Vengeance Child (10 page)

He checked the time. ‘Right about now.' At that moment he wanted to hold her again. ‘Although what we did just then was nicer than being in the pub.'

She laughed as if a burden had been lifted. ‘I'll buy you a drink. We've got all evening to find out about each other.' Her eyes twinkled. ‘Verbally.'

They headed back up the lane to the only village on the island. At its centre there was a church at one side of a tiny market square and a thatched pub at the other. Men and women in business suits were briskly emerging through the door. Most gave hurried goodbyes as they made their way to the ferry.

‘There goes Mayor Wilkes' planning committee.' He grunted. ‘Seeing them always fills me with foreboding.'

‘I take it you and Mayor Wilkes don't always see eye to eye?'

‘He'd like to run the island like his own personal empire. Fortunately, there are a few people who refuse to let him get his own way. Otherwise you'd be standing in the middle of a golf course right now.'

‘People like you?' She squeezed his arm in hers. ‘You know, I'm starting to warm to you.'

In the dusk, gazing up at him like that, she was so extraordinarily beautiful. As the voices of the committee members faded on the warm air he found that gravity exert its pull. His face drew closer to hers.

‘Victor! I'm glad I caught you.'

‘Mayor Wilkes. Good evening.' Victor nodded at the man who emerged from the shadows.

‘Can I have a word?' Wilkes asked. ‘If you've got a moment?' He glanced at Laura. ‘In private.'

‘Excuse me, Laura,' Victor said. ‘I'll just be a minute.'

When the mayor had considered they'd put sufficient distance between themselves and Laura he began to speak with an abruptness that hinted at sadistic pleasure. As if he'd been waiting a long time to say these words to Victor. ‘You've been our island ranger for a long time.'

‘Over ten years.'

‘So you will appreciate me speaking plainly, Victor. You might as well hear it from me rather than some inaccurate tittle-tattle.'

‘Go on.'

‘You'll know that revenue streams aren't what they were and the council have been forced to trim budgets?'

‘Ah, you've found a financial justification for your machinations, then?'

‘Meaning?'

‘Meaning, whatever you're going to reveal now has the backing of the committee and it isn't just something you've thought up on the spur of the moment.'

Mayor Wilkes eyed Victor in a way that suggested he wished to commit violence. Then in times past wasn't it the mayor's privilege on Siluria to deliver beatings with a boat paddle? Victor sensed a blow was about to fall, but not from a wooden oar.

Wilkes spoke as if addressing a meeting rather than an individual. ‘We have to cut back on expenditure across the board. School transport, library opening hours, road maintenance. We're also streamlining the island ranger service.'

‘I thought you might.'

‘We're not doing away with it. Saban Deer are of national importance, but we're looking to contract out the ranger service to a company off-island.'

‘Figures.'

‘The service won't be compromised, but we must cut costs.'

‘If you cut costs the service will be compromised.'

‘Don't fight me on this, Victor.'

‘Why not? You're firing me.'

‘Nothing of the sort.'

‘Oh?'

‘The job can still be yours. You just have to reapply for the position.'

‘And you're really going to consider keeping me on as ranger? You do know I'll fight you every step of the way over the golf course development.'

‘Don't get unpleasant with me, Brodman. The fact of the matter is, that the work will be contracted out to—'

‘One of your own companies. Nice move, Mayor. Then you'll choose the new ranger. Go the whole hog, hire a yes man. They'll know fig all about the island's wildlife, but they'll know how to say “Yes, Mayor, of course, Mayor, anything you say, Mayor.”'

‘Listen, you—' Wilkes grabbed Victor's arm.

‘You warning me, Mr Mayor? Go on, see what happens.'

‘What's that?' The shout came from Laura.

At first Victor thought she'd heard the two men's angry exchange. However, she stared up the lane that ran along the island's spine. A noise grew louder. Almost like a wailing siren.

‘Oh, no.' From her body language she knew there was trouble.

Moments later a teenage boy came barrelling out of the gloom. It was his yelling that sounded so much like a siren. A cry filled with alarm and dismay.

‘What the hell's wrong with the fool?' Mayor Wilkes hissed.

Victor ran forward as Laura caught hold of the screaming youth.

‘Max, what's wrong . . . ? No, stop running. Tell me, what's the matter?'

Max's eyes were wide with terror. ‘Laura . . . that little freak . . . he's saying my name.' Tears coursed down his face. ‘Now I'm going to die!'

Twelve

In the lane Mayor Wilkes stood with a face like thunder. ‘Nurse Parris,' he snapped. ‘Can't you shut that child up?'

‘That child, as you put it, is Max. He's scared out of his wits.'

‘Because some other boy said his name?' Wilkes sneered. ‘If hearing his own name has had that effect then he needs some form of care beyond what you offer.'

‘He's frightened.'

‘Of his own name? That's not fear, that's schizophrenia.'

Victor waded into the argument. ‘Mr Mayor, let Laura handle it. This situation is more complicated than you might think.'

‘If you knew what I really think . . .' He shook his head, disgusted. ‘I'll leave you to sort this out, but I warn the pair of you – if you can't stop that child screaming the place down he'll have to leave the island.'

Laura was ready to launch a physical attack on the mayor. ‘It's after nine o'clock at night. Where do you expect him to go?'

The mayor glanced at his watch. ‘He's disturbing the residents. Whatever the problem is, deal with it. OK?' With that he marched away down the street.

‘He's insufferable,' Laura seethed. ‘Dear God, it's all I can do not to throw rocks at him.'

Victor gave a grim smile. ‘I like the sound of rocks. You and I have more in common than I thought.'

Together they took Max to the cottage where Lou was staying. As Lou did her best to soothe the sobbing youth Laura and Victor walked back out into the garden.

Victor glanced up at the bedroom window of the cottage. ‘Max is beyond scared, isn't he? He's genuinely terrified.'

‘I'll say.' She sighed. ‘Lou will do her best to calm him. I don't see she'll make much progress, though. He's in pieces.'

Standing in the light falling through the window, Victor saw how vulnerable she looked. As if at any moment she expected the sky to fall on her. ‘Laura, if Max is saying that Jay repeated his name, what does he expect will happen?'

Her face darkened. ‘Max will expect the worst.'

‘Archer, come with me.'

Archer opened his eyes. If it wasn't for the light on the landing his bedroom would have been in total darkness. Numerals on the clock radio burned at him from the gloom: 10.03. All he could see of Jay was a silhouette.

‘Archer. Listen.' His voice had that near-silent quality. Like a draught blowing through the gates of a tomb. ‘Archer, you've got to come.'

‘Go away.' Archer pulled the bedclothes over his head.

‘There's something you've got to see. It's important.'

Archer tried to hold on to the bedding so Jay couldn't tug it from his face, only his fingers seemed to lose all their strength. He felt the bedding being hauled from his body. He closed his eyes.
If I don't see Jay that might be enough . . . I'll be all right . . .
Yet the cold night air touching his skin brought him up into a sitting position. The sharp outdoors smell had appeared with an abruptness that shocked the boy.

‘Why aren't I in bed? What have you done to me?'

Jay gazed at him. His eyes glowed in the darkness. Archer reached out for the bedding but all he felt were the pyjamas he wore. The bed had become hard now. He groped for where the mattress should be. Instead of soft fabric, a block of cold matter.

Archer's heart beat hard. Where was his bedroom? How had Jay brought him outside?

Jay's witchcraft, that's what it is!
Was Jay taking Archer to see his dead father again? No way! He jumped up then began to run across the damp grass. His bare feet skidded as Jay caught hold of him.

‘Please don't say my name, Jay,' Archer pleaded. ‘I know you did it to Max. You said his name twenty times. I heard you. More than twenty. More than fifty! You're going to make Max die. He's a bully. But he doesn't deserve a curse.'

As Jay gripped him, his face was strangely impassive. Really, it should have been too dark to see. Yet it glowed; the skin itself generated its own light. The elfin eyes grew larger.

‘Archer, there's something wanting me to do bad things to people. I don't want to. I'm trying to stop myself, but it's getting too hard. Listen . . .' His voice became a whisper. ‘Things are different here. I think I might be able to change what I am. But I've got to keep looking all over the island for it. A secret. There's something here that will help me. So I go out looking. I can search all kinds of hidden places without leaving my room. Do you understand? My mind can move through all the houses and even the ground. Now I've found something under the castle.'

‘Leave me out of it, then,' Archer gasped. ‘You find it yourself. I'm frightened.'

‘I can't do it myself. You've got to help. You're my hands. You can pick things up. I can't.'

Archer struggled. ‘I don't know what you're talking about. Let go.'

Jay tugged him toward a grassy slope. Above it, the castle wall where a tower reared up, a fist of stone to threaten the moon. ‘I've found a hidden place under the castle. There's something in there you have to get. It's precious. You've got to find it for me.'

By now Archer's bare feet skidded across the grass as if he were skiing. In front of him a bank of earth loomed closer as Jay dragged him toward it. He didn't want to go. He sensed a dark terror in that bank of soil. An object that had been hidden because it was too terrible for people to see. Jay did not stop. Archer felt himself falling through the earth. Beyond it lay death in all its dark essence.

‘Bite. I want you to bite.'

Victor felt Laura pull his face toward her bare breast. The dark nipple had become engorged. Her skin had become bumpy with gooseflesh.

‘Bite me, please,' she panted.

When he closed his teeth round her hard nipple she moaned with pleasure. They were on the bed back at his apartment above the garage at White Cross Farm. They'd been talking about Max, about how he'd calmed down as soon as the tranquillizer had entered his bloodstream. Now some detached part of Victor wondered how it had all happened. The magic of the island? Maybe. From a whispered conversation beneath the stars to this. They'd been talking calmly. Then Nurse Laura Parris, the steely woman who had looked as if she could cheerfully beat him with her fists just a few short hours ago, had kissed him again with as much ferocity as passion.

After that had been a blur. Mouth on mouth kisses. Once inside his apartment they'd wrenched at each other's clothes, becoming a writhing pair of bodies. As their limbs entwined they made love with such force that it was more than sex. This passion drenched their emotions in erotic sensation. This was a way of forgetting all about Max, about Mayor Wilkes, about the whole insane world.

When fears about what tomorrow would bring began to intrude Laura had begged Victor to bite her. ‘Bite them hard. Don't be afraid. You won't break me.'

So he gripped those dark tips of skin between his teeth. With a sigh, this naked beauty melted into an ocean of pure creature feeling. A place where the waking nightmare that was Jay couldn't reach her.

For long moments Archer was certain the black earth would suffocate him. Jay had dragged him through the soil as if they were moving through a mass of bed sheets hanging on a washing line. A stream of material flapped against his face. The stench of moist dirt filled his nostrils. Thick fleshy worms with sticky, pink bodies squirmed in the blackness around him. Then he was alone in the room.

But what kind of room? Eight-year-old Archer had seen nothing quite like it. Straightaway he saw the car. However, this was no garage. The walls were made of blocks of stone. There were pillars like those you find in old churches. Even though he could see there were no lamps, no windows, nothing to allow light into the room.

‘Jay?' The whisper died on stagnant air. Jay had gone. Archer was alone in a room with stone walls and the car. He took hesitant steps toward it, looking around him as he did so. At any moment he expected his father to appear. Jay had made his dad appear before, even though he had a bullet hole in his face. Jay could make healthy people die. Now he knew the boy could bring people back out of their graves. Archer remembered what really happened now to his father.
Dad used to hit Mum. He made her face bleed the day the men came to the house. So I told them where Dad was hiding. I did that. I wanted Dad to be killed. I as good as murdered him myself. No one else knows I did that. I got away with it.
But if his father returned? He'd get hold of Archer then enjoy exacting a painful revenge. Archer's senses began to shut down as he sensed danger approach. This was his way of protecting himself. He detached himself from reality. At that moment he seemed to see himself as if he watched from a distance.
There goes little Archer. He's got stick-thin arms. He's wearing green pyjamas. If he gets his face punched now, or his throat squeezed, it's nothing to do with me. I won't feel it. Because I'm not in Archer's body.