Into the Thinnest of Air

  ‘Was it human?’ said Jimmy.

  ‘I think so.’ Valerie sounded seriously shaken. ‘I only saw it for a moment. It could have been a man or a woman, but something about it was wrong …’

  ‘Everyone stay put,’ I said. ‘Don’t leave the room, don’t go off on your own. Don’t do anything … Penny and I are going outside to take a look.’

  ‘Damn right!’ Penny said briskly. ‘You’re not leaving me behind this time.’

  ‘You’re leaving us on our own?’ said Thomas. ‘You said you’d protect us!’

  ‘This is me protecting you by going after the facts,’ I said. ‘We won’t be gone long. You’ll all be perfectly safe as long as you stick together.’

  I strode over to the front door, pulled away the coat stand, and opened the door. A gust of cold wind hit me in the face like a slap. I looked quickly round the car park. It all seemed perfectly still and empty. Penny squeezed into the doorway beside me.

  ‘At least something’s happening now,’ she said happily. ‘I don’t see anything. Do you see anything?’

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘And I can’t hear anything in this wind.’

  ‘Do we at least have a plan, darling?’

  ‘See what there is to see, and if anything moves hit it till it doesn’t.’

  ‘Good plan,’ said Penny.

  I led the way out into the car park, leaning forward into the force of the wind. Penny stuck close behind me, using my body as a windbreak. Nothing was moving in the wide open space, and there was nothing to see but the four parked cars. No tree, and very definitely no one standing outside any of the Castle’s windows. Penny braved the wind to move beside me, so she could shout in my ear.

  ‘Did you really expect to find anyone out here?’

  ‘Not really,’ I said. ‘A sudden face at a window? That’s a very old trick. The easiest distraction in the world – show your face for a moment and then run away. Guaranteed to make people leave the one place they’re safe and go somewhere they aren’t. That’s why I ordered the others to stay put.’

  ‘You think it was just a distraction?’ said Penny.

  ‘Has to be,’ I said. ‘But from what? When taking Olivia, our kidnapper didn’t need anything to hold our attention. Just waited till she was out of sight …’

  I glared around me. It was so dark there was no point in checking the ground below the windows for footprints, or any other physical evidence. Just as there was no point in circling round the inn looking for our peeping tom. Whoever it was had had plenty of time to disappear by now. The car park stretched away before me, open and empty and entirely unhelpful.

  ‘Are we sure there really was someone at the window?’ said Penny. ‘No one else saw it. Maybe Valerie was just seeing things. Like Albert and the ghost tree.’

  ‘I find a face at the window easier to believe than a tree that comes and goes,’ I said. ‘But why risk showing your face when you’ve gone out of your way to stay hidden and leave no clues?’

  ‘Valerie did say there was something wrong with the face …’

  ‘She also said she only saw it for a moment. People under stress see all kinds of things. You know, Penny, I really hate this case. No body, no clues, and our only evidence is people seeing things … All I’ve got to go on is my impression of how trustworthy everyone else is. And taking the measure of people’s characters has never been my strong point.’

  ‘Good thing you’ve got me, then,’ said Penny. ‘But you’re right, nothing that’s happened so far seems to make any sense.’

  ‘Apart from the face at the window.’

  ‘Apart from that, yes.’

  ‘There wasn’t any story about faces looking in through the window,’ I said. ‘So at least this is something new.’

  ‘Someone is using the old stories to draw suspicions away from themselves,’ said Penny. ‘Making people think about stories from the past instead of concentrating on what’s going on now.’

  ‘So we wouldn’t look for modern-day motivations. But I still can’t see why this is happening. What’s the point of all this? No one seems to have any reason to kidnap or hurt Olivia. And why go out of their way to keep us here afterwards? To carry off more people? No one here tonight is in any way important or rich. Or anything, really … Just ordinary people enjoying a night out.’

  ‘We’re not ordinary,’ said Penny.

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘And that’s to our advantage. The kidnapper had no way of knowing that people like us, with our background in investigating weird shit, would be here.’

  ‘Maybe none of this has anything to do with the Castle,’ said Penny. ‘Maybe it’s all to do with the guests. Or the smugglers! Some hidden treasure they left behind, which someone uncovered a clue to during the renovations …’

  I looked at her steadily. ‘This is not an episode of Scooby-Doo. And I really don’t see how the workmen could have uncovered anything and then kept it to themselves, with Olivia and Albert standing over them all the time.’

  ‘They couldn’t be everywhere,’ Penny said stubbornly. ‘Maybe the kidnapper thinks Olivia knows something about the treasure. And that’s why they took her, to interrogate her.’

  ‘Maybe,’ I said kindly.

  ‘Or it could turn out to be an alien abduction after all … And we’re all going to end up probed!’

  ‘I think it’s time for us to go back in,’ I said. ‘If only because I don’t trust any of them out of my sight.’

  Once we were safely back inside, in the warm and out of the cold, I shut the door firmly and jammed the coat stand back in place again. Not because I thought there was anything outside, but because I didn’t want any of the others to be able to leave without my knowing about it. They were all still sitting round the table, studying Penny and me with sharp, questioning eyes. They’d obviously been talking about us while we were gone. Jimmy gestured at the coat stand.

  ‘Making sure we can’t leave?’

  ‘Perish the thought,’ I said. ‘Just making sure no one can get in without us knowing about it.’

  ‘Did you find anyone out there?’ said Valerie.

  ‘No,’ I said.

  ‘They were there,’ Valerie said stubbornly. ‘Somebody was out there, in the night. Maybe they can come and go, like the tree …’

  ‘Hold it!’ I said. ‘Where’s Thomas?’

  ‘It’s all right,’ said Eileen. ‘He’s in the toilet. He wasn’t feeling well. It’s just his nerves. He’ll be out in a minute, when he’s feeling more himself again.’

  ‘You shouldn’t have let him go!’ I said. ‘I told all of you to stay here together!’

  ‘You’re not our boss!’ Jimmy said immediately. ‘We don’t have to take your orders!’

  ‘You do if you want to stay alive,’ I said.

  Jimmy started to get to his feet, but Valerie grabbed him by the arm and he sank back down again. Still scowling in my direction.

  ‘I didn’t think you wanted Thomas throwing up over everything,’ said Eileen. ‘There’s nothing to worry about, he hasn’t left the room. And I haven’t taken my eyes off the toilet door since he went in there.’

  ‘We could all see the door to the kitchen when Olivia disappeared,’ said Penny. ‘It didn’t help her.’

  ‘How long has Thomas been gone?’ I said.

  They all looked at each other, and for the first time I saw signs of concern. Everyone looked at the closed door to the toilet, tucked away under the staircase.

  ‘It has been a while,’ said Jimmy.

  ‘It’s just a small box of a room,’ said Eileen. ‘With no other way out, not even a window.’

  ‘Just like the kitchen!’ said Albert.

  One by one they all rose to their feet. We stood together, staring at the closed toilet door.

  ‘He’s probably just too embarrassed to come out,’ said Eileen. She marched down the room to the toilet and knocked on the door. ‘Thomas? Thomas, it’s me. Are you all right in there?’

  We all
waited, straining our ears against the quiet, but there was no reply. Eileen frowned and knocked again, louder. I went forward to stand beside her. Eileen tried the door handle, but it wouldn’t open. I hit the door with my fist, hard enough to make the heavy wooden door jump in its frame.

  ‘Thomas, this is Ishmael. We’re worried about you. Either you open this door or I’ll smash it in!’

  No reply. I hit the door with my shoulder and it sprang open, slamming back against the inner wall to reveal a completely empty room. The light was on and the seat was upright, but apart from that there was nothing to show Thomas had ever been there. Just like the toilet upstairs, the room was tiny: barely big enough to hold the toilet bowl and wash basin. There was nowhere Thomas could have gone. Nowhere. Eileen made a low, shocked noise.

  ‘I swear I didn’t take my eyes off the door for a moment … Thomas?’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘He’s gone. Just like Olivia.’

  I expected tears from her, anger or hysteria, but instead Eileen’s mouth flattened into a grim line and she looked at me coldly.

  ‘Then we’ll just have to find him, won’t we?’

  I stepped carefully forward into the room. Two steps and I was standing over the bowl. I tapped on the walls, but they all gave the same flat sound. I stamped on the floor but it was solid stone, and because of the stairs above there was no way out through the ceiling. I checked the inside of the door. It hadn’t been locked, just bolted on the inside, and I’d broken the bolt when I smashed the door in. I shook my head slowly. I really hate locked-room murder mysteries. I stepped back out of the room, closed the door, and looked at the others.

  Eileen glared at me, refusing to believe there was nothing else I could do. Jimmy was holding Valerie comfortingly in his arms, or maybe she was holding him. Albert was sitting down again, as if all the strength had gone out of him. Penny was looking at the toilet as though she couldn’t believe what had just happened.

  ‘I thought he was safe,’ said Eileen. ‘I thought he’d be fine as long as I kept an eye on him.’

  ‘It only takes a moment,’ I said. ‘Was there any kind of distraction while Penny and I were outside?’

  ‘No, nothing,’ said Jimmy. ‘We’ve all just been sitting here. Not even talking much.’

  ‘I didn’t hear anything,’ said Valerie. ‘Did anyone hear anything?’

  They all shook their heads. Eileen grabbed my arm and made me turn round to look at her.

  ‘Find him, find my husband.’

  ‘I will,’ I said. ‘But for now I think we all need to sit down again and talk this through.’

  Jimmy laughed suddenly, a sharp bitter sound. ‘You always want us to sit down! How is that going to help?’

  ‘Because you’ll all feel better sitting down,’ I said. ‘And we need to rest and conserve our strength if we’re going to make it through the night. It’s still quite a few hours until dawn.’

  Eileen led the way back to the table, her back straight and her head up. She’d lost her husband, but not her self control. We all took our usual seats, then looked at each other for a long moment, hoping one of us had something new to offer. Eileen had a look of grim determination. Jimmy and Valerie sat side by side, holding hands. He looked twitchy, she looked lost. Albert looked like his worst fears had been confirmed. Penny looked shaken. I knew how she felt. One impossible disappearance was bad enough. But a second, from inside a room whose door had been bolted on the inside … This wasn’t just a mystery, it was an assault on common sense. It simply wasn’t possible.

  ‘Are you sure there wasn’t anyone out in the car park?’ Valerie said finally. ‘I really did see someone.’

  ‘Not a trace,’ I said.

  ‘Hardly surprising,’ said Jimmy. His voice was steady, but I could hear the effort that took. ‘They weren’t going to hang around after they’d been spotted, were they? And given how fast things are happening around here, they must be pretty damned quick on their feet.’ He looked at the middle window and then at me. ‘But, just in case that wasn’t our kidnapper out there, if it was something else … How safe are we in here? How secure is the Castle, really?’

  ‘You’ve seen the thickness of the outer walls,’ said Albert. ‘Over two foot thick in places. The smugglers built this inn to be strong enough to hold off any enemy. That’s why there’s only the one door, to make the place easier to defend.’

  ‘It wasn’t enough to stop the Revenue Men getting in and slaughtering most of the smugglers,’ said Valerie. ‘Their precious fortress wasn’t strong enough to save them in the end, was it?’

  ‘You said you used to work in security, Ishmael,’ said Jimmy. ‘Do you have a gun on you?’

  ‘I don’t normally carry weapons,’ I said. ‘And I really didn’t think I’d need one this evening.’

  ‘Terrific!’ said Jimmy.

  ‘Are all of you sure you didn’t hear anything while we were gone?’ said Penny. ‘Anything at all?’

  ‘We didn’t even hear you moving around outside,’ said Valerie. ‘And since none of us felt like talking much, it was pretty quiet in here.’

  ‘Quiet as the grave,’ said Jimmy.

  The others looked at him, but none of them could summon up the strength to reprimand him. He looked almost disappointed.

  ‘The face at the window was a distraction,’ I said. ‘Designed to get some of us to go outside and investigate. To split up the group and make those who remained more vulnerable to attack.’

  ‘Why didn’t they go after you, instead of Thomas?’ said Eileen.

  ‘Because Ishmael and I were together,’ said Penny. ‘And Thomas was on his own. Out of everyone’s sight. Like Olivia.’

  ‘So, from now on nobody is to go off on their own for any reason,’ I said.

  ‘Poor Thomas!’ said Jimmy. ‘Caught with his pants down.’

  Eileen hit him hard on the shoulder. So did Valerie.

  ‘I was just saying!’ said Jimmy, though he seemed a little relieved that things were back to normal where he was concerned. ‘Look … The supernatural doesn’t make plans, it doesn’t need distractions. It just does what it does. So I would have to say that it’s looking more and more as though people, not ghosts or monsters, are behind all of this.’

  ‘But people couldn’t do this!’ said Valerie. ‘Make people vanish under impossible conditions!’

  ‘They’re only impossible until you understand how it was done,’ I said. ‘Like any magician’s trick.’

  ‘Thomas wouldn’t have gone quietly,’ said Eileen. ‘Scared, even panicking, he would still have put up a fight. That’s just how he was … How he is …’

  ‘Exactly!’ said Valerie. ‘There’s no way this could be the work of some ordinary kidnapper, or kidnappers. Thomas would have kicked their arse.’ She looked at me defiantly. ‘What happened to Olivia freaked Thomas out, but he was no coward.’

  ‘I never said he was,’ I said.

  ‘Olivia was a fighter too,’ said Albert. ‘She would never have gone quietly. She never did anything quietly in her life.’

  ‘I know you don’t want it to be anything supernatural, Ishmael,’ said Valerie. ‘I’m sure such things don’t normally enter into your nice, sane security man’s world. But I’ve done enough research into these things to know weird stuff does happen. I’m convinced one of the old stories connected to the Castle must hold the answer to what’s happening here. We just have to work out which one …’

  The irony of the situation was not lost on me. Normally, I’d be the one searching for some kind of clue as to what kind of unnatural thing we were facing.

  ‘Do you think Olivia and Thomas are dead?’ said Eileen.

  Jimmy and Valerie actually looked relieved that someone else had asked the question, so they didn’t have to. Albert sat hunched over, his head hanging down, not taking any part in the conversation. Penny looked at me, to see what I would say.

  ‘I don’t believe either of them are dead,’ I said carefully.
‘If the person behind all of this wanted them dead, they’d have just done the job and left the bodies for us to find. Instead, they went to a great deal of trouble to make Olivia and Thomas disappear without a trace. There must be a reason for that.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Jimmy. ‘That makes sense. So even if one of us does disappear, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a death sentence. We could still be found and rescued.’ He smiled briefly. ‘That’s a weight off my mind!’

  He was jumping to conclusions. But it clearly made him feel better, so I let him.

  ‘Olivia and Thomas disappeared,’ Valerie said slowly. ‘So did the tree in the car park. The hanging tree. Could there be a connection with that?’

  ‘I would have to see this very special tree for myself before I believed in it,’ I said firmly. ‘In fact I would need to be able to walk up to it, kick it in the trunk, and maybe even swing on its branches. And even then I might not give it the benefit of the doubt. I don’t see any supernatural element in what’s happening here. Some person is abducting people in a way we don’t yet understand. That’s all.’

  ‘None so deaf as those who stick their fingers in their ears …’ said Jimmy.

  ‘You can’t keep dismissing the facts, Ishmael!’ said Valerie. ‘Just because you don’t want to believe in the supernatural. Not when there are so many strange stories connected not just to the Castle but to the whole surrounding area.’

  ‘But they’re all bullshit,’ said Eileen. ‘When did you start believing in the crap we peddle to tourists, Val? You seem very keen to make us believe in a supernatural solution to the disappearances. Why is that?’

  ‘Because it’s the only answer that makes sense,’ said Valerie. ‘Don’t blind yourself with limited thinking, Eileen. It’s a bigger world than most people realize. They don’t let themselves believe, for the sake of a quiet life. But I’ve done a lot of research into these old stories. I’m writing a book. Remember?’

  ‘You never let us forget,’ said Eileen.

  Valerie started to say something sharp, but Jimmy cut in quickly to stop her.

  ‘Don’t let her get to you, Val. She’s just upset over what’s happened to Thomas. That’s all.’