‘And I’ve just said she isn’t here. And as I’m on the same floor as her, I reckon I’d know.’
‘So you do know where Louise lives, then?’
The woman laughed. ‘You’ve caught me out. I’ll tell you something, for nothing lad, seeing as I reckon you’re telling the truth. Your mate Louise is gone for good, she won’t be back, some people moved into her room, recently. Irish they were. I suppose you know what happened to her ma?’
‘I do,’ I said, and I saw by her face she was disappointed, I’d done her out of a gory tale. ‘But what about Louise’s things, what happened to them?’
‘I expect the Irish have got them, my lad, unless she took them with her, of course. But no more questions, I’ve got to get going. It’s a long way up from where I’m standing.’
‘I could help,’ I said quickly, and I saw by her look that she’d guessed my intent, to follow her up and find out which of the rooms was Louise’s.
‘Not on your life,’ she said, sharply, so I moved to one side as she passed with her pail, keeping well back from the sloshing water and finally hiding in the shadows, to watch her climb the many stairs. It took a long time, and because it was dark, I almost lost her more than once.
Three floors up, I started to follow her, acting with stealth to keep out of the way. When she finally reached the top, I hid out of sight and watched her stagger along the passage, then push on a door on the left hand side. I emerged slowly. I could see that there were several doors, hers was the second on the left hand side. Which meant Louise’s was one of the others. I went back down.
When I stepped out onto the street again, Alice was there.
‘What are you doing round here?’ I said.
‘I’ve just been in there,’ she typed rapidly, nodding at my school which was some yards behind us.
‘Oh no you haven’t,’ I said, grinning. ‘I’d know if you had, that’s my school, not yours.’
Her eyes narrowed, as if she was thinking. ‘It’s a house, not a school, although maybe it’s both.’ She looked at me closely as she was typing. ‘Are you the sort who tells lies, Thomas? I wouldn’t have said so, if I’d been asked.’
‘Not very often, only when I need to. What about you?’
‘Of course,’ she typed. ‘It’s necessary, sometimes, especially right now.’ She grinned at me, as if she knew a secret. ‘Where do you live?’
‘Down in the Low, on Haversham Road. Right by the flour mill, you must know that.’
‘Of course I know it. That’s ages away.’
‘Not if you go the way I get there, round the corner, and past the church, then through the passage and down the road. It doesn’t take long.’
Alice nodded. ‘I know the passage, I’ve just been through it. But there isn’t a church there, not anymore, not where I live.’ She paused and smiled and her blue eyes glinted. ‘Like the school, it’s long since vanished, changed completely.’
‘Of course there is, you must be blind! Here let me show you, it’s just round the bend. Then you could come to see my house.’ Alice considered and shook her head.
‘I’ve got to get home.’
‘So where’s your home if it’s not around here?’
‘Ebbenheart Green, it’s a fair old walk.’
‘That’s really nice, all fields and trees. We picnicked there with the church group once. Not that I go to church often,’ I added hastily.
‘There aren’t any fields in Ebbenheart Green.’
‘What?’ I said and stared at Alice. Was the girl blind, or stubborn or stupid? It didn’t matter which, I still liked her. I took a deep breath and stood a mite taller.
‘Are you coming round to my house, or not?’
Chapter 28
Now – Cressida
She knew she wasn’t handling things right and talking to Martha had only confirmed it. Martha was set on her own agenda, and she had been happy to do what she asked. But now, Cressida was thinking about Alice, especially after the other night. The row, then Alice running away – from children’s voices? No, from her mother. Cressida had to admit the truth. Then what happened after she ran. It was all very odd.
Cressida had wandered into the courtyard, once the churchyard of Curdizan Church. The council had made it all quite attractive with paving and trees and some new wooden seats in dead people’s names. It was easy to see where the gravestones had been, some of the slabs were still in the ground along with the path which had led to the church.
Cressida paused. At first, she hadn’t seen Alice anywhere, had despaired of ever finding her here, but then when she walked back up to the road, she noticed Alice right up ahead. But Alice wasn’t alone anymore. Cressida stopped.
Where were Alice and the boy going? This wasn’t the way to Ebbenheart Green.
She followed them further along the street, keeping well back, and watched as Alice crossed over the road. The boy was leading her down a passage. Could this be the boy called Thomas?
She hadn’t been down the passage before, but she didn’t have time to study her surroundings because before she knew it she was out the other side and doing her best to keep up with the kids. On the left of the street was an old church hall, clearly disused, and then she’d left the part of the city she knew quite well and had wandered into a different landscape. A derelict one.
Cressida wanted to stop and look, but she couldn’t stop now, because Alice and Tom, if Tom he was, were still walking, and quickly at that. Alice was typing as she walked, clutching her iPad close to her chest. This place was just a pile of rubble. Apart from a church, ahead on the left.
‘That’s Blackberry Close,’ said a voice from the right, and she looked down sharply at a tired old man who was sitting on the pavement, sucking on a pipe which had clearly gone out. He grinned at Cressida, a toothy smile, and somewhat eerie, his white teeth glowing in the almost-dark.
‘I can’t stop, sorry,’ Cressida told him. ‘I’m following them.’ She gestured ahead to the vanishing kids.
‘Following who?’ said the old man, mildly, dropping his pipe on the ground with a clunk. Cressida sighed.
Drunk, I guess, she said to herself. She didn’t have time to spare for pity.
The site had obviously once been bulldozed. There were broken-up walls and mounds of rubble that no-one had bothered to take away. There were even a couple of buildings still standing, apart from the church and whatever was beyond it. On the right was a pub, it looked more like a house, but a sign still swung from above the door. The Keepsake Arms, the sign informed her. Cressida stopped. She’d lost Alice in the fading daylight and even the man on the pavement had vanished. It was almost dark and rather creepy. Cressida sent a text to her daughter.
‘Alice where are you? I’m walking back towards the church, but I can’t see a thing in this wretched light.’
‘Sorry Mum, I met up with Tom. I’ll be at the abbey in about ten minutes.’
Not that church, Alice, thought Cressida, sighing and looking around. It wasn’t that hard to imagine the past, how the place might have looked a long time ago. Row upon row of narrowing streets, cobblestones and small-paned windows, kids on the pavement and men at the pub. She glanced across at The Keepsake Arms. It looked a homely sort of place, probably shabby, but bigger than most. It can’t have been easy, living back then.
Cressida wandered towards the church. Blackberry Close was nothing to speak of, broken down pavements and then came the church, a solid old thing. The building next door was still standing, a yard to the right, the house to the left. The house had the look of an old coach house, peeling black paint and a huge old door. The cellar windows had bars behind them, upstairs all the curtains were closed. Cressida shivered.
There was something creepy about the house, which was odd, she thought, because Aleph’s house was meant to be haunted, and yet she’d felt nothing, nothing at all. In contrast, this house had an unpleasant feel.
Cressida sighed, thinking of Aleph and mentally drag
ging herself from the past. The next few weeks would be more than difficult and she would have to deal with that. Hearing what Alice might reveal.
Chapter 29
Now – Aleph
Cressida looked as lovely as ever. She wandered into the sunlit hall and passed me the sound file, smiling grimly.
‘I hope this works, I’m at my wits end.’ I didn’t answer. What could I say? You never could tell with this kind of work. Something would happen, but who knew what?
‘There’s coffee,’ I said, ‘in the office upstairs. Let’s go up.’ She did as I said.
My guest sat down in the nearest chair. ‘This is quite a desk you’ve got in here. I thought that the last time. Where did you get it?’
‘The charity shop on Narrowboat Lane.’
‘Really?’ she said. ‘I’d never have guessed. But then, there are so many to choose from. Charity shops, I mean, not desks.’ She laughed, feebly. Cressida was nervous and I was too. God knows what we’d find today. I didn’t like doing the reading blind. Usually, I heard them in advance. And that wasn’t all.
I hadn’t had a peaceful night. I’d been up and down, pacing the room, hearing the sound of children crying. I’d hear them cry, look out of the window, see nothing, then go back to bed, waking up to hear them crying. This went on until almost five, then about six, the bin men turned up. I wasn’t exactly on top form.
‘How do you want to play this thing?’ I said to Cressida. ‘No pun intended.’
‘Why don’t you listen and do what you do, and then perhaps we can talk, later?’ Cressida was edgy, she’d already heard the file the right way, just not in reverse. I smiled calmly.
‘Don’t expect too much this time. This is just an initial recording.’ Cressida nodded.
I started us off by clicking Play. The first voice I heard was Alison Clipper’s, one of the mothers, who’d sat with Alice and made the recording. The school hadn’t wanted to get involved. That’s why Cressida had asked a parent.
‘You know why we’re having this chat today?’ Alison Clipper was talking to Alice.
‘Because I won’t talk to my mum, said Alice. She thinks she’s upset me.’
‘Is that true?’
‘No,’ said Alice. ‘Of course she hasn’t.’
‘So why won’t you talk to your mother, Alice? It’s quite a long time not to talk to someone. You know that day, when you ran away, that Sunday in summer, did something happen to make you scared or to make you angry, and stop you talking. If that’s what happened it’s okay to say.’ Alice didn’t answer. Mrs Clipper sighed.
‘We’re all trying to help you Alice.’
‘I hate talking about this stuff. Everyone always says the same thing. I told my mother I’d talk to you, but only if it was the way I wanted.’ Her voice was tight, controlled, like an adult’s.
‘We only want to do what’s best.’ But Mrs Clipper’s voice belied her words.
‘I’d like to talk about Tom,’ said Alice.
I started, surprised and glanced across for Cressida’s reaction, but she shook her head and whispered, ‘Listen.’ The file rolled on, I was listening.
‘I’ve only known him a couple of weeks. He’s about my age and lives in the Low.’
‘How did you meet him?’ Alison asked. She seemed relieved that Alice was talking.
‘I was standing right by Curdizan courtyard, where the church used to be, in Curdizan High, when Tom turned up so I showed him my iPad. Then I took his photo.’
‘And, did he like it?’
‘That bit was weird, Tom wasn’t in it, even though I knew I’d included him in it. And, no he didn’t like it, not when he saw he wasn’t in the picture, it made him take off. Then, when I tried on a different day, the same thing happened. Tom wasn’t happy.’
‘So, has your mother met this Tom?’
‘No, not yet, I’ve barely got to know him myself. I wasn’t expecting to see him the last time, but then he turned up and wanted to show me the place where he lives. It’s down in the Low, on Haversham Road. That’s by the mill, where the Blue runs past. It wasn’t very nice. The houses are small and ugly and cramped, that’s how the mill owner makes his money. He crams people in and gets money from rents and cheap labour.’
Mrs Clipper coughed, I wondered if that was because she was speechless. ‘He’s quite a sharp lad, your Tom, isn’t he?’ She paused briefly. ‘I was told that there weren’t any houses in the Low, or at least not now. That it’s all derelict. Isn’t that true?’
‘Not where Tom and I were, no. There were loads of houses, a church and a pub and of course the factory. It’s a whole different world, Mrs Clipper, believe me.’
‘It certainly is,’ said Cressida grimly, reaching across to pause the recording. ‘Have you been to the Low lately?’
‘I’ve never been to the Low,’ I said. ‘I haven’t lived here long, as you know.’
‘Well, take it from me, it’s a building site. I followed Alice and Tom that night and she’s right, there’s a church and a pub and the factory, what’s left of it anyway. But there aren’t any houses on Haversham Road.’
‘She’s obviously making it up,’ I said. ‘But what about Thomas? You said he was an imaginary friend?’
‘That’s what I thought, but that was before I followed them there.’
‘You actually saw him there with Alice?’
‘I did, yes, although only at a distance. It was definitely a boy, although it could have been anyone.’
‘And yet he wasn’t in the photo she took?’
‘No,’ said Cressida, ‘I checked and he wasn’t. Don’t you think that’s rather strange?’
Chapter 30
Then – Thomas
Seeing Jake had got me thinking. All of the lads were scared of Eisen. He often threatened to lock them up, put them in the basement, if they were bad. The basement of the school was really a cellar. A cellar, I thought. A perfect place to hide the boots.
There was probably hardly anything in it but if I was lucky, there could be a cupboard. And the school wasn’t far from Narrowboat Lane, where Matt McCarthy’s shoe shop was. Perfect, I thought. Assuming the shoes weren’t found by Eisen.
That day at school, I thought about being a bit of a nuisance, so Pike would send me down to the churchyard, so I could check out the basement idea. But in the end I scrapped that plan, I needed to keep a lower profile, I didn’t want to lose my place at school. Apart from the lessons, I got free food and was out of the rain; I’d have to find a different way.
I waited until the school day was over and slipped downstairs to the joinery workshop. The door to the churchyard was firmly shut, but Jake was still there, sweeping up nails.
‘You can’t keep away from this place, can you?’ Jake looked amused.
‘I want to know what’s in the basement.’
‘You, most likely, if Eisen comes in and finds you here. You know you’re not meant to be down here. Not without Pike’s express permission.’
‘Then tell me, quickly. What’s in the basement?’
‘Little and nothing, as far as I know. A disused kitchen, that’s used on occasion. Planks and nails, a few rotting bodies, how should I know? I’ve no idea, I rarely go down there. I’m a good lad, the best I’m told. Why do you ask?’
‘Never you mind. What about Eisen? Does he go down there?’
‘Not that I know of. Sometimes he sends the younger lads down, to fetch up some wood or some nails from the cupboard. But most of the wood is kept out there, along with the tools.’ He gestured outside to an old stone shed that sat in the churchyard. I grinned at Jake.
‘Great, I owe you. But don’t tell anyone I was asking questions.’
‘Don’t tell anyone what? said Jake. We grinned at each other. But I’ll be claiming the favour back.’
I nodded, agreeing, Jake was a mate, and your mates were precious, you didn’t get many, not around here. I sighed, thinking. Now, I’d thought of another problem. How to ge
t all those shoes up here, and into the basement, without being seen.
As it happened, Ben had the answer.
‘Found a place to store your trunk?’ Ben asked me, when I went to visit him at his workshop, later that day. ‘Or should I say, Miranda’s trunk?’
‘It’s Hannah’s actually, Miranda’s ma. And maybe I have, but there’s still a problem. And as you don’t want to help us out, you won’t be asking me what that is.’
‘I didn’t say I wouldn’t help you. I just said I wanted to know what was in it.’
‘I can’t tell you that, that’s private information, between me and Miranda.’
‘Right,’ said Ben, looking amused. ‘If you say so. So, then, what’s the problem?’
‘Getting the trunk from here to there.’ There’s such a thing as too much pride. Ben looked smug.
‘You want me to give you a lift on the cart. Well, as you’re a mate, I can do that for you. For a fee of course.’
‘A fee?’ I said, my heart sinking. ‘How much would you be wanting then?’ I was totting my wages up in my head, including the ones from the job I’d just got. The one I hadn’t even started yet.
‘A quick look at what’s inside the trunk. It won’t even cost you a packet of fags.’ He grinned, broadly and I wished I had a shoe in my hand, so I could throw the thing at his head. And hit him, hard.
But, of course, I wasn’t wearing shoes.
I saw Miranda later that day, in the pub’s parlour. She was on her knees, scrubbing the carpet for all it was worth. She didn’t look happy.
‘I thought you had a woman did that?’
‘The cleaning, yes, that’s Mrs Hemhirst. But she said she doesn’t do cleaning carpets, not the sort that are stained with sick.’
‘I thought the drunks all stayed in the bar.’ Miranda looked up.
‘That’s right, Thomas, and so did I. Until my mother flipped her lid and decided to run a music hall. Now, we have singing and dancing in here.’
‘Really?’ I said, starting to smile. ‘Don’t you need a licence for that?’
Miranda sat back and glared at me. ‘Was there something special you wanted, or have you just come here to cause me hassle? Because if it’s the last, then shove off now, I’m far too busy. No, forget I said that, you clean the carpet, I’m fed up with being the pub skivvy.’
Shadows of the Lost Child Page 9
