by M. P. Wright
“Benny may well be right. I don’t think, whoever these guys are, that they’re small-time operators, Lazarus. They’re well connected, tough and seem pretty determined to get what they want.”
“And what do you think they’re after, Joseph?”
“As far as I can work out, they just want Truth.” I took another draught of my bitter, dark beer and stared back at Lazarus.
“That child upstairs? What’s so important about the kid?”
“I don’t know, but I intend to find out, even if it’s the last ting I do.”
The hefty landlord stared down at the ground and dragged his foot rhythmically across the wood floor while he thought to himself for a moment. He looked back at me with a wry smirk on his face and cleared his throat before speaking. “Well, if these boyos are as tough as you say they are, that may well be the case.” Lazarus rested his elbow against the rack of barrels and looked at me curiously. “Benny says that you’re some kinda detective, that right?”
“I prefer enquiry agent, sounds less Dick Barton. It’s a job, but it barely pays the rent.”
“That a worthwhile job then?”
“Worthwhile? I don’t know ’bout that. In my line o’ work I’m asked to find people who are missin’; I may recover valuable property that’s disappeared. I give people a hand if they’re being swindled, and sometimes, if I’m lucky, I like to think I put tings right when it’s all gone wrong. I don’t always succeed, but when I do . . . Yes, I think you could call my job worthwhile.”
“Well, sounds like a dirty little job to me.”
“It’s a dirty little world, Lazarus.”
Lazarus smiled and slowly nodded his head to himself. He looked across to Benny, who was greedily tucking into his supper. He then walked back behind the bar and picked up another bottle of stout and the opener, then slapped me on the side of my arm and handed them to me. He nodded towards Benny.
“Come on, son, let’s go and get you something to eat before that big-gutted bleeder eats me outta house and home. We’ll worry about your problems in the morning.”
Lazarus walked off in front of me to join his friend. I watched them for a moment as they raised their glasses to toast each other then settled back to eat the supper. I thought of Vic and where my cousin might be tonight. I thought how much I missed him now that my back was against the wall and what I wouldn’t give to have him here by my side tonight. I thought how I should never have taken Ida Stephens’ money and her stupid job on, and I wished that I’d never listened to Theodore Fowler and walked down into the basement of those swimming baths and found the child Truth huddled up in the dark. Most of all, I wished I didn’t feel so damn scared.
I walked over and sat down next to Lazarus and Benny, my appetite lost. I uncapped the bottle of dark ale and poured it into my glass then took a long draught. Shame overcame my hesitant thoughts as feelings of grim fear dragged at my belly. The laughter of my two companions was lost to me as I entered a private and opaque domain deep within my mind, an unforgivable place where my bleak spirits would lure me down into a murky world of my own making, its cruel grip pulling at my battered consciousness like a demon tearing at the broken will of a lost soul.
18
It was the smell of bacon frying that woke me from my usual unwelcome night-time reverie. Bad dreams had plagued me through what little sleep I’d managed to get. I’d finally dragged myself off to bed at around one thirty, leaving Benny and Lazarus to tell old war stories and drink themselves into a merry stupor. My head was throbbing, the early sign of an unwelcome hangover brought on by the six bottles of strong Imperial Russian stout that I’d sunk during the small hours of the morning.
I looked over at Truth’s bed: the blankets had been pulled back and she was nowhere to be seen. I snatched my wristwatch from off the bedside cabinet and peered at the face; it was just after eight thirty. I kicked the sheets off me and sat up with my legs hanging off the edge of the mattress and immediately felt woozy. I squinted around the dull-looking room while I acclimatised myself to the steady, painful thumping going off in my skull. I could hear the sound of rain gently bouncing off the bedroom window. I leant forward and grabbed hold of the edge of one of the curtains and drew it back then stared out blankly at the grey skies and drizzle that greeted me. I finally mustered the will to get myself up then slowly walked to the foot of the bed and picked up my shirt and trousers from where I’d dropped them before turning in for the night. Feeling like death warmed up, I sluggishly got myself dressed then slipped on my shoes and at a snail’s pace made my way downstairs.
I found Benny and Truth in the kitchen, sat at a large wooden dining table; both of them were watching Lazarus, who was standing over the stove at the other end of the room spooning hot oil over the yellow yolks of six large hen’s eggs that were spitting and crackling inside a huge iron skillet. Benny turned and looked at me and began to slowly shake his head.
“Hey, Trute, will you just look at the state o’ this . . . If it ain’t Uncle Remus. Good to see you finally managed to drag yo’self outta yo’ pit, Joseph,” Benny gently nudged at Truth’s belly with his big elbow and winked at her. Truth began to giggle. “You know, you is lookin’ rougher than a badger’s ass’ole. You need to keep off the stout, brother.” Benny clapped his hands together and burst out laughing.
Lazarus nodded at me by way of a morning welcome and pointed to a dining chair with the greasy end of his spoon.
“Dear oh dear, looks like you best take a seat before you fall down, old son. I told you that damn ale was bloody strong; you’d’ve been safer on the scrumpy.”
Benny pounded the flat of his hand on the top of the table and the two men roared with laughter again. I felt the inside of my head pounding away as I dropped down in the seat next to Truth. I rubbed at my scalp with my fingers then smiled gingerly at her.
Truth stared up at me, scrunched up her nose then began copying what she had just seen Benny doing and began to shake her head from side to side in disapproval at the sorry state I’d gotten myself in. She looked me up and down with a sneer on her face then began to laugh, joining the two big men in their rowdy amusement at my pathetic and fragile condition.
My hangover certainly didn’t stop me from eating the hearty breakfast that Lazarus had prepared for us all. I wolfed down a plateful of bacon and eggs accompanied by grilled mushrooms, tomatoes and thickly sliced toast. I washed it all down with three mugs of freshly brewed black coffee and at least a pint and a half of cold water. Truth attentively kept getting up from her seat and refilling my empty glass from the tap at the kitchen sink. Every time she returned to the table, I thanked her for her thoughtfulness. Truth simply smiled at me as she placed the glass of water in front of me and then, without uttering a word, continued to eat her breakfast.
I realised that Truth was still very wary of me. Hell, why shouldn’t she be distrusting of a stranger after all she had been through? Getting Truth to trust me wasn’t going to be easy, but there was so much more I needed to find out about her. So many pieces of the child’s sad little life remained an enigma. I was finding it tricky to think of a way to get her to open up and confide exactly what had gone on back at the orphanage, what secrets she held within her and why a group of men were prepared to kill to get her back.
As I finished off my coffee, I thought back to how I had seen the little girl making quiet conversation with both Benny and Estelle. Truth had seemed less tense in their company, and in the brief time we had been stopping in their home, the child had struck up a blossoming relationship with Benny’s spooky mother-in-law, Momma Cecile. True, Truth had spoken to me briefly down at the beach in Porlock, but she’d given up very little information and what she had told me simply revolved around the nameless men that she feared so very much, the men who came in the night to steal children.
After breakfast I took myself up to the tiny bathroom, washed and shaved, then changed into a fresh shirt. On top of a dresser by one of the beds stood a tin
of perfumed talcum powder and a small bottle of Old Spice aftershave lotion. I pulled out the small stopper from the white bottle of men’s cologne and rubbed some of the fragrant liquid around my jaw and chin, smarting as the alcohol stung at my freshly shaven jowls and neck. Welcome rays of sunshine now poured through the tiny windowpanes into the bedroom and had begun to warm the place up a little, lifting my flagging spirits a touch.
As I was hurriedly running my fingerstips through the dense curls of my knotted-up hair, I heard a faint tapping sound from outside in the hall. I took a look out of the bedroom door and found Truth sat on the top step of the stairs staring into space, the fingers of her petite right hand drumming on the wall beside her. I picked up my hat and coat from off the chair and walked out to join her, just as Benny bellowed up the stairs to me.
“Hey, Joseph, you all spruced up and back in the land of the living yet?” Benny was chuckling to himself as I leant over the banister and peered down at him. He smiled mischievously back up at the two of us.
“Yeah, just ’bout.” I pulled on my coat, fitted my hat onto my head and looked back down at the big man.
“’Bout time too. You know, the pair of you look like a couple of waifs and strays that are ’bout to get up to no good. Git yourselves down here. Lazarus thought you and Trute might like to take a look ’bout now we’ve got ourselves some finer weather out there. We’re in some mighty pretty countryside. Do the two of you good to get out in the fresh air for a time, what you say?”
Benny held out his arm to Truth and called her to him by wagging three of his stubby fingers back and forth; in his other hand was the little girl’s coat. Truth looked cautiously down at Benny’s huge open hand for a moment then back up at me. I smiled at her and she returned her gaze to Benny.
“Sounds like a good idea, Benny.”
Truth slowly rose from the top step and began walking down the stairs. I followed behind and waited while Benny knelt down and helped Truth to put her coat on.
“OK, come on little lady, let’s go find ourselves Lazarus. He tells me they got themselves some real special animals that live in these parts: horses, lambs, big-horned cattle – you ever seen big-horned cattle, Trute?” Benny boomed enthusiastically as the child began to slip her arms into her coat.
Truth, her eyes excited and wide as saucers, quickly shook her head as Benny looked up and winked at me while he gently pulled the collar of the coat around the back of Truth’s neck. He raised himself back to his feet and turned and swiftly made his way through the pub towards the front door. He turned briefly and hollered back after us. “Well then, what you waiting for, Christmas? Let’s get the two of you out in those wide-open spaces. You and Joseph here have got some explorin’ to do.”
Truth and I followed Benny out and around the side of the big public house into the gardens at the rear of the property. In the near distance we could hear the sound of some kind of machinery.
We found Lazarus in one of his large outbuildings. He was dressed in a woollen World War II khaki army shirt and dark-green overalls, and was stood over an electric grinder, sharpening the edges of a blackened Fairbairn-Sykes commando knife. Sparks flew around his face and chest as he glided the metal blade across the fast-moving wheel. Benny called out to Lazarus over the din, the landlord turning quickly when he heard his friend’s booming voice over the noise of the grinder. Lazarus flicked a black switch at the side of the machine, shutting it off, then slid his thumb carefully along the now razor-sharp knife-edge, nodding his head in approval at his own work before turning and staring down at Truth, the fierce-looking weapon held at his side. He bent down towards the child, his sweaty arms at his side, the blade-point towards Truth.
“So, I hear you’d like to see some of our local beasts?”
Truth took a step back and stared back at Lazarus, a fearful look on her face at hearing the knife-wielding giant’s talk of beasts.
Benny looked down at Truth, scrunched up his nose and shook his head frantically to let the child know there was nothing to worry about then snapped back at his old friend, jabbing his finger towards the commando dagger in Lazarus’ hand. “Put that damn cutter away, Lazarus, you a fool sometimes, you know that? You got the child scared witless befo’ she even set foot in a field. She’s probably tinking she’s ’bout to take a look at the Loch Ness monster, you yakkin’ on ’bout beasts. This pickney ain’t bin any further than the edge of the River Severn on a day trip. She’s a damn city kid, probably never even seen a cow befo’.”
Berated, Lazarus realised his lack of sensitivity and laid the knife on the bench next to him, covering it with an oily rag. He put the flat of his hand to his mouth by way of some kind of juvenile apology to Truth. He then attempted to dig himself out of trouble with Benny by softening up the poor child some more.
“I’m sorry, young ’un. Benny here’s right. We just got ourselves some farmyard animals, that’s all. There ain’t anything for you to go fretting about round here, you’re as safe as houses, promise.” Lazarus shot Truth a contrite smile then quickly grabbed his old leather army jerkin from off a peg on the back of the door. He stuck his muscled arms into the cut-off sleeve of his worn military tunic and began to march off across the yard. “Come on, you pair, let’s start this here tour o’ the place.”
As Truth and I began to follow after Lazarus, Benny gently took hold of my arm and held me back for a moment, then got close to me and whispered into my ear.
“I’m gonna give Estelle a call, let her know we’re OK, see if she’s heard how Loretta’s doing or has any more news on that trouble you got after your tail.”
“OK, you send that wife o’ yours my best wishes. We’ll see you in a while.”
I was about to thank the big man for all he was doing for me and young Truth, but before I could utter another word he’d turned away from me and was starting to walk back towards the pub, the sun at his back, his hulking frame casting a huge shadow in front of him as he strode off to make his telephone call.
I caught up with Lazarus and Truth just as they were about to climb over a wooden stile into a pasture carpeted with a mass of yellow buttercups. Lazarus helped Truth over the stile and the two of us climbed over and joined her. After last night’s storm, the wet grass under our feet squelched as we trod across it. I watched as my silent young companion walked a few feet ahead of us: oblivious of the sodden ground underneath her, she gazed cheerfully out at the picturesque open expanse of countryside and the golden blossom that sprang up all around her. Lazarus had also noticed how Truth was lost in the pretty surroundings; he spoke as we continued to walk, the timbre in his voice much softer, making him sound more like a learned Sunday school teacher than rough publican.
“You really think that child ’as never seen countryside like this or livestock before, Joseph?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s hard to tell. From the look on her face at the minute, I’d say not.”
Lazarus smiled to himself then stopped in his tracks, watching Truth as she stared out across the hilly terrain in the distance. I stood at the big man’s side, the warmth of the sun caressing my neck and shoulders. Lazarus turned to me, a look of bemusement on his face.
“She sure doesn’t have much to say for herself, does she? Doesn’t that come across as being a little strange to you?”
I took my handkerchief out of my trouser pocket, tipped my hat back on my head and wiped the perspiration from my brow. “Lazarus, someting in my guts tells me that child has only ever known strange. I can’t say exactly, but I get the feeling Truth’s silence is the only way she can keep whatever’s putting the fear o’ God into her at bay.”
Lazarus slowly shook his head to himself. “Don’t seem right, does it? A young girl like that being smothered in so much darkness.”
I shrugged my shoulders again as I stared out across the pasture and felt a small measure of the child’s despair begin to creep into my being. “Who knows, Lazarus, who knows? Perhaps the darkness has been a be
tter friend to her than we can ever know. Maybe the cold light of day isn’t a companion that Truth wants to keep.”
I began to walk on, leaving Lazarus standing, deep in thought. I called back to him after I’d taken a couple of paces. “Take it from me, brother: where I come from they say a fallen angel ain’t never far from your side. I think the same is true for that child in front of us there. Her demons, they come out to haunt her in the daylight just the same as they do in the blackness of night.”
The three of us continued to walk for a good while longer. I tagged behind a few paces while Lazarus introduced Truth to various breeds of cattle and sheep that lazily grazed as we strolled from field to field. It was good to see the youngster begin to relax a little. Both Benny and Lazarus had been able to gain a little of Truth’s confidence. I, on the other hand, felt as if I was drawing her closer to the devils she feared rather than being able to offer up any solace to her.
It was just after midday by the time we started to make our way back towards the pub. The sun was high up in the sky, the air hot and thick with the heady perfume from the foxgloves and dog-rose blossom that ran alongside the bramble hedgerows. Butterflies fluttered around our heads and summer birdsong trilled and quavered around us, reminding me of my once idyllic existence back home on Barbados. I felt content in the moment, and the worries and fears that had been gnawing away in the pit of my stomach had thankfully abated for now. Truth, her coat tied by the arms around her waist, was knelt picking dandelions and daisies. She’d barely uttered a word again since we’d been out but had occasionally broke out into a smile when she’d seen something that amused her and appeared to have relaxed a little. I got the feeling that, like me, she had found a brief measure of contentment while being enchanted by the picturesque countryside. As we climbed back over the stile, Lazarus raised his arm in front of him and pointed towards a wooded area at the rear of the pub.
