The Cryptid Files

by Jean Flitcroft

  In the days leading up to her tests before the midterm break, Vanessa tried to focus on revising, but trade and industry graphs and irregular French verbs were of little interest compared to the stories of Nessie.

  On the Thursday of that week, when Vanessa came down to breakfast, she found a brand new Dorling Kindersley guide book to Scotland on the kitchen table.

  ‘Did Dad leave this book out, Luke?’ Vanessa eyed it suspiciously.

  ‘Don’t know,’ Luke grunted as he spooned mounds of Rice Krispies into his mouth hungrily. ‘He’s gone to work,’ he added, as if that explained it.

  ‘Are we going to Scotland after all?’ Ronan asked innocently.

  ‘Dad didn’t mention it again,’ Luke offered without looking up from his bowl.

  Vanessa’s mouth went dry. Suddenly she didn’t feel like breakfast. Looking at Luke and Ronan busily feeding themselves, she realised that she might have cheated them out of a much-needed holiday, and lost her chance to visit Loch Ness.

  ‘Sorry,’ she mumbled, and, when no one acknowledged it, she went on: ‘You know I’d love to go to Scotland, but I’m not going with her.’ Her voice rose defensively.

  ‘She’s not that bad, Vanessa,’ Ronan said, looking directly at her.

  ‘Isn’t she?’

  ‘OK, she’s not Mum, but who can be? You should at least be fair,’ Luke added. ‘She’s not the devil either.’

  Vanessa felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, and her temper flare, but she managed to keep her mouth shut this time. Fair, Luke had said. Fair? Why the hell should she be fair? Fair had absolutely nothing to do with it.

  CHAPTER 5

  Some sightings may be honest mistakes. The wind blowing across the surface, a large seal or a floating log might play tricks on someone’s eye. What is hard to explain is where lots of people, sometimes from several locations on the loch, witness the monster at the same time.

  Vanessa Day’s house was a large detached red-brick at the end of a leafy green cul-de-sac. Her bedroom looked out over the front garden, and she could see the apple and pear trees in the centre of the lawn and the stone path that meandered through them. But her favourite tree was in the back garden – a huge lime tree, which stood over 100 feet tall and had views into the neighbours’ gardens. For years now, it had been her and her best friend Grace’s den.

  Looking down at the car in the drive, she could see Luke putting his bag into the boot. As he walked back to the house, he looked up and signalled to her, pointing at his watch. She waved back, but instead of running downstairs, she turned on her computer. Logging into her email account she wrote:

  Hi Gracie. Guess what? I was right after all!!!! You know I told you about the book on Scotland appearing on the table? Well, last night, tickets for the four of us magically appeared on the mantelpiece. We are flying to Inverness first (LOCH NESS!!!!) and then getting the train to Edinburgh. Imagine a whole week of holiday, but best of all SHE’s never been mentioned again! My freak out must have worked!!

  ‘For God’s sake Vanessa, will you hurry up?’ her dad shouted up impatiently. Vanessa pressed the Send button, closed down the computer, shoved her book and her fleece into her bag and ran down the stairs out to the car as fast as she could.

  ‘Well, let’s hit the road, Alan.’

  ‘Your belt please, Vanessa,’ her father answered sharply.

  She knew he disliked it when she called him by his first name. Tough, he did lots of stuff that she didn’t like.

  ‘Ignore her, Dad. Come on, let’s go,’ Ronan piped up as he punched Vanessa lightly on the arm. He didn’t want another fight starting.

  The lines of cars stretched as far as the eye could see. The M50 could be slow, but today it seemed to be at a full stop. Vanessa looked at her watch. Their flight was at half three and it was already one o’clock. Her father hated being late for anything and she could feel his stress. The muscles in the back of his neck were taut and she was suddenly aware of the amount of grey in his thick black hair. She hadn’t noticed before and was quite unprepared for the wave of sadness that ran through her. Pressing her forehead against the cool of the window, she stared through the blur of her tears. She cried over the silliest of things these days.

  The plane was more crowded than she had expected and when she found her row, she moved quickly into the window seat. The boys would want to sit together anyway.

  How she envied them their closeness sometimes! They were so alike despite the five-year age difference. ‘The twins’ her mother used to call them. She looked across the aisle at them, their heads bent together. What did they talk about? Luke was getting a pack of cards out of his bag. Typical! No doubt they would play cards for the entire flight. Luke had recently moved on from wanting to be in the army and was now considering a career as a professional poker player.

  Her father put his bag in the overhead locker and sat down beside her with his book. Vanessa flipped open the red folder on her knee and began to read:

  Loch Ness is at the northern end of the Great Glen fault line that cuts across the Highlands of Scotland. 24 miles long and 1 mile wide, it is up to 1,000 feet deep at certain points. It holds more water than all the lakes and reservoirs in England and Wales together and it could hold all the people in the world three times over.

  ‘My God, I had no idea it was that deep; no wonder they can’t find her!’ Her father had been reading the page over her shoulder. Vanessa looked straight at him to see if he was just teasing her, but his face was quite serious.

  ‘I know, it’s amazing, isn’t it? People can’t dive down that deep, so how can they possibly know she doesn’t live at the bottom?’

  ‘Well …’ her father paused, ‘I suppose if she is a plesiosaurus or something dinosaur- or mammal-like then she has to breathe air and she would have to come to the surface all the time.’

  ‘Yes, I know, but some scientists believe that there are caves and tunnels and she could come up for air in there. Look.’

  She turned to a section marked ‘geology’ and read out loud:

  During a coastguard exercise, a large cavern was discovered in Loch Ness at a depth of 800ft near Urquhart Bay. Locals now call it Edward’s Deep after the man who found it. This may be the entrance to a whole network of caves, the access point into Nessie’s home and the reason she can stay hidden during searches.

  ‘Urquhart Bay,’ Vanessa murmured to herself, ‘where are we staying, Dad?’

  ‘At Fort Augustus. I think it’s at the south end of Loch Ness.’

  ‘Fort Augustus! Oh, Dad, some of the most important sightings have happened there. You just have to read this.’ She pointed to a picture of a man, his right hand raised and his index finger pointing at something. ‘That’s Father Gregory, a monk from Fort Augustus Abbey.’

  Her father read on:

  On October 14 1971, Father Gregory Brusey of the Benedictine Abbey in Fort Augustus and a friend, Roger Pugh, saw ‘a terrific commotion in the waters of the bay … we saw quite distinctly the neck of the beast standing out of the water to … a height of about 10 feet. It swam towards us at a slight angle, and after about 20 seconds slowly disappeared, the neck immersing at a slight angle. We were at a distance of about 300 yards …’

  ‘Would a monk who is devoting his life to God really make up such a story?’ Vanessa was genuinely puzzled.

  ‘Well, I should hope not. But what’s the evidence on the other side? The “Nessie doesn’t exist” argument?’ Her dad, always the lawyer, dug her gently in the ribs.

  ‘Well, there’s not as much as you might think. There were certainly some fake photographs done, the most famous one by an English doctor that’s called the surgeon’s photo. But one fake photograph doesn’t take away from all the other sightings. You know there are thousands of eyewitness accounts: priests, politicians, film crews, lords and ladies, children even. I don’t believe they all lied.’

  She looked up at him, all excitement, and, suddenly, her dad leaned over and
, pushing her hair back off her forehead, kissed her tenderly. Vanessa blinked in surprise and patted his arm companionably. He rested his head back against the seat rest and closed his eyes.

  Vanessa took a quick sideways look at his face and felt a sharp pang of guilt. He looked very sad when his face was resting, she thought, sad and old. She knew that she made his life difficult sometimes, particularly in the past few weeks. She would make it up to him now that they were on their own. It would be wonderful to have a normal family holiday together.

  The short flight was over far too quickly for Vanessa. She had only got about a third of the way through her file. The boys had played cards all the way.

  ‘Look, we’re coming in to land,’ Ronan said loudly.

  Luke caught Vanessa’s eye. ‘I’ve cleaned Ronan out again. Fancy trying to win back his money?’

  ‘How much?’ Vanessa was very good at poker and often beat Luke.

  ‘Thirty.’

  ‘Sterling? You thief, you know he doesn’t have much money.’

  ‘You could try and win it back for him this evening.’

  ‘OK, but be prepared to lose every cent you’ve brought.’ Vanessa tried to look stern, but she couldn’t resist smiling at him. She had a good feeling about this trip.

  Vanessa felt the sudden jolt as the plane landed and ran along the runway. The plane came to a halt, and she pressed her head to the plastic covering the window and felt the excitement rise up in her. She could see a large blue sign over a modest and rather dull building: ‘Welcome to Inverness’.

  CHAPTER 6

  There are four freshwater lochs in the Great Glen: Loch Dochfur, Loch Ness, Loch Oich and Loch Lochy. These lochs are connected to the sea by a 100 kilometre long waterway called the Caledonian Canal and, in parts, by the River Ness. There are 29 locks and 10 bridges along the length of the canal.

  While they all waited at the car rental desk, Vanessa spotted a bookshop at the end of the arrivals hall.

  ‘I’ll get the road-maps, Dad, if you give me some money.’ Vanessa wanted to get a good ordnance survey map of Loch Ness for herself.

  He pulled out his wallet and handed her a fifty-pound note.

  ‘I’ll need lots of change from that.’ He grinned. ‘Oh, and get me a map of the Isle of Skye. I think it’s only a couple of hours’ drive. I’ve always wanted to visit.’

  She found the rack with tourist books and maps. Beside it, the shelves were filled with bright, kelly- green dinosaurs with red tartan berets. Nessie was emblazoned across their chests. She turned her back on them, disdainfully. How tacky! What a cheap way to represent the most famous cryptid in the entire world!

  She opened nearly every map on display, examining each one carefully before folding them back, much to the displeasure of the shop assistant.

  ‘Can I help you at all?’ she asked at last.

  Oblivious to the implied criticism, Vanessa replied cheerfully, ‘Oh, no thanks. I just want to make sure I get the right one.’

  In the end, Luke was sent in to get her. He tried to dissuade her from buying four maps. But Vanessa was adamant. She needed a general road-map of the Highland area, a detailed map of the Isle of Skye for her father, a map showing the different lochs along the Great Glen, including Loch Ness, and the best one of all – a detailed map of Loch Ness itself. It showed the gradients of the loch sides, the water depth and also lots of detail about the canal locks at the north and south ends.

  The rental car was a Ford Ka, with an engine that sounded like a small tractor.

  ‘Whoever wants to navigate sits in the front. I’ll have to put my seat right back, so the back seat is going to be pretty tight, sorry.’

  Their father fiddled with his seat position. His long legs would sometimes go into cramp if he sat too close. They should have rented something bigger, Vanessa thought. Her father looked ridiculous in the front seat, oversized and awkward.

  ‘I’ll navigate,’ Ronan said eagerly.

  ‘I’ll sit behind you, Dad,’ Vanessa offered helpfully.

  In truth, Vanessa just wanted time to study the Loch Ness map quietly. Normally, Vanessa or her mother would have done the map reading. Vanessa had a great sense of direction and had the distinct advantage of being the only person in the family able to refold maps properly. Ronan, on the other hand, was a disaster. He would open the map out fully so that it covered the gear stick and he almost always ended up tearing the map.

  Luke had his iPod headphones firmly fixed in his ears, lost to all the negotiations. Without a word, he opened the back door and slid in beside Vanessa. Vanessa considered her older brother. He had got tall recently. He was sprawled across the back seat, his gangly legs and bony elbows taking up most of the space.

  ‘Move over, freak.’

  ‘Keep it nice, Vanessa,’ her father said mildly, watching them in the rear-view mirror.

  Immediately outside the airport, they found the road south to Inverness. It was a beautiful afternoon. Sunlight filtered through the tall silver birch forests and the sky was a true blue. It was pure magic for Vanessa and her eyes kept wandering from the map to the scenery.

  ‘Look. Just up ahead, you see that funny turret and the roof of the castle? That’s Castle Stuart,’ Ronan said proudly. ‘It’s on my map.’

  They slowed as they passed the gates and read the plaque: ‘Accommodation only by prior arrangement’.

  ‘Imagine staying there. Maybe sometime we could do that, Dad?’

  ‘Perhaps on another trip,’ Alan replied non-committally.

  ‘Where are we staying in Fort Augustus? Is it a guest house?’ Vanessa asked.

  ‘No, a cottage. It’s right on the banks of Loch Ness. Ronan, is there a right-hand turn coming up shortly?’

  Vanessa went back to her maps.

  It wasn’t long before she got her first glimpse of Loch Ness. It was grander and more impressive than any picture she had seen. Backed by huge pine-covered mountains and lined at the water’s edge by ancient silver birches, everything glistened in the sunlight.

  ‘Turn left, turn left,’ she shouted suddenly from the back seat. She had spotted a sign half covered with a shrub for the Dochgarrach Locks.

  ‘What is it Vanessa?’

  ‘Lock Dochgarrach, can we see it please? It’s the first of the lock-gates on the northern end of Loch Ness.’

  ‘You mean L-O-C-H,’ Ronan corrected her.

  ‘No, I mean L-O-C-K,’ said Vanessa. ‘A loch is a lake. But this is a lock, like we have on the canal at home. Lock-gates, you can call them. Lock Dochgarrach is a lock, Loch Ness is a loch.’

  ‘Boring, boring,’ droned Ronan, ‘I want to get to the cottage. I’m starving.’

  ‘There will be lots of time to explore the locks, I promise. We have three days here.’ Her father sounded firm, his ‘no room for argument’ sort of voice, and Vanessa let it go. She was dying to see the cottage too.

  CHAPTER 7

  A large number of salmon migrate through Loch Ness to their breeding ground. The eels in Loch Ness travel even farther – all the way to the Sargasso Sea. The loch is no stranger to visitors.

  About half an hour later, they came to the small village of Drumnadrochit and the site of the official Loch Ness visitors’ centre. Her father slowed the car, but didn’t stop.

  ‘We’ll do that too,’ he offered, before Vanessa could ask. She could see a sea of green Nessie teddies hanging outside the shop. This time, they held red bagpipes. Above them a large billboard carried an advert for the Express Loch Ness Monster Boat. 3D sonar on board, it said, followed by a huge exclamation mark. Vanessa hoped her father wouldn’t suggest that – she’d hate it. She’d much prefer to take a small quiet fishing boat out on the loch and get the real atmosphere that way.

  As they approached the village of Fort Augustus, Vanessa’s spirits soared. One, two, three, four, five. Five locks and a swing bridge! And this was where they were staying.

  ‘Look at those lock-gates!’

  ‘Why
such interest in lock-gates all of a sudden?’ Alan sounded surprised.

  ‘Well …’ Vanessa hesitated. She had never shared her theory with anyone about how Nessie had got into Loch Ness. ‘Well, Mum and I thought that the locks might have something to do with it.’

  ‘With what?’ Ronan piped up.

  ‘The explanation for how Nessie got here. You see, a very long time ago, the Great Glen fault line ran from the east coast of Scotland all the way across to the west. This meant that the lochs, including Loch Ness, were actually linked to the sea. One of the main theories is that when that connection closed off, about ten thousand years ago, Nessie became trapped in Loch Ness.’ She stopped. They wouldn’t be interested.

  ‘And?’ Luke prompted her. Vanessa was surprised. She had thought that Luke was listening to his music. Now, she noticed that one of the ear pieces was out and lying on his shoulder.

  ‘Well, there has always been the problem that in order for a Nessie species to survive and evolve over ten thousand years, there would need to be quite a big number of Nessies breeding and a lot of fish for them to eat. Whereas I think, well we thought …’

  ‘Go on.’ Her father glanced in the mirror, his face eager.

  ‘Well, it’s possible that Nessie did come from the sea, but not ten thousand years ago. I think she’s a deep-sea mammal that got trapped by following salmon migrating through the Caledonian Canal into Loch Ness.’

  ‘Hang on. I thought you said that the access to the sea had been closed off ten thousand years ago,’ Luke pointed out.

  ‘Well, yes, it was, but it was opened up again when they built the Caledonian Canal linking Loch Ness to the sea through a series of lock-gates. There are twenty-nine of them in total, and that means fishing boats can cut across Scotland from the Irish Sea to the Atlantic without going around the top. And – this is what clinches it – the locks and the canal were finished in 1822, which just happens to be around the same time people started to see a monster in the loch!’