Under a Ghostly Moon (Jerry Moon Supernatural Thrillers Book 1) (27 page)

The sku
ll-shaped headlight seemed to leer hungrily at Moon.  "Yes please," he replied thickly through a suddenly dry mouth.  Uri laughed at their discomfort as they made their way quickly up to the station.  "You really do enjoy some of this 'undead fiend' stuff, don't you?" commented Moon, annoyed by his friend's amusement.

"
Oh, yes I do, but only in small doses and I can give it up any time I like," replied Uri.  Moon wasn't sure if he was joking.

The station was deserted, the last train, the ten thirty-eight to the central station at Temple Meads, had passed through about ten minutes earlier.  It had that eerie, empty feel that all unstaffed stations have at night, so it felt haunted even though Moon knew for certain that it wasn't.  "Look at this mural!" cried Sonia in delight, pointing to the platform wall where the famous Victorian cricketer W.G.  Grace demonstrated his technique to three modern day local children.  Along the wall were a number of other figures representing the history of the area, from a sepia-toned Victorian lady in a poke bonnet to a family of Afro- Caribbean immigrants out of the nineteen-fifties.

"
Haven't you seen it before?" Moon pointed at the picture of Grace wearing a bowler hat and suit instead of his more famous cricket whites.  "He used to be the local doctor in this part of town when he wasn't playing cricket.  See, there's his Gladstone

bag on the floor next to his feet.
"

"
That's one hell of a beard for a doctor," replied Sonia.  "Did you know him then?"

Moon suddenly realised that Sonia had no idea who W.G
.  Grace was.  "No… no of course not, he lived in the Victorian era.  He was probably the most famous cricketer of his time; W.G.  Grace, haven't you heard of him?"

"
Oh, was W.G.  Grace a cricketer? I thought he was a Victorian prime minister or something."

Moon chuckled
.  "I guess you do learn some things from the boys' comics that girls never find out."

"
Yeah, 'cos we've too much sense to be interested in them," replied Sonia with a mock sneer.  "Who wants to learn stuff about boring old cricket anyway?"

"
Better than all that fluffy stuff about make-up and boy bands, nyeh!" replied Moon loudly, getting into character.

"
Er, forgive me for breaking up this wonderful display of immaturity," admonished Uri.  "But we just happen to be looking for some very dangerous people in the dark so perhaps it would be better if we did not draw attention to ourselves."

"
Oh, okay," replied Sonia, lapsing into seriousness.

"
Yeah, sorry, Uri," added Moon, looking sheepish in the dim glow of the station lighting.  "You getting anything?"

"
Not here," answered Uri, sniffing the air.  "Too many people have been here over the last few hours.  Plus a couple had sex in the shelter before the last train arrived.  All those pheromones really screw up my sense of smell.  How about you?"

"
Zilch, I'm afraid.  The station's not even haunted, which is unusual for such a public place. You usually find at least one marooned spirit hanging around where lots of people congregate on a regular basis."

"
Well, I suppose we ought to look further along the track," replied Uri.  "You take one way and I'll take the other.  And watch out for trains, there's still a bit of freight traffic running at this time of night."

They headed off in different directions along the line, Uri going northwest towards the coast while Moon and Sonia made their way south-eastwards towards Temple Meads Station and
South Bristol.  They walked for about fifteen minutes, having to leap from the track at one point to avoid a passing freight train, but there was no sign of anywhere that could be a suitable hideaway for Rurik's cult.  They encountered one spirit: the ghost of a railway worker who had died in an accident while he was checking the tracks for damage during the early nineteen-thirties. Unfortunately, he hadn’t seen any people in robes, despite having walked up and down the track between Stapleton Road and Temple Meads every night since the September of 1932.  At that point they gave up and returned to the station. They had been waiting there for about ten minutes when the long-limbed figure of Uri swooped out of the sky and alighted beside them.  "Find anything?" asked Moon.  "We drew a blank."

"
Possibly," replied Uri.  "I scouted the track for about two miles in that direction then flew along the rest of it up to the entry to the tunnel that runs under the Downs.  There's a point just before the next set of lights where at least five people congregated recently.  One of them was young, female and very, very scared.  I'm wondering if they got onto a train there instead of at the station.  If they were able to do that their lair could be situated anywhere along this line."

"
But Inspector Whatley said the victims went missing after the last train had gone..." A slow wave of comprehension spread over Moon's face.

"
Yes, of course, the freight service," said Sonia, with sudden insight.

Uri nodded. 
"If they had an accomplice on the train they could put their victim on board here and get off anywhere between here and the coast," he observed.  "That's a lot of train line."

"
Ten to fifteen miles' worth, I reckon," agreed Moon.  "And Rurik's hideout could be anywhere along that stretch.  Or a few miles either side - there's nothing to say they don't have transport at the other end."

"
Perhaps Inspector Whatley will come up with something," suggested Sonia.  "I mean, if they've got accomplices on a freight service it's probably going to be the same train every time, isn't it?"

"
Of course! You're right, I'll phone Whatley in the morning and ask him to look into the freight train times and see if his team can come up with a match."

"
Then I think we can say our work here is done for the night," said Uri with a lopsided grin.  "Shall we see what my new baby can do?"

Uri took them home via the scenic route, which included a stretch of the M32.  At one point he had the trike roaring along at over ninety miles per hour. Not a fan of speed, Moon speculated sourly that he and Sonia would probably be picking dead bugs out of their hair for most of the coming month.

It was just after eleven the next morning
. Moon awoke to the mouth-watering aroma of cooking bacon.  Sonia, who was more of a morning person than Moon, was already out of bed but she understood by now that Moon needed to lie in on his 'turn- around' day after working nights.  He threw on his jeans and a T-shirt and, after a quick detour to the bathroom, stumbled downstairs in pursuit of the source of the smell of cooking.

Sonia
was standing in the kitchen watching the grill and listening to Radio One.  "Hello," she said.  "I thought the smell of breakfast might get you downstairs." She added the rashers from under the grill to those on a plate that she took from the oven and placed in the middle of the kitchen table alongside a loaf of bread, a bottle of ketchup, a rack of toast and a steaming bowl of heated up tinned tomatoes.  "Help yourself," she said, indicating a place at the table.  "Tea's in the pot."

"
Thanks," said Moon.  He poured himself a cup of tea in Sonia's dragon-claw mug, which had become his favourite, then started to build himself a bacon 'buttie'.  "Is Avril around?"

"
Yeah, she should be down in a minute.  Why?"

"
It just occurred to me while I was waking up that ‘dark grey and purple robes’ could look black under those yellow street lamps at night."

Sonia paused with a dish of fried mushrooms in her hand
s.  "Oh, you mean those idiots who pissed Avril off yesterday evening?"

"
Yeah," replied Moon, taking a bite from his sandwich.  "It would be a bit of a coincidence for two new cults to appear in Bristol at the same time, wouldn't it? This 'Returned Master' character that Avril mentioned... don't you think that he could possibly be Rurik?"

"
Now you come to mention it.  From what Avril told me this morning, the stuff that her culties were preaching at her sounded very similar to what you told me the nutter that attacked you a few weeks ago was ranting about."

"
Really?" Moon put down his sandwich and regarded her curiously.  "Did Avril give you any details?"

"
Yeah, they say that their 'Returned Master' is the one true god but a jealous splinter group among his servants stole the source of his power aeons ago, which is their way of explaining why the world is as fucked up as it is.  But now, with the help of his worshippers, he has returned and, once he has gathered enough followers, he will overthrow the false gods and their followers - and that includes everyone who doesn't worship him of course - and he will return to his rightful place as ruler of the universe.  It goes without saying that the faithful have all been promised the choice jobs in his new administration."

"
I think we have a match there!" concluded Moon excitedly.

"
A match for what?" asked Avril.

"
Oh, those weirdos who bothered you at the bus stop yesterday," said Sonia quickly.  "We think we may have met some of them last night."

"
Yeah," confirmed Moon.  "Avril were they all wearing some kind of pendant?"

Avril helped herself to some bacon and tomatoes
.  "Come to think of it they were.  It looked like a mask - you know the sort cartoon burglars wear, with little red eyes."

Moon shot a significant glance at Sonia
.  "That sounds like them."

"
Look," said Avril irritably.  "I know you guys have some great secret that you're always whispering about when you think no one else can hear you.  I know Uri and his weird women are involved somehow and I think that you probably helped the police catch that lunatic who murdered Dominic and the others.  I'd also give ten to one that you're up to something like that now, so do me a favour and don't try to pull the wool over my eyes."

"
Sorry, Avril." Sonia circumnavigated the table and put her arms round her friend's shoulders.  "It's just that we know you're not too keen on anything supernatural and what we're doing is pretty much as supernatural as you can get."

They could see that Avril was
caught in some kind of internal conflict for a moment, then she sighed, "Yeah, well, I know I'm the first to leap in and pooh-pooh any talk of that sort of thing but I suppose it's time that I confessed the truth…  It's mainly because it just gives me the screaming willies, if you have to know.  When I was little there was this horrible invisible
thing
that used to bang up and down the landing at night in the old house where we lived.  I used to feel it watching me from the top of the stairs when I was on my own.  It scared me shitless.  The day we left that place was the happiest day of my life.  When I told my mum about it she insisted that there was no such thing and it was all nonsense, which was the perfect get out for me.  You know; 'things can't hurt you if you don't believe in them'."

"
But you do believe, don't you?" asked Moon.  So there was more to Avril's dislike of the supernatural than she had led them to believe.

Avril nodded vulnerably. 
"Yeah, well I suppose I don't have any choice really, do I? What, with Mulder and Scully sharing the room next door." She gave a begrudging smile.  "I mean, either you two are totally loony, or from what I can gather there's some heavy shit going on."

"
How about a ghostly megalomaniac who's trying to take over the world, is that heavy enough for you?" asked Sonia.

"
No way!" exclaimed Avril.  "I thought it was just another murder investigation.  You can't be serious?"

"
As far as we can tell, that's what's going on," replied Moon.  "Of course it could all be bullshit and Sonia and I might just be certifiably insane.  You'll have to judge that for yourself."

"
Don't tempt me.  Anyway, what do the
'Disciples of the Returned Master'
have to do with all this? From my brief encounter with them they were a bit weird but they seemed harmless enough in a culty kind of way."

"
We think they've abducted several young women, probably to be sacrificed to their new 'god'," answered Sonia bluntly.

"
No!" cried Avril, a look of horror spreading over her face.  "So, if I'd have been stupid enough to go with them, that’s what they’d have done to me?"

"
I hadn't thought of that," said Moon with alarm.  "They may not just be abducting prostitutes.  They could be vetting their new recruits so that any of them who wouldn't be missed could end up as a snack for Rurik.  I'd better try to contact Inspector Whatley as soon as possible.  If they’ve got any kind of public presence the police should be able to find the address of the cult's base.  Can I use your land-line?"

"
Sure, help yourself," replied Sonia, with her arm still around Avril's shaking shoulders.  The poor girl was finding it hard to adjust to the possibility that she might have had a narrow brush with death.

Moon phoned Whatley on his mobile number and got through almost immediately.  "Hi, Inspector, it’s Moon here.  We went back to Stapleton Road Station last night with Uri and discovered a few more leads."

"
Go ahead, Moon," replied Whatley.  "You've caught me 'off duty' but that's only a relative term for a policeman."

Moon explained their
suspicions that the abductors were possibly using one of the freight services to carry them and their victims further up the track from Stapleton Road.  He also mentioned Avril's encounter with the
Disciples of the Returned Master
and his speculation that they may also be selecting victims from among their converts.  "What do you think, Inspector? Any use?" he asked when he had finished.

"
Hmm, yes," said the inspector.  "I'll be working this afternoon so I'll phone the station once we've finished speaking and get someone started on looking through the times of the freight services running to the coast.  Last night was our first indication that there might be a connection to the rail service so all I've managed to do so far is arrange for a handful of uniforms to go over the area around the station looking for clues.  I'll also see if we can find any reference to these Disciples of, what's his name?"

"
The Returned Master."

"
Ah, yes, the
Disciples of the Returned Master
.  It may require a warrant, but we'll get them to provide us with a list of their members.  Perhaps one of them will be our train driver."

"
Is that wise?" asked Moon.  "Surely it'll tip them off that we're onto them."

"
Possibly, yes.  But the trouble with dealing with a religious organisation is that we’re required to treat them as if they're legitimate until proven otherwise.  However we don’t have to be specific, we only need to tell them that we suspect one of their members may be able to provide us with information concerning a crime, so they don't have to know it's in connection with the abductions.  It's very unlikely that many of their number except for a core group are aware of the shadier side of the organisation. Hopefully, unless we’re unlucky enough to come into contact with a member of the inner faction first off, they may unwittingly provide us with what we need."

"
You're a devious man, Art Whatley," Moon laughed.  "I'm a police detective, Moon.  It's in my job description."

An old friend of Sonia's from Reading was visiting family in Bristol so the two of them had arranged to meet up for an afternoon of shopping and to see the sights.  This meant that Moon had the rest of the day to himself. He decided to make good use of the time and headed back to his flat to work on his current article.

His walk home took him up the steep hill of Clifton Vale and
Goldney Avenue to a complicated junction with Regent Street, Clifton Wood Road, Lower Clifton Hill and Clifton road.  An unofficial sixth branch of this junction passed through the wrought iron gateway which led to Birdcage Walk; the haunted pathway that ran through St Andrew's Cemetery.  Moon felt a shiver of dread stir in his chest.  This was the first time he had contemplated walking through the cemetery since his near fatal encounter with the Shadow Beast several weeks earlier.  The thought was scary, even in daylight, but he told himself that he now had enough power and knowledge to combat supernatural beasties on his own so it was time for him to face up to his fears.

The tree-covered walkway was pleasantly shady in the July sunlight and the cemetery seemed extremely quiet and peaceful, despite the heavy rush hour traffic streaming along the Queen
's Road up ahead.  His trepidation diminished as the quietness relaxed him and he decided to stop for a few minutes to soak in some of the place's atmosphere. How ironic it was that somewhere so pleasant in daylight should be so perilous at night...  As he gazed over the graves the shadows under one of the yew trees coalesced into a shimmering green figure, which beckoned to him to approach.  Curiosity overcoming his wariness… he opened the wrought-iron gate on that side of the path and navigated his way through the gravestones to where it stood.  As he approached the hazy form resolved into the shape of a tall, slender woman dressed in multiple shades of green.  Her gown was woven in a raised pattern similar to the herringbone pattern of yew branches.  The gown's bottom hem was decorated with a scattering of red buttons the size and shape of yew berries and the pattern there faded to the lighter green of younger leaves.  Her underskirt, which was uncovered at her forearms and below the hem of her gown, was the reddish-brown of yew bark.  The woman's skin was very white with a slight tinge of green, like freshly stripped wood and there were yew leaves and berries strewn through her long auburn hair.  This was definitely one of those
Other People
, like the Jenny Greenteeth, but he sensed that this one may be slightly more benign in nature.

"
Welcome, Jeremy Moon."
She indicated a small wrought iron park bench nearby,
"Come, sit in my shade, for we have much of great importance to discuss."

Moon sat down on the bench and briefly contemplated his
old friend the squirrel, who now scampered towards him in hope of a free lunch.  "Who are you, Lady?" he asked, gazing up into her fathomless dark green eyes.

"
I am Ioho, daughter of the yew, and you…"
she said with a hint of teasing in her voice. 
"You are Jeremy Moon, who walks between the worlds and is our best hope against the Defiler who has come to these lands.  None of the Fay Folk, Dark or Light, are safe from him. Even the Black Terror who haunted this place for centuries was not strong enough to prevail against him.  And with each of us he takes he gains in strength."
The squirrel, realising Moon had no food with him, sat on his haunches and scolded Moon loudly before bounding up into the yew tree's branches.

"
You mean the Shadow Beast?" asked Moon.  "Rurik ate the Shadow Beast? I can't say I'm sad about that," he smiled grimly.  "But are you saying even nature spirits like yourself aren't safe from Rurik? How could he have suddenly become so powerful?"

Ioho nodded.
  "That is a very important question, Jeremy Moon, and the answer lies in the very purpose of Humanity.  There is a deep thirst in the heart of your kind to conquer and rule, not only over each other but also over the earth that bore you.  The Great Mother tolerates this because it is important factor in your development as a species. It is her hope that you will eventually learn to control it before it destroys you because, controlled, this drive could be of great benefit to yourselves and the world you live in.” 
For an instant her eyes seemed to focus on a far distant future.
  “Imagine what your race could achieve if you worked hand in hand with the Mother instead of trying to dominate her... But I digress.  It suffices to say that in Rurik the drive for dominion has swollen out of all proportion.  It was already very strong in him when he was a man but, unaware of how great that desire truly was, the sorcerer who cursed him chose to use Rurik’s thirst for power against him.  He bound Rurik's vampiric nature to that terrible drive so that, as a Vampire Lord, he would have almost unbreakable dominion over his servants..."