13 Secrets (14 page)

Jack paled slightly. “I think so. I take drama class. My teacher says I’m good.”

Tino nodded. “Then there’s no time to waste. We need to act as soon as possible to try and get this thing out of your household.” He looked up at Suki. “You know where the boy lives and how to contact him?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Take him back to his father. We’ll start working on the plan tonight.” He looked at Jack again. “Once it’s finalized, Suki will be in touch. Until then, remember: act normally and be careful around her.”

Suki rose from the table and motioned for Jack to follow. He got up, wiping his tearstained face, and then the two of them left Tino’s caravan.

“What do you think?” Sparrow asked Tino, once the door had closed.

Tino got up and set a pan of water to boil on the stove. He picked some leaves off a green plant in a pot on his windowsill and threw them into the water.

“I think Suki’s right,” he said. “The boy’s clear about what he saw, and the signs aren’t good. It sounds like a genuine case, and a serious one. We must act tomorrow. It’s a risk even sending him back there tonight.”

“Why?” asked Fabian worriedly. “What could happen?”

“If the fairy is determined to have the child, the little girl, all to herself, there’s no telling what she might be capable of,” Tino said darkly. “In cases like these, if the fairy impostor cannot adapt into the family, which is looking less and less likely, the impostor will often leave, taking the family member they’ve been drawn to with them. That’s the most likely scenario.”

“So she could take Lucy away?” Fabian said.

“It’s possible,” said Sparrow. “But there are other outcomes that could be much, much worse.”

“Like what?” Fabian asked.

“Ever heard of a woman named Bridget Cleary?” Sparrow said softly.

“No,” said Fabian. “Should I have?”

“Depends on how much fairy lore you read,” Sparrow answered. “Bridget Cleary was a woman who lived just over a hundred years ago. She’d been ill for a while, but her husband became convinced she was a fairy changeling. In them days, people didn’t have to be second-sighted to believe in fairies. Many of the beliefs of the Middle Ages were still strong. Together with his brother, her husband came up with a plan to drive the changeling away, like. They burned her and beat her. Starved her.” Sparrow’s eyes were sad through his shaggy hair. “But they went too far. They killed her. Went to trial for it and even insisted to the court that she’d been a changeling.”

“And was she?” Fabian whispered.

“No one knows for sure,” Tino said. “But it’s an example of how humans can react to a changeling, or someone they believe to be one.” He poured some of the boiling infusion into a glass and gestured for the others to help themselves. Only Sparrow did. “Other possibilities are even worse.”

“How can it get worse than that?” Fabian said incredulously.

Tino and Sparrow shared a look. Rowan sat up
straighter in her seat, sensing that whatever was about to be shared was something new to her.

“You remember that I told you that Suki was one of the stolen children I recovered?” Tino said. He took a mouthful of his drink, and for the first time since Rowan had known him, he looked uncomfortable.

“I remember,” she said.

“When we found her, Suki was being well cared for. She was even happy. For the briefest moment, I actually hesitated. I considered leaving her there. But the rules are the rules, no exceptions,” he said, almost as though to enforce the thought. “And I had to be quick. Whoever had taken Suki had left her in her cot, unwatched for just a few moments. It was all I had, and so I took her.

“After we brought her home, a few of us took turns to watch her house—and the culprit’s—from afar for a few nights. Just in case a repeat attempt was made to snatch her, as sometimes happens. There were some strange comings and goings from the culprit’s house, but a week passed and no one came, and the woman who we’d taken her back from in the fairy realm made no attempt to take her again, or any other child.

“We stopped watching, and in time forgot all about Suki. She was just another case, after all. Then in June last year, Peg heard of an incident in which a second-sighted teenage girl had been orphaned. When Peg mentioned the town it sounded familiar, but I
didn’t think much of it. But then she said the girl’s name. And I knew.

“The case was big news, in both the fairy realm and the mortal world. Suki was the sole survivor in her household. Her mother and stepfather were dead, strangled in their beds. Suki witnessed the entire thing. She’d seen a fey woman commit the murders and managed to fight her off—”

“She tried to kill Suki too?” said Rowan.

“No,” said Sparrow quietly. “She was trying to take Suki away with her. Somehow Suki managed to fend her off. She was covered in scratches and bites when they found her, and she didn’t speak for a month afterward. Neighbors had seen someone running away before Suki was found but it was later put down to a robbery in the same street. The whole thing remains an unsolved murder case in the human world, and in the fairy realm too. There’s no trace of the fey woman who took Suki all those years ago.

“Suki was placed in a foster home for two months, until she turned eighteen,” said Tino. “By then I’d already contacted her, asking her to join us once she’d come of age, and she’d agreed. I’d never intended to ask her to be part of the Coven, not after all she’d been through—but I felt responsible for her. Then Cassandra went dark, and some of the things Suki was saying about revenge against the changeling trade, not to mention her obvious psychic ability… well, it was like it was meant to be. She became Cassandra’s replacement.”

“Poor Suki,” Rowan murmured. She thought back to how harshly she had judged her when they first met, and she regretted it. Suki had been through things, terrible things, that Rowan did not even want to start imagining.

“What about ‘poor Suki’?” a cool voice inquired.

Rowan jumped and twisted around in her seat. Suki stood behind them, having quietly let herself back into Tino’s caravan unnoticed.

“I…” Rowan faltered, but then Tino cut in.

“I was telling them about you,” he said gravely. “Not to gossip, but to give an example of what can happen in these circumstances.”

Suki walked wordlessly to the stove and helped herself to a glass of the cooling drink Tino had brewed. She stood sipping at it with her back to them, and when she turned to look at them her face was impassive.

“We were about to start planning,” Tino said. “Will you sit down?”

Suki nodded and sat in the seat Jack had vacated.

“Who’s doing what, then?” she asked.

“Here’s what I think,” said Tino. “The fewer people involved in this, the better. First, we have to be familiar with the family’s routine. Did the boy tell you what we need to know?”

Suki nodded.

“The family are new to the area,” she said. “They own The Spiral Staircase, a pub in Tickey End. Jack’s father is the landlord. His mother handles the
bookkeeping and office work, and she cooks the lunch menu, though Jack’s father has been doing it all since she was ill.”

Tino laced his fingers together in an arch. “This could be problematic,” he said. “A public place means more people. Carry on.”

“They get a weekly delivery, which is tomorrow. Jack’s father gets up at seven o’clock to see it in. Jack often helps him, so we’re using this opportunity to get a message to him about the plan. While his father stows the barrels, Jack will be busy checking the crates against the order. As the van is being unloaded, I’ll stick a note into an empty bottle and sneak it into one of the crates. Jack will intercept that bottle, read the message, and destroy it.

“His father will be busy until the bar staff turn up at midday for the lunchtime shift. He’ll then break for something to eat and a nap, but after that he’s working flat out pretty much until closing time at eleven o’clock.”

“Good,” said Tino. “That means he’s unlikely to be a problem. But we need to be certain. Sparrow, you’re responsible for keeping an eye on him. We’ll put things into motion at about two thirty, once he’s had his nap. If at any time he looks likely to go upstairs to his family after that, you distract him.”

Sparrow looked unsure. “Could be tricky. I’m not old enough to go in a pub, so how am I supposed to—”

“Watch him from outside,” Tino cut in, exasper
ated. “Find a place to observe him and do it. It’ll be less obvious than a stranger sitting in his pub watching him all day, at any rate. That’ll only make him suspicious. If you do need to walk in, the fact that you’re underage is an immediate distraction in itself.” He frowned suddenly, his eyes sweeping over the boy. “Get yourself tidied up too. Otherwise he’ll think you’re a vagrant and chuck you out before you’ve even set foot in the place.”

“Fair point,” said Sparrow, not taking offense. “What about Jack? Is it safest to get him out of there altogether?”

“For Jack, it would be,” Tino answered. “But Jack’s sister is the one who’s most at risk. The more time that’s passing, the more obsessed this creature is becoming with her. I don’t want them left alone. That means Jack must stay close by as long as possible.”

“But that’s endangering him!” Rowan protested.

“I know,” Tino said. “But it’s the best way we can make sure his sister remains safe. Plus, we’ll need him when it comes to getting the impostor out of the way, which I’ll come to in a minute. If, at any time, he feels seriously threatened, we’re going to arrange that he signals us to get him out of there. The signal is this: he has a distinctive money box in the shape of one of the old red telephone booths. He’ll put it on his windowsill, where it’ll be clearly visible from the street.” He stopped and looked at Fabian. “That’s where you come in.”

“Me?” said Fabian.

“You’re going to be outside watching too. Upon Jack’s signal, you’ll go into the pub and ask to see him. Make up an excuse, a good one, which will ensure he’s called downstairs. When he comes out, you both get away from there and
stay
away.”

He turned to Suki next. “You and Sparrow will visit Fix tonight and ask her for a solution that will dispel glamour. Jack is going to have to get the changeling to take it somehow, and it’s crucial that he succeeds.”

“But Jack says she won’t eat anything,” said Rowan.

“I know,” said Tino. “Jack will have to try to get her to drink it, or, failing that, slip it into her bath water, or even throw it over her. Once it’s done, Jack needs to get out of there. The changeling may realize he’s on to her and he’ll be in more danger than ever. If he feels he can’t get away, he’ll use the signal for us to get him out.”

“How will we get the potion to him?” asked Fabian.

“It’ll have to go in the same way as our plan,” said Tino. “Via the crates at the time of delivery. Suki, you’ll have to get both bottles in.”

“What will happen then?” Rowan asked. She had never been involved in a case like this before, and suddenly she felt inadequate.

“Once the glamour is destroyed the changeling will have no option but to leave,” said Tino. “And it’s at that point that everything will hang on a thread.”

Rowan felt dread in the pit of her stomach. She glanced at Fabian and saw that he was scared but trying his best to hide it. Suki and Sparrow were solemn, but did not look afraid.

“One of two things will happen,” Tino continued. “With its cover blown, the changeling will attempt to leave, either alone or with the child. What we’re hoping is for her to leave alone, because this means she’s going to her source of glamour to re-create it and carry on the deception.”

“The source of glamour?” asked Fabian, hoarsely.

“Jack’s real mother,” said Rowan.

Tino nodded. “If the changeling was cautious, or merely wanted to observe or get information from the human it’s impersonating, it’s likely Jack’s mother is being held somewhere. The moment she leaves Lucy alone, then Red, you get in there and bring her safely out. Meanwhile, Suki will follow the changeling in the hope that it’ll lead us to the real mother.”

Fabian nodded, taking it in. “And if the changeling leaves and takes Lucy with it?”

There was an uneasy silence around the table.

“Then it means that the changeling has no other source of glamour,” Tino said grimly. “And that Jack’s real mother is already dead.”