’We need to get the others involved. Lauren is there any way we can get the Pub for half an hour later?’ Wee Renee asked.
’I can put a note on the door saying no beer, awaiting delivery. You can have it any time you want. This is too important,’ Lauren said. ‘Besides that, I want you to decide what to do with this and get it out of the Pub!’
’I should be able to get everyone here around 6.30 tonight. Is that alright with you Lauren?’ Wee Renee asked.
’That’s fine,’ Lauren said.
’Pat, lock the chest,’ Wee Renee said. Pat locked the chest, put the key back around her neck and Wee Renee put the cushions back on top of it.
’The gang shouldn’t take too long to decide what to do, and then we’ll be away, and you can open up again,’ Wee Renee said.
’Thanks, Wee Renee,’ Lauren said. ‘I’m just glad that we found it.’
’Not as much as I am,’ Wee Renee said.
24. The Pelt
Wee Renee systematically and excitedly rang each person to tell them that a discovery had been made and they should meet at the Pub at 6:30 pm if they wanted to see the Pelt.
Nearly everyone said they would be there, including Suzanne and Tommy. They said they would leave Bella at home, just in case she got mixed messages about maybe completing her scent mission at the Pub.
Lauren started to shut the Pub at about six. There were only a couple of people in there, and she told them that she had run out of beer. The lady said that she would go on shorts, but Lauren explained to them that she had to shut the Pub to make lots of phone calls to get everything sorted.
The couple thought this was understandable, downed their drinks, and left. Lauren shut all the curtains and locked the door. Now that she knew the skin was in the chest, she didn’t like being in here with it alone. But the fact was that she had spent a lot of the winter in here, and it had been here all the time, heaven knows for how long. Anyway, she only had a few hours left to be with it, then it would be off of her hands.
They arrived in ones and twos, knocking on the door and being admitted. Everyone wanted to see what it was like immediately. However, Wee Renee wanted all persons there before she did the big reveal. Pat, Lauren, Jackie and Gary pushed several of the square tables together to make one long one, where they would lay it out for all to see.
Terry, Carl, Our Doris and Haggis arrived from Melden.
’What’s it like?’ Terry asked Pat and Wee Renee.
‘We’re not telling you,’ Our Doris replied.
‘You never told me you had seen it,’ Terry said. ‘All the way over I’ve given you a lift and you never once told me what it was like.’
‘You never asked me what it was like. We were all together today in here and only had a quick peek in the box, just to know it was there. We didn’t get it out or anything. Remember, there was folk in here. One of them looked like Wilfred Bramble,’ Our Doris said.
‘Wilfred Bramble? Who’s he?’ Lauren asked.
‘Out of Steptoe and Son, love,’ Pat said.
‘Oh yeah, and he was in Carry on Screaming, I didn’t see anyone like that in the bar Our Doris. You need to go to Specsavers,’ Lauren said.
‘You mean Harry H. Corbett. He was the other one,’ Jackie said.
‘Corbett, Ronnie Corbett out of the Two Ronnies. The big one?’ Lauren asked.
‘Oh, I can’t listen to this anymore. Wilfred Bramble was a wizened old man with hardly any teeth. Our Doris must be on about someone like that,’ Gary said. Lauren thought about this.
‘Oh yes. He was in – Nobby,’ Lauren said.
‘Well, we got to him in the end. Nobby was in, so we didn’t get the skin out,’ Wee Renee said.
Suzanne and Tommy arrived. They felt a little apart from the group as they weren’t actually part of the Friarmere Band investigators. Lauren offered them a drink, and they stood at the back. Suzanne felt a bit weird about seeing the monster, that in real life had been looking at her through the fog. Tommy just wanted to know what they were up against.
Rick had just got home from work, and Joe arrived with him. The two men were champing at the bit and, trying to open the chest before everyone else. They were disgruntled to find it locked. Neither would be brave enough to ask Pat for the key.
’You can wait!’ Wee Renee said. ‘We all need to be here, and I know who’s coming, and there’s more to arrive yet. They’ll be here any minute. We’ve waited all this time, we can wait some more.’
’I’ve been thinking,’ Ernie said. ‘Why now? Why is it after this skin, if it has been in here for so long?’
’How long do you think it’s been in here,’ Maurice asked Lauren.
’I can’t honestly say. It’s been here a while though,’ Lauren said.
’Before all the vampire stuff?’ Carl asked.
’Oh yes,’ Lauren said. ‘I was telling Wee Renee earlier, that a whole lot of stuff was bought from a house clearance place one time. There was that chest, the grandfather clock and some chairs. I don’t know whether they all originate from the same house though.’
Bob and Adam tried to lift the chest at either side.
‘It’s so heavy,’ they said.
’Is it?’ Tony asked and walked over with Gary. They both picked up the chest at either side.
‘Didn’t you wonder why was so heavy?’ Gary asked Lauren.
’We just thought it was top quality wood. You know ‘old school’, something made to last. We were just happy that it was substantial. It could seat two heavy people on there,’ Lauren shrugged. ‘Sometimes people are a bit plump, and you don’t want them breaking their neck when a chair collapses and they end up suing you!’
’Listen you lot, this is not Lauren’s fault. That is probably the only consideration when you are buying something to sit on in the pub. Are we nearly all here?’ Wee Renee asked as the door opened again. Sue was arriving with Liz and Andy because Sue had taken up some trousers for Liz and was dropping them off.
Now everyone was there, and Wee Renee and Pat decided to do the big reveal. They walked over to the chest, and Pat got the key out from around her neck.
She put the key in the lock. It turned exactly the same as it did earlier, very stiffly. The lock opened, and Wee Renee felt the whole room hold their breath.
‘Right then,’ she said, stepping back and lifting up the lid.
They could all see the folded pelt, filling the chest to the brim. Where the skin was bent, they could see the fur had parted and that the skin underneath was quite dark.
’I wonder if it’s got a head?’ Bob asked.
’The other one does. Basil was clung onto it the other night,’ Adam said.
’Yes, but don’t forget, this one has had the insides taken out. Whoever opened it, might have opened it at the neck. Cut off the top, scooped out the insides. A bit like eating a boiled egg,’ Bob said. ‘Often the top just splinters smashed to smithereens.’
‘There is that,’ Adam said.
’Maybe the head part is underneath like a Halloween mask,’ Bob said.
’Shall we get it out?’ Wee Renee said. There wasn’t a lot of clamouring to do this, but in the end Joe, Rick, Gary and Andy stepped forward to do it.
‘Wait first,’ Our Doris said, picking Haggis up. ‘He’ll only probably try to widdle on it.’
’It’s this that is really heavy, not the chest,’ Gary said. ‘I’m surprised at how heavy a folded skin actually is.’
They all still had no idea of what it could possibly look like, from the front. They carried it carefully over to the table so that they could see it clearly. It was heavy even for the four men.
It was still folded, and Wee Renee wondered that if it became unfolded, it might crack on the folds. That might happen if it was too dry. She questioned whether it would be of any use to the beast afterwards.
The four men stepped back so that everyone could see it. There was no visible parts or pieces. For all, they knew it was one whole flat
sheet.
‘Could you go ahead and unfold it, please?’ Wee Renee asked. The men gathered around it, two either side. The others in the Pub could not see so much of what was going on. The men seemed to be unfolding it this way and that.
‘Please be gentle,’ Wee Renee said nervously. The other people knew they had it upside down when they heard Rick mutter a few words, which the other three nodded at.
‘What say?’ Pat asked, which was a saying of hers that really irked Jackie.
‘I said that it was definitely its arse,’ Rick said. Bob and Adam burst out laughing. They turned it over again, pulling the pieces out bit by bit. They looked for a moment to see that it was right, then stepped back so everyone else could gather around the table.
It must have been about eight feet long. Its toes were pointed downwards, which would give it an extra bit of height. It had pointed ears and the beginnings of a short muzzle. There seemed to be some head left inside the top part, which was attached. This was something that added to the weight of the pelt.
It was covered with dark brown hair, which was the course. It was thick enough that the Pub lights did not penetrate as far as the skin, now it was unfolded. The bottom of its feet were hairless. It was also quite clearly a male from the front. There was a smell about it. Meat, dust and brains.
It wasn’t like anything they had seen or heard of. The head was not doglike, even though it had pointed ears. It was neither wolf nor monkey or a human mixed hybrid. If the nose was anything, it was slightly pig-like. It had deeply set eyes, which were small, with a heavy brow. But the mouth was large. The corners of its mouth, even in just skin form, tilted upwards in a kind of evil grimace.
’I’m glad I didn’t see it close up,’ Suzanne said. ‘And this is definitely the same as the other one on the Moors?’
’Yes, that’s the mate,’ Wee Renee said. ‘This is what they are after. Or I should say, this is what the female was after.’
’It didn’t seem like a female,’ Suzanne said, ‘but I suppose it must have been.’
’Now we all know, the female species is deadlier than the male,’ Ernie said, laughing a little. ‘On this occasion though, this looks pretty deadly too.’
Wee Renee gingerly picked up a foot, tilting it at the bottom.
‘They certainly have big feet,’ she said. ‘It looks like they are formed like ours, apart from the fact that it doesn’t seem to have an arch. He is very flat-footed,’ Wee Renee said.
His hands were large. It was an altogether scary and menacing sight. Like an evil grizzly bear. There was no doubt that if this wanted to kill you, you would be dead.
’What do you think Pat?’ Our Doris asked.
‘Furry genitalia. I wonder how it copes with that!’ Pat said.
‘That’s exactly what I was thinking!’ Our Doris said. The thought hadn’t crossed anyone else’s mind.
’It doesn’t look like a lucky charm,’ Bob said. ‘Not as much as I wanted it to anyway. It looks like it needs one itself!’
’It looks like a missing link,’ Liz said. ‘but the missing link between a monster, which is on the way to being human.’
’I hope no-one ever evolved from this,’ Our Doris said.
’What do we do with it now?’ Tommy asked.
’I think we’ll have to lock it back in the box until we decide what to do,’ Alan said. It was the first thing that he or Ann had said. These were people that were a little shocked to be in the Pub and to witness this kind of stuff.
These types of things, if you heard about them, did not seem so bad. However, when you were in the room with something this evil, this grotesque, it put it all into perspective.
’I’m putting it right out there now. I don’t want it here another night,’ Lauren said. ‘If that things wife breaks in, and it looks like that too, I’m going to be one dead barmaid. I’m sorry, I want it out tonight.’
’Wherever this skin is, will not be safe,’ Wee Renee said. ‘That chest was the safest place. It was somewhere that there were lots of people, a heftily locked door, and it couldn’t get to it. Even so, I understand Laurens reasoning after the break-in at Sue and Tony’s. There is only one thing for it.’
’What is it?’ Pat asked.
’The only option. But you’re not going to like it. Not one of you!’ Wee Renee said, her eyebrows raised at them all.
25. Tracking the Varmint
‘Find the varmint tonight. Track the beast down using our dogs and hand over the skin. That way no one person is in danger in Friarmere. I’m not having it in my house, and neither is Pat,’ Wee Renee said.
’Too right,’ Pat said, folding her arms.
’I suppose we could put it in The Grange,’ Alan said.
’What? So, it breaks in and smashes all of our good work. Where our instruments are? Where our music library is?’ Ernie asked.
’Actually, it’s Melden Silver Bands photocopied music library to be precise. That could be replaced if required,’ Terry said.
‘Well someone else can photocopy them again because I’m not,’ Freddie said.
‘We’re not anyway. It’s not going in The Grange,’ Ernie said finally.
’Could we leave it out on the Moors?’ Maurice said. ‘Leave it with that other stuff that Tommy and Suzanne found, somewhere where it could find it.’
‘I don’t know about Wee Renee,’ Gary said, ‘but I wouldn’t chance that. What if something else got hold of it like a badger? Or a dog runs off with it and ruins it so that we couldn’t hand it over. We don’t know if it is useful to another supernatural creature. There’s plenty up there on the Moors. We can’t take the chance that it wouldn’t find it before it got damaged. Besides, it is pretty foggy and damp out there tonight. What happens if this gets wet? I mean the monster seems to still want it, so it should be viable for … well … I don’t know what. In here, it’s been kept dry, so it says to me that we shouldn’t get it wet,’ Gary said.
’I think you’re right there. We have to hand it over ourselves, but I’ve been thinking about this. The creature did not want to attack two people. It did not attack Suzanne and Tommy with Bella. If we all go, then we’ll all be safe. We hand it over and then everyone is safe. The more that can come on this mission, the safer we will be,’ Wee Renee said.
Of course, she was talking to a bunch of heroes, and every single one of them said that they would come.
’Tommy and Suzanne? On the way up to the tops, can we pick up Bella?’ Wee Renee asked.
’Yes of course,’ Tommy said.
’We already have Haggis here. Unfortunately, Beryl didn’t come tonight because Bambi had been sick this afternoon after Beryl got back from the investigating. She thinks that it is separation anxiety because she was out all afternoon. So that’s why she didn’t come. I don’t think that we’ll call for Bambi. We should be able to manage with Haggis and Bella,’ Wee Renee said.
’What do you think about getting Tilly involved, Ann?’ Alan asked.
’Alan, she’s old and tired. I don’t want to go myself really, but I will. I feel old and tired tonight. If we take Tilly, we will have to put about three coats on her. You know when she goes out in the wet, she gets a cold,’ Ann said.
’That’s true. In that case, I’m withdrawing the offer of Tilly,’ Alan said.
’It’s alright Alan, I think we should be fine with Haggis and Bella. Come on let’s get on with it,’ Wee Renee said. Lauren said she had better open up the Pub and take the notice off the door.
‘Well this will be gone,’ Wee Renee said, pointing to the pelt. ‘I think you will be safe because the creature doesn’t come out until everyone is in bed. I hope to have delivered the skin over to it well before then.’
‘How are we going to transport that up the bank?’ Carl asked.
‘Ooh yes Rene, that’s a problem,’ Pat said. The room was quiet for a while.
‘No, it’s not,’ Joe said. ‘Two ticks and I’ll be back.’ Joe went out of the Pub, and
within five minutes they heard a squeaking, and he banged loudly on the door. Joe wheeled a khaki metal wheelbarrow into the pub.
‘Perfect, that is. Good lad,’ Our Doris said. Several of them loaded it into the wheelbarrow, and Lauren fetched a roll of bin bags. Several of the women tucked them over and around the pelt to keep it dry and to shield it from human eyes.
No sooner had they all trekked out, Lauren started to see people walking into the bar. She still felt that she was not safe, even though the creature would not be able to smell the pelt inside the chest any longer. She thought that it had been in there that long the actual wood smelled of it.
What she didn’t know was that Pat had thought of this already and had sprinkled half a pint of beer in there, and a bag of cheese and onion crisps, before locking it.
The whole gang set off up through Friarmere. They all felt a bit easier when they had got off the High Street. Over twenty people, crowded around a squeaking wheelbarrow as they pushed it, especially these particular people, would definitely look fishy.
The first stop would be near the top of Wellmeadow, to pick up Bella, and then maybe start at the Moors, which they felt was the creature’s home. Perhaps it would smell the skin and come out.
Wee Renee hoped that she would be bold enough to come out and not hide somewhere, or they would have to hide it again, for her to find it. She hoped The Barbara would see that this was a gesture of goodwill too and leave them all alone.
When they got to Tommy and Suzanne’s house to pick up Bella, Haggis seemed to be pulling upwards towards the top of the road.
None of them really wanted to go up to the Moors, they hoped it was up at The Grange. Not only did they not want to go there, but pushing a wheelbarrow took an awful lot of effort, especially when it was up a hill. Each man was taking a turn every five minutes.
When they got to the junction where they would have to turn left to The Grange, the dogs continued. There were off to a desolate, barren land. They would be fighting the creature on his territory. Tonight, that was acceptable. The Friarmere heroes were confident with the sheer amount of people that were trying to end this nightmare.
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