Into the Thinnest of Air Read online

  ‘I think we need to take a look out the windows,’ said Penny. ‘See what there is to see.’

  There were three windows in the long stone wall, looking out over the car park. Penny and I took the window nearest the door. Night had fallen while we were eating. It was dark outside now, and with all of the inn’s lights blazing behind us it was hard to see anything. Even for me. The wind was blowing really hard. It sounded cold and fierce, not a good night to be outside. I turned to Penny.

  ‘Switch off the lights.’

  ‘What?’ said Jimmy. ‘Why the hell would we want to do that? I don’t want to stand around in the dark …’

  ‘Shut up, Jimmy,’ said Valerie. ‘It’ll help us to see out.’

  ‘Do it,’ said Thomas.

  ‘Where are the switches?’ said Penny.

  ‘By the coat stand, near the front door,’ I said. ‘I spotted them when we first arrived.’

  ‘Of course you did,’ said Penny. ‘You would.’

  I always make a point of noticing things like that about any room I’m in. You never know when you might need to seize the advantage or make a sudden exit. Penny hurried over to the switches and turned them all off. The lights went out, apart from two set directly over the bar. A heavy gloom fell across the long dining room, and the inn didn’t feel nearly as inviting any more. We all looked out the windows again. I could see the car park quite clearly now.

  ‘I can’t see Olivia anywhere,’ said Thomas. He had his face so close to the window his nose was flattened against the glass. ‘Can anyone see her?’

  Everyone made negative noises. Eileen was standing very close to Thomas as they stared out through the middle window, and for the first time she didn’t have a glass in her hand. Jimmy and Valerie were huddled together before the far window. Valerie was shaking, and Jimmy had an arm round her shoulders.

  ‘Olivia isn’t anywhere in the car park,’ I said.

  ‘You’ve got better eyes than the rest of us if you can see that far!’ said Jimmy. ‘Can you see the tree?’

  ‘Not funny, Jimmy,’ said Thomas.

  ‘Sorry …’

  We all turned away from the windows as Albert came hurrying back down the stairs. He slammed to a halt at the bottom, started to say something, and then stopped.

  ‘Why are all the lights off? Have the fuses gone?’

  ‘We turned them off so we could see better,’ said Thomas. ‘Olivia isn’t outside, Albert.’

  Penny went back to the switches and turned the lights back on. We all winced. The lights seemed almost unbearably harsh now, and not in the least comforting.

  ‘I’ve checked all the guest rooms upstairs,’ said Albert. ‘Olivia isn’t in any of them.’

  ‘There’s nowhere up there she could be hiding?’ I said.

  ‘Why would she hide?’ Albert said angrily. ‘And if she could hear me, she’d answer me! Why don’t you …’ He stopped himself, with an effort. ‘Sorry. I’m sorry … I looked everywhere. There’s nowhere upstairs she could be. Nowhere.’

  ‘She’s not outside,’ said Thomas.

  ‘Are you sure?’ said Albert.

  ‘Come and see for yourself,’ said Jimmy.

  ‘There’s only one way for us to be sure,’ I said. ‘We have to go outside and check.’

  No one moved. Everyone was looking at me, saying nothing. But I could see the answer in their faces, in their eyes. This is a bad place. Everybody knows that. I headed for the front door. Penny was quickly there at my side. And one by one, I heard the others follow reluctantly after me.

  The cold outside came as something of a shock after the comfortable warmth of the inn. The wind was blowing really hard, and I had to brace myself to stand against it. Penny clung to my arm with both hands. Darkness had fallen across the car park. A half moon dropped blue-white moonlight over everything, hiding as much in shadow as it illuminated. Bright electric light spilled from the Castle’s windows and doorway, but it didn’t travel far. I moved slowly out into the car park. Penny didn’t say anything, but I could feel her unease in the strength of her grip on my arm. The ordinary, everyday car park we’d arrived in was gone, replaced by a strange new open space where anything could be hiding. Anything at all. The woods beyond the car park were just a dark mass at the edge of my vision; behind me I could hear the sea crashing against the beach at the foot of the cliffs. I glanced back at the Castle doorway. The others were standing huddled together in the doorway, looking out at the night but not willing to venture any further. Albert had made it to the front of the group, but that was as much as he could manage. I called back to him, raising my voice to be heard over the wind.

  ‘Albert! Could Olivia have gone into town for anything?’

  He shook his head firmly. ‘She wouldn’t do that without telling me. She just wouldn’t. And anyway, our car’s still here.’

  I looked at the three cars standing together, some distance away from our hire car. ‘Which car is which?’

  ‘I drive a Morris!’ Jimmy said loudly.

  ‘Mine is the Range Rover,’ said Thomas. ‘I mean, mine and Eileen’s.’

  ‘And ours is the Skoda,’ said Albert. ‘Look, Olivia couldn’t have taken it anyway. I used it last, so I’ve still got the keys. She’d know that.’

  ‘Maybe she decided to walk back into town,’ said Penny.

  Albert looked at her as though she’d gone mad. ‘Why on earth would she want to do that? It’s dark, it’s cold, and it’s a really long way!’

  Penny put her head close to mine. ‘It really is very dark, Ishmael. Do you suppose … Could Olivia have heard something out here, come to see what was going on, and then just … stumbled over the cliff edge?’

  ‘I was wondering about that,’ I said. ‘Stay here.’

  It took her a moment before she could bring herself to let go of my arm. I waited a moment, to be sure she was all right. Penny glared about her into the dark, her hands clenched into fists, and then nodded quickly for me to go. I strode quickly over to the cliff edge and looked down. There was enough moonlight for me to make out the beach below. There was no sign of a body. I went back to Penny.

  ‘No sign of Olivia anywhere. Nothing to suggest she was ever out here.’

  ‘If she had fallen … would we have heard her scream, inside the inn?’ said Penny.

  ‘I didn’t hear anything,’ I said. ‘But then I wasn’t listening.’

  Penny linked her arm through mine. She was shivering. ‘At least the tree isn’t here. I half expected to come out here and find Olivia hanging from one of the branches. Right next to Elliot Tyrone.’

  ‘A ghost tree?’ I said. ‘Really?’

  ‘We’ve seen stranger things!’

  She was right. We had. I led her back to the others, still crammed together in the doorway. They looked at me hopefully, but all I could do was shake my head.

  ‘I don’t see how Olivia could have come out here without any of us noticing,’ I said. ‘She has to be inside the Castle, somewhere. We’ll just have to search the whole place thoroughly from top to bottom.’

  ‘I’ve already done that!’ said Albert. He was hugging himself tightly now, as though trying to hold himself together. Thomas put an arm across Albert’s shoulders.

  ‘Let’s go back in and give it another try, eh? A fresh pair of eyes and all that. Don’t you worry, Albert, we’ll find her. She has to be somewhere.’

  Albert shrugged off Thomas’s arm and pushed through the others to go back inside. We all followed him in. I took one last look around the empty car park, and tried to convince myself I didn’t feel something looking back.

  Inside the Castle the bright lights felt warm and cheerful, but that didn’t help much. I shut the door firmly against the dark and the night. And then we all just stood around and looked at each other. It was clear none of them knew what to do for the best, so I would have to take charge or nothing would get done. I was just working out who to send where, when Albert’s head came up suddenly.
/>   ‘My phone! Olivia and I keep our phones with us at all times. Because you never know when some business matter might come up that needs to be discussed. Olivia doesn’t like me making decisions on my own … I’ll ring her. Wherever Olivia is, she’ll have her phone with her.’

  He fished in his jacket pocket, while I thought, but didn’t say, ‘Even if Olivia doesn’t answer, we should still be able to hear the phone ringing and we can track where she is from that.’ But Albert was frowning. The phone wasn’t in the pocket where he thought it should be. He tried all his pockets, and then looked at us blankly.

  ‘I don’t understand. It isn’t there. I know I had it earlier …’

  ‘Give me Olivia’s number,’ I said. ‘I’ll ring her.’

  Albert rattled off the number, while I went over to the coat stand by the front door. But the phone wasn’t in the jacket pocket where I keep it. I felt a sudden chill, as though I’d put my foot down in the dark for a step that should have been there and wasn’t. I always keep my phone in the same pocket, in case the Colonel needs to call me. I checked through all my other pockets, just in case. But it wasn’t in any of them, either. I turned back to face the others.

  ‘My phone is gone, too.’

  Thomas searched through the pockets of his leather jacket. Eileen, Jimmy and Valerie hurried over to the coat stand. I stepped back to give them room, and they all but fought each other to get to their own coat first. After they’d got their hands on their coats and searched through the pockets, I could tell the answer from the look on their faces. They looked lost, cut off from the world without their phones.

  ‘How is this possible?’ said Jimmy.

  ‘What the hell is going on?’ said Valerie.

  No one had any answer for her. We put our coats back on the rack, as neatly as possible, for want of anything else to do. And then we all went back to our table and sat down again. Perhaps because it was the last place we’d been, when the world still made sense. Some of them looked as if they would collapse if they didn’t sit down. I was thinking hard. Olivia disappearing could have been some kind of accident, but all our phones disappearing spoke of planning and preparation. And enemy action.

  ‘We’re cut off,’ said Jimmy. ‘We can’t even call for help.’

  I looked at Albert. ‘Does the Castle have a land line?’

  ‘Yes!’ said Albert. ‘Of course!’

  He jumped to his feet and all but ran the length of the room, to the bar at the far end. He moved in behind it, reached down, and came up with a handset. He lifted the receiver and started to punch in the numbers.

  ‘I’m calling the police!’

  I really wasn’t comfortable with that, but I couldn’t say anything. It was the sensible thing to do. I could always slip away in the confusion. And if there wasn’t any confusion, I’d make some. Albert took the receiver away from his ear and stared at it. He shook the receiver hard and listened again. Then he put it down and looked at us.

  ‘There’s no dialling tone. The line’s dead. What the hell is going on?’

  Penny glared at me. ‘This was supposed to be a nice normal weekend, but everywhere we go something weird happens! You’re a jinx!’

  I shrugged. I’d been called worse.

  FOUR

  Who’s There?

  For a while, no one seemed to want to say anything. We all just sat round the table staring at Albert. He looked at the phone as though it had betrayed him, and then slowly came back to join the rest of us. He sat down heavily and stared blankly at the table top. I looked around the table. Thomas appeared to have shrunk in on himself, all his strength just drained away. Eileen sat close beside him, her face set and stern. Valerie kept looking around her, lost for anything to say or do, as though she couldn’t believe what was happening. Jimmy seemed ready to lash out at anything, just to make himself feel better. And Penny was looking at me, waiting for me to explain what the hell was going on.

  But I didn’t have a clue.

  Jimmy slammed his hand down on the table top. ‘I say we all get the hell out of here! Right now! Just get in our cars and go!’

  There was a brief flurry of nodding heads and loud overlapping agreements, as everyone started to get to their feet. Only to stop where they were, as the look on Jimmy’s face changed. He’d thrust one hand into his trouser pocket and was rummaging around increasingly frantically. He stopped and looked at the rest of us.

  ‘My car keys are gone. I always keep them in this pocket. I always …’

  He searched quickly through his other pockets, but still couldn’t find his keys. Albert checked slowly through his trouser pockets, while Eileen nudged Thomas in the ribs and made him check his jacket. Penny looked at me, but I’d already searched all my pockets and come up empty-handed.

  ‘We can’t all have lost our car keys …’ said Eileen.

  ‘They’re gone!’ said Jimmy. ‘Disappeared, like our phones.’

  ‘Like Olivia,’ said Albert.

  Everyone sat down again. It was obvious we weren’t going anywhere.

  ‘This is just insane!’ said Thomas, his voice rising querulously. ‘None of this makes any sense!’

  ‘I told you this was a bad place,’ said Eileen.

  ‘The first thing we need to do, is make sure Olivia really has vanished,’ I said. I kept my voice carefully calm, because the others needed to believe someone knew what they were doing. ‘All of you stay here, while Penny and I go upstairs and search the guest rooms thoroughly.’

  ‘I already looked,’ said Albert.

  ‘We’ll look harder,’ I said.

  Jimmy bristled at me. ‘What gives you the right to take charge and order the rest of us around?’

  ‘I used to do private security work,’ I said. ‘I’ve spent a lot of time dealing with dangerous situations, which means I’m the most qualified person in this room to keep the rest of you alive.’

  ‘It’s true,’ said Penny. ‘He really is.’

  ‘Then why are you leaving us to go upstairs?’ said Thomas.

  ‘Because if there is a secret hiding place anywhere on the next floor, or any evidence that might help to explain Olivia’s disappearance, I’ll find it,’ I said. ‘I’m good at finding things other people don’t want me to.’

  ‘Who exactly did you do this security work for?’ Jimmy said suspiciously.

  I looked at him, until he looked away.

  ‘Do you want us to search the ground floor?’ said Eileen. ‘I’m ready to tear the whole place apart.’

  Albert looked at her and seemed about to say something, but didn’t.

  ‘Let’s not start smashing things up just yet,’ I said. ‘You never know when we might need something. But by all means take a good look around. There’s always the chance something useful will turn up.’

  ‘Like a body?’ said Jimmy.

  ‘Jimmy!’ said Eileen.

  ‘Somebody had to say it,’ said Jimmy.

  ‘No they didn’t,’ said Eileen. ‘Olivia is missing. That’s all.’

  ‘The toilet!’ Valerie said suddenly. ‘We haven’t looked in the toilet!’ She turned to Albert. ‘Where is it?’

  He pointed down the room. ‘Tucked away under the stairs.’

  ‘How could Olivia have walked the whole length of the room and gone in there without any of us noticing?’ said Jimmy.

  ‘I don’t know!’ said Thomas, rounding angrily on Jimmy. ‘But we have to look! What’s the matter with you? Don’t you want to find Olivia?’

  ‘Of course I do,’ said Jimmy, making an effort to control himself in the face of Thomas’s rising anger. ‘I’m just saying …’

  ‘Well don’t,’ said Eileen.

  I thought Jimmy had a point, but I nodded encouragingly to Eileen anyway. ‘Start with the toilet, then get Albert to show you every nook and cranny.’

  ‘I don’t think Albert is in any condition to make useful suggestions,’ Valerie said quietly. ‘Look at him. He’s in shock.’

  �
��He needs to be doing something,’ Eileen said firmly. ‘Keeping busy is the best thing for him.’

  ‘He’s lost his wife!’ said Valerie.

  ‘I know,’ said Eileen. ‘Some men just can’t cope unless there’s someone there to tell them what to do.’

  She didn’t look at her husband, and he didn’t look at her. Thomas’s lips were moving silently. Perhaps in prayer. I got to my feet and headed for the stairs, with Penny right behind me.

  When we got to the staircase Penny made a point of taking the lead, just to make it clear she wasn’t frightened of anything. I followed after her, and our feet slammed loudly on the bare wooden steps, warning anyone upstairs that we were coming. We quickly emerged on to a narrow landing, with three closed guest-room doors. There was just the one small window at the end of the landing, and no other obvious way out. I opened each closed door in turn, and then stood back and watched to see if they would swing closed by themselves. They didn’t. Contrary to what Olivia had said, they showed no signs of being badly hung.

  I gestured at the nearest open door. ‘Do you want to go in first, Penny?’

  ‘After you,’ said Penny. ‘And don’t be afraid to hit anything that moves.’

  ‘Sounds like a plan to me,’ I said.

  We checked all three guest rooms, one after the other. They were all exactly the same: small, cosy, and comfortably furnished. Each with one window deeply set in the thick outer wall, looking out over the car park. I opened the window in the last room and looked out. There was quite a drop to the ground below. And given how much effort it had taken me to force open the window, it seemed unlikely anyone had tried it recently. I closed the window and looked around the room. The bed had been made up, ready for use, but there was nothing to suggest anyone had slept in it. I sniffed the air carefully.

  ‘I’m getting various toiletries, and soap products from recently laundered bed linen, but the only human scent is from Alfred. Definitely no trace of anyone else, including Olivia.’

  ‘Can’t you track where she is by following her scent from the kitchen?’ said Penny.

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘The cooking smells are still so strong that they’re burying everything else.’