December

by Gabrielle Lord

‘Right,’ I said.

  ‘Which means a second visit to Rathbone’s? The undertakers’?’

  ‘Right again. I’ve been thinking about what Sharkey said about memory being state dependent. If I re-enact my last visit there, I just might remember what that familiar smell was. Plus we need to search the place. Crims often hide stuff with their families. Maybe Sheldrake Rathbone has stored something there that will give us a clue as to where my bag went, or something that might help us uncover the identities of Deep Water, Double Trouble and the Little Prince,’ I added, as she leafed through the white book I’d brought back for her. ‘Until Sharkey books our flights, there’s not much else we can do.’

  Winter curled up and went to sleep, while I worried about Sligo and Rathbone getting together in Ireland and beating us to the truth. We couldn’t let that happen. Things Rafe had revealed to me in our phone conversation last month repeated in my head, too.

  ‘I’ve got it!’ yelled Winter, abruptly kicking her sleeping-bag off and sitting up. ‘Cal,’ she whispered now, remembering to keep her voice down. ‘How could we have been so stupid?’

  I jumped up and almost banged my head on the low ceiling. ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘I know who the Little Prince is! I can’t believe it’s taken us so long to work it out!’

  ‘Who is it? Tell me!’

  ‘Just think about it,’ she said, reaching for the nearby book. ‘It has a boy all alone, a crashed aeroplane, drawings, a rose, adults who can’t be trusted … The boy is a prince from a faraway place. A prince is someone who inherits a title, riches, someone who is an heir. Who does that remind you of?’

  ‘Me,’ I whispered. ‘I’m the Little Prince on Rathbone’s list.’ I looked at her, dumbfounded. ‘Rathbone must think it’s possible I have the Riddle and the Jewel.’

  ‘And we know you don’t,’ Winter continued. ‘So that only leaves Deep Water and Double Trouble.’

  29 days to go…

  We were across the road from Rathbone, Greaves and Diggory–the funeral parlour. Inside the shop a soft light was glowing, suggesting someone was still in there. The rest of the street was dark and empty apart from a few parked cars. Nothing stirred, not even a cat.

  ‘By the way,’ said Boges, quietly, ‘I visited Gabbi today and she convinced me to give her your phone number. She’s promised not to give it to anyone else and promised me she wouldn’t use it unless it’s an emergency. I hope that’s OK.’

  ‘Sure,’ I said, hoping it wouldn’t get either of us into any trouble.

  We shrank down as the lights in the shopfront went out, then scrambled around the back of the premises, through the gate and huddled behind a dumpster, carefully waiting to see who was leaving.

  Eventually, the back door opened and a thin, weedy guy stepped outside, turned back and locked up.

  I’d never seen him before. He walked away from us, in the direction of a car. Within minutes, he’d driven off.

  ‘Come on,’ said Winter, creeping out of the shadows and running over to the door. She waved her hands, gesturing to us to follow her. ‘Hmm, this lock is not going to be easy.’

  ‘Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,’ said Boges, looking over his shoulder to the street. ‘I don’t like the thought of all those stiffs lying in there. Plus I don’t want to become one of them, if we’re caught!’

  Winter pulled a metal nail file out from under her sleeve and started poking it around the lock.

  ‘Hurry, please,’ urged Boges. ‘Let’s get this over and done with.’

  ‘Must be a deadlock,’ joked Winter, as she struggled to get the door open.

  Boges’s face was serious.

  ‘Not funny,’ he said.

  ‘Whatever it is, I can’t do it,’ she said, finally. ‘This is a serious lock. My nail file can’t compete with it.’

  The sound of a car made us bolt from the door and across to the cover of the bin again. It was the weedy guy. He must have forgotten something. We watched him get out of his car, approach the back door, unlock it and disappear inside once more.

  ‘He’s left the door open a crack,’ I whispered. ‘Now’s our chance. He probably won’t be in there for long. Come on, Boges. The three of us could take on that little guy if we had to.’

  Winter tugged Boges’s arm as we snuck over to the door. I peered in and could see a light on in the office area.

  ‘Quick, follow me,’ I hissed to my friends, before stealthily leading them inside the dark, short hallway and towards the showroom. I remembered the layout from my last visit, shivering from the memory.

  We crept into the main showroom, walking directly past the office where the weedy guy was. I could hear him shuffling papers in there. The light from the office discreetly touched on the rows of coffins and caskets on display.

  The three of us ducked down in the furthest corner, behind a long counter draped with lacy fabric, presenting an open coffin on its surface.

  ‘What’s that funny smell?’ Winter asked.

  ‘Probably embalming fluid,’ shuddered Boges.

  ‘Gross,’ Winter whispered beside me.

  ‘Shh,’ I hissed at them as the light in the office went out and footsteps clicked across the floor.

  We waited until the door was locked from the outside and the car drove away before we emerged from our hiding place.

  ‘I’m going to search the office,’ I said.

  ‘I’ll help,’ said Boges. ‘I’ll start on the cupboards.’

  ‘I’ll do the desk,’ Winter offered.

  ‘Nothing,’ said Boges, after he’d finished with the cupboards.

  ‘Nothing here, either,’ said Winter, straightening up from the desk. ‘Just catalogues of coffins, caskets and artificial wreaths. What’s that?’ she asked, alerted by a sound from the back of the building. ‘Don’t tell me that scrawny guy’s forgotten something else!’

  ‘It’s nothing, just someone getting into their car,’ I said. ‘Boges, what if this place has a back-to-base alarm?’

  ‘Then we’re in big trouble,’ he said. ‘Let’s get a move on. Let’s see if that painted coffin is still here–that was about the last thing you saw before you blacked out, right?’

  ‘That’s where my bag was thrown.’

  ‘Wait–what if someone’s,’ Boges paused to clear his throat, ‘living in there?’

  ‘Living’s not the right verb,’ Winter corrected him. ‘Besides, these are just display coffins,’ she said. ‘Just samples. People look at them and then order the one they like. They’re empty.’ She began giggling and flapping her arms like a chicken, until Boges gave her a shove.

  We moved back into the display area and I waved the beam of light from my torch around the showroom until it landed on the familiar white coffin with its Sistine Chapel skies and angels inside it.

  ‘That’s the one,’ I said. ‘I walked up to what I thought was a counter, here, like this,’ I explained, re-enacting the steps I had taken on that July night. ‘The envelope I had come for was sitting on top of it, so I picked it up and then bam!’

  I jumped back, illustrating the force of the impact that had knocked me off my feet.

  ‘The counter was actually a coffin. Somebody flew out of it, and before I could do anything I was overpowered and jabbed in the neck with some sort of drug. I started trying to get up, but was too groggy. All I saw was my backpack being chucked into that coffin over there.’

  I stood still, closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Then something amazing happened.

  I spun around to my friends. ‘The smell! I almost had it! Sharkey was right! By retracing my steps and standing here just like I did last time, and feeling the way I did last time, it almost came back to me. Damn!’ I said. ‘It’s like a sneeze that won’t burst out! It’s so frustrating! It’s on the tip of my–’

  ‘Nose?’ Winter suggested.

  Boges looked like he wanted to shake the answer out of me.

  ‘I almost had it, I swear.’
>
  I walked away from the coffin and then turned, retracing my footsteps once more. Maybe one more approach would trigger the deep unconscious memory that lurked somewhere in the back of my mind.

  It was no use. That initial powerful surge towards remembering didn’t happen again. Instead, it faded on me.

  A howling shriek from Boges instantly snapped my attention his way. Winter and I shone our torches on him–he was flat up against the wall, as white as a ghost.

  ‘I thought you said there weren’t any bodies in here!’

  ‘There shouldn’t be,’ Winter said, peering into the open coffin Boges was backing away from. I looked over her shoulder. A bloodied corpse?

  The sound of a vehicle being driven up and parked out the back made us freeze again. We ran to the rear door and flattened ourselves on either side of it.

  I peered out the window and spotted a van.

  Boges’s eyes were even wider with fear.

  ‘I think someone’s about to come inside,’ I hissed, hearing the van door open and close just metres away. I pressed against the wall, shaking with tension. ‘Stay quiet, wait till they’ve stepped all the way through the door, then the three of us bolt out and turn left down Temperance Lane. OK?’

  My friends nervously nodded.

  The sound of something being unloaded outside was quickly followed by the approach of footsteps, the jangle of keys and the twisting of the rear-door handle. We watched the handle turn, then the door opened slowly.

  In the soft glow of the streetlight I spotted the gleam of the front end of a chrome-plated collapsible trolley. It was wheeled awkwardly through the doorway, followed by a stooped figure pushing it.

  As soon as the guy and the trolley were in, I gave the signal to my friends.

  He let out a terrified scream as the three of us sprang out of the darkness, shoved past him and ran out the door.

  We pelted down the laneway and down the street.

  ‘Poor guy,’ said Winter as we raced away, ‘must have thought some of the deceased had escaped! I hope he doesn’t die of heart failure!’

  ‘What was that bloody body doing in there?’ asked Boges, as we all caught our breath in a deserted churchyard. ‘Were they bullet wounds?’

  Before I could answer, I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket.

  My friends nodded to me, urging me to answer it.

  ‘Yes?’ I said, firmly.

  ‘Cal!’

  ‘Gabbi?’ I said, instantly alarmed. ‘What is it? What’s wrong?’

  ‘You’ve got to come!’

  ‘Calm down and tell me what’s going on.’

  ‘The voices woke me up!’

  ‘Whose voices?’

  ‘Mum and Uncle Rafe–they were yelling at each other. Mum was going nuts and screaming about something and Rafe was trying to calm her down. Cal, I think she’s really lost it. Uncle Rafe must have come home late–he wasn’t home when I went to bed. I don’t know how it all started, but when I got up I saw Mum all red in the face, angry and upset. She was chucking things around!’

  ‘It’s OK, Gab, everyone has fights. Really big ones sometimes. They’ll calm down and forget all about it.’

  ‘I don’t think so. This is big, Cal. Mum ran right out of the house. I thought she’d left me behind!’

  ‘Mum would never do that,’ I said, unconvincingly.

  ‘Rafe raced out after her, begging her to relax and come back. He wanted her to take her medication. She just told him to get away from her, then she ran back into the house and grabbed me from where I was on the stairs. I was really scared. She dragged me out the back, then we climbed into the car and drove off. Rafe was yelling out the front that she shouldn’t be driving in that state. It was horrible!’

  ‘Where are you now?’ I asked.

  ‘Marjorie’s place. Marjorie helped calm her down. They’re out the back talking now. Mum’s still crying, I think. I tried to hear what they’re saying … but–’

  ‘Where’s Rafe?’

  ‘I don’t know, we just left him standing in the dark, outside the house. Cal, I don’t know what to do–Mum’s not the same as she used to be. She’s never lost it before like she did tonight. Can you please come and see me?’ my sister cried.

  I didn’t know what to do.

  ‘Please, Cal!’ she begged, in between sobbing and sniffling.

  ‘I’ll come round as soon as I can,’ I decided, impulsively. I hated hearing her sound so upset. ‘You’ll have to sneak out front to meet me. Nobody can know about this. You’ll have to be very careful, OK?’

  ‘OK.’

  I hung up the phone and turned to the others.

  ‘We’re coming with you,’ they said together.

  ‘I’ll be quicker alone,’ I said, ‘and more discreet. I’ll meet up with you both at the cenotaph in two, maybe three, hours?’

  ‘Cool,’ said Boges. ‘Hey, look, a taxi’s coming. It’d be a lot quicker than walking from here to Richmond…’

  ‘I’m grabbing it,’ I said, making a rash decision and rushing out to the road.

  ‘Are you sure?’ asked Winter. ‘It’ll be faster, but it might not be safe.’

  I nodded, flagging down the taxi. I needed to get to Gabbi as fast as possible. ‘Let’s hope the taxi’s a good omen.’

  I hung my head low and paid the driver. Luckily he’d been completely focused on a phone call to another driver that he was taking on speaker. I climbed out and he drove away, leaving me at the end of my old street.

  I tried not to look at our house as I passed it, now inhabited by strangers. It sat there surrounded by bushes and trees that were so much taller than I remembered.

  Gabbi was waiting for me behind Mum’s car, parked outside Marjorie’s house. She threw herself at me and hugged me so tight it felt like I was being smothered by a small bear.

  ‘Hey, hey, steady, Gab,’ I gasped as she squeezed me. ‘It’s OK. I’m here now.’ I eased her off me and ducked down with her behind the car again.

  ‘But I don’t want to stay here,’ she said, her eyes bloodshot from crying. ‘I want to go back to Mum and Uncle Rafe’s place. I feel weird here.’

  I took her hands in mine. ‘Gab, you might have to stay here at Marjorie’s until Mum sorts out whatever problem she’s having. You can go back home later.’

  Gabbi’s eyes shone with tears as she swung round and pointed over to our old house. ‘That’s my home! That’s where I want to go! I want it to be back to when we were all together again, living there in our proper house, just like it used to be before Dad died. Before all those bad things happened to you … and before Mum changed … and went crazy.’

  I put my arms around her. ‘We’d all love that, Gab,’ I said, helplessly, as she snuggled into me.

  Then she leaned back to look me in the face. ‘Please come home soon, Cal. I hate not having you around. It’s so quiet. I miss my brother.’

  ‘I promise it won’t be like this for much longer. But for now, both of us have to stay strong. I know it’s not easy, living with Mum the way she is right now, but having Rafe helps, doesn’t it?’

  ‘It does,’ she nodded. ‘He’s all right. I never liked him much before, but he’s different now. Better different. He’s been getting along so well with Mum–he still wants to marry her, you know–but you should have heard her yelling at him tonight.’

  ‘What was it about? What set her off?’

  ‘I don’t know, she wouldn’t tell me anything. Rafe rang Marjorie a few minutes ago and said he was going to come by as soon as he’d picked up Mum’s prescription. He said he was on his way to a twenty-four-hour chemist in the city.’

  That trip would take him at least an hour, I figured. It gave me an idea.

  ‘Gab, I have to go now. Look, you and Mum will be OK.’ I thought about the 365-day countdown and looming deadline. No matter what happened to me, this mess was going to be over soon, one way or another. ‘Go back inside. We’ll see each other again soon.’

&nb
sp; ‘OK,’ she said, her voice muffled by tears once more. ‘But where are you going to go now?’

  ‘I have something I need to check out,’ I said, not wanting to give too much away, ‘and then I’m going to meet Winter and Boges at Memorial Park.’

  Gabbi hugged me and touched the Celtic ring on my finger before sneaking back into the house. She glanced over at me one last time as she quietly closed the door.

  I started sprinting towards Dolphin Point. There was something I really wanted to check out there, and time was going to be tight.

  There was no sign of Rafe’s car outside his house, but there was a light on inside. I was hoping that in the craziness of Mum and Gab’s exit, Rafe had simply forgotten to turn off the lights and, more importantly, forgotten to set the security system.

  I raced round the back to the patio and my eyes darted to the glass doors. They were open!

  I held my breath as I eased the doors wider and stepped through.

  Silence. The alarm was not on.

  The living room looked a mess. Mum’s favourite purple mug lay on the floor in pieces, the remainder of her herbal tea forming a small, wet, brown puddle in the middle of them. Books and papers were scattered all over the place, as if someone had been impatiently looking for something, sending everything flying without care. Or was this just the proof of Mum’s irrational outburst, when she’d gone crazy like Gabbi had said, throwing things around?

  Mum sure had changed over the last year. She’d never been the sort of person to lose her temper and throw things. She used to have everything under control. She used to be calm. She used to be reasonable.

  Mum used to be a lot of things.

  Rafe’s old photo albums were stored on a low bookcase next to his vinyl records. I’d noticed them when searching through his house before, but had never actually stopped to look at any of the pictures inside.

  In the last few weeks, so many things had happened that made me curious about Rafe. It was almost like he’d lived two completely different lives. The ‘Twin Tragedy’ article I’d read, for instance, where he’d sadly spoken of my missing twin, and lovingly of his own twin, my dad, had made me look at him differently. Even Eric Blair had said that in college Rafe was always by my dad’s side. Everything pointed to him living a completely different life before the abduction–before Samuel was taken, and before I was returned.