The Cryptid Files (10 page)

In the 1930s, there was a reward of £20,000 offered for the live capture of the Loch Ness Monster.

Vanessa climbed back up to the pile of stones that guarded the bones of Nessie's mother. She was curious about it. Maybe she could find more clues about that girl, Lena, whoever she was.

She found the climb harder this time than before. She paused for a moment and looked down, but there was no sign of Nessie. She stared at the water, feeling its draw but also needing to reach the cave.

Once inside the cave again, she sat beside the pile of rocks where Lena had made a kind of grave for the bones. Lena – of course! That was the name of the girl she'd read about in one of those cuttings she'd found. She'd gone missing, hadn't she?

Vanessa took a stone from the pile and waited for Nessie to talk to her, but nothing happened, so she removed a few more. She dismantled the pyramid stone by stone until she saw the first bone. It was a curved rib bone, she guessed, at least 3 feet long. She ran her fingers along the smooth edge and tried to visualise the size of Nessie's mother. She must have been huge when she came into the loch. Nessie was clearly not yet fully grown. If she was to travel back to the sea, now was the time to do it, while she was still small enough not to get crushed by boats in the shallow parts of the canal. Yes! She had to find Nessie. She had to persuade her to try.

She placed the bones carefully back in their grave and piled the rocks back up. Still no communication from Nessie. How could she help her home? She sat back against the cave wall and closed her eyes to imagine it. She could draw a map. She knew the way, and she could explain it all to Nessie.

She climbed down quickly to the lower cave to look for Nessie. No sign.

Picking up a sharp piece of stone, Vanessa began to draw on the softer surface of the cave wall. She drew a route map for Nessie, a picture of the journey from Loch Ness through the canal and the series of lock-gates she'd need to negotiate to get back to the sea.

The first lock-gate is Lock Dochgarroch. There are four more at Muirtown. Then you're at the sea-locks at Inverness. Once you're through those, you swim under the enormous bridge, Kessock Bridge it's called, and out to sea, the Atlantic Ocean. It's as easy as that, Nessie, and remember, you're still quite small, you won't get hurt.

But Nessie didn't answer.

Finally, Vanessa put a large arrow, pointing in the right direction. Thank God she had studied the maps of the Caledonian Canal and the lock-gates as well as she had.

If Nessie wasn't going to talk to her, she'd better go and find her. Quickly scraping another handful of moss from the cave wall, she dived in.

She swam down and down. Nothing. Where was Nessie?

She was starting to feel cold now. She'd never felt cold before, no matter how deep she'd swum down. And it was getting darker. Was her glow starting to fade? She could barely see her own hands and arms through the murky water.

Her chest tightened and she felt herself sinking.

Look at the map, Nessie, she thought urgently as the blackness engulfed her. It'll show you the way.

On 15 October 2005, Robbie Girvan, owner of the Loch Ness Caravan Park at Invermoriston was out at 6pm walking his dogs on the loch shore. He saw a creature, which he described as having a 4 foot high head and neck, rise out of the water. Previously a non
-
believer, he said that the ‘dark green and silvery' creature could only have been Nessie.

It took less than five minutes for the lights of the powerboat to pick out the upturned rowing boat. Alan's heart sank. Why was it overturned? He felt as if he might get sick over the side of the boat any minute. Frank used his walkie-talkie to call in his son.

‘Hamish, we've found the boat. We're about 200 metres east of Morag's place. We'll need all the light we can get.'

But Alan couldn't wait. Within seconds, he had taken off his boots and coat and dived into the cold water. There was no way Vanessa could have survived long in these icy temperatures. With each strong stroke, he said her name in his head until he reached the rowing boat. It was pitch black when he went under it, and he flailed his arms about, his hands banging off the wood, in the desperate hope of finding her. When he came back up, they were all waiting in silence. He shook his head weakly and heard a cry which he guessed was either Ronan or Luke.

Frank leaned over and yanked him, dripping, onto the floor of the motorboat. Lee stumbled over to him.

‘OK, Hamish,' Frank was shouting into the radio, ‘we've found the boat upturned, but no sign of Vanessa yet. Let's start scanning the water with the lights. But let's be organised about it. You take from Morag's in about 100 metres, I'll take the next 100, and John will head out a bit farther. She must be somewhere close by.'

He turned to Alan, who was still crouched on the floor of the boat.

‘The police have arrived at Maggie's and are getting another couple of boats to –'

Cutting across Frank came a loud and terrifying screech, not from a human but a bird. A large black hawk circled the boat and then swooped down aggressively. It was so close that Lee thought she felt the tip of a wing flap against the top of her head. She covered her head with her arms, shaking in disbelief. Looking up through her crossed arms, she saw him wheel in the air, turning back to make a second swoop. And at that moment, as clearly as if she was floating out of her body and looking down through the hawks' eyes, she saw herself lying on the bank over near Bell's Point. This had happened before; she had been a child, maybe nine or ten at the time.

‘She's on the bank, at Bell's Point, I know it.'

Everybody stared at Lee, unclear how to react. Had she lost it, or did she really know something? Either way, she was acting strangely. Everyone waited for Alan to say something. He looked at Lee and, seeing the terror in her face, shouted to Frank.

‘OK, get us into the bank at Bell's Point. Lee, you go to the bow and see if you can see the spot where you think she is.'

Although he didn't mean it, he seemed to say the word think with more emphasis that he had intended. But Lee didn't appear to notice, she just scrambled up to the bow and then quite inexplicably shouted back to Frank.

‘The hawk; just follow the hawk in to the bank.'

Frank shook his head in disbelief, but revved the boat a little and headed towards the bank. He didn't want to cut through the water too quickly in case they missed Vanessa or, worse, hit her in the water. He made steady progress towards the bank but it felt like a lifetime for Alan. His eyes almost hurt as he glared ahead, trying to see farther into the dark than the light allowed him.

‘Look,' Lee screamed. ‘Look, she's there!'

Alan scanned the bank where Lee was looking. It was still too dark to make out anything other than outline shapes.

‘See there!' Lee pointed and shouted, almost hysterical now. As Alan peered ahead, he saw the rock-shaped mound near the water's edge turn into the body of his daughter.

‘Hurry, Frank. She's there. She's there.'

As he drew closer, Alan all but knocked Lee into the water, as he pushed passed her at the bow and jumped at least 6 feet from the edge of the boat on to the bank.

In 1975, Bob Rines, an American scientist, captured some extraordinary pictures using a motor driven camera and strobe light at a depth of about 45 feet. The best showed Nessie's long, outstretched neck and front body complete with flippers and was published that year in the top scientific journal,
Nature
.

Alan held Vanessa tightly in his arms as he climbed back into the boat, crushing her to his breast bone as if he would never let her go. Luke pressed forward, but her father enveloped her protectively. She seemed OK, apart from the large bruise on her forehead, and her breathing and pulse were even. Luke stood beside him and stroked Vanessa's hair. Where was Ronan? Alan looked round and saw that he was sitting on the floor of the boat, clutching his knees, while tears streamed unchecked down his face.

‘She'll be fine, love, I promise,' Alan said to him in a whisper. ‘She must have managed to swim ashore and then conked out.'

Alan looked with such intensity at his daughter's beautiful face that he thought he might collapse any moment. He couldn't understand it. She wasn't wearing socks or shoes. Why was she not frozen stif? He shook the thoughts from his head. He had her in his arms, she was alive, and all he had to do was get her to a doctor.

‘Where's the closest hospital?' he shouted to Frank over the noise of the engine, as they started back to the cottage.

‘Inverness,' Frank answered promptly. ‘It will take at least an hour in the car.'

‘No. Call Maggie and tell her to get Doc Morris.' Lee's voice was small and faint, but she said it with such certainty that Alan just nodded his agreement to Frank. She didn't look at Alan; she seemed to be lost in her own world.

Into the silence, Lee repeated herself.

‘Tell Maggie to get Doc Morris. He'll know.'

Alan just nodded again to Frank and then looked back down at Vanessa's mop of dark hair. ‘I love you, my angel,' he whispered, ‘and I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry.'

The whole village seemed to be at the bottom of the garden to meet them. Alan kept his head down, not wanting to catch anybody's eye, as he got off the boat. He just had to get Vanessa inside safely. As he walked up the garden, carrying her still in his arms, he saw the headlights of a car pulling into the driveway.

‘It's Doc Morris,' Maggie said as she walked beside him. ‘You take her up straight to her bed and I'll send him to you.'

When Alan returned to the kitchen, a silence fell. Constable Maguire was still there, sitting at the table over a large mug of coffee. The boys, Lee and Maggie were sitting in various positions around the room. Maggie must have sent the rest home, thank God.

Alan chose his words carefully.

‘She's going to be OK. She opened her eyes for a few moments, although it was a pretty glazed look and I'm not sure she recognised me. Then she faded out again. Dr Morris says she'll come around in her own time. She's just exhausted by the whole experience.'

Now he looked across at his two sons.

‘Guys, you should get some rest too. You're wiped out. Go on, up you go.'

He hugged them both and then watched them go without a murmur of protest. Thank God they were sharing a room, he thought, Ronan would certainly need Luke tonight. Their shoulders were hunched and they looked older than their years. Not a night easily forgotten.

Alan sighed and slumped into the nearest chair.

In 1952, Dr Richard Synge, an eminent scientist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1938, was staying at Fort Augustus with his parents and sisters. They witnessed a ‘dark, hump-like object in the loch' close to the bank which was moving quickly and left a slight wake. They followed it by car for about 3 miles. After that the creature ‘became stationary and then submerged'.

The tension in the room was terrible. Despite his relief at finding Vanessa unhurt, Alan knew that there was something still amiss. He looked across at Lee, who was distracted and distant. Her hands were wrapped around a large mug but she never once raised it to her lips. He glanced across at Maggie to find that she was watching Lee also. To his surprise, she caught his eye and made an almost imperceptible shake of her head. What the hell was going on?

‘Lee, my love …' Maggie hesitated and waited for Lee to lift her head and look at her. ‘Why don't you get yourself upstairs too? You need a good night's rest.'

Lee stood slowly and moved to the door. Before she went out, she turned and said to nobody in particular, ‘I have to talk to her.'

‘Not tonight, Lee. Better in the morning when she's recovered.'

Alan looked bemused. He turned to look at Lee and then back to Maggie, trying to pick up some clue as to what was going on. They gave nothing away; Maggie's face was closed tight, devoid of any expression and Lee's so drained that he thought she might collapse any moment. Finally, Lee agreed to go to bed, but refused Maggie's help getting there.

‘I'd prefer to be on my own.'

There was a long silence after she left. The strain of it was getting unbearable when Maggie spoke.

‘Coffee, Alan?'

He winced as he took a drink from the large mug. It was milky and poisonously sweet.

‘You're soaked to the skin, Alan. There's plenty of hot water for a bath.'

Alan sat in silence waiting for an explanation of Lee's behaviour. He was not ready to ask directly but not willing to ignore it either.

‘I'll have a bath after the doctor is gone and after I've checked on Vanessa again.'

Another silence ensued. It was Constable Maguire who broke it this time.

‘It's happened before,' he said, looking directly at Alan, his forehead creased in worry.

‘What?' Alan jerked upright in his chair as if he had been jabbed with a knife.

‘It's happened before, but for longer,' he repeated in a monotone. He turned to Maggie. ‘Tell him, Maggie. He needs to know.'

Alan jumped out of his seat, electrified with terror. Vanessa had been abducted by some local nut who had taken other kids before and they were only telling him now? His anger surfacing, he said grimly through gritted teeth, ‘I think one of you better tell me quickly.'

Maggie stood up and opened the drawer of the Welsh dresser. She pulled out a pile of papers and leafed through them. Finally, she went over to Alan and put a newspaper cutting in his hand. He saw that it was aged and yellowing. He read the date: 7 May 1986.

Local Girl Missing.

Lena Cook, a twelve-year-old from Fort Augustus went missing yesterday morning. She was last seen by her family outside her home near the Loch edge. As she had only recently moved to the region she was not familiar with the area and her family are concerned that she may have had an accident. Searches are continuing and police are anxious for any information at all. Please contact Constable Maguire at Drumnadrochit police station.

There was a small black-and-white photo of a girl's face. She looked young and ill at ease.

Alan looked up, puzzled.

‘What has this to do with Vanessa?'

‘That was Lee.'

‘Lee? It says Lena Cook.' Alan was still no clearer.

‘Lee is short for Lena. And Cook was her surname when she came from America after her parents died. McDonald was her mother's maiden name and is mine. She must have felt a need to fit in to this small community …' Maggie caught the fleeting look of irritation on Alan's face and hurried on. ‘So she insisted on changing it to McDonald when she was about twelve. Not long after it happened, really.'

‘So what did happen to her?' Alan demanded, intent on trying to clear up the confusion that he felt. ‘Where did she go and how does it have anything to do with what happened to Vanessa?

Nobody offered an explanation, but a picture of Lee's shocked face on the boat yelling about Bell's Point rose in front of him.

Maguire finally answered him.

‘We don't know. She was found like Vanessa on the bank, wet but not cold, unconscious but unharmed.'

‘But surely she told you what happened, Maggie?'

‘No, not really. She wouldn't talk about it at first and would only say that she hadn't been frightened and that nobody had hurt her. In fact, she later claimed she wasn't with anyone else, that she had an adventure like Alice in Wonderland and had fallen asleep on the bank. All I know is that it has something to do with the magic of the loch.'

Alan stared at Maggie in disbelief. The magic of the loch! Had Maggie lost the plot entirely?

‘Where had she been?' Alan insisted loudly, deeply frustrated by the conversation.

‘In Loch Ness,' Maggie answered calmly.

‘Well, I know that. You said she was wet.'

‘Alan, we searched every inch of the bank that day and the next and she wasn't there. But that was where we found her in the end, on the bank at Bell's Point, exactly where you found Vanessa.'

‘But …' Alan stopped and looked at Maggie.

‘We had lots of questions too, Alan, but we never really got many answers, so we came to accept it in the end. She didn't seem to remember much of what had happened. And from that time on, Lee settled where she had been restless before. She made friends and learned to love it here after a very rocky start. But above all, she started to accept her mother's death.'

‘I thought her mother and father died in the same accident?' Alan said.

‘Aye, so they did. But her father was a more distant figure to her. He had travelled with his job most of her young life, so it was her mother's death she took hardest.'

Alan felt in a state of surreal exhaustion. He had no idea what was going on. He looked up when Dr Morris opened the door to the kitchen and stuck his head around it.

‘Not interrupting, am I? Just thought I'd let you know that she's fine. A sturdy wee lass, I can tell.'

He had a cheerful, professional face and the sight of it made Alan's heart lurch. There had been so many composed, good-natured doctors' faces in the years of Marie's illness and even at the end, not one had prepared him adequately for her death.

‘Yes, but did you examine her?' Alan almost shouted.

The doctor, undisturbed by Alan's manner, answered mildly. ‘Aye, a wee bruise on her forehead, but apart from that she's fine, just exhausted really. I've never seen such white skin, it's almost as if it's see-through. But she's good and healthy, and she'll get back her colour in no time. She's in a deep sleep now, but will need one of your hearty breakfasts tomorrow, Maggie.'

Alan didn't have time to listen to any more chat. He took the stairs two at a time.

He opened the door of Vanessa's room, carefully, so as not to make any noise. A small bedside lamp glowed softly beside her. She did look pale, a strange colour, but he was distracted by how young and peaceful she looked and tears gathered at the corners of his eyes. He held her wrist gently to feel the pulse for himself. It was as strong as his own. Kneeling down beside her, he brushed her mop of damp black curls off her face and pressed his lips to her forehead tenderly. He turned off the lamp and closed the door quietly. They would talk in the morning.

It was dark in the room. Dark except for the glow. Nobody was there to see the fading green luminescence of Vanessa's skin on the snow white sheets.