SILIS THE DARK STRANGER

SILIS,THE DARK STRANGER.

Ronnie Carleton

2018
 THE OLD MAN FROM THE SEA

SILIS.

ALL AT SEA.

Julia Hancock brushed wet hair back out of her face, gagging on another mouthful of

seawater and was sick to the right of her small bundle of driftwood and four life jackets, one that

she removed from a floating body last night. It had belonged to a teenage girl whose name she

had forgotten after the yacht exploded. Panic set in, everyone grabbing something that would

keep them afloat as the boat broke its back and went down, flames rising high into the air,gone.

In the darkness there were cries for help and now and then a scream but she drifted in pain, her

right arm peeling and then silence except for the waves lapping around her.

By the hint of dawn she was ready to give up, the tiredness and the cold leaving her body and

brain numb, her mouth swollen in need of fresh water and now feeling no pain. She slipped away

into a world of sleep.

Something sharply jabbed her ear and she opened one eye and could see it was a large black back

gull, a red tip on a yellow bill, and so close to her face she could smell it. She screamed at it in

alarm and it flapped away in alarm only to settle on the water. Soon as the light came, it was

joined by three more, all now watching her and waiting and again she screamed at them, “You're
not having me for breakfast you ugly bastards!”

Julia started to swim again and then in fear heard a shout to her rights. “Over here stupid. Swim

to the life-raft damn it!”

When she looked a bearded man was standing waving, shirtless and in ragged shorts. His hair

was standing up and she at first felt fear. She swam like she never swam before and he hauled her

on board and she slid inside gasping.

“You have had no message or phone calls my Lady and the beef is off tonight. Sorry. Thanks

would be nice of course.”

She looked sideways at him through wet strings of hair. “Who the fuck are you Mister!”

He bent over in a mock bow, “Robert Edward Lee but you can call me Silis or old man, no

matter and for the moment, I only have you down as shark bait. Behind you is two bottles of

water. Drink some slowly but not it all because we are not out of the woods yet. I need to water

the horses.”

Her eyes went wide. “Horses?”

He frowned at her and sighed. “I need a piss lady. Full bladder”,he lied.”

She watched him drop his shorts but could not hear water hitting water then she watched him as

if shaking water of his penis.

She turned away and grabbed the first bottle of water and open it, gulping down water fast then

she heard his gruff voice. “Wow there trigger to much too fast will make you ill if you overload

and I don’t want you puking inside here. You got a name lady?”

She glared at him and wiped her swollen lips. “Everyone has a name. Call me Julia. Were you on

the ‘Sea Swallow’?”

He nodded, “Cook of sorts, odd jobs, down below. I come up on deck while people like you

sleep and take the wheel, hold a course then I go down below when Hector the hound, the owner,

comes up at three bells and I rest, then I cook and you lot eat it if you are not still drunk. Well

right now there is you and I Julia because everyone else, including the cat is shark food

somewhere behind us.”

“How did it happen?”

He shrugged and scratched his beard, “Some damn fool boiled a kettle, made a drink, turned off

the gas, no flame, but still on, build up and then ‘bang!’ and the boat was matchwood. You, I

guess, were lucky and got out and I was lucky because I was blown out the side and found the

life raft, pulled a string and here we are, you and I, zing and yang on the open sea.”

Julia made a face. “That is nice, You and I together all at sea, maybe for a week, maybe more,

sharing a very damp life raft, having to pee and God help me, poop over the side!”

“Better than being eaten by at least three shark species, that being tiger, white tips or black tips

and of course, a big white. Then there could be black and white banded sea snakes, that swim

well and more so if we get close to landfall.

On top of that we have the sun, little water, no food, the very real risk of sea salt sores on any

part of our body with skin shedding and are more at risk than me of that with those burns on your

arm.”

She shuddered and looked at him. “What about some good news?”

His laugh was harsh. “Good News you say. Well we have a first aid kit, which I will dress that

arm with, fish hooks and line, a flare gun with three shells, a torch that works and two lights that

come on at night. That is it lady.”

For a moment she looked alarmed took two deep breaths then blurted out. “What if one of us die
here, at sea?”

“Whoever it is ,the other person has to bury then fast at sea, Sharks will do the rest”, he said

softly and took from his pocket a lock knife on a string and set it in one of the pockets on the

inside of the life raft and nodded at it, “It may also mean cutting slices of the body for hook bait

or if pushed, eating it.”

“Shit if I’ll do that!”

He shrugged. “You and I have choices on that one lady. Me I won’t starve to death though there

is not much meat on those bones of yours. How the hell are you so skinny?”

She glared at him and then hiss at him. “It is called cancer of the stomach asshole and my little

sailing trip was as a guest not a crew member so pick the bones out of that one. They said five

months at the most, now I say any

day will do!”

He held up a finger,then went to the open flaps and looked at the sky and turned to her. “Wind is

getting up so we keep the flaps of the door to the wind and let it take us where we have to go. If

it rains, we try and collect water in a bottle.

When it gets dark, we close the flaps, and snuggle up together and sleep.”

“In your dreams!”, she snapped and give him a look that could kill him.

“Fine. I’ll sleep. You stay awake and shiver all night and you will be fit for nothing in the

morning. Meantime, we are now drifting East, later the wind is going to come from the west, so

we will cover ground. I should say ’sea miles’ so forgive me.”

Julia looked sad and her eyes filled with tears but she blinked them away, took another sip of

water and passed the bottle to him which he took but replaced the blue screw top and handed her
the bottle back. She set it behind her without taking her eyes off Silis. “So what did you do

before being a cook?”

His smile was crooked. “I was a Royal Navy padre with a Commando group and many other

things”, he lied.

“A priest?”

“ Yes, For my sins though I do not believe in sin, just fun. Even earned my green lid on the

commando course, seen action and death that I am not going to talk about, was never married,

was never divorced, no children, then became a hired out cook to big money tourists. You?”

She avoided looking at him but muttered, “I worked the clubs from Bristol to East London in

Gay pubs and clubs as a pole dancer. Good money, good fun and safe.”

Silis nodded slowly, and thought, I know all that stupid, I know everything about you and

everything about everything, and right now you are lying through your teeth.He sniffed the damp

salt air, made a face,you also smell like wet dog Julia, the thought came. Oh yes, I know what

you are, what you done.

 LAND HO.

The sky was flickering in the night and the wind slapping water on the sides and the roof of

the lifeboat. Thunder mixed with the sound of wind and rain did not help as Julia and Silis lay

back to back and went in and out of his mindscape. By dawn ,Julia was in a deep sleep as the

wind died and the thunder clouds drifted east. Silis opened his eyes and frowned. The sound of

the sea had changed and they seemed to be bumping against something that sent small shudders

through the boat. He nudged Julia with his elbow and she shouted, “What the hell did you do that

for!”

“Something strange if you really want to know?”

She turned and glared at him. “Like what?”

He smiled at her.”We have run aground on rocks or a shore that is what.”

They both scrambled for the zip door and opened it. When they looked out all they could see was

white topped waves. Julia made a face. “More water!”

Silas crawled outside and looked over the top and almost shouted ‘Glory Be’ but instead

muttered, “We are on the shore off an island I think, palm trees, the lot even some jungle.”

She pushed him out of the way and so hard he slipped over the side into a few feet of water. He

struggled to stand and smiled at her. “Had a bath, thanks.”

Julia was still looking at the island and stepped into the water which came up to her thighs and

punched the air.”Land Ho!”

“Sure is, Come on help me get this raft up the beach and for the moment we can use it for shelter

when it dries out.”

“Then what Jungle Man”, she demanded. “A picnic?”

“You and I explore the island, try and find fresh water, pick an area to use as a base, go beach

hunting for things we can use like rope, string old nets and most of all, real food.”

“So how do we start a fire to cook on?”

He looked closely at her. “Are you going to be fucking negative Julia, I mean we survived the

sea so now we are safe for a while, so get with it lady or push off in the boat and I will stay

here.”

She walked passed him giving him the finger as she did so and he smiled and shook his head and

thought,you will be sorry lady muck. Real sorry.

It was Julia who found the stream, not wide but gushing down from a jungle covered hill and

she lay in it, drank and soaked her whole body then shouted for Silis who came running to her.

He rubbed his head and muttered, “Oh my God. Water and plenty of it. Well done!” That should

make you feel good,lady.

He did not drink, doused his head and laughed like a child. Then he looked at Julia and smiled,

“Well done. You might be useful after all lady.. Come on. We drag the boat up here, and camp.

Once we do that I will find some sort of food and we eat and rest. Before night, we need a fire.”

She sat down hard, held her head and looked at her toes. “Tell me something Old Man Silis, have

you really taken on board, that we were shipwrecked, were inside a blow up rubber raft, drifted

here to this rock in the middle of God knows where, and now you think you can go out and get

food for two adults?”

“Yes, I don’t know how yet but I will find something that will keep you,us, going tonight then

tomorrow we can really settle down to it.”

Her head shot up and she glared at him.”In your dreams big man and besides you should know I

don’t eat meat, fish, eggs, bacon, or anything that could walk or fly.”

He grunted. “Well lady you're going to be dead well before me if that is the case and you are well

below your weight because of your illness and….”

“It is called cancer hotshot!”

“......you will be pissing blood before a week is out and start to eat yourself from the inside out

then die a very slow painful death kido. Not nice.”

For a moment fear crossed her face and she fought back the tears. “Did anyone ever tell you that

you have a wonderful bedside manner when breaking bad news?”

“All the time. So you rest here, sip water and I will see what is out there for the table. Are you in

pain?”

She looked at him.”Just seeing you. Just go and get back before dark!”

He give a mock bow,his amber eyes catching the light, almost glowing, and muttered, “Yes my

Lady. On my way.”

She watched him till he went behind an outcrop of rocks and then sat brooding and looking out

to sea. Small waves now and green coloured, a few terns diving into it and calling loudly.

At any other time, in any other place if could feel like a holiday with sun, sea and sand with a

beach bar and food shore café like they had in Goa. She slowly looked around her and thought,

without the Holy Silis of course. A very small orange coloured crab poked itself out of a hole at

the water's edge and waved a claw at her. Julia almost smiled and muttered, “Hi. I’m Julia

Hancock and no relation to ‘Tony Hancock crab and…”

She jumped when a gull lifted the crab and flew off with two more gulls chasing it. “Christ. Life
is short here!”

Her mind raced and dark thoughts came into her head like black snow. Why worry about a crab

when you could dies anytime and that Julia is a sure thing because even the Silis Man’s boss will

not save you. She looked at her toes, wrinkled white with sea water, then her slender hands

which she reached up to her hair and tugged a little. Her hair came out easy and she looked at it

in the bright light. I’m full of chemicals, I have cancer with no hope, my hair is falling out and I

am stuck on an island with an old man who lost his faith and become a cook. Karma Julia, just

Karma. She closed her eyes and started to empty her head of morbid thoughts,tried to draw on

past good memories like when she was a teenager, happy and excited. Most of all when she was

alive.

THE DARK VISITOR.

Julia must have fallen into a deep sleep because when she looked the sun was now kissing

the sea goodnight and a few very large fruit bats were leaving the trees and flying away across

the island. When she stood up she felt dizzy and staggered to the stream and drank deeply and

refilled the water bottle.

Silis was standing there beside the boat unloading stuff from what looked like a bag but larger.

She walked over and shoved the water bottle into his hands and looked down at a large sheet of

canvas which had displayed on it, two lengths of rope, some net, a drinks can, and half of a large

silver fish with the head still on it but no eyes.

He smiled his crooked smile. “Not bad, The fish, or at least the part we have is a large sea bass

and cut in half I suspect by a shark. It was on the tide line and the gulls took the eyes, I took the

rest. In case you are worried, it is fresh, and must have been five to eight pounds in weight when

alive.”

She sniffed, “You expect me to eat that?”

“No I expect you to share it with God or the Devils and all the bugs here after I have cooked it

over a fire. I already had my share on the beach,raw.”

He waited for a comment but she went into the raft and he shrugged and thought at this rate she

would be close to death in two to three days time.

He found small twigs, some well dried out moss and a stone. Arranging the lot of wood and

moss, he took out his knife and struck the stone hard at an angle and sparks flew into the wood

and moss but nothing happened. Then he heard her call and he looked at her standing against the

sun. “I found this. It may help.”

“What?”

“Waterproof matches in a box and something in a box called a tinderbox. The knife thing does

not seem to be working jungle Man.”

“Wrong sort of rock I guess. Where did you find those?”

She laughed, “Inside a first aid pack which was zipped into a pocket. We missed it.”
“Anything else?”

“Torch, spare batteries, and a sealed packet of morphine.”

For a moment he was stunned, “Someone is looking after you Julia like big time. No whiskey I

supposed?”

She shook her head. “No just some small round thing, brass I think that looks like a watch”,

holding it up for him to see.

“It is called a compass lady. Helps us find our way, tells us east from west and where north is.

Good bit of survival kit for us. Ok, stash it all away safe and I mean ‘safe’ because we are going

to need it all.”

“Are you always grumpy?”

He nodded then smiled. “Always. Even if I sleep which is not offen. I am grumpy right now

because I am bored. You could eat a nun’s arse through the bars of a convent gate. Lets cook, you

eat.”

She frowned at him. “That fish, half a fish. It may be full of bugs and poison us both. I’m not

sure I want to eat it.”

He rolled his eyes. “Once you smell it cooking you will want to eat it. Believe me.”

When she sucked the last of the fish bones Julia tilted her head and looked at Silis over the

glowing fire and smiled. “Hate to say it old man but that hit the spot. Pity it was only half a fish.”

He threw a fish bone into the fire to make her think he ate some of the fish before he answered.

“There you go again Julia something else to moan about and I have to keep telling you to stay

positive. Good job you are not married to someone, male or female because you would drive

them up the walls. Are you married?”

“Was.”

“And what happened?”,but he already knew. He always knew.

“He used to bounce me off the walls, smack me in the face and raped me twice. The second time

I killed him with a bread knife. The cops came, I was arrested and went to court. I thought I

would get a year in prison and pleaded guilty but I got five years, did three and out again. Went

to Queensland and made some money then hitched a lift, or paying guest if you like on that boat,

now I am here, with nothing but something trying to eat me from inside.Wanting to get out. So

the money is gone with the boat and everyone else except you. You old man, are not much of a

catch but right now you are all I have got.”

Silis swallowed twice. “You killed him?”

She nodded but did not look at him. “Sure did. They said they found sixteen stab wounds at the

postmortem and also it seems he was missing his dick and balls but I do not remember doing

that. I lost it.”

The old man stood up and went and got the torch and switched in on. “Back in a while. Got to

water the horses and think things through. Keep the fire going.”

She did not answer so he walked to the shore and along it, his red hot mind racing.Not cancer

lady and you know it.

As he walked his mind was a jumble of thoughts. ‘ She is mad as a hatter in spring, she could try

to kill me if she had the knife or try and crack my skull with a rock when I am sleeping or...?’ He

laughed.’Then she would get a real shock that would stop her heart there and then.’

All these thoughts went out of his head in a flash when the light of the torch picked out a hand

and arm being carried from the sea across the beach and other dark shadows came from the rocks

and started to eat it.

He could hear the growls and hissing from the large lizards and slowly he backed off turned his

head and could see the glow of the fire at least two hundred metres away. “I won’t make it

running if I was human. To far for me”, he whispered to himself and thought , from now on I

take the flare gun loaded.

He looked back where the animals were still tearing the arm apart, and hear bone snapping as

they chewed. Time for me leave here Silis old chap, the choice is a no brainer, the lizards or a

past killer of bad men but then they did not have to be bad.

He turned off the torch and walked back on the tide edge till he seen the fire and the raft. He

heard her snoring inside the cover of the raft then built up the fire.

It was going to be a long night but I have had nights and days before and it would be much worse

if I was one of them. Switch off.

Something sharp poked him hard in the leg a was trying to sit up but the muzzle of a

rifle was pressing against his head made him stiffen..

“I am private Togo Osa, Imperial Japanese Forces, Marines. You both are now prisoners of war

and I will shoot you now if you resist!”

Julia opened her eyes in the dark. “Who the hell are you talking to?”

He grunted, “Not me stupid. A Jap marine or something. Says he will shoot us both if we do not

surrender to him and before you start mouthing off Julia, he has a rifle in my face and speaks

English very well so he will also understand it.”

She snapped on the torch and said, “Oh fuck! Shit! He’s an old man.”

Not as old as me, nothing alive is as old as me, he thought.

“I speak good English and I went to London University, got a degree just before the war started
so I was called up to serve the Emperor of Japan. I served well, and I never surrender. I die first,

you die before me. I make sure.”

Silis forced a smile. “Ok. Don’t shoot. We agree. We are your official prisoners of war. My name

is Silis, this is my wife, Julia. Where are the rest of your marines?”

“Hi, Dead. All dead. I am last one left.”

Julia sighed deeply. “Listen Tojo or whatever your name is, don’t you know the war is over?

Like this is 2018 not 1945. How old are you Mr Tojo?”

His face crinkled into something related as a smile. “I don’t know. It is not 2018. Cannot be.

Come, we go now to camp.”

Walk away Silis, don’t let the anger take over. He is just an old man, he thought, but he could end

up as a dead old man if you kick off.

LITTLE TOKYO.

It was pre-dawn jungle crows that forced him to open his eyes and for a moment he forgot

where he was. The small cave was still dark and the bamboo cot he was sleeping on creaked as

he moved, Then he heard snoring and looked to his left. Julia out like a light but her profile still

in darkness. His nose picked up the smell of the jungle, a dampness and the smell of soil but

most of all,the smell of woodsmoke. He looked out into the gloom and seen the glow of the fire.

The Japanese marine was not sitting at it and he pondered on where the old man was. A small

voice in his head whispered, ‘not a good time to go and look for him old chap’ because he could
plug you or stick you on the end of his large knife’. True, then I would have to draw all the

breath from his body.

He lay back in the bed and realized he had a hairy type blanket over him. It smelt old and musty

and the Japanese marine must have covered him up during the “No pee there. No, pee over there

by that dead tree and if you need a shit dig a hole in jungle and then cover up. This my home!”

He slowly turned and Tojo, the old marine was close to him his face full of anger.

“Sorry. Could not wait.”

“Bow before you speak!”, and hit him on the head with a bamboo cane hard.

“Ouch!. Ok,ok I bow!”, and played the game of power and submission.

Julia and Silis sat by the fire, the sun now up, pretending to eating from a split coconut shell and

neither asked what the hot meat was because whatever it was, it smelt and and no doubt, tasted

good. Julia sucked her fingers one by one and Silis was watching her closely. She caught his eye

and whispered, “He has his own cave?”

Silis grunted and nodded. “Yes and he found some blankets last night and covered us up when

we were sleeping however he still is a Jap fighting his own war still so bow to him before you

talk to him.”

Her mouth fell open. “The hell I will!”

He touched his head and muttered, “Then he will hit you hard with his bamboo cane and I mean

hard and I do not have to prove it. Trust me, he will hit you. Show him respect and you will be

ok.”

Julia rolled her eyes then whispered. “You did all that Commando stuff you said so say a prayer

then kill him.”

His amber eyes blazed for a moment.”You kill him and you have killed before so it should be

easy. Then you could shag him to death because you know how to and then smother him in the

process! Oh, and you could eat him if you want!”

ToJo Osa came out with what looked like army pants and coats and threw them at their feet.

“Clothes for you both. Shoes or boots I go look for.”

He shuffled back into his cave and Julia hissed at Silis “He wants us to dress up now so will you

kill him?”

“No.Your the killer Julia. He is all yours baby doll.”

“So we both dress up and if he gets us boots or shoes that might or might not fit we wear them

you say?”

“Of course He is being kind I think. He fed us, give us a blanket, food this morning and now

clothes and maybe boots or shoes. It is his Buddhist upbringing Julia.” muy

“And he expects us to wear them?”

Silis glared at her then grunted. “Look what we are wearing now lady, rags that are falling off us,

no shoes and your tits at times, are showing, not that it matters out here of course but Jap Army

clothing and boots is much better what we have now. Your legs will be covered and your arms

and you won’t damage your feet. Leeches and other things will love your exposed body parts,

more so if it rains at night.”

She made a face as she undressed and put on the clothes and Silas did the same and they stood

and looked at one another.

“We look stupid, baggy and most of all like Japs!”, hissed Julia looking over her shoulder as Tojo

approached them carrying boots and canvas shoes. He dropped them then looked them both up

and down. “Find shoes that fit well.No socks.”

Silis was surprised when Julia bowed towards the old man. “May I ask a question please. There

might be lice in the clothes but stand in the woodsmoke?”

The old marine nodded. “Hi” looking at them both and nodded.

“Have you ever tried to get off this island, like build a boat, raft of something?”

Tojo looked at Silis and smiled. “Wife not right in the head. She needs help very soon, not well.

You had boat yet you landed here. The reason is that there is nothing out there but thousands of

miles of sea and sky.”

This time Silis bowed. “Have you explored this island Private ToJo.”

“Hi”

“And?”

“Large Island, too much jungle and you cannot walk on the shore because of dragons and

panthers. There are no jungle paths and any I make grow over again within two months. No

fishing boats anymore, no natives anymore, just jungle ghosts and tree spirits. Sometimes

demons and devils”

Julia bowed again. “Panthers like lions or leopards?”

“Hi. No lions, but clouded leopards with camouflage coats. Dangerous if they have cubs. Worse

at night. Feed on small deer and pigs, on dead bodies of my friends. Five in all over the years I

drag to beach and leave them. Dragons ate them as did panthers but panthers will never feed on

meat that dragons have fed on. Poison spittle. Kills everything.”

Silis bowed again nodded. “Private Tojo is right Julia. To us in the west they are known as

Komodo Dragons, another name for Monitors or great lizards and their mouth juices are highly

toxic to humans.”
Julia shrugged but not alarmed. “So where do we go from here gentlemen?”

“Go? Nowhere to go”, said Tojo firmly.then added, “We are three human beings here, one

woman, two men and as I am in charge of this Island I therefore am also the law under the flag

and rules of Japan. By law, and the laws of war,you are my prisoners though non combatants but

as civilians.”

Bowing Silis said. “But we are not at War with you or Japan Private Osa so you are holding us

illegally under the laws of the United Nations of which Japan is a member. We can be friends,

help one another while we are together but I refuse to be treated as a prisoner of war. I am a free

thing. spirit, energy.”

ToJo took off glasses and wiped them clean and put them back on again, the left lens showing a

crack in the morning sun. “In that case Mr Silis how do you feel at being a dead free thing and

your wife and I could have a feast.?”

“I take that means you think you could kill me,us,then feed us to your pet reptiles down on the

shore?”

“I could but why would I kill you or want to kill you Mr Silis when nature will kill you within a

week back at your rubber boat. No food medicine, clothes, night time dragons. You came to this

island with your own free will, my island and home and I am holding it till I die for my Japan.

Your wife here, if she is your wife, is ill. I know that and she will die in great pain when I have

plenty of morphine in my cave. I studied medicine in England before the war and I practiced it

with wounded Japanese heros Mr Silis until I ended up here as a private because I protested

about abuse against American and British POWs in Borneo.So I live in shame when once I was a

good medical officer, a Captain in fact but I let medicine get in the way of duty. So go. Now!”

“You were a doctor?”, asked Julia hopefully and her eyes wide.

ToJo bowed slightly. “Yes.”

When Julia spoke her voice was husky.”So the other men, your buddies, as well as an officer or

NCO died here as well?”

He nodded, “Yes, all five of them. Malaria, snakebite, one shot himself because he went mad and

was seeing the forest jungle Jina, one drowned or taken by a shark and the last one a year ago

died in his sleep.”

“What the hell is a forest Jina”, snapped back Julia fighting back tears.

Silis said softly, “A type of spirit or ghost found in Asia but from what I know not a very nice

one. Always a female. I am correct on that am I not Dr Osa?”

“Hi! You are well read Mr Silis and correct.”

The old bastard has put me on a spot, thought Silis, rubbing his face and looked out from the hill

over the sea. He turned and looked hard at Osa. “Come with us Tojo. We go together.”

“No. I have my duty Mr Silis. I stay here with my friends. What year is it now?”

“Twenty eighteen.”

“And Japan. How is my homeland?”

“ I told you. Doing great. No war ever again. War over long time and maybe time to go

home.North Korea is flexing its muscles right now,Syria is at war but Japan is at peace.”

Tojo Osa bowed, turned and walked back to his cave and lost himself in the darkness of his

mindscape.

Julia and Silis looked at one another. “Any ideas Julia, like good ones, even one would do?”

She puffed out her cheeks then let out a long breath. She looked back at the cave entrance. “He

says he was a doctor, then he tells us he had morphine and I am going to be selfish here Silis,

when the time comes I am going to need help to pass over to the other side and you and him can
be buddy, buddy”

Silis laughed harshly, “I can understand your thinking and we have food of sorts, shelter, a fire

when we need it and clothes now. That is the good news.”

“What is the bad news Mr Silis?”

“Where the hell would we go and he is flaky, you know it and I know it but he still thinks he is at

war with his world and has pride and honour at stake.”

“Sometimes I wonder if you are letting God get in the way of the high risk he could be to us if he

lost the plot. I say, take him down.”

. “Wow there. You are talking murder here, taking the life of an old man!”

She looked sideways as ToJo Osa came out of his cave and walked slowly towards them holding

a Samurai Sword in both hands, stopped then bowed.

Oh,oh thought, Julia fear rising within her as Silis slightly bowed back in return.

“I have come as a matter of honour to you and to me and I therefore offer my retirement from the

Japanese Imperial Army as from now. This means a lot to me but it is not an offer of surrender. I

want you to understand this, so take the sword.”

He held it out towards Silis, who very slowly took it from him, bowed and looked the old man in

the eyes.

“I am glad you have retired Tojo Osa and you do me great honour but I cannot take your sword

as you have earned the right to keep it and Julia and I respect you and understand your brave

decision on this matter, So I offer you back your sword old man with respect for your bravery.”

Osa took the sword and bowed, turned around and went back to his cave and Julia hissed at Silas

when he vanished inside. “Jesus on a crutch stupid. What the hell have you just done giving him
back the carving knife as now he could kill us both without firing a shot!”

He looked sideways at her. “Keep the prophet Jesus out of it. Something you as a woman would

not understand. I give him back his honour and he accepted it. Excuse me I need to go for a walk

as I need time to think and space.”

“But…”

He walked away down the slight hill towards the beach below and did not look back. She has to

go and soon and then the old man and I will become close friends and between us we will walk

out of here and up over the jungle hill. Of course I could leave anytime at night.

Silis sat on a bleached log that had been a tree a long time ago and looked out to sea but

none of it looked right, not the sea, sand or fluffy clouds.

A gull landed beside him and started to preen itself, casting a small shadow on the sand but he

was uneasy because he could have touched it with his foot if he tried and yet it sat there doing

what gulls do. Slowly he stretched out his foot towards the sea bird but it kept doing what it had

been doing, not alarmed in anyway. He was not in anyway surprised or shocked when he realized

that there was no shadow under his leg. He stood up and looked back at the jungle the way he

had come and could not see his footprints in the sand.

The gull flapped its wings and glided towards the incoming tidelines, low over the sand where

small wind flurries lifted sand and scattered it to his right.

Wind? There is wind but I don’t hear it. I see it but don’t feel or hear it.

He flopped rather than sat back on the log and touched the wood but there was no feeling from

the surface of the log .Dead, just as I am, he thought, like me.

Julia Hancock stood watching Tojo washing at the stream nude and throwing water

over himself and speaking in Japanese to someone on the other bank of the small stream. Besides
shade and light she seen a shape, a human shape that kept changing in the light, fading then

coming back again and Tojo would now and then nod or shake his head.

“Who is he talking to?”, she wondered, standing now in the middle of the narrow worn path that

led to the stream. Then the old man was back on the bank at a fast walk and came up the path.

She stood, hands on his hips to confront him but she shivered as ice went through her and he

walked on.

“Tojo. Wait!”

He did not turn or stop and she looked to her right and could see two crooked wooden crosses on

the head of small hollows that were made when the graves had caved in. She walked over and

stood looking. No names, just a ring with a turquoise stone on a rusting chain hanging from the

right hand cross.

She looked down at her right hand where over the years, the ring had been part part of her. It was

on her hand when she took to the raft. Then it hit the spirit as it stood there, looking at the graves

then slowly looked back at the path where it led to the caves. Tojo was standing there looking in

her direction then he saluted her as she faded away like melting snow.

Private Tojo Osa nodded once, then bowed. “Hi!”

Overhead out of sight, a monkey eating eagle called as the old man went back to his cave.

He tore up the faded map as it was no use to him because not only would it give him

any hint where he was it was of Japanese Island miles away from here. He had worked out that

the patrol boat had drifted west for well over sixty days, six Japanese marines on board including

himself, one officer, two NCO’s and three privates who had escaped when they had been overrun

by US and British forces. Two nautical miles from where he was now a plane had come in and

strafed the boat with gunfire killing and wounding nine men. As it began to sink Osa and the rest

swam to a coral reef and stood waiting for the tide to drop. By dawn they could wade ashore and
they set up camp in the caves above the beach. That was in 1945 he thought as he threw a fish

head to his only friend, a moon rat that lived in a jumble of sticks. He called the rat Cobi and was

never sure if it was always the same rat he had a made a friend of a year ago. Cobi would come

into his cave looking for food or when a tropical storm blew up

He looked at Cobi and smiled a toothless smile.

“You should get yourself a wife or a husband Cobi before I die or leave here because you do not

want to be lonely. You are the only friend I have got because the Jina have gone also, the male

Silis first and then the female. I put out food for them, give them boots and clothes,covered them

with a blanket and even dragged the woman’s worthless body up here before the dragons got her.

Buried her and stuck a marker over her. Was her spirit grateful?”

He made a face then shook his head. “No thanks there, no loyalty or friendship, and off she went,

one at a time and I guess went to the underworld. I should have burned her body like I burned

my comrades over the years and scattered her ashes. They looked like Christians and I did not

want bad luck if I burned her..

Cobi. You think I was right doing that. Burying her?”

Cobi stopped chewing the fish head, washed his face with his front feet and ambled back into the

shade of the woodpile.

He looked at the sun aware that his old legs would only get him, at the most, five miles a day,

depending on how thick the jungle was and of course the weather.

Better make that four miles he thought then grunted, “In the old days I could march for twenty

miles and fight at the end off it,not now. Not now.”

He closed his eyes tight fighting back the tears. A low voice slipped into his mindscape. ‘You

could end it all here and now. No more jungle sores, leeches, rain, having to look for food, the
shits when they come. You have a pistol and a rifle.”

“Go away. It is all a state of mind. If I die it will be like a man till my last breath.”

“Not far off now then and when you die, no prayers, no Buddha, and no one to miss your

passing. Bug food, then a bag of bones. Press the trigger old man.”

He opened his eyes and shrugged. “Not yet.”

It was three days later when he walked into a small clearing with long grass. He stopped and

looked slowly around him. Instead of thick jungle there was no trees and the landscape was alien

to him.

He walked to a stump of a tree and run his hands over it puzzled how anyone could cut so neatly

with a saw. Not just one tree stump but many.

Then he felt fear because such destruction meant he was not alone on the island. The old man

backed slowly into the shade of the forest and his dark eyes darted around looking for human

movement.

Nothing moved except for a light breeze and above him and a few birds flying around. He stood

for at least ten minutes, not moving and at last he relaxed.

He whispered to himself,”No woodsmoke, no dogs barking or livestock and no longhouses like

there were in Borneo with Japanese skulls hanging inside.”

Slowly he moved from cover and walked across the area to where the jungle started again. Here

he found a worn back road that lead into the cover and he noted there were no tracks of man or

vehicles. To him that was good news and he reached an area of forest that offered cover and a

clean stream.
His eyes went wild and wide when Silis came from nowhere and ran into him and he shivered as

he fell backwards then shuddered. He lifted his head and frowned then stood and found no pain

in his body, picked up his rifle and bag and started walking fast then running like he ran like he

did when he was a young man.

Two hours later, he burst out into a village, the houses like he had never seen before and men,

women and children stopped and looked at him.

An aircraft came in low its wheels dropping down and landed on a runway to his right but he

noted the name ‘Air France’ just as a police officer came up to him slowly, his face pale and

pointing a pistol at the old man.

Slowly the old man laid down his rifle and bag then took his sword in both hands, bowed and

held it out to the Royal Navy MP ,who replaced his pistol in the holster and a small crowd

gathered around whispering and talking.

“Well I’ll be buggered by an Admiral”,took the offered sword and saluted the old man,who in

turn stiffened and saluted back. When the men,some in uniform whites, women and children

moved closer, Silis detached and left the body then lost himself in the crowd as they clapped. He

smiled as he made his way to where he knew there were aircraft and also knew he would have no

trouble getting a flight out of here. After all, all he needed was a live body to borrow for a time

and no one would ask him for a passport or boarding pass.

Silis smiled and looked back and could see the old man watching him and he waved once then

was gone.
 DOUGLAS THE ISLE OF MAN

Doctor David Defoe sat in the bright morning at his desk and sighed. It was supposed to

be his day off, golf in the morning and late lunch at the club, home to do nothing but watch TV

shows that he liked then bed. His blue eyes picked up the police car pulling into the car park and

he sighed deeply. Another one for the psychical honeypot of a member of the homeless

community and on orders of the local court, he had to do an assessment on the man walking

between the two-male officers. He had pre-warning before he had his first cup of coffee in his

own home and all he knew so far was that the man was nude under a flyover lying close to a long

dead female, age and name unknown. The police arrived, he got dressed and the forensics team

called in. The only name he had was 'Silas' no date of birth, no fingerprints on record and for

some reason, no drugs or booze in his system. A DNA sample was taken but it would anything

from twenty-four to forty-eight hours to get a result. Old story, he thought and grunted as the

door was knocked twice.

"Come in.

The door opened, the man known as Silis was brought in by the two officers and the older one-

handed Defoe the Court Order.

"The Court in Douglas said he needs the works and he is not arrested as such and Silis here is a

rough sleeper as you can see. Found beside …"

David Defoe held up a hand. "I have all the details thank you. You may wait outside or in your

car and if he escapes he really cannot get off the Isle of Man can he now?"

The older man nodded, the younger one was restless and held up a pair of bright handcuffs and
nodded at Silas.

Defore glared at him. "I have my own if needed and a baton to beat the truth out of him. Failing

that I could also fry his brain with my little gadget in the theater. Do you get my drift officer

Dibble?"

The young man flushed pink. "Sorry sir. We will wait in the car."

Defoe nodded, looked at the Court Order, checked it was signed and dated then looked up. "You

can go now officers. Silis here and I are going to have a little heart to heart and we don't want

people listening in."

When the door closed, Silas walked forward, pulled out the chair on the other side of the desk

and sagged into it. He looked at David with bright amber eyes but did not speak.

"I'm Doctor David Defoe."

"Silis. Me Silis. 'D,D,D' You are Doctor David Defoe. How can I help you David?"

"Tell me why you were under the flyover Silis."

"Shelter and Sleeping. The dead woman has been dead at least a week. Died from cold and

booze. No next of kin and will be known for a long time as Jane Doe. The rats had been busy and

the maggots. No rings or bracelets, no money, and she died alone at night and in the cold."

"So, you found her in there?"

"Last night. It was pissing it down so I go there. No, I did not ring the police because one I did

not want to and two, she did not have a phone and neither do I. Even if she did have a phone,

dead people cant phone anyone and I do not know how to use one. Anything else and can I go

now please?"

David Defoe smiled. "Not yet. Would you like a drink, coffee or tea?"
"No."

"Maybe a cigarette?"

Silis smiled showing broken yellow teeth. "V av ways of getting to the truth so v knows you are

part of zee French resistance here in Lyon. V could have you shot right now if zee don't answer

my questions. Right?"

Defore frowned. "Silis you are on the Isle of Man not in France and the war is long over."

Silis thrust out both hand palms down. "I don't have any fingernails because they were removed

in June in nineteen forty-five. The ninth of June."

David looked at the fingers. At least now he had something to work with.

"What age were you when that happened."

Silis sat stone faced then rasped, "Forty years of age, might be forty thousand years at that time

for all I know,"

"And what age are you now Silis?"

"In French years, well over a hundred years old. I am not French if that is where you are heading

with this. I am a citizen of the world doctor Defoe."

This for a moment threw Defore but he made a note but more of a doodle than a word. "So Silis.

What brought you to the Isle of Man."

This time Silas smiled but it was not a nice smile. "To see justice done Doctor. I came to see face

to face one Hans Kruger SS and was known here as Hans Daka, Dutch. He was an artist here, a

good one, watercolors and they sold well. Not married or children, no family left alive in

Germany so he came here with a new ID and money in nineteen fifty-five. A gift from the British

Government Doctor DeFoe for services rendered at Nuremberg.

He was a Major in the SS and loved pine woods. He and his men would take men women and

children on 'nature' walks in the woods and had them dig their own graves then had his men to

shoot them all. Once the graves were filled in, he had the men plant trees on the graves, pine

trees because they grow fast and of course that wood is still there close to Lyon, the roots being

fed by the dead over the years.A Jewish Wood you could say."

"And did you find him?"

"Yes. He lived near the lighthouse. Seagulls and white shit."

"So, what happened to this man?"

"The Nazi died a very violent death."

Defore had to ask. "You killed him?"

Silis shook his head. "No, he killed himself. He jumped into the sea with rocks in his pockets and

was caught in a net put out by Irish fishermen after the herring. Crabs and fish had been busy

over two months. I was on the pier when his bones were laid out in a body bag as others were."

Defoe pointed at Silis. "How come I did not read about this or hear about his death?"

"No need. It was put down as a 'missing man' found in sea. No one claimed him."

Defoe put his fingers together and looked at Silis over the top of them at the old man in front of

him. Now is the time to get him where he should be and that is to face reality here and in the

now.

"You know who the President of the United States is Silis?"

Silis tilted his head and looked at Defoe. "This is a trick question. Right?"

"No."
For a moment the old man pouted then his eyes became bright and he had a smile on his face.

"Fart!"

"No."

"Fart and blow are the same things stupid. Both are full of wind and make a lot of noise over

nothing. In fact, wind is another name for farting. Bet you didn't know that professor."

Doctor David Defoe smiled. "No. I didn't. Ok. Let's do another question."

"Shoot."

"Who is the Prime Minister of the UK right now."

He rolled his eyes and looked David in the eye. "Son, this memory loss may be more than the

tumor you have at the base of your brain and unless you get help you are well and truly fucked.

On top of that you still have issue with that priest, man of God who buggered you in the boiler

room down in the south of England when you were thirteen. Father John, fat bastard, but you

were not the only child he did that too were you David?"

David Defoe stiffened in shock. "Who the hell are you?"

"Me. Just an old man, a man of many roads, of many countries on this poor dying planet David.

Unless you get help, sooner or later, you're going to go the same way but not before you no

longer can wipe your ass, feed yourself and have a bag attached by a tube to your dick sonny. By

that time, you will have the thousand-yard stare but seeing nothing. You get my drift boy?"

Defore lost the plot and banged his fist on the table hard but Silis just sat and watched. "All you

have to do is pick up that phone and ring oncology. Seeing you work in this hospital I have no

doubt they will see you right away, do a scan and some other tests and then take you in fast and

operate. There is no time for you to do that, 'doctor heal self' shit because your body clock is

ticking and you will thank me in the long run. If you live that is."
"Get out. Now go!"

Silis stood up, shuddered and walked to the door and opened it then looked back at Defoe. "Your

birthday is next March. The seventh. If you don't get help it will be your last day before you pass

over wherever that is."

Silis closed the door behind him and went down the backstairs, opened the fire door and walked

across into a small wood. He did not look back.

He went over a style and down a track and sheep scattered then bunched together stopped and

looked at Silis. Overhead, a Raven called and a light wind blew up and the leaves sang in the

hedgerows.

He reached a farm gate and opened it then closed it behind him with a clang and two farm dogs

ran out and started barking at him. He lifted his finger to his lips and they sat then ran back the

way they had come whimpering.

"You there. What do you want on my land!"

He looked at the middle aged woman, plump and grey haired and smiled a her.

"Just passing through on my way to the boat", he lied and aware that she was watching him as he

walked on down towards the main road. He could see the waves kissing the beach and smell the

salt in the air and started whistling the song, 'bring on the clowns.'

DERBYSHIRE ENGLAND

Toby looked up hard at what he termed as his girlfriend and she looked down from the rock with

a frown on her face.

“I’m not doing this anymore Toby. I did not sign up for this so it’s time to say goodbye, bye bye
baby and feel free to fly.”

He looked blank. “You do know that I am hanging on a rope three hundred feet up a rock face,

it’s pissing down, I’m cold and you tell me you are dumping me!”

“Getting dark too. It’s not your fault it's mine and over the six months we have share moments I

am sure as hell glad I did not ask you to move in. I don’t even like you now never mind love you.

So goodbye.”

Linda Coll struck the steel hard, and the carbineer with the rope attached parted company with

the rock crack and Toby dropped like a stone. There was a shrill scream for a moment then a dull

thud below with a rattle of small stones. She sat for a moment in the dusk shaking but also

listening but all she heard was a raven and distant sheep calling.

Then she smiled and she was still smiling when she got into her car and drove off in the direction

of Ashbourne in Derbyshire.

The tall thin old man was sitting on a log when the body hit the ground in front of him and

he turned his head slightly and looked at it. He was smiling and muttered, “Human nature again

at work and in this case, for what?” Silis watched as the last breath was taken then that shudder,

as the soul left the body and it glided away between winter trees and the rain and before it

vanished into the wet mist, it looked confused, he thought.

He shrugged, stood up and put on his small rucksack with nothing in it and headed down to the

River Dove and along the path where a few wet walkers and their dogs were heading for the car

park. A woman in a yellow coat was walking towards her car, rain dripping off her and head

down when he walked into her body. She shuddered for a moment, open her car, took off her

coat and threw it in the boot. Kate Levine turned on the inside light, pulled down the sun flap and

looked at herself in the small mirror.

She brushed away some wet hair out of her eyes and muttered, “That can’t be right.” She
blinked again and the eyes, that were once blue, were now bright amber. For a moment she went

into panic mode and then looked again and was more than delighted to see pale blue eyes that

smiled back at her.

The two police officers got out of their car, the headlights left on and the flashing

lights, and walked towards the nude man standing beside his clothes on the ground in the rain.

Sgt. Dawn Coburn whispered out of the side of her mouth to Officer Amid Husain.

“I’ll do the talking you do the watching and move if he gets violent.”

Husain grunted. “Whatever. He does not look from here the violent type. I mean, he is shaking

like a leaf Sgt.”

She walked up the man, seen that he was old and rolled her eyes. “Bit cold for a birthday suit Sir.

We had a call about you and came to check if you are ok?”, she lied then added. “Do you have a

name sir?”

He slowly turned his head and looked at her. She could see he had a thousand-yard stare. He

blinked twice at the question.

“Silis.”

“Address please.”

“Don’t know.”

“Could you tell me your date of birth sir?”

The old man shivered and frowned as he considered the question.

“Long time ago. Don’t know.”

Sgt Coburn caught Amids eye and he started to help the old man get dressed without any fuss

while Coburn put a call through asking if they could find out if anyone had reported a missing

person from a nursing home or their own home in the area.

She signed off and lit a cigarette and thought it out the best she could.

Nude, no watch, rings, chains, standing in the cold at night, out of it, so maybe it was time to call

an ambulance and get him into hospital before he pegged out. She put in the call and was

informed it would be at least half an hour before it could get there. She stubbed out the cigarette

and walked back to where Officer Husain was finished dressing the old man.

“Any trace of ID, phone, money, bus pass. Anything?”

Husain shook his head frowning. “No. Nothing. Except he has no shoes or socks and his feet are

bleeding. Oh, and for a moment, he was rambling on about a broken body then clammed up. Oh

I noticed his belly button was odd as if the skin had grown over it.”

She nodded, “Silis in the car, put one of our jackets on him to help him get warm, not mine, and

we will wait for the paramedics. Just another old man who has a scrambled mindscape but the

hospital will sort him out. Did he have any keys on him?”

“No. Like I said, he has nothing. He does smell of wood smoke, sweat and in need of a bath I

think but no matches or lighter. So how does he smell of woodsmoke and also a faint smell of

mint.”

“That’s nice. Come on let's get him in the car, back seat, locked in and chill for a while. We have

done all we can for the moment.”

“What about the so called smashed up body he told me about?”

She sighed and looked upwards, “Wacky Races Time, UFO’s Aliens and things that go bump in

the night but all in his head.”

 Linda Coll poured herself her third drink and then rang Toby Bell’s home number twice

again and then his mobile number once. This was the second time in an hour and again she left a

message. ‘Toby, been trying to get you for hours now. Ring or text me soon as.’

She smiled and nodded. “I live here in my home, he lived in his home and if asked I will say yes

I went to meet him at the climb but could not find him and so left the car park just before dark.

Anyway, he did not know I was coming so I went to where we meet in our pub, ‘The Golden

Leaf Inn’ at seven, stayed half an hour and was seen and then come home. If the police call or

ring I tell them that. If they tell me they found his body I will act it out and stick to that. Then I

also have the messages I left on both phones and at nine will report him missing. As we don’t

live together that should sound all right. No doubt the local cops will tell me to wait till morning

then make an official report. It is not that we were a couple or married but I have to cover my

tracks.”

She smiled again and nodded, muttering and toasting the dead man.

“Jesus Toby, I am talking to myself. Here is looking at you kid.”

She took a good long sup of the whiskey and knew she could not drive if anyone called and

looked shattered. Her phone pinged. Picking it up she looked for the number of the sender. There

was none. She opened the message and read it twice, the second time in alarm.

‘I KNOW WHAT YOU DONE TONIGHT AND WHERE YOU WERE BUT I ALSO KNOW I

WILL BE COMING TO VISIT YOU BEFORE DAWN LINDA OR IS IT JULIA AGAIN?’

“Oh shit”, panic set in and she walked up and down the living room trying to get herself together.

She poured a large whiskey and flopped down on the sofa shaking. ‘Someone knows about Toby,

withheld number and knows or she knows I killed him. No, an accident, no you planned this and

they know!’

She had to hold the glass in both hands now as she was shaking so much. Her mind was racing
and her heartbeat was racing and now as the rain hit the windows of her house and the wind

sighted around it she knew the message was real. Quickly she deleted it and turned off her phone,

sat staring at it on the sofa and instead of panic, it was replaced by dark fear.

After the old man was loaded up in the ambulance they got into the police car and Sgt

Colburn turned off the blue lights and sighed.

She looked at her watch. “Half an hour to go Amid before we finish our shift. Drive to the

village, find a chippy, eat and ask a few questions or go back to the station and have a coffee?”

Amid was looking at the rain running down the side window then shrugged, “Coffee back at the

nick then sign off and I can go back to my two-month-old bride. She cooking tonight and she is a

very good cook Dawn. You?”

“Ready meal and a cat, a bath and TV. That is, it. Home alone again Amid.”

Amid slowly shook his head. “Not good for someone to eat and live alone.Please do not mind me

asking Dawn but how come you don’t have someone, like a husband or a lady?”

She glared at him. “Because I like it and besides it is none of your fucking business chap. Let's

go!”, and started up the car burned rubber leaving the car park, almost hitting a suicidal sheep

that stepped out of the undergrowth with a string of brambles tangled in its wool.

Kate Levine sat reading a book on the small chair by the wood burner stove but she was

restless and her mind was not on the story and her eyes drifted to the photograph in a frame of

herself and Toby Bell. Her in her wedding dress and Toby in his dark suit. We smiled a lot in

those days, had fun, jobs and holidays until that bitch and there was no more ‘Mrs. Bell’, she

thought, the anger rising up within her. The home phone rang on the table beside her and she

jumped. She picked it up, her voice husky. “Hallo?”

“Kate. Is Toby with you because he has not come back from climbing?”
Kate looked at the photograph and grunted. “No. Goodbye.”

“No wait! Please. Can I come over. I’m worried about him.”

Kate sighed. “I have nothing to say to my ex best friend and no, you can’t come over as you put

it. We have nothing to say to one another Linda. Who knows, he might be bed hopping again.

Besides I have an early shift in A and E in the morning and need to go to bed. Bye.”

“Did you send me a text message.”

Kate frowned. “Text message. Why the hell would I want to text you a message unless it was to

tell you to drop dead. Time to grow up little girl, powder your pussy and get on with life. It Toby

is gone then he is gone, you are not married to him or even living with him so how does it feel to

be dumped, or he just took off. Bye!”

She slammed the phone down hard then took it off the hook and went to bed.

Linda Coll looked at the phone. She tried to ring back twice but it was engaged.

“Shit on a stick!”

Sister Kate Levine walked to the desk and nodded to the morning shift staff and they went

into her office and closed the door behind her then as the A+E manager sat at the desk and

flipped open the night shift folder.

She looked at them all in turn noting the turn out then said in a soft voice.

“You will all have noted that we are packed out this morning so I will keep it short. This will still

give you time to have tea or coffee before you start.

First, they had two DOA who have now been moved down to the Rose Garden, RTA, police have

been and gone. Cubicle A has one Alice Gover aged eighty-three, COPD and needs a bed soon

as, B contains a female child with mother who came in with head injuries said to have been
caused by falling out of the bed. The trouble with this young patient is that it is showing old

bruising on the arms and trunk so Social Service have been notified.

Out in the corridor is an old man, smelly and may have lost the plot and all we have his is first or

second name. Brought in by the police last night as was found nude in a carpark. Keep an eye on

him and make sure you push fluid. If you have to handle him, gloves and protection may be

needed because it says in his report he is a one-man nature reserve.

I suggest till we can get a bed, which could be a long time, you feed him if you can, a spoon if

you have too and note everything you do with him including BP and behavior. No fuck up’s

today please because we are stacked up. We have a duty of care. Go to it, get a drink or whatever

and out on the Department ten minutes from now. I know we are one down when it comes to

nursing so we are looking to the wards to send us a nurse if they can till I can get someone of the

Bank.”

She sighed and stood by the phone as they left then lifted it and rang a number. “Hi Jane I don’t

suppose you have a spare nurse we can have?

Ok. I'll do the rounds. Thanks.”

Dawn, after ten minutes ringing around and having no luck left her office to check that everyone

was where they were supposed to be, and do far busy but not yet a red alert. She looked up at the

board and cursed under her breath, because one patient had breached the time limit and target

and the old woman was coming up fast.

She walked over to one of the doctors going off the night shift and smiled.

“How long this time Dr Woods?”

He looked like a grumpy badger with his hair stuck up then glanced at his watch. “Eleven hours

and fifty-one minutes. No shift tonight but I am going home and sleeping away the day
tomorrow Mate, have a good shift if there is such a thing anymore Kate. Bye.”

She smiled and nodded, “On your way Alec. Sleep tight.”

Her next stop was to see who was stacked up on the trolleys and walked passed a teenager

looking at her parents but Kate did not stare but she noted it as she came to the old man. Then

with force, a husky voice somewhere in her head said with a hiss.

‘You should have gone to Linda Coll’s house when you got her call. After all she killed your ex

by smashing the rock and link that he was attached to and he screamed and shit himself just

before his face and head hit the rocks. If you had went you could have turned the bitch into dog

meat!”

Her eyes went wide and bent down and looked into amber eyes.

“What the fuck did you just say then!”

For a moment the old man’s eyes seem to glow. “Me Silas,Silas Silas.”

She leaned closer and could smell the rankness of his breath as he snapped at her and took a

lump out of her cheek then she fell back shocked.

She could see the staff slowing down and their voices fading away like something out of a film

in slow motion in black and white.

She found the words and said harshly, “If you people have nothing to do, then one of you chase

up a bed for Silus here and two nurses need to clean up this patient before he goes anywhere. He

also needs fluids close by him!”

Her long standing Auxiliary nurse, Heather McGlynn walked in close and whispered in her ear.

“Kate, you need a wash, then clean it but a doc needs to take a look and maybe put in a suture or

two.”
“Heather, what the fuck are you mumbling about?”

Heather nodded at the old man who was watching with a smile on his lips.

“He bit you, peeled off a lump or strip and swallow it within a few seconds.”

Kate ran for the staff toilet, locked the door behind her and went to the mirror over the sink. The

face looking back at her was bloody on one side with a strip of skin hanging to the side of her

mouth. She screamed like a wounded deer and darkness closed around her.

By the time she was brought round they had her in the office chair, the wound she had

treated and sutured she was still shaking. Not so much about the attack but more about what the

old man knew about her. He also knew about Linda Coll and her ex-husband. Did she really kill

him?

She was startled when the door was knocked hard, gathered herself together and muttered,

“Come!”

The door opened wide and two uniformed police officers walked in, the older one a woman who

was showing her police ID.

“Sgt. Dawn Coburn and Officer Amid Hussain. I wonder if you are up to making a statement on

the assault made on you made on you by a patient?”

Kate Levine nodded at the three chairs in front of her desk. “Close the door please as there will

be rubberneckers walking past, that being staff of course or any headbanger who has come in.

Take a seat.”

When the two officers were seated Hussain took out his notebook and pen and Dawn Coburn

noted the nurse was very quickly trying hard to to look ‘normal’ but she did not come across as

normal because the bandage on her face was large and to Dawn, an overkill. For a bite wound.

She looked at the nurse straight in the eyes but did not speak. The Manager of A+E was now
rattled, coughed once and avoided Sgt Coburn’s eye contact.

“I don’t know how it happened when I went to see him. He snapped at me and at first thought he

had kissed me on the cheek and I backed away from him. It was a member of my staff that came

to my aid and said I needed to get cleaned up. I am just glad he did not bite me on the lips. Came

in here and , no, I went into the toilet to look at my face, then hit the floor.”

I bet you did Missy, thought Dawn and smiled. “Looks sore.”

Kate shrugged. “Strange you say that but there was no pain, even now.”

Sgt Coburn waited as she had pre-planned with Amid before they came in. He in turn came in on

cue, “Miss Lavine I…”

“Please. Call me Kate.”

“Kate. This old man did he have a name.”

Her face was like stone now. “You knew his name before you came through my door Officer

Hussain otherwise you are a bit slow on the uptake. ‘Silas’ or ‘Salus’ and that is all we know, I

know.”

Dawn raised an eyebrow and looked across at Amid then looked back at Kate Levine. “Old man,

thin, smelly, dirty clothes, five seven, grey hair and beard, the hair brushed back from his

forehead. Brought here by ambulance last night from the Dovedale car park.”

“You know him!”

Amid and Dawn both nodded and for a moment they sat in silence then Lavine put on her

‘official’ voice.

“You will of course arrest him because we have a non-violence policy here in the hospital against

staff and patients. I take it you noticed our security people out there as well as CCTV?”
Dawn shrugged. “If we can find him we will arrest him of course and if he has a mental health

problem then we all have a duty of care and of course but we need evidence. We know him and

you know him as ‘Silas’ yet your security CCTV shows nothing of him here in A-E. It does show

you bending over an empty trolley all made up, sheet, blanket unused, talking to it then jumping

back in alarm then running in here. Then all hell broke loose with staff running in here, then

leaving after they brought you around.”

Lavine’s mouth dropped open and she reached up and pulled the dressing of her cheek and

pointed at it. “He did this to me!”

Amid looked at his boss then at the woman in front of him. "Kate. There is nothing there. Not a

mark, not a bruise."

She jumped up, her chair falling backwards with a crash and Kate barred her teeth then screamed

at them, "You're all out to get me and you two are as mad as rabbits in a bushfire. You want to

get rid of me. All of you!"

Dawn and Amid stood up but it was Amid who spoke softly to Kate. "Kate, we nor anyone is out

to get you and we want you to know that we have arrested Linda Coll for the murder of your ex-

husband, Toby Bell."

Kate Lavine ran for the door but Sgt Coburn blocked it and her, thinking that the woman she was

now looking at was in full burnout.

"Steady on Kate. No one is going to hurt you, we are not here to arrest you but would like you to

come down to the station for a chat. You can bring someone with you and that might be a good

idea."

Kate's shoulders dropped and she began to sob and shake and Amid was about to move in and

give her a hug but Sgt Coburn looked at him and shook her head. For a moment he was surprised

then got the message. He took a step backwards.

"Why did she have to kill Toby. He was good to her?"

Dawn rolled her eyes. "I don't know. Yet. She is being interviewed by CID and I guess everyone

has a reason, or think they have for taking a life. As it stands you know more about her than we

do, a history if you like and this is not the place for us to talk. Good looking here will take you

out to the car and I will kill the whispering and tell them about your Ex and that you are not

involved in anyway."

She wiped her eyes and nodded then followed Amid out but was looking at the floor as she did

so and did not want to look anyone in the eye. Dawn walked over to a Nurse in dark blue and

whispered in her ear.

"Her ex-husband is dead and she had nothing to do with it. And no, she does not want anyone

with her and will be going home after we talk to her. She is not under arrest nor will be and is

helping us with our inquiries, Ok?"

She joined Amid and Kate at the police car, nodded at a priest who walked past and sat in the

back with Kate Levine holding her hand thinking that people like Kate who give their all to help

the sick seem to get the shitty end of a stick and the public very rarely say thanks or well done.

BLESS ME FATHER FOR I HAVE SINNED

It was one minute past noon when Father John King walked into the Hospital Chapel and Place

of Prayer.

He was not surprised to see someone sitting up at the front. He stood, then walked softly

towards the front and by passed the man in his set his head bowed. He stopped when the man

spoke in a low husky voice, "Bless me Father for I have sinned. Often in fact but then everyone

sins Father or is that Reverend? Never mind and as you are a man of God I would like

confession please."
John King turned around and looked at the old man, and his nose as well as his eyes said that the

man was a street sleeper but his mindscape was searching for another name, a tag, a label. Silas

laughed, his broken yellow teeth showing and said loudly, "Come, come old chap. The word you

are looking for to describe me Father is 'Evil' and I can tell you now the devil is in the detail if

you wish to confess. You can call me "Silas" and I will call you John and what you tell me will

stay with me of course. Now why don't you take a pew John?"

The priest shivered and he wondered if he could run for the door but the look in the old man's

amber eyes told him he would not make it. He reached into his pocket and took out his phone

his eyes never leaving the man in front of him.

"Won't work and the door is locked. Even your watch has stopped and he only thing moving and

beating, so far, is your heart and that is not in great nick. Too many fatty foods old chap and you

will peg out before Christmas, unless you decide after our meeting to bump yourself off".

"What do you want!"

"A long confession John and when the time is right. Your worthless soul. Sit down!"

"And if I don't?"

"Then you will read about your past in all the newspapers in the morning, see yourself on TV

news, ‘around, the world, accused of child sexual abuse. and, everyone’, but everyone will come

out of the cupboard as they do and make the same claim against you including the family of little

Robert Logan who killed himself with drugs and booze because of what you did to him the the

Church of St Anne in Kilcare Scotland. You in turn were removed, in a nice way mind you and

the Bishop send you here. Then John there is your mother when you were a child, not a nice

mother after your father ran off with that slut Rosa Hill to Bournemouth and she got divorce.

You still have nightmares about her don't you?"

John King was now in high panic mode, he was sweating and shaking and close to tears.
"Sit down John now!"

King sat down and he shivered even more when Silas slid across the wooden pew and placed and

arm around his shoulder.

"There, there John. No need to cry old chap. Happens in the best of families more than people

know. Daddy's buggering their children, mother's forcing sons to do things to them, like your

mother John. You would be punished with a bamboo cane if you did not get into her bed at

night. Oh yes, she was a loving mother. Then the day she was close to death in this hospital you

went to see her on Ward 12, six floors from where we are now. Three years ago, All Souls Day,

the night after Halloween you looked down at her, tubes sticking out of her then whispered in her

ear "May you rot in hell mother dear" but the trouble is John old chap there is no Hell, No

Heaven no in between place so your curse on her was useless. Trust me, I know"

Father John slowly looked up at Silas and into his amber eyes. He wiped his nose and eyes with

his arm and muttered, "What do you want from me?"

"A deal John. Two choices only. I want you to go to a police station, one of your parishioners,

not a very good one I should say, and kill her within two days then hand yourself over to the

police. Her name is Linda Coll and you got to know her very well for a time. Of course, she

consented yet you did not answer her phone calls to you last night. She needs to go John".

Father John swallowed hard and gasping "And the second choice?" Silis laughed and it echoed

around the walls of the hospital chapel "You make your peace with your god and your religion

today and then top yourself, but you do it here, in front of the altar and pray like you have never

prayed before".

Silis tapped him on the shoulder bowed and walked away towards the door and pushed it open

after it clicked before he touched it. As it flapped closed again he walked towards the exit

passing through people walking towards him, smiled when they shuddered. Outside the sun was
shining and he glided to the church yard found a damp bench and sat on it. Then he began to

whistle a tune.

Father John was still twitching at the end of an electricity cable that he had taken from an old

lamp in the back room and hung himself. The last thing he heard was someone whistling a slow

tune, "Bring on the Clowns" but darkness closed around him fast and a dead Jesus was stone

faced as he was slowly spinning.

Silis was still whistling when a woman with a very small dog came down the path, her face puffy

and stopped in front of her. The white dog lifted its leg and did a pee on his leg but jumped back

when the water began to steam.

"Now look what you've done. Don't you know this is a place of rest and unless you know

someone who is buried you are trespassing!" She snapped.

He smiled up at her. "Oh I do know someone who will be buried here and to add to that and your

comments your dog does not know another dog that is buried here, even part of a dog so the dog

is also a trespasser if I am. It also pisses and shits where it wants to and shows no respect for the

dead"..

Her face went red and angry. "I will have you know that I carry poop bags and I lift any mess

that my dog makes and bin it at the gate!"

"Very noble, community conscious lady but you did not lift it on Boxing Day morning last year.

10.45 am and it was frosty. Now did you?"

Her anger was reduced to shock first, then fear and she did not like his amber eyes that seem to

shine. She stuttered now as she spoke, "I don't … who and....what are you?"

He held up a finger with a long dirty nail. "Ah! I have many names Mrs. April Blackmore so I

doubt very much that you would help you but right now I am called Silis a gentleman of the road
if you must, and as for your second part of the question, I am your worst nightmare. Let me

show you one of my faces"

She stumbled over the lead and fell flat on the path when his face changed and her dog started to

bark in panic. Silis stood up and stepped over her and walked towards the park gate, stopped and

looked back and where the woman was trying to get up, the dog now snapping at her. He waved

once at her and opened the kissing gate and she was still screaming loudly.

As he walked away he started humming the same tune again past a young blond woman walking

with a small child. The little boy glared at him and stuck his out his tongue but he walked on and

did not react but he did think that children today are bad mannered, so full of themselves, greedy

always and always wanting more. Even when they get everything they demanded they are still

not happy in the Western World unlike the children now in Bangladesh, ill, hungry and with no

home anymore. Thanks to the holy but all holy Buddhists that forced them from their homes and

butchered many of them with the help of the army. "This is one shitty planet", he muttered then

added, " Maybe the time has come for me to cancel Christmas and all religious holidays for the

rich but not for the poor. Teach the little fuckers what it feels like to be without."

He smiled and nodded, "Life and death are good is it not?"

He walked across the main road without looking right or left but hearing angry horns, and brakes

screaming then the sounds of metal on metal and the tinkle of glass. One woman banged hard on

the side window of her now stalled car and he looked at her and smiled giving her the finger.

Silis walked on, past people who were now blind to him, entered shops and walked out another

door, headed for a rail station then sat in the waiting room and closed his eyes. To anyone who

came in he was just an old man who is sleeping and would not take much notice of him. But no

one came in and he just sat there with eyes closed and his mind scape at rest.
 BAD DREAMS,MAYBE?

Amid Hussain's eyes shot open and for a moment he did not know where he was until he felt the

heat of his wife’s body beside him then slowed his breathing. He also discovered he was covered

in sweat and his heart was drumming inside his chest. His eyes drifted to the clock on the table.

Four am. Oh great, not even morning yet, he thought placing his arm over his eyes. Then a

thought struck him and he smiled. Two rest days so I don’t have to get up. He turned his head

and looked at his sleeping wife. “Lucky man”, he whispered to himself and seeing it was a

Friday and a day of prayer he would thank everyone for his good fortune, a job, a good wife and

two days off.

He slowly got up not wanting to wake his wife then went downstairs and into the kitchen. He

could hear the rain hitting the windows that looked out onto the small garden. Now all he could

see was blackness and his reflection in the wet glass as he filled the kettle.

He looked into the kettle as it filled and when he looked up the painted face of a clown was

looking in at him, a wet face with amber eyes. He jumped back in fear and alarm, spilling water

out of the kettle onto the polished floor, then slipped and his legs went and he hit the floor hard,

the kettle rolling away under the table.

For a moment he was stunned then he heard his wife coming down the stairs. He jumped up and

grabbed a baseball bat from under the sink and held up his hand at his wife/

“Go back upstairs and stay there. Now!”

“But…. What is wrong?”

“Just go. Right now. Bathroom and lock the door!”

He waited till he heard her overhead then rushed out that back door setting off the security lights

that lit up a frosted long. No footprints, he thought. There has to be footprints.

But there none not on the lawn or under the kitchen window. Nothing.

He ran down the garden and checked the lock on the garden shed. Lock still in place, only my

footprints. He looked around the shadows and could see or hear nothing then made his way back

indoor shivering from cold. He looked the door then cleaned up the kitchen.

When his wife came down he forced a smile and shrugged. “Sorry. I feel such a fool.

She smiled. “Come, take me to bed and I will take your mind off your bad dreams.”

She took him by the hand and led him out of the kitchen switching off the lights as she went and

up the stairs but left the landing light on.

TWO INTERVIEWS.
"The message on your phone is more than odd Miss Coll, which we were able to retrieve of your

phone and what we find odd it was sent to you when you arrived at home. On top of that we

know you were in the area of Dovedale, an hour before because traffic CCTV picked you up

twice driving well over the speed limit. Then at a set of traffic lights you stopped and guess what,

your pretty face shows you sitting in the driving seat. You get home in record time then ring your

partners ex-wife and she states you asked her for help and come over to her home?"

"I was frightened, the message on the phone, Tony missing and not back from his climb. The

police already know all this and they must have logged it."

"We know. But then you went to a pub and were seen there and again you were on CCTV in the

pub car park."

"I went to that pub to see if he was in there but no one seen him or had been in touch."

Det. Louis Sharp smiled and nodded. "We already have. What did Kate Levine tell you when you

rang?"

"Basically, to fuck off if you want to know the truth!"

The female detective Ruth Devonport came in fast, watching Linda Coll and thought it was time

to rattle her cage. " Hate to say this Linda but I am sure your Solicitor here with you, that being

Thomas Jones for the record would advise you wisely, to not start making 'a no comment' to our

questions. Who else did you ring?"

Coll looked down at the floor and muttered in a whisper. "Father John, my priest."

Devonport almost shouted, "WHO!"

"Father John King, the bastardy man would not pick up!"

"I have to protest detective!", said Jones then added, "You can see my client here is upset,
emotional and tired. So, in her interests I want to call a break now so I can have a cup of tea with

her and advise please."

Det. Davenport decided to drop her bombshell before they took a break. "This Father John King

cannot confirm he got a call one what or the other. You can take him off your Christmas list

because he was found hanging in his hospital Chapel. Time of Interview terminated at 13.17pm.

Ten minutes Mr Jones and will send someone into see what you want to drink."

Both detectives left the room and a uniformed police officer stood outside the door looking bored

out of his head, his stomach rumbling with hunger, and in need of a smoke.

"What happens now Mr. Jones?"

He had a smile like the slit belly of a herring, the amber eyes looking at her over the top of his

glasses. "Well I am called a 'duty solicitor' and as I do not know you very well outside of this

interview room but have enough knowledge in such matters to say plainly, you are, as they say,

in deep shit and they know you murdered this Toby man, hit his climbing gear with a blow from

a hammer and bingo, he falls to earth. Once they check the boot of your car, check your climbing

boots and match it all up with forensics, which I will add, they will and you will be kept here in a

cell till they can arrange a hearing. Then and only then will the court remand you in custody and

that will be in prison. You are looking at life which in your case will mean life and you will be a

very old wrinkled woman when you get out."

He sat back and stroked his nice tidy beard and smiled again.

She went pale her mouth sagging "No. I could not handle that. I would rather be dead!"

His smile faded. "Really?"

She nodded and he took a bone handled pen knife out of his suit pocket and reached over and set

it in front of her. You don't mind if I nip out for a pee do you?"
She shook her head. "What is your first name Mr. Jones."

He stood up and lifted his briefcase. "Oh, I have many names my dear but you can call me Silis.

Good luck."

He went to the door and knocked it and the police officer opened it, looked at Linda Coll who

was sitting on the chair sobbing. Mr. Jones nodded at the officer and passed by him stopped

when he heard the door being locked then asked, "I have to nip out to my car and get some more

forms for her to sign. Back in five, need a smoke as well."

"Ok sir. No problem. She won't be going anywhere soon."

Just the mortuary, he thought as he walked away and out the door that led to police carpark and

the main street. Then he started to whistle his tune.

The alleyway was red-brick and had been through two world wars, a place of long standing for

sex at night, a dumping ground for rubbish and littered in dog poo. Samael Jones blinked his

eyes twice and shook his head as he looked around him. "What the hell!", and the only life was

an old man shuffling out into the main street and turning right. He took out his phone and looked

at it. One message. Jones clicked on it. The message was straight and to the point,

" GET BACK TO THE POLICE STATION, YOUR CLIENT COLL IS DEAD."

Sgt. Dawn Coburn was sitting in the Restroom drinking coffee and then looked hard at Amid

Hussain across the table from her frowning. He was not in uniform and looked washed out. "Ok

buster. You are on two rest days, this being your first and here you are sitting here in a police

station with a hangdog look. So, what's up?"

He shrugged. "Did not sleep well last night. Got up and I guess this case is playing on my mind

so I went to fill the kettle at the sink and seen something looking in at me."
"Not a someone but a something Amid."

He nodded. A clown's face, close up and wet."

Dawn nodded and thought. Too much sex and hot curries. Bad dream. "Then what?"

"I fell over my wife came down alarmed and I went out into the back garden and could see

nothing, even with the garden lights on. Nothing. No footprints on the frosted grass, back gate

locked, shed locked but it rattled me."

"You then went back to bed with your wife but spare me the details what happened there. Did

you sleep?"

He looked sad. "Off and on. A dream that the clown was in fact the old man we found at the

carpark. Like underneath the mask."

Dawn sighed. "Well in that case you had better stick with me for the hour then I want you to go

back home, take your wife shopping and watch TV." She looked up and made a face, "Talking of

clowns Amid two approaching from the south west. The male one is known as an asshole in

CID."

Detectives Sharp and Devonport joined them at the table and sat down without being asked to do

so.

"Well, well, the bright and the best, honor us with their presence and detective skills", said

Coburn without a smile and eyes bright then added, "Amid and I were having a talk here private

like."

"We have a missing piece of the puzzle Dawn", said Ruth Davenport and looking directly at Sgt.

Coburn. "The old man?"

Dawn lifted her hands and smiled, "Gone!"

Ruth Devonport glared at Coburn, "Gone, where, People don't just vanish if they are witnesses to

a crime, any crime?"

"Unless they want to and don't want to be involved", said Amid Hussain then added in a soft

voice, "We picked him up in the carpark where he was standing nude in the rain and cold

because he seemed out of it, got him into hospital, took his fingerprints and DNA and nothing

came through on the crime or anywhere else. Then he vanished from the A+E Department as if

he was never there not on any CCTV cameras inside or out. You will like this bit. Later a dead

priest found in the hospital chapel, a nursing sister who claims this old man bit her on the face

and we are going to interview her again and her ex-husband is cooling of in the hospital

mortuary. The ex-wife is one Kate Levine who is the A-E manager and you have a suspect, Linda

Coll who right now is thinking she got away with murder, Silis this old man has been spotted

three times. One, in a churchyard where he frightened the shit out of a woman walking her dog,

two, walked across and through traffic causing a pile up and disruption and five miles from that,

seen in a Quaker Churchyard sitting nude in yoga meditation, then guess what, he vanished again

Detectives?"

The two detectives sat for a moment with their mouths open and Dawn Coburn sat smiling at

them and nodded.

"I don't think that is funny Sgt.Coburn. Not at all and your bright boy must be watching too

many 'X Files' TV programs that has cluttered up his brain cells", hissed Sharp.

Dawn Coburn smiled at Det. Sharp but it was not a nice smile. "For your information Sharp and

for Dick Tracey here, he has a Master's Degree in Criminal Psychology and Profiling at Oxford,

spent six months with Interpol on an exchange project and though he can get mouthy at times he

is a good down to earth cop and someday may even be your boss."

There was a long silence, the sort you don't want around a table but it was Ruth Devonport who
broke the ice. "What does the name Silis mean anyone?"

For a moment no one spoke and without looking at him she said, "Amid?"

Amid flushed, cleared his throat and spoke in a very clear voice, "Silis could mean 'Silas' first or

second name, rare now as a baby name but a Silas was a companion way back of Peter the

Fisherman, now St. Peter and the name is mentioned in the bible both in English and Latin. It

also means, if we consider our missing old man, as a spirit of the woods and forests and is said to

be able to travel between heaven and hell, by passing limbo and is known to do good and evil

deeds."

Sharp interrupted, "Ah but he cannot be in two places at once!"

Amid Hussain leaned across the table and looked into Sharp's eyes. "Unless he can get into

people's mind is as much as I know and good and evil is in all humans anyway. It just needs a

trigger to set the mood."

They interrupted by the desk sergeant, and aged man going to fat. "Hate to break up the party

Sharp but your suspect, Linda Coll who is in the interview room has just topped herself and

blood everywhere."

Ruth Devonport and Sharp jumped up and Dawn nodded at Amid. "Drink your coffee son and

then go home. I do not want to see you in here for two days and I hope you have got me loud and

clear on that Mr. Brainy Box, so fuck off."

"What about Coll. Should we not..."

"Nope. Not all things go well and there are two dumb ass detectives who are going to be shitting

themselves before the end of the day and more than likely will be sitting on the bums and

suspended from duty till a hearing. Before you ask Amid I am going out in the car for the rest of

the morning to waste time on this shift handing out parking and speeding tickets then out to
Dovedale for a walk around. No, you can't come. Bye."

THERE ARE TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY.

Dawn Coburn guided a very shaken Sam Jones into a free interview room as directed by her boss

Harry Heart as all hell broke loose after the body of Linda Coll was discovered. Forensics was

finished and the body removed.

Hart had said to her that Sharp and Devonport were now on 'Gardening Duty' and that he wanted

her and her only to handle Jones official. Interview.

Mr. Jones sat in the other room, his head in his hands and only looked up at Dawn as she pulled

out the chair and sat down.

"You have not read me my rights so I take it I am not under arrest."

Dawn nodded, "An informal chat Mr. Jones but I would like as much information you can

remember and I hope you do not mind a hand-held recorder on the table?"

He nodded. "My own words?"

"Of course. Please."

"I got the call to come here at my office near Green Mews Lane to be with a woman arrested

called Linda Coll. I wrote the name down told my PA I would be back after a late lunch. She

could text me if anything urgent came in so I left the building, took a shortcut through the Mews

alleyway. It takes me out onto the main street and the police station is five minutes -walk away. I

walked towards the main street and …...met an old man, a tramp, dirty, and of course the smell.

The next thing I remember is standing there confused. The old man went into the high street and

I got a text to inform me that my client was dead. So. I came back in, or at least I came here and

here I am. Still confused."

Dawn was now on high alert but she did not show it." This old guy did he look at you as he was

leaving?"

"No. Just walked."

"Any smell from him, like something you could identify?"

Jones sniffed at his clothes. "Yes, wood smoke and sweat."

Dawn Coburn stood up and walked around to where Jones was sitting and sniffed then went back

to her seat. "You smoke Mr. Jones?"

"Yes. I smoke a pipe."

"Type of tobacco, that being rolled, flake or the old block you have to trim off as my father did?"

Jones frowned. "I don't see where this is going or what it has to do with that woman's death."

"Please Mr. Jones. You have been such a help so far. What type of tobacco?"

He shrugged and took a worn leather pouch, opened it and took out a small square of hard

packed tobacco plug then held it up."

She smiled at him and made a note. Then she looked up. "Of course, you need a small pen knife

to cut the tobacco to size, then rub it between your hands till it is crumbs, fill the pipe, tap it

down with a finger then enjoy. Brings back good memories of my late dad. Would you mind

letting me see the knife please?"

"If you must", reaching into his jacket pocket then frowned deeply. He stood up tapping all his

pockets then muttered and said, "I must have left it in the office. It was bone handled, white and

about four inches long."

When he sat down and looked across the desk at Coburn he was surprised and alarmed that she

was holding up an evidence bag and inside Jones could see a blood-stained penknife. His knife

of that he had no doubt.

"Yours Mr. Jones?"

"Yes. God! Is that what she used...."

"Yes. She cut through the veins of her neck, the main ones and bleed out. If you look to the right

above my head you will see a very small camera blinking red and where you were interviewing

Linda Coll the same sort of camera was switched on. Sadly, the sound was not as it is on this one

but on the silent camera you are seen setting this penknife on the table in front of Coll, getting up

and leaving the room. After you left, she opened the knife and that was that."

Jones went pale and started to shake "Oh my God. I did not..."

Dawn shook her head. "You did. Sorry."

"But I don't remember Sgt. Coburn!"

Dawn Coburn stood up as did Jones and she said to him in an icy voice, "You are free to go Mr.

Jones but leave your business card at the front desk for my attention and bring in your passport

later this evening please. We more than likely will want to talk to you sometime soon so please
lets us know if you have any plans to travel within the UK. Gooday."

He licked his lips his eyes darting around, she opened the door for him and he was gone leaving

behind him on the air the smell of tobacco and wood smoke.

Dawn Coburn went to the window and looked out at the man she had just spoken to and

muttered, "The devil is in the detail Mr. Jones and you are in deep shit."

Det. Inspector Harry Hart was not a happy man as he looked at Sgt. Dawn Coburn across his

desk who sat with her notepad. He was unhappy for a number of reasons, the first about the pain

in his rectum with piles that had been playing up for the last twenty-four hours, the two-asshole

detective who left a suspect alone and she is now dead and now his best Sgt. in the station, filling

him in about Jones, the penknife and him claiming he had a loss of memory about the whole

event. The worse part was her saying, less than a minute ago, was she did not think that Jones

was lying or remembering anything about his interview with Linda Coll. Yet the playback from

the camera showed him there, showed him setting the penknife in front of her, him leaving and

then her cutting her throat with three deep slashes.

"Dawn, how long have we known one another and worked together?", he rasped and fiddled with

his pen but watching her closely.

"Must be going on nine years boss, good times and bad times, drunken Christmas Parties, and of

course mortuary duty during a PM. If you are saying that my report to you just now about the

mindscape of our Mr. Jones is confusing then I can say back. Tell me about it."

For a moment Harry Hart held his head then looked at her and give a sad smile, "Fucked Dawn if

I know. He was not under arrest, he talks about that old bastard of yours, and somehow this 'Silis'

is connected to everything. I am two detectives' down, your sidekick Hussein is on two rest days

and I am under fire from the top to get it sorted. Oh, and on top of that, two letters arrived for

Amid and one for yourself. I already know what is in them do it seems Det. Sgt. Coburn and you
can give the Arab his letter, he is now Det. Hussian. You both passed your exams.

Congratulations. You still work for me."

Dawn's mouth opened and closed twice. "So, when do we start boss?"

His eyes were blue steel and his face of stone. "Tomorrow morning 06.30 and bring the wise man

with you. Keep in mind that the clocks go back tonight and you both work the case. You take

over the desks of Devonport and Sharp, they have already cleaned out their desks and you each

will get a new password for the two police computers."

She smiled then the smile faded and she frowned at Hart. "You ok Harry?"

He shook his head. "This case is a pain in the backside Dawn. Get it sorted!"

By the time Dawn climbed into her car she was in shock not starting it then punched the air in

joy. "Yes!"

BRING IN THE CLOWNS.

Samuel Jones was rattled as it grew dark and looked at the dog in his kitchen and groaned, the

muttered "You should have left with her and her toy boy like everyone thinks, five years ago.

Now instead of having you shit and piss on the kitchen floor I have to take you for 'walkies'

morning and night to avoid that problem. Christ, I am cursed!"

He got up and put on his coat and hat then lifted the lead, "Come on then stupid. Across the park

to the gate and back again."

He picked up his glass of whiskey and drained it then hooked the dog up to the lead and dragged

it behind him now full of resentment. As the dog was old and with hip problems it walked slowly
and once in the park he took it off and let it do its business. He did not have a poo bag with him,

never did because it turned his stomach to even think of it. A new moon was hanging in the east

and as he walked between the trees, the leaves crackled under his feet and a few woodpigeons

became restless and flapped away out of their nightly roost. In the distance he heard the horn of a

train and its rattle over the tracks. Then behind him he heard the dog growl and was looking with

almost blind eyes back the way they had come. "Come on damn it!"

Jones could now see a figure approaching them and stiffened but it was now close enough to see

it was someone dressed as a clown, painted face and false smile.

"Ah, the great Mr. Samuel Jones out for a walk with his dog, well your wife's dog in fact. I

would like to thank you for, well, the use of your body for a time. I must say it went well and

though you're, our visit to the police station, went well and justice was served was it now?"

"Do I know you?"

"Sort off. Well you may have read about me now and then over the years but that matters little

now."

Jones was now getting frightened because he was here in the park, almost dark alone talking with

a clown who seemed more than a little unstable, even dangerous.

"If it is money you want I can give you some, thirty pounds be enough?"

The clown did a little dance around him jumped in the air and clicked its heels together then

laughed harshly. "Thirty pounds. My, my you are a bit of a cheapskate or should that be 'steak'?

Never mind. I don't want money Mr. Jones. No, I want you to kill the poor dog, put it out of its

painful misery here and now and having to live with a bastard like you"

Jones started to run back the way he had come deserting the dog that was whining beside the

clown and was almost struck by a car as he ran across the main road and into his house. He
slammed the door and locked it then went to the back door and checked it was locked, then,

almost in panic he pulled all the curtains down stairs. He poured himself a full glass of whiskey,

his hands shaking as he took two gulps fast then he flopped down in a sofa chair. His mind raced.

You don't find clowns in a dark park at night and I had too much to drink before I went out and a

very stressful day. Yes...That was it. The dog. He said I was to kill Pepe, kill him now and then.

No, the wind, that was all. Pepe will in his own time, make his way home, across the road and in

the gate then start scratching the back door to be let in. He took a long gulp of the whiskey then

he heard the sound like soft bumping coming from the kitchen. Then the sound was getting

closer now and standing in the door with tail wagging and hitting the door frame was Pepe and

behind the dog looking down at Jones, was the painted clown.

"Get out. This is my home. Go or I will ring the police!"

The clown did a little dance to a low table, lifted the home phone and started to juggle it then

thrust it into Jones hand and knocking the glass out of his hand at the same time. "Please do.

Don't forget to tell them about Iris down in the basement underneath the concrete floor, face

down, and how she got there."

Samael Jones looked at the phone in his hand then threw it at the clown who caught it mid air

and flung it back at Jones hard breaking his nose. Jones screamed as blood began to run down

over his lips, and Pepe barked and ran around in circles chasing his tail while the clown laughed.

The clown removed his mask and Jones, through the pain, could see an old man with a grey

beard and amber eyes, eyes that were bright and seemed to be glowing. "You have no right!

There is no evidence!"

Silis leaned in close to the man's bloody face, so close he could smell his sweat and the whiskey

on his breath but he could also smell fear and Jones soul starting to dissolve but Silis liked the

word 'body energy' because he knew there were no such things as a soul and energy when it left
all living things, dispersed into other living things.

Jones gasped and tried to pull away but there was nowhere to go, he could not run, he could not

fight and most of all, he could no longer breath. Silis ripped open Jones shirt and placed his hand

just over the heart and smiled. He could feel it pumping and slowing, tick, tock, like the sound of

a clock then stop and he watched the life and energy leave the body. Jones fell sideways and hit

the floor and Pepe came over and started to lick his master's face, stopped and looked up at the

old man. "Good dog. Din dins."

Pepe the half blind dog, took a bite of the dead man's nose and gulped it down, then another and

another as Silis glided out of the room and hung the clown's mask on the door handle and pulled

it shut.

Outside in the dark he took of the clown costume and placed it folded into the green recycling

bin then closed it gently and walked off into the night whistling.

Dawn Coburn sat in her dressing gown, her hair still wet when her phone pinged a message

coming in, and with a cigarette still in her mouth read,

'YOU'RE MR JONES HAS BEEN A VERY BAD MAN MISS COBURN AND HIS WIFE IS

UNDER THE FLOOR IN THE BASEMENT WHERE HE KILLED AND BURIED HIS WIFE.

NO NEED TO WORRY ABOUT THE DOG. IT HAS BEEN FED. IT IS PEOPLE I DON'T

LIKE BUT ANIMALS I CARE FOR.

GREAT NEWS DETECTIVE ABOUT YOUR NEW PROMOTION.

SILIS.

She gasped and the cigarette fell from her mouth in shock and she grabbed it off the floor and

placed it in the ashtray. Then she reread the message again and smiled." Without death there is no

life", she said, then rang Amid Hussain.

Outside somewhere in the darkness, a Tawny Owl hooted twice.

Amid was there in twenty minutes and came to her front door. She opened it before he had a

chance to ring the bell and said, "Welcome to my world Detective Husain and seeing you are

only a detective constable and I am a Detective Sergeant, you drive. Oh, this letter was left for

you. It just backs up your promotion."

He took the letter, rolled his eyes then asked, "Where are we going Boss?"

She laughed, "To see a dead man about a dog and get the uniform bods to dig up a cellar floor

and meet Mr. Jones wife." Simple. Forensics will meet us there."

"You do know this was my rest day?"

"Was. Get in the car and drive. No hurry, stop for chips on the way."

He tried to protest but she held up a hand, "I'll have chicken with my chips Amid with chili sauce

and mushy peas. You?"

He rolled his eyes. "I have eaten an hour ago. "How did you find out this Jones was dead?"

"Silis sent me a text. No number."

"Oh great. You know it is dark out here Boss and I..."

"Drive, I'm starving buster and getting grumpy."

BONES AND PRETTY THINGS.

Fireworks were lighting up the night sky and smoke drifted across the rooftops as they pulled

into the house. The white van of the forensic team was already there as were three uniformed

police officers who were putting up yellow tape.

Karan Malloy came over to her car and smiled at Dawn and Amid. "I and Bob have done our

walk through. One body male, without a face, one fat dog that keeps being sick and shitting

everywhere, now locked in the bathroom down stairs, a crew down in the basement with

sledgehammers, crowbars and shovels, one clown's mask inside hanging on the door handle,

Halloween job I guess, victim's lips blue, eyes have no broken blood vessels but we will know

more from the Post once we get him to the hospital mortuary, he looks like he was hitting the

booze hard, like hard. No fingerprints that are not his anywhere upstairs or downstairs, liked porn

magazines of the worse kind and some blood on the carpet but I suspect the dog did that."

"How long has the team been down in the basement?"

Karan shrugged and looked at her watch. "Twenty-five minutes. Could not bring in a compressor

drill until morning but those guys with shirts off and shifting stuff. Bob is with them taking his

photographs as he does but still has his shirt on. I thought you would be here before us?"

She winked at Karan. "Having supper on the run."

"By the way detectives, congratulations on the promotion. You both have earned it I hear."

"Yes. Thank you. Shall we all rock and roll and take a gander at himself. Doctor here yet?"

"On his way. Oh, we have had a few comments from the locals. Seems he kept himself to himself

over the years and a few commented that his wife ran off with some man or other but you know

what people are like. What we find in the basement will confirm if it is human remains or just a

hoax."

Amid grunted. "Somehow I get a feeling this is going to be a long night."

It was, and they found remains, broken bones some hair, a skull with a fracture and a pile of very

small bones of an unborn child next the woman's remains.

Dr. Izak Bell confirmed two things for the team. The victim upstairs looks like a heart attack,
dead less than four hours and the remains in the cellar were that of a woman who was pregnant at

the time of death and the child never reached term. He said he would arrange for a full post

mortem in the morning in Derby Hospital of the remains and the dead man.

After he left and Karan and Bob had finished they stood by till the undertaker had removed the

tagged body bags and two police officers were left at the crime scene.

On the way home Amid driving, he asked Dawn, "One heart attack, one murder not a bad night's

work."

Dawn snapped at him. "Two murders stupid. The child was a person in its own right and do not

forget that. Ever!"

Amid did not answer and for the next twenty minutes they said nothing until the car stopped

outside of Dawn's house. Dawn got out then said, "Sorry. See you early in the morning down at

the nick."

He nodded but did not look at her. "Sure. Night."

She slammed the car door and walked with a purpose up to her front door hearing Amid driving

off then opened the door. The first thing she did was check all the windows and doors then went

straight up to bed and left the light on in the landing, pushing a large kitchen knife under a pillow

but within reach if she needed it.

ALL THE SANE PEOPLE, YOU HOPE.

Professor Boris Kasey had a large ego and a large body, stocky and tall and just this side of sixty

years old. His pale eyes matched his white hair, the two hands like hams of bacon. With nine

books under his belt, all based on anthropology and world religion he was in demand to give

talks at Universities and paid well for it plus expenses, to students and staff. He stood and looked

at the large poster of himself and then his watch. He looked sideways at Olga Orr, a pretty blond
and the Student Union President.

"Olga my dear, this photograph is smaller than I expected and I am aware that you were pushed

for time, what with the short notice and all but I am a little disappointed, however I am sure you

have arranged press coverage?"

Olga Orr pouted for a moment then put on a fixed smile, "All in place, Nottingham Press, BBC

TV want an interview, and a monthly Magazine called University Focus want to do a spread

feature. That would be with photographs of course."

He grunted and walked on into the building and she had to run to catch up. Inside was like an

airport with people coming and going and Olga led him in the direction of the horseshoe shaped

lecture hall.

"How many seats does the lecture hall have?"

She looked at her notes. "Two hundred and fifty. There is also plenty of standing room at the

back if needed Professor. Slide projector and computer are all set up when you need them. One

of our students who is in IT has the list of your slides and will go down them as you requested."

He looked at her. "I would like you to have dinner with me tonight at seven in the Hotel Trent

and I will not take No for an answer my dear. After all, you have earned it and more."

At that suggestion she was for a moment thrown and she stumbled for the right words that would

not cause offence. "Well thank you Professor I..."

"No while not in earshot of anyone, call me Boris", and smiled at her.

She flushed and then frowned, "What I was trying to say Professor, Boris, is that I have another

engagement at seven. Birthday party. Mine.", she lied and he stopped and turned.

"Birthday Party. It is your birthday. Well you can have your birthday with me. Wine and song."
She played her ace card and muttered, "Zelda, my partner has it all organized and my friends will

be there as well. Maybe another time."

If she had slapped him he would not have been so shocked. "Your Gay?"

"Yes. Married in fact."

He walked on, stopped at the toilets and turned to her and snapped, "Wait here. I can do this on

my own!"

She waited till he went in then muttered under her breath, "Fuck you mister big shot."

"I agree", said a rasping voice behind her and she turned around in alarm. Standing close to her

was a tall old man in a tattered suit and she knew right away he was not using aftershave by the

warm smell from his clothes.

"Sorry. Do I know you?"

"No. I need to go to the washroom as I see the University Security heading this way and no

doubt will ask to see my ticket. Excuse me please."

Olga watched him glide of and into the toilet and the Security woman looked at Olga closely.

"That man you were speaking to,is he one of your guests?"

Olga Orr made a face. "Yes. My grandfather. He has a weak bladder and he needs to go before

the lecture. Mum could not look after him today, dentist appointment so she dropped him off."

The woman looked Olga up and down, looked at her ID on a chain, grunted and walked away.

She waited praying that the old man would not come out first but relaxed when Professor Kasey

walked towards her. She noted that he looked flushed and had to ask, "Are you ok professor?"

He nodded, looked at his watch and muttered, "Come!"

She followed and thought, fuck this for a game of soldiers, never again.

The place was packed as he walked on stage, a smile and a wave to his captive audience a few

whistles and then they all went silent except for a few coughs. Olga sat in a chair far right

muttering to herself under her breath.

The voice came as a shock in her head. "Shut up bitch I'm a thinking!"

She looked around her and could see nothing and then dismissed the voice.

Boris Kasey cleared his throat, smile his stage smile. "Good evening ladies and gentlemen,

wannabe's and any staff who know in fact what teaching is all about.

I have based this on my last lecture in Berkeley the USA and a fine bunch of people they were.

Now I am here, to talk about Dark mindscapes and Humankind, my latest book and with good

reviews. So, what do I know about Dark Mindscapes you may wonder but at the end of my

lecture you can ask questions for ten minutes but no more. I am early to bed and hard to rise.

First off let me say this to you all here right now. A few of you like children, a good number of

you abuse children or your partner, at least five of you hate your parents, three women here are

sweating a pregnancy that you don't want or planned for, two of those women are looking at the

old sucking job into a bucket, at least two members of staff are having an affair with one of their

students, good thinking that girls and boys, you will get the marks whether you put in the work

or not. All of you here at some time will think of murder of murder, your mobile devices is your

God and believe that money will get you anything, if you have enough of it, no matter how or

where you got it. This is all part of your Dark Mindscapes

He waited and knew he had them hooked.

He looked into the audience to his left and upwards. "Young man, third row up, if you are more

interested in your phone messages coming and going than what I am saying I suggest you let
someone who is standing have your seat and you fuck off out of here right now!"

There was a massive intake of breath and everyone turned to look at the young man leaving and

be replaced by a leggy redhead.

"There goes a young man who has little or no future and education and the money to pay for it is

wasted from day one. On that note the rest of you who are here to work on a degree, any degree,

are also wasting their time because you need a degree that will help the people in it and help save

this dying planet.

A degree in Law is useful, if you can get a job after it, a degree in nursing is useful as long as

you don't go down the road as a NHS manager, most who could not find their dick or tits on a

dark night and as much use as a deballed bridegroom.

He paused then smiled, “As for the psychology students here, who are also looking at a

parapsychology module as part of the degree, I want you to try an experiment with me. In all it

will take no more than fifteen minutes and as a control you will have a captive audience so

please raise your grubby little hands.”

Slowly thirty three hand went up and he smiled again. “Now I have you clocked you may put

your hands down and please close your eyes and if possible, your mouths. Good. Now clear your

minds and as you do that, I warn the rest of the audience here to sit tight, don’t talk and observe.

That’s nice. Silence please.”

It did not take long for the energy to leave their bodies and Silis was pleased when they arrived

inside a run down old building that used to hold the Criminal Insane in its own grounds near the

town of Chesterfield. Silis stood in a corner, his eyes now bright amber and he looked at the

confused students.

His voice was almost a hiss as he spoke. “Yes.Here we are boys and girls, a great empty building,

dirty and dusty with the great man himself. He or you will find you cannot talk but your mind,
your hidden energy mindscape, will record everything. Boris Kaspy here is at a loss what to say

of course if he could say anything because you're Boris Kaspy is a man without a degree of any

sort to his name and in fact he was an inmate here for many years before he escaped over the

wire and wall and was known then as one ‘Doctor Mark Kirkwell’ but the fact he is just plain

Mark Kirkwell, killer of small children that he also ate bits off and their bodies, poor little things,

never recovered. Yes, you will see what you would term as ghosts or spirits, energy souls during

the short time you are here and you will also hear them screaming and whispering in your ears,

you may well feel heat or an icy coldness, that shiver people get just for a moment as if

something just walked through them. That something is in every room in this building, every

corner and they, have a story to tell you all. Welcome to my world children of a lesser God just

for another eleven minutes now. Have fun.”

Silis left the group and stood in a dark corner observing the students and Kaspy. Even though

they could not move, except for the the odd twitch now and then but their eyes were closed tight.

Silis glided up to Kaspy and looked into the stone like face with eyes closed then gilded around

behind him, stood close and sent a message, “You are well and truly fucked big man.”

Olga Orr looked at the audience of students and University staff. Panic started to set in and she

could hear the drumming of her own heart as she looked at them all with eyes closed tight and

now and then a few twitched, more so the psychology group. He eyes drifted to Boris Kasby and

he was standing with eyes wide open, mouth drooling and sagging. Then she caught a movement

on the right side and Silis walked into shade from the overhead lights. He held a finger up to his

lips, and winked at her then smiled. A grunt and noise behind her forced her to swing around and

she could see people walking up, shuffling feet and now and then the odd cough. Her eyes drifted

back to Kasby as he slowly fell backwards with a crash and for a moment twitched then died.

She screamed, the students rose in a wave and panic grabbed them all and they started to run
with staff out of the lecture theatre shouting, and trampling on one another when someone fell.

Members of staff tried but failed to slow them down and were pushed out of the way. Olga kept

shouting for someone to phone the emergency services but not sure if anyone heard her and

looked to where she thought the old man was. But he was gone. That was it and she ran too,

pushing anyone out of the way that she could, then they were all outside in the halls babbling

like migrating geese.

Silis glided from behind a blackout curtain and looked down on the twisted face of and smiled.

“Death is like that and Justice has been done.”

Without rushing, he glided towards a fire door and pushed the handle and walked out into fresh

air and started to whistle, ‘a little biddy tear let me down, spoiled my act as a clown’ and very

soon was lost in the crowd. In the distance he heard the Emergency Services arriving then

smiled.

That is the good thing about being bad or good it does not affect you, he thought, like it does

some humans and they walk around with a black monkey on the shoulders and fear of discovery,

good or bad is always there. I like me, I do what I need to do and I do not shrink away from it as

I have no one to fear or be responsible to. But I have also to be careful but not alarmed and I

never have dinner or supper though people watching may well think I am eating. I don’t eat like

humans. In fact I do not eat or drink at anytime, do not have sex, do not want sex anyway, and

sex with humans or animals is a mucky business the lowest form of pursuits for humans, most of

it without love. I have always wondered what they see in it, why at times they have to use

violence and fear, to control another of their species? Of course women are just as bad because

they love playing head games with a partner, another form of mind control and they think power.

Maybe I should cause chaos in the world so that having sex is programed when a child is wanted

and the humans only get two cracks at it then it would be all over. Love would be another point

because the word is used of the cuff and in eighty percent of cases it hides an hidden agenda and
in a few years it fucks people’s heads up and when a breakup happens one or both are like wet

rags for months and a pain to be around. Silis thought a bit of research is needed on the matter

and that is what he now planned.

Inside the Library, he passed a dour looking woman behind the desk and she looked at him over

the top of her classes and frowned. He stopped and turned and smiled at her then walked onto the

shelves he was looking for. He had written one book in his long life time, codes and codexes that

no human mind had ever worked out and he smiled at the thought that right now it was in a

museum in Iraq locked away in some dark space and a copy was also hidden away in the dark

archives of the Vatican. Been in both countries for twenty thousand years. My, my, they build

rockets to go into space. Can’t read my book.

A LITTLE BIDDY TEAR LET ME DOWN.

The young woman was attractive as she walked towards Silis, slim, redhaired and a smile that

would light up a room, day or night. She stopped in front of the reading desk, coughed lightly

and waited.

Silis slowly looked up, his bright coloured amber eyes taking her all in then he was looking into

very bright blue eyes, smiling eyes that were real.

He shrugged and said in a voice that almost had an echo in it, but pleasant.

“And how may I help you young woman because you have been past this reading desk seven

times this morning, the odd glance at what books I had in front of me and reading. Now I know

you are not stalking me because I am an old man, you are not on offer in a long term relationship

with me, you don’t want to hit on me for money so what do you want please?”

“May I sit down for a moment. My name is Lorna Quinn and I work in the University Library
here for five years. I notice you are well read, Latin, anthropology, Myth and Mythology and you

caught my interest?”

He smiled across the table, his amber eyes bright and said, “Am I supposed to be flattered Lorna

Quinn?”

She shook her head and for a moment her face flushed. “No.It is hard to explain Professor

DeCote but I thought you may be able to help me with a problem, a mystery in fact that

happened a long time ago in Derbyshire. On a Farm in fact, called Holly Bush Farm, where one

of my past relations vanished.”

His eyes and smile cooled and he looked bored. “Silis will do Lorna and I am not a private

detective like Sherlock Holmes or that old guy on TV, who finds fictional murder cases to work

on and always finds the killer in Oxford which is his patch as they say. As this University is in

Oxford you need someone like him.”

She let her smile drop away and looked at her hands on the table. She then shook her head and

stood up and muttered a quick thank you and walked out of view past the History books.

Silis DeCote tilted his head for a moment and sighed then resumed his reading of the past Popes

in the Vatican City. He had no need to make notes because he scanned the pages very fast and

retained the information.

He stopped suddenly as Lorna Quinn came into his head and frowned.

Silis got up and went to where he got them from and set them back on the bookshelf upside

down then went to the front desk and asked Sue who was there.

“Can I help you” she asked and smiled which Silis knew was not the real her as were the

exaggerated breasts on a think woman.

“Yes. I would like to speak to Lorna Quinn please.”

“Who?” asked the woman now long faced and wide eyed.

“Lorna Quinn. She works here?”

“Did work here. She has not worked here for five years and , well, she went missing in

Derbyshire while out walking across the dells there.”

“She mentioned a farm, Holly Farm where she crossed?”

Sue shook her head. “Don’t know anything about that Sir. All I know she went missing.”

Silis looked around him and all seemed normal but Silis knew that if it looked normal it was far

from it. Oh no. Nothing in this world is ‘normal’ because the human mindscape was far from

normal but was put across as ‘normal’.

“Do you want to take any books out sir?”

He shook his head and muttered, “No. But thanks and before you ask I am not a member. I am

too long in the tooth now. A bit of advice if you are up to taking advice?”

She looked at him as if he was a starfish sitting on the computer keyboard.

“Ok. What is it?”

“The tits. Not you dear and anyone who is anyone will know they are not real so suggest you be

yourself. That will work much better. Bye.”

She watched him walk away feeling as if she had been slapped in the face with a wet cloth and

she was also worried because he was asking questions about Lorna Quinn, who she never liked

anyway. Well, at least she moved up and got her job. Not all bad.”

Silis picked a surname he had used before,’DeCote’ as he walked through Derby City just as
dusk was falling and on the main street found what he was looking for, a men’s wear and suits.

He was changing his name and also what he was going to wear so walked in. It was half an hour

to closing time and the public were all in search for a bargain. He made his way between people

until he found suits and then checked out the Harris Tweed suits. He found one that would fit

him, picked up a shirt size 16 and a tweet tie then entered the changing room.

He stripped off fast till he was nude, placed all his dirty clothes on the suit hanger including the

old jacket then was dressed and ready to go in six minutes.

No underwear because I don’t like it and the socks and shoes I will wear, he thought as he took

the hanger and the old clothes and put them in the suit self then turned and pretended to look at

other things and as he did so, placed the security tag he had taken off the suit into an old

woman’s carrier bag unnoticed.

Once outside he was pleased it was not raining again and crossed the road and walked up the

street then stopped to look at his reflection in a deserted and empty shop. He puffed out his chest,

turned sideways smiling and then seen her right in front of him.

“Nice suit old man but the shoes don’t match. Brown shoes is what you need and I know. My dad

always wore tweed except for funerals and weddings.”

Silis sighed. “You do know you are dead and trapped in an energy bubble and why do I think you

are going to pester me until I agree to help you?”

It was a sad little girl smile that the past Lorna Quinn. “I told you I need your help because I

want to pass over to the other side, as well as you getting some sort of justice for me and also for

the police to find my bones. Also, I can tell you who the two killers are and what their names

are,and also…..”

He put up a hand and people looked at him and shook their heads as they passed him but could

not see Lorna. “Stop. Walk with me until we find a nice place to talk and not here!”
Her dead face looked blank and she muttered, “Up there, the church and a church yard.”

He looked to where the spirit was pointing then nodded. “I don’t do churches but the boneyard is

ok with me. Let's go.”

They sat under a yew tree, almost two hundred years old and planted to keep witches and evil out

and the dead in. He looked up at it then at the spirit.

“Does not work. The yew tree. Things come and go, day and night and a few will be like you,

trapped.”

Lorna nodded, “Yes. I know. They are here now walking in circles around and around seeing

nothing. Will you help me?”

“Not here but back to where your bones are hidden. But there is a condition child.”

“Like what?”

A tawny owl hooted somewhere on the other side of the churchyard and Silis smiled. “I just

heard the owl that called my name. Anyway, this place where your body was hidden by the two

brothers, Steven and Zach cannot be allowed to get away with murder so I….”

“And rape!”

“Correct. And rape, so once we get there and sort things out for you, I then need to know that

your will pay a Sgt. Dawn Coburn, either at her home or at the police station in Ashbourne and

tell her, transfer the information into her mindscape but you have to draw on names, places, and

dates.”

She looked at distant lights with a thousand yard stare. “Will you be with me/”

“Close. Very close and this Coburn woman is fair and a good copper but also as sharp as a cut

throat razor when she has to be. So do we agree on that?”

The spirit nodded. “How do we get there?”

He let out a harsh laugh. “You won’t be seen but I will so we will take a taxi from the square. As

for paying that might be a problem but I will think on that when we get there.”

“Let’s go. You sure about this Mr.. Professor…”

“Silis DeCote will do.”

She looked sideways as she walked. “Your strange Silis. You know that?”

He stopped and looked at her up and down. “Not as strange as you my dear covered in shallow

grave soil and nude.”

“So, this is the way I am in that grave?”

He walked on people looking at him as he seemed to them he was talking to himself. “How did

you find me?”

“The spirit world but it was an old Japanese spirit that helped the most. He said you were very

kind to him and wanted to help me. He said that you were the one who could do it much better.”

“Oh. I see.He’s dead then?”

“Very.”

The Taxi driver was not a happy man because he had a pick up that whispered to himself in the

back seat and had strange eyes like a Jinn back home in Pakistan and he did not want to look at

him, it, in the back seat. Indeed not so he wasted no time driving to Ashbourne and dropping the

‘Jinn’ near the police station and driving away fast, praying that he could get out of sight as fast

as he could.

Silis smiled at the departing car then pointed. “In you go, turn right and the name on the door

will read ‘Det. Sgt. Dawn Coburn.”

She stood stone faced. “I got the name, but how do I open doors?”

He frowned. “All that shit about ghosts and spirits walking through closed doors and walls is

shit. I forgot. Ok, high risk I know for you so trust me. Walk into me and stop talking till we find

her.”

“What!”

“I will take you in with me. Walk into me and don’t go babbling on till you are ready.”

Silis DeCote walked up the stairs and the automatic doors swung open and he went in passed an

unmanned desk and straight to Dawn Coburn’s door and knocked once then opened it and

walked in. She was sitting at her computer typing up a report but did not turn around till he

coughed. She turned and looked at him. “Oh my God. Silis!”

He nodded, “The same. Now before you start pressing buttons or alarms hear me out. It is about

that girl, Lorna Quinn who went missing a few years back, murdered in fact by two young

bastards and buried her in a shallow grave but not before they both raped her.”

“Silis, this is not funny.”

“No far from it. Holly Bush Farm ring a bell Sgt. Coburn?”

Dawn tried to control her breathing and then nodded. “Sit.”

He sat on the other side of her desk then she looked hard at him. “Nice suit, Harris Tweed, Derby

main street, nicked this afternoon, you came up on the shop CCTV coming and going, coming in

rags, leaving dapper. So don’t lie and don’t tell me all this shit about that missing girl.”

Silis smiled sadly. “ I don’t lie. She wants to tell you herself.”

“Where is she Silis?”

Silis grunted. “Standing by your right shoulder.”

Dawn looked quickly to her right and jumped up and knocked over the chair as she did so in

alarm as she seen the faded figure of a young nude woman soil stained. Slowly she pointed at the

spirit. “This is, was, Lorna Quinn, the girl that went missing?”

Silis smiled and nodded. “The same. She has things to tell you and if you agree to look into it she

will fade away and leave. If not, you may well see her on a daily or nightly basis, anytime, any

places. So you will excuse me Dawn I have already heard all the gory details so I wait outside

while she has a chat with you.

Not by voice but by sending you voice messages that your brain will pick up.”

“Silis. You can’t leave me here with a...that!”

“That, used to be a very nice human being and there are not many of them today.”

Dawn Coburn’s eyes went wild and she was shaking. She picked up the chair, sat in it and not

taking her eyes off the spirit in front of her asked in a feeble voice,

“Why has she no legs showing now when she had when she first came in.”

Silis shrugged, “She will be able to confer that to you I am sure. See you around kid.”

“You can’t….”

“I can. Be kind to her Dawn.Bye.”

He moved fast, opened the door, closed it and was gone.

The gentle voice came into her head. “Dawn is a nice name. Shall we start as I am slowly fading

away. I suggest you treat what I am conveying to you is true then hope you will act on it, starting

today.”

Silis took his ear away from the door, smiled at the man at reception and said, “Sgt Coburn said

to tell you in passing, that she needs at least half an hour and has no wish to be disturbed by you
or the top brass should they ever get off their backsides. Before you ask, she is dealing with a

witness to an unexplained death in this area, the victim's name is Lorna Quinn and you will get

brownie points if you get her file ready for Sgt. Coburn. Bye and good day.”

The young police officers mouth dropped open as the old man in tweeds went fast through the

door and was lost from sight.

THE DARK SIDE OF SILIS DeCOTE.

He stood in shadow of the large shed where the two brothers were working under the bonnet of a

car. He could see their reflections, their dancing shadows and hear their foul language vibration

around the shed. Then his chance came and he glided towards where they were, heads under the

bonnet of the green car.

It was not hard for Silis to slam down the bonnet then sit on it and he heard the two young men

protest in anger. That anger would soon change to raw fear before he left them here. They

stopped trying to get from underneath the bonnet and the older brother shouted. “You are in big

trouble when we get out of here asshole!”

Silis laughed harshly. “Me.I don’t think so gentlemen. Guess what I have in my little grubby

hand?”

The younger one laughed. “Your dick!”

“No. A nice red tin of petrol, half full I think so let's get started. As your legs are sticking out I

will just pour a little over all four of them so you will feel the coolness first and the smell second.

Then we can chat.”

He undid the lid and dropped it then poured half of the tin over the back of their legs and again

they tried to get out from underneath the car bonnet. One of them was screaming and Silis

grunted. “Not on fire yet stupid so shut up and listen and believe me when I say this, it is getting

close to barbeque time and well done meat at that.”

“Your mad whoever you are and a right evil bastard to boot!”

The laughter was harsh from Silis, almost a loud cackle.”Dear me, not mad boys but evil yes.

You got that right sweetheart but not as evil as you two when you raped that young girl a few

years back them murdered her and buried her in that wood. Remember Lorna?”

Everything went quiet except for the dripping of a tap somewhere.The older brother coughed.

“What do you want from us?”

“A full confession from you both then if you're good you can pray. Failing even a start to this

confession, it of course must be made of your own free will, then I will be singing Johnny Cash’s

‘Ring Of Fire’ and you both can join in with screams. So what is to be?”

There was a long silence then, “It was an accident. We did not mean to hurt or kill her. It just

went out of hand, we had too much to drink.”

The younger brother joined in, “Please. Don’t hurt us. We will go to the police with you. Please!”

Silis sighed, “Police are on their way in fact, lights of blue in the night and I can see them in the

lane. Slow moving and no fire engine with them. Oh,dear, never mind. Now you buried her on

your father’s farm I believe?”

Silence.
“Well did you!”, Silis snapped and in anger.

“Yes, yes, we buried her. Holly wood near the pond.”

“Good. Both of you took turns to rape the young woman?”

“Yes damn you.”

“You must be the older brother?”

A hissed, “Yes,”

Silis waited and counted fast to twenty. “Someone here to meet you.”

“Who?

“The police?”

Silis laughed. “She can’t see you so is going to stick her head under the bonnet and if you have a

torch or a lighter could put it on. Oh, and I have your confession on her phone, recorded of

course.”

They could hear the noise and turned their heads sideways then screamed when they could also

smell the remains of Lorna Quinn and the younger brother snapped the wheel on the lighter as

Silis placed the phone of the older brother on the floor next the door and then stood in the deep

shadows of the building.

THEY SEEK ME HERE, THEY SEEK ME THERE,

AND NO SIGN OF SILIS ANYWHERE.

The six man team walked in, spread out, rifles and attached torches pointing at the two sets of

legs of the brothers and then Sgt. Dawn Coburn walked in with DC Amid Hussain beside her.
Her toe touched the mobile phone and she bent down and picked it up. It was still recording. She

almost smiled and thought, You crafty old bugger you got them dead to rites.

The leader shouted at the two brothers come out, hands behind your heads and lie down legs

spread!”

They pushed the bonnet up and did what they were told and the armed police quickly cuffed and

then searched them. Dawn walked forward and looked down at the wet trouser legs of the two

men and grunted. “Having a bath boys?”

The younger one spluttered, “It’s petrol not water!”

Dawn smiled, picked up the red can, sniffed at it and could not smell petrol, then took out her

lighter and lit it holding it close to the can. “Water, nothing but tap water but not petrol”

She then turned on the phone recorder and everyone listened. A full confession without the voice

or input of Silis. She turned it off then said in her official voice,” I am arresting you both on

suspicion of the murder and rape of one Lorna Quinn. You have the right to remain silent

but…..”

Silis nodded to himself in the darkness then slipped away across the fields and into Holly Wood.

He stood at the iron gate and when she came she was smiling.

“Thank you Silis, Now I can cross over.”

“Justice will be done, amen Lorna. Good luck out there.”

He watched as she faded away and he turned and walked towards a hedge and through a gap onto

a narrow track whistling to himself.

The two arrested men were put in cars, one in each and everyone drove off except Dawn and

Amid. She lit a cigarette and sucked in smoke deeply then blew it out slowly above her head and
listening to someone whistling a sad tune that she was unable to put a name to, somewhere out in

the darkness, then shivered.

Amid finished peeing in a bush then came over. “So, you going to tell me boss who your

informant was.”

“Sure, but not his real name, The Scarlet Pimpernel , Amid and a young woman who, well, was

very helpful.”

Amid smiled looking at a bright planet in the east. “And the old man, Silis.”

She smiled again. “What old man?”

Amid threw his hands up in the air. “Silis what do you call him, the old guy standing nude in the

car park and who I now suspect was the clown in my garden that night, then at the hospital, and

who recorded the conversation and confession?”

She started to walk to her car with Amid trailing behind her still talking to her back and he was

out of breath by the time they climbed into the car.

When they closed the doors and belted up, Dawn Coburn turned to Amid.

“In answer to your Questions Amid, I don’t have any evidence on any of that and I deal with the

facts and not maybe, or suggest a possibility. As for the man in the tweed suit, which was nicked,

that was Silis and maybe someday I will have to arrest him for that. You did not see Silis in the

barn did you?”

“No. Not a sign but who knows, maybe there is such a thing as ghosts and spirits, boggy men and

women, who drift around, lost souls if you like some helpful, some downright scary and one or

two pure evil.”

Amid was sitting now with arms across his chest huffing. “My religion does not believe in such
things Dawn.There is nothing in the Koran about ghosts.”

“But like all religious groups Amid, the is always a whiff or suggestion of the paranormal and if

they believe in a god or great prophet then who knows what is out there or around us day or

night.”

Amid looked out into the inky darkness and shivered. “He’s out there. I know it!”

Dawn nodded. “Could be more than one.”

ROMINIA,

Woodsmoke drifted into the still cold air above the small hamlet and the first crows were calling.

Also in the distance there were other sounds, a rooster calling in the new dawn, a dog barking at

a moon sliding into the west and lost in gathering thunder clouds, the single bell tolls of a church

somewhere, though Silis DeCote could not see it in the haze.He was dressed as a Franciscan

Brother, in brown, a white cord tied around his waist and a small bag slung over a shoulder, a

staff of ashwood in right hand. He took the track from the woods down into the village and stood

in the square. People and dogs stopped to look at him but he met their eyes and they looked

away. A few made the sign of the cross at speed as they headed towards the small church and he

followed at a distance. No surprise there, he thought. A funeral. Oh Glory be.

A black car came up behind him, splashed water from a road puddle then stopped and a man

stuck his head and shouted. “Do you need a lift?”

Silis smiled then nodded. “Thank you. You're most kind.”

The man smelt of tobacco and garlic and had a pockmarked face. Silis could speak thirty one

world languages.The man could be no more than thirty and yet for a young man he was somber.

“We have a problem with the funeral Father.”

“No, no. I am only a Brother, not a priest my son. What is the problem?”

He nodded at the church in the distance. “The funeral.Our parish priest died four days ago and I

had to go looking for a priest. Could not get one and the few I spoke to, would not come here. So

we have a church, a body, the grave dug and no priest to take the mass. I am the Mayor, Julius

Mazo at your service.”

“Brother Silis.”

“Yes. I understand. But you know the Mass for the dead don’t you?”

Silis let out a grunt and nodded. “Yes. But only in Latin”

The young man blessed himself. “That will do just as long as we get it soon and over with, the

Good Father buried before nightfall. Thank you Brother.”

Silis grunted and spat out the window, his eyes drifting over people and things, and a few spirits

with no shadows but then, ghosts or spirits do not have shadows. He almost smiled at that then

his thoughts went to the dead priest inside the crumbling church that matched the crumbling

religions world wide.

The man beside him did not speed now and was stone faced then Silis, looking straight ahead,

asked, “This priest, how did he die?”

The man glanced at him then looked ahead, “It matters little just that he is dead.”

“Stop the car!”

The car stopped and Silis stepped out, dust floating around him and looked in at the driver. “I’ll

walk from here.”

“But you will be late. Most of the people are already in there Brother. Waiting.”

“Then tell them to wait as the dead man is in no rush to go anywhere is he now?”
The driver nodded curtly and Silis stood waiting for him to drive off and then he seen the shadow

close beside him. He never looked at the old gipsy woman but said out of the side of his mouth.

“Mother. Tell me how the dead priest died and why?”

She cackled then said in a rasping voice. “Bad man, bad priest, hurt children for many years and

I was asked to put a black curse on him. This I did and he died!”

“How?”

He heard the gurgling sounds coming from the old woman on his right, then she spat on the

ground.”He was found in the river, in a pool, a dark deep pool,not floating but just there,

between the surface and the stony bottom, between heaven and hell Monk. If you don’t do the

prayers, he will be buried without them, then, he will come back here, to terrorise the living.”

Slowly he turned and looked down at the dwarf of a woman, her dark eyes showing fear, her face

like an old faded map but she knew, looking at his eyes, those amber eyes, that he was not

human.

“Get the people to bury him one hour before sunset, no more or no less, and you know what must

be done Mother. In God’s or the Devil's name matters not just as long as my instructions are

carried out to the full!”

She nodded, looked at the ground and took two steps back from this man, or whatever he was.

Then she crossed herself and turned her back on him waiting for him to walk away muttering

dusty prayers that to her, did not seem to mean anything anymore or give comfort.

At the end of the street, he headed into deep forests eastwards and kept on walking till dawn the

next day when the children of the night stopped howling at the tired moon that was hidden by

massive pine trees.

Silis was neither, tired, hungry or thirsty as he washed his hands and face in a mountain stream,
to small to be a river, but the sound of clean water singing in the dawn made him feel better. He

then sat still on a rock facing the rising sun, eyes closed and for a short time, switched off his

mindscape. He craved for innocence and peace as he closed down, his last dark thought being,

that will never happen even when the earth dies and only the rocks remain.

An hour passed and the sound of birds singing was shattered by a chainsaw starting up less than

fifty metres away on the left of the forest track. Silis could see two men, one cutting down a large

larch tree and he stood up and walked towards them at a fast pace, his eyes blazing and jaw set.

The man behind the other shouted something and the other switched the saw off and both stood

with hands on hips watching the brown clad figure walking towards them with purpose.

“Good morning to you good priest”, the fat one who worked the saw, the younger one looking

like has son who had a toothless smile.

“I am not a priest”, snapped back Silis, his face close to that of the two men then added, “What

the fuck do you think you both are doing?”

For a moment they were both shocked that a man of the cloth and could speak their language

could swear like a serf.

“You blind priest as well as deaf”

“Dad!”

“Shut up!”, shouted the old man and pointed at the half cut through larch. “Tree, chainsaw, cut

down for firewood fool. None of your business so go”

The son did not like the look in the now bright amber eyes and he liked it even less when Silas's

face changed from human to what he really was.

“Oh sweet Jesus!”

Silis pushed the old man aside and picked up the chainsaw and with one pull of the cord, it

sprang into life and he walked back to the two men. Before they could run he went in close and

blood and flesh mixed with shattered bone splinters went high into the air. Within a few seconds

the heads were lying on the forest floor, the mouths opening and slowly closing like two dying

fish on a river bank.

He switched off the saw, wiped his face clear of blood and threw the saw high into the air and it

landed in a thick bramble patch.

He stood there in the morning sun, then stripped off all of his blood stained clothes and hung

them on a dead branch. At the stream he lay down in the water and let it flow over a thin body, a

smile on his face thinking he must do something with his anger.

Later he felt free, free of footwear and clothes and started off at a slow pace then building up

speed until he was a blur in the forest and his laugh echoed around the tree tops. But the birds

fell silent again as he passed.

He stopped at the edge of the forest looking across sunshine and shadow on the farm landscapes,

and in the distance he could see a busy road, flashes of bright light from fast moving cars and

lorries.

Now all I need is a body, with a brain, and well dressed. His amber eyes picked up a stop over

cafe and fuel pumps and he smiled. That will do but not in the nude, he thought. God will

provide. He laughed at his own joke and could see washing hanging out on a line in a farm and a

woman hanging out more on another washline. He started to run fast, clearing a hedge in one

leap, vaulted a

gate and ran as a blur towards the blowing clothes, his eyes seeking things to wear but he did not

have time to stop and choose, so he ran past the woman, grabbed all he could and ran on across

the fields towards the road.

The woman felt rather than seen the movement, the dog in the yard whimpered and ran back to

the farmhouse, and the woman fainted on the spot when she watched a whole line of washing

disappearing with a nude male.

He sat in cover sorting out what he grabbed and grunted then muttered in a low voice. “Great.

One pair of pants, short in the leg, a woman’s shirt, a woman's wool jumper, one large pair of

blue overalls, sex unknown, two pairs of wool socks and a skirt!”

By the time he got to the road cafe, the socks were damp from morning dew, the jumper sagged,

and the overalls he had turned up. He stood and looked around him at trucks and a few cars that

sat in lines. He went to the back of the cafe and could see bins, a brush, a bowl of water, and a

pair of old wellingtons that had seen better days. He slipped on the boots, at least they fitted, he

thought, washing his face in the dog bowl of water. It smelt and tasted of dog as well as being

stale and as he wiped his face dry with the bottom of the jumper, he now considered his next

move.

Slowly he walked across the car park, checking the lorry’s and where they may be going or

coming from. Two to France it seemed, one from Italy, one going to the UK and was British. He

scratched his head and looked up as a large woman came out of the cafe, smoking. She had dyed

blonde hair,a round face, and waddled rather than walked, heading directly towards a red car,

cradling a small dog that looked to like a rat in her arms. Over her shoulder hung a bag that hung

down to her waist.

“Lard on legs but no choice”, muttered Silis and walked into her, the dog snapping at the woman

as he did so, then jumped out of her arms and ran full tilt back towards the cafe. It never made it,

as a ten wheeler came into the car park at speed and ran over it. The woman however opened the

car, got in and shivered then started up the car and drove off at speed.

Silis sent her a mind scape message, ‘Rome please and stop only for fuel.’
 THE SPIRES IN THE MIST.

Not funny, thought Silis De Cote, like seeing those spires in the early dawn in the Vatican City

right now when I know what I know, see and hear what I know and yet the fools think I am the

Antichrist, talk about the Antichrist as if they were talking about a good or bad Italian wine over

dinner. Silis looked at his reflection in the cafe window, still closed and smiled at his reflection.

Haircut, beard trimmed, and the stolen uniform of a common priest who was not careful where

he left it in the morning bath house. Stupid boy!

He walked to the gates where a Swiss Guard stood, hand out for his id. He thrust it into the tall

man’s hand. “Father Patrick Murray at your service. Do you know where I could get bed and

breakfast for a few days in the City?”

For a moment the guard looked confused and shrugged.

“Right I got the message. I speak now in Italian.”

He rattled off in Italian fast and the man’s face brightened. He pointed down a long avenue and

smiled then give him instructions and warned him that he must also get a pass before entering the

Vatican itself. Silas nodded and smiled then took his ID and walked away whistling , ‘How much

is that dog in the window.’

He had no regrets about the fat woman and her dead dog back in the cafe car park many

hundreds of miles away. After all I did get her another dog before I left her body, in the back seat.

I am no vet, but that dog looked sick and was more wolf than dog but I have to admit, though it

slobbered through its teeth, it was once a beautiful creature and like I said, I am no vet but I

should have paid more attention through her eyes of the signs warning of rabies and wildlife. Of
course when I came out of her body and walked away towards the Bath House I did hear her

screaming, then other people screaming and I darted in out of view.

Silis DeCote walked towards the steam and the low muffled voices then could see human figures

bathing. Not for me, he thought and went into the first cubicle he came to and closed the door

over.

Father Patrick Murray stood and looked at the seat in the cubicle of the bath-house, his bright

blue eyes wide in shock for not only was his clothes gone but his shoes, socks and ID. The only

thing left was his passport and his wallet.

He now frowned. “What sort of a man or woman take my clothes and the rest and not my wallet

or passport?”, he muttered picking up the wallet and opening it.

He counted the notes and change. “Well at least I can get a taxi”, looking down his body then

muttered, “But not without something to cover my balls and arse!”

The attendant came rushing up, his hands fluttering and face red. “I have looked here and there,

everywhere. No man, no one wearing your clothes. For this I am sorry. Can I do anything to help

Father?”

Father Murray exhaled, “Yes, a large towel, not used and not the size of table napkin. I know you

can hear and understand English my friend so hear this, if I don’t have that large towel and a taxi

ordered to take me home, the hotel, I may have to kill you and it will be a slow death by

drowning.”

“Yes Father. I am on it!”

“Good. Chop, chop, hurry. I have a meeting!”

Murray rolled his eyes as the man went off and sat on the bench then looked at his watch and

swore. Oh shit. I have thirty five minutes before the interview, he thought. A job in the Vatican

City, a keeper of documents and an important one as well as a small flat in the city paid for by

the Church. A much needed job since he was removed from his parish in Galway for using

church money for gambling. The changeover was quick and the police not involved and he was

taken to Dublin airport with two of his bags and dumped.

Now he wandered like a cloud with a real possibility of a thunderstorm in the big house if he did

not get the job.

He was handed his air ticket one way and given a hotel number and address to go to where this

morning an interview would take place in the hotel there for a pen pusher in the archives

department of the Vatican itself. No temptations there, no gambling, drinking or women. A living

Limbo, he thought and screwed us his face in anger.

The attendant came back with a large pink towel and a vest that was more grey in colour than

white. He sniffed the towel and could smell its freshness but the vest had sweat stains on it and

did smell. He wrapped the towel around him and said in a loud voice, “And the taxi?”

“Will be there now father when you get outside. Sorry about your shoes.”

Father Murray glared at the small man who was sweating badly. “May all your children thrive

and your wife has boils. May you dear man, get the shits daily for a week and you pee blood!”

His mouth fell open. “You put a Church curse on me?”

“No stupid. An Irish curse and much worse. Get out of my way!”

Silis waited to just past midnight in the shadows carrying a small brown suitcase and slipped

through the shadows of the Vatican aware that the cameras were on but then a priest would be
normal there, depending on your holy grading. He had a mental map of the lay out and took the

stairs down to a long hall with doors on each numbered and named in Latin. He found the one he

wanted and smiled when he could see that the door had a combo lock on it and was fully

protected by a digital numbers also in latin.

“Tut, tut”, he whispered and bent down looking closely at the lock. “Smooth, shining, bright as a

star so soon I will know where you are” he whispered turning the dial four to the right, three to

the left and then let it rest on zero and pulled the heavy door open and and walked into the vault.

The lights came on and he pulled the door almost closed.

He stood, closed his mind for a moment then opened his eyes fast and walked down the narrow

walkways till he found where the book was. Taking it out he glanced at it, grunted and placed it

in the small case. No alarms, no blinking cameras and he closed the door over, spun the dial and

walked quickly the way he had come and back out into the night.

Somewhere over the Vatican City five bells chimed the half hour and Father Silis DeCote had to

become a nobody again, he thought as he entered the lobby of the DeVala Hotel and sat down. It

was packed with people coming and going, rich woman with even richer men and what sparkled

on their fingers and around their necks was not glass. He picked his target carefully, a leggy

blond who had seen better days but still had that aloft beauty and high cheekbones, bright blue

eyes and a smile that lit up a room. She caught his eyes and a smile crossed her lips and she came

over and sat down beside him. “Now let me see kind priest, you either need a room with a view,

food or your here to save souls.”

He smiled and nodded, “Father Silis DeCote at your service.”

She held out her hand, slender fingers touching his and he knew she was alive and not a ‘visitor’.

“A bit of both but I have eaten. Are you on holiday?”

She shook her long blond well kept hair and then frowned. “Sadly not. I lost my son Paul three
weeks ago in Munich. Sudden, a stroke he fell over and died.I am waiting on the full autopsy

report but they released the body for burial. That was Friday past.Oh sorry I don’t know why I

am blurting this out to you. I am Vera Hoffman, widow, and now childless. owner of two faction

design companies in Munich and one in Paris, ‘Hoffman’s designs’ and doing well I guess.

Would give it all away if I could get Alex back but that will not happen. Not ever.”

Silis raised a bushy eyebrow and shook his head. “Not his body of course, but he is still here in

spirit of course and this was one of his places to come when he was happy.”

Silis knew she was not lying or pretending and that got her ten points score in his mind book.

She had enough pain without him adding to it. So make her childlike and happy again without

her knowing it, he thought.

Her sad smile was not a stage smile. “How did you know, about him coming here. How odd is

that?”

He smiled back. “Guess, Vera Hoffman, I am having one of my better nights and picking up the

good thoughts and sad things in people, like you. He used to come here to meet with a girl called

Maria, her second name I don’t know but she had a child, a girl who he and she called

‘Alexander. You are her grandmother and mother and child live in Munich, an apartment which

you paid for a year ago. I know you are hurting, I know you love the mother and child but you

are also frightened that you will lose them too, so you back off a little. You don’t want or need

anymore pain Vera but if you don’t have some loving pain from those two, then you my dear,

will always miss out.”

Her blue eyes went wide, tears gathering in the corners, ready to spill over.

“Oh my God, who are you, how do you know these things and right now I am frightened of

you?”

Slowly he stood up and extended his hand and she shook it trembling.
“You have no reason to be frightened of me Vera for I will do you or your family no harm. I bid

you goodnight, or maybe good morning. It has been nice to meet a nice human being.”

He shuffled out of the hotel and was starting to go down the steps when he heard a breathless

voice behind him. “Please. Wait!”

Silis slowly turned, his face now sad and looked at her then waited.

“Do you have somewhere to stay tonight?”

“Not yet.”

LET THERE BE LIGHT,AND THERE WAS.

Of course, in his hotel room at the hour of the Wolf, 04.00am, Silis did not sleep but he was glad

of the open space to rest his mind. Alone he sat in darkness and looked out over the Vatican City

but it meant nothing to him. Vera had booked him a single room under his name of Silis

DeCote,looked him up and down, noting his height and build, then at his shoes, nodded then left

him standing puzzled. What surprised him even more, and he was not often surprised, was as she

left she switched off the lights and closed the door shut.

He sat, amber eyes open but now seeing or hearing nothing and his brain or mind just ticked over

as he rested. But not at speed. Just ticking, slowly, imparcial to life or death and in his case,

blank.

Vera Hoffman tossed and turned in her bed alone and twice she had vivid dreams waking up with

a cold shudder and yet sweating. Now she was awake with a low sun in her eyes and just lay

there thinking about Silis in a room down the hall. The fear of him was gone but she knew
whatever he was or in his case is now, he would not harm her or steal from her. But what to do

with such an old strange man now, she thought. He does not eat or drink, and the thought of

suggesting a shower for him would not go down well but she was glad she had ordered him a

Tweed Suit, shirt and brown shoes and two pairs of socks. She had added a black wool overcoat

and a large black hat, matched with black gloves then smiled. I would love to be a fly on the wall

when he got a knock on the hotel door and someone handed him the three parcels and asked him

to sign for them, she thought and now almost chuckled, something she had not done in a long

time.

“What if he….?”

When the door knocked three time she jumped. Getting out of bed nude, she grabbed a hotel

bathrobe and went to the door, looked through the spy hole and grunted then turned the lock and

let Silis in.

He rubbed her hair as he passed her and sat in the one and only chair without being asked.

She closed the door, folded her arms across her chest and frowned at him.

“You do know Silis it is just dawn?”

He smiled a little boy smile and held up a finger. “The new day is born, my Lady, so let us not

waste it. You need breakfast and while you are doing that I will go back to my room while you

eat. Oh, and I must say the robe does not hide you beauty.”

She glanced down, and blushed and covered her left breast up, feeling flustered then pulled her

thoughts together. “Is that all old man?”

His smile vanished and for a moment there was what she took to be a flash of anger then

replaced with a smile. “Yes, I am leaving afterwards.”

She could not hide the shock at that remark and shook her head, “Leaving. No you can’t leave.
Not now!”

He looked grim for a moment then nodded. “Can and am still looking like a priest and have to

act like one and I hate that. Sorry. I have to go.”

Play it right Vera. Bait him and see what he does then, she thought. “Not before you get your

presents which should arrive soon. So give it another day Silis and if you like come to Munich

with me, a holiday if you like and I have had enough of Rome.”

He held up a bony finger like a school teacher of old would do. “My dear young woman, your

offer is kind but alas you have forgot one thing. Like a passport?”

She smiled. “Knowing you that won’t stop you will it?”

He scowled at her. “It is very complicated Vera. I am not what you think I am. I trust you and I

like you but...well it’s just not right for you or me.”

She threw up her arms in frustration. “Tell me so old man what the hell is so complicated about

the offer I just made. It’s not that I want you as my lover, a husband, a one night stand, that sort

of thing. God in heaven get through to him!”

He smiled broadly, that annoying smile he could give when he was amused by something.

She was about to answer when the room phone went. She picked up and muttered, “Hello. Mrs

Hoffman here.”

She turned away from Silas and said, “Ok. I have got that. Someone to see me, a woman and a

man with parcels for Father DeCote. Give me five minutes till I dress and Father DeCote will be

back in his room. I mean he will be in his room. Thank you.”

She set the phone down gently and looked at Silis. “Your presents are on the way up so you

better go back to your room while I dress and go down and see a visitor. If you feel you must
rush off I will understand and you can go down the fire stairs that will take you out into the car

park then the main street and Metro.”

At that, she turned on her heels and went into the bathroom and slammed the door behind her

with a bang.

When Vera Hoffman came out of the bathroom, hair damp and wearing a flowery dress Silis was

gone. “Ungrateful old bugger!”

Down in the lounge there was a young woman in the corner at a table drinking coffee and when

she went to the desk and asked about her so called visitor the man pointed at the young woman.

“Thank you.”

She walked over and stood at the table and the woman looked up. “My name is Vera Hoffman, so

how can I help you Miss…..?”

The woman give a shy smile and held out her hand. “Dawn. Dawn Coburn. I am on holiday for a

week. Gardening duty from my job but I may pack it all in and go private. Detective CID now

unemployed, maybe. It all depends on my Uncle Silis.”

Vera bit her lip then sat down. “He is your Uncle. In that case you will know his second name?”

“DeCote.”

“Old or Young?”

“Old and grumpy at times, amber eyes and a beard. Does not eat or drink, and it was by accident

that I spotted you and him coming in here last night late so I thought I would give him a call. See

how he is and what he has been up to”, looking Vera up and down then looked into her eyes. “He

has not caused any trouble since he has been here?”

Vera shook her head. “None at all. A perfect gentleman and I can tell he has breeding and not just

a slouch. He has no money, no passport and is more than interesting to be with.”

I’ll bet he is, thought Dawn Coburn, ‘interesting’ is an understatement.

“I noticed him last night dressed as a priest?”

“True. Fancy dress party. That is how we met. Then he came here with me and I got him a room.

He did not want to stay of course but I insisted. Now that you're here, you can meet him. Come

on Dawn, he won’t bite.”

Dawn stood and thought, I would not bet on that Miss. He can bite.

When they stepped out of the lift, they almost bumped into Silis who was now dressed in his

new tweed suit, wearing a black hat and carrying a thick black wool coat over his right arm.

Dawn moved fast and hugged him, “Uncle Silis! Great to see you again”, and kissed him on the

cheek then whispered in his ear, “Relax I’m not a cop anymore.”

He gently untangled himself and forced a smile. “Dawn. How nice to see you again. A surprise.”

“She is on holiday, for a week”, said Vera smiling with her eyes as well as her lips.

Silis nodded. “That’s nice.”

“I love the new gear Uncle Silis. You look dapper.”

“Vera bought it for me, hat coat and suit. I was just going for a walk.”

Vera laughed, “Why don’t you take your Uncle Silis to his room and catch up while I check my

emails and things?”

She took Silis DeCote by the arm and nodded to Vera. “Thank you for looking after him. He

won’t admit it but at times he tends to wander off. So let’s go big man.”
Silis rolled his eyes, kissed Vera on the cheek and walked back to his room with Vera chuckling

in the background.

In the room, Dawn locked the door and went to the rooms drink cabinet, took out two miniature

whiskeys and poured them into a glass then took a large sip and smacked her lips then sat on the

bed and looked up at the old man.

“So detective Dawn Coburn what brings you here?”

She smiled, “Ex detective Silis, They put me on gardening leave and I decided on a holiday here

in Rome, and no, I did not follow you, I have no powers of arrest anymore, nor want them, but

now that I’m here we need to talk.”

Silis took off the hat and tossed it on the bed then the coat and stood looking down at Dawn and

muttered, “Where do you do your gardening?”

For a moment she looked blank then laughed. “No, it is just a saying when people want rid of

you to give them time to find a way to pay you off or sack you.”

“Oh,right. I think I have got that. So your visit is not official then?”

Her eyes went ice cold. “No but I still need answers and blue eyes next door has no idea what

she would be getting into but I bet she is wondering what the hell she made friends with an old

git like you for. On top of that she sweats real money. I noticed the glass.”

DeCote sat on the bed and sighed. “Know what Dawn?”

She drained her glass then nursed it in her hand, “Everything about you, who you really are, what

you are, where you came from and so on. When I first met you I thought you were just a mouldy

old man, a bum, homeless beggar and now I know you are much more than that. When you left
the UK you caused a lot of problems, but you also did some good things like getting the bad guys

though for the moment I don’t agree with your methods, that is not to say, that for the moment,

some sort of justice was melted out. Then we solved a number of child murders thanks to you

with the tip off’s and recovered remains but because I was getting results, the top brass wanted to

know my informant sources which I refused to do. You remember Amid?”

He nodded. “Good boy that, kind, has compassion and bright.”

She took a deep breath. “Well they leaned hard on him big time, threatening him with the sack if

he did not sing the tune they wanted. Has a young wife, a mortgage and he sang like a coal

miner's canary, trying to protect me into the bargain. He told them all he knew about you and

guess what? They did not believe his paranormal ghost story so he is selling books now in a

bookshop.”

Silis smiled. “I told you he was bright and he will still shine so don’t worry. I, strange enough

admire him and of course you. However, to know all about me would require a few million years

of your time, something you don’t have and you will die in your sleep when you are eighty

seven. I will be with you.”

“Gee, that’s nice Silis. At least I am going to get old and not die from a stroke or cancer.”

He laughed, “No, you will die without any pain in your sleep as your heart stops. At the hour of

the wolf. Now, for the moment I will keep me from you until I give it some thought but in the

meantime, your talents would be better used getting justice for dead children and others by

setting up your own detective business. Suggest you give it a name, maybe like the Phoenix

Detective Agency and Investigations. You don’t do possible divorce cases or recover a Company

bad Debt as that is well below your station. You go for child killers and abusers and Vera

Hoffman would think it a great idea and bank your project.”

Dawn got up and poured more whiskey into her glass then sat down again.
“You are well and truly mad Silis DeCote but it gives me food for thought. So how come you

think that a woman I have never met before would want in?”

He stood up, bowed and then smiled. “I know. I paid her a visit twice last night. She had two

dreams, vivid dreams and those dreams were, one, do something useful with her money and two,

help those that cannot help themselves. Right, I am off to Munich so when you see her, talk with

her and I will see you both in Munich.”

“Me in Munich.”

“Think on it. Bye.”

“Wait!”

THE MUNICH PROJECT.

There was a light snow, enough to powder the black hat and shoulders standing in the shadows of

the night. He stood, amber eyes bright and very alert, his nose twitched and his ears picking up

vast amounts of information that was processed in seconds.

His eyes moved up the tall hospital building and stopped at the seventh floor. Bright light came

from the ward windows and even from this distance he could see a nurse now and then moving

back and forth. He ran his plan through his head again and fast.
Mortuary car park, through side door that led visitors to the Chapel Of Rest, past it and through

the door that lead to the wards lift. Press ‘7’ and up. Walk out, go to the nurses station and

request to spend a few moments with the child Helena Kuph, aged eleven and leave her a

present. Do what has to be done, nod at the nurses as he left and back into the lift and by the time

he was on the ground floor the patients alarms would start to go off, nurses and doctors all

running to the side ward where the child was. He smiled at that thought and then walked out into

the light carrying a small leather bag and through the tunnel that took him to the hospital

grounds.

The nurse at the desk was overweight and a face like a British Bulldog, ice cold eyes that has

their colour washed out and as far as Silis was concerned she had as much personality as a

polecat.

He asked in Hebrew about him wanting to give the blessing to the little girl who was still in a

coma, an induced one and that it was his duty pray over her as he was a Rabbi DeCote.

She sighed and said first in German then in English, “I have no understanding of Hebrew so what

can I do for you Sir running her eyes over his black hat and coat.

He looked over the glasses he had stolen and smiled and repeated his request.

She nodded at the bag on the counter. “What is in the bag?”

He opened the brown bag and fished out a toy grey rabbit and held it upside down so that she

could see there was nothing else there. “Leave the bag, take the student nurse with you. Lisa,

take this...gentlemen to see the patient, the girl in the sideward on her own and stay with him till

he is finished whatever he has to do. You are not to leave him alone in that room.”

Dark hair in a ponytail, thin and leggy she nodded and he followed her to the room. She closed

the door behind her, checked the patient's stats and then stood with her back to the door.
Silis took it off his hat and laid it on one of the two seats beside the bed and started some prayed

in Hebrew, bowing now and then over the little girl. Five minutes of this was enough, so he

reached out and felt the cold forehead then bent over as whispered in her ear. Then he picked up

his hat and set the rabbit toy beside her and went back to the desk followed by the nurse to

collect his bag. Bed buzzers started going off all across the wards and he went to the lift and

pressed ‘G’ and smiled. “Another worthwhile good done.”

Two nurses ran to the girl’s room and stopped in shock then one ran back to fetch a doctor. The

other nurse moved to the bed and could see blood dripping of the girls fingers and slowly

dripping to the floor. What shocked her more was the child was sitting up hugging the toy rabbit

unaware of all the panic around her.

Dr Olga Ruger came in and looked at the machines around the bed and muttered loudly, “This

cannot be happening. Her heart is now normal, her brain is working almost normal and she is

aware of the toy. How. She was in a coma, almost brain dead and now this?”

The young nurse who had let Silis into the room coughed lightly to get the doctor's attention. Dr

Ruger looked up and at the nurse. “What!”

The man in the black hat and coat came to say prayers and when he finished I noticed he bent

over and kissed her on the ear and he whispered something then left. Then all the alarms went off

around the ward doctor.”

Except for the girl now singing softly the room fell silent. Dr Ruger’s face twisted in anger.

“This man. Who the fuck was he nurse?”

The young woman swallowed twice before answering. “ A Holy Man I think, a Rabbi.”

“Oh sweet Jesus on a crutch. Did you not check her notes on what religion she is listed as?”

“I did not have time I was just to escort the man here and stay with him. Which I did and never
left the room.”

Ruger held her head for a moment then looked at the nurse. “She is a Catholic stupid!”

The nurse shrugged and smiled, “Must have done something right I guess and God was

listening.”

“Leave now. Go and rattle bedpans or something. Get out. The rest of you get her back into bed

with that damn rabbit and then and only then will I examine the child.”

The child turned her head and looked at everyone in the room one by one then smiled,

“He was an angel a nice angel and he brought me rabbit, Is Mamma coming to see me now?”

“Yes, yes of course. Can someone go and ring the parent now please,and you young lady need to

get back in that bed. I have to reconnect you so we know how you're doing.

Did you pull the catheter , the needle out of your arm out or did the nice man , the angel do it?”

She smiled a long smile, her amber eyes bright with happiness and said, “No I did it.”

Dr Ruger walked over to the girl and whispered, “I am going to shine a little light into your eyes,

it won’t hurt. I promise.”

“Ok.”

She took a deep breath and looked into the young girl’s eyes and as she did so, they turned back

to their normal colour, bright blue. “Ok, follow my finger. Good. Now the other eye, Great.”

She addressed the nurses in the room. “Her stats are normal, her temperature is one degree above

normal when before it was at a very low ebb two hours ago. So what you seen and heard here

stays here because if the press get hold of this than I will know who to blame. Got that?”

The three nurses nodded but the bulldog faced one put up her hand. “I trust my staff doctor but
don’t you ever when you are on my ward, put any of my nurses down, or I will make a formal

complaint against you. You won’t want that.”

Dr Ruger went red faced and went on to examine the young girl but she also had to examine the

toy rabbit first, a little demand from the child.

No one laughed and they left the room.

Dawn Coburn looked out at the falling snow in the night and turned towards the blond woman on

the sofa looking at TV. “It is almost a week now and he is still not here and I’ll bet he has done a

runner and won’t turn up like he told me.”

Vera laughed and held up a German newspaper. “I think you are wrong Dawn, This could be no

one else Dawn and he made the front page with a fuzzy CCTV shot. Look!”

Dawn Coburn snatched the newspaper off Vera then waved it in the air. “The photograph is him

but the rest is in fucking German!”

Vera smiled at Dawn like a cat that got the cream. “Munich my dear is in Germany?”

“Ah. You don’t speak or understand German. That I understand. Well it seems your Uncle Silis is

a hero in this city because he saved a young girl’s live when she was in a coma last night. The

parents want to thank him, the patient wants to hug him as does, “Grey Rabbit”, the hospital

want him arrested for pretending to be a Jewish Rabbi, the Mayor of Munich wants to have

dinner with him and all religions are praying for the girl and him. On top of that the Munich

Media want to interview him, all of them and the Pope and the rest said that whoever he is he

must be a Catholic!”

Dawn clapped her hands together and laughed. “Well Silis, you surprise everyone doing good

deeds and helping a child in need. Anything more?”

Vera nodded and trying not to laugh.”Two lovers in the park said that they seen him get into a

spacecraft and it flew off and they both lost time for two hours.”

Dawn pouted. “That must have been some sex.”

“The police have arrested them for wasting police time and having sex in a public place.”

“Ooops!”

“There is good news and there is bad news Dawn”, said Vera softly and frowning.

Dawn felt her heart racing,a wave of sadness she could never explain. “He’s dead or never

coming back?”

Vera smiled, “He has been here, in this room when we were sleeping. See that painting on the

wall, the one with the canal scene, well it has been moved?”

Dawn looked, “So how do you know it did not just slip. They sometimes do?”

She grunted, “Behind that painting is a very safe deposit box in which I keep passports and

jewelry as well as around twenty thousand of mixed notes for a rainy day. Either your uncle is a

master safe breaker of codes and can open my door by whispering to it I must say pisses me off

more than a bit. The bad news I venture to say, is if I was now thinking straight I could be

looking at you as his partner in crime.”

Dawn Coburn at first was shocked then started to laugh so hard that tears ran down her face and

she was gasping for breath.

Vera went to the picture removed it, spung the safe dial and opened the safe then turned, a pistol

in her hands pointing directly at Dawn’s chest. “Don’t you move or you will have fifteen holes in

you that you would look like a tea strainer!”

This set Dawn off again and worse than the first time and she grabbed a sofa pillow and put it
over her mouth then pointed at the pistol.

“Now what is so funny Dawn!”

“You forgot to cock the pistol and even where I am sitting, I can still see the magazine in the

safe, next a folder or book so say ‘bang, bang’, you're dead Dawn!”

Vera looked at the pistol then in the safe while Dawn run to the bathroom, “Don’t shoot I need a

pee!”

Vera took out a worn book written in old latin and sat down on the sofa edge aware that nothing

had been taken but the book had been left. She did her best to read the title and the Author then

muttered, “ Holy shit! It can’t be, no way!”

She read the title almost whispering to herself, “Dark circles within bright circles. Written by one

Silis a follower of Truth,Florence.Italy, 1306 and helped by one Dante Alighieri who rote my

spoken words in his hand”

She looked at the engraving on the first page and sucked in air. “Dawn you better get your sweet

ass out here and look at this!”

A muffled voice from the bathroom, “Ok but don’t shoot me please”, then more laughing.

“Not funny. It is a book I believe he had Dante write for him.”

Dawn came out, looked at Vera and smiled when she seen the book. The smile vanished like fast

melting ice. “Oh my God!”

“It is a much younger Silis, skinny, dirty and more than likely, a walking nature reserve with a

strong smell but it is him”, said Vera jabbing at the face on the book and the date you will not

believe Dawn. He is no more your Uncle Silis than I am.”

“Ok so lied. Sorry. I wanted to protect him.”

Vera’s eyes narrowed. “From himself I guess?”

She nodded and shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“Well he has done alright since the year 1306 in Italy and he could be much older than that so he

does not need anyone looking after him or lying for him because Dawn, he is not real. Or not

alive in any form like we are. he does not eat. drink,. wash or sleep. So your the detective what

does that tell you?”

Dawn was shocked.”A spirit, ghost, vampire, bogeyman lost soul, what?”

Vera shrugged and placed the manuscript back in the safe beside the gun and closed it over and

replaced the picture over it. She turned, “We need to talk, both of us and work out what we are

now going to do.”

Dawn walked to the window and looked out at the snow and then she seen the dark figure with

the black hat and coat looking directly up at her smiling.

“Shit! Hate to tell you this Vera but he is standing in the snow looking up at me!”

Vera almost shouted. “Don’t ask him in. They say if you don’t invite them in they can’t come in

unless they……..”

“Are in a live body”, muttered Dawn Coburn her eyes never leaving Silas De Cote.

Vera Hoffman moved to the window beside Dawn and looked down at the figure standing in the

snow and sighed. “He knows we don’t want him and not only that he also can see us here

looking down.”

Dawn almost sneered. “You want to bring him in and tuck him up in bed Vera.”

“No way. But we have to do something about him because he can get in here if he really wanted.

We are dealing with a paranormal event. A thing, a ghost or something like that.”

Dawn nodded thinking back and muttered, “The Devil, God, a demon, some sort of alien being,

or we are just plain nuts and out of our tree?”

“That helps Dawn. Would he hurt us?”

Dawn nodded, “If he was pushed guess so. I have seen some examples of his work in the past, a

sort of justice if you like when there was no justice forthcoming.”

“And?”

“Dead bodies everywhere but he did not kill them but he engineered their deaths somehow. One

of the reasons I got the push because he was too helpful getting rid of scumbags who thought

they could get away with it.”

Vera walked back and poured two large whiskeys and said to Dawn. “Fine, let's wait or die
happy. Come on. Drink.”

Dawn took a last glance out of the window, and thought,What are you really Silas, man, beast or

God?

They drank till they could drink no more and went to bed in the early morning and they were in

and out of good and bad dreams,restless in their sleep but in no hurry for the dawn but when it

did come it came with more snow and cold, the city almost at a standstill. The few cars that were

on the roads were making slow progress towards the city center. There was also a few walking

snowmen and woman, heads down and going at a snail's pace to their place of work and one

lonely dog shivering in a doorway of an empty shop.

Silas stood in an empty bus shelter trying to keep his anger in check but he was not doing a very

good job with it, it was a white anger now and though he did not feel the cold, he hated snow and

the people who enjoy it. Then he thought of standing last night looking up at the window where

both women were looking down at him. He knew there would be no welcome there for him, but

that was life and death and once he recovered his manuscript he was gone, like fast to some

where he had never been before and had to find someone who would lend him their body for a

time. He sighed deeply, same old, always the same, change skins, and move on.

The dog in the doorway, whimpered and came to the bus shelter and sat beside the old man.

He stroked it's wet head and it snuggled in beside him and shivered. He looked down at it. “I

know what you might be thinking dog. Who am I, how old man like I be good to you and feed

you?”

The dog licked his hand twice still looking at him. Silas nodded, “Thought so. Name I have is

‘Silas’ at the moment but I have had many names all starting with the letter ’S’ just so you know.

I was around just as this planet first evolved and at that time, I lived in the sea, deep down, in
darkness. First came single celled animals, little bugs, all colours, then fish, whales that could

sing to one another, large reptiles that would eat anything and some of those moved onto land

once plants came, trees grew, flying reptiles as well. It was much safer to live in the sea at that

time. But I watched, waited, listened to the singing of the sea and the whales and I was part of

that sea of living soup, and I became Master of it all, on land, in the sea and in the sky. Animals

came, lived and died only to be replaced by other species on land and in the sea. Then there were

also mutations, apes of sorts that lived and were covered in hair, a few species would use natural

materials like rocks, wood and flint knives but all they could think of now was killing food and

one another if it took their fancy as well as mating to producing others of their kind, ugly beasts,

some deformed and then the mutants came, hairless on body except for hair on their heads and

between their upright legs, trying to compete with the upright apes, ever sexual and mated with

some of them and over times you get throwbacks today in what you would call humans,

dangerous nasty things they are, still are, with the invention of religion to complicate their lives

and breeding like toads in a pond so that soon, they will eat their way out of house and home, kill

one another with wars because they know deep down that when the virus comes, it spread fast

and because of over populations across the planet, they were extinct within three years. Dog.

hear this, no matter what way it goes, humans will destroy the planet, be it with bombs followed

by hunger and disease then death. But the future's not bleak once the humans are gone and many

animals species on land and sea with mutate, some into grey beings with a high IQ, large head,

no nose and a slit for a mouth, nude and hairless and in time they too will mutate but will never

find or look for religion and lizard like, that walks on two legs but with a brain that is artificial

intelligence but as I said before a high computer IQ. So, there is no place for you or your kind

Dog or old men and women now.”

Silas took the dogs head in his hands, kissed it, then it died.

He felt its heart and his fingers picked up no beat, no shuddering breath and he stood up. His
mind sucked out details long hidden and he was sure that the blonde leggy one was not what she

pretended to be, her DNA was more than he cared to think about and when he was close to her he

was picking up mixed messages, many of them alert for danger and lust. He frowned making him

much older as he looked and he also knew deep down that Dawn Coburn could be high risk to

him and herself. Time is in the now and the place, he thought, no matter what we do or say for

humans and some mammals, twenty four hours is all they had.

MOVING SHADES AND SHADOWS

Dawn Coburn and and Vera Hoffman did not sleep well that night and they even went to the
trouble of sticking the sofa in front of the door, just in case Silas tried to force it but knew that if

he wanted in he would find a way. He always did thought Dawn as they went to their rooms and

slept with the light on.

Breakfast was almost silent as they watched the TV News. Later they had a shock when Vera

switched on her laptop and logged in. There was a ping and a new message from someone

calling him or herself S. P. Wallander.

Vera frowned because the only ‘Wallander she knew was a Swedish TV detective then opened it.

It had been sent from the UN Building in the USA.

‘DEAR DEMENTED FRIENDS. SORRY I DID NOT HAVE TIME,OR THE OPPORTUNITY

TO SAY GOODBYE FOR NOW BUT URGENT BUSINESS CAME UP. YOU WILL OF

COURSE KNOW WHO I AM AS YOU HAVE MY BOOK IN YOUR SAFE FOR SAFE

KEEPING. I LIKE THAT ‘SAFE KEEPING’ BOTH GO TOGETHER.

OF COURSE WHEN WE MEET AGAIN, I DON’T KNOW WHEN, VERA LYNN, YOUR

NAME SAKE VERA, SANG THAT DURING THE WAR YEARS AS I REMEMBER.

WHEN YOU READ MY MS YOU WILL UNDERSTAND ME MUCH BETTER AND NOT

BE AFRAID OF ME AS YOU HAVE NO NEED TO.’

Vera called Dawn and after she read it she breathed out hard, “The hell I don’t!”

“Eh? Hold on a moment there Dawn. Let us both look at this without judgment in the cold light

of day. Last night we went into panic mode and at the time for good reason, we were thinking

paranormal, a spirit or ghost that was dangerous to us and if it, he, wanted to he could have

caused us a reason for being afraid of him.

Whatever Silas is he is not all bad. The girl in the hospital, the bad guys he sorted out for you,

when you were officer Dibble and a crime fighter?”

Dawn snorted then frowned. “So why does he need us or us him?”

Vera smiled and then shrugged, “Because we are his link to the living and the dead, we are his

map pointer if you like but most of all, we are his friends, he thinks. So tell me all you know

about him, and I mean everything Dawn, leave nothing out.”

Dawn’s mouth fell open. “Your kidding right?”

“Nope.”

“Why?”

“He mentioned Dante, and Dante wrote The Divine Comedy and as a degree Anthropology so

called expert, and having read Dante, Silas must have told him things and that means ,the Dante

wrote the Comedy but the clues from Silas are somewhere in it.”

Dawn held her head with her hands and looked hard at Vera Hoffman through her hair. “You

were an anthropologist, and now your telling me you want to waste time and money chasing a

ghost. What about your business and all those people who work for you?”

Vera laughed. “A Master Degree, money I have and time I now have and I have sorted out

already that my CEO, Zandra Copperfield takes over because I trust her all the way and no one

will lose their jobs. I am bored out of my head Dawn and you are a good detective, well ex

detective and I fund you the going rate. To be honest, you have nothing in your in tray in the way

of a job. Now do you?”

“When is the last time you read this Dante guy and you still have the so called Silas book that is

written in Latin so how will we match them up?”

“In answer to your first question I read or mostly read Dante at least twenty years ago so as your

the detective and I am the rich bitch of a now anthropologist I will take on the Latin book, you

read and make notes on the Dante book and lets see how that fits. What do you need?”
“Food, beer and a large white board with colored pens. In that order.”

Silas smiled, if you could call it that, and left the building following Dawn and Vera's footprints

in the snow to a corner bar. He stood next a shop that had bunches of flowers on display and

waited till there was no one around, then quickly lifted out a bunch and moved on till he came to

the windows of the bar and looked in through the steamed up glass. It was almost empty so they

were not hard to locate at a small table. They think I am in the old USA, he thought but I can do

nice things too. He walked into the bar but hidden from the dining area by a wall, caught the eyes

of a young members of staff and waved her over.

“Sir?”

“The two ladies around the corner, the very blond one, the tall one is a friend of mine. I want to

surprise her so could you take these flowers and leave them on her table. I have a meeting to go

to in uptown Munich but tell her, happy birthday from Silas.”

The girl smiled, “That’s nice. They are lovely. Leave it with me.”

He bowed once and smiled then left fast and across the road into a large shopping center with

Christmas lights flashing.

The young woman stood at the table looking from Vera to Dawn, a deep frown on her brow then

smiled at both. “I was told to give these flowers to you I think, your friend and he said happy

birthday.”

Vera took the flowers and smiled back. “Thank you. I take it that the gentleman had a name my

dear?”
“Oh, yes. He said the flowers were from Silas and that he had a meeting to go to somewhere in

Munich. Yes..uptown he said.”

Vera slowly turned her head and kept her smile fixed looking at Dawn. “What a lovely man

Dawn. To think of me on my birthday. How nice.”

She turned and looked up at the young woman. “Thank you my dear.”

They waited till she was out of earshot then Dawn hissed at Vera. “The old bastard. Is it your

birthday?”

Vera smiled sweetly and sniffed the flowers. “Yes but do not ask what age I am.”

“How did he know?”

Vera shrugged and set the flowers on the table. “You tell me Dawn because you did not know, he

is your friend, or at least was and we thought he was in the US then, like a flash, he is here

again.”

Dawn twitched and slowly looked around the small number of customers expecting to see him

sitting in some corner smiling at her. Nothing.

“So what do we do now?”, asked Vera calmly and looking at Dawn’s face, then added, “Your the

ex detective. Next move would be welcome please.”

“We do what we said we would do, we have had the food, next a few beers, then a bit of

shopping for what we need and of course I have to get you a present, then home.”

“You don’t have to Dawn.”

“I want to. Trust me. Our Silas has something going on in his head that involves you, he buys

you nice flowers but not deadly nightshade, or white Lilies from an undertakers.”

Vera grunted. “Maybe we should forget Silas, the whole thing and live a normal life?”
Dawn shot her a glance. “Where I come from darling nothing is normal so welcome to my world,

a world of selfish human beings, some of them I drop the ‘human’ bit and want to hurt them big

time. At times I want to kill the bastards, bury them in an unmarked grave or at sea but always

make sure they don’t come back!”

“Wow! Lot of hidden anger in there lady. Glad you are on my side.”

She looked hard at Vera her mouth tight and there was a tic in her right eye then she said softly,

“Vera. Something you need to understand I am never on anyone’s side until I am ready and

sometimes that may never happen.”

SILENT NIGHT.

‘ Silent Night, Holy Night, All is still…..”

Vera sat up fast in the bed, her eyes wide and mouth open in shock and panic as she looked

around the low glow of her bedroom. She picked up the ticking of the bedside clock and glanced

at it. 0.2.31am. Blinking away sleep she made out a shape sitting in the chair of a human form in

a red suit.

“Oh fuck. Who the fuck are you?”, pulling the bed cover her ample breasts her mind racing with

fear and heart pumping like a drum.

It spoke, a low harsh voice,” Man in a red suit, beard, brings presents and does not leave any for

people who have been bad or even evil ‘Vera Darling’ and as I am here thought it was a good
idea to call on you both.”

She was going to scream, took deep yoga breaths and let them out slowly then rasped. “What do

you want Silas?”

He give a low laugh, “Nice tits Vera but that is not why I am here. “You and Dawn have been on

a trip for one hour and one minute. Well not your bodies of course, your souls or energy source

has. A brief history in time travel dear as was Dawn but not to the future because there is no

future yet but I took you back far into the past, well before anyone thought of building the

Pyramids in what is now Egypt and also the same of lost history in parts of South America. Then

we walked you through history, well gilded you through it and you and your frisky friend in the

other room, who snores by the way and farts in her sleep. You two live humans have more

knowledge of things past than anyone else alive today or even a large group of like minds who

have got the Nobel Prize for ego popping. Of course they earned it but them all put together, do

not or never will have, the wisdom or power you both have right now.”

Vera pulled a face that made her ugly. “You said “We” took you both on a fucking history lesson

so who is this “We” old man Silas?”

Silas sighed. “Yin and Yang, two identities, good and bad, and I am both. You may think I am

mad, but I do not know madness because I am not alive and God or the Devil are one in the

same, at times I am called the fallen angel Lucifer and at other times I am called God but trust

me when I say this,there is no Heaven or Hell sweetheart.”

For a moment there was a long silence and their eyes never left the amber eyes of the old man or

whatever he, it, was.

The ex- detective’s mind came into play and she was determined to show him up as nothing

more than a liar and a fraud. Dawn sighed, “So you say both our energy source or soul went on a

little mind game trip with you across the world and therefore we, that is Vera and I would have
seen, if that is the right word the same thing and we should now be able to confirm here and now

with one another whatever?”

Silas smiled at the two women.”Correct.”

Dawn’s eyes narrowed. “Ok old man give us a place and a location.”

“ The Kinder Train that left Munich for Switzerland on the 21st of March 1941”

Dawn punched the air hard, “Got you.It never went to Switzerland, it went to the Netherlands in

1939 you old bastard!”

Vera came in fast, “Not only that, the children were sent to the UK and Ireland and a few were

given homes also in the Netherlands.”

Silas laughed, then clapped. “Well done ladies but on that train that I took you two, what

happened to the little girl with the bright red coat and her toy?”

Dawn grunted, “She started crying because the doll fell on the floor and then….”

“Screamed at the Red Cross nurse until you picked up the doll and…..”

Silas smiled, “Give it back to her and patted her on the head and she kissed my hand?”

“Oh shit Silas we were not even born then so how did we both know that!”

Vera’s eyes went wide, “Because Dawn, he took us to the past and we know it now. Then he took

us to Lake Geneva to a rented villa where….”

“Mary Shelley was writing Frankenstein many years before the Children left Germany on the

Night of the broken glass and Jews were put out of their homes.

Percy Shelley was there, took a fit and said he seen eyes looking at him on a woman’s breasts”,

muttered Dawn then added, “A doctor was there to care for him but was also a writer and that fox
Lord Byron was making fun of him, a bully.”

The slow clapping of Silas's hands brought them back and both glared at him, Vera licking her

lips trying to find words that would make sense.

“You hypnotised us, played mind games with both of us!”, snapped Dawn Coburn. “How?”

“You are rather a wilful child Dawn. Nasty, but I put that down to dear Daddy coming to your

bed at night and though your mother knew, she did nothing, did she?”

Dawn’s face drained of blood and she burst out in tears and held her hands over her face and

sobbed.

“Enough for now Silas. You have proved your point. Go for a walk for a while but go. I need to

take care of Dawn. Please.”

Silas stood, nodded and went out then looked back, shook his head and closed the door over.

You need to control your mouth and anger, thought Silas as he passed a group of mixed yobs in

the walk through tunnel and then blocked his way.

He looked at them,”You really do not want to do this. Honest.”

They did, and they died, all nine of them and when he left the bloody mess none of them were

twitching and he shouted, “Ho,ho,ho. Merry Christmas!”

DOOR TO DOOR, ROOM TO ROOM, NO ONE HEARD THEM SCREAM.

 01.01 am

Hofgarten Park was almost dark but the music was low where the two people drank tinned beer

sitting on their motorbikes and kissed on another now and again. The blond woman laughed and

set her beer between her legs and started counted the paper money that was in her helmet. The

man drank and waited pleased with their night’s business selling doctored drugs to the party

goers closeby in bars and cafes close by. He knew not to talk to her when she was counting but

he could see she was smiling so that was good.

He jerked his head to the right on seeing the flash of red but his face went to ice for a few

seconds then he toppled off the bike and fell on the snow, blood spurting from his throat that has

been ripped out. \the woman looked up and for a moment did not register that the Santa suit hood

covered the face that was wolf like. Then before she could scream she was dragged of the bike

and thrown to the ground as the santa hood was pulled back, and amber eyes flashed as the

mouth opened then ripped off most of her face, then her throat.
 Vera walked through the warm apartment nude and wet from the shower to her bedroom and

slammed the door. Dawn frowned as she lay on the leather sofa watching German TV but has to

use the subtitles option which she hated. She turned down the sound and looked towards Vera’s

bedroom door. Oh dear it looks and sounds like she is going to have a bad hair day, thought

Dawn and stood up and walked to the bedroom and tapped lightly.

“Vera. It’s Dawn. You ok in there?”

Muffled sounds beyond the door, a gasping and panting and she thought that Vera had a man in

there. She shrugged. Her home, I’m a guest, her room is private and she may well be at it

like……

It was the low growl that startled Dawn, like a dog and that threw her and slowly panic set in. A

dog or a man?

She tapped again much louder this time and said loudly, “Come on Vera. Stop mucking about.

You want a drink, or something.?”

Dawn heard the door lock being taken off and watched as the door handle just opened enough to

leave a gap and a mixture of perfume and a damp smell coming from Vera’s bedroom. With a

stiff finger she slowly pushed the door open and called out, “Vera?”

She stood and looked around the dim light as all the curtains were pulled and no lamps switched

on. Something moved behind her and she turned round.

“Jesus!”

What was standing less than a foot from Dawn's face was a large wolf like creature, mouth open,

teeth showing and bright amber eyes that almost glowed in the diminess of the bedroom. Her

mind raced and she could see it was standing on two legs and had female breasts. “Vera!”
“Not Vera Dawn, something much worse.”

The voice behind her she knew was that of Silas. Dawn did not turn around, her eyes never

leaving the horror in front of her because now it shuffled forwards and started to sniff at her face,

the unblinking eyes alert and glowing.

She was about to scream when what was once Vera, her eyeball, was sticking on the end of a

knife, was dripping blood and fluid and then blackness closed around her and she fainted but not

before the creature crumpled and hit the floor.

Dawn’s eyes fluttered open and for few moments was not aware where she was but found herself

lying on Vera’s bed on her side and looking at the old man on the chair beside the dressing table,

She also noticed he did not leave a reflection on the mirror.

“What the hell happened!”

Silas glared at Dawn his face full of anger. “Big bad wolf stupid!”

She looked out from the cover of the bed clothes at the nude body on the floor and the now pink

carpet around Vera’s head then her eyes bored into Silas’s.

“You fucking killed her!”

“Either her or you. She was human, most of the time but she has a craving for raw meat, you

humans in the past would have thought and said werewolf but she was also a shape changer any

mammal of choice as long as it had large canines and speed. At the moment she was about to

chew your face up I stuck her from behind, through the vertebral, up into her eyes socket and

pop. By the way I washed the knife well and out it back in the kitchen drawer. So we have a

killing, and….”
“A homicide, murder, if you are not fussy about the terminology and you the killer Silas. Not

me”

Before she knew it the bedside landline phone was pushed into her hand and Silas hissed into the

right ear, “The number you want is 911 but you also need to tell them that she, was the killer of

twelve people last night and she was back here in this dump by 04.01 having a shower till 04.30,

placed the bloody santa suit in a bag then went to bed and slept like a baby. If you care to look in

the bathroom you will see the bag, tied of course. Open it, check it out, then listen to the Munich

News.”

Dawn sprang out of bed went in and tore open the bag and could smell the blood even before she

lifted the santa suit out. She closed the bag up again then walked past Silas without looking at

him and scanned the new channels till she got the Munich news. Again because she could not

understand German it had to be subtitles and the reports came up. Twelve victims, twelve deaths

and all zoos and wildlife parks were being checked by police for a missing big cat or wolf as an

expert confirmed to police that the bite marks and damage on the victims were that of a large

mammal that was a carnivore. However, no animals tracks were found in the snow where the

victims died but the bare footprints of a human were found at all the murder sites.

She switched off the TV and looked at the blank screen. “Where were you Silas when all this

was happening?”

“Here, hidden away, protecting you if you must know.”

She slowly turned her head and looked at him. “And how did you get in here before she got back

without a key.”

“Guess?”

“You left, closed the door behind you after what you said about my father and what he did to me

as a child.I heard the door click shut and Vera hugged me and went to the kitchen to get me a
strong drink.”

“Correct. So I waited and as she came out holding the two drinks I went into her body and later,

came out of it as she made ready for her blood and guts party.

By now Vera was out of control and you were at risk when she came back. She killed her

husband, she killed a number of adults and children when she was in India, all at night and she

moves around a lot, did move around a lot and you met her where you were a super detective in

Ashbourne. Oh yes, she was a shape changer, and good at it.”

Dawn’s mouth dropped open. “I met her?”

“Correct. Tall blond, almost beautiful if you like that sort of thing,big eyes, big ears and fit when

she changes. A lot of sheep went missing in Derbyshire, the farmers blaming foxes for a small

part but the rest they say is down to rustlers, cowboy type linked to two Asian gangs from Leeds

and Sheffield. Three of the gang members never came back, never found out there and like some

sheep, vanished also. Except to the fleece and the heads.”

“Ruth Davenport?”

“Devenport. Ruth Davenport. Left CID two days after you were asked to take a break but told

not to rush back. Came back here to Munich, but before that, stopped in Paris and Lyon. Likes

homeless street kids in both places, I guess they are more tender and no one missed them or even

bothered looking for them. Such is life and death Dawn.”

“Oh Sweet Jesus!”

“He’s dead too lady”

Dawn frowned and looked at what was once Vera Hoffman lying in her own blood.She waved a

hand at the body. “ We have a dead female on the floor, your doing, we are both in what was

once Vera Hoffman's home who is also Ruth Davenport ex CID. ex cop, human of sorts, killed a
lot of people over the years,has loads of money I think and what do we do. Just leave?”

Silas looked grim and he shook his head. “I’ll sort the body and when I am working on it, see

what you can do about the carpet, get my book out of the wall safe and gather all your gear

together. Then we go.”

“Like where?”

He glared at her. “Don’t forget your passport and hers and the money in the safe!!”

As she was packing fast she was also rubbing down the room surfaces of prints that she knew if

they were any good at all the Munich police would dust the place down, look for any DNA and

with a big hole at the back of Vera’s head think murder. It struck her hard, “I’ll deal with the

body” How the hell is he going to do that, she thought, panic rising within her?

She came out of the bedroom after making the bed and stood with her bag in the hallway then

called out, “Silas I’m ready to go!”

No answer, just a little sound above her head, bumps and light knocks, then the sound of water

and bubbles. She set the bag down and walked into the bathroom and looked in the bath then felt

a chill on the back of her neck. When she turned she was startled to see the light ladder pulled

down from the roof space then first one foot then another appears and then Silas. He put his

fingers to his lips and stood beside her then swiftly pushed the ladder back into place and drew

over the cover with the long rod.

Dawn hissed at him, “You put the body up there!”

“Yes, just the body in the water tank.”

Dawn rolled her eyes. You put Vera in the water tank.”

“No, I put a body in the water tank, her spirit is still here so we need to go, lock the door and
push the keys through the letterbox. I know she is here but for the moment she is powerless,

crouched in a corner muttering to herself and speaking in languages. “

“That’s nice to know. Are we at risk?”

He almost smiled at her and poked her once in the chest. “You being a human and not clued up,

are at risk because she will need your warm body.”

THE ISLAND OF THE DEAD.

Dawn Coburn bought her air ticket and stood waiting for some sign of Silas then shrugged and

headed for the check in, passed through Security and waited and wondered what the hell she

bought a ticket direct one way to Glasgow on his instructions. The last call came to announce her

flight was boarding so she went , her stomach churning and followed sheep like the rest of the

mixed passengers her eyes scanning everyone. Then a Franciscan Brother turned around and

looked back at her, the amber eyes glowing for a moment then he carried on shuffling forwards

and was lost on the stairs going down.

Jesus. He is inside a monk of sorts, she thought, and whispered to herself, ‘Hate to tell you this

man of God but Silas could ruin your holy soul if he kicks off.’
Silas sat at the front and the Stewardess leaned over to click the old man in smiling at him. “It

says that you needed some assistance Father so I will take care of things here and at the other end

in in Glasgow.”

He nodded and smiled at her, “Nice tits and smile sister. If I need a pee during the flight I might

need some help with my aimer.”

She drew back in alarm. “What did you just say!”

“I said thank you and God Bless you child and if I need to go to the toilet during the flight I will

need a male attendant to take me there, wait outside the door and then escort me back to my

seat.”

“Oh, yes of course”, her face flushed as she moved on checking on each belt as she walked.

Dawn made a note not to ask if Silas was at his games. Oh no, she thought. Not my problem

lady.

Coburn tried to sleep during the flight but each time she drifted off, black dreams and flashbacks

came into her mind. She opened her eyes and looked down on the great white clouds and

pondered on if it was all a day or nightmare. Her mouth dried up and she had to control her

breathing. Murder of all sorts entered her head, faces of dead people over the years till now,

Doverdale and Derbyshire when she was a police officer,the good and the bad and of course, the

ugly, the mind trips through all types of past history so far back as far as the first ice age and then

back to the Big Bang in deep space. The Stone Age timeline had gripped her, and not what she

thought it was because she seen in her mind’s eye many creatures that have not yet been

discovered as fossils, most of them carnivores.

The large black woman beside her started to snore loudly and she also was grinding her teeth.

Dawn shot a glance at her, expecting her to open her eyes quickly and glare at her with the eyes

of a wolf.
She shook her head and looked back out on the clouds thinking she was losing the mind plot all

together and would never get back to reality that she once knew.

She did not want to look at the woman beside her again, frightened of what she might see, so

rested her head on the glass window of the aircraft and slept.

Even after the aircraft landed on the runway and came to a halt Dawn was still sleeping. The

blackwoman nudged her with her elbow.

“Wake up child, we are here!”

She blinked her eyes open and muttered “Thanks.”

“You must have been in another world sleeping that sleep!”

The easy smile came easy. “You would be surprised where I have been Lady over the last few

weeks and I guess sleep caught up with me.”

The large woman sighed,stood up and waddled down to where the other passengers were waiting

to disembark. Dawn noticed she did not have any luggage, just a small handbag. The woman

turned slowly and looked directly at Dawn Coburn and smiled then followed the rest of the

people off the aircraft but there was no sign of Silas. Then it hit her like cold water in the face

and she almost laughed out loud. You crafty old goat, you dumped the monk or brother and sat

beside me., she thought and headed for the door .

It started to snow again as she hurried to catch up with everyone else but lost them in the

blowing snow and walked with her head down until she bumped into something solid. She

looked up and Silas looking down at her smiling. Her eyes scanned his body then she seen the

kilt.

“Oh God you looked dead stupid in that! Come on I am freezing my tits off here and you better

change that, look for something more fitting!”

He growled, “ Like what?”

She stopped and turned. “Anything than that. Look normal, fit in if you like and find someone

with a wallet and a bankers card. Come on!”

Silas pushed down the anger of what Dawn had said but he was thinking on it. He

stopped and looked at her standing in a shelter shivering, shrugged and walked on soon to be lost

in swirling snowflakes and vanished into the arrival lounge. He scanned quickly around people

coming and going, taking in who they were with and their height and body mass. Yes time to let

an old man have his freedom. He felt in his pocket and ran his fingers over the two wads of notes

and smiled. Released with money my friend and you have been good over the years. Now it is

time to say goodbye and good luck. You will of course be confused for a time but that will pass

and live for a few more years. Stay off the hard stuff, he muttered to himself.

His amber eyes found a suitable target, a new and younger body, well dressed and clean shaven.

He walked over to him and looked down at the packed rucksack then directly at the man in front

of him placing his hand on his shoulder and made him jump.

“Are you Julia Kerr's son, David?”

The young man looked Silas up and down, seen the kilt and relaxed then shook his head. “No.

Sorry. My name is Peter Morgan.”

“Ah. A man with an education. Splendid. What did you read at University son?”

“Why Zoology. Mainly mammals. I am doing my pHd now on the Mammals of Borneo and in an

hour I will be on my way to join a team out there.”

Silas made his eyes widen in mock amazement. “Borneo! I have been there. Many years ago as a

Marine and explorer. It rains a lot but mainly in the afternoon. Have you been there before?”
Peter Morgan smiled and shook his head. “No.First time for me. Don’t mind me saying this sir

but there is a strange woman looking at you from the corner.”

Silas smiled but did not look. “My daughter Dawn. Fusses a bit. Do you know where the men’s

toilet is son. My eyes are not what they used to be.”

Peter looked around then smiled. “Come on I’ll take you and I have plenty of time. Follow me.”

He did and they got to the door and the young man held the door open for him and muttered,

“Looks like we have it to ourselves.”

“Thank you. Bless you son. This won’t take long.”

Peter Morgan was right, it did not take long and Silas washed his hands and looked at the old

man who was confused with a long black beard and in a kilt.

“Where the hell am I Mister?”

Silas smiled and picked up the rucksack and slung it on his shoulder.

“Glasgow airport.”

As he headed out the door he almost bumped into Dawn Coburn and muttered,

“Time to rock and roll lady. I found a nice fresh and youthful body and left an old man with a

smile on his face.”

“Fuck!”

“Tut, tut Dawn. One must not let one’s standards drop and we have a train to catch. On yes. In

public you can address me as “Peter Morgan, work in Zoology, no family to miss me, no wife or

partner to worry about me and as I now look like the young man and have his passport we can

move on.”
She grabbed his arm. “What did you do with the old man!”

His amber eyes glowed for a moment.”Set him free with one thousand pounds cash in his pocket

and he can now return to the City of Leeds where I found him many years ago sleeping

rough.Shall we go?”

She glared at him, looked him up and down and forced a smile. “Much better. The kilt?”

“Left in on the old man. Oh, dear. Also the man who owned it.”

“The Scotsman?”

Silas shrugged. “ I don’t often make mistakes and when i do I blame someone else. No point in

making things worse now is it?”

“Have you given any thought to what the haggis will do to the old man when he works out that

he now is…?”

“The word is ‘nude’ I think you are looking for Dawn and the old guy will be out of there like

shit down a drain much richer and gone. He is street wise while Bonnie Prince Charlie cannot

follow from the toilet back into the arrival terminal as he is and will be protecting his family

jewels.”

She snorted and waved a hand at him. “And where the hell did you get the black hat and coat

Silas?”

Silas raised an eyebrow and looked at her from under the hats brim, “I found it on a seat next to

some guy who looks like he had a stroke or something and walked on with it in my hand but I

did inform someone at a desk that I thought the man was ill then met you”

She frowned lips tight. “You just bumped into me Silas. A few minutes ago so you have a coat,

hat and you had it on when you almost bumped into me so stop lying to me!”
“Ok. It was sitting on the wash sink and the guy who owned it was on the floor in a heap so I

took it but I still informed someone he was ill if not dead.”

She sighed. “We need to go now Silas and fast, get on a train somewhere and outta here. This

place is going to be crawling with cops and paramedics, not to mention airport staff and

cameras.”
 THE LAND OF THE RAVEN.

One hour and twenty minutes later they were on the train heading North West into the highlands

of Scotland. They had been lucky enough to get a table between the seats and devoid of other

passengers close by. She looked like she was smouldering inside and hissed at him. “My whole

life is in ruins and you sit there like something out of a bad gangster film or the Mafia staring at

nothing!”

“Well the suit and hat are Italian my dear and you could say we are on the run with what we left

in Munich in the water tank. However we do have the money we took out of her safe as well as

my book and between us we are ok for cash. So we need a plan, a sound plan with no holes in it

and we also have Mr Morgan's rucksack, his id, his bank card and his pin number which is his

date of birth. The only problem is that you do not look like her passport photograph.”
She made a face. “Sorry about that. Next time I will do better.”

Silas nodded. “Yes, you do Dawn and do it within a few days.”

She was for a moment was startled by the comment but her past training came into play. She sat

in silence thinking then, “I have to vanish for good,disappear off the radar, become someone

else, no contact with any friends?”

Silas was now stone faced. “Either that or hand yourself over to your police force and take your

chances which is stacked against you, a long court case, a psychological assessment or more than

one, and a real life prison sentence in a mental hospital or a lockdown prison. And then there is

your mind Dawn with all that information, that vast amount of knowledge, real knowledge you

now have and someone in the worlds defence forces will at some time hear about your potential

and want you and your mind and will not care how they get it.”

She screamed at him. “You can tell them the truth!”

He held up a finger to his lips then said softly, “As I am not human Dawn they would not listen

to me, Silas De Cote, because they would not except the truth as you call it and would not know

what truth is even if it bit them. You have to except that right now your IQ is away off the scale

of any other human on Earth.

As for me.even if they locked me up, I would be free within a few hours and gone like a wisp of

woodsmoke.”

She sneered at him, “Like you always do Silas!”

He nodded. “Correct.”

She bit her lip, wiped tears from her eyes and sat. He was looking out into the the snow covered

landscape when she spoke. “I want this to stop, I want to take my chances and hand myself in

and I never want to see or hear of you again Silas. We are done. Finished!”
He did not look at her and he did not speak. He just sat there looking at snow.

When he turned and looked at her, he nodded then said softly, “In seven minutes and thirty one

seconds this train will stop for dropping off, and picking up passengers. You can get off there.

You have money, you have a passport so you can book into a small hotel and do what you said

you wanted to do. Take your chances Dawn.”

Her mouth fell open. “You mean that?”

“Of course. I will continue my journey into the land of the Raven.”

“I won’t miss you.”

“No. You won’t.”

She got her bag and set it on her knees listing to the train but not looking at him. Too much was

happening now, too fast, she thought, he is not protesting or trying to change my mind.

A cold fear started to creep into Dawn Coburn on thinking what she would have to face now on

her own, the police, arrest, banged up till she went to court, remand, date of main court hearing,

the trial, the Jury of mixed sexes and people, the media hype. The defence. Oh don’t worry about

that, she thought, you can defend yourself and it is a foregone conclusion of what the outcome

will be. The best defence in the world could not get a ‘not guilty’ verdict no matter what it did.

The train slowed and she got up, did not look at him or speak and walked off the train and stood

waiting to see if Silas would get off. As it moved off and disappeared on a bend she looked both

ways along the snow covered platform.

Deserted except for foot prints. He was not there.

She headed into the town her mind drifting of all that happened to her, all the information

implanted and as she crossed the road at a crossing, her mind flashed danger but the next
moment she was tossed into the air and over the top a speeding car and crashed face down onto

the road. She felt no pain yet just a numbness but she heard the car burn rubber as it fled. Her

head was turned to one side now, the right, and her eyes for a moment watched the snow turn

pink and thought of candy floss when she was a child then total blackness.

They rushed Dawn Coburn to hospital, a police car adding its blue lights to that of the ambulance

as they drove at speed. In the back,a female paramedic was working on her and in a small bag, a

fragment of skull bone with Dawn’s hair still attached.

“She crashing Tommy!”

Tommy McGill shouted back. “Three minutes. Keep working on her!”

“BP is dropping!”

THE DEAD ZONE.

10. 15 PM

The Neurosurgeon rasped into the phone at the A+E desk. “I really don’t give a fuck so get me a

an Operating Theatre now and I mean now! No shut up and listen. No do not talk. Listen.

Female RTA, head trauma and I need a team there when I get there and no ‘If’s or but’s. Just do

it!”

Dr McClean slammed down the phone and told a porter and nurse to bring the patient and follow

him and he walked to the flap doors and pushed them open and held them open as they pushed

the trolley.

“Speed my boy and don’t hang about. Nurse you take the lead and yell at anyone who gets in the

way and I mean anyone!”

They arrived at the Theatre Suites and McClean shouted at a scrub nurse.

“Which one?”

“B”

“They all in here?”

“Whole team as requested Dr McClean. What can I do.”

“Get her in there and use a slide board while I get ready.”

He turned to the nurse and A+E porter, forced a smile and muttered, “Well done you two. Now

get back on station and you get any flack tell them to ring me later.”

B OPERATING THEATRE

10.31PM

“We got a name for the patient Dr McLean?”

“Two names, the first is Dawn Coburn, the second may be one Vera Hoffman found on a second

passport. Lets type her up as Coburn. I also need her blood typed and urgent and then I need the

blood fast.”

The Theatre Sister nodded. “Ok lets do it. Induced coma and I want everyone around the table

focused and no fuck up’s folks. The clock is ticking for her.”

INTENSIVE CARE UNIT

03.05AM

Everything that was plugged in was keeping the body of Dawn Coburn alive but there was

concern about the low output on her brain waves output. They were low but she was not brain
dead. Sister Nora Black checked everything was working and then nodded to the staff around

her. “Stats every ten minutes and written up and do not forget you have two other patients so

could be a close call of who leaves for the Rose Garden before the end of shift.”

As Dawn Coburn lay in her coma she was having all unconnected flashes of colours, hissing

static like bacon frying too fast, faces of people she did know and did not know if she had been

awake and would have thought she was floating. But none of the nurses knew this who worked

on her and the other two patients but somehow they picked up the same flashes and images from

one another but could not respond.

Once the night shift had been done and the handover carried out to the day staff it was doctors

and consultants bed rounds. the three patients stats read and reread, notes made and it was Dr

Mclean who made a startling discovery.

His nose twitched as he read Coburn’s medical file. He looked up at Sister Ann Brooks and

raised an eyebrow. “Get me the other two patients files please, Sister.”

She nodded at the small darked haired auxiliary nurse who took them off the small push table in

front of Dr Mclean and handed them to him. He frowned at them in his hand and muttered,

“Should have went to Specsavers. In front of me all the time.”

No one smiled. It was Sister Brooks who asked the question, almost meekly.

“I fail to understand why you need the other two patients records?”

He held up a bony finger. “You will, trust me”, setting the three files in front of everyone, “ and

you may also question of how and why it happened Sister.”

Ann Brooks scanned the three sets of records now in front of her and her mouth fell open. “No

this cannot be. It is impossible!”

Mclean grunted, “As you say, ‘impossible’ yet here in front of us for all to see is the impossible.
Each of the patients are named as this one, Dawn Coburn RTA, in front of us, behind me is Zara

McDonald, the redhead,RTA, then in the corner is yet another female Suzy Ann Kirk so let me

see if our little friend here can spot the problem. Take a look Helen Watts and tell us both that we

are mistaken, well I am mistaken. Please, proceed.”

The auxiliary Nurse swallowed hard and shrugged looking hard at Sister Brooks for a sign of

support but it was not there. She walked between Sister Brooks and Mclean and flicked through

each file then when finished she looked pale and was sweating.

“Your informed opinion Helen”, rasped Mclean his eyes bright, and licked his lips.

Helen Watts cleared her throat. “ You do understand Doctor, Sir, I am not a trained nurse just a

…”

“Woman with a brain. Please.”

Watts shrugged, “Well I do not know all the medical terminology but will say what I know. “All

three have been RTA’s, brain trauma, broken bones, some major organ damage, Patient Coburn

here has a very low temperature, low heart rate because of induced coma, Patients McDonald

and Kirk were also induced coma, but…..Well all three have the same date of birth which is

more than odd, Kirk and McDonald have no brain flicker waves of any sort, but Coburn has. The

BP of the other two is low to zero while Coburns is ok for the coma, urine for Coburn is normal,

but somehow the other two have stopped passing water” licking her lips.

“Go on Watts. In your informed opinion what is it?”

“Susan Ann Kirk and Zara McDonald are both dead Sir.Straight lined.”

Sister Ann Brooks staggered and was caught by the kind hand of Mclean.

“Correct. “Now Watts tell us from the patients records when they were last alive if you please.

Coburn, McDonald and Kirk had their stats done by the night shift at 04.00 and all ‘normal’ as
such Sir.”

Mclean guided Sister Brooks to a bedside chair and she slumped into it still in shock.

He nodded at Watts, “Thank you. Please inform the other two members of staff of all this, ring

the Nursing officer and the CEO’s office and tell them that I said I want them in here in six

minutes and tell the CEO to also inform the police for two sudden deaths. You got that?”

He muttered, “They died at the hour of the Wolf, Watts. Who was the duty doctor last night till

the day shift came on.?”

She took out her note book, read the name out loud. “Dr Peter Morgan, a locum, called in

because we are short staffed, did the full shift.”

“And his buzzer number?

She read it, then started to shake, gasping like a fish and blurted out, 0666!”

The rest of the morning on the ward was taken up with police officers coming and going, ward

staff, day and night being interviewed, the two bodies of the dead women lying nude on stainless

steel tables side by side in the Hospital mortuary and a forensic team standing by with the

pathologist in scrubs. Dr Steel licked his lips and lifted the blade.

When he made the first ‘Y’ incision on Zara McDonald, upstairs, back on the ward, Dawn

Coburn’s eyes shot open and she tried to scream.

In the mortuary,the sharp blade slid down to the pubic bone and the eyes behind the mask glowed

amber. There was also a hidden bitter smile of days and nights long gone, no regrets Zara, he

thought, just part of the process between good and evil and of course, getting even.

He pulled the flaps aside and dropped them wet and bloody on each side of her body, then with
the Attendants help, he cracked open the chest, cutting the ribs apart with bone shears then

looked at Amos, the mortuary attendant who was looking bug eyed into the body cavity. He

looked at the man across the table and stuttered, “This can’t be doctor Morgan, no way, no how!”

Morgan nodded. “Looks like it is old chap. No heart, no lungs, no soul maybe.”

Amos snorted. “So if I was recording this on paper, on the computer what do I put Doc?”

He smiled at Amos almost father like. “Never happened, empty, maybe it has been posted before

but the does not explain why it was on an intensive care ward and nurses and doctors were

supposed to be doing stats and I should add missed out on the coma bit. She or it, was already

dead, with no heart or lungs. Tutt, Tut, Amos if we mention this anywhere, anytime then heads

will roll, jobs will go and of course they are all going to have some real explaining to do or, a

massive cover up.”

Amos jumped when he heard the shout behind him but Morgan smiled.

“Who the hell are you and what are you doing!”, snapped Mclean his eyes wide and face red.

Amos was searching for words but he spluttered out the wrong words. “I work here, mortuary

attendant, Amos.”

Mclean hissed, “I wanted to do the Post, I wanted to be here and does he look like me or I like

him numb nuts!”

Silas grunted and thought, you would be surprised. Honest.

“I do think you need to look at this Dr Mclean”, muttered Amos, sweat on his forehead and

pointing into the calaver.

McClean walked forward and looked. “ So, where are the organs, the samples?”

Amos rolled his eyes. “Don’t know.”

“ And you Dr Morgan, if indeed you are a doctor. You know?”

Silence. He looked at Amos then turned. “Where the fuck has he gone!”

“Don’t know. Just gone.”

‘’And Dr bloody Steel,where the hell is he?’’

Amos looked at the two body's laid out. ‘’He felt I'll and left.’’

ROOM ONE O ONE.

THE MEDICAL BOARD ROOM.

All of the Health Committee were sitting at two long tables of good oak and were waiting for the

Chairperson to speak,Sian O'Hara and middle aged with icy blue eyes and lips like a split fish.

Mclean was sitting three chairs from her and he was sweating his stomach rumbling. If he could

hear it then she could hear it and so could others.

He took a sip of water but that only made things worse and for a moment she glared at him, then

coughed lightly.

“I called this extraordinary Committee meeting in a hurry because we have a number of

problems that has come to light over the last twenty four hours. Problems I should add the gutter

press would love to know and print their own version on it. So what you hear stays here. We are

missing Dr Low because she is down with flu but no matter we continue. I do not want anyone

here to interrupt me until I finish but I do want you to pin your ears back and listen because if

this gets out, we as a Trust are going to get a lot of incoming flak, as well as legal beavers

coming out of the woodwork who want to make a quick buck and find a scapegoat or goats in
this room.”

O’Hara looked at each person in turn slowly. “Our problem is not simple, we have two dead

woman downstairs on steel tables, they were on a ward, ICU along with another woman, Dawn

Coburn. All three were the result of RTA’s, all were on the ward in a comatose state, induced of

course. Dr Mclean did surgery on the Coburn woman, fracture skull and possible brain damage.

It seems that a Dr Morgan was brought in as night shift locum but there is no record of him

sighing in or where he is now. Dr Mclean here did see him both on he ward and in the mortuary.

He, this Morgan chappie did a post on one Zara McDonald and it has been discovered she was

dead a long time on ITU and that there were no organs in her body. Not a liver, heart, kidney, or

stomach or its contents. Dr Mclean can confirm this because he looked at the body but also he

did the post on a Susan Ann Kirk and she was in the same state as the McDonald woman. No

internal organs. Then comes the date of birth of all three women, all the same.

Mclean was too quick on the draw when he found both women dead on the ward and informed

the night sister to inform the police as required by law. The damn fool! Here we need to deal

with collateral damage and how we can deal with it, how we deal with the fall out and most of all

how did it happen!

I see licking of lips, confusion, fear in your faces but believe me when I say this, it could get

much worse.”

For a moment there was the light shuffle of feet, a glass of water being set on the table, a cough

and the rustle of paper in someone’s hand.

“Well! Anyone have anything to say or our we going to be like the three monkeys, ‘see nothing,

say nothing and do nothing. Oh, and the fourth monkey.

Hear nothing?”

A thin smile passed over a grey haired woman’s lips. She raised a hand looking at O’Hara.
“Yes Mrs Woodrow?”

“As I see it now and what you have just outlined it seems that the two, shall we say, ‘patients’,

were long dead before they got to EAU but were found on the road as a RTA’s and no one

checked their records when they came in. In fact from what I can gather from my own checks as

a GP they were dead a long time before they were found and when I brought up their names on

my computer they had been dead for many years. A little bit of money offered in the right place

to the right people would have got you the answer and no one here would be pissing themselves

thinking the worse. You see, what I did discover, and with a little help from my husband who

was an Inspector of Police in Scotland found out that the bodies were delivered for PM, the

women in question, were Posted, pretty beat up from what I gather. As they and their bits and

bobs have more than likely been passed around a few teaching hospitals I don’t see the problem.”

O’Hara almost shouted at Mrs Woodrow. “How the hell did A+E miss that, then send them up to

ITU and…”

“They were never through A+E. They were delivered to our mortuary at night for disposal the

big burn up on site, signed for by a night Porter named Ali Bin with very little English and was

informed in his own language to clean them up and get both up here on ITU, he signed for them

both and brought them up with help from another night porter, with poor English also, called

Silas De Cote who did most of the talking. After the two porters left,then a few minutes later in

walks one Dr Morgan, all business and bluster and ordered the two patients to be ‘hooked ‘

up.Short staffed, no real medical notes they did as they were told, however failed to see that there

was no BP, no stats done because they were dealing with one patient who was brought down

from Theatre after brain surgery and placed in an induced coma, her’s was real and she had a

heart, lungs and pissed into a jar under the bed through a tube. So you see the staff were at fault

as was hospital security, as was the night porter, the Silas one is not listed as a member of staff

but he and Dawn Coburn did and came up on police radar and records. The police and Interpol
are very eager to interview them both as soon as,”

There was a lot of muttering and O’Hara slapped the table hard for silence.

She looked at Mrs Woodrow. “You would advise what?”

“Burn the two bodies, replace the ITU staff and put Dr Mclean on Gardening duties for the

duration, with pay.”

There were murmings of discontent by the other members and again O’Hara slapped the desk

hard. Silence for a moment then she held up her phone.

“Anyone here right now want to ring their MP, The Press, the Police, BMC, or the Minister for

Health?” Silence.“I thought not. So we do what has been suggested and carry on as suggested by

Mrs Woodrow but I have to ask her, “Who is this man Silas De Cote?”

THE MIND CANVAS.

In the early hours of Friday morning well before a cold grey light showed in the east, they took

Dawn Coburn in a private ambulance sixty miles outside Telford to a The Phoenix Hospital that

was also private and was already paid for with little or no paperwork involved, just her medical

records. She dropped off the radar of the NHS after it was declared she was now a private patient

but not expected to recover and was unable to answer any questions as she was now passed into

the critical stage. Her body was closing down.

As far as anyone who was concerned, she was going to die. Maybe even helped on the way after

a week. No resus, and no medical intervention except for the basics. Of course, organ removal

needed to be done and paid for before brain death and removed and stored for shipment.

By evening and the night shift came on they read her notes and two of them went to turn her and
when they walked into she was sitting in a chair in the dark.

She did not turn when Nurse Tammy Scott spoke. “Jesus. She is supposed to be on her way….

The voice was husky when the woman in the chair spoke. “You mean dead not on her way out. I

would like my clothes please, including underwear. my toilet bag, my small black bag with a

purse and passport in and the form I have to sign to discharge myself. Please.”

The much older nurse spoke softly. “I think dear that we should call doctor once we get you back

in bed. You have been very ill. Tammy please go and bleep Dr Ruth who is duty doctor this week

and then come back.”

The woman turned her head fast, her face full of anger and eyes of amber.

“Which part do you not understand. I want to leave, get dressed and leave and if you touch me I

will rip your face and arms off. As for you Tammy. Yes go get the doctor and bring my stuff back

here. As for you Nurse McCabe you can go get me water to drink, then unplug me from all of

this shit.”

“How did you know my name?”

Dawn Coburn smiled. She was looking at McCabe under hooded eyes and the bed hair on one

side of her shaved skull made her look really scary to both women. “You still here Nurse

Tammy?”

“Just going.”

McCabe hissed, “And tell security we need them up here now!”

Dawn Coburn was not herself, she was in no way the same woman that had been in an RTA

months ago, a limp rag and in a coma but right now she could feel the power and energy flow

through her. She knew what she used to be but she now knew what she now was.
In the dim night light of the room Nora McCabe gently moved to the bed and lowered herself on

to it speaking softly. “Can I get you anything Miss Coburn?”

Dawn, or what once was Dawn Coburn turned back to the window and looked out at the night. “

I asked you for water. I am still waiting!”

Dr Ruth Bell almost collided with Nora McCabe who was rushing to get a jug of water and a

glass. She muttered to the doctor, “You had better get in there fast and I have called hospital

security. She wants to leave!”

“Leave. Don’t be silly. She is a coma and is not expected to come out of it.”

“That is what her notes said, what we are told but right now she is in a chair looking out at God

only knows what and grinding her teeth.”

Ruth Bell rushed to the room and went in and finding Coburn ripping out the tubes from her

body and standing nude and bloody glaring at her.

“No don’t.”

Buzzers and alarms started to go off at the nurses station and in the room and slowly Ruth Bell

approached her and in the dim light as she spoke softly it was then that Bell’s brain registered

what she was looking at as Coburn continued grinding her teeth and smiling.

Bell turned and ran for the door but she never made it and she was too terrified to scream or

speak. The last thing Ruth Bell ever tasted was her own hot blood and the last thing she ever seen

was Coburn swallowing a lump of flesh.

Tammy Scott had short legs as she carried Coburn’s backpack past the Nurses station then

stopped in her tracks when she seen the nude woman covered in blood running towards he and
she screamed and went into a dead faint and hit the floor. The creature that was once a woman

now sniffed at her its head tilted to one side as she did so, then it picked up the bags and carried

on running and out into the main part of the hospital and through a sidewall fire door and into the

night.

No one in the hospital who worked there could go home in the cold light of a false dawn and at

least a dozen crime detectives as well as uniforms were everywhere. They had a forensic team on

the main ward, photographs and statements taken and in some cases, taken, retaken to get clarity

of what happened.

Inspector David Silver grunted at his DS. “We have a suspect, an ex detective who was in a

coma, close to death, almost taking her last breath, rise up like Lazarus and take out this Dr Ruth

Bell, run off nude with a bag of her clothes, her body covered in her victims blood and flesh

gore, down the corridor and out into the night then vanish. Gone!”

Miles Crow smiled, “Not all bad boss. We have her name, her fingerprints, and interest shown in

her by the German police in Munich for alleged criminal activity over Christmas, her association

with one Silas De Cote, some old goat who our lot want to interview as a suspect for possible

criminal activity here in the UK, Derbyshire and West Midlands Police are getting details to us

soon as. This Dawn Coburn has been and is a very busy lady boss.”

Silas was much of his old self, had dropped the name Dr Morgan, but still used the husk of

Morgan’s body and what was left of his mind. When he glanced at the headlines outside a

newspaper shop he knew right away that what was once a young woman known as Dawn Coburn

was now well and truly dead and that her energy had been absorbed and taken over by the energy
of one dead woman still lying in a water tank in Munich. It seem that Vera Hoffman had now

gone feral and her energy well out of control here now in Scotland, he thought, forcing his anger

down to what he called ‘normal’ because he had to keep the lid on it. He also knew that if she

had not already changed her and Coburn’s name she would without doubt do so. But Silas knew

she would leave a blood trail and much better than a paper trail for him. But that would take time

until she changed over in shape and looks that would fit in.

There was no sadness as such when he found out Dawn Coburn would be no more either in body

or soul as that was part of the process in life and death for humans and all life but he was alert to

the fact that Hoffman was not like him, she was almost part human and not a very nice human at

that. She could eat, drink, talk, have sex, change to a shift changer into human form and the

moon had nothing to do with it. She would kill again as she has over a long time across Europe

and the UK and Ireland. Vera Hoffman as she was last known, was around for a very long time

and had a good number of past names, even returning to areas where she had killed before

unnoticed. In the Dark Ages she was known only as ‘Lupus of the Dark Moon’ or ‘Moon Wolf’

and was feared across Europe and Russia.

He pondered on this as he looked out over the landscape from an old deer Stalkers croft to the

distant highlands of Scotland. He looked around him, dust, pine needles on the floor, some

wooden boards broke in a corner where underneath had lay the bones of a woman. He give a nod

and his smile was bitter. He had been here in the snow many years ago, as well as the man, and

two women who had got stuck less than a mile away. And the old man on the run down tractor

who came out of a gateway and was killed but then at least one a month, rain or snow at dusk his

spirit did the same thing. Silus knew his history, he knew most people's history and their hidden

secrets some of them sinister in nature. That old man was trapped in his own energy and would

never move on till the remains of the dead, that he had buried in the field after killing them, all

females none local. His spirit was limited to one square mile of space including the field and the
gate. They did bury his body when the tractor rolled over and crushed him many years ago. His

daughter had stood beside the open grave that Spring day and went through the ritual of prayers

for the dead but was burning from the inside in pure hate for what was once her father.

Silus nodded to himself and his amber eyes drifted to the broken corner floorboards. Wind sighed

around the cabin and he looked at the dirty window and it was the same window that he looked

through at the man inside years ago. There was nothing on this planet that Silus did know, the

why, the how, the where, the human minds of the past and in the now but leaving humans to sort

out their lives and their cultures was a bad idea. He made a face in the darkness of the cabin and

thought, it is too late to change it….unless of course they wanted to change and they would have

to be forced to change by a major natural world wide disaster.

He lifted his head and heard a mouse or other small rodent scuffle under the floorboards and

smiled then spoke in a husky voice,”You got the right answer, you have a home, food and others

to mate with of you kind but mouse your life span is short and to reach old age of two years you

have to survive from all things in nature that want to eat you or kill you in another way. You are

smarter than humans because you do not need a phone, computer, radio, car or any man made

gadget because you and I both know you are your own computer, phone and your

communication skills are honed to a high degree.You are a born survivor.”

He closed his eyes, not to sleep, with his back to the wooden wall and he slowed down his mind,

and became still, but alert at the slightest sound or change around him. He blinked his eyes open

then stood up, opened the door that made a creaking noise as he closed it behind him and walked

into the snow back towards the road, the darkest of pines hid the stars and then through the trees

he seen the land-rover with a woman voiding urine in a squat position at the edge of the forest.

Whispered voices and he already knew what they once were, what they were seeking and why.

The car was only a playback of his mind tape as were the two woman and he blinked his eyes

twice and approached the road through virgin snow. A red deer showed up red in colour from it
infrared body heat as it stopped in the road and looked in his direction then bounded into the

cover of the pines. It left its tracks but Silus left none and he glided along the road fast and like a

whisper, unseen and unheard until he was ready to be seen and heard.

Donald McKeeman blinked at the sharp white light coming of the snow from the headlights in

the night and he blinked again when he seen a snow covered man standing in the road with both

arms raised above his head. At first he was alarmed then slowed down his landrover and relaxed

when he seen that the man was old with a snow covered beard. He stopped and slid the window

across.

“What the hell are you doing out in a blizzard at this time of the night Mon!”

Silas stepped forward. “Need a lift. Got lost.Need to find a village and shelter.”

Donald screwed up his face. “No hotel or B+B in the village. it is off the beaten track you see.?

Get in and I will take you there but the best that can be offered is a police cell at the station. I’m

Sgt McKeeman, and there is just me and one WPC, Moira Harris. Before you ask I was on patrol

looking for fools in cars who got stranded. You have a name?”, he demanded.

Silas thought fast. “Silas Henry Patterson From Kilcullen in County Down. I was heading for

Inverness and the University there. I study anthropology and am looking at at research of family

members who left Scotland and went to Ulster, the Pattersons if there are any?”

McKeeman grunted. “Well ye will no find many of that name in the next village I can tell ya that.

There was once a Patton but he is long dead. Tell me, how did you get this far?”

“Ah there lies a tale. I got a bit of a lift and she was turning off to the right yesterday afternoon

just at dusk and I walked on. An hour later and started to snow again so i found a bit of shelter in

an old cabin or hut. So cold in there so when the snow eased a little I left and there I was when
you found me. May God bless you.”

“This woman. What did she look like?”

“Big woman, grey hair, dressed for a farm with boots on. Not much chat outta her but she did say

it was no place to be at night for man or beast. Oh and she had a yew and a lamb in the back.

Smoked a lot in the land rover and I was glad to get out. It was like a fog!”

McKeeman snorted, “That place you took shelter is a bad place to be. It has a local reputation if

you get what I mean?”

“Oh! You mean ‘ghosts’?

He cast a quick side glance at Silas. “Worse than that friend, much worse.”

Silas let out a long sigh, “People got killed, murdered. Right?”

McKeeman nodded and kept looking straight ahead. “You Irish are like us here in Scotland. We

have our myths, ghosts and tall tales but there were human remains found, women, all young,

one set of remains under the floor where you were kipping. Then just a mile up the road here on

the left, two men died, said to be a chainsaw accident as they were timber poachers but the old

locals thought it was something to do with….!

“The Devil or Satan, old Black Bob or a curse. Same thing back home officer and it won’t

change. Part of our culture if you like?”

Officer McKeeman grunted and nodded then added in a dour voice, “Then we had an outbreak of

sheep killing. Many thought it was dogs leaving home at night and finding a flock but it was

much more than that. No dog or dogs left tracks like that nor did they drag a kill into cover and

eat most of it. One set of tracks I did see and it was no dog!”

They sat in silence as they drove on and then Silas whispered softly,
“Big Cat or even a large dog?!

“ Or a wolf or even a werewolf but we don’t have wolves anymore, not for a few hundred years.

Locals will not travel this stretch of road at night, even in a car winter or summer. Tish

McDonald tried it on a late summer’s evening, at dusk,

and whatever she did see put her into panic mode and she swerved left, left the road and hit a

tree. Major spinal injuries, lived for two weeks in the hospital then went insane but not before

she told me what she seen in the gloaming.

A nude blond woman, dark hair over her body standing hunched over a dead lamb and ripping it

apart with her teeth. There was what was left of a dead lamb, just the head and four legs and the

skin turned inside out. A pool of fresh blood and not a roadkill.”

Silas raised an eyebrow. “And the woman, what happened her?”

“Thought she was an eagle and flew of the hospital roof.”

Silas’s face went stonelike and he formed his question before he asked it.

“Some of my research of the area in the past mentioned something about hill sheep farmers

around here losing lambs out on a mountain called Silent Hill, Spring lambs born, lived for a few

weeks then at the round up, around three hundred were missing, maybe more. No trace, no bones

and no fleece. Of course there was some remains of a ‘natural’ cull, bad weather, foxes taking

lambs, and maybe the old golden eagle taking a weak lamb. Four years in a row and the

mountain side is silent now in Spring, no sad calling of yews or lambs calling for one another.

More than odd don’t you think?”

McKeeman slowed the land rover, then pulled in and stopped. He switched off the engine and

looked hard at Silas.

“Just who the fuck are you Mon. You have all this information in your head, seem to know that
the mountain called ‘Silent Hill’ is a name the locals give it because of what has happened here

over the years. It’s real name on maps is Wolf Hill also known as the ‘place of wolves’ in the

past.”

“I know.”

“Thought you might. The pine forest in the old days used to run from here all the way to the base

of that mountain back in 1700. The landowner at that time ordered it be cut down, the wood used

or burned and any wolves there to be killed by any means possible. This was done, the wolves

that were left scattered elsewhere and all that was left was stumps and moors. Then just after the

second World War the German prisoners were sent home, though and few married local women,

reared a family, parents died, were buried and their children went to the scattering. My own

father told me as a child that one girl stayed on, she was not right in the head and for me to stay

clear of her at all costs. This I did, but she took to the woods and…..”

“Julia Hoffman went feral. Liked raw lamb, then raw humans,and you knew this but did nothing,

except with a uniform on at dusk and through the night, you helped her get her pray. You even

killed some single woman and left them in the forests and woods because she was even digging

up fresh graves and breaking and ripping open the coffins and feeding on the dead. You of course

being the officer in charge, did investigate, wrote a report and put it all down to foxes and

badgers. All for sex McKeeman, not love.”

McKeeman sat silent for a moment then without looking at Silus reached into his right hand

overcoat pocket and pulled out a .38 revolver and thrust it in the old man’s face and as he

did,cocked it. “You know too much and unless your a mind reader I want to know how you

gleamed this history, information on me, and who or what you really are!”

Silus put his two hands over his face and whimpered, “Please, don’t shoot I am just an old fool, a

meddling old fool.You have to understand that a man of my age picks up a lot of information
over the years. It was nothing!”

“Who are you mister?”

“Don’t shoot!”

“Who are you!”

Behind his hands he replied in a muffled voice, “Oh that! Your worse nightmare I guess.”

“Sit there, don’t move.”

Silis sat, hands still over his face and waited then felt the cold air hit him as the car door was

wrenched open.

“Out, hands on your head!”

Slowly Silis climbed out of the car and pushed the car door closed then pulled his hat down and

his black coat collar up and stuck his hands deep in his pocket.

MeKeeman rasped at him. “Hands on your head now or I will kill you here and now!”

He watched MeKeeman’s face as he placed his hands on top of his black hat, careful not to

crumple it, shrugged and give a long shiver, “Now what?”

“Walk in there, the pine wood, slowly.”

He did as he was told and entered the darkness of the wood.

“Stop right there, turn around and kneel down.”

Silis whimpered again, muffled breaths, gasping. “Please.”

“Turn around like a man.”

“No.”
“What the hell!”

“I can’t turn around like a man and I am very angry and I have to do something about this anger,

and I now have to kill you Officer McKeeman and your pets will come and feed on you along

with a few foxes, the odd badger and of course, the rats and the crows when dawn comes.”

MeKeeman’s mouth fell open in shock and he fired three shots into the shape of the old man, that

echoed across the valley.

He never got a fourth shot off because what turned and looked at him had amber eyes, bright

eyes and a mouthful of very large teeth, whiter than snow and pointed. Mckeeman was rooted to

the spot, dropped the gun and watched as IT walked in close to him, so close he could smell the

warm smell of animal breath, and hear the teeth grinding and when his face came off the last

thing he seen, was that smile, and burning bright eyes.

Silus wiped his mouth clean with what was left of McKeeman’s coat, wiped his hands with snow

and was now back to normal. He looked around him at the waiting figures standing in a circle,

ten in all and whispered in a Syrian language that was long forgotten and was now officially a

‘dead language’.

He walked past the them, those children of the night, who left no footprints in the snow as they

glided rather than walked to where food was or when they were haunting, some of them,

offspring of the woman known as Julia Hoffman were hungry and the bloody mess by the car

tasted better than a dead lamb.

Moira Harris was more than worried because when she got on duty in the small police

station her boss, Donald McKeeman was not there, and that was strange. She rang his mobile
phone three times and seeing the land rover was not in the carpark, she assumed he was out on

an urgent call. She walked over to the kettle and touched it. Stone cold. That told her that he had

been out early if not all night but found it odd that he had not text her and let her know where he

was. She looked out at the falling snow and shrugged and thought he had got stranded. She

picked up the radio mike and give her call sign then did it twice more but there was no answer.

She had no idea where he was and even when she checked the desk recorder the only message

was last night from John Kilgannon complaining about the weather and his livestock breaking

out of the field and now in the pine forest. He had added, ‘just to let you know in case they get

on the main road’.

She rang him and asked was Sgt MeKeeman with him but got a negative answer from

Kilgannon. After she hung up she knew this was going to be a slow day, what with snow drifts

and wind. She made a face. Paperwork to catch up with which she hated and unless there was a

murder reported she was stuck in the station. She switched on the kettle and waited, her thoughts

on McKeeman.

Not that she even liked the man but he was not here and therefore, officially she was the one and

only police officer on duty. As she poured the hot water into a coffee cup, she shrugged and

muttered, “Maybe he is drunk again and lying in bed sleeping it off. Would not be the first time.”

She sipped the hot drink and switched on the PC and waited till it booted up.

She signed in and there was one message from Weather Watch informing her of an amber

warning for blizzard conditions for the whole of the Highlands.

She grunted, “The baby Beast from the East has arrived”, then groaned, “Nothing to do and all

day to do it. Where the hell are you McKeeman!”

She looked up at the clock and it read; 0930. The desk phone ringing made her jump and she

grabbed it. “Moira Harris here. How can I help?”

There was a long pause.

“Hallo?”

Someone breathless. “Could not get you on my mobile so ringing on my landline. John

Kilgannon here. I took the tractor up the bray and looking for my cattle found Sgt McKeeman’s

car in a snow drift. It is bad news Officer Harris. Very bad news.”

Moira Harris took a long deep breath then let it out slowly. “Go on.”

“Well I took the shovel and dug my way into the car. Empty. Then at the edge of the pinewood

my foot hit something and I uncovered a .38 Webley and Scott revolver. Loaded, three rounds

fired. Blood everywhere under the snow.”

“We don’t carry firearms Mr Kilgannon. Is Sgt McKeeman dead?”

There was for a moment the sound of rasping breathing. “Very.”

“Do you think he took his own life Mr Kilgannon?”

“No woman I don’t unless he shot himself first then removed his head!”

“His head?”

“God help us. You’re sharp. I found what was left of his head, bits of his uniform lots of blood, a

few bone bits that I do not know the name off, one shoe, two socks, a watch, and that was it. You

need to fly someone else in because there is no way your forensic people are going to get up here

by car. Location marker Crabtree Farm. I put the head in the car, closed the door over and the

gun I left on the driver's seat. Before you ask. Yes I did touch the weapon and I did leave bloody

fingerprints on the door handles and the revolver but I had nothing to do with his death!”

Harris had to hold the phone now with both hands because she was shaking so much. “Go home

now Mr Kilgannon and stay there. I will ring for air support and will keep you informed. Make
sure you lock yourself and family in. Just wait.”

“But my cattle are still out there!”

“Fuck the cattle man. Stay locked in your home!”

Before he could reply she cut him off and dialed another number.

When it was answered, she told them all she knew and demanded back up as soon as possible,

including an armed response team.

Silis DeCote knew he was going nowhere fast he found a local cemetery near a locked Kirk and

then made his way to the back of the small church and found a wooden shed full of firewood. He

was not cold because he could not feel cold and crawled to the back of the wood pike and lay

down, not to sleep but to think.

Outside it was now a whiteout and in the distance he heard a helicopter flying west of him. He

turned his head and looked at a small wood-louse walking across a log, then smiled.

“So my little friend, your life is short and and rather risky but yet each day to fight to survive.

You will not run out of food or drinks, not here but you risk the danger of being eaten by bird or

mammal, crushed by a log or washed away in a downpour. Yet here you are, right now doing

what your species does.

Humans out there, could no more survive a week never mind a month or year if they lived in

your habitat or conditions, Do you know why ‘woody’?

Because their survival minds are blocked with daily shit and all of their own making. Except for

people trained with survival skills, the rest become prey.”

The woodlouse moved one or two millimetres, stopped and seemed to be feeding again and Silas
sighed. “You are not listening are you.I would have thought that by this time you and others like

you would have picked up on audio sounds?”

He stiffened, “Like me. I just picked up on something approaching.”

The fox came out of the white out, stopped and looked at the woodshed, then with head down

and ears flattened walked to the woodpile, jumped up and with care passed the old man and lay

down in a corner its eyes never leaving the back of Silis.

He smiled and thought, at least you, fox will be warm and in shelter. The woodlouse had moved

fast into cover as the fox jumped up. Peeling bark of a pine log would give shelter and food for

the rest of the day. The fox relaxed and started licking melting snow off its front feet, stopped

when Silis whispered,

“No one or I will harm you in here.”

It blinked, then carried on licking its feet, while the wind sighed through narrow cracks in the

woodshed.

He needed a plan, a new one and that included getting some clothes that did not have three

bullet holes in it. My hat is ok and my boots but I need to change my image and get rid of any

bloodstained clothing but that could be days away if it did not stop snowing.

He slowly turned his head and looked at the Vixen in the corner. It looked back at him with

bright wide eyes not longer alert or fearful.

He said in a low voice, “So Miss Vixen or is it Mrs Vixen, have you had cubs last year, and what

postcode did you come from, how old are you and where are you going?”

The fox licked its nose, then placed it nose and head under the large bushy tail and closed its

eyes.
“Shows you trust me but if we are going to be here for a while then I can’t keep calling you

‘Miss or Mrs Vixen’ so how about I call you ‘Fargo’?”

Fargo opened one eye then closed it again, sighed then went to sleep.

Silis shrugged, “I can always talk to myself you know?

And get answers to all my questions but being who I am and what I know I already have the

answers in my head, I should say, mind or energy source.

Take all those films now classified as ‘horror films’ or ‘slasher movies’ and the Zombies going

on the rampage, killing and eating the living. You would think that education for humans today,

could write film scripts or books on this subject or at least do a little research. I can tell the world

that what you see on screen or on TV about the Zombie is all hogwash, no credibility of fact or

truth, and the people who practice Voodoo in Africa, the West Indies or anywhere else in this

world do not eat grave dirt. In fact they may well believe in the zombies but they are not dead

flesh eating dead humans. Oh no. Very much alive but absence of mind power caused by drugs

and booze, some of them as adults having the mind of a six year old child. Let me explain Fargo

and you too Woody if your can hear me.

First off, a person who dies a violent death, like a shooting, drowning, hangings, people who

jump of tall buildings are first the main subject of the police. They do their forensics at the scene,

makes notes, take video and photographs, dust for fingerprints, take samples, chew gum, smoke,

talk to their partner on their phones and talk dinner and sex, maybe the sex before dinner, write

up reports, interview any witnesses, wait till Dr Kildare turns up and tells them something they

already know. The victim is dead. After sticking a large theromonter up the victims ass, they

withdraw it, look at it and give a rough time of death. If they can’t give a time of death, of

someone taken out of a river or lake and his been missing two to three weeks that is what he tells

the cops. ‘Death maybe from drowning around three weeks ago but we need to have a post’
The police officers all know this already and by the time the Mortuary meat wagon arrivers to

take away the victim they try to look busy, official because the reporters and cameras are all

around them. Deep down, they know when the body is gone, they are at a loss of what to do next.

So they walk around in small groups looking for clues, anything will do to stop them from dying

from boredom.”

Three hooded crows landed in the tall old ash tree and began calling harshly, their grey body and

black heads showing up against falling snow. Silis grunted and muttered to the vixen in the

corner of the woodpile.

“Noisy lot, the crows, seeking anything dead they can find. A bit like the myth of those zombies I

was talking about except the hoodie crow is a master at finding carrion like road kills, any dead

animal, even long dead under the snow. I know they can smell the dead from a long distance so

you are not the only one with a good nose Fargo but they are smarter than you. I see your half

awake but chill out while I try and educate you.

Like I was saying, the victim is removed to the dead house, and him or her are opened up,

including the skull, the brain removed, lungs, heart and all removed in one block as well as the

windpipe,and still attached, the tongue. Then the stomach contents, liver, a soup ladle of blood

for future examination purposes by the pathologist and some of its kept in case, while the rest is

bundled into a black bag and pushed into the chest cavity and then stitched up. The body is

washed, placed in a white sheet and wrapped tight and put in the freezer with a name tag on the

toe, real name, or John or Jane Doe. I should point out Fargo, the soul, spirit, or energy was

gone after death and fast.

The point I am trying to make is, those films about Zombies are all crap because with no brain,

no lungs or vocal cords, no mind they cannot walk, think, piss,eat, or kill live humans and eat

them.”
 THE NOT SO HOLY MAN.

The vixen ran past Silis and behind the shed then across the frozen land at great speed, its tail

straight out behind it and vanished into the white out but not before it startled the Minister,

Fergus Duff who came to the woodshed with a basket to get firewood. He was more startled

when he seen Silis looking at him from under the brim of a black hat, and took two steps

backwards.

“God almighty you almost give me a heart attack!”

“Sorry, Was taking shelter.”

The priest looked hard at Silis. “ Let me get the wood, then follow me into somewhere much

warmer. How come you were sharing the woodshed with a wild fox?”

“Her choice. Enough room for both of us. Comes down to trust I guess.”

“Her?”

“Yes. A vixen. I called her Fargo just for the company. Before you ask, my name is Silis La

DeCote”, he lied and then added. I was heading to Inverness to catch a train to Nottingham to do

some work on history for the University. The poets and writers, all dead now of course.”

The Minister did not speak as he filled the log wicker basket then picked it up and walked off

calling out, “Come on then. It’s as cold as a stepmother's breath out here.”
The Rev Fergus Duff sat down in his normal chair in a large book lined room and poured himself

a whiskey after Silis had refused, tea, coffee, whiskey or water as well as food. This of course

puzzled the priest but like the vixen in the woodshed, maybe Silis had to learn to trust him, he

thought. He mentally noted that the man was aged, wore good shoes,scruffed yes, a large good

well fitting black coat and his black hat resting on the sofa beside the old man.He also noted that

this man did smell of mint and that did puzzle him because mint and peppermint were all

summer plants and the smell did not come from his breath but the man's skin.

The back of the coat did seem to have small holes in it, more ragged than the three small holes in

its front. He took a small sip of his drink, looked up, smiled and looked into the amber eyes that

were in turn watching him closely.

“You can call me Fergus if you like?”

“Only if you call me Silis. Tell me this and tell me no more. Why did you ask a stranger into

your home Fergus?”

The priest shrugged. “You interest me. It was nothing to do with the God bit and compassion,

and as you look and talk like a man of learning and I needed company and conservation, here we

are Silis.”

“Indeed, here we are. Is that a hint that you talk to God daily and it feels like your talking at him

rather than with him, but still getting no answers to your many questions over the years?”
 SILIS RETURNS

Silis ponders on this world population of humans and voles and he knows they choose to ignore

all the signs. Climate change is real and he has seen it for himself over the years in many

countries and the Poles ice is melting at a fast rate now. He smacks his lips together, and knows

that out in deep space as he sits here on the carriage seat that there are two massive blocks of

dirty ice heading directly towards planet earth.

His amber eyes drift across the rolling countryside, sheep and their lambs in field with snow

thawing fast,Spring sunlight casting shadows of trees on the land, flocks of rooks and jackdaws

littering the sky light small torn black rags in the wind and the lazy smoke from cottages and

homes.

There is no one in the seats close by and he was glad that the good holyman, the Minister of the

Kirk whose home he stayed overnight, bought him a single ticket to Nottingham.

He said he would return the full amount when he got to Nottingham and the University via the

Mininters granddaughter who it seems was in charge of the new project and had, in the end, got

her full funding. As Silis never slept but closed his eyes when he wanted to think deeply and

others thought he was napping, he solved problems, planned things to the T, and when the time
was right, he put the plan into action with no ‘U’ turns.

Right now with his eyes closed he was trying to work out, with advanced maths, when the

Universe above his head, would start retracting fast and end in dust. He knew the timeline was a

major factor and this being 2018 Silis knew that in seventy to one hundred years, Earth, the stars,

the planets in this universe would be no more. A trigger to set it all off would be the ice blocks

when the hit the earth and there was nothing he or anyone else could do to stop it.

Other universes far out in deep space would survive, at least for now, and as they had no humans

on them, then they had every chance of staying as they were and are.

That on its own would be a massive problem to solve, he thought,because he would have to find

a host species that the Sons of God could interbreed with.

He made a face, better than my last effort I hope because the human hybrids on earth now are

doomed to die out fast and it has nothing to do with a pear tree in the so called garden of Eden

and the forbidden fruit. In deed not

He smacked his lips and blinked. Of course,I just need to find a way to harvest human energy,

and with their mindscapes, female teenagers, clean brains and body and a suitable planet outside

of Earth’s universe that had the right habitat!

Silis was smiling with his eyes shut. First there was God and the sons of God before that great

bang that created a new universe, not that we wanted or needed one considering we already had a

good few and like Earth today not all did well, a few died. Put out like you would a candle.

The smile melted from his lips. The universe deaths were of course, a poor experiment that in

time, went badly wrong. They imploded and all that was left was a dust cloud left to Solar winds

and the new stars born within that dust cloud, many without a known name, even today and

maybe, never have one. Silis knew that star clusters were everywhere and in time, they too

would burn up and die only later a new star or planet would form but so far, lifeless of even
single celled animals, water or oxygen.

He grunted as the train stopped at a remote railway station called Daw End Lane. The doors

hissed open and one passenger got on, a young woman, short, dark hair, and he counted her steps

coming towards him, stop and she sat in a seat across from him.

He could smell her body heat, the smell of scented soap, and lavender spray. He opened his eyes

and looked sideways at her.

“Cold out there is it?”

She nodded without meeting his eyes then before he could speak again, she stuck in her ear aids

and switched on the radio and snuggled down in her seat with eyes closed.

Silis knew this was a ploy by many young people so that they did not have to involve themselves

in conservation or listen to others talking. He also knew that such bad habits were much worse in

the big cities like London, Birmingham, Leeds, and Manchester. He also knew that he now had

to deal with his slowly burning anger.

The carriage doors closed and the train moved off gathering speed then he sighed. Frightened of

what.Me?

Silis has no soul, but he tends to gather them around him as time goes on. Souls that have no

good purpose are or want to be destructive, he destroys.

He or it has been around a long time, from the time the Big Bang dust spread out in a massive

Space fan and before God was in fact invented.

The energy that Silis contains and of course absorbs, means in fact that he was never born or

dies, but he can shape change into any mammal human or otherwise.
Over a thousand maybe millions of years he has witnessed many things.

For anyone who gets to know him, if at all ,he comes across as a man of knowledge, a little mad

maybe, amber eyes that look right through you and into your mind. He is the chaos of the earth,

witness to human weaknesses, good and evil they do, their pollution of their planet and their

minds, and their population getting larger and space and soon food and water getting less and

less by the time and year of 2030. He thinks of them as large vole populations, food for many

mammals and birds, then they peak, disease spreads through such a population, as well as hunger

and there is a massive crash.

Silis ponders on this world population of humans and voles and he knows they choose to ignore

all the signs. Climate change is real and he has seen it for himself over the years in many

countries and the Poles ice is melting at a fast rate now. He smacks his lips together, and knows

that out in deep space as he sits here on the cartage seat that that there are two massive blocks of

dirty ice heading directly towards planet earth.

His amber eyes drift across the rolling countryside, sheep and their lambs in field with snow

thawing fast,Spring sunlight casting shadows of trees on the land, flocks of rooks and jackdaws

littering the sky light small torn black rags in the wind and the lazy smoke from cottages and

homes.

There is no one in the seats close by and he was glad that the good holyman, the Minister of the

Kirk whose home he stayed overnight, bought him a single ticket to Nottingham.

He said he would return the full amount when he got to Nottingham and the University via the

Mininters grand-daughter who it seems was in charge of the new project and had, in the end, got

her full funding. As Silis never slept but closed his eyes when he wanted to think deeply and

others thought he was napping, he solved problems, planned things to the T, and when the time
was right, he put the plan into action with no ‘U’ turns.

Right now with his eyes closed he was trying to work out, with advanced maths, when the

Universe above his head, would start retracting fast and end in dust. He knew the timeline was a

major factor and this being 2018 Silis knew that in seventy to one hundred years, Earth, the stars,

the planets in this universe would be no more. A trigger to set it all off would be the ice blocks

when the hit the earth and there was nothing he or anyone else could do to stop it.

Other universes far out in deep space would survive, at least for now, and as they had no humans

on them, then they had every chance of staying as they were and are.

That on its own would be a massive problem to solve, he thought,because he would have to find

a host species that the Sons of God could interbreed with.

He made a face, better than my last effort I hope because the human hybrids on earth now are

doomed to die out fast and it has nothing to do with a pear tree in the so called garden of Eden

and the forbidden fruit. In deed not

He smacked his lips and blinked. Of course,I just need to find a way to harvest human energy,

and with their mindscapes, female teenagers, clean brains and body and a suitable planet outside

of Earth’s universe that had the right habitat!

Silis was smiling with his eyes shut. First there was God and the sons of God before that great

bang that created a new universe, not that we wanted or needed one considering we already had a

good few and like Earth today not all did well, a few died. Put out like you would a candle.

The smile melted from his lips. The universe deaths were of course, a poor experiment that in

time, went badly wrong. They imploded and all that was left was a dust cloud left to Solar winds

and the new stars born within that dust cloud, many without a known name, even today and

maybe, never have one. Silis knew that star clusters were everywhere and in time, they too

would burn up and die only later a new star or planet would form but so far, lifeless of even
single celled animals, water or oxygen.

He grunted as the train stopped at a remote railway station called Daw End Lane. The doors

hissed open and one passenger got on, a young woman, short, dark hair, and he counted her steps

coming towards him, stop and she sat in a seat across from him.

He could smell her body heat, the smell of scented soap, and lavender spray. He opened his eyes

and looked sideways at her.

“Cold out there is it?”

She nodded without meeting his eyes then before he could speak again, she stuck in her ear aids

and switched on the radio and snuggled down in her seat with eyes closed.

Silis knew this was a ploy by many young people so that they did not have to involve themselves

in conservation or listen to others talking. He also knew that such bad habits were much worse in

the big cities like London, Birmingham, Leeds, and Manchester. He also knew that he now had

to deal with his slowly burning anger.

The carriage doors closed and the train moved off gathering speed then he sighed. Frightened of

what.Me?

He heard them whisper in his mind, some male, some female, a few children all long gone in

body but 'they' were still around ,always there, all demanding answers to a million questions that

he had the answers to.

It was a female who spoke first rather than a whisper. 'Of course she is frightened of you and if

she knew who and what you are she would drop dead beside of you. It is forty one years Silis

since we met and I for my sins was alive sitting on that bridge over the River Liffey in Dublin,

with my legs dangling. Three minutes past midnight,New Years Eve, sleet and wind when you

came along. Stopped and looked at me. Just me and you.

You knew I was going to jump, you knew I was drunk and up the shoot with a bun in the oven.

Mammy and Daddy sitting back home with their Golfing buddies drinking, singing songs, being

sick. Black-Rock is where I used to live and all you said, " Go on then, jump."

Silis sighed and nodded. " Molly Kirkpatrick. Your father's child inside of you, three months and

four days, a girl. Yes. Then I killed your father for you."

'No not for me though he had it coming but it was the way you killed him. Not a clean job with

knife, gun or club. On no, you kidnapped him when he was drunk, got him to take you and him

to the local railway line, tied him to the rails one wet night, then sat on the embankment talking

to him and looking at a watch, his watch, then he knew and you knew the train was coming. He

begged you to let him go and he would hand himself over to the police. You just laughed and told

him to reflect on what he had done to me.

He was still reflecting as you call it when the train hit him, a goods train no less with thirty

dumpers of coal and you were still laughing when the train passed, dancing like a mad bat.'

"True. I had to do something with my anger. That was it, he died. Now go away I am busy."

Her voice when back to a whisper, a sad whisper.

He closed her down and thought of wild daffodils in a Welsh wood, his mind space filled with

bright yellow and he smiled.

Edinburgh, then onto New Street in Birmingham. A half hour from there to Nottingham and his

host was waiting for him. She was holding up a cardboard sign with his name on it. He waved

and she waved back and walked towards him through the faceless crowd of other passengers.

"Julia Duff, I presume?", shaking her hand, noting her fingers were long but her grip firm. Sorry

I am late getting here. Snow bound."

She smiled, "I know. My uncle left a text you had just left and here I am."

"Call me Silis La De Cote. I hate 'professor'."

"Sure. Ah! Here comes my assistant my wizard sound person. Hi Tam."

The small girl on the train came and hugged her then Tam looked Silis up and down and grunted.

"He hitting on you Kid?"

Julia's mouth fell open and she shook her head, " No! He is the Professor Silis La De Cote I was

telling you about. He likes to be called Silis La De Cote, Not professor."

Tam was stone faced as she shook his hand. "Hi.Sorry about that. I'm Tam McCloud. Julia's

sound technician. You really talk with dead people?"

Silis rolled his eyes then glared at Tam. "And living ones when they have not got a phone stuck

to their ear and earplugs in so they don't have to communicate."

"Opps! Sorry again. I thought you were...."

"A dirty only man, a leech, a stalker?"

Julia Duff jumped in quick. "You said to my uncle you needed to get some new clothes so let us

walk to the Square, Slab Square and there is a coffee shop and loads of men's clothes shops. Oh

and I thought to bring a small part of your fee the university will be paying you. You shop, then

come to the Bull Cafe and plan our next move."

She handed him five hundered pounds in new twenty pound notes that he stuffed into his coat

pocket, nodded and walk away waving in the air.

"Christ. He never even said thank you Julia. He also smells of mint you will note?"

Julia laughed took her friends arm and dragged her along with her.
"I love mint", and they both laughed.

Julia Duff looked out the window of the cafe and across the noon sun lit Square, then give a sigh

of relief.

“Oh my God!”

Tam looked at Silis walking quickly in their direction, nodded them smiled, “He brushes up well,

the dark coat and hat looks cool,checked shirt,open neck, real black walking shoes and a spring

is in his step.”

“Dapper I call it, not cool. Well,well, beard trimmed, and I bet haircut.”

Tam grunted and looked again. “Could be. Maybe he went to some hotel and paid for a shower

or bath.?”

The cafe door opened with a slight noise and closed with one. Silis walked over, sat down,

smiled and set a bundle of notes on the table in front of Julia with some loose coins.

“Thank you. Before you ask, that is your change from the money you give me.”

She had to think fast. “ Great, you look great Silis and thanks but as it is your money, part of

your fee I will keep it with me in case you need some more at any stage. You want tea, coffee,

food.?”

He laughed and patted his stomach. “That hotel around the corner near the Trip to Jerusalem pub

took care of all that including a good tidy up and believe it or not, a shower before I changed into

my new gear, cloths. I look dapper was the word you used. A good and kind word. Thank you.”
Tam licked her lips and forced a smile. All she could think of to say, was, “Here we all are then.

Now what.”

Silis grunted, “Well I’m glad I won’t be staying at the University but somewhere else. Had a very

bad experience there once and do not want to remember it. Well done Julia and better if we live

for a while on site and get the feel of the place. Unless you want to book me into a hotel?”

Tam looked at Julia, waiting. “How did you know that. I just got the text to tell me that?”

He laughed, threw up his hands, “Came across the square as a signal, stepped in front of it and it

went into by head and you got it later after I did a spell check.”

Both women looked at one another for a few seconds and shrugged, aware that he knew more

than most.

NEWSTEAD ABBEY.

The sunset was robin breast coloured in the west as they pulled into the gravel car park and got

out. Tam McCloud, shuddered and then grunted, “Nice pad but creepy.”

“Well at least have a room each,shower, and can cook or buy our own breakfast”, said Julia on an

upbeat tone of voice then added, “We will be sleeping in an area set aside for our research lab but

will be allowed excess to the main room for our project. I have been informed that the room is

large and all the power points are working for us to plug into. It is also where the great man did a

lot of his writing.

The other two members of the project to arrive in the morning, Zak, our cameraman and night

video bod, and a woman that I was instructed to take by my boss as a ‘must do’ tone. Her name is

Heather Morgan or Moroan and she is supposed to be a well respected Medium. Last thing. All

the others doors will be alarmed and locked so please don’t set them off. We leave our rooms,
cross the courtyard, in a side door, along the passage to the study and work there.”

Tam McCloud made a face. “We do all this at night, in the dark Julia?”

“Yes but not before we have everything set up in the passageway,in the room and near the side

door. The night cameras will be on a time switch, the sound will be loop running as you know

Tam and anything recorded will be sent to the computers back in our sleeping area. Two laptops,

one for film recording or Video and the other to the other computer for all sounds or movement.

You are well set up with that app Tam.”

Silis made a face and in the last light of the day and both women noticed.

“What?”, asked Julia Duff.

He waved a hand in air. “This..what do you call her, ghost hunter or whatever where will she be

staying and two what is she going to do for the project?”

Tam backed Silis. “Yes. She going to turn up in black and speak in a man’s voice saying it is

from the otherside and she is not sleeping in my room, no way!”

Silis laughed, “And I’ll be fucked if she is sleeping with me!”

They all laughed and headed for the accommodation block with Julia trying to explain that the

‘ghost buster’ would go back home after a session as she only lived in a local village called

Eastwood, a few miles away.

Silis skipped breakfast and was surprised when Julia and Tam has set up the sound equipement

and the cameras were all in place, set up by a young man called Zak who’s bare arms were

covered in tattoos. His blond hair was brushed back into a ponytail. He held out a hand and Silis

shook it and was aware of the coldness in the old man’s hands. “Zak. You must be Mr La De
Cote.?”

“Correct. Please call me ‘Silis’. I noted all the cameras were placed in good areas. If I suggest

something please do not be offended?”

Zak frowned. “Please do.”

Silis smiled. “You invisible laser beams are a good idea but I suggest with respect, you put one

just under the ceiling and aimed at an angle across the room. You will only need one in the room

we are using, corner to corner. We won’t set it off because none of is tall enough to activate it.”

Zak laughed. “Ok. Unless this woman who turns up tonight is eight foot tall or can fly.”

“Good lad. Ah! Julia and Tam. May I have a word?”

Tam frowned. Now what is the old goat up to now?”

“Sure. Anything wrong Silis?”

“No room is fine, company is fine just wanted to know what time this evening the ‘ghost buster’

is arriving?”

“Madam Knossos and she will arrive at seven.”

Tam almost laughed, “Will that be on a broomstick or in a black coach with six black horses.”

For a moment Silis glared at her, his amber eyes brighter then faded back to normal. “This old

goat is up to making sure Tam that you and the rest of us are safe from what the woman can

bring into the room, if anything because some people do try and do get a visit but the trouble is,

somethings are more evil than others and do not want to leave. We will be working in Dimension

One, left side of our brains which is our ‘normal’ side and then Dimension II, which is our right

brain paranormal psychology side and there is no space or time. Your interpretations works better

on the right side and like any good computer, you will need protection to make sure that nothing
unpleasant slips in and stays there. All being well, your left hand brain will take care of what

need to be blocked.”

Tam McCloud coughed lighty. “How did you know Silis what I was thinking, the old goat bit,

sorry about that?”

Silis put on his best smile, “Because my dear you sent me a thought trigger. I should point out

McCloud you have a rare gift so look after it. Now I shall take the air unless someone wants

anything else. No lunch for me please.

Going for a walk in the grounds, going to see Byron's Dog that he buried here when it died.

Bye.”

Before anyone could reply, he opened the door and was gone.

“Did that really happen?”, whispered Tam looking at the closed door then at Julia and Zak.

“On yes Tam that really did happen”, muttered Zak and give a crooked smile.

“Wow! They said he was good, but that was better than good”, whispered Julia, then added,

“Come on, let's plan our first night.”

DOUBTS AND DEMONS.

He sat by the tomb of the past Lord Byron’s dog and reflected on the man.his dog, Newstead

Abbey and Tam. He now knew that Tam the sound person was not the same ‘Tammy’ that met

the big bad wolf in the private hospital but both had been friends for a long time. The one that

met the creature and had lost or misplaced her mind, closed it down, now in a hospital in

Nottingham at Mapperley Top getting little or no treatment that would take her out of her Mind

Tomb.
If she had been here right now, she would have called Tam, the sound person as ‘Tam’,

something they had agreed on a long time ago to avoid confusion for those people who knew

them both.

Silis give a crooked smile and chucked to himself and thought, I might just do something nice

about that when we have finished here. Nottingham was not far from Newstead Abbey and as

‘Tam’ visited her friend Tammy at least every two weeks, he might just turn up at the hospital

and do the business of erasing the nasties in the mindscape of the young woman. How to do it

would be a slight problem but not impossible.

He squinted at the writing on the tomb of the dog and wiped it clean with his hand and then read

it out in a whisper to himself.

‘Near this Spot

are deposited the Remains of one

who possessed Beauty without Vanity,

Strength without Insolence,

Courage without Ferocity,

and all the virtues of Man without his Vices.

This praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery

if inscribed over human Ashes,

is but a just tribute to the Memory of

Boatswain, a Dog

who was born in Newfoundland May 1803

and died at Newstead Nov. 18th, 1808

When some proud Son of Man returns to Earth,

Unknown to Glory, but upheld by Birth,

The sculptor’s art exhausts the pomp of woe,

And storied urns record who rests below.

When all is done, upon the Tomb is seen,

Not what he was, but what he should have been.

But the poor Dog, in life the firmest friend,

The first to welcome, foremost to defend,

Whose honest heart is still his Master’s own,

Who labours, fights, lives, breathes for him alone,

Unhonoured falls, unnoticed all his worth,

Denied in heaven the Soul he held on earth –

While man, vain insect! hopes to be forgiven,

And claims himself a sole exclusive heaven.

Oh man! thou feeble tenant of an hour,

Debased by slavery, or corrupt by power –

Who knows thee well, must quit thee with disgust,

Degraded mass of animated dust!

Thy love is lust, thy friendship all a cheat,

Thy tongue hypocrisy, thy heart deceit!

By nature vile, ennobled but by name,

Each kindred brute might bid thee blush for shame.

Ye, who behold perchance this simple urn,

Pass on – it honours none you wish to mourn.

To mark a friend’s remains these stones arise;

I never knew but one -- and here he lies.’

“ Well said Sir, your love is noted as is the Dog’s for you. A great pity that humans could not

reach out as you did for your dog but then many humans the world over are not in the Being and

have little or no idea how to be a human being because they follow a dying dogma of past and

present religions that are melting away like ice caps.”

His thoughts jumped to Byron as a ten year old boy, and his meeting the ‘wolf-dog’ at dusk at the

edge of the woods next the ruins. He had ran back home tripping and falling over until he rushed

into the kitchen where the staff were getting the main meal ready for guests upstairs. He went

into a faint and Mrs Burns the main cook caught him before he hit the kitchen slabs.

The dog was dismissed as just that, a stray, but not a wolf because all the wolves in England had

been wiped out two hundred years ago and no fox was that size or colour.

But they were wrong, remembered Silis,the whole area was wrong but not about a wolf but

something much worse and it walked among them during the day and it ran hunting at dusk deep

into the night, moon or no moon and killed anything it could find. Then an hour before dawn, she

washed in the stream, her red hair as well and redressed. Then she went to work at the big house

and smiled as she did so, unaware she was happy or sad but aware, she was always hungry.

He heard the light footsteps coming towards him, and he waited not turning around when they

stopped.

He spoke softly, “How is she, your friend,Tammy?”

“Sorry. I didn't mean to intrude in your space Silis. How do you know about her?”

He turned and smiled. “Oh,I pick things up, that sort of weirdo you might say. You ok?”

She shook her head, tears ready to fall. “Mind if I sit down?”

“Big log, plenty of room, nice place to be. I’ll move on and let you….”

She looked up at him, almost begging. “ Tammy and I are great friends, both with the same

Christian names so I pulled the short straw, got more dates than her. That time we met on the

train I was thinking of her so sorry about being rude. I was also a bit frighten of you, you know?”

He chuckled, “Me too. How is Tammy?”

She looked sadly at the old man. “I rang before I came here. It is not good. Seems she had a fit or

something. They asked me did I know if she had a family close by and did I have their phone

numbers, if any. They would not ask that if she was not going to live now would they?”

Silis nodded. “Did they tell you if Tammy was on life-support?”

“No.All they said was that she was ‘poorly’. I don’t have a phone number for her parents and I

only met them twice when they came to see her in the very beginning of her illness. They live

abroad, France or Portugal. How come they did not leave a number with the hospital?”

Silis muttered, “Maybe they did. Anyway don’t you think you should be there right now with her

and if you have stay on, well, so be it. Now I have a suggestion. Tell the gang that you and I are

going to Nottingham, tell them what for and we just go.”

She tilted her head and looked hard at Silis. “Why would you want to do that?”

He held up a finger. “Because I know more than doctors know, I know medical conditions and I

am also useful if staff get pushy or are text book right in their approach. So, do you want me

there or not?”
She threw up her arms in the air. “Lets go Professor!”

“I told you not to call me that. Silis or Uncle Silis will do.”

“I don’t hear you Dr Dolittle. move your bones please.”

Both of them made their excuses to Julia Duff and said they would be back before dusk to launch

their project. She protested of course, like Silis thought she might, and he calmed her down

saying he was going with Tam to see her friend Tammy who was dying. Julia for a moment was

lost for words, blinked twice, held her head and muttered, “Next you will be telling me it will be

alright on the night, the Madam will turn into a frog and hop away, Tam, here has her friend

Tammy is in hospital dying and Tam wants to borrow my car, taking my paid guest with her!”

“Gee Julia. You are a good and kind person. Thanks”, said Tam smiling. “Come on granda, time

to rock and roll.”

Silis looked at Julia holding up his hands and then rolled his eyes and got in the car. Tam

scattered gravel and burnt rubber as she left Julia standing open mouthed with her hands on her

hips.

A chuckling voice behind her made her jump. “Wow boss. All we need now is the loud music of

Bat Out Of Hell blasting out.”

She swung around and glared at Zak. “Don’t do that, don’t say that and don’t tell me you have a

problem with your camaras!”

Zak give his best little boy smile. “No mum. Everything checked and ready to go, Tam is all set

up too and the big man is….”

“She is? Tam and the big man as you call him has fucked off as well to see her friend ‘Tammy’

who is dying in hospital!”

Zak’s smile vanished, “Keep taking the tablets boss or you could have one of my smokes?”

“Just go way little man, back to your cave and stay away from me for at least two hours or I may

have to kill you”, she hissed at him. Zak went back inside the house and she stood there fuming

hot anger.

She now had regrets about the whole project and pondered if she should just stop in now and go

home. The Team was alright but they seemed flat, except for Silis, the man of mystery and like

her father had told her, he knew more about life and death, history, the Universe, religions, cults,

anthropology, archaeology,was well read and had traveled far and wide. She shrugged and

muttered, “And it seems a law unto himself, taking off with Tam to see her friend but for what

reason?”

Julia knew that hard nosed Tam was no one’s fool, small yes but tough and she would spot

‘sexual grooming’ from any man or woman ten miles away.

She frowned, shrugged and walked back into the house dreading the arrival of that woman who

was due to arrive this evening.

THE UNIVERSE WITHIN.

“Why do you do this?”, asked Tam without looking at him,keeping her eyes on the road as she

took a bend and scattering three pheasants that were walking across it.

He grunted. “Well if you cannot take time to help people in this world without a hidden agenda,

you not going to be much use in the next world. Of course many people believe in a ‘next world’

full of souls good and bad , but I do not subscribe to that thinking because if we really knew it

was true then why is the US, France and the Russians panning right now, saber rattling, over the

Middle East and it may come to another war with many more civilians being killed. This is a bad
choice for those sitting back, smug and unwise, more so Christians who think that God shines out

of their arse?”

She went silent for a moment. “You have a nice way with words old man but if you believe that

what the hell are we trying to do at Newstead Abbey?”

His laugh was harsh. “Take your friend Tammy lying in that hospital bed, alone and unaware,

shifted from a mental hospital to an acute medical facility in a teaching hospital. You know what

Tam?”

“Go on then.Tell me.”

“Because it is bad publicity for a mental hospital if a patient dies on site so they find a good

reason to move them. It now becomes a medical case not a mental one and they are off the hook.

Don’t be surprised that your good friend is declared dead by the time we get there.”

“Thanks. You really make me feel much better telling me that!”

Silis folded his arms across his chest and looked out on the countryside passing by. “I’m not here

to make you feel better Tam. Understand that.”

She wiped away a tear and put her foot down. Silis just shrugged.

They walked to the Critical Care Unit side by side and upstairs and stood at the Nursing Desk.

A student nurse looked up, a fixed smile on her thin face.

“Yes. Can I help you?”

Silis jumped in fast. “Yes my name is Professor Silis La DeCote from Munich University. I am

here to see my Grand-daughter Tammy…”

“Oh! Let me get the Ward Manager.”

“Yes please do and also tell him or her that her best friend is here also. Her name is Tam. I
believe my brother and his wife are out of the country at the moment and as a Family member I

had to be here. Also I want the doctor or consulted who is in charge or my granddaughters care

here as well. No. Do not answer that phone. So do what I ask now please!”

“Yes. Please wait.”

The young student nurse scuttled off to the right and into an office.

Tam looked at Silis and his stone like face. “You told me not to call you…”

He glanced sidewards and down at her. “That does not mean that I, cannot used my own

credentials, to the best use when and if the need arises.”

An overweight middle aged woman with glasses waddled towards the desk followed by the

student nurse and a young Asian man at the best speed she could. They stopped in front of Silis

and Tam.

“Mrs Little, Ward manager and Dr Hassam Malikie the doctor in charge.”

She thrust a ham of a hand at Silis who took it and bowed slightly and she did the same with

Tam. “On behalf of the hospital and team here I am sorry for your loss.”

Tam started to take deep breaths. Silis looked at her then looked the doctor in the eyes. “When

did she pass over?”

The young man swallowed twice, fiddled with his striscope around his neck, looked at his watch

then said, “”Around sixteen minutes ago. I confirmed brain death and we did all the tests. She

has been tidied up and…”

“I take it from my informed experience on such matters I take it she was moved to a single room
near the door. curtains drawn and waiting on the porters for removal to the downstairs

mortuary?”

“Yes the student nurse here was just about to ring them at the Porters office”, said Mrs Little now

much redder in the face and neck.

Silis nodded, “And has she had any prayers or last rites said yet.”

It was the student nurse who spoke softly.”We have no record of religion in her file.”

“Let me help you there. She is Jewish and cannot go anywhere until the rites for the dead are

carried out. As I am Jewish as well I am authorised to carry out such rites and I take it there will

not be a post mortem?”

The doctor licked his thin lips then nodded, “Yes, yes of course. No PM needed as she died from

multiple organ failures. As for the prayers that can be done now but but a member of staff must

me present.”

“Mrs Little I am sure could be there unless you have someone else in mind?”

“But I have no knowledge of Hebrew nor does the Doctor here.”

“Ah!”, said Silis holding up a long finger then added, “ The whole prayer ritual will only take a

few minutes, as we have one Christian,one Muslim and Tam here who is on her Yoga Spiritual

path and myself as Jewish. So we must get on because sunset is coming down fast. Onward to

the room please and thank you all for your help in this religious matter.”

The side room was dimmed, and the body lay on a sheet and covered by another except for the

face, a thin face, eyes closed.

Silis walked over the the body, muttering in old Hebrew and stood close then spoke words into

the patients right ear then, watched by all and placed hand flat on Tammy’s cold forehead, paying
all the time. Then he stood back walked to the bottom of the bed and picked up the clipboard

with the notes, scanned it fast, then looked at the doctor and ward manager. “She has the

lAZARUS syndrome.”

They all looked shocked but it was Tam who spoke softly, “Does that mean Professor that

Tammy is….”

“Correct Tam. Let me explain please.

The lazarus syndrome is a real event, it is not a myth. Tammy here is not dead, but she does have

a few cracked ribs due to CPR

her core thempture is low, she has little or no oxygen in her bloodstream and in my informed

opinion for you all here and in the now, you need to hook her up again, keep an eye on her output

on that contraption there, she may looked flat lined but that will come back. Do not give her

100% oxygen, keep it around half. and from the smell from the body, someone neglected her

pressure sores on her lower back and hips as a well as heels where infection has started. So do

not hang about looking like fish in a bowl and Tam here will give you her mobile phone number

so that one of you can text or phone her on her new progress I forcast. In the meantime I have to

be somewhere else but you can stay on here if you want?”

Tam walked over, bent over and kissed Tammy on the forehead and looked at Silis across the bed

and whispered. “Thank you all and we need to go Professor. I’ll ring later.”

Silis smiled. “Keep us informed on her progress.”

Outside Tam stopped Silis in his tracks, a half smile on her face. “Would you mind if I give you a

hug Big Man?”

He smiled back, “Sure but not too hard. Old man bones.”

She did and felt a tingle run through her, then stood back frowning. “Wow! That is some energy
field you have Silis.”

He nodded and laughed. “Sure is small person, sure is.”

They got back to the abbey in good time and as Tam and Silis got out of the car, he nodded at the

others cars.

“It’s here. \the woman who wants to lead the circus and be tested on the project!”

Tam made a face. “Now Silis. Be nice to her.”

“I will of course be nice to her. Oh and by the by and by, do not mention that I said a prayer for

Tam back there. You got that small one?”

Tam shrugged then smiled then nodded. “Would not want to ruin your street credibility Big

Man, but just so you know I thought you were great, are great and thanks again, from both of

us.”

He grunted and ruffled her hair as he passed her, striding with purpose and Tam having to trot

after him at speed, holding back a giggle as she did so.

OUT OF THE DARKNESS.

They sat in candle-light in a half circle, the Medium sat at the end next Zak who looked bored

and read the single sheet of A4 he had been handled. He read it, his lips moving but not even a

whisper."You can see from this sheet I have given you all a number of dead writers that this

project will work with as we carry out tonight

 THE DEAD WRITERS.

Mary Shelley

Edgar Alan Poe

Bram Stoker

Lord Byron

Percy Shelley

, all of which is being recorded, sound and video as you read this.”

He looked at Julia and give a slight nod Silis noted but he was more concerned with the reaction

of one Madam Kossoes, her pale face lit up by bright red lipstick plastered on fat lips, and her

almost black eyes as bright as jet. She looked hard at Silis and he looked back but she did not

miss his bright amber eyes fixed on her and she looked away fast pretending to re-read the sheet

of A4.

She felt very uneasy now, almost fear, and was trying hard to find someway to have an excuse to

leave.

When it came, it hurt inside her skull, a burning pain, like fire, then a harsh whisper, ‘Welcome

to my world and Stroke City,bitch!’

She slipped sideways knocking Zak out of his chair and she fell on top of him, knocking the air

out of his lungs.Julia rushed forward along with Tam and tried to roll the woman off. Breathless,

they waited till Zak stood up, gulping air, his eyes never leaving the dying woman on the floor,

her mouth opening and closing like a landed fish. Silis stood up and looked down at Julia and
Tam muttering,

“No point in CPR unless you want to do it. However you both will have to do mouth to mouth as

well. Oh, Zak here can ring for help, ambulance, whatever?”

Julia glared up at Silis, “That it! All you are going to do?”

He nodded and leaned over Julia’s head but looking at Tam as he whispered,

“Her brain now is a massive blood clot, her mouth is not moving, her heart has stopped beating

and in that case, she is well and truly fucked.”

Tam’s eyes went wide and she tried to protest, “Back at the hospital....”

He lifted a finger to his lips, winked and walked away.

Julia looked hard at Tam and made a face. “Wish I had not included the old bastard. What may I

ask was that finger signal he made to you?”

She avoided looking Julia in the eye. “Private stuff between him and I to do with Tammy’s care.

He helped a lot back at the hospital and Tammy you could say is now in recovery mode. Before

you ask, he said a prayer in Hebrew.”

She snapped back harshly at Tam. “Glory be. He has a one way line to the lord and no doubt

Jesus as well. Oh Boy!”

Tam’s face was ugly with white anger. “This is your project Julia. I’m done!”

“Meaning what exactly?”

“Finished, you got a result, and one dead woman. All you have to do is repeat it, without

someone being dead, and submit your findings to the university. For your information the boys

and girls in blue will also be coming, like coppers, so as head ot the project it is up to you to tell

them what happened here? As soon as she is gone and they are gone I’m packing up and flying
this coup.

“You can’t do that!”

“Watch me Julia. Zak can do what he wants but I want more out of life, much more and I will

have a great teacher because that ‘teacher’ brought my friend Tammy back from…..”

The slow clapping was loud and they all turned and looked at Silis standing in shadow, “from her

coma and she is now back where she belongs. As for you dumping your job. Your life, if need be

I cannot let you do that child because I am a very busy person and don’t have time for a sound

technician. I can’t pay you. As I don’t want you to believe I have money. I don’t Tam, not a

penny to call my own.”

Julia’s eyes went wide and she pointed. “It’s gone. Her body!”

Silis stroked his long beard then smiled, “Indeed it has because she was never here in the first

place, she never came here in a car or as a spirit and the only evidence that something was in this

room, no more than a shadow, was a shape on the cameras.”

“But her car was outside and I did see her!”, protested Tam, the added, “We all seen her.”

Zak came into the room and looked at them, his mouth open. “Hate to tell you all this, but there

is nothing recorded on the camera’s except for a shadow, not the dead lady and just us sitting in

chairs. I fell over, that is there but no …..Where the hell has she gone and why did she not show

up on camera when the rest of us did?”

“You had better cancel the 999 call Zak as someone else may need an ambulance that really

needs one. As you do that I do feel we should go back into the main house and I will explain

more”, said Silis and walked away from them in long strides and out the door.

For a moment they looked at one another then followed one behind the other in silence and lost

in their own thinking.

Zak supped a beer in a chair, Julia stood leaning against a table, Tam sat cross legged on the floor

and on her second whiskey with a thousand yard stare and Silis, sat legs crossed in a sofa chair

that has seen better days drinking nothing but surrounded by a heavy smell of mint that no one

could miss even if they wanted to.

Zak smacked his lips them spoke softly, “Can anyone here tell me what happened in there?”

“A Time warp and you all had apart in it. Julia had a Project to do and funded by the University.

A first the funding was blocked and she started to pack up her office and ready to leave her job,

was going to throw the baby out with the bathwater if you like. Enter on stage one member of

staff, a woman, from the Top Office, and told Julia here, that her funding would now be restored

for what was deemed as a major research project.

Of course Julia as lead, was excited, pleased and had told her father, from Scotland who I should

add was kind enough to offer me shelter out of the snow for the night, even ran me to the station

to get a train running to Edinburgh, a change over, then onto Nottingham. It was on that train I

first met Tam who did not want to have a conversation at all with an old man, so plugged into her

music. Not my sort of music I should add, all noise. Then I was met in Nottingham by Julia and

that is when Tam joined me. She was of course introduced as ‘Tammy’ not ‘Tam’. So we arrived

here, to be joined by Zak in charge of filming recordings, Tam with sound, and Julia had, she

though, been ordered , with conditions, to bring on board a woman who was supposed to be a

medium of sorts and lived local.

What Julia or her boss did not know was that the woman in question had been dead for a month,

a major stroke and already buried in her local churchyard. By the time you all got here, You three

already had it in your heads and minds that something would happen. It did of course, and things

triggered it off, small things at first and you all thought it was real. Well it was, but only because
someone or something was playing mind games and you became trapped in that warp of time

and space. As for the dead Ghost Writers, the only one that may have turned up, was the great

man himself, Lord Byron but no more that a blurred shape, a human shape no less on film. Here

a few seconds then gone just as quick, something but nothing Julia.”

He sat back slowly tapping his lips with a finger waiting, his amber eyes glowed for a moment as

he took each face in turn. He noted Julia’s eyes became hard and cold, Tam was now very alert

and Zak looked laid back without a care in the world and farted loudly.

The old clock behind them stopped ticking. All three turned to look at it and when they turned

back the sofa chair was empty and Silis was gone.

Zak got up frowning, and walked to the sofa chair and put his hand on it, then addressed Julia

and Tam. “Stone cold, no body heat but it stinks of mint!”

Julia Duff snorted and threw her arms up in the air and she had paled. “I’m done, Pack

everything up,and in the morning we leave. This project is dead!”

Zak shot a glance at Tam. “What about Tam and I boss?”

She turned her back on them and muttered harshly “I’ll pay you before I leave but it won’t be

cash, then load all the gear in my car, turn up for work Monday but I will be on self imposed

gardening duties and I won’t be back. Ever!”

TWISTS,TURNS AND CIRCLES.

Tam stood smoking as Julia and Zak came out of the house and as Julia put her bag in the car,

Zak walked over to Tam and hugged her tight.

“Keep in touch Tam. Might see you Monday?”

She shook her head, blinking away tears. “No. I want to do something new now. How is she?”

“Oh, you know. No fight left in her or a wish to stay at the University. She is my friend, on burn

out.”

She hugged him goodbye and walked to her car as Zak climbed into Julia’s car. She looked at the

car speeding down the drive and shrugged. “No job,no Silis and just enough dough now for rent

for a few months.”

She jumped when she heard his voice.”Oh poor baby all sad and feeling sorry for herself again.”

She turned around and scanned the landscape. “Where the hell are you big man?”

“In the back of your car small one, so let’s go.”

She bent down and looked in and he smiled at her, his yellow teeth showing.

“You old bastard. I thought you had gone!”

“Not ready yet to be gone, or die, or vanish into the blue. Indeed not. Now can we go please.”

She got in and belted up then turned and looked at him with burning eyes of anger. “Where to!”

“The Seaside. West coast of Wales.”

She rolled her eyes, turned and started the car and drove off at speed and down the drive to the

main road. I’m mad. Stupid and yet I am doing it, she thought and turned left and headed West.

Silis put his head back, closed his eyes from bright sunlight, but thinking and not sleeping. He

ran Tam’s known profile through his mind scape; loyal to a fault, has anger when needed,

educated, all in the wrong subjects, small in build, hungry for knowledge, human being rather

than just a human robot, young, and no one’s fool.

She had of course many human being bad points, he thought, like loud music that was to his
hearing, just noise, not well read but I may change that, stubborn and would dig her heels in if

she thought she was right, crafty as a fox when needed, a bit vain at times, moaned a lot,

muttered under her breath at times, had courage that could get her into deep trouble if she was

angry, but then I, also have to learn to control my anger, takes many showers, won’t eat red meat

if it is still moving, unless of course….Tam, by mistake or design becomes one of them like Julia

Hoffman did then he would have to deactivate her on a permanent basis?

She shot him a glance her eyes wide. “Would you really kill me?”

He turned his head and opened one eye then nodded,”I would have no choice.”

She looked ahead as the countryside opened up lips tight then, “And this Hoffman woman,who

was she?”

His other eye opened and both turned amber. His face was set in stone.

“Someone Tam you never want to meet, day or night, pure evil, no real feelings and her body

may be dead but what was inside her is trapped in her home, I wish.”

Tam blinked away tears, bit her lip and muttered, “So how will I know Silis, how will you know

that I have…?”

“I’ll know. You will know when you like the dark and the smell of warm meat and then kill.”

She swallowed hard. “I think when we get where you want to go, I’ll drop you off then head

back to Nottingham and go see Tammy. I won’t be coming back Silis and that is a fact. I thought

I could handle this adventure but after what I just heard I can’t handle it.”

They were silent for the last mile and when they reached Barmouth he said softly, “Pull in here.”

She pulled into a space next to a boarding house that overlooked the sea and switched off the

engine. She sat looking straight ahead as he spoke.

“I need you to do one more thing for me before you go. Take this”, thrusting a wad of money

into her lap then continued, “Book me in there for two weeks, single room as your ‘grandfather’.

Use my name,and then take what is left of the money and go home Tam.”

She looked at the money with its paper band on it. “ One thousand K is a lot of money and for

this place Silis you would pay no more than six hundred quid for a room here and still have

change. Fifty pound notes, all new, where did you get them?”

He held up a bank card waving it. “Here check it for yourself?”

She snatched it off him, checked the date, the name, the bank name, the number and glared at

him. “You never told me you had a bank account?”

“Three in fact. Two offshore. In total, 15.4 million. A sinful amount I know but gathered up over

the many years. I can walk into any bank with any of my cards, draw cash, or if I need a lot, go

in order in in the morning and they will have it ready and packed in a case by closing time.”

She made a face. “You trying to impress me big man?”

He smiled and shook his head. “No. Far from it. So,shall we go in, sort my room and you head

off and with the rest of the money you can get a brand new car. Ah, time moves on, I forgot. Take

my card, buy your new car, pay for it, post the card back to this address and good luck for the

future.”

Her mouth dropped open. “You trust me with this card and with that amount of money! You are

really crazy Silis, right out of your tree.”

He smiled again. The PIN number is easy to remember. 0666.”

She grunted, peeled off some money, placed the rest in her shoulder bag, snapped the card off

him and placed that in her purse and got out of the car.
He slammed the car door and followed her into the reception, nodding at people as he passed,

and feeling that real trust is a risk, but a risk worth taking. otherwise you have nothing.

The large woman behind reception smiled at them both. “How can I help you both?”

Tam put on her best smile. “I would like to book in my Grandfather Silis here for two weeks, he

needs the sea air, looks after himself and can get around. I’ll pay cash for him.Single room.”

The landlady's eyes went wide when she seen the fifty pound notes laid out in front of her. Tam

looked the woman in the eyes. “That should be enough.”

“Oh, yes of course. More than enough”, reaching for the six fifty pound notes.

Tam reached out and placed her hands on the money and leaned over and whispered in the

woman’s ear, “He will eat out but will need a key to get in the front door and his room of course,

so if there is any extras. he will sort it before he leaves. He does not drink booze, likes water, and

will be no trouble.Ok?”

The landlady looked from Tam to Silis. “Please sign in while I get you the keys.”

Tam handed him the pen, kissed him on the cheek and said so she would be overheard. “I’ll

forward any mail onto you and one letter that will be recorded delivery Grandpa so be good

enjoy yourself and take care. Bye.”

“Mrs Rita Coots at your service Mr Silis La Cote. Room seven, overlooking the sea.

Oh, your luggage.”

“Fear not kind lady, for I am here for another purpose unknown to my granddaughter and that is

to buy a home, somewhere overlooking the sea and in its own grounds. Not large. As for luggage

I am also going shopping in Barmouth so will get enough to see me through for the two weeks.

After all one does not need a lot while on holiday, does one?”
She nodded, smiled and said in a bright voice, “Too right. Follow me.”

Tam pulled into a garage and eating place, went inside and the smell of food made her stomach

rumble. Pee first, food and drink then fill up car and back to Tammy’s pad, she thought. She

headed to the Ladies, deep in thought and found she was thinking of Silis, his bank card in her

bag and in her head, the pin number.

A woman and child at a table looked at her as she passed mumbling to herself,

“He is a damn fool, handing me his bank card, trusting me when I don’t trust him. and on top of

that I don’t know what he is or for that matter, who he is.”

The boy waited till Tam went into the toilet then looked across the table at his mother. “Mum

who was she talking to?”

The fair haired woman took another bite of her burger, chewed on it then swallowed before

answering. “Some people, big people, are like that, not well in the head and you stay clear of

them if you can. Sometimes they get angry and well, like your Dad, hurt people.”

“They way daddy hurt you Mum?”

She nodded, took another bite, a large bite then started to cough, choke, first going red in the

face, then purple, her eyes wide.

“Mum!”

The mother waved her hands in the air, like a feeble butterfly and before the boy knew it the

crazy lady was behind her and pulling her hard.

“Leave my mum alone!”

“Sit there, shut up and be good little man.”

When the food came out of the woman’s mouth it dropped to the floor and Tam reached for the

boys coke tin. “Here, sip this, slowly lady then sit and chill.”

The woman nodded and did what she was told. The boy looked from his mother to Tam and

muttered, “Wow, that was cool. You a superhero lady?”

Tam smiled, “Something like that, when needed.”

The woman turned her head and looked up at her trying to smile, “Thank you for that I was

choking, could not get a breath.”

“I know. You got a son there that needs you so lose weight and get off the burgers or you won’t

live to see him when he is a man. Take care. I need to eat Bye.”

She turned away from the woman and boy, feeling mortified she just said that and found a corner

all to herself then ordered a meal of fish and chips and a large coffee. As she ate her meal she

watched the woman and the child walking to their car and before the woman got into the car, she

waved once back to where Tam was sitting.

Tam held her gaze for a moment then looked away wondering why she did what she did and

maybe saved the fat woman’s life. A human thing, she thought, maybe even a weakness and I

need to do something about this anger that comes up.

Here I am stuffing my face and I don’t really want to eat it. In fact I no longer feel hungry and

pushed the plate away. She stood up and was leaving when the woman behind the food counter

said, “You finished?”

“Not hungry. Thanks”, and walked away towards the door. She had it half open when she heard

the voice close behind her.

“You saved the fat lady’s life doing what you did.”
She turned fast but there was no one there. For a moment she was alarmed then took a deep

breath and walked to the car and frowned at it. It had been moved from where she had left it. She

tried the doors. Locked,

Looking around her, she scanned the small car park. Two trucks with the drivers sitting in them,

a motorbike, a few birds picking up scraps off the ground and the hissing of traffic on the

motorway. She felt her stomach heave and brought up the small amount of food she had already

eaten. For a few moments later she gagged but nothing else came up and she felt dizzy, wiped

her mouth with a tissue she had crumpled in her pocket. She muttered, “Oh shit!”

She sat in the car, eyes closed and drifted off into sleep.Then without knowing it, she drifted into

a deep coma, her heartbeat slowing down to three beats a minute but strong. Then it stopped.

Rain fell hard, a heavy night rain from a dark night sky, forked lightning in pink, green and

silver, cut fingers in the clouds as the young woman police officer walked to the car, followed

my massive thunder claps. The officer, Tess Hardey hated thunderstorms ever since she was a

child, she hated being out in the wet darkness right now in an empty car park of a closed garage

and cafe with no lights on, she was beginning to hate night duty. PC Tess Hardey. number 9292

was on her nighty routine patrol of her patch and when she came in to the car park, her

headlights had picked up the car.

She pressed her black moon face close to the window on the drivers side and wiped the glass

then used her torch to see inside.

“Oh shit!”, seeing the face of a young woman leaning back in the seat, mouth open. She reached

for the door handle and twisted. Not locked, she thought and reached out to find a pulse on the

neck and jumped back when a voice with an edge on it hissed almost in her face.

“I don’t know who you are but touch me again and I will bite your fucking hand off!”
“Police. WPC Hardy. Are you ok?”

The lips moved and the voice was back to normal. She kept her eyes closed as she spoke. “Yes.

Fell asleep after a long journey.”

“Can you open your eyes please?”

When the eyes opened, and the head turned sideways, the officer almost jumped back because

the light of the torch made the amber coloured eyes shine. There was a single trickle of blood on

the nose and lips and a few drops lay flat over Tam’s right breast.

“Name please/”

“Tam McCloud and I am staying in my friends apartment in Nottingham, Castle Drive, the

House name is Camalot, number sixteen. I work at Nottingham University, Psychology

Department, until a few days ago. my line manager was Julia Duff, I lost my virginity when I

was sixteen to a boy who’s name I have forgotten, Not married, have no children and am

straight.”

Officer Hardy raised an eyebrow. “Too much information Miss McCloud. You have had a nose

bleed I should add. Have you been drinking?”

“No I don’t drink and drive. Not ever.”

“Ok, I just thought of all the mint spray in the car…”

“Mint. Oh no that is normal for me.”

“Would you mind doing a breathalyzer Miss?”

A flash of lightning raked the sky above lighting up the car and two people followed by a

massive rumbling crash. For a moment the woman police officer seen Tam’s face, blinked and

stepped away from the car muttering loudly.

“If your are ok, we let it go. Take care. Thanks and bye!”

Tam frowned, took deep breaths looked at her watch and found it stopped.

The dashboard clock was also stopped. Can’t be, she thought. She tried a mind wind-back, Silis,

Tammy, Zak, Julia Duff. All ok there. Sitting in the dark car she knew something was not right.

She switched on the interior light, pulled down the mirror and looked into it.

“Oh shit, this can’t be!”

She knew now what was going on, she knew that Silis was gone, at least in body form and she

also knew that she had lost time, no remembrance of even what day it was.

Slowly she turned and looked in the back seat area and there was a black hat and inside the hat, a

tattered book written in Latin, full of symbols and signs, dog eared pages marked. None of the

pages were paper and all the writing had been written by hand. She opened the first page and

written in bright red ink was the author's name and the date; SILIS. ^ 7599 BC.

Her mouth fell open and she shouted, “You can’t do this to me, not ever, not now, you can’t leave

me hanging, alone, without you!”

She slowly picked up the black hat, and sniffed it. Mint.

Tam controlled her breathing, as she scanned the dark car park, looking for any movement, and

all she seen was the redlights of the police car slowly turning right onto the main road. She

looked to her right where the shop was, and noted quickly that the doorway was more behind her

left shoulder than it was when she parked the car, even more so when she thought it was in the
first place. Frowning, she turned the key and looked at the petrol gauge and found it full when

she drove in here it was on red. Did I fill it before I went into pee or eat?

She shook her head hard. No, I stopped the car, locked it, went in,went to the toilet, had

something to eat, a fat lady started to choke, her child alarmed when she grabbed the woman

from behind, could not finish her meal, came out, was sick, went in, put her head back, went to

sleep, had weird dreams that she could not remember, cop knocking on the window and then

opened the door….I locked the car doors, I know I did, she thought.

Don’t forget your new eyes. She looked again, yes, amber.

Her eyes drifted down to the date and time. The clock had also stopped, the date blinked back at

her, ‘5/6/2018’

She dug her fingers into her hand hard. It hurt. She did fast maths.

“Nine days. No way have I been sitting in this car for nine fucking days with people and cars

coming and going during the day, not peeing or pooping, not drinking or eating!”

She switched on the radio. BBC news, music, local news, all working.

She switched everything off, got out of the car, kicked the wheel hard and hurt her foot. The pain

made her realise that she was not dead, and human but that she was not the same person that

drove in here.

She muttered, “and this missing time, where was I, the car, the black hat in the seat, the book?”

She walked around the car three times, checking the wheels with the torch from her phone.

Nothing.

She almost dropped the phone when a message came in loudly. She read it twice and then leaned

against the wet car and slid down it slowly sobbing.

‘Silis says,not to worry about me, as I passed over this morning at the hour of the wolf,02.00am.

Love you always. Tammy’

A cold wet dawn was coming in, birds singing it in before Tam got to her feet and climbed into

the car, numb with cold and sadness. She pushed down her pain and anger, started the car and

drove off, not even aware where she would be going or cared.

IF YOU GO DOWN IN THE WOODS TONIGHT.

DON’T LOOK, DON’T TALK.BUT RUN

AND WHATEVER ELSE YOU DO, DON’T LOOK BACK!

ONE MONTH LATER.

Tam McCloud came out of the boarding house in Barmouth to see if Silis had left anything, a

letter, bag or a note. The landlady was more than a little put out when she told Tam that he said

goodbye, shook her by the hand and left with his bag but for some reason was not wearing his

black hat. A day later, she had been informed while in the town that an old man had stripped

down, nude, and walked into the sea and the outgoing tide. A man and a woman walking their

dogs said that he was carrying a bag with a black coat slung over it, walked till he was chest deep

and dived into the current and was gone. Two days later the bag and his coat were washed up at

high tide at Fairview, a body, such as it was,found a mile on and the beach closed off by the

police, minus its head. Police said that the remains recovered could not be identified to be male
or female and there was nothing in the bag or pockets of the black coat. No shoes, underwear,

socks, car keys, house keys were recovered. The landlady had informed the police of course but

she could not identify the coat or bag due to saltwater damage. The police informed her that it

was very unlikely it was the old gentlemen who stayed for a few days, and she had informed

them if they found a gold earring on his right ear, that would be him. The two officers had looked

at one another for a moment and shook their heads, the older one keeping a straight face and told

her that no such ring had been found and they did not mention the missing head.

Tam almost smiled, “You used the old man’s body as a host, God only knows what his real name

was, where he came from, and who will claim the remains.”

She knew she was being watched from the window of the Guest House as she walked to the

Range Rover, its black colour reflecting the hot sun. She turned and looked at the woman behind

the curtain, placed the black hat on her head and saluted once. She drove for a mile, stopped in a

crowded seaside car park, found a space and slid into it neatly. Gulls and the happy laughter of

children greeted her as she walked along the sand, stopped and looked up at the wooded hillside

where the house was. It was on its own, great view, own grounds but puzzled why Silis ever

bought it in the first place, why he left it to her in a rushed Will drawn up by a seedy looking

solicitor in the town who handed her the keys, after he read the short will and had handed her a

sealed letter confirming that she was the new owner of house and land. There was however a

provision and that was she had to live in it.

The keys she held had three in number, one large one for the front door, a smaller one for the

back, and a small padlock key that she had no idea yet what for. Tam opened the door and could

smell the dust, and staleness inside,and brushed away a single spiders web as she stepped in. She

looked back at the Range Rover, shrugged and left it unlocked and also left the front door open

to air the space.

Inside was bare, not a stick, chair, table but on the hallway floor, a pile of scattered junk mail.
Her eyes took in the bright sunlight coming into a large empty ‘L-shaped’ kitchen through a

dusty window and lighting up the work surface. She walked over to the sink and looked down at

it. White, large and spotless.

She reached out and turned on the taps and let them run for a while as she set her small rucksack

on the work surface. She looked out the large garden and grunted, “Nice, plants, no lawn, trees in

the background and high wooden fence.”

With a quick movement she flicked off the taps and stood and listened. A few slow drops of

water,in the sink, a small pack of noisy jackdaws calling somewhere, the distant horn of a train

somewhere down in the valley, that echoed.

For the next fifteen minutes she explored the rooms, all bare, opened built in cupboard doors,

more doors under the sink and above it. In one, she found a cracked mug, in another a buy of the

shelf salt and pepper that was still unopened, a pressdown waste bin under the sink that rattled

when opened. In what she took to be the main room four large empty bookshelves, but otherwise

empty.

The bathroom was simple, a dated shower, a loo, small bath with a dried out bar of soap it, and a

fly spotted mirror. She flushed the toilet, then put the wooden lid down and sat on it pondering

her next move.

“I could live here Silis wherever you are so thank you for it and the cash. That does not tell me

however what I am going to do with it or what to put in it. Like I left Tammy’s pad which was

small and you could not swing a cat in it.”

She rolled her eyes and sighed. “Why am I talking to myself!”

An hour later the sun had gone copper coloured and slowly slipping down the sky as she brought

the last of her stuff in from the back of her car.

The one worn camp chair she placed in the kitchen along with a small radio. Her trusty sleeping

ex-army bag she placed in a corner or the kitchen,large torch left on the work surface, two

cardboard boxes of food she bought in Barmouth, milk she placed in cold water in one of her

many small pots, two bags of clothing she dumped in the living room along with shoes and

walking boots and the rest she decided to leave till tomorrow.

She found the fuse boxes under the stairs and pulled the main switch and shouted loudly, “Let

there be light and there was!”

Checking that the kettle worked she sat in the camp chair and sipped a large whiskey from one of

the two bottles she had bought and lit a cigarette and blew smoke rings over her head.

As dusk fell, the first bats of the evening were out and a Tawny owl called.

The adventure go's on,she thought,as her eyes closed childlike.

Her dreams became more vivid,more disturbing and her dreamscape jumped from good to

downright pure hard core of nightmare horror, shades, shadows and then red in nature, An

aircraft flying over the Alps, and stopped for a second, tilted and dropped from the sky like a one

winged bird into the waters of Lake Geneva and broke up, the round face of a dead face of a

dead man who was captured on a phone camera just seconds before as he was shot in

Washington USA,his blond hair bloody and wet fell down over his face as the single high

powered bullet removed the top part of his skull, the woman who was running through a wood

like you see on any horror movie only this time it was real and in India, the jungle trying to

protect her, but failed as the tiger took her down, grabbed her by the throat and held onto her till

she stopped kicking and breathing.

Something or someone touched Tam in her sleep and her eyes shot open and she seen the human

shape in the darkness of the house leaning above her, Her foot came up fast and she kicked
sideways hard in survival mofe, felt the connection to a face or headm rolled off the sofa chair

and took another kick at the person on their knees and heard the grunt and then the scream of

pain.

“Christ Tam, what the fuck are you doing!”

“Oh God. Zak!”

She switched on the lamp to see one of her best friends on the floor, his nose and mouth

bleeding. “Zak I’m so sorry. I thought you were,,,,”

“A fucking Russian commando with a knife who wanted to rape you!”

“Let me help you up.”

Zak held up a bloody hand in protest. “Please don’t, I can still walk and I don’t want that to

change Tam, I’ll leave. You can help me on with my rucksack and I will be on the way.”

Tam shook her head, “No I will clean you up, have chicken and cheese, whiskey, beer and’’......

“Tam I want to go while I still can. Back off!”

She noted that Zak was more than frightened, he was terrified of her, Zak her best male friend

was looking at her with his eyes wide and teeth clenched.

Shit, what have I done!

“Wana see my tits Zak?”

Zak’s mouth fell open in surprise and shock. No way was this real, he thought holding up a

hand.”No I don’t want to see you fucking tits Tam and what the hell has happened to you since

you left Newstead Abbey?”

“I’ll tell you over a large whiskey, and as there is no chairs at the moment or a bed you can kip
on the floor with me for the night. I really am sorry that I reacted the way I did. I also have cold

chicken and we can share.”

For a moment there was a hint of a smile on his bruised lips then he grunted and a slight nod that

she took as a ‘yes’

“Whisky first please, chicken next and then you tell me from the start,the truth of how you ended

up in a big house with many eyes, half way up a rock face, looking down at the town and the sea

and why you did not lock the front door so I came on in and got clobbered for my trouble.”

“Deal.Let me get you that drink, and a plate of chicken and I will talk.”

Zak held up a finger. “And you will show me your bunnies of course?”

“Don’t push it Zak. When I feel the time is right I might.”

Zak looked sideways at her and smiled, “That’s me Tam, Lucky Zak.”

She reached over and lifted the bottle and filled her tin mug then pushed the bottle at him. “My

house, my mug, my whiskey and a plate of my chicken for Zak. So shut up, eat and drink.”

TRUTHS AND HALF TRUTHS AND WHITE LIES.

I missed it all, Zak thought,lifting the flap of his sleeping bag and looking down his nude

body,fighting the drumming in his pounding head. He looked across at the the bare thin

shoulders of Tam outlinded in dawn sunlight. He could hear the gulls outside the house, with

their mewing calls, and sometimes sounding like they were laughing at him. Her sleeping voice

purred at him,’’You awake?”

‘’Uhug,dead more like it!’’

‘’Coffee please darling,black,no sugar,tin mug,kettle works,thanks.’’

Zak stood in the almost warm shower, his mind racing, eyes shut tight and his heart beating hard.

What Tam McCloud had told him this morning about Silis and her,frightened him to the core, the

house.her new wheels but most of all her new implanted mindscape. When she later suggested he

should stay awhile and help her sort the house out with her. Everything they would need was

being delivered from Barmouth around noon including food, his eyes shot open. Two beds,he

remembered, a single for him and a double for her. He switched off the shower and stood

dripping but he jumped when he heard her voice.

‘’Hi Zak,we need to rock and roll.Breakfast on the seafront.’’

‘’Do I have too’’

‘’ Two minutes. I’ll be in the car’

The town of Barmouth was not busy,half term was over,except for locals who would be getting

ready for the main holidaymakers from July onwards. Tam noted however that there were a

number of aged grey heads with their dogs.

As far as Zak was concerned this type of shopping was boring and did his head in.So far Tam

had dragged him around five shops into a coffee shop for an on the run breakfast and then onto a

bank to sort some paperwork out as he stood outside smoking. When she came out she looked at

her watch and ushered him back to the carpark and into the land rover.

“We in a hurry small girl or is it just sex you want!”

“In a hurry, They are all coming at the one time, the stuff to sit on a table. sofa, two beds, and all

the next nacks that go with it. Two computers, both new one a laptop to be set up when the Wifi

box has been set up and that part is your job, food van delivery has a arrived, had a text, fridge
freezer man on his way, that is my job, you sort out the food into the fridge and freezer

compartment!”

“Don’t mind me asking Tam but are you not supposed to have the freezer switched on first and

run for at least an hour before you use it?”

She changed into third gear and took the car fast up the hill to her new home, skidded to a halt

where two vans were parked and one coming in behind her.

“List Zak, do as I have ask you to do, act cool and this too will pass.”

“Sure it will boss, no sweat but my back will not take to heavy lifting. Thought I should mention

that.”

HOME SWEET HOME.

It was after six when the last van left and she closed the door over and slid down it and took the

beer that Zak handed her then sat beside her and drank beer.

She blew beer froth of her lips and looked at him. “You did ok, like good I did too though I think

I was over the top with the tips. Wadda you think?”

Zak laughed, “OTT I would say,five men who were getting paid anyway and you bless them all

with a twenty quid note.”

She shrugged, “They put the beds upstairs, wardrobes in place, freezer and dishwasher up and

running, washer in the kitchen as well, TV on the wall, phone switched on, Wifi box on and

working and took all the cardboard away with them.

I call that a good deal Zak my man,”

Zak looked at his watch and smirked. Tam did not miss the meaning. ,”EE, Lad,enjoy your nice

new single bed.”

His face dropped and he nodded, “Well I best update my laptop seeing we are online. No don’t

ask I remembered the code. check emails, that sort of thing so what are you upto Tam?”

She smiled sweetly at him patted him on the head as she headed for the bath and closed over the

door.

Zak looked at the closing door as he waited for the laptop to boot up and wondered how she

changed from a ‘mouse’ to a ‘tiger’ with claws and he knew she had a good heart but it seemed

to go cold at times,like now. He checked his email first. ‘You need cover for..Spam, Google play

has a new office just,Spam, Your account has been updated. He frowned, sweating a little, his

name came up, he put in his password and he was into his account and his mouth fell open. He

looked at the balance again, his mouth open. He should have been in the red a little but the

balance in figures did not lie. Someone had arranged to have £50.000 transferred to him this

morning at 10.55 am. “Oh my grannys knickers!”

It picked up his mobile and rang the Bank number, give his account number and answered the

hidden question and with three minutes the woman on the other confirmed it was right and true.

“Do you have a name of the person who made the transfer please?”

“One moment Sir. Yes it was made in Barmouth, Wales by A Miss Tammy McCloud at 10.55am

tAhis morning.”

Shocked, he swallowed hard and almost whispered , ‘Thank you. bye.’

He switched the laptop off and got up slowly and went to the bathroom door and knocked hard.

“Tam. we need to talk!”

All he could hear was the sound of bubbles and giggling then more bubbles.

“Tam!”
“You sound cross.”

“Confused more like. You put money in my account?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“A year’s pay.Welcome to the Phoenix Detective Agency Zak. There will be three more people

here in the morning, two twin sisters Babs and Deb Woods, and a tall dark stranger from Ireland.

ex Irish Police Officer called Marie Doohan, but a word to the wise, don’t mess with her. She is

your partner in crime and our investigations and bringing with her our Detective Licence, an

Irish one and a lot of good and useful skills. The ‘mad sisters’ of course are office bods, while

you dear man are being paid to work with Marie and me. She gets the same as you,while Babs

and Deb get half of that. Now go away I want to blow more bubbles and think on it. You don’t

have to take the job if you don’t want to. Bye.”

THUNDER CLOUDS.

Zak met the twins at the front door and shook their hands. determined that he would not call

‘Babs’ ‘Debs’ and thought they would not pull the wool over his eyes. They were tall, red haired,

and almost reed like in body shape. Babs had one blue eye, the other, green while Debs has the

brightest blue eyes he had ever seen and an honest stare that went with them. They had great

smiles but Zak told himself he did not fancy either one, no sir, and would not waste his charm

chasing them.

He took them up and showed them their rooms and left them to choose which one they wanted

and heard them giggling and smiled thinking, ‘Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dee and fucking

Alice from the Wonderland of Ireland’

The doorbell rang as he came off the staircase and he opened it and standing there was a tall well
built woman,attractive, hair in a ponytail which was the colour of a Raven’s wing and a large

smile. He noted quickly that her eyes were bright pale blue.

“Hi there. I’m Marie Doohan. Before you ask I am from Donegal but I worked in Dublin. You?”

“No I have never been there.Oh, sorry. I’m Zak”, holding out his hand which she grabbed in a

tight grip and almost crunched the bones. “Gee Marie, that is a hell of a grip!”

The smiled faded slowly and she almost whispered, “Yes so I have been told when I used to grab

the Dublin trash at night in a bar or in O'Connell Street by the balls and led them to the car, put

them in the back and got in and read them their rights which went something like this Zal, You

are under arrest you do not have to answer questions but less painful if you do, you get a lawdog

when I say so and if needed, and as you are trash, not human, have no sign of remorse, yet, you

therefore have no legal rights when you are with me. Got that!”

Zak rolled his eyes and half smiled, “Sure, I bet they did too. Need a hand with you gear Marie,

from the car I mean?”

She looked back at the black van with the smoked windows then turned back to Zak. “That is not

a car, but a war waggon.”

Zak swallowed twice. “Oh, that’s nice. Looks new?”

“It is. New.”

Zak and Marie turned at the sound of Tam’s voice. “Well,well, nice to see you two have met

seeing you will be working together. Hi Irish see you lost your rugby fat!”

She passed Zak and threw herself into Marie’s arms and was in a bear hug and lifted high into

the air, “Got you short arse!”

The big woman set Tam down and they both laughed and Marie waved at the hallway. “All yours
then Tam?”

“Lock stock and smoking barrels. Come on in. Zak will show you your room. coffee with

whiskey I guess. coffee for Zak and I, and then we will get you settled and talk. You ok with that

Zak?” Zak shrugged, smiled and muttered,”I’m cool.”

THE ANTHROPOLOGY CODEX.

The University room was large, as was the table that six people sat around with the pathology

and forensics report in front of them. All were stone faced until the overhead projector was

switched off and the lights switched on by Professor Helen Webb, the Director of the New

Project and also chairing the meeting.

Outside it was moonless and dark,with rain and wind hitting the large window on the right and

Webb took her seat at the head of the table, adjusted her glasses and looked at the people on each

side of her.

“ So now you know what was found on the beach, a human body and you have had two weeks to

get a report to each, a basic report I will admit. You are supposed to be the best of the best from

all the good and respected Universities in the UK and Ireland. You have seen a few minutes ago

video footage of the body, the post mortem, and in front of you the police and Forensics Reports.

You also have tissue samples sent to your departments for your own independent research and

findings that no one, not even I, know about as yet. All five of you will present your findings this

evening. Lets us start, and keep in mind what you hear in here and see, stays here and I want you

to respect that. Dr Alice Cooper will get the ball rolling.”

Alice Cooper stood up, a pretty women, black and flashing eyes.

“First off. in my findings and research, I did not just find one DNA chain that I could link to the

Middle East and rare, but also of another sample that without doubt now, linked to a marine

mammal of sorts, from contact to the body. I have ruled out seals, otters,members of the whale
family. There were also traces of fish scales, species unknown at the moment. However as there

were no eyes in the corpse,lips and ears missing which I put down to feeding such as by sea eels,

fish, crabs and other small creature. I noted from the PM reports that there were no internal

organs when the body was discovered, no evidence of Blue Shark or Mako Shark attack. The

brain I noted was shriveled to the size of an apple, the teeth were rotten, suggesting long term

disease over many years. It was also noted in the forensic report that no fingerprints were found

but the feet did have some ridges. It has been suggested that the male body was alive and in a

B+B house in Barmouth went out and did not come back. In my informed opinion,this I deem

impossible by the state of the remains found in the sea and on the beach.

Somehow the ID by the police was wrong and the evidence to suggest suicide in the timeline

factor is also not possible. The body was not alive when it was put into the water nor was it in the

water for more than a week.”

She sat down and there were intakes of breath by a number of people and all looked hard at Alice

Cooper who avoided their eyes.

Helen Webb pointed at an older man, with a black patch over his right eye, Jack Dean

rose,smiled and nodded. “Jack Dean by name, Dean of Zoology at a University in Belfast so that

is two Dean’s you will have to contend with as I read my report. If you are worried by the eye

patch, don’t be. I lost that eye at the nest of a Long Eared Owl when trying to put rings on her

young, and paid the price twenty years ago.”

He coughed lightly looked at each and everyone of them, smiled then, “I am not going to go over

the PM reports except to say I am more than disappointed that no one thought of getting a feces

sample and though all the main organs were missing, but poop or shit would have helped in what

was eaten in the past, if anything. From my own research, I am going along the road that

whatever was inside the body before death, was alive and suggest a parasite of an unknown

species so far. Now before you start thinking I am of my rocker, mad as a hatter, or worse I want
you to rule out Aliens and bloody UFOs that are trying to take over human kind. Nothing from

deep space, but much closer to home and if plastic can get into seafood and mussels, as well as

raditionaction pollution in the sea, then it could get into a mammal or human as well as other

creatures over time, changing the DNA chain, causing mutations world wide.That suggests to

me, that our problem is not from above but in our seas. We have been dumping Radioactive

waste in our seas as well as other harmful waste for many years now. This is happening all

around the world even now. Trust me on that and it is and can cause genetic damage to every life

form. You may well ponder what all this is to do with a body on a beach but that body was so

old, and I mean old, that I found unknown bacteria dead of course, that could not be found in any

text book today.”

He paused for a moment, looked at his notes then smiled.

“This is an unknown species but is closely linked to a number of saltwater species found only in

warm seas of Cyprus and in the waters of Southern Italy which suggest to me frankly, the so

called body on the beach, had Meditrain links. Though I could not find a name or photographs of

it,I was however able to get enough of it for dating, thanks to my University and they having

friends in high places to carry out the tests. Four tests were carried out, one was contaminated,

three came back as positive to my surprise and all dated thus; 3500-2000 BC.

Not possible you may well think or want to dismiss as a mistake in the data but a sample taken

from a vein in the left leg, very dry and dead blood at that, was resampled with the same results.”

He stopped, waited, raised his bushy eyebrows then softly spoke,”One of those resubmitted

samples were taken where the teeth should have been and the same result. It came with jaw bone

samples and as there was no evidence of teeth or roots, the sliver of bone also give the same

answer of dating. Thank you.”

He slowly lowered his bottom back on the chair, took a sip of water then sat back waiting
counting from one to ten in his head.

The deep silence followed and there wa no shuffling of feet or paper then Helen Webb frowned

at Dr Jack Dean for a moment then looked at Marcus Pool and nodded at him.

Pool a thin man, bald head and glasses stood up, looking rather flustered as he did so.

“My name is Marcus Pool and my findings are very similar to Dr Jack Dean who has just read

his report. Though a little miffed that some of my thunder may have been stolen, or very similar

to mine I have great respect for his knowledge and past research. Jack Dean is no fool and as I

also do some work for NASA at times checking what bugs and bacteria may have come back to

earth on re-entry, on and in the craft and also on any rock samples, soil samples, and on the crew.

We do not know all of the bacteria here on earth, may never will or what is up there, but bacteria

can mutate, as well know, a new species cannot ever be ruled out.

What I would like to say is that the remains on the beach had no organs inside the body when it

went for the Post, and that suggests, because of no evidence of any surgical removal, the body or

remains, may well have been ingested by a bacteria from the inside out. However in this case, it

was not a fast process and I say this to you that the body of the dead man was just a home or

habitat for an unknown host. Thank you.”

Webb waited till Pool was seated again then looked down at the last two names on her sheet.

She bit her lip and looked across to the man in the suit with white shirt and tie and nodded.

He stood up, slightly overweight and pouted. “My name is Tariff Samid, Minister for Health and

contagious diseases and have heard reports here that so far disturb me and will disturb the Prime

Minister even more when I report back as if she does not have enough on her plate. What the hell

do I tell her?”

Judy Hoffman Carter stood up, her honey blond hair catching the light. her eyes like cold flints
and she looked at the man beside her, the sweat on his brow. She leaned over,sniffed at him

twice, then licked the side of his face and smiled as he jumped back then fell into his seat.

Everyone in the room froze,breathing hard and Hoffman Carter looked sideways at them smiling

with a sharp mouthful of bright teeth, the canines pointed, and then she bent over the MP and bit

deeply and took a chunk out of his throat, a fast spray of blood covering her. She ripped off her

clothes, all of them and said harshly, “Welcome to my world and my supper!”

Helen Webb ran for the door, her mobile phone to her ear and shouted, “Police please we

have….”

The creature bit her hard in the back of her neck right down to the brain stem and pulled hard

while everyone else were running trying to find a way out. There was none. They stood panting

like sheep, hard intakes of breath, chests heaving and all knew they were going to die between

9.45 and 10.00 pm.

And they did.

The anger was white and burning as she ran through the door and out into the chill of the night

and to her it give her that freedom from remorse or fear. She crossed a well kept lawn and found

a fountain and washed herself down, no blood left on her but she also knew even though she

looked like a normal wet female nude she knew she had to get to her car unseen,and her instincts

led her straight to it where it was parked with others. Taking the keys from the top of the front

right wheel she was inside it in a matter of seconds and speeding out of the campus onto the

main road, turned right and headed from Bangor in Wales South East.

Half an hour later she stopped in a lonely layby, dark and surrounded by pine forests she stepped

out of her car and took the Rucksack out of the car and took clothing out, dumped the blond wig

into tall brambles and dressed. Slip on shoes and a hoodie jacket completed her dress. Switching

on her phone she checked for any messages but there were none and she had expected that there
would be none. She brushed black hair with silver streaking out of her face with a hand, and

climbed into the car. Checked herself in the dashboard with the car light on, smiled, snapped off

the light and started up the car.

A small hotel for the night, her passport with her new name, Sian Wright, Nationally; British,

born in Wales, and on holiday, home for two weeks.

I won’t need supper she thought, as she headed for the nearest town and a hotel with a bar,

maybe even local music being played. She had left them a few clues, her old name on the list,

some saliva on her victims, a few hairs and of course very large wolf prints. Silis it seems was

now gone, the husk of the body lying cold and dissected a number of times. The only regret she

had as she drove through the rain and darkness was that she did not get the chance to kill him.

She bit her lip hard, tasted the blood and swallowed thinking, Saul is somehow Immortal while

she was still part human and still mortal and she wondered why Saul, later Paul could be after the

head was displayed on a Roman spear. She smiled.

FEAR OF LOST SOULS.

Tam McCloud stood next the TV and watched the Welsh breaking news and went pale when she

heard of the slaughter in the University Hall, she went cold when she heard the names of the

victims.

“....Bangor Police are stating they are not treating the killings as terror related and time is needed

to ID all the victims later during a number of Post Mortems at a local hospitals. They have a list

of all the victims but would like a woman to come forward giving the name as ‘Judy Hoffman

Carter’ who may have been present when the attacks took place.

Storm Hector that hit North Wales is expected to move North East by dawn and people travelling

in the morning may be disrupted due to falling trees and flash flooding. Police stated that the risk
to people is still high and if you don’t have to travel stay at home….”

Zak coughed lighty and switched off the TV. “Thought you should see it.”

Tam nodded. “Silis told me all about this bitch before he left. Wherever she is, she is an active

and present danger, to anyone who crosses her path. I’ll try and explain to the others in the

morning so in the meantime let us get some shut eye. Check the doors and window, all of them

Zak.”

“Sure. You think we are at risk from her Tam?”

She shook her head. “No. She doesn't know any of us but I am not taking any risks or chances to

make it easy for her. Silis said, she likes her meat raw.”

DAWN BREAKS.

After breakfast, Tam told them a little about Silis, about what he told her about Hoffman but she

kept a lot back and what he had passed onto her. Her mind scape was not muddled but she caught

Marie’s eye and noted she was frowning. They were longtime friends through family and as

children into and into their teens, Ireland was their playground. Marie was six years older than

the young Tam and kept an eye on her, saved her life as well when she fell into the river at Glen

during days of rain and Marie dived in and drifted down river till the touched bottom and got up

a bank. They were in trouble when they got back home and it was Marie who took all the flack

on her behalf. Tam never forgot that.

“Any questions?

Debs put up her hand. “What does she look like and how will we know her?”

Tam thought fast. “Normal like you and I and from what I gather you don’t want to know

her.Ever!”
“But she knew this old man Silis”, asked Babs meekly then added, “Where?”

“Munich, Germany. Before you ask yes, she did kill people there.”

Zak came in fast. “Old Silis was a good man, kind, and most of all honest and I too had met him.

What we could say, ‘Special’ and he was full of knowledge.”

And at times ‘bullshit’ and also dangerous, thought Tam keeping a straight face.

Marie tilted her head to one side arms across her chest, a half smile on her face.

“Was he your Sugar Daddy Tam?”

Tam glared at Marie and then burst out laughing and the rest followed, with Zak folded up with

laughter and pointing at Tam, unable to speak.

“Very funny Marie, like the time you had a blind date with a trawler crew member in Burtonport

and he came into the pub in wellie and his wet gear, smelling of herring and God only knows

what else. Then before he could speak you left but not before you pointed at me and I was stuck

with him for most of the night. I told him you were my partner and he slammed down his pint

and left.”

Zak looked at Tam then at Marie. “Did you two have and thing going?”

Marie’s face was like thunder. “You like your teeth Zak!”

“Wow there trigger,calm down, time to get back to work”, muttered Tam avoiding Marie’s eyes

and looked at the twins. “How is the webpage coming on?”

“Great. Two hits. One about a missing sixteen year old for four years. Mother wants to know if

you would take on the case? The missing girl is named as Lara Steel, last seen at a carnival at

Wollerton Park listening to the bands on stage. Her three friends who were with her confirmed

that to the police at Canning Circus.

Mrs Steel sent an attachment with all the info about the girl.”

Dabs waited, “The second one posted late night was odd, to say the least, was from, ‘clown

2@Thunderbird. com’ and the message read, ‘ You won’t find her. Ever!’ ,so Babs here was up

bright and early this morning got on the case.”

Tam frowned, “And?”

Babs looked at her notes. “Mrs Steel is real. Mr or Miss Clown is a one off.”

Marie grunted and Tam knew that grunt. Her police mind was working well.

“I say let's give it a shot. Zak and I will do a bit of trolling and Babs or Debs can open a folder

and print out the attachment. Save both email addresses in the folder. Zak we need Maps of the

area where she went missing that cover a five mile radius,we also need at ten mile map of the

area also. If she is dead, then she is somewhere within the two. You know this place Tam?”

“Nottingham. Big park, woods, grassland, big house. Want me to come along?”

“No. You would better here. First stop is this Mrs Steel. She leave a contact number?”

Debs smiled and held up a printed page. “All there, email, phone number, address and a map of

where Mrs Steel lives.”

“Ok. Can we go boss.”

“Go.”

Zak grunted and Marie looked sideways at him frowning. “What?”

“Don’t you think it would be a good idea if you rang Mrs Steel and checked if she would be

there and not in Spain or somewhere?”

She almost smiled and Tam nodded. She snatched the address and phone number of him and took
out her phone tapping in the numbers. “Good thinking Tonto. Just testing you.”

He smiled and shook his head slowly. “Don’t need testing thank you. I’m cool, smart, and might

get around to like even you.”

“Hallo. Mrs Steel?”

There was a slight pause then Marie spoke.”Thank you. My name is Marie Doohan from the

Detective Agency in Barmouth. We got your email about your daughter Lara. I would like to

arrange a meeting with you as soon as possible.”

She frowned, “You are on holiday, in Wales, Fairbourne. Could you please hold on a moment.”

She looked at Tam. “Fairbourne Wales?”

“Across the estuary by the bridge, Fifteen minutes drive from here.”

Marie rolled her eyes. “Mrs Steel, we can get there in fifteen minutes if that is ok?”

She took a pen from her pocket and then a small pad. “Address please. Yes of course we have ID.

Last house next the Golf Course on the right. Will your husband be there as well. No, he lives in

Slab Square in Nottingham. We might want to talk to him at some time...He’s a drunk and sleeps

rough. Oh I see. We are on our way. Our fees? No don’t worry about that just now. Thank

you.bye.”

Marie hung up, “What are our fees by the hour Tam?”

Tam put her hand to her mouth in shock. “God I have not worked that out! Go with the flow

when you meet her, pick a rate, if she looks well heeled double that.”

“Charming Tam. The woman has lost her daughter who may be dead”, said Zak and looked at

Marie for support and got it.

“He’s right Tam. Let's see what's on offer and do the sums later. Will update you after the
interview.”

Mrs Steel was not what Zak and Marie expected. She was slim, well dressed,grey haired which

was neat and she was black. After looking at Marie’s ID she let them come in. After she shook

hands she said in a firm voice. “Please call me Ellie.”

“This here is Zak and I am Marie.”

She offered them tea, coffee or something stronger but they both declined and sat down. Marie

noted the picture of a dying Jesus above the fireplace, the worn bible on the small table by Ellie’s

chair, the smell of polish, and the sea, and the rings on her fingers that told Marie that the stones

were not glass but the real thing.

It also told her right away, she was no fool and well educated but also a heavy duty Christian.

Zak took out a small tape recorder and looked across at Ellie Steel. “Would you mind if I use this

Mrs, Ellie?”

“No young man I don’t mind. Much better than trying to remember everything. I use mine in my

work at the hospital. I’m a doctor, my husband was too till he got struck off for drinking at work.

First he was put on Gardening duty with pay, then, , HR let him go, he just went into the bottle

and stayed there. Did not even know that the GMC struck him off or if he did, didn't care

anymore. John Steel was good at his job.”

Marie went fishing with a cops mind, not too pushy,but with harmless questions to break the ice.

“That is sad. What line was he in?”

“Pathology. Postmortems , sudden or unexplained deaths. He was good at it.”

“So what happened besides the drink?”, Zak said softly and looked her in the eye. She looked at

the floor then back up at him, her lips tight.

“After we moved down to Nottingham, he became depressed, like silent and at times angry. It

was all to do with that carry on in another Hospital. The little I know is they needed a scapegoat,

the double PM on two bodies, and a mix up how they got from the mortuary onto an Ward where

they discovered, too late that they had been dead sometime, and with all their organs missing. He

became a ‘whistleblower when the ward manager was killed, though that never was made public

nor did the victim reach the mortuary. He was of course alarmed and angry so he tried to tell the

CEO of the trust and he was suspended and later sacked. That was what brought him to his knees

and then when Lara went missing, complete shutdown. I had to ask him to leave, and he did. I

don’t see what this has to do with finding my daughter?”

“I am an ex Det Sgt from the Irish police force. The Garda, Dublin. When I take on any case I

like the full background Menu, from religion, colour, race, schools, education, boyfriends or

girlfriends, drug use, medical conditions, including mental illness, violence, arrests and cautions.

In that way, I may get some idea why and how your daughter went missing.”

Zak was very alert and watching Mrs Steel closely and admired how Marie conducted the

interview, now sitting quite and waiting.

“Yes, she had a sort of a boyfriend but much older than her, white trash if you like and

that,caused problems with our mother daughter relationship as well as her mood swings. My

husband always took her side, they were close.”

Maria smiled, “Happens in the best of families, believe me. So how close, is close Mrs Steel?”

Mrs Steel looked left at the window frowning then glared at Marie. “He did a lot of cuddling of

her, from the age of fourteen, they did things together like going to watch films, swimming,

fishing.That sort of thing.”

“Daddy’s girl sort of things”, Marie almost whispered, then added, “But no evidence of anything,

no hidden agendas, like sexual, petting?”

“No, he was a man of God!”

“But a man all the same.”

She was close to tears and Marie knew that she had to rebuild her condefence again. “This

boyfriend, you have a name and address for him?”

She sniffed, “David Jones, Lives in Barmouth and now works in a bar on the seafront, next the

main pier. I know because I went in there a year ago with friends for a lunch with two friends,

there he was, behind the bar, serving the Devil's Brew, some of them girls showing skin, and

getting the attention they wanted from him. I don’t drink nor my friends and though I have a

bottle of whiskey in the house here, it has never been opened. I try and do the Lord's work each

day as do my close friends. All I want is my daughter back?”

Marie Doohan sighed and looked at Zak who shrugged. She turned back to the mother. “I want to

be honest and upfront with you. Your daughter, Lara may never be found, alive and if alive, may

well have left the country or working in one of the UK’s largest cities. We are sure that we will

find something if we take the case and keep you informed of any news. That will give you time

to think it over and then you want to continue with the investigation, email us.There is no fee to

be paid for coming to see you. Do you understand?”

She nodded. “Lara did not leave the UK, her passport is in my bag with mine. I sometimes take it

out and look at her, remembering the good times in the past.”

She looked from Marie to Zak. “Please find her if you can. Try for a month or two, then I can

review it after that. Good day and thanks for coming.”

Mrs Steele was blunt and to the point and got up and escorted them to the front door. As they

walked back to the black van Maria asked Zak, “What do you think?”

Zak looked up at the mewing gulls. “Gut reaction tells me she is hiding more than she said.You?”
Marie opened the van and looked at Zak. “She is lying but we keep going.”

“Boyfriend, or I mean ex-boyfriend, one David Jones in Barmouth?”

She nodded, looked at her watch and grunted. “Your getting there Zac, oh yes.”

Zak scanned the street, his eyes sharp,then he pointer at The Lobster Pot and Marie found a place

to park the van. They walked back a bit and Marie spoke to a young women wiping tables on the

footpath.

She looked Zak up and down and muttered, “Davy is around the back sorting our crates. He

expecting you?”

Marie took the lead, “No, family on holiday so though call and give him a surprise,Our Davy

loves surprises,and thought we meet his long term girlfriend, Lara something or other?”

The woman frowned,” No don’t know that one and I have been here four years this July. He has

a lot of friends, male and female who come around for the summer. Anyway turn right up the

entry and you will get him in the yard.”

Zak smiled and followed Marie up the entry and thought, Here we go.

Davy Jones looked at as the two women walked into the yard and set down a large empty

beer barrel on top of others and then smiled.

“Can I help you?”

Marie walked up close and Zak stood beside her waiting. Marie smiled back but there was no

warmath in her smile. “Hi there Mr Jones so I will cut to the chase and asked you straight out”,

holding up a photograph of Lara Steel in his face then added, “Yes or no will do.”

He frowned and licked her lips. “Knew her, a way back. She and I parted and that was it. She
went missing, off every one’s rader, had the cops here making me jump through hoops, then a

couple of social workers turned up and I told them what I am telling you. I knew her, she was

under a lot of hassle from her mum and dad but I had nothing to do with her doing what she did.”

Zak tilted his head, “Like what Mr Jones.?”

“Running away from home,packed a bag I guess,and headed for the hills.Then I get a card at

Christmas past, year, years after I should add, just to inform me the the baby and her are ok and

have a nice Christmas”

“Baby?”, asked Marie catching Zak’s eye,knowing he had the tape recorder switched on in his

pocket.

“Any Idea where the card was posted?”,said Marie sharply and stone faced.

He shook his head,then muttered, “It was printed by some wacky community called,I think,

Dove or Dove Land Meditation Centre and no I don’t still have the card to show you.”

“One last question,you know anyone who calls themself,the ‘Clown’?”

Davy Jones laughed harshly,”Nope but I do know a few clowns in my circle of fair weather

friends.Anything else?”

Marie shook him by the hand her head nodding and Zak and her left the yard.

THE SOUND OF OM.

Tam scratched her head as she listened to Marie on the phone and tried to get a word in

sideways.
“Are you listening Tam. The kid is alive, well we are going to check it out now, up in Holyhead

at some Ashram or something.”

Tam sighed then smiled. “Good work so far but let's not tell her mummy bumps until we know

for sure. I take it you won’t be home for supper then?”

Marie made a face at her phone and muttered, “Don’t think so. Zak and I may stay over at some

hotel or B+B close by.”

“Together. Wow Marie, that is cosy!”, and laughed putting down the phone.

Zak smiled at Marie. “We good then?”

“I am good, you will be staying at the ashram or whatever on your own while I cuddle up with a

good meal, a good wine and a good single bed. Book in there for a night when I drop you at the

gate, say something like, ‘I love this place and will pay for a night to stay and make a donation.”

Zak’s eyes went wide. “And have to eat rabbit food and get up early. Why me?”

She smiled at him. “You already look the part.”

Marie stopped the van at a gate with a sign post pointing onto a wooded hill and naming the

community centre. She got out and waited for Zak to get out cursing under her breath because of

the delays of getting there. They had arrived at Holyhead only to discover they were miles away

from where they were supposed to be and had to backtrack. Holyhead was busy where now

where she stopped was like being in the sticks back home in Ireland. On top of that, it was

already dark and all she could hear was sheep and the sound of a stream flowing over rocks.

“Are we here?”, asked Zak looking into the darkness past the gate then adding,

“Like in the right place now?”

“Yes. Through that gate in front of you, mind the cattle grid and follow the track to your place of

rest. Oh and the white things are sheep, lots of them?”

Zak slung his small bag over his shoulder and looked at the van then at Marie, feeling unsure.

“Can’t you drive me there?”

“No Zak. I won’t risk the van. Your a man and do manly things and I will pray for you of course.

Off you go pal, onward and upwards.”

“Thanks. Will give you a bell in the morning”, turned and walked into the darkness aware that

the only torch he had was on his phone, and he had to use it just to get started as he slipped twice

on dark green sheep poo and over a small rock.

Forty five minutes later he reached a wooden cattle gate with a sign that stated that he arrived at

the ‘DOVE Meditation Centre,Welcome’

He opened and went in, darkness surrounded him and then not far away, a light and he could hear

music and singing. He switched on his phone torch, and could see well enough to make out the

outline of two buildings, one with lights on.

Now what, he thought as he turned the handle of the Reception Hall door.

There was a board with notes and other info and then a note that Zak would be in room five, his

supper was in the kitchen and he was late.

Room five first looking at the map of the building, above me, he thought and found the stairs,

Room 5 was ar the top of the stairs, he opened the door and went in, stopped as he seen a bed on

the floor and a small single side table, and behind him the bedroom door clicked shut.

“Shit!”, he hissed through his teeth finding a light switch. The room looked better now and he

relaxed as he knew now that the door was on a spring.

Except for the bed and table there was nothing else in it. On the back of the soor a small sign

stating that he was not to smoke and where the fire point was in case of fire and smoke. He

sighed, took out his phone and had no signal,and left his bag on the bed and went down to the

kitchen. A plate on a plate, and when he looked,rice, greens, carrots, all cold and a handwritten

note ‘Enjoy’.

Zak slept well, a deep sleep of being safe but he jumped after a sunny dawn when two

RAF jets flew low over the Ashram on a training exercise and roared down the valley. Then he

heard a hand bell being rung somewhere down stairs and his door rapped hard. “Fuck!”

He flung open the door and was handed a sheet with all the rules of the ashram on it by a very

attractive residents. “Bell right now is for breakfast Zak and we don’t use that word here. Please.

Three minutes downstairs.”

He forced a smile and closed the door over and rolled his eyes thinking,how sad,never mind,

then moved off the bed. Breakfast will be interesting, he thought and took out his phone.

No signal.

He walked around the small room and still could not get one. Then he sent a text to Marie

that she would get sometime. ‘She may be here. Will ring later.’

Dressed, he went down to breakfast, most people on the floor, a bowl of porrage in their hands

and sitting in silence. He got a nod and a bowl thrust into his hands, zipped her mouth, and

pointed at the mugs on a long table, where four pots were laid out.

No bacon or eggs here then he thought as he poured coffee and found a seat and then seen a

young back woman with a child sitting together and caught his eye and smiled.
A small bell rang and someone said in a quite voice, “You may now speak and of course check

what jobs you are on first thing this morning. Kara Yoga finishes at ten thirty. At eleven we have

medatation in large hall except for those getting lunch ready,the wash up kitchen crew includes

our visitor Zak who leaves later. Shama you are in the office, along with baby. Thank you.”

The young black woman put up her hand and smiled.

“Yes Shama?”

“If I am in the office who will water the polly tunnels?”

The woman turned her head and her eyes found Zak. She smiled at him. “Zak will.”

Zak nodded in response. “Thank you. Nothing better to get me in touch with my inner self and

feelings”, hoping he said the right thing.

People nodded and a few laughed, a well built man sitting beside him said, “First time in a place

like this?”

“Yes. I like it. Why are some people dressed in orange and others in their own clothes?”

“The people in orange, are residents and on the path to enlightenment and we so hope you will

return for a longer stay Zak in the future.”

“So who is the top buck cat here, man or woman and do they have a name?”

The man smiled. “ I am.”

“Oh I see and what do I call you?”

“Swami Murti will be sufficient. I must go now Zak but hope to see you again.”

He waited then made his way to the kitchen, cleaned the pots and with help sorted out where

everything went in its place. Finished, he excused himself and made his way to a back gate that
overlooked the hills and sheep in fields. The gate rattled when he opened it and he closed it

behind him and sat ona rock and lit up a mall spiff and sucked deeply. The smoke haze over his

head vanished in the light breeze as his eyes took in the landscape and then there was a light

noise behind him and he turned, was startled and jumped to his feet. “I wish the fuck you would

not do that Marie!”

She smiled at him, held out her hand and he handed her the spiff shaking as he did so. She took a

long drag, held it and then slowly exhaled the smoke. “That my boy is very good shit, illegal, but

good. So you found her?”

He nodded. “Seems so. Has a young child, a girl and both are pretty. She is running the office

here today.”

Marie took another drag and handed it back to Zak. “I walked up the track.. Nice views. Right,

lets go and see her.”

Zak coughed and looked at her hard. “Just like that. Walk into her office and confront her!

“Sure, best way, and laddie, be up front but let me do the talking otherwise you could fuck the

whole thing up. Better still I seen your name on the board for watering poly tunnels so why don’t

you do that and I’ll handle it. Woman to woman sort of thing?”

Zak felt relieved and almost smiled. “Ok, I’ll do that.”

She slapped him hard on the back and laughed. “I’ll make an excuse that I am making a donation

for you”

As they walked back, a Red Kite glided over them, and Zak seen the beauty in the sky and

smiled to himself.
 Lara looked up from her computer as Marie knocked and walked in and handed thirty

pounds to her. “A donation from Zak. We work together.”

“Well thanks for that, I’ll give you a receipt for it. It is a rule. All donations logged and recepts

given. So what sort of work do you do?”

“Can we stay private in here as I need to talk to you. About your mother?”

Lara’s mouth fell open, she got up and locked the door then turned with hand on her hips.

“She’s dead. Right?”

“Wrong. She wanted to know where you are and if you are ok/ I am Marie Doohan, I work for a

private detective agency as does Zak. Let me point out right now I am not police or social

services and anything you tell me will stay with me.”

The laugh was harsh and Lara threw up her arms in dispair. “That’s nice. She is not dead, but it

would not bother me if she was. I have a baby girl now, a life I like and real friends.”

Marie sat down without being asked and Lara walked to her desk, folded her arms across her

chest and her eyes were bright. “I do not want to see her, speak to her or for her to know where I

am. You can tell her that but not where I am!”

“And what about your daughter?”

Lara shook her head hard. “No way is she getting near her. Never!”

Marie sighed and nodded. “A bit harsh, but you are a woman now and a mother.”

“Harsh! Watch this”, and pulled the orange T-shirt over her head amd turned bare back to Marie.
“My back is harsh, see the bamboo cane scars, she did that, see the burns from a hot kettle on my

arms, that is harsh and she did that because God told her to punish me and she did. That is why I

left and that is why I never want to see her or go back!”

Marie for all her toughness was shocked, “Oh sweet Jesus. How could any mother do such a

thing to a child?”

Lara put her shirt back on again and wiped her eyes, her body shaking and Marie stood and held

her arms open and Lara ran into them and sobbed. Outside Zak stood outsde the last poly-tunnel

and waited wishing he could have a smoke.

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