by Mia James
‘But wasn’t he looking for you? For the time when you wounded him?’
‘There’s no way he can connect me to that incident. It was a hundred years ago and I’ve stayed off his radar since then. Don’t worry about me, you concentrate on staying safe.’
‘I will. But only if you do. Promise me you’ll be careful.’
Gabriel grinned.
‘I always am.’
Chapter Thirty-Two
It was good to have Caro back. She had the same enthusiasm for catching vampires as she did for a chocolate eclair. She threw herself into it with excitement and energy and she was fearless about the dangers.
‘So tell me again about this Teddy the Toad,’ said Caro as she hoovered up the pastry and got stuck into a slice of Black Forest gateau.
‘Don’t you worry about your arteries?’ asked April.
‘I’ve got to keep my strength up, haven’t I?’ said Caro as she wiped her mouth on her napkin. ‘Who knows when something might leap out and grab my throat.’
April’s face fell.
‘Not funny, Caro,’ said April in a low voice, not wanting to be overheard by the waiters. ‘I don’t know how you can be so flippant about it. I was really scared earlier on.’
‘I know, honey, I know it’s real, but you’ve really got to lighten up. All this weight on your shoulders, it’s going to snap you in two.’
‘How can I lighten up when people – things – are trying to kill me?’
‘I’m not saying you should whistle a happy tune, I’m just saying you need to accept what’s going on and roll with it. It’s not doing anyone any good for you to be walking around with a face like a wet weekend.’
April laughed despite herself.
‘Thanks for pointing out I’m such a misery.’
‘I’m just saying you look nicer when you smile.’
‘Now you sound like my mum,’ said April, feeling a stab of guilt. She guessed that Grandpa Thomas would have told Silvia about her visit, but that wouldn’t have stopped her from worrying herself sick – with good reason as it happened.
‘Your mum’s not always wrong,’ said Caro, pointing at April with her fork. ‘Anyway, the point is, the Suckers are here, they’re not going to disappear just because you go all mopey. We’ve got to pick ourselves up and come out fighting.’
‘Funny you should say that …’ said April, and filled Caro in on her meeting with Uncle Peter earlier that day. Caro’s eyes lit up at April’s description of the newspaper office.
‘Wow! And Peter’s serious about looking into Ravenwood?’
‘Well, the conspiracy part of it – he’s not buying the idea that there are vampires here, but he was certainly into the idea of finding out who’s behind the school.’
‘So we’re all chasing the Vampire Regent really,’ said Caro thoughtfully.
April pulled a face. ‘Sadly we still have no idea who he is.’
‘So let’s work it out,’ said Caro, putting down her fork and pulling out a notepad. ‘Who are the prime candidates?’
‘Well, you thought it was Davina’s dad, didn’t you?’
‘We know Nicholas Osbourne’s not a vampire, but that doesn’t mean he’s not involved in this. And it’s got to be someone like him, someone with power. Agropharm’s still in the frame too. Just because Davina’s dad isn’t one of the undead, doesn’t mean there aren’t Suckers behind it.’
‘Mr Sheldon?’ said April, then stopped dead. ‘Oh my God …’
She turned and scrabbled in her coat pocket, pulling out her phone.
‘What is it?’ asked Caro.
‘Hawk – Mr Sheldon. The other night I took a picture of him and my mum.’ She clicked to her pictures file and looked for the date.
‘There it is.’
April could feel her heart beating as it opened. It had been a snatched photo in a dark corridor and the camera on her phone wasn’t exactly cutting-edge, but it was clear enough. They could see the front door and the coat-rack and the freshly painted walls, but where Mr Sheldon should have been, there was only a weird dark smudge, as if a child had taken a black crayon and scribbled him out. You couldn’t even see April’s mother standing behind him. It was like she was being obscured by thick fog.
‘No way …’ whispered Caro, her eyes wide. ‘I mean, we pretty much knew Hawk was a vamp, but to see it … it’s like – wow!’
April nodded.
‘Imagine how I feel, to think of him smarming up to my mum.’
‘Eww,’ said Caro, wrinkling her nose. ‘Still, it’s no big surprise, is it? Gabriel told you that the Suckers all report to him. He had to be a vampire – but does it make him the Regent?’
April shrugged. ‘Probably not. We’ve seen that he answers to other people, haven’t we? The Regent’s not going to let people push him around.’
‘Dr Tame?’
‘Don’t think so. He’s evil, but in a different way. Besides, Fiona checked him out, and she found photos of him everywhere.’
‘That new police inspector? What’s his name?’
‘No way. He’s hardly going to be able to do a press conference. He might be a vamp disciple, but he’s not a vampire.’
‘Maybe we’re not looking in the right places,’ said Caro. ‘Didn’t Gabriel say he was great at hiding? If that’s true, there’s a good chance we’ve never even seen him.’
April slumped back in her seat.
‘It’s hopeless, isn’t it?’
‘If only we’d found some sort of guidebook on getting rid of vampires at the V&A,’ said Caro. ‘You know, like, How To Get Rid of Ants From Your Kitchen.’
April didn’t laugh.
‘Hey, how do you get rid of ants, anyway? You follow them back to their nest and pour boiling water down the hole, don’t you?’
Caro shivered. ‘Really? Is that what you do?’ She pushed her plate away. ‘Ugh, I don’t much feel like eating all of a sudden.’
But April was still thinking. ‘So where is their nest?’ she said. ‘Where are they all crawling about at the moment?’
Caro looked confused.
‘The cemetery?’
‘Duh,’ said April. ‘Where’s the one place you can be sure to lay your hands on a vampire? Ravenwood.’
Caro gave a grim smile.
‘Better put the kettle on, then.’
Inspector Reece was waiting for April outside the café. He was standing by his car wearing a rumpled trenchcoat. He had bags under his eyes and looked like he could do with a decent night’s sleep. Caro gave a little wave and moved off back up the High Street. ‘I promised I’d meet my mum by the hairdressers,’ she said. ‘See you tomorrow, A?’
‘Yeah, see you. And thanks.’
‘No,’ said Caro, patting her stomach, ‘thank you.’
Reece gave April a wan smile.
‘I assumed you weren’t being attacked in the coffee shop, so I let you finish,’ he said.
‘Oh God, sorry,’ said April, blushing. ‘I forgot all about ringing you. How did you find me?’
‘We can find anyone within a few hundred metres if their phone is on, April,’ he said. ‘Even faster if they’re making calls.’
‘Oh. Well I really did think someone was following me, honestly Inspector Reece.’
‘Who was it?’
April hesitated. DI Reece might have been taken off her case, but he was still a policeman. She didn’t want to have to lie to him about her meeting with Gabriel.
‘I … I don’t know. Maybe it was no one. I didn’t wait to find out – I just jumped on a bus and came back here.’
Reece looked at her shrewdly. April had the unsettling feeling that he knew exactly where she’d really been.
‘Well you’re safe now, that’s the main thing,’ he said.
‘I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you.’
‘That’s okay, I wanted to talk to you anyway.’
‘Why is it that whenever we talk you end up giving me some b
ad news?’
Reece snorted.
‘Part of my job, I’m afraid,’ he said, walking slowly up the hill away from the café. ‘No one ever asks the police to give good news. Hence the dark uniforms, I suppose.’
They walked in silence until they reached Pond Square and sat down on a cold bench.
April looked at him sideways.
‘So what is it this time? I’m not sure I can take any more shocks.’
‘I’m sorry it’s been so hard for you, April,’ he said. ‘You’ve been asked to deal with an awful lot since you came here and I hesitated to add this to your burden.’
He paused to rub his eyes, as if he were suffering from a migraine.
‘But I still think you should see this.’
He reached inside his coat and pulled out a brown envelope. Inside were two date-stamped photographs. She peered at them for a moment, a look of confusion slowly turning to disbelief and anger.
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ she whispered.
The photographs were from a traffic camera. They were grainy and the driver’s face was a blur, but you could see the car and the registration number as clear as day. Her mother’s car; she had been caught speeding. There was nothing particularly strange about that, but it was the date and time stamped on the pictures which was making April’s heart thump: the day, the time, her father died. The precise time when Silvia had sworn she was with April’s grandfather.
‘But this proves she was lying, doesn’t it?’ said April. ‘It changes my mum’s alibi.’
‘Not really,’ said Reece.
‘Why not? She lied! Aren’t you going to question her?’
‘You’re not getting it, April. This photo was taken at the exact time your father died, so your mother couldn’t have killed him. Okay, so she lied, but it doesn’t alter the fact that she has a water-tight alibi. Anyway’ – he shook his head – ‘I’m off the case. Not that there is really a case any more.’
April’s mouth opened.
‘My dad’s case is closed?’
He shrugged.
‘Not officially – officially it’s an on-going investigation, but off the record, all the manpower has been reassigned. Someone at the top doesn’t want it looked into any more. I don’t know if they’re just trying to sweep it under the carpet or … well, it’s not like we’re swamped with leads.’
‘That’s not fair! How can you let it happen? There must be someone you can speak to, get it reinvestigated?’
‘On what grounds, April?’ said Reece, anger in his voice. ‘I mean, if you have some compelling new evidence, then I’d be pleased to pass it on, but otherwise it appears as though my colleagues have their hands full with all the other deaths in Highgate!’
Reece rubbed his chin, the stubble rasping.
‘I’m sorry, April, I shouldn’t take this out on you. None of this is your fault and I can imagine you feel pretty let down by this investigation.’
April gave him a sad smile.
‘I don’t blame you, Inspector Reece. It just seems so wrong that the police can just give up on this.’ She looked across to the yellow door of her house, remembering that night, the police cars with their spinning lights, the paramedics … the blood. If the police – or whoever was in charge – could make something like that go away, then surely there was nothing they couldn’t hide.
‘Can’t you do anything?’
‘What do you expect me to do?’ said Reece wearily. ‘Give it all up, take a moral stand? Say “Either the case is re-opened or I’m walking?” It’s been tempting, I will say that much, but … there are elements in the police who would like all these cases closed down. Maybe they’re corrupt, maybe there’s someone behind the scenes telling them what to do, I don’t know. But call me naïve, I still believe that the force needs decent people doing real police work. If we all left, what hope would there be?’
April nodded. ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean that you …’
He shook his head.
‘No, it’s fine. It’s not as if I haven’t had this same argument with myself dozens of times. But I do know that people who try fighting it too hard find themselves transferred to traffic duty. And people who shout too loud, who threaten the wrong people, they find things get dangerous. Very dangerous.’
April couldn’t take it all in.
‘But what does this mean, Mr Reece?’ she asked, holding up the photos. ‘Does it mean my mum is involved in all this?’
Reece shook his head.
‘Not at all. This proves she wasn’t there.’
He handed her the envelope.
‘But if I was you, I would want to know why she’s not telling you the truth.’
Chapter Thirty-Three
April slammed the front door and threw her coat on the banister.
‘Mother!’ she shouted, craning her neck up the stairs. ‘Mother, are you here?’
‘Yes, I’m here,’ said Silvia, stepping out of the living room. ‘And where the bloody hell have you been? I’ve been worried sick since your grandfather rang. How could you be so selfish?’
April walked over and thrust the paper at her mother.
‘What’s this?’ she frowned.
‘It’s a photo from a traffic camera showing you speeding. Look at the date.’
‘That’s the day …’
‘Yes. It’s the day Dad was killed.’
Silvia looked up.
‘So what’s the big fuss? The police must have called me and I was rushing home.’
‘No,’ said April, stabbing her finger at the photo. ‘Look at the time. That was the time you told the police – you told me – that you were with Gramps. You lied to me.’
Silvia stood there, not speaking, which only angered April more.
‘Is that it?’ she said. ‘No denial? No “you’ve got it wrong, April”?’
‘Deny what, April?’ she snapped. ‘What am I supposed to have done? So I wasn’t exactly where I said I was. I don’t tell you everything I do, and I don’t have to.’
‘But this was important! This isn’t about you sneaking off for a facial, this is your alibi, the thing that proves you didn’t kill Dad.’
‘Is that what you thought? You really believed I could have killed him?’
April shook her head.
‘No, and that’s not what this is about. This is about trust. If you can’t even tell me the truth about where you were at the moment my dad was being murdered, how the hell am I supposed to believe anything else you say?’
‘As if you ever did.’
‘Oh grow up!’ yelled April. ‘I’m sick of you behaving like a teenager – no, in fact most of my friends are more mature than you.’
‘So what do you want from me?’
‘I want the truth, Mother! Where were you?’
Silvia looked away.
‘You don’t want to know.’
‘I do, of course I do! Because if you can’t give me a decent explanation, what can I do but think you’re hiding something?’
‘Like what?’
‘Like having something to do with Dad’s death.’
‘April, that’s ridiculous, I loved your father so much—’
‘Loved, past tense. You were such a bitch to him before he died.’
‘Don’t speak to me like that!’
‘Why not? It’s the truth and you know it. So why can’t you tell me where you really were that afternoon?’
Silvia looked at her hands.
‘Because I am ashamed,’ she said quietly.
‘What of?’
She looked up at April and her eyes were shining with tears. ‘Because I let your father down.’
April felt a sudden clenching of her stomach. Like she had some premonition that she wouldn’t like what she was about to hear, that it would change everything. But she couldn’t stop now, she had to know, however bad it was.
‘Let him down how?’
‘You have got to understand, April. It wasn’t ea
sy living with your father, he was obsessed with his work, he’d be away for a week living in some horrible squat in Moscow or somewhere, I’d have no idea where he was, if he was alive or dead …’
‘That was his job,’ said April impatiently. ‘Don’t use that as an excuse.’
‘There were other … issues between us too.’
‘Oh God,’ said April, her hand over her mouth. ‘You had an affair, didn’t you?’
Silvia didn’t need to say anything, April could see from her face that she had guessed correctly.
‘It was when you were little. I felt so alone. I had no one to talk to, you have to understand what it was like. Robert was a shoulder to cry on.’
‘Robert?’ She felt sick. ‘Robert Sheldon? You had an affair with Mr Sheldon.’ Of course. She’d suspected something, but had never allowed herself to believe that it was true.
‘I never meant to hurt your father,’ said Silvia. ‘But it was as if he was punishing me.’
‘He was punishing you? You were the one who jumped into Hawk’s bed! You’re disgusting.’
‘April,’ said Silvia, moving towards her.
‘Don’t touch me!’ she cried, jumping away. ‘How could you do that to Dad? And with someone he hated.’
Suddenly April understood why her parents had spent so much time screaming at each other. When she was a little girl, she remembered them as happy and loving, but then something had changed, just before they had moved to Edinburgh, and ever since they had snapped and sniped at each other. April had assumed it was her; that she had simply grown up and noticed the tension she hadn’t seen before. But no, her mother’s selfishness had driven a wedge between them.
‘Darling, please try to understand. Love makes you do strange things sometimes.’
‘Love? How dare you talk to me about love? You must have hated him.’
‘I never hated your father, April. He was wonderful, but we had problems in our marriage. They were there from the beginning, but we thought we could overcome them. Maybe we never could.’
‘Don’t start blaming him. You were the one who had the affair.’
