The Skeleton Clock Read online

  ‘You asked about the soldier,’ she said. ‘And if you have such a figure, I would urge you to get rid of it. While you can. Before you find yourself in mourning.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I don’t have my piece any more. I got rid of it. I had to get rid of it.’

  ‘But – why?’

  Mrs Gladhall leaned forward again, her veiled face coming into the light from a nearby lamp. Jake could see the fine mesh of the material over her face, the way it shifted as she moved – layers sliding over each other.

  ‘Why did you have to get rid of it?’ he asked again, nervously.

  In answer she slowly reached up and lifted the veil. ‘Because it was responsible for this.’

  The face beneath the veil was beautiful. She was in her late middle age, but her features were finely formed, her eyes deep and dark. And across Mrs Gladhall’s beautiful face, was a mass of angry red circles – raised scars where the flesh had been ripped away. Marks the same shape and pattern as the suckers on the tentacles of the creature that had attacked Jake in Whispers.

  Chapter 10

  It was getting on for six in the evening when Sarah got back home. She and her father lived in the rooms above the toyshop. It was cramped but comfortable, and she couldn’t imagine ever living anywhere else.

  ‘Ah, there you are,’ her father said as Sarah entered the shop. ‘I was getting worried. How’s Geoff?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Sarah said. ‘We couldn’t find him.’ She wasn’t sure what else to say. ‘I went to Mandrake’s, to look at some books. I should have told you, I’m sorry.’

  ‘You stay out far too long sometimes, you know. But you’re back just in time.’

  ‘For what?’ She saw that father had his coat on. ‘Are you going out?’

  ‘Been summoned,’ he said. He made it sound as if he was annoyed, but she could hear an underlying enthusiasm in his tone. ‘Officer Revelle was here. They want me up at the White Tower.’

  ‘What, now?’ Sarah had begun to take her coat off, but she slipped her arm back into the sleeve. ‘I’m coming with you. What’s it about, what do they want?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ her father confessed. ‘But I am hoping they have scanned the Head.’

  ‘Mandrake was interested in the Head,’ Sarah said as they walked along to the quay.

  ‘Mandrake is interested in everything,’ Jasper Hickson said. ‘He is one of the most interested people I know. Wouldn’t be surprised if he hasn’t read each and every one of those books he restores.’

  A boatman was waiting at the quay at the end of the street. ‘You the party for the White Tower?’ he asked.

  ‘We are indeed,’ the Toymaker told him.

  ‘Officer Revelle told me to wait for you. You make your own way back, mind,’ he added quickly. ‘I ain’t hanging around there. Dreadful place.’

  ‘You think so?’ Sarah’s father said, climbing into the boat. He helped her down too. ‘It’s a little forbidding I suppose.’

  ‘God alone knows what goes on in there.’ The boatman untied and took the oars. ‘They’ve got ’tricity and everything. Cameras. The lot. Not natural.’

  ‘They say,’ Sarah’s father said quietly to her, ‘that if the seagulls ever leave the White Tower, the kingdom will fall.’

  But the boatman heard, and laughed. ‘And some might say the kingdom fell a long time ago. You be careful in there.’

  *

  Jake stared in horror at the woman’s face. ‘The toy figure did that?’

  She pulled the veil down to hide her ruined face and sad eyes. ‘I said it was responsible, not that it did it.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘This is what happened because of it. Because I wouldn’t part with it – at any price.’ Mrs Gladhall stood up, leaning over Jake. ‘Get rid of it,’ she urged. ‘Whatever you have, wherever you found it, get rid of it before it’s too late. Before he finds you.’

  Jake was pressing himself into the back of the chair to try to keep away from her, surprised at her abrupt change in mood. ‘Before who finds me? What do you mean?’

  The woman turned away, towards the large window. She stared out across the water, the lights from the city reflected in its rippling surface.

  ‘Get out,’ she whispered.

  ‘Sorry?’ Jake got slowly to his feet.

  ‘Get out,’ she said more forcefully.

  ‘But, if you could just tell me – ’

  ‘Get Out!’ she insisted again before he could finish.

  Jake could see the dark veil reflected in the glass of the window. With the water behind the reflection, it seemed to ripple and move.

  ‘GET OUT!’ the woman yelled, and now her whole body was rippling as she sobbed.

  Jake turned and ran. Leaving her staring at the dark waters outside.

  *

  A Defeater led Sarah and her father into a different part of the White Tower. They followed him along a narrow stone corridor, past heavy studded wooden doors, and eventually out into an open area.

  There was carpet on the floor here, and a wooden staircase with steel banisters led upwards. If it wasn’t for the whitewashed stone walls, they might have been in one of the banking offices over in the Drylands.

  Marianna Patterson was waiting for them on the next landing. She turned immediately and walked along another corridor.

  They assumed they were intended to follow, and the Defeater was already heading back down the stairs. Marianna Patterson pushed open a door, and held it for Sarah and her father.

  ‘We’re not in trouble, are we?’ Sarah asked. The woman’s silence unnerved her.

  ‘Why would you think that?’ Miss Patterson said. ‘No,’ she went on. ‘No more than the rest of us, anyway. But I’m sure there’s a very reasonable explanation. And you are here to tell me what it is.’

  ‘Explanation for what?’ the Toymaker wondered.

  ‘For this.’

  The room was a large office with a conference table down the middle and several desks arranged against the walls. On the wall at the far end of the table was a large screen.

  Miss Patterson sat down at the end of the table, facing the large screen. Sarah and her father took seats along the side closest to the door.

  ‘I’d like your opinion on this,’ Miss Patterson said. She pressed a button on a small black box she was holding, and an image appeared on the screen.

  It was a picture of the golden head. The image turned slowly through 360 degrees.

  ‘This is an external laser scan, obviously.’ Miss Patterson leaned back in her chair, pressing another button on the box. ‘And this is the enhanced image from the ultrasound scan of the inside.’

  They all stared at the screen.

  ‘How extraordinary,’ Sarah’s father said.

  Sarah stared at the screen, where the unmistakable image of a human skull was slowly rotating, picked out in blue and orange. ‘You mean, that’s what is inside the golden head?’ she said.

  ‘It’s a real human head,’ her father said. ‘Covered in gold.’

  ‘Severed at the neck,’ Miss Patterson said. ‘And which won’t shut up.’

  ‘Fascinating,’ Jasper Hickson breathed. ‘But this is extraordinary.’ He looked at Miss Patterson. ‘I shall have to think about this.’

  There was silence, broken only by the sound of the door opening behind Sarah and her father. Sarah was about to turn to see who it was, when Miss Patterson said:

  ‘Ah, Officer Revelle, I’m glad you could join us.’

  Sarah went cold. She was facing away from him, but Revelle was sure to recognise her from Atherton’s as soon as he saw her face. And he must know by now that the man had been killed soon after she and Jake arrived there. She turned slightly, away from where Revelle was now walking round the table to sit on the opposite side.

  ‘Are you all right?’ her father asked quietly.

  ‘I’m fine. That is… I need some air,’ Sarah said, standing up and t
urning quickly away. Hoping Revelle had not seen her properly. What had she been wearing – was she in the same clothes? Would he remember? ‘I’ll see you back home, father. I’m fine,’ she assured him.

  ‘Just a minute,’ Revelle’s voice came from behind her as she opened the door. ‘I’ve seen you before. Weren’t you at – ’

  But she didn’t hear any more, because Sarah had closed the door. And she was running.

  He couldn’t be sure, not from the briefest glimpse. Would he follow her? Sarah clattered down the stairs as fast as she could. There was no one about, and Sarah was beginning to hope she might make it.

  But when she reached the bottom of the stairs, she saw three identical stone-walled corridors, and she had no idea which one they had come along. She could hear the thump of urgent feet on the floor above. She ran for the nearest corridor.

  Almost at once she knew she’d made the wrong choice. The corridor ended in a heavy metal door. There was a keypad mounted on the wall beside the door, and the door itself was locked solid. A small round window high in the door gave a view of the corridor beyond. There was a man heading towards the door. He was dressed in a white lab coat, like a scientist or a doctor. But if she went back to the stairs, Sarah might meet Revelle coming the other way.

  Looking round desperately, Sarah saw that there was an alcove back down the corridor. It wasn’t very deep. But the electric lights were low, and there was just a chance…

  She pressed as far back into the space as she could. Holding her breath. Praying the gloom and the shadows would hide her.

  Footsteps approached rapidly. She risked a quick glance – just moving her eyes, not her head. A flash of white as the man hurried by. He didn’t even look. Missed her completely.

  Sarah leaned out carefully to watch him continue along the corridor. A creak from the other direction made her turn, and she saw the heavy metal door swinging slowly shut.

  She sprinted for the closing gap as the door swung shut, and grabbed the handle before it closed completely. She pulled the door open again, just enough to squeeze through, then let it shut behind her.

  She soon arrived in another open area, not unlike the stairwell at the other end of the corridor. Again there was a staircase – leading both upwards and down into darkness.

  Without hesitation, Sarah headed up. There was a corridor off from the first landing. It was wide and plain, the walls plastered and painted a pale green. There was a smell too – an antiseptic smell, a bit like cleaning materials. The doors off the corridor had round windows in them like the one downstairs. The first few had a curtain drawn across on the inside, and Sarah didn’t dare open any of the doors in case there was someone inside.

  Then she saw a door where the window was unobscured. She peered in, standing on tip-toe to see. It looked like a small bedroom. Very plain, with just a bed and a small cabinet beside it. Next to the bed was a metal frame holding a bag of clear liquid from which a tube ran down to the floor.

  The next room looked the same. And the next. There was no sign of anyone, and all the rooms were empty.

  Until she reached the last room on the corridor. Ahead of her were double doors. But before she tried them, Sarah glanced through the window of the last room. And gasped in astonishment.

  Without hesitation she tried the door. It opened easily. At the exact same moment, somewhere in the distance, a bell started to ring – loud and insistent, echoing along the corridor.

  But Sarah didn’t hear it. All her attention, her every sense, was focused on the person in the room. She didn’t hear the running feet. She didn’t notice the door opening again behind her. She didn’t even feel the hand that closed on her shoulder.

  She just stared in horror and disbelief.

  ‘Geoff?’ she said.

  Chapter 11

  It was late by the time Jake got back from Mrs Gladhall’s, and the meeting had unnerved him. So he didn’t go to find Sarah until the next morning. As he didn’t want to get there too early and disturb them, he arrived at the Toyshop at opening time.

  The door was already unlocked, and the bell jangled as Jake pushed it open. The Toymaker was sitting in an upright chair in the corner of the shop. His head was nodding forward and he jolted awake at the sound.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Jake asked.

  ‘I thought it was Sarah,’ Jasper Hickson replied, wiping his eyes. ‘I must have dozed off.’

  ‘Has she gone out?’ Jake couldn’t keep the disappointment out of his voice.

  ‘She hasn’t come back yet, after last night.’ The Toymaker got to his feet, pacing anxiously round the shop as they spoke.

  ‘Last night? You’ve been waiting all night? Did you sleep there?’ He must be so worried. Jake could feel his own anxiety growing. ‘What happened?’

  ‘I must have dozed off,’ the Toymaker said again. ‘It’s morning. Perhaps she’s back? No,’ he immediately answered his own question. ‘I’d have heard. And she’d have seen me sitting here.’

  ‘Tell me what happened,’ Jake insisted. He was feeling cold and shaken up inside – what could have happened to Sarah?

  ‘We were at the White Tower. Looking at scans of the Head – she told you about the Head?’

  Jake nodded. ‘Go on.’

  ‘And she left before me. Said she’d see me back here. That Watch man, Officer Revelle came and he wanted to talk to Sarah, but she ran off. I thought she’d be here waiting for me when I got home.’

  ‘But she wasn’t?’

  The Toymaker shook his head. ‘So I waited. She wouldn’t be long, I thought. She never stays out too late. Never all night. And…’ He stopped pacing and turned to look at Jake, his eyes bleary and moist. ‘And she never came back.’

  ‘She’ll be all right,’ Jake said, though he was not at all convinced.

  ‘Perhaps she’s with Geoff,’ the Toymaker said.

  Jake swallowed. ‘I don’t think so.’ He couldn’t tell him Geoff was missing too – that would worry the poor man even more. He struggled to think where she might have gone. ‘Did she go to Mandrake’s yesterday afternoon?’

  The Toymaker nodded. ‘She’d just got back when we went to the Tower.’

  ‘Well, maybe she hadn’t finished there. Maybe she went back, to find out something else, or do some more reading.’

  ‘Maybe.’ He sounded dubious.

  ‘And if it got late and she didn’t realise… Well, perhaps she stayed there for the night, or found somewhere else to shelter. Some of the tunnels are out this morning,’ he remembered. ‘There’s a pump gone at the Dilly, and a collapse somewhere round the Circle.’

  The Toymaker was nodding. ‘Yes, yes, that must be it. Let’s hope that’s it.’

  ‘She’ll be home soon, I’m sure,’ Jake said. ‘But if you want, I’ll go to Mandrake’s and check. There’s a roofwalk gets you quite close, and the tunnels should be open beyond that.’

  *

  Jake knew how to cut through along the dryways as far as a roofwalk that could get him to the end of the little section of tunnel that led only to Mandrake’s.

  There was an old fire escape ladder up to the roof of a dilapidated office building. You could jump down to a lower roof, and then walk along the gullies and gutters on the roofs of a street of townhouses. At the end of the townhouse there were planks laid across to the long, narrow roof of a warehouse. From there he could climb down to a District Access tunnel opening called The Memorial which was on the other side of Cannons.

  It wasn’t a route that Jake often took, but he knew the vibration under his feet as he crossed the last warehouse roof meant trouble. Jake was tempted to run for it – he could see the end of the building, corrugated metal sheets laid across to the next roof, which was slightly higher.

  But the best option was to stand completely still. He could hear them now, the tyres on the cracked concrete and threadbare asphalt of the roof. The shouts and calls and whistles of the kids. Roof-riders.

  The first bike skidded
past Jake, turning in a tight circle. It went right round him. the rider was a girl of about his age, long dark hair swirling round her laughing face. ‘Seen you down at the shallows,’ the girl shouted. Waterlark, ain’t you?’ Then she was off again.

  The other riders whizzed past Jake, so close he could feel the breeze from them. A boy with a peaked cap slapped Jake on the back as he sped past.

  ‘Watcha, mate – got any dosh?!’

  ‘Yeah, I wish,’ Jake said. But the bike was already clattering over the corrugated metal sheets and up to the next building.

  The noise died away, the shouts and laughter fading into the distance. When he was sure they weren’t turning round and coming back at him, Jake ran for the end of the warehouse and the rusting metal staircase down to the District.

  He was glad to be down in the gloomy damp of the tunnels. The main walkway behind him was closed, so the tunnels were almost empty. A few people were heading for The Memorial, but turning into the spur that led to Mandrake’s, Jake was on his own.

  Most of the lights had burned out during the night. The few that were left were guttering and faint. They hissed and crackled as they reached the end of their reservoirs of cheap fat.

  The door to Mandrake’s was standing slightly open, and Jake went in. Despite being a few feet above the tide level, there was an inch of water standing on the wooden boards. Dusty sunlight glinted on the puddles and bathed the massive room full of bookshelves in a pale, lazy light.

  Gabriel Mandrake was sitting at his desk at the end of the room. He looked up as he heard Jake approach.

  ‘I do apologise for the damp,’ he said. ‘The water seeps up through the boards. It comes in through the cellarage and there’s nothing much I can do about that. Except keep the books well above high tide. Now, how can I help you, young man? Any particular subject in which you are interested?’

  ‘Jake,’ Jake told him. ‘And I wasn’t looking for a book.’

  ‘Oh,’ he sounded disappointed. ‘Well, Jake, you may just possibly have come to the wrong place then.’

  ‘I was looking for Sarah Hickson.’