The Case of the Wayward Professor (20 page)

What has that dragon got against my hat?
he wondered as he drove away.

Holly was relieved to see Dirk was OK, but there was someone she needed to see more. She found her dad and threw her arms around him. He picked her up and kissed her cheek.

‘Dad,' she said. ‘Are you all right?'

‘I thought I'd lost you.'

‘What's happening?' asked his wife. ‘We thought that monster had killed you.'

‘I'm all right,' she said to both of them. ‘I've missed you.'

Dirk said something into the microphone.

‘I miss you too,' said her dad.

His big-haired wife looked at Dirk and said, ‘Is that thing your friend?'

‘He's not a thing. He's a red-backed, green-bellied, urban-based Mountain Dragon and, yes, he's my friend.'

Mr Bigsby looked back at his daughter and said, ‘You can come home if you want. We'll find a school nearby, a good one, one you don't have to run away from all the time.'

Dirk's voice filled the hall, saying, ‘But first I think it's time for me to sing a little song.'

‘I'd like that,' said Holly, tears in her eyes.

‘A-one, a-two, a-one, two, three, four …'

Holly hugged her parents, and they all listened to the beautiful music which filled the air and entered their souls, the melodies and rhythms becoming part of them, like they were coming from within.

‘Ow,' said Holly, holding her cheek. ‘That really hurt.'

‘I told you. It's the best way out of the trance.'

‘I just think you could do it a little gentler when it's me, that's all.'

Holly looked at her dad and his wife, hugging each
other, a space between them where she had been.

‘You're going to make them forget all this, aren't you?' she said.

‘I'm sorry, Holly. I have to. You know what would happen.'

‘Yes,' she said sadly. ‘What now?'

‘Everyone's back in the trance and it's my voice they've heard first this time,' said Dirk.

‘Isn't there a danger they'll remember something?' asked Holly, thinking about her dad.

‘They shouldn't but if they do get the occasional flashback, it'll seem so improbable that they'll think they're remembering some movie they've seen or a book they've read.'

She saw Callum crouching down by the stage, wearing the same faraway look in his eyes as everyone else. ‘What about him?'

‘I don't know,' said Dirk. ‘For everyone else this is just one memory. It shouldn't be difficult to erase it, but Callum's had a long time living in fear. He's internalised the dragons that haunt him. Listen.' Dirk turned to the boy. ‘Callum, there are no such things as dragons.'

‘I know, they're in my head,' replied Callum. ‘They're all in my head.'

Dirk turned back to Holly. ‘Dragonsong is powerful
but one song can't undo all that torment. It seems that Vainclaw has been in communication with him since the kidnapping, grooming him to work for the Kinghorns.'

‘But what if Vainclaw tries to use him again?'

‘We can only hope he doesn't think it's worth the risk.'

Dirk held the microphone to his mouth and instructed Principal Palmer, Petal's mother, the Prime Minister, and Holly's dad and his wife to take their seats. They did so unquestioningly. He told Callum to take his place in the band with his French horn, and Petal to go backstage.

Then he addressed the front row, saying, ‘When you awake none of you will remember anything about dragons. Dragons are no more than myths, stories to tell kids. Mr Bigsby, you will take the QC3000 back to the Ministry, saying you recovered it by chance and recommending a review into the security procedures which allowed something so important to go missing. Prime Minister Thackley, you will call an end to the AOG project. The world has enough natural disasters without adding our own.'

Holly whispered something in Dirk's ear and he addressed the entire audience. ‘All any of you will
remember when you wake up is that this was the best school concert ever. Every performance was brilliant, including a solo by Callum Thackley and a great number from Petal Moses. The band played beautifully and it was one of the best nights of your life.' Dirk switched off the microphone and said, ‘Now, let's get rid of the evidence.'

Dirk found a mop backstage and cleaned up the pools of red and green blood, while Holly removed the film from the TV cameras and retrieved the Dragonsong CD from the stereo. She placed them all in a bin, which she handed to Dirk. He took a deep breath and burnt the lot to cinders.

When they had finished Holly asked, ‘How are we going to wake them all up?'

‘I've thought about this. Watch,' Dirk said, switching the microphone back on and saying, ‘Now, could everyone stand up, raise your right hand and hold it in front of the person to your left's face. If you do not have anyone to your left, please hold it in front of the person behind you.'

The whole hall and everyone outside turned to face each other, hands outstretched. Holly did a quick scout to check that everyone was covered.

‘Everyone got a slapping partner?' said Dirk.

‘Just one left, but I can do that one,' said Holly, remembering Petal.

‘As soon as I say this, I'm gone,' said Dirk.

Holly threw her arms around his soft green belly and hugged him tightly then followed him into the backstage room, where he took the microphone to the door.

‘Ready?' he said.

Holly lifted her hand level with Petal's face and nodded. ‘Ready.'

‘On the count of three,' Dirk said into the microphone, ‘slap the person you're standing next to in the face.'

‘One …two …'

‘This is for Little Willow,' said Holly.

‘Three.'

Holly slapped Petal hard in the face and ran back into the hall, jumping on stage to watch everyone coming out of their stupor.

For a stunned moment the audience stood staring at each other, rubbing their sore cheeks, then Principal Palmer began to clap. The Prime Minister joined in, followed by Petal's famous mother and Holly's dad and his wife. Soon, the whole hall was applauding. And not just inside the hall. The armed policeman with the face
like a bulldog, Hamish the security guard, the showbiz reporter, everyone clapped like their lives depended on it. Holly saw Moji and grinned at her. All the people along the red carpet cheered and waved their autograph books in the air.

Looking surprisingly unfazed, Miss Gilfeather smiled and told the band to stand up and take a bow. Holly heard Sandy say to Julian, ‘We must have been good. I don't even remember playing.'

All the parents came forward to congratulate their children and Holly found her dad, holding the silver case tightly in one hand.

‘Well done, Holly,' he said. ‘That was a magnificent performance.'

‘Yes, we're both very proud,' said his big-haired wife.

For the second time that evening Holly hugged them both.

‘It's quiet at home without you,' said her dad.

‘Can I come home, then?' she replied.

He looked at his wife and sighed. ‘You would have to promise to go to school and to behave. The Prime Minister says I have a good chance of making the Cabinet if we win the election.'

‘I promise,' said Holly.

Mr Bigsby smiled. ‘OK. I think there are a couple of
schools in the area you haven't tried.'

She thought she noticed a twinge of irritation cross his wife's face, but she didn't contradict him, so Holly smiled and said, ‘I'd like that.'

She turned to see Callum, standing awkwardly in front of his dad.

‘Well done, Callum,' said the Prime Minister.

‘Thank you,' replied Callum, smoothing down his hair. ‘I'm glad you enjoyed it. I like music. It takes you away.'

‘Your nose is bleeding,' said his father.

Callum touched his nose and looked at the blood on his fingers. Holly tried to see in his eyes if he showed signs of remembering, but it was impossible to tell. Not that it mattered. He was harmless without the Kinghorns and they had gone now.

Everything was back to normal and she was going home.

Dirk watched the smoke drift up from his nostrils into the sunbeams that shone through the blinds. It felt good to be back home and now that he had paid his rent with the cheque from Mrs Rosenfield, he was happily taking a few days off, relaxing behind his desk with a half-eaten tin of beans, a glass of orange squash on the rocks, and the TV remote within easy grabbing distance. Life didn't get any better than this.

The phone rang. Dirk tried to ignore it, but Mrs Klingerflim shouted, ‘Your telephone is ringing, Mr Dilly … Mr Dilly …'

He flicked the receiver off the hook with his tail and caught it in his right paw.

‘The Dragon Detective Agency. Dirk Dilly speaking,' he said.

‘Oh, Mr Dilly, I'm so glad you're in. I wanted to thank you personally.'

‘Hello, Mrs Rosenfield,' he replied, recognising the voice. ‘I got your cheque. Is everything all right?'

‘It's better than all right. I don't know what you did but, since he got back, my husband has been a changed man. He's attentive and sweet. He's talking about a second honeymoon. And he's finally given up all that dragon nonsense.'

‘I'm glad to hear that,' said Dirk.

‘He did say something about stamp collecting, but I suppose it's good to have interests outside work, isn't it?'

‘I suppose it is,' said Dirk, instinctively going to stroke Willow, then remembering that Holly had collected her the previous day. Dirk was pleased that Holly was back in London. They would be able to see each other more often and she was happy to be back with her family and cat. Dirk had said good riddance to the dumb animal, but now she was gone the room felt oddly empty.

‘He's giving all of his old books to a local charity shop this weekend,' continued Mrs Rosenfield. ‘It's amazing. I'll certainly recommend you to anyone who
needs a private detective in the future.'

‘Please do that, Mrs Rosenfield. I'm glad you're happy.'

‘Goodbye, Mr Dilly.'

‘Goodbye, Mrs Rosenfield.' Dirk put down the phone.

It was nice to have a satisfied customer for a change. The problem with detective work was that even if you did a good job, your client discovered that, yes, her husband was having an affair, or no, their son didn't want to come back home, and so on. Happy endings were hard to come by in his line of work. He felt bad that it had taken Dragonsong to get a happy ending for the Rosenfields. He detested the misuse of Dragonsong. It was supposed to be a gift but, as he had said to Holly, lots of good dragons had been killed because of it.

Dirk watched the smoke trail take the form of a mountain lake and remembered the time he had found his mother's dead body. It was a human sword that had killed her, but there was never any doubt in Dirk's mind that Dragonsong had made her vulnerable.

No longer feeling relaxed, Dirk pushed open the window and took to the roofs of London, heading nowhere in particular, but making big daring jumps that took all his concentration, leaving no room for
unhappy memories.

He hadn't been thinking where he was heading, so he was surprised when he found himself on a roof across the road from the Rosenfields' house. The front door opened and Professor Rosenfield exited the house, carrying a large cardboard box to his car.

‘I won't be long, darling,' he called. ‘I'll drop these off then pop to the supermarket to pick up something nice for dinner.'

Dirk followed the car to the local high street, where Rosenfield parked on double yellows, quickly got out, put the cardboard box outside a charity shop, and drove off again.

Dirk remained on top of the shoe shop opposite, wondering whether he had been right to rob the professor of his lifelong hobby. Not that humans ever got anything right about dragons. In all the books they had written, the pictures they had drawn and the films they had made on the subject, humans rarely happened across anything that was factually correct.

A young couple, walking side by side in silence, stopped by the charity shop and the young man began to rummage inside the cardboard box.

‘You're not supposed to touch that,' snapped his girlfriend.

He pulled out a book.

‘Put that back,' she said.

‘They're only being thrown away,' he replied.

‘No, they're being donated to charity,' she said. ‘That's different.'

The man discarded the book and they carried on walking. ‘It looked rubbish anyway. What did you want to talk to me about?' Dirk heard him ask.

‘I don't want to go out with you any more. I've met someone else down the laundrette …' said the girl, as they disappeared down the road.

Dirk looked at the book lying on top of the cardboard box. It had a red cover and a white zigzagged line across the front. He recognised it at once but the high street was too busy to get it, so he winged his way home.