by Sam Short
“How awful!” said Millie.
“Did she rise?” said George.
“George!” said Judith. “That was horrible of you, but I doubt she rose after just eleven minutes.”
“Not long enough,” confirmed Millie. “You’d need at least twenty minutes in a hot oven for a decent risen soufflé.”
“So?” said Judith, smiling at Millie. “Will you do it? Teach baking at Spellbinder Hall?”
Millie drained the last of her beer. “After that horror story?” she said. “Really?”
“Yes, really,” said Judith. “Or at least promise you’ll consider the idea.”
With a sigh, Millie relented. “I’ll think about it,” she said, standing up and tucking the turkey crown under her arm. “But right now, I want to go home. I’ve drunk way too many beers, and I want to be up early for my run along the beach.”
“After your run,” said Judith, “would you mind coming to the police station? Dad has asked for my help with something, and I’m sure he’d appreciate your help, too. He thinks you’re some sort of Sherlock Holmes type since you solved Albert Salmon’s murder.”
“Not another murder?” said Millie. “I haven’t heard anything about a murder.”
Judith shook her head. “No. There are no mad murderers running around the bay,” she confirmed. “I think he wants help with his cold cases. There seems to be a lot of unsolved crimes in the Spellbinder Police records. Too many for him to get through on his own.”
Millie shrugged. What George had said was true. She didn’t have anything meaningful to do with her days, and since dragging herself from the junk food devouring doldrums she’d found herself in during the past few months, she needed something to focus on. She nodded. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll help.”
“Great!” said Judith. “It’s a date! I’ll meet you at the police station at eleven o’clock.”
Chapter 4
Her head sore and her stomach protesting, Millie had quickly given up arguing when Reuben had announced that he wasn’t joining her for the morning jog. Upon insisting he had more important things to do, Millie had left the cockatiel to his own devices, and forced herself out of the front door and into the sea air.
It seemed that Wandering Witch beer had quite the bite in its broomstick, and Millie struggled to get up to pace as she wove a route through the sand dunes and onto the beach.
Her lungs full of revitalising air, and a cool breeze on her face, it didn’t take long until she felt a little better, and settled into an acceptable running rhythm, following the base of the sand dunes towards the end of the peninsula a mile away.
With firm sand beneath her feet, warm morning sun on her face, and the rolling ocean to her left, her head cleared further as she covered more ground, nearing the spot where she’d met Tom Temples the day before.
It was with little surprise that Millie noticed Tom as she edged around the curve of the shoreline. He’d said he was going back to the dunes at sunrise, and it seemed he’d been true to his word. Hunched over a hole dug in the sand on the slope of a dune, his shovel and metal detector laying amongst dune grasses and flowers, Tom remained motionless as he gazed into the hole he’d dug.
“Found something?” said Millie, approaching Tom from behind, her feet sinking into soft sand.
Tom moved quickly. Using his hands and forearms as scoops, he began refilling the hole with the pile of sand he’d excavated. “No!” he said, glancing over his shoulder. “No! This is an empty hole. There’s nothing to see here!”
Standing behind him, Millie peered over Tom’s shoulder. “When somebody says there’s nothing to see — there’s always something to see! What is it, Tom? What have you found?”
Tom scooped more sand back into the hole as Millie craned her neck for a better look. “I saw something!” said Millie. “Something white! It looks like a bone! What is it, Tom? What have you found?”
His face red, Tom looked up at Millie and sighed. “Okay,” he admitted. “I have found something. Something I think might be very important, but what I’ve found needs to be reported, and if I report it, this section of the beach will be cordoned off and I won’t be able to recover the rest of the gold which I know is still here.”
Millie knelt in the sand next to Tom. “Now I’m really interested,” she said. “What’s in the hole, Tom?” She gasped. Bones. Of course! “Is it a body?” she whispered.
Tom reached for his shovel, and began excavating the hole again. “No, of course not,” he said. “Well, not a human one, anyway. These remains are much older than a human. A lot older — I’d hazard a guess that they’re from the Jurassic Period, considering the fact that Spellbinder Bay is on the Jurassic Coast.”
Millie crouched lower, and began helping Tom excavate the hole, the sand cool against her hands. “A dinosaur?” she said. “Seriously? How exciting!”
Tom stopped digging and threw the shovel aside. "Not really," he said. He frowned, and shook his head. "No, that's not what I meant. It is exciting, and had I found it at any other time, I'd have been ecstatic. It's just that if I report it, all the gold in this area will be lost to me. The people who excavate this whole area looking for more dinosaurs will either pocket the gold or give it to a museum. Either way… it won’t be mine.”
Millie continued moving sand aside, widening the hole. As her fingers made contact with the cold hardness of bone, she brushed away the final layer of sand, and stared in morbid fascination into a sand-filled eye socket of the skull which had been partially revealed.
She stood up and grabbed the shovel from beside Tom, and began widening the hole further. "I'm sorry, Tom," she said, being careful to keep the sharp edges of the shovel away from bone, "but you have to report this. I've always been fascinated by dinosaurs — I loved them when I was a child. I had loads of books about them — and I've never seen anything like this in any book I’ve read.” She threw the shovel aside, and knelt at the edge of the hole, staring at the huge skull. "I think you may have found a new species of dinosaur, Tom. This is very important! You have to report it, and if you don't, I will." She raised an eyebrow. "Who knows? If it is a new species, maybe they’ll name it after you."
Tom stared at Millie. "Really?" he said. He tilted his head, and gazed at the skull. "Tomosaurus," he murmured. "It does roll off the tongue, doesn't it? Are you sure it's a new species?"
Millie stood up and took a step backwards. She estimated the hole to be a metre in diameter, and the skull filled most of it. At the base of the wide skull, the upper portion of the creature’s spine was visible, and if the whole of the skeleton lay beneath the sand, Millie guessed the complete remains would be at least fifteen metres long. "Well… I've never seen anything like it," she said. "Look at it. Look at the size of the teeth compared to the head. You'd expect an animal which was this big to have had huge teeth, but these teeth are small, and they look sharp, and there must be hundreds of them!"
Tom stared at the creature. "And it has horns!" he said. "Tiny horns. Horns which look too small for such a huge head!"
Millie nodded her agreement. "It looks terrifying! I’ve never seen anything like it in all the books I've read. I think you’ve discovered something special here, Tom! How did you find it? Your metal detector won't find bone."
Grabbing the little pouch which hung from the belt on his waist, Tom gave it a shake. "Hear that jangling?" he asked. "I found all that gold this morning. Two of the coins were in this hole. That's how I found it."
"So, you’ve found plenty of gold?" said Millie. “Do you really need any more?"
Tom smiled. "I don't think you can ever have too much gold," he said. "But I get your point. I'll report the dinosaur remains to the relevant authorities. I’ll come back and look for more gold when they’ve finished doing what they’ll need to do.”
“You’ll report it today?” said Millie.
Tom reached into his pocket and withdrew his phone. “Right this moment,” he promised. “You can wait with me un
til somebody arrives, if you like.”
Judith greeted Millie at the front desk of the police station, a stack of paperwork in front of her, and two mugs of coffee alongside her phone. “On time as always,” she said with a grin. She glanced at her phone. “Actually, it’s two minutes to eleven. You’re early.” She pushed one of the mugs towards Millie. “I was so sure you wouldn’t be late, I made you a coffee knowing it wouldn’t go cold.”
Millie grabbed her mug and blew steam from the hot liquid. “I almost was late,” she confessed. “But that’s what happens when you discover the bones of a dinosaur previously unknown to the scientific community.”
Puzzlement etched on her face, Judith stared at Millie. “What? You’ve done what, now?”
Millie laughed. “Tom Temples found it,” she confessed. “While he was looking for gold coins on the beach, but I was there when the guy from the museum turned up. He was very excited! He says he’s never seen anything like it. It’s an unknown species, he reckons. A predator of some description, he thinks. He measured the skull and believes that if the whole skeleton is present, it could be the length of a bus!”
“How exciting!” said Judith.
Millie grinned. “That’s exactly what I said. Tom wasn’t as excited as me, though. He wanted to finish searching the area for gold, but he’s got no chance of doing that now. He had to leave so he could take his car to the garage to have some work done, and the man from the museum has already begun some sort of legal procedure to get the area sealed off so they can begin digging. He told us we had to vacate the area immediately. Nobody’s allowed anywhere near the site.”
“And there was me thinking my morning was exciting because I managed to fry two eggs without any oil spitting out of the pan and burning my arm,” said Judith.
“And very nice eggs they were, too,” said Sergeant Spencer, appearing in the office doorway behind Judith. “My daughter keeps me well fed, I must admit.”
“Good morning, Sergeant,” said Millie.
Sergeant Spencer frowned, the laughter lines around his eyes forming deeper furrows. “Come on, Millie,” he said. “I’ve told you before… you don’t need to keep calling me that. Call me Dave, or David, at least.”
Millie looked away. “It feels weird,” she explained. “I called you Sergeant Spencer when I first moved to the bay, and it’s hard to break the habit, especially while you’re wearing your uniform and we’re in the police station. It feels unprofessional.”
Sergeant Spencer gave a bellowing laugh, and stared around the small area. “Unprofessional?” he said. “You don’t work for me. Everything you do to help me is from the goodness of your heart. I’m the only copper in this town, and my little police station consists of two cells, an interrogation room, my office and the front desk you’re standing at. The fact that the concealment spell keeps the rest of the police force from interfering in town business makes what I do here far from professional by normal policing standards. I think you calling me Dave is hardly going to break any more important guidelines!”
Millie smiled at the big man. “I’ll try,” she promised.
“Good!” said the sergeant, placing his hat on his head. He grabbed his fluorescent jacket from the back of a chair and glanced at his watch. “I’m sorry, girls,” he said. “I can’t help with the cold cases this morning. I’ve just received a phone call — it seems my services are required elsewhere. I’ve explained to Judith what I’d like you two to help me with, so I’m sure you won’t need my input.”
“Where are you going, Dad?” asked Judith. “Off to solve an urgent crime, or give Mrs Raymond a lift home from town with her shopping again? That woman takes advantage of you. She might be in her eighties, but she’s as sharp as a razor-blade. She only hobbles around with that stick when it suits her. I’ve seen her power-walking along the cliff top with the rest of the pensioner’s fitness club! I’ve even seen her walking through the sand dunes, and that’s hard going by anybody’s standards. Even if she did struggle to walk, she could afford a taxi home with her shopping… she’s rich, Dad.”
“And lonely,” said Sergeant Spencer. “That fitness club is the only place she goes to socialise, and that’s only a couple of times a week. I know what she’s up to, but I don’t care. I’m not just here to throw people in jail. I’m here to help, too.” He snatched his car keys from the front desk, and winked at Judith. “Anyway, it’s neither of those two things, clever-clogs. Mrs Raymond hasn’t asked for my help all week. Somebody has discovered some sort of dinosaur skeleton on the beach, and I’ve got to waste my time setting up a cordon to keep people away. I’ve got far better things to be doing with my time. Bloody fossil hunters. What sort of boring person gets off on digging up long-dead animals? A sad sort of person — that’s who!”
Millie cleared her throat and hid a smirk. “Actually,” she said, “it was a metal detectorist who found it, and it was me who made him report it. I’m the person responsible for wasting your time, and I happen to think that dinosaurs are incredibly interesting.”
His cheeks turning crimson, Sergeant Spencer nodded. “Yes, I suppose they are quite interesting, in their own peculiar way. Well done, Millie. You did the correct thing by making him report it to the relevant authorities.” He glanced at a sheet of paper on top of a filing cabinet next to his office door. “It wasn’t Tom Temples who found it by any chance, was it?” he asked.
“Yes,” said Millie. “It was Tom.”
Sliding a small potted plant aside, Sergeant Spencer picked up the sheet of paper, and a small white envelope next to it. He placed them on the front desk, next to Judith. “He was in here yesterday with a ring he’d found while metal detecting on the beach. I’ve been meaning to file the details and put the ring in the lost property cabinet. Could you do it for me, Judith? The ring is in the little envelope, and all the details of where he found it are written on the paper.”
“Yes,” sighed Judith. “I’ll do that, as well as working through the big stack of cold cases you want my help with. I don’t mind in the slightest. It’s not like I’m your daughter helping you out for no pay, and not a fully paid police officer.”
“Sarcasm?” said Sergeant Spencer, hurrying towards the door.
“A little,” said Judith.
“Well, it’s not like I’m your father allowing you to live in my house rent free, and not some wealthy landlord charging a fortune for the privilege of living beneath my roof,” countered Sergeant Spencer, unable to disguise the humour in his eyes.
Judith picked up the little white envelope. “Consider it done,” she said.
Sergeant Spencer exited the room, his laughter leaving with him. “Thank you,” he called. “I’ll see you two girls later! And remember to give Millie her identification card!”
“Identification card?” said Millie. “As in police identification?”
Judith smiled and slid a black leather wallet across the desk. “Your card and badge are inside,” she said. “I have one, too. As far as everybody is concerned, you’re now Detective Constable Millie Thorn. Don’t ask me how he got them done, but I do know it had something to do with Henry Pinkerton, a magic spell and a box of doughnuts. They’re totally legitimate. When you help Dad out in the future, you’ll be able to pass as a police officer.”
As the sound of the police car’s engine roared into life outside, Judith opened the little envelope and tipped the contents onto the desktop. “I’ll file this ring away for him, and then we’ll go and interview some people,” said Judith.
“We’re going interviewing people?” said Millie. “I thought we’d be stuck in here doing paperwork.”
Judith picked up the gold ring and held it to the light. “We’re interviewing the families of missing people,” she explained. “Not people who are suspected of crimes. Dad just wants to find out if any more information has come to light since the people went missing.” She spun the ring between two fingers. “This has an inscription on the inside edge,” she said. “W
rite this down, would you, please? It’s in a foreign language. French, I presume.”
Millie plucked a pen from the chipped mug masquerading as a stationary pot. “Go on,” she said, the pen poised over the sheet of paper Sergeant Spencer had given Judith.
When Judith had finished painstakingly spelling out the words on the ring, Millie read them out loud. “Je t'aimerai pour toujours,” she said. “I can’t remember any of my French from school, but considering the ring has a heart on it, I’d say it’s a romantic phrase, whatever it means.”
Judith slipped the ring back into the envelope. “Somebody will be sad that they lost it,” she said. “Give me ten minutes to file it away safely, and we’ll go and do some interviews. Let’s see if we can shed some light on some of Dad’s missing person’s cold cases. We’ll take your lovely little car, I presume? Dad’s taken the only police car we have.” She looked away briefly, and picked at a thumbnail. “I bet your car is really nice to drive, isn’t it? I bet it’s really, really nice to drive with the roof down?”
Millie fished the car keys from her pocket and placed them in front of Judith. “Would you like to drive? It’s really nice.”
Judith smiled. “You’ve had that car for two weeks. I thought you’d never ask!”
Chapter 5
The first person on Judith’s list of interviewees still lived in the same home she’d shared with her husband when he’d gone missing almost three decades ago. The large house occupied a few acres of land, built high on one of the steep hills overlooking the town.
The narrow winding lanes which led to the property gave Judith ample opportunity to enjoy Millie’s car, and she laughed with pleasure as the wind ruffled her hair while she took the final sweeping bend and turned into the gravel driveway.
