had all the time in the world.” Josiah muttered. “They could have given us a day, a week – I could never go in there. Edgar said it a long time ago, he said what would happen if I saved her. My Worst Nightmare, and here it is. He knew who I was as soon as I walked in that room underground, he saw through my disguise right away and they've been preparing ever since.”

  “I don't understand.”

  “It's a trap Lylith, not for the girl but for me, to ensure that whatever happens she dies here tonight. Why did they plant a dummy in the corridor? Why announce that they'd taken Jessica? To lead me there, to her room - the wire pointed right towards it. Just to get me standing alone in that little girl’s bedroom for a second. There was a bright light, it barely even registered.”

  “Yes, and what was it?”

  “The flash of a camera. They have a photograph of me Lylith, standing on my own in the scene of a crime. There was another flash of light long before that - as Edgar came out of his office for the first time. A picture of me standing with a group of murderers in their hideout and another of me moments after a crime where it had happened. I’m implicated in everything.”