Star Drawn Saga (Book 1): Death Among The Dead: A Zombie Novel (45 page)

‘Right,’ she said to herself, stepping into the small bedroom that looked very much like Brother Alex’s. ‘Let’s see what you’re hiding.’

Just like in Brother Alex’s room there was a freestanding cupboard, a small chest of drawers that had been placed under the room’s only window, an uncomfortable looking chair and a single bed above which three shelves had been attached to the wall. Taking a cursory look under the bed, Fran was rewarded with yet more boxes of goods purloined during scavenging trips to the mainland.

‘
So you and Brother Alex were business partners
,’ Fran thought to herself, idly picking up a tin of custard. ‘
Bet you had a very profitable racket going on here…
’

Suddenly something on one of the shelves above the bed happened to catch her eye and as she stared at it, trying to process what she was seeing, the tin slipped, forgotten, from her fingers tips.

‘What the?’ she mumbled, slightly stunned as she scrambled across the bed to get a better look at the small framed photograph.

Gingerly she reached forward to pick up the small silver plated frame, still not truly believing what she was seeing.

‘It… can’t be,’ she said, looking down at the tiny framed photograph, its silver plating mostly worn away by years of handling.

But sure enough, no matter how much she doubted what she saw, the man in the photo was Max, a lot younger but definitely him; and more shocking was that of the two smiling children he held in his arms, the little boy bore a remarkable resemblance to Brother John.

***

‘And w…why aren’t we going straight to F…Father Matthew?’ asked Kai, pushing open the heavy door that opened out into the jerry rigged, yet surprisingly warm, polythene greenhouse.

For a moment Fran said nothing, holding a finger to her lips as she listened for the sound of anyone that could overhear their conversation.

‘Because we don’t know anything yet... not for certain,’ she replied, once she was sure they were alone, ‘and anyway, even if by some miracle Max and Brother John are related, how does that help us? I mean, why would they go on a killing spree when they’ve just found each other again? No, there are too many questions here and not enough answers.’

‘And you think J...Jane will be able to help us?’ said Kai, not looking too convinced with Fran’s plan.

‘Well, we don’t want to play our hand too soon,’ she replied, as they followed the winding pathway through the lush greenery, ‘and asking Dave is a non-starter, he’s hardly going to tell us anything that will incriminate his brother.’

‘And J…Jane will?’ wondered Kai, pausing briefly to pull a fat pea pod free from a nearby plant.

‘Oh, trust me,’ said Fran, reaching for a pod of her own as they carried on walking, ‘I doubt Max and Jane are best buddies... she’ll tell us whatever she knows.’

‘L…let’s hope so,’ sighed Kai, splitting the pod with his thumb to reveal the fat peas within.

As the two of them tossed back the contents of their pods, savouring the brief sweet taste of the peas, they arrived at the outside door and through its slightly rippled thick polythene covering Fran could see Rod sat on a stone bench under a nearby tree poking at the ground with the end of a walking stick.

‘There’s Rod,’ she quietly muttered, pushing open the door and instantly regretting it as a rush of cold sea breeze swept past her, ‘come on, we might as well tie up that loose end while he’s here.’

Waving to the man as they slowly walked over; she received a half-hearted welcome nod in response.

‘Erm… Rod,’ she began, unsure just how to tell the man his wife had been cheating on him.

‘Save your breath, girl,’ he wearily replied, as he lent back against the tree, ‘I already know, she’s told me.’

‘Emily?’ said Fran, just to clarify.

‘Yep,’ he nodded, the look of thunder that danced across his face doing little to hide the obvious hurt that flooded in in its wake. ‘She told me about her and that Brother Christopher.’

‘Oh… and… and you didn’t know before?’ she tentatively asked, at least grateful Emily had already come clean, if only because Father Matthew had prompted Rod to talk to her.

No sooner had the question fallen from her lips than the look of total desolation on Rod’s face gave her the answer she sought. No, he clearly had had no idea of what had been going on.

‘I’m sorry… I,’ she rushed in to say, her hand reaching out, wanting to comfort him but holding back in case a floodgate was opened, ‘I had to ask…you under…’

‘Understand, yeah… yeah, I understand,’ he interrupted, his words almost breaking. ‘She was crying when she told me,’ he went on to say after a pause, looking up at Fran with sorrowful eyes. ‘The only other time I’ve ever seen that woman cry like that was when Graham was born and when her dad died... it tore me up to seeing her like that… Guess that makes me a bit of a mug, doesn’t it? She cheats on me and I feel sorry for her.’

‘It’s your life, Rod,’ said Fran quietly, knowing she had no easy answers to give him. ‘Only you can decide if you still want Emily in it.’

‘Christ!’ he sighed, wiping away a single errant tear. ‘It’s not as if either of us can even move away and get on with our lives… we’re sort of stuck here together, regardless.’

‘No, I guess you can’t,’ she agreed, a sad sympathetic smile ghosting across her lips. ‘Erm…’ she continued, knowing she had one more question she needed to ask him, ‘Rod, I need to ask you something else…do… do you think Graham knew… about Emily and Brother Christopher, could he have known about their affair?’

‘No, what you’re asking me, Fran, is do I think Graham killed Brother Christopher and got all this horror show rolling?’ he replied, his eyes daring her to contradict him.

‘Okay, yeah, I guess I am,’ she replied, folding her arms defensively. ‘Well?’ she continued, still waiting for his answer. ‘He’s your son… what do you think?’

‘Please,’ Rod barked incredulously, ‘that boy wouldn’t say boo to a goose… he acts tough but that’s all it is, an act. He’s just a fifteen year old boy that’s been forced to grow up too quickly.’

‘Yeah, an apocalypse can do that to a person,’ sighed Fran, knowing from what she had seen of Graham in action, Rod was probably right, he didn’t have it in him.

‘But whether he knew or not?’ Rod continued, with a sad shrug of his shoulders. ‘I don’t know… I hope not… a boy doesn’t need to be carrying round that sort of secret about his mother.’

‘No, I guess he doesn’t,’ mumbled Fran as she watched Rod use his walking stick to take out his frustrations on a stubborn tuft of grass. ‘And how’s the ankle, by the way?’ she went on to ask, feeling he needed a change of topic.

‘It’s been better,’ he grumbled, giving the grass another sharp jab. ‘Of course running from hungry corpses yesterday didn’t help.’

‘No,’ said Fran, smiling sympathetically, ‘I’m sure it didn’t. Oh, by the way,’ she continued, realising she was probably done here, ‘I’m looking for Jane, I don’t suppose you’ve seen her, have you?’

‘Yeah…’ Rod replied, pointing down the lane toward the cottages with his walking stick. ‘Last I saw of her, she was with her son. What’s his name? Riley, yeah Riley… anyway she’s with him and that slow bloke with the Alsatian, I think they’re planning on moving into old Frank’s place…now that it’s empty.’

‘Thanks… but what about the door?’ asked Fran as an afterthought, remembering the way it had been ripped from its hinges.

‘Oh, Father Matthew saw to it that someone fixed it this morning,’ Rod replied. ‘He’s keen on getting them settled… putting all this behind us and getting life round here back to normal… well his version of normal anyway.’

‘Ha!’ Fran chuckled. ‘Yeah, I know what you mean. Anyway, thanks again,’ she went on to say with a smile, as she signalled to Kai that they were leaving. ‘See you around, Rod…and try to keep the weight of that ankle. It’ll heal quicker.’

‘Yes, Doctor,’ Rod replied with a nod, his own smile a little too brittle and strained to be truly convincing.

As Fran and Kai walked off, leaving Rod behind them, she hoped he would find some way to forgive Emily’s betrayal and move forward with her still by his side; after all there was enough heartache and sadness in the world at the moment as it was, they didn’t need more.

***

‘Knock, knock!’ said Fran, poking her head round the open doorway. ‘Anyone home?’

‘Down here!’ grunted Jane, from somewhere under the kitchen table. ‘Oh, move out of the way, Jack... stupid dog,’ she went on to mutter, clearly not talking to Fran anymore.

‘Oh,’ said Fran, ducking down to look under the table where Jane’s scrubbing of the floor was being hampered by a forlorn looking Jack, ‘there you are…. Having a spring clean?’

‘Something like that,’ said Jane, dropping a worn scrubbing brush into a bucket of water as she leant back to sit on her heels, ‘you know, trying to make it a home… our home.’

‘I know,’ Fran agreed, taking something from her pocket. ‘Look,’ she continued, gesturing for Jane to get up off the floor, ‘we need to ask you about something.’

‘Sounds serious,’ said Jane, looking from Fran to Kai as she got to her feet and began to roll down her damp sleeves. ‘What’s up?’

‘This,’ Fran simply replied, reaching forward to place the small silver frame on the table in front of Jane.

‘What the?’ Jane started to say, leaning forward to take the framed photograph.

‘What can you tell us about Max... his past, I mean,’ said Fran, wanting to get right to the point.

‘God, he looks so much younger…’ Jane began, tilting the photo to catch the light, ‘and it’s probably only been what? Ten… no, twelve years ago. I guess we’ve all aged a bit in the last five years.’

‘Jane,’ Fran prompted, nodding for her to actually reply.

‘Oh, sorry, yes…’ she started to say, placing the frame back on the table in front of her. ‘Well, let’s see… it must have been about thirteen or so years ago when Max’s wife, Elaine, was diagnosed with cancer… they tried all they could to save her but it was too late, it had already spread. Apparently she had a pretty hard time of it, what with the twins and all... and when she finally died… well, Max, he just went to pieces.’

‘Sorry,’ interrupted Fran, ‘twins? So Max has two children?’

‘No… not anymore,’ Jane replied, glancing down at the photo again. ‘As hard a time as Elaine had with her terminal diagnosis, Max had it twice as bad when she finally died… He had always liked a drink but with his life falling apart around him, he let it take over and soon he was downing bottles of vodka like there was no tomorrow… which I suppose for him he thought there wasn’t. Anyway, social services got involved and of course the kids were eventually taken into care. I don’t know what happened to them after that, if they were fostered out or anything. I guess they’re both dead now anyway,’ she continued, picking up the frame again, clearly unaware of the similarity between the young boy in the photo and Brother John. ‘Course Dave blamed himself, thought he should have done more…. But then that’s Dave all over, always wanting to save people. He was the same when we met at Bournemouth University. I was a mature student there and still getting over… Anyway,’ she rushed on to say, suddenly dismissing her train of thought, with an irritated wave, ‘that’s what he does, he saves people and it killed him to let Max down when he needed him most but what could he do? Social services were hardly going to give two six year old children to a single bloke, no matter how well meaning he was.’

‘Thanks,’ said Fran, realising Max’s story, such as it was, ended there. ‘Can… can I ask you not to say anything about the photo,’ she went on to say, holding out her hand waiting for the frame to be returned, ‘not even to Dave, not yet.’

‘Sure,’ said Jane, handing the frame back, the look on her face showing she was clearly bemused by the request, ‘whatever you say.’

With a smile of gratitude, Fran slipped the framed photograph back in her pocket and turned to leave.

‘Well, see you later,’ said Fran, as Kai held the door open for them both.

‘I don’t think they’re right you know,’ Jane suddenly called after them. ‘About Tom, I mean. I don’t think he’s to blame.’

‘Thanks,’ said Fran, before turning away, ‘and no, neither do we.’

***

As luck should have it, Fran and Kai got to fill in another piece of their puzzle within moments of leaving Jane. No sooner had they started walking towards the harbour than they ran into Lucy carrying a large wicker basket of mussels and crabs.

‘Hi, Lucy, how’s Scott?’ asked Fran, remembering how devastated he been at the loss of his mother.

‘He went out this early this morning,’ Lucy replied, gesturing to the basket in her arms. ‘He was quiet when he got back but I think being out on the water helped him a bit… it always calms him down, being out there with just the gulls and the waves to keep his thoughts company.’

Fran and Kai both nodded as if they understood.  

‘Anyway, I’m glad I found you,’ Lucy continued, slowly lowering the basket to the ground to momentarily rest her tired arms. ‘I wanted to talk to you both.’

‘Is this anything to do with why Scott lied about not coming back to the island yesterday?’ asked Fran, getting right to the point.

‘What? How… how did you know?’ flustered Lucy, taken aback that Fran had already guessed the truth. ‘Anyway, yes… yes, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.’