Holy Island Trilogy 02 - Nowhere Man

by Sheila Quigley

  Danny tipped the empty bottle upside down, catching a few drops with his finger. Then he put his finger in his mouth and sucked. Better go home, he thought, trying to stand up, a task he found rather hard as his knees wobbled every time he put some weight on them.

  Giggling, he tried again. This time he managed to haul himself around the table, but succeeded in knocking the bottle onto the floor. He stared at the broken glass, and found it quite amusing as he wandered off. He laughed all the way to the main road. Then, face twisted into a scowl, he glared at the heavy traffic.

  ‘Bring it on,’ he muttered, stepping onto the road.

  He was beeped at by a white van amidst a squeal of brakes, and the driver swearing loudly at him. Sticking his middle finger up, he stumbled further into the road. A car coming from the opposite direction spotted him just in time. Ignoring all the angry yelling directed at him from both sides of the road, Danny safely made it to the path, and headed for a narrow back street which cut his journey home by a good ten minutes.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

  Dreading what Rita had to tell him, and not quite certain that he really wanted to know, Smiler followed her into a large house in a quiet, leafy part of London, well away from her usual haunts. She showed him into the large sitting room which, knowing how flamboyant Rita was, surprised him - very plain with cream walls, where quite a few pictures of smiling people (mostly young girls) were scattered, a brown leather sofa and two matching arm chairs, and a love seat in the window, which was what Smiler headed for. He liked to be able to see outside so that no surprises were sprung on him.

  ‘I won’t be long,’ Rita said, ruffling the thick hair on Tiny’s neck. ‘Gotta get out of these shoes right now, Smiler, my fucking corns are killing me.’

  Smiler shrugged. ‘Shouldn’t wear them so high, then. It’s not like you really need to.’

  With a grin, Rita headed for the stairs. Here there were more cream walls, this time all bare until you reached the landing where you were faced with a huge picture of Rita at her finest. Blonde hair piled high on the top of her head, she was wearing a glittering silver and green ball gown, with a slit at the side, and striking a Marilyn Monroe pose.

  Feeling thirsty, Smiler headed towards the kitchen for a drink of water. Cream again, only with a lot of blue added. It was a good sized kitchen, with a pine breakfast table. A door to the back garden was by the sink, with another door set further back.

  Filling a blue mug with water from the tap, he was about to take a sip when he heard a noise. Frowning, he looked around. He could have sworn he heard someone moaning. A moment later, the moans came again. It sounded as if pretty soon the moaning could turn to screaming.

  Wonder if someone’s fallen down?

  Rita never said she lived with anyone, but this house is massive, plenty big enough for six or seven people. He hesitated. Really, it’s not my place, whoever it is might tell me to piss off… But they might need help. Might even be dying. Oh shit! Gently he knocked on the door in the corner. ‘Can I help?’

  He waited, his ear pressed to the door, before asking again if he could help, only to be answered with more moaning. He looked at the round knob on the door. Should I? he wondered.

  ‘What the hell. They might need help, and Rita’s taking some flaming time up there,’ he muttered, turning the knob.

  Inside it was very dim, because of the dark blue blind pulled down over the window. He waited for a moment for his eyes to adjust. When they did, he saw a young girl lying on a bed, curled up on herself, in the throes of misery. She suddenly started thrashing about. Then the screams came, low and slow at first, before building up to an ear splitting climax.

  Smiler hurried into the room and, reaching the bed, took hold of her hand, understanding exactly what was wrong with her and knowing there was very little he could do except be there for her. She seemed to glean a small comfort from his presence, and kept tight hold of his hand. She even began to quieten down. A few minutes later, Smiler was not surprised to hear Rita behind him.

  ‘She’s going cold turkey. Her choice. Sadly, the methadone was a complete waste of time. Her name’s Lynne. Tiny little thing, isn’t she? We’ve had her for five and a half weeks now. God bless her, she’s determined to beat it. Like I said, the methadone didn’t work-but you’ll know all about that.’

  Nodding sadly, Smiler turned, and got a shock. Instead of Rita standing there, it was a man.

  ‘Hello.’ He held out his hand. ‘I’m Robert.’

  Smiler looked Robert up and down. If he hadn’t heard him speak, he would never have guessed it was Rita’s alter ego. Where Rita always wore a blonde wig, Robert was quite dark, and very handsome. Smiler held out his hand and they shook.

  ‘Louise will tell you more about her when she gets back from her stint as the bird woman.’

  ‘B-bird woman?’ Smiler’s jaw hung open. ‘You mean the woman in the red coat, who stands outside the cop shop?’

  ‘That’s the one.’

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

  ‘OK, so that’s a fiver each way on Sugar Rose in the 3.30 tomorrow?’ Aunt May nodded as the bookie confirmed her bet. ‘Thanks, son, be in on Friday to collect.’

  ‘You’re a witch, May. Pretty soon you’ll have me bankrupt. Actually, might bang a fiver on it myself. See you Friday.’

  She laughed out loud at his response. ‘You do that, Frankie. Bye now.’

  She put the phone down as Brother David came in from the kitchen carrying two mugs of tea.

  ‘You still gambling, Aunt May?’

  ‘Took a bloody gamble on you three, didn’t I?’

  Brother David smiled. ‘I guess you did.’

  Patting his hand after he put her tea on the table next to her, she said, ’And it bloody well paid off an’ all… Erm -why don’t you go and change into something more comfortable? I’m sure there’s some joggers and t-shirts belonging to Mike upstairs that might fit you. Be a tight squeeze, but...’ She shrugged.

  ‘Does the robe make you uncomfortable, Aunt May?’ Brother David frowned.

  ‘No, just thinking of your bloody comfort, that’s all.’

  ‘Or could you possibly be trying anything to put off the inevitable questions you know are coming?’

  She shrugged. ‘Fire away.’

  He sat down facing her. ‘OK, Aunt May, will do. Why here? Why would someone come in and wreck the place? And what are they looking for?’

  ‘That’s three bloody questions.’

  ‘Answer them in whichever order you choose, my dear, but today I want to know what’s really going on. Because some of the things that’ve happened are rather on the strange side… And just what do you have to do with it?’

  She smiled. ’Where to start?’ Brother David refused to react to her question. Instead he just smiled right back her.

  ‘OK. It’s a long story, going back many thousands of years.’ She studied his face, but he showed no reaction. Instead he seemed quite calm, and determined to hear her out.

  She sighed, having known that this day was inevitable. Too much had gone on, too much was going on, for those closest to her not to wonder. ‘OK. Let's suppose that a long time ago, a group of very influential men got together and declared themselves, unknown to everyone else, of course, the rulers of the earth. It was theirs to do with, whatever they bloody well wanted. And that’s exactly what they did, changing the course of human history time and time again. All for greed, all for profit. The descendants of those men are still here today, still secretly ruling us. They don’t have a fancy name like you read about in all those bloody conspiracy theories. Give us quite a laugh, some of them, although others have amazingly come very close to the bone.’

  ‘It doesn’t sound so fanciful when you take a moment or two to think about it.’ Brother David drank the rest of his tea, made him self more comfortable and nodded for her to go on.

  She had just opened her mouth to speak when Jill knocked on the door and came in.

  �
��Hi, Jill,' Aunt May said.

  ‘Just popped in to see if you guys wanted anything at the shop? Thought I’d save you a trip over.’

  ‘We’re fine, Jill, thanks. I got what we needed this morning,’ Brother David said.

  ‘Cup of tea, Jill?” Aunt May asked.

  ‘Yeah, why not.’ Jill smiled at Brother David, who rose and went to freshen the pot.

  Before sitting down, Jill said, ‘Mind if I use your loo, May? Been running round all morning,’

  ‘Of course, you know where it is.’

  ‘Cheers.’ Jill headed for the stairs. Behind her, the welcoming smile dropped from Aunt May’s mouth. Noticing this on his way back in from the kitchen, Brother David put the fresh cup down and looked quizzically at Aunt May.

  ‘We’ll talk later,’ she whispered quietly. ‘Walls have bloody ears. We have to be very careful.’

  Puzzled, Brother David said, ‘All right.’ He tried to rid himself of the mental picture of huge ears sprouting out of all the walls in the house.

  Upstairs, Jill quickly opened the first of the six doors in the corridor. She knew one of them was Aunt May’s room, but which one? This was obviously a kid's room, probably for some of her guests. The second door she guessed, because of all the flowers scattered on the walls and the curtains, must be Aunt May's. Quickly she went inside.

  She hurried over and looked through the drawers, looking for, perhaps, a small key to a cupboard, she didn’t really know. Something book-shaped. Finding nothing, she tried the wardrobe. The floor held quite a few pairs of shoes. Quickly she rummaged amongst them, testing the floor for a false bottom but came up with nothing. There was a door next to the wardrobe. Opening it, she found a bathroom. Won't be in here, she thought. Frustrated, and knowing she’d probably been too long, she hurried out of the room.

  Downstairs, she rubbed her stomach as she walked into the sitting room and pulled a face.

  ‘Not feeling too well?’ Aunt May asked, with just the right tone of concern in her voice.

  ‘Not really, May. Some sort of tummy bug, I guess. Think the girls are coming down with it, too.’

  ‘There’s one or two bugs doing the rounds,' Brother David said sympathetically.

  Jill nodded. ‘Perhaps I'd better leave the tea and get back home, May, I do feel a bit sickly. And I wouldn’t want to pass it on. Perhaps a lie down.’ She sighed. ’I do so hate to be ill.’

  ‘It’s OK, love. You have a good night's sleep tonight, and you’ll feel better tomorrow.’

  ‘Right. Bye, Brother David-don’t get up, I’ll see myself out.’ She headed quickly for the door. Brother David, who had half-risen, dropped back into his chair.

  ‘Bloody amateur,’ Aunt May said. When she heard the door close behind Jill.

  ‘What?’

  ‘You heard.’

  ‘Just what is going on here, Aunt May? Are you trying to say that Jill has something to do with all this?’

  ‘She’s one of them. One of the Families. In fact, she’s a blood relative of the Leader.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Yes, the man who enslaved you all.’

  ‘But her daughter was in the monastery!’

  ‘Yes, but he would have had no idea who she was. And if he had, he wouldn’t have cared less. In fact, he would probably have got a kick out of it. He’s an outcast, remember.’

  ‘But didn’t Jill think she might have been there?’

  ‘Maybe, I don’t know. There are hundreds of reasons teenagers take off. If Jill thought she was in there, trust me, she kept it bloody well hidden. To be honest, though, I don’t even think she knew about the monastery. Her job was simply to befriend me, and find out what I knew about the missing book.’

  ‘I can't believe you knew this.’ He rose and began pacing the room. Three times he reached the door to the kitchen, turned and stared at Aunt May. Finally, he said, ‘I don’t believe it. No way can I believe that you knew what was going on and did nothing.’

  ‘Don’t you think I wanted to? But it was only weeks ago that I even found out about the monastery, right under my bloody nose an’ all. We were planning something.’

  Brother David frowned, wondering who she meant when she’d said we.

  Before he could ask her, she went on, ‘Remember the last I’d heard from you was that you were going on a long sabbatical. So for a good few months I wasn’t worried. When I did find out, there was nothing I could do. This battle has been going on for centuries. I couldn’t let the sisterhood be compromised.’

  ‘The sisterhood?’

  She sighed. ‘You need to know a lot more before we even go there. For the moment, I will tell you what Jill was looking for, and what the bloody creep who wrecked the place was looking for. The Lindisfarne Gospels.’

  ‘But isn’t that in London?’

  ‘A lot of people think it is, but as Keeper of the Book, I can tell you it bloody well isn’t.’

  ‘Keeper of the Book?’ Brother David said. Slightly amazed, he repeated it. He could barely believe what he was hearing. It sounded like the biggest conspiracy theory in the world. If he hadn’t been part of it for a year in the monastery, he would have laughed at the thought of Aunt May being involved in anything remotely like this.

  ‘An old title that I inherited,’ Aunt May said.

  ‘So…you have the book here?’

  ‘Sorry, love, can’t tell you.’

  ‘What’s in the book? Can you at least tell me that, seeing as it nearly cost your life?’

  ‘The book contains the names of the Families, past and present. They have been searching for it for centuries. The last thing they want is for it to fall into the hands of the public.’

  ‘So tell me, Aunt May -why haven’t you exposed them before now? Really, dear, I find it impossible to believe that you----’ He shook his head, unable to go on.

  ‘We’ve never been bloody strong enough, that’s why. They control the media worldwide, and some of the armies.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Oh, yes. You name it, they have a big fat bloody finger in it. Trust me on that.’

  Brother David shook his head. ‘And you’ve kept this secret for all this time?’

  ‘Part of the job, son. They know about us, have done for a bloody long time. They’ve tried to ferret us out, but we’ve managed to keep one step ahead. Nearly got rid of us in that huge witch hunt a few centuries back. And in the time of Boudicca-now, she gave them bloody hell all right!'

  ‘And Jill?’

  ‘Jill is actually nothing more than a piece on a chess-board. She tried to walk away a good long time ago, but the Families don’t let anyone go. She’s only working for them out of fear, not loyalty. That’s the reason she’s so on edge all the time. I actually feel quite sorry for the poor girl.’

  ‘OK, Aunt May, more tea and some sandwiches, then you can carry on filling me in on this’- he shrugged as if he only half-believed - ‘this fantastical tale.’

  Aunt May smiled. If only he knew, she thought.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

  Danny woke up stiff and freezing, four hours after he’d fallen asleep on the kitchen floor. His mouth felt as if a rat had curled up and died in there, and the side of his face was nearly stuck to the floor with dribble and snot.

  ‘Damn,’ he muttered. Shivering, he used the table to haul himself up. Stretching, he went to the kitchen sink, where he splashed handfuls of cold water over his face before sticking his head under the tap. Surfacing a few minutes later, he dried himself off and, feeling only marginally better, began to look through the cupboards for a bottle of anything.

  ‘Damn,’ he said again, slamming the last door so hard that it shook just about everything in the flat. ‘Gonna have to go out and get some shopping. Fuck the lot of them.’

  He went into the bedroom. Stripping off his wet t-shirt, he threw it into a corner and found a clean one at the bottom of the drawer. It was pale blue and had Kiss me quick! printed on it. Danny stared at it trying to
get the memory back, he knew it was probably more than ten years old. But couldn’t remember buying it.

  ‘Couldn’t give a shit,’ he muttered, looking in the mirror as he felt the stubble on his chin with a shaking hand. ‘Fuck you, an’ all,’ he said to himself.

  Slamming the front door as hard as he’d slammed the cupboard door, he walked off in only a marginal straighter line than he had a few hours ago, back in the direction of the same pub.

  There were quite a few people sitting outside on this warm evening and the sound of someone murdering Meatloaf’s Bat Out Of Hell coming from inside.

  ‘Karaoke night,’ he muttered, with a small grin. He loved karaoke, but Evan would only ever go to them if he couldn’t come up with an excuse to be somewhere else.

  Don’t know why, he was thinking as he drew closer, he knows I love nowt more than a bit of singing.

  That should be he knew.

  Danny sighed.

  Evan never could sing.

  At the bar he was served by a waitress with a blue rinse who looked like a walrus on speed. She looked down her large bulbous nose at him. Danny groaned inside. He’d had a few run-ins with her before. The old bat was worse than her miserable flaming son, the bar manager. Not in the mood for any bother with anyone, least of all her, he picked his change up when she slapped it down, said nothing when his pint was shoved over to him, white foam spilling over the top, picked up the wet glass and turned to the stage.

  The Meatloaf murderer had been replaced by an attractive middle-aged blonde who really could sing. When she had finished her rendition of Tina Turner’s Simply The Best, people stood up and cheered. It was then that Danny caught sight of a couple of old work mates. Carrying his pint aloft, he wound his way through half a dozen tables until he reached them. Pretending not to see the frown on one of their faces, he pulled up a chair and sat down.

  ‘Hi, guys.’ He smiled at them, noticing for the first time the two women, who also worked with them. ‘Hi Zoë, Elizabeth. What brings you two here, then?’