The Secrets of Life and Death

by Rebecca Alexander

  Jack eased her shoulders back, attempted a smile. She knew she must look terrible. ‘Well, if you take the wallpaper off, the plaster comes too. But it will be nice when it’s done.’

  ‘We are doing house-to-house enquiries in the area, and we understand you have a Volvo estate?’ She rattled off the registration number.

  Jack slid an arm around Felix’s waist, leaning on him as she started to shake. ‘Yes, but it’s at the garage. The brakes failed, and I crashed it into a wall at the church. The vicar knows all about it.’

  The officer looked at Jack’s face, with its huge bruise and black eye.

  ‘Our inquiry is into a missing teenager, Sadie Williams. Perhaps you’ve seen her mentioned in the press?’ Jack shook her head, but Felix spoke.

  ‘I’ve been following the story, of course. I’ve been helping DI Soames with the investigation of another runaway girl, Carla Marshall. If there’s anything I can do …’

  The woman seemed to warm a little, and smiled at Jack. ‘If you could just tell me where you were on the evening of the twelfth of November, between ten and twelve in the evening?’

  Jack’s mind went blank. They must have a record of the car, perhaps on CCTV, in the city. She looked at Felix.

  ‘That was the night you came to see me at the university, wasn’t it?’ he said, as if trying to remember. ‘No, that was the tenth … uh, we were supposed to meet at a pub somewhere …’

  ‘The day you couldn’t make it?’ Jack improvised. ‘So I picked up some dog food and a bit of shopping, and drove home again.’

  The male officer was making notes, and looked less interested. The female officer swept her gaze around the room once more, before turning back towards the door.

  ‘Just for our records, would you have any objection to our lab techs examining your car?’

  ‘Oh … well, no, of course not.’ Jack had to clench her teeth to stop them chattering. She had cleaned the car, but had no idea how much of Sadie’s DNA might still be in there. ‘But the people at the garage are working on it at the moment.’

  The officer smiled again. ‘Well, I can see you are busy and we have more people to talk to. I’m sorry to bother you so early in the morning, but calling before nine means we catch more people in.’

  ‘Of course. I hope you find her soon,’ Felix said, and stepped away from Jack to shut the door behind them.

  Jack staggered the moment he took his arm away. She reached down to steady herself on the sofa arm, and sank onto the cushions. She looked up to see Sadie standing at the foot of the stairs.

  ‘I heard them, they were looking for me.’

  ‘I know. Thank you for not calling out, or coming down.’

  ‘I nearly did, for a moment, when I first woke up.’ Sadie was biting her lip, her eyes staring into Jack’s. ‘But I felt sick when I got to the top of the steps.’

  Felix stood between them, looking from one to the other. ‘Now what?’

  Jack waved at Sadie. ‘You can carry her into the circle, and I’ll let Ches out. Then we need to work out what the fuck is going on.’

  Jack stopped by the back door, clutching a bag of shopping, looking at the devastation wreaked in the yard. The wire of the aviary, empty at the time, had been torn open down one side, and the yard was covered in black feathers. A white feather caught her eye, and she bent to pick it up. One of the magpies, probably one of the pair she had hand-reared a couple of years ago. She found a body lying under the hedge, perfect except for its broken neck.

  She stood, cried and wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her coat, while Ches bumped his head against her and whimpered. It wasn’t until she turned to go back in the house that she saw Felix standing by the door.

  ‘They mate for life, you know.’ Jack’s voice caught in her throat. ‘Crows, rooks, magpies. Those nests were almost as old as the oaks. There’s been a rookery here for hundreds of years.’

  ‘Will they rebuild?’ He walked up to her, holding a couple of full black bags.

  She looked around the yard, littered with branches and sticks.

  ‘I don’t think there’s a pair left.’

  ‘I thought I would clear up the …’ He looked around. ‘Save you doing it.’

  ‘Felix, what could have done this?’

  The gloomy look on Felix’s long features lifted. ‘Ah, I’ve been thinking about that. I’ve got Sadie doing some research for me.’

  ‘You have?’ The dog, who had been bristling at Felix, started sniffing him.

  ‘Does he bite?’ Felix froze, looking at her with a nervous smile.

  ‘Yes.’ She snapped her fingers at Ches who bounded towards the house, and judging by the squeals inside, straight into Sadie.

  He followed her into the kitchen, their feet crunching over the fine dust from china and glass. ‘We need to have a look at your books and, ideally, I need to get my laptop.’

  ‘I didn’t know much about the books … I mean, they’re not mine, they came with the cottage. But a lot of them were wrecked.’

  ‘Well, I think you have a very comprehensive occult library. Had. Most could be restored.’

  ‘I haven’t even looked at most of them. Maggie and I were going to sell them off, but the documents made enough money.’ She stopped, and looked at him.

  ‘Money for what?’ He started looking through the bag Jack had dumped on the table. ‘The hot chocolate is for Sadie, I presume?’ He lined up the three least-chipped mugs and started spooning in the powder. ‘You were saying, you needed money?’

  ‘For Maggie and Charley, so they could move out, but leave me the cottage.’ She stepped closer to him.

  ‘I see …’ He looked down at her, looking into her eyes.

  ‘Thank you,’ she whispered. ‘Thank you for helping us.’

  ‘It’s OK.’ He shook himself a little, and smiled. ‘And you bought cookies. Sadie will be thrilled. Apparently you’ve been feeding her on “hand-knitted organic crap”.’

  She stood looking at his mobile features, watching him stir the drinks, and was amazed that she felt so at home with someone. Men were not something she had much experience of. There had been a few little crushes in her teenage years, mostly on boys in the village, but her weakness had made relationships impossible. For the last decade she had ruled out any romantic entanglements, yet Felix showed up and within days she couldn’t stop thinking about him.

  Jack carried two of the drinks through to the front room, and gave one to Sadie, who had a speculative look in her eyes. Thankfully, she didn’t say anything. She was looking better, her hair glossy and tousled, and a dozen old books in various stages of deterioration covered the sofa.

  It seemed that during the time Jack had walked Ches to the village for some bread and a few other supplies, Felix and Sadie had gone from wary collaborators to friends.

  ‘I’ve found something.’ Sadie reached for the packet of biscuits Felix was holding out and took a handful. She took a massive bite from one and, as Ches slumped against her legs, fed him the remaining sliver. ‘You said look for conjurations, raising weather, that sort of thing?’ she mumbled through the crumbs. ‘Listen to this.’

  She paused for effect, looking better than Jack had seen, with a little colour in her heart-shaped face. ‘ “In the raising of elementals, let the magician beware, that the element of air shall be so destructive as to rend from limb to limb unwary conjurers.” Isn’t that the sort of thing we’re looking for?’

  ‘Exactly what we’re looking for.’ Felix glanced around the room. ‘Do you have a computer?’

  Jack opened her mouth to reply but Sadie spoke first. ‘No computer, no social networking, no email. She hasn’t even got a telly.’

  ‘I never needed one,’ Jack defended herself. Sadie exchanged glances with Felix. Both appeared baffled. ‘I never wanted one, either.’

  ‘You are a technological Luddite, you know that?’ Felix leaned on the back of the sofa, reading over Sadie’s shoulder. ‘My research assistant here can look
through these amazing books. You do know that is an original Hasquith’s Demonology, don’t you?’ He stood up, pressing his hand against the small of his back. ‘I need to go home, get some sleep and a shower. I’ve got some things to do this afternoon, but I’ll be back by this evening with my laptop. You can get a mobile signal here, I presume?’

  ‘Mostly.’ Jack sat down on the other sofa, and the dog padded over to lay his heavy head on her knee.

  ‘And Sadie will learn everything she can about elementals and conjuring.’

  He walked towards the kitchen, but turned back. ‘The symbols you drew on Carla. Did you copy them off the medals directly?’

  Jack shrugged. ‘They are carved and drawn all over the cottage. Maggie’s grandmother is supposed to have used them. They are very similar to the ones on the medals.’

  ‘But not identical. The ones on the medals may not have even been the originals.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘I was thinking. Suppose, over the years, the symbols have been copied. And copied from copies.’

  ‘Like Chinese whispers?’

  ‘Exactly. Maybe Kelley described Dee’s original research. If that was what he was doing, perhaps this Bachmeier woman is trying to find the original sigils.’ He beckoned to Jack. ‘You’d better direct me back to town.’

  Ignoring Sadie’s knowing look, Jack walked past Felix with an attempt at dignity, and out into the yard. Felix had even washed the bloodstains off the concrete.

  His breath warmed the back of her neck. ‘Jack—’

  ‘You are a married man, aren’t you? I mean, you wear a ring.’

  ‘I’m about to be divorced.’ His eyes were green, in nests of laughter lines. ‘I hadn’t thought about taking it off.’

  She turned to look past him, feeling the warmth fade.

  ‘How did a tornado come into my home and attack that poor kid? I’m fighting for Sadie’s life, here.’

  ‘We are fighting for Sadie’s life. If someone had told me all this yesterday, I would have called the police. But now, you and I – and Sadie, for that matter – are in this together.’ His hands covered her shoulders, and gave her a little shake. ‘I like you, Jack. When this is over …’

  She sighed. ‘I might be dead. Sadie might be dead.’

  He raised one eyebrow. ‘Or not.’ He laid his hand on her forehead. ‘You’re still frozen.’

  She shrugged. ‘We’re always cold. Barely alive, remember?’

  He did his coat up. ‘I’ve stuck some cardboard over the broken windows, and brought in some logs. Just stay in, keep warm and I’ll be back as soon as I can.’

  ‘OK.’ A cold tightness built up in her chest, as she struggled to say goodbye, which had somehow got tangled up with don’t go.

  He turned towards her and slid one hand behind the small of her back. He leaned forward and kissed her, his stubbly cheek rubbing hers for a moment. ‘Be careful,’ he murmured, his words misting the air.

  She nodded, unable to speak, and as he turned away, exhaled all at once. She hadn’t even noticed she was holding her breath.

  It was a relief to see Maggie drive into the yard. She stared around the house, hands on hips. ‘I leave it for two days, and this is what you get up to,’ she quipped, but there was no laughter in her voice. She sniffed, as if she could smell the force that did all the damage. She passed a hand over the space where the protective charm had been carved into the plaster. Like all the others in the house it had been crushed as if someone had gone around the place with a sledgehammer.

  ‘I’m going into town,’ Jack said. ‘I have to pick up the hire car.’ Jack zipped up her warmest boots. Swathed in layers of wool and a ski jacket, it was hard to lean forward. ‘I’ve lit both fires, but the place is still cold. Hopefully they can cut glass for the windows while I wait.’

  ‘Windows?’ Maggie’s eyes were wide as she looked into the living room.

  ‘Two have gone. Don’t ask me how.’

  ‘The place stinks of elemental energy, that’s how.’ Maggie touched the table, then brushed her hands clean. ‘I’ll start a deep cleansing, see if we can clean up the atmosphere a bit.’ She hesitated, looking at Jack. ‘I’ll get Sadie to help, and see if we can teach her a few tricks to protect herself in the future.’

  ‘She’s a bit battered, but …’ Jack couldn’t find the word to describe the mood Sadie was in. ‘She’s bounced back. I don’t know how she survived.’

  Maggie rolled up her sleeves. ‘She’s tough. Good job. Go on, we’ll be fine.’

  Jack left Maggie explaining spell casting to Sadie. A gate, partly hidden in the hedge, led onto the field and the footpath. It took a while to cross the quiet field, and she had the feeling she was being watched. Paranoia, she decided as she scanned the bushes and paths, from the events of the last day. A single rook cawed over and over, hopelessly calling its lost mate. Spiders’ webs silvered with dew picked up the weak sunshine, and the last of the hawthorn berries shrivelled in the cold. She wished she had brought the dog for company, but he was too shaken up.

  She had warmed up a little, but whatever hex grenade Pierce had slipped into her bag, the effects were still lingering. She felt as if the wind was blowing straight through her as she clambered over each stile and gate on the footpath to the railway halt.

  She let her mind roam over what Felix had said, and how he had said it. Was this what women saw in men? Christ, she had only known him five minutes, but she couldn’t stop thinking about him. Even Sadie seemed to know more about it than Jack, asking searching questions all morning, and causing Maggie to watch her and drop hints. She wasn’t ready to talk about Felix, not before she understood it herself. She boarded the train for the three stops into town.

  She had left the car less than a mile from the city station, and she felt warmer once she got walking. She had just reached the vehicle when the phone rang. She jumped, and fumbled to open the phone and press buttons with her thick gloves.

  Maggie’s voice was higher pitched than normal. ‘Jack, a car has stopped outside, and now they’re looking at the house. I think it’s the police.’

  ‘What? You need to hide Sadie.’

  Jack could hear Maggie’s irregular breathing. Then a whisper. ‘The car’s coming into the yard, with two men. What do I do? She can’t leave the house yet. She’ll die.’

  ‘Take Ches and Sadie into the priest hole. The panel at the end of Sadie’s bed, it’s a tunnel to the inspection bay in the garage. I found it years ago. It’s just a crawl space, but you should be able to make it.’

  ‘But Sadie? She won’t survive it.’

  ‘I scratched sigils, right through to the garage. I’ll get there as soon as I can.’

  Jack broke off the call, and got into the hire car. She had scribed sigils in spit and salt under the seats and on the roof, but that was only just enough for her, let alone Sadie. She put it to the back of her mind. She knew that if Sadie left the circle, she would probably be dead by the time Jack got there.

  Chapter 36

  ‘I tried, without success, to make my captors understand the importance of medical science. I wished to bleed Dee, as his colour was high and his pulse tumultuous, but was forcibly prevented by two soldiers, who thought, perhaps, I threatened his life.’

  Edward Kelley

  From his own journal, 4 December 1585

  Csejte Castle

  I was relieved to see Dee sleeping peacefully, and a servant woman watching over him. She was spinning from a long spindle, and nodded to me as I shut the door to my own chamber. I was shaken by the words of László Báthory. No one knew we were at Csejte, although many would guess. If we disappeared there would be disapproval, but no proof. Our bodies could be stripped and dumped in the forest and our bones would lie naked on foreign soil. I undressed for bed in a melancholy mood, slipping my dagger under my pillow.

  By dawn, I had slept poorly, and dreamed of dragons and treachery when I did. I dressed and tried to find comfort in prayer. I then dec
ided to at least become familiar with our prison, in case a chance for escape offered itself.

  The main rooms were being swept by servants, and fires laid, with food being put out on tables in the hall. I heard some deep voice calling for someone in Hungarian, and ducked down the corridor towards the library.

  I tried the door to the chapel, and it opened. Before the altar rested a small covered box, some servant’s casket perhaps. It was surrounded by rush lights. I crossed myself from habit, offering a small prayer for the dead, as I looked around at the wall hangings. I lifted the edge of one, then another, working my way around the room. One, to the side of the altar, concealed a low door. I wondered if it led to the countess’s quarters. It was locked.

  The sound of footsteps made me jump, and in my fearful state, I ducked behind the altar as the door creaked open. Women’s voices murmured at the coffin. I looked around the side, but could see nothing except the rough lid of the simple box, lifted off. One began to wail as if in pain, and the others offered soothing clucks. Finally, they prayed. When they left, I crouched for a minute to make sure I was alone, then crept out. As I passed the box, my curiosity afflicted me. I lifted the lid, just a crack, and saw a shrunken body lying on a folded shroud.

  The body was that of a child, her face now the colour of the linens she was laid upon. Livid on her neck and hands were symbols, shapes that reminded me of the scars on the countess. I looked at her white face, and recognised the fearful child who had walked behind the witch. A gash in her neck gaped open. She had been bled like a slaughtered pig.

  There was no opportunity to speak to Dee upon the next day, as we were never left alone. Someone always seemed to be listening, and I dared not converse in English lest they get suspicious. Instead, Dee and I examined the documents given to us. There were letters from scholars, patrons, botanists and doctors that the count himself had consulted for his wife. There were even papers from the emperor. Dee cast a number of horoscopes, inscribing them with care on fine vellum and worrying about exact calculations.

  I worked on a number of herbals in Latin, and two fat treatises in German. But I could feel Dee watching me, as the cloud began to descend upon me.