Page 27 of Sun, Sea & Strawberry Shortcake
‘What’s wrong?’ I ask, as – fully awake now – she scramblesto a sitting position, staring out of the window, a petrified look on her face.
And when I turn, it’s all I can do not to scream...
CHAPTERTEN
The face at the window is the stuff of nightmares.
It’s just as Jodie described seeing the last time. A human-sizedface with baby blue eyes fixed in a glassy doll-like stare. Rosebud mouth andgolden hair. But this is not a doll any child would want.
Blood is dripping from the eyes, welling over and spatteringthe cheeks.
Next second, the terrifying spectre vanishes into the darkness.
I dash to the window and peer out but there’s nothing there.The street is deserted. Jodie, kneeling on her bed, starts crying hystericallyand I rush back to her and she flings her arms around my waist. As I’m strokingher hair and trying to calm her down, I hear Bee’s quick footsteps and a secondlater, she bursts into the room.
‘What happened?’
‘Mummy!’ Jodie pulls away from me and hurls herself at Bee.‘It was that horrible monster again. It wants to get into my bedroom! But youwon’t let it, will you?’
‘No, of course I won’t.’ Bee sweeps her daughter up. ‘Hey,hey, it’s all right. You’re safe now. Mummy’s got you.’ She gazes at me inbemusement as Jodie flings her arms around Bee’s neck and sobs uncontrollably.
I shake my head, still feeling shaken myself, but notwanting to talk about it with Jodie there to hear.
After a while, when her sobs become an occasional hiccup, Beesets her daughter gently on the bed, smiles and takes hold of her hands. ‘Tellyou what. You can sleep in my bed tonight, okay? Would you like that?’
Jodie nods, calm at last, and with a helpless look at me,Bee guides her out of the room. I follow them and stand outside Bee’s room asshe talks to Jodie and gets her settled in bed. I can’t hear what she’s saying,but I can tell from the sing-song tone of her voice that she’s trying to soundupbeat for her daughter’s sake.
When Bee finally emerges, I tell her that Jodie isn’t imaginingit – I saw the face too. She looks horrified, as if she wants to ask questions.But then she glances back in at her daughter and whispers that she’s probablygoing to get into bed herself, just in case Jodie wakes and is scared.
‘We’ll get to the bottom of all of this. I promise,’ Imurmur.
She sighs, looking pale. ‘I really hope you’re right.Because at this rate, I can’t see us sticking around for much longer.’
‘But you can’t let them win.’ I look at her in dismay.‘Whoever they are.’
‘I don’t want to leave Port Castleton.’ She shakes her headsadly. ‘I feel like we’ve found a real home at last where we can put downroots. It feels right.’
‘Well, if you feel like that, ofcourseyou must stayhere.’
She nods. ‘I lost my parents when I was little and I waspassed from pillar to post. I felt lost and scarily alone for a long time, butthen there was this lovely couple who fostered me for a while. It wasn’t long.Probably a year. But I remember feeling as if I finally belonged somewhere.’ Shetwists her lips wistfully. ‘I hadn’t felt like that for a very long time. Butthen we came here, to Port Castleton, and I had that same feeling...that it was the right place for us to be.’ She smiles. ‘I had my photo in thepaper the other week. A journalist came to do a story about the charity and Italked a bit about working here.’
‘You were quoted in the paper? You’ll have to show me.’
‘I’ll dig it out some time. The photo’s quite a nice one ofour whole team.’ She smiles. ‘In the story, I’m described as “Bee, one of thecleaning operatives, who’s made her home in Port Castleton.” And I loved that!Because that’s exactly how it was... we’d made our home here...’
I nod, understanding. ‘You must stay here, then. If that’show you feel.’
‘But I need to think of Jodie. And she’sterrified.’
‘Oh, Bee.’ I sigh helplessly, feeling her anguish. ‘We’llfind out who’s doing these horrible things. We will.’
I walk over the road, back to the cottage, deep in thought.
I feel more determined than ever now to help Bee and Jodie,so they won’t have to leave the place they feel at home.
As I reach the gate of Moonstone Cottage, a group of‘druids’ in pale, flowing robes are walking along on the opposite side of the lane,and a young couple wearing beach gear with floral garlands around their necksare sitting on a wall, kissing. And I smile, thinking how strange it is seeingso many people wandering around in fancy dress as if it’s the most naturalthing in the world. It’s all new to me, this colourful and dramatic celebrationof the summer solstice. Maybe we’ll walk up the mound to the ruins of the towerourselves on the eve of the solstice and join the crowds that gather there...
I’m about to walk up the garden path when I happen to glanceover the road, and I catch sight of the black car again. The one with the funnynumberplate. It’s parked a few yards along, facing this way, and there seems tobe something bright orange on the roof of the car. A supermarket plastic bag,maybe? I screw up my eyes and peer over. There’s a person sitting in thedriver’s seat, presumably totally unaware they put the bag on the roof whilethey were doing something else and then forgot all about it. I did that myselfonce. It’s sure to fall off when they leave.
