The Skeleton Clock

by Justin Richards

  ‘Somewhere. Anywhere.’

  ‘I wish. At least you’ve got your garden.’

  ‘It won’t make me rich,’ Revelle said with a smile.

  ‘Neither will working here. Anything else I can help you with?’ Cath asked sarcastically.

  ‘Coffee and sandwiches would be good,’ Revelle said, playing with the keyboard and making the image wind back and forth.

  ‘Yeah, it would,’ Cath said. ‘I’ll be at my desk – you can bring them to me there, thanks.’ She walked quickly away before Revelle could reply.

  ‘Are you going to get her coffee?’ Jake asked after a few moments.

  ‘What? Oh, yes. Probably.’ Revelle tapped the image of the screen. ‘This is what I was looking for, here.’

  The black and white video was frozen at a point in time, like a grainy photograph. It showed two people walking through the gateway, a man and a girl. Jasper Hickson and Sarah.

  ‘There she is arriving.’

  ‘But what use is that?’ Jake asked.

  ‘Not much,’ Revelle admitted. ‘But you keep watching as it winds through, and see what she does when she comes out. If we see which way she goes, we can track her on another camera and see if she took the tunnels or got a boat.’ He sighed, as if to agree it wasn’t much. ‘Look, it’s a start, all right?’ he said. ‘I’ll get the coffee.’

  It took a long time. Although Jake could wind quickly through the video, he had to freeze it every time someone came out of the White Tower, and peer carefully at the image to see if it was Sarah.

  Revelle brought coffee, and a cheese sandwich which Jake devoured in seconds. Cath came over a couple of times to see how they were doing. Another Watch man wandered over, but left when Revelle glared at him.

  ‘What are you wasting your time on now?’ a pained voice asked.

  Jake looked up to find a large man staring down at them from the other side of the desk. He had thinning grey hair and an impatient expression.

  ‘Missing person,’ Revelle said without looking up.

  ‘And how exactly is this is related to the two murders you are supposed to be investigating?’

  ‘Possible witness,’ Revelle said.

  ‘To which murder – the Revenue officer at Whispers, or Atherton?’

  ‘Don’t know till we find her.’ Revelle smiled. ‘Possibly both.’

  The other man did not smile back. ‘You’re lucky I didn’t put you on the floating restaurant insurance scam, or whatever it really was. Make sure your suspect doesn’t turn out to be a monster.’

  Jake opened his mouth to explain about the monster, but Revelle’s elbow dug into his ribs, and he said nothing.

  ‘All murderers are monsters, sir,’ Revelle said. ‘Unless they’re Councillors, of course.’

  ‘Very funny,’ the other man said, without a trace of amusement. ‘And who’s this?’ He pointed at Jake. ‘You recruiting your own deputies now?’

  ‘I’m Jake,’ Jake said, determined to be allowed to speak this time.

  ‘He’s helping me identify the missing girl.’

  ‘Girl? A kid?’

  ‘Her name is Sarah,’ Jake said.

  The big man’s expression seemed to soften at Jake’s words. ‘Well, I’m Chief Albright and I’m Officer Revelle’s boss. So I’m relying on you, Deputy Jake, to make sure he does his job properly. You make sure he finds this girl, OK?’

  ‘OK,’ Jake said hesitantly. ‘Why me?’

  ‘Because he might take some notice of you,’ Albright said. ‘He sure as hell doesn’t listen to me. I’m not going to look at what you’re doing,’ he went on, talking to Revelle now, ‘because if I find that the urgent messages I’m ignoring from the White Tower security people about the integrity of their CCTV systems is anything to do with you, there’ll be big trouble. And I don’t think either of us want that, do we?’

  Albright turned away. But whether the slight twitch of his lip as he moved was a smile or a frown, Jake couldn’t tell.

  Cath wandered over again once Albright had gone. ‘I think he likes you,’ she said to Jake.

  ‘I guess even Albright has to like someone,’ Revelle said.

  ‘Hey,’ Jake said, pointing at the frozen image on the screen. ‘That looks like you.’

  ‘It is me,’ Revelle agreed. ‘Leaving the meeting with Miss Patterson and the Toymaker. Which isn’t good.’

  A few minutes further into the video, Jake stopped it again. ‘That’s Sarah’s father.’

  ‘Not good at all,’ Revelle said.

  ‘Why’s that?’ Cath asked.

  Jake had already worked it out, though he didn’t want to believe it. He felt his heart sink as Revelle told her:

  ‘We need to check the rest of the video, right up to the current image. But unless there’s another way in and out of the White Tower that we don’t know about, it looks like she never left.’

  *

  Even though the Defeaters at the main gate knew Officer Revelle by sight, they still insisted on checking his identification. But the fact he had a junior apprentice deputy from the Watch with him really didn’t worry them at all.

  And if somehow they spent so long talking to Revelle about what awful weather it had been and how the price of fresh water was going up again, and how difficult it was even for the Watch to find fuel, that they neglected to check the boy’s credentials… Well, they knew Revelle and he’d vouched for the lad so what possible problem could there be?

  Jake himself was rather less relaxed about it. He was sure that at any moment hundreds of Defeaters would come running to drag him away and hurl him into a deep, dark, damp dungeon. He was sure he must look incredibly suspicious, wearing a coat that was too big for him which Revelle had taken from a hook in the entrance to the Watch Tower. He wondered who it really belonged to. Maybe he’d be locked up for stealing as well.

  ‘Just act natural,’ Revelle told him quietly. ‘Look like you’re meant to be here.’

  ‘It’s all right for you,’ Jake said. ‘You are meant to be here. Why couldn’t we just ask if Sarah’s still inside?’

  ‘Because if she is, you can be pretty sure it isn’t through her own choice.’

  ‘But – why?’

  Revelle led him across the courtyard and in through a heavily-reinforced wooden door at the base of one of the four tall towers.

  ‘There are some pretty strange things happening,’ Revelle said.

  ‘You don’t have to tell me.’

  Inside the door was a narrow stone-lined passageway. The whitewash was peeling off the walls and flaking across the floor.

  ‘I don’t trust any of them here,’ Revelle went on. ‘They play at running the City, but really they’re just out for themselves. Muttering heads, water beasts, dead bodies and a missing girl.’

  ‘Not to mention toy soldiers,’ Jake grumbled.

  Revelle stopped and turned slowly towards him. His face was in shadow as he said: ‘You didn’t mention toy soldiers. What have they got to do with it?’

  ‘Maybe nothing,’ Jake said. ‘But Geoff and I found some. And now Geoff is gone, and Atherton had some figures just like them and they’re missing too.’ He wondered if he ought to mention his meeting with Mrs Gladhall, or the man who’d been killed at Whispers, or how he had overheard Revelle talking to Captain Denson... He decided this probably wasn’t the best time.

  Revelle was looking at him so intently that Jake felt he could see right into his conscience. ‘First we find Sarah Hickson, then the three of us had better sit down and have a bit of a chat about all this. OK?’

  Jake shrugged. He tried to sound offhand, like he had nothing to hide. ‘OK.’

  The passage ended at the bottom of a modern flight of stairs.

  ‘Why are you doing this?’ Jake asked quietly as they moved cautiously along the passage. ‘Why do you care?’

  ‘You don’t half ask some difficult questions,’ Revelle replied. ‘Maybe it’s a sense of justice. Maybe it’s because I’m curi
ous, or stupid. Or both. But mainly it’s because I got your friend into this. I suggested the Toymaker take a look at the Head, and that’s why Sarah was here. So I owe her.’ He turned to Jake. ‘What’s your excuse?’

  ‘She’s my friend,’ Jake said.

  Revelle nodded. ‘Best reason in the world.’

  They were approaching a big metal door with a small round window in it. There was a keypad fixed on the wall beside it. Revelle tried the door, but it was locked.

  ‘Guess that’s it then,’ Jake said.

  But Revelle typed in a code on the pad, and the door clicked. He pulled it open. ‘Guess not.’

  ‘How did you know the numbers?’

  ‘From watching other people.’ He smiled. ‘I am a Watch man. It’s the same code for all the security doors. 1078 if you need it. The date this place was originally built. People who keep secrets often have no imagination.’

  The corridor led to another open area with a modern staircase that led down as well as up. There was only the faintest light somewhere far below, whereas the upper floor looked well lit. The rough stone walls had given way to smooth, pale green plaster.

  ‘Smells like hospital,’ Revelle said. ‘We’ll find Sarah quicker if we split up and search. Meet back here in, what, half an hour?’

  ‘OK,’ Jake said. ‘You going up or down?’

  ‘Down. It’s somewhere I’ve been discouraged from going without prior warning. There’s something down there they don’t want me to see, and if Sarah Hickson saw it…’ Revelle was staring along the corridor. ‘Well, if nothing else, I’m curious to know what they’re keeping so secret.’ Revelle pulled a small torch from his coat pocket. ‘Remember, whatever happens, you’re meant to be here.’

  Jake didn’t for a moment think anyone would really believe he was meant to be there. So when he heard voices coming from the corridor leading off the first floor landing, he kept going. The second floor was silent. Jake stood for several seconds straining to hear if there was anyone there. When he was sure he was alone, at least for now, he set off to explore.

  The corridor was wide, with doors on each side. A trolley stood against one wall – the top of it covered with a thin mattress. A bed on wheels. Revelle had mentioned the place smelled like a hospital. Jake had never been in a hospital, but maybe this was where they treated anyone on the Council who got ill.

  There were small round windows in the doors. Jake peered through, but most of the rooms were in darkness. He pushed open the first door, and whispered as loud as he dared:

  ‘Sarah? Sarah – are you in there?’

  But of course there was no reply. The place seemed deserted. He would do better to explore the floor below – at least there were people there, whereas this floor seemed deserted.

  Jake hurried along, glancing at the door windows as he passed. One room had the lights on, and he stopped to check. But there was no one – just an empty bed, an upright chair, and some cupboards. He moved quickly on.

  The corridor ended in large double doors with a keypad beside them. But Jake didn’t want to try the code. If it was wrong, would an alarm go off or something? Better to get back to the stairs and try another floor.

  Just two last rooms – one each side of the corridor. He was so nervous he could hear the beating of his heart. Jake paused to control his breathing and try to steady his nerves. As he stood there, he realised that the sound he could hear wasn’t the beating of his heart. A steady, rhythmic throb of sound. It was coming from the room in front of him.

  The lights were out. But the closer Jake got to the door, the louder the noise. He pushed gently at the door, holding his breath. The sound was louder as he stepped inside the darkened room, letting the door close behind him.

  Light spilled in from the corridor through the small window. But it illuminated only a vague shape in front of him. A shape that seemed to swell and subside with the throbbing sound. He felt round the frame of the door for a light switch like in the rooms at Atherton’s.

  ‘Hello?’ he whispered. ‘Who is it? Who are you? Do you need help?’

  The reply was a sudden shriek of high-pitched sound. At the same moment, Jake’s fingers found the switch.

  The lights snapped on, and Jake stared in horror at the shape in front of him.

  *

  Revelle was glad of the torch as the steps became wet and slippery as he neared the bottom. His torch picked out a numeric keypad, and again he typed 1078. The door clicked and he pushed it slowly open, turning off his torch and slipping it back into his coat pocket as he stepped into the observation gallery.

  He paused, looking out through the wide expanse of glass into the shimmering water beyond. The line of lights cast rippling shadows across his face.

  He was about to turn away, when something moved, at the side of the window. Swimming into the light. At first he thought it was a man – a diver. Then he thought it must be a fish, it moved so smoothly and elegantly through the murky water.

  No, surely it was a man. The figure turned slightly, and this brought it fully into the light.

  It was neither man nor fish. Or perhaps it was both. A green-grey figure with arms and legs. But the fingers on the hands and the toes on the feet were webbed together. The body was a tessellation of overlapping scales. Fins erupted from the thing’s back, and ran along its arms and legs.

  He had caught a glimpse of the face before, and dismissed it as a trick of the light, a distorted reflection. It was a parody of a man’s face – huge, pale, bulbous eyes either side of a bump of a nose. The cheeks were swelling and opening as the creature stared back at Revelle – gills below and behind the ears pulsing as they breathed water. A narrow mouth opened, revealing sharp triangular teeth.

  Revelle took a step backwards as the fish-man swam towards the window, examining him as curiously as he stared back at it. Then another of the creatures swam into view. And a third.

  Behind Revelle, the door clicked open.

  ‘Quite the detective, aren’t you, Officer Revelle,’ Marianna Patterson said softly. ‘I see you’ve discovered our little secret.’

  *

  Jake stared in horror at the creature in front of him. It was like the monster that had attacked him at Whispers, and again in the tunnels. But now he realised they might be two separate beasts.

  This one was much smaller. It shrieked and squealed in the light, struggling to reach Jake. But its tentacles were pinned to the floor by heavy leather straps. Metal chains criss-crossed the body, its single eye staring out malevolently from between the links.

  Jake turned, tearing open the door. It crashed into a small metal trolley, knocking scalpels and syringes flying. But Jake scarcely noticed. He hurled himself out of the room, standing breathing hard in the starkly-lit corridor outside. The shrieks and squeals of the creature echoed after him.

  And something else. Another sound. Jake heard it as he turned to run – a voice. Faint, but it was there. Coming from the last room.

  ‘Help me. Somebody, help me. Is anyone there?’

  It was a voice Jake knew well. Hardly daring to breath, he opened the last door. The room was in darkness, and again he fumbled for the light.

  It was like the first room he’d looked in – chair, cupboards, bed. And a mass of equipment beside the bed. Tubes and wires and drips and monitor screens.

  ‘Jake?’ the girl in the bed said weakly. ‘Is it really you? I knew you’d come.’

  Chapter 13

  There didn’t seem to be much point in lying, Revelle decided. Marrianna Patterson was standing beside him, looking out into the water, smiling with satisfaction as the grotesque creatures swam past.

  ‘I was looking for the girl,’ he said.

  ‘I guessed as much when I heard you were in the Tower again. And not examining the Head.’ She nodded at the window in front of them. ‘They found it you know. On one of their scavenging trips.’

  One of the creatures was right in front of the window. It reached out and pressed
a hand against the glass. Scales, webbed fingers, dark veins beneath pale translucent flesh were all clearly visible. Miss Patterson pressed her own hand over the creature’s.

  While she was distracted, Revelle could probably just walk out of here. But he couldn’t look away from the window. ‘What are they?’

  Miss Patterson didn’t turn. She was staring at the creature through the glass, her eyes wide in admiration and awe. ‘My children,’ she breathed. ‘And your future.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  She didn’t seem to hear him. ‘Let’s go and see what they’ve brought me,’ she said.

  *

  A narrow plastic tube was feeding colourless liquid from a bag suspended from a metal stand into the back of Sarah’s hand. Jake didn’t hesitate, he pulled the tube out and helped Sarah to sit up.

  She was weak, but with Jake’s help she managed to swing her legs over the side of the bed and stand up. Her long fair hair had fallen forward over her pale face, but Jake could see how tired and scared she looked.

  There was no sign of Sarah’s clothes, and she was wearing only a thin grey gown that tied at the back. Jake draped his coat – or rather the coat he’d borrowed – over her shoulders. There was a pair of slippers beside the bed, and she put them on.

  ‘We have to get away from here,’ Sarah said quietly.

  ‘I know. But it may not be easy.’

  ‘We’ll manage.’ She pressed her hand against his cheek, and Jake was surprised how cold she felt.

  ‘What’s going on? What were they doing to you?’

  Sarah shook her head. ‘I don’t know. Just keeping me here maybe.’ Her eyes were welling up with tears. ‘Jake – they’ve got Geoff.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I found him. But…’ she turned away. ‘It’s too late for him. We can’t help Geoff now.’

  ‘Oh Sarah.’ Jake pulled her gently towards him and hugged her tight. ‘I’m so sorry.’

  She pulled gently away. ‘We have to go. Thank you for coming to get me.’

  ‘I had help,’ he admitted. But he was still thinking about Geoff. About the times they’d spent together – the things they’d found and the fun they’d had… He blinked away his tears. ‘That Watch man – Revelle. He got me into the Tower.’