The Shiver Stone (11 page)

There was a hiss and clink as Dad levered the cap off a beer bottle.

Polly's voice was soft but strong. The sort of voice you hear reading stories on podcasts and CDs. Bit by bit we shuffled our chairs nearer until we were in a circle around her. Tia settled on my lap and fell asleep.

‘Kemble's ideas grew crazier, out of control. One by one we drifted away, frightened by his antics and wild behaviour. He thought that the people involved with the hunt should be punished. I tried to tell Tristan that wasn't right – it made no sense. Save animals? Yes. Hurt humans to do it? How can that ever be OK? I tried to get him away from Kemble's influence, but he seemed fascinated.

‘That night, the night Tristan came home covered in blood, I think they'd been to sabotage a hunt. Tristan had already stopped telling me what they were up to. He knew I didn't approve of Kemble and his schemes. He was frightened, very frightened. All he would say was that something terrible had happened and he had to get away for a while. I begged him to tell me what, but he said for my sake, and your sake, Jago, it was better I didn't know. He told me he'd contact us as soon as things settled down.'

She shrugged and took another long sip of wine. ‘And that, folks, was the last time I saw him until a week ago, when he appeared on the news as the man behind the mysterious sculptures of Carreg.' She lowered her voice. ‘If Kemble Sykes is here, you can bet he's here to get Tristan. But I don't know why.'

We left not long after that. Everyone seemed a bit down, everyone except me. I was just glad that they were speaking to me again.

As we left, Polly gave Linette a hug. ‘I bet you have a lovely aura. I don't have my camera with me, but maybe another time, I can take a picture for you? A small thank you present.'

Linette smiled. ‘I'd like that,' she said.

The four of us, me, Dad, Linette and Tia, walked home together through the Troll Hole. Linette kept her arm over my shoulder and part of me wanted to tell her to leave off, but part of me felt all right about it.

When we reached our road Dad said, ‘Let's get some fish and chips, I'm starving.'

We sat on a bench, overlooking the harbour, facing St Winifred's Hotel nestled on the high shelf of rock above.

‘You just want to sit here so you can look at your darling boat,' Linette laughed.

The
Sea Spirit
clicked and clanged alongside the other boats as they were jostled by the tide.

‘Guilty,' Dad said.

I was enjoying my fish and chips and daydreaming again when I heard Dad say, ‘It's ridiculous. She's a nice enough woman but she's filled the kid's head with rubbish. Photographing auras indeed.'

‘I don't know, Dai. There're all sorts of things we don't understand in this world.'

‘You're just saying that because she told
you you probably have a lovely aura,' Dad laughed.

Linette laughed too. ‘Everything about me is lovely, Dai Thomas, and don't you forget it.'

She turned to me. ‘What do you think about all this aura stuff, Carys?'

‘Dunno,' I said, because I didn't. I didn't know what to think.

CHAPTER

11

‘Please Dad, please,' I begged.

‘She can't sleep in the flat, Carys, and that's final. The shed it is.'

‘She'll be cold and frightened. It's dark outside.'

‘It's the middle of summer and we've put warm blankets in the box. She'll be fine.'

‘But, Dad!' I wailed.

‘That's enough, Carys. This is your fault, remember. If you carry on like this I'll call the RSPCA or pay for her to go into a kennels.'

That shut me up. ‘Okay, okay,' I said.

I found an old stuffed teddy and put it in the box with Tia. I shut the shed door. As I turned I heard her muffled whimpers from inside.

‘I'll see you in the morning, little one,' I whispered though the door. She whimpered again. ‘Night, girl.' I dragged myself up the steps to our flat feeling sick and miserable.

I couldn't sleep. If Jago was still here I could have talked to him but he was in the caravan with his mum.

Dad wasn't fishing, but Linette was sleeping over anyway. I couldn't stop worrying about Tia locked in the shed on her own. I think I knew what I was going to do even before I went to bed. As soon as I heard them switch off the TV and go to their room, I got up.

I wrapped the duvet tightly around me and shuffled across the lounge floor. I could hear Dad snoring. I found the spare keys in the fruit dish where Dad keeps them. I didn't have hold of them properly and they dropped with a clang. I froze, then counted to twenty under my breath. Dad was still snoring.

The steps were cold on my feet and I wished I had thought to put my flip-flops on. Outside, the street was eerily quiet as I padded down the path. Tia heard me coming. Her joyful little bark echoed in the shed. I unlocked it quickly and scooted inside.

She went crazy – leaping into my arms and licking my face with her tiny tongue, all the time whimpering with joy.

I laughed out loud. ‘You didn't think I'd leave you here alone all night, did you, girl?'

I stacked some of Dad's birdhouses against the wall, brushed a bunch of wood shavings out of the way and arranged the duvet on the floor. Tia snuggled in beside me, gave a little sigh of happiness and immediately fell asleep. I cuddled her tight. She smelled like sunshine and sea salt.

I don't know how long we'd been sleeping when Tia's sudden bark woke me. The beam of a torch light flashed across the window and lit up the inside of the shed. Frightened, I held my breath and watched as the door handle turned very slowly, one way and then the other. Tia was barking like a mad thing and leaping up at the door.

‘Who's there?' I shouted. I hadn't planned to shout and I surprised myself. I surprised the person trying to break in too – they dropped the handle with a clank. I could hear footsteps on the gravel.

I quickly switched on the light, opened the door and peered right and left into the darkness. I couldn't see a thing. Even after locking the shed I was too scared to go back to sleep. I pulled the duvet over my eyes and cuddled up to Tia until the light of dawn came in through the window.

Sleepily, I dragged myself back up to the flat. Tia would be okay now it was daylight and I needed some real sleep. I had to get back in my bedroom before Dad woke. He'd go crazy if he knew I'd slept in the shed all night. I couldn't even tell him that someone had tried to break in. To steal, what? His birdhouses?

Luckily for me he was still snoring.

I noticed bits of wood shavings and sawdust stuck to my duvet. They left a trail behind me across the lounge floor and down the hall. I fell onto the bed, and into a deep sleep. Just before dropping off I had a thought: Kemble Sykes had shouted, ‘It's not me he should be afraid of, it's her.'

What if the her was Polly? We only had her word for what happened. What if she was lying and Tristan was hiding from Jago's mum? What if she wanted to hurt him in some way? The first birds were beginning their early morning chirping as I closed my eyes. But that was a good story Polly told, too good to be a lie, I thought. So who was the mysterious woman Kemble wanted to warn Tristan about? My eyes were sore and my eyelids heavy. Just before I drifted off to sleep, I thought I heard my door open softly and then click shut again.

The doorbell ringing woke me. It was Jago.

When I came out of my room he was sitting with Dad and Linette on the balcony. I could smell bacon and eggs.

‘You look rough. Bad night?' Dad said.

‘Mmm.' I hurriedly checked the floor but there were no telltale signs of the shavings and sawdust I'd dragged into the flat the night before.

‘Fancy a cooked breakfast?' Linette got up and went into the kitchen. She came back with a huge plateful of food.

‘I don't like beans,' I said.

She sighed, went into the kitchen and I heard her scraping the baked beans into the bin.

‘Okay now, madam?'

‘Okay now.'

Dad gave me a dirty look.

‘Thank you,' I mumbled.

Jago and I hurried downstairs and collected Tia from the shed. She jumped up and down in happy excitement.

‘I think we should approach this like detectives,' Jago said. ‘I've brought my geology notebook and we can make notes and jot down clues.'

I thought this sounded a bit geeky but I had nothing better to do. Then Jago said something really sad. ‘I wish I had a dad like yours. In fact I wish I had a dad.'

I knew how he felt. I was sick of being asked, ‘Where's your mum?' Tired of trying to explain. Tired of pretending it was okay, that it didn't bother me that my mum loved a load of other kids more than she loved me.

‘Right,' I said, ‘let's find this missing father of yours, shall we?'

We sat on a bench in the sensory garden. It's where my friend Becca and I go when we want to talk in private. Each bench is surrounded by a high thick hedge, so it feels secret. Tia lay on the warm concrete between our feet.

Jago spoke aloud and wrote neatly in his notebook. ‘Ten years ago, Tristan, covered in blood and terrified, leaves Bristol. Abandons girlfriend and two-year-old son.' He went over what he'd written and underlined abandons. ‘Ten years later, turns up in Carreg.'

‘He didn't just turn up ten years later though, did he?' I corrected him. ‘He's been living here for ten years.'

Jago grunted and crossed out turns up. ‘Tristan sees frightening character from past and runs away.' His pen seemed to be running out of ink and he shook it several times. ‘Question one – what terrible thing happened in the past to make him so scared?'

He stared at me. I said, ‘Don't look at me like that – I don't know.'

‘Question two, where is he hiding?'

‘We don't know that either, do we.'

This wasn't going so well.

‘Question three, I can't even think of a question three,' Jago said closing the notebook. ‘We're rubbish detectives.'

A head appeared around the hedge. It was Polly. ‘Linette said you might be here.'

Linette says too much, I thought. I saw the line of stitches above Polly's eye wasn't quite so swollen, but there was a yellowish bruise near her nose.

We made space on the bench for her to sit down. Jago quickly stashed his notebook away. He didn't want his mother to see it.

‘I thought you two could give me a guided tour of Carreg. All I've seen so far is the inside of a hospital room. I'd like to take some close-up shots of the Shiver Stone too. I bet it has an amazing aura,' Polly said.

‘I can't, Linette is doing a birthday lunch for Dad today,' I said.

‘Oh yes, she asked if we'd like to come, but I think Jago and I have imposed on your family more than enough.'

She turned to Jago. ‘I've decided to give it one more day, Jago. If your father doesn't turn up by tomorrow morning we're getting the train back to Bristol.'

‘But, Mum…'

‘No. I've made up my mind. I feel like a fool hanging around just in case that man decides to show his face. Whatever happened, whatever he's afraid of, he's got just one more day to prove he's worthy of being your father, Jago. It's his last chance. If we're on that train tomorrow I will never contact him again and that's final.'

She sounded breathless, angry.

Jago and I were silent.

Polly breathed through her nose and fanned her face with her hands. I could see she was trying not to cry.

‘Let's go back up to his place. He might be home now. We could try one more time,' Jago said.

‘I can't go there. You know that.'

‘Why?'

‘Bees, Jago, bees! Buzz, buzz, buzz, remember? I don't want to end up back in the hospital. Now how about you take me to the Shiver Stone?'

Jago hoisted his geology bag over his shoulder and got up. As they moved away he turned, flicked his blond plaits over his shoulder and gave me the saddest look.