peeing on the Christmas tree an unfortunate mistake. More Trevithick scribbled his name on the flyleaf and Jill once like malice aforethought!'

again ushered out the beaming policeman. 'Well, you Jill suppressed a smile. 'She was overwrought, poor dear.

certainly made his day,' she said, sitting down and Anyway, the others are off to a hotel in Ilkley for the smoothing her skirt.

duration. We're taking a coach to York Station.'

'Keep the punters happy, I always say.'

'All except me.'

Jill looked at him keenly. 'Now, Edmund. Are you sure 'All except you. And because of your b.l.o.o.d.y-mindedness you've told me everything?'

I've got to spend my Christmas in Crook Marsham.'

'Stop treating me like a b.l.o.o.d.y child.'

76.77.Trevithick harrumphed but, in truth, he was rather 'Well ... I'll do my best.' She took down a heavy sheepskin looking forward to it. Now that he had no family. He coat from its peg and went to tell Polly what had happened.

thought briefly of his daughter's inert body on that Trevithick walked up to Robin. 'You're from the pub wretched autobahn. And his granddaughter. Run off to join aren't you, lad?' Robin nodded distractedly, glancing up the some hippy cult or other.

corridor. 'Hmm,' mused Trevithick. 'I think I might No, now it would be just him and Jill. Probably pulling accompany you. We've had a bit of trouble of our own up crackers over a tin of Spam. He laughed lightly to himself.

here. I could murder a pint.'

'Well, my dear. 'Tis the season to be jolly.'

Robin smiled thinly. Trevithick went to fetch his coat and Jill smiled and placed a cool hand on his. He watched her hat. Realising that Jill would probably be some time, Robin leave the room and then turned back to the window. His slid down the wall and relaxed. He couldn't work out what mind began to race. He had kept quiet about what had had happened to Dr Shearsmith. He was always in before really happened in his room. But what had happened? What four and had told everyone he was staying in Crook could he tell anyone? That some strange voice had Marsham for Christmas.

whispered the name of his old character out of the darkness?

Added to that, Robin had found the front door wide open That there was that dreadful smell? Like the ma.s.s grave he and the record player on, struggling scratchily through and his men had come across in Poland during the war.

'That's the way it is' by the Ink Spots. There was an old Morbid, rotten, evil. Yes, that was it. There was something photograph alb.u.m, too, lying on the hearthrug and open to terrible about that smell. Something long-buried that should show faded, white-bordered pictures of Dr Shearsmith and never have seen daylight again.

his late wife on some long-ago Christmas Day. Some time There was a commotion in the corridor and Trevithick during the thirties to judge from their clothes. There was a raised himself a little unsteadily to his feet. Robin was funny smell too. Like milk turning sour.

beyond the door, his face flushed and his breath coming in Jill strode towards Robin, a rea.s.suring smile on her face.

gasps.

Trevithick appeared simultaneously, jamming a tweedy hat 'Miss Mason? Miss Mason?' he called. Jill came down the on to his head. Opening the front door, the three of them set corridor, her head c.o.c.ked to one side. Trevithick shut the out together into the gathering dusk.

door behind him and joined them.

'You're Lawrence Yeadon's son, aren't you?' said Jill.

Ace gazed down forlornly at the mud which caked her 'What's up?'

shoes. She'd watched Vijay open the security fence with Robin ran a hand through rain-glistened hair. 'It's my some sort of electronic key and then crouched under the mum. She's not well. I tried to get Dr Shearsmith but he's blankets again as they drove through into the compound.

not there. Can you help? You are a nurse?' Jill pulled a face.

After he'd disappeared inside she'd waited and then hauled herself out.

78.79.The radio telescope was certainly impressive, she father hunched over a pools coupon as Peter Dimmock read conceded: an enormous dish which towered over the E-out the football results on Sportsview.

shaped concrete buildings beneath. But once she'd walked Vijay would be outside, relishing the thrill which the around the thing twice she found herself at a bit of a loose wintry darkness gave to his games to hide and seek. He'd end. It was also getting dark and was still freezing cold.

press himself into dark corners or against midnight-black She thought briefly of barging through the big double trees, watching the wind stir skeletal branches above his doors and announcing herself but didn't think this very head.

wise. Finally, she decided to walk back to the village and set Then air would burn his lungs as he pelted out of the off for the perimeter fence, shivering as another blast of icy wood, his friends in excited pursuit. After another wind rippled over the moor. Little tufts of purple heather adrenaline-powered race they would collapse on top of each shuddered like dry-land anemones.

other, giggling and hooting with joy.

The fence still sparkled with recent rain. Ace jumped a A sudden flare of yellow light in the porch would signal little as three arc lamps burst into life with a staccato clatter.

the appearance of his father, coupon dangling from his hand, Obviously part of the security set-up, she thought. Mind as he peered out into the darkness.

you, there hadn't been much evidence of restriction or 'Vijay? Vijay? Time to come in, now.'

surveillance so far. No knuckle-heads in peaked caps at any And Vijay would bid a sulky goodnight to his friends, rate and years of petty confrontations with school caretakers dragging his heels in antic.i.p.ation of the Sat.u.r.day-night bath.

and bouncers made her grateful for that.

He'd hug his knees to his chin, shrinking from the overly It was only when she had traipsed forlornly to the exit hot water which steamed around him and gaze at the black gate that she realised getting out would be rather more rectangle of night behind the flowery curtains.

difficult than getting in. There were two rows of barbed-He would hear his father pacing about downstairs, the wire ranged across the top of the fence and the gate itself television's sound an insulated mumble two floors below.

was solid steel mesh. The square grey box into which Mr Occasionally, just occasionally, in those formative years, Degun had inserted his key winked its red light at her his father would pause after draping the big, rough towel tauntingly.

around Vijay, look his son in the eye and say 'Bit of a treat 'Oh brilliant,' she muttered.

tonight.' To Vijay that could mean only one tiling. A new Nightshade serial.

Vijay, looking out of the window, failed to see Ace. Dusk was creeping into the periphery of his vision like spots So they would sit together before the tiny, flickering mottling the edges of a mirror. The rich navy-blue colour of screen, Vijay's eyes wide with terror, his father pretending the sky took him back to Sat.u.r.days at home as a child. His indifference whilst clutching the chair till his knuckles whitened.

80.81.Later, despite the excitement, Vijay would quietly wish he head on her breast as she soothed his fatigue away.

hadn't stayed up; his imagination transformed bedroom Enjoying the sweet smoothness of her body against his. He furniture or crumpled clothes into the bulky, crablike blinked and realised Cooper was talking to him. 'Sorry, creatures which the Professor had so recently encountered.

what?'

One night they had seemed so real. So real. He could have 'I said it's past four. I'll cover for you tonight. Get some sworn the thing was advancing across the room towards rest, you've done enough chasing around.' Vijay grinned him, mandibles swaying and dripping with fluid, eyes and thanked her warmly. Perhaps his dream wasn't so far ticking and twitching as it bore down...

off...

'All of them?'

He pa.s.sed Hawthorne on the way to his room and the rat-It was Dr Cooper. Vijay turned from the window, once faced man shot him an inquisitive look. Cooper answered more conscious of the hum of the machinery around him.

the unasked question.

'As far as I can tell, yes,' he said. 'I tried the cafe, I tried 'I'm covering for Vijay tonight. He's been out all day the pub, I tried the callbox. I even tried the surgery...'

trying to find a phone that works. How's the...?'

'No joy?'

Hawthorne dropped a pile of electrical components on to 'Dr Shearsmith wasn't there and the phone was definitely the bench and several rolled to the floor. 'b.u.g.g.e.red,' he said out of order.'

and sat down.

Cooper sat down heavily. 'Maybe it's the weather.'

Vijay looked at his watch. Nearly four. Nearly time for Ace had barked her knuckles for the fifth time trying to Hawthorne to begin his shift. He blew air out of his cheeks scale the perimeter fence when she noticed the hole. One of noisily.

the arc lamps caught the outer edge of the torn mesh and 'Oh, this is outrageous!' cried Cooper, getting to her feet she ran expectantly towards it, feeling the cold air rasping and thumping the bench. 'The biggest input of data, through her nose. The moor and sky, now just two broad however confusing, that we've ever had and we can't tell strokes of darkness, bobbed around her as she jogged anyone about it! We'd be better off sending HQ a postcard.'

towards the fence. To her left, the parabolic dish blazed 'What about the radio?' asked Vijay, nervously stroking briefly as a circling lamp slid over its surface. Then she his moustache.

threw herself down by the hole.

'Hawthorne's fiddling with it. Looks like it's gone the The wire seemed to have been wrenched apart, razor-same way as the phones.' She strode across the room and edges folded back towards the outside. She groped her way picked up a sheaf of papers which had fallen to the floor.

through, careful to avoid the edges, and felt her knees 'Where's Holly?'

sinking into the peaty soil. Head through. She grasped a tuft 'Still sleeping,' said Vijay, and that was where he wanted of heather and pulled. Body through. Darkness pressed to be right now. Or, at least, in Holly's embrace, resting his against her and she could feel hot, uncomfortable sweat 82 83.patches spreading across her back and arms. Manoeuvring She threw herself clear and hugged herself. There was a so that her feet wouldn't catch on the wire, Ace made a final rusty taste in her mouth and she realised she'd bitten her lip effort and rolled through on to the moor beyond.

in agitation.

The black and purple landscape glowered at her like a The beam came by again and this time there was no body.

bruised eye. She tried to ignore the mournful wind, stood No uniform. Only a blackness like engine oil on summer up, put her hands in her pockets and started the long walk gra.s.s and a lingering smell of decay.

back to the village. Then she hit it.

Ace wasted no time. Urging herself to keep calm, keep Ace caught the thing with her foot and was flung calm, keep calm, she struggled back under the fence and headlong into the soil. She tasted mud and felt it soaking sprinted the distance to the station entrance. Ignoring her her clothes as she jumped back. The sweeping beam crept earlier misgivings, she thrust out her hands and barged across the moor and Ace held her breath. The light came inside.

closer, suddenly illuminating the thing with horrible Cooper and Hawthorne looked up from their work and precision.

stared at her as if she were a gunslinger entering a saloon.

It was a uniformed man, his hands pulled back behind his Ace felt overwhelmed by the light and warmth, and head and broken at the wrists so that they hung grotesquely staggered as coloured dots exploded before her eyes. She limp. He wore a black peaked cap above a face which might slid into a chair as a warm, thick comma of blood curled its once have been youthful. But now it was foul.

way from her lips to her chin.

The eyes were blank, sunk in their sockets and dulled to a A man with arthritic hands, all bunched and knotted like strange grey colour above a mouth wrenched back in a rusty keys, was manning the bar of The Shepherd's Cross.

snapshot of sheer fright. Livid purple weals and scratches Trevithick didn't know him but was enjoying the pint of crazed the pasty skin.

stout he'd poured. Upstairs, Lawrence, Robin and Jill were Ace cried out and stepped back, immediately feeling the ministering to Betty's needs.

treacherous mud slip beneath her. Before she knew what Trevithick burped. It was getting on for seven o'clock and was happening, she was on top of it.

he would normally be settling down to watch television or Howling in fear and nausea and disgust, she struggled to read. He was halfway through Bleak House, always one of stand, to escape, but the thing seemed to erupt around her, his favourites, loving the way d.i.c.kens drew him into that belching out an unbelievable stink of corruption.

murky, fog-bound world.

The station light swept back again and Ace saw the body Tonight, though, a long-forgotten excitement, something expanding beneath her like a cast-off snakeskin, dark fluid like the thrill of live performance, was flowing through his draining away into the moor.

veins. There was the strange incident at the window, Mrs Yeadon's funny turn and his TV interview too. It was all very puzzling. And he liked a puzzle.

84.85.Lawrence Yeadon's jukebox was playing a particularly Trevithick didn't like the use of the expression 'end up'

tacky version of 'White Christmas', all wispy soprano and but smiled back regardless. 'Believe it or not, I'd planned to electric piano, and the pub was crowded with ruddy-faced, retire up here. Live with my daughter and son-in-law. But laughing punters.

they were killed in a car crash in Germany...'

Trevithick finished his pint and looked up as the frosted- 'Oh, I am sorry.' Lowc.o.c.k's heavy features fell gla.s.s door opened. George Lowc.o.c.k shuffled in, sympathetically.

accompanied by a blast of cold wind and a little whirlpool 'Anyway, I'd moved all my stuff and couldn't really of brown leaves. He rubbed his hands together rather afford a place of my own. So the vultures got me.'

theatrically and gave the pub one of his beaming smiles, 'Very pretty vultures if you ask me,' said Lowc.o.c.k with a nodding to all his old friends from the village. He spotted hearty laugh, 'if that Miss Mason is anything to go by.'

Trevithick at once.

Trevithick laughed back. 'Hmm. Nice girl. Doesn't really 'h.e.l.lo, Professor!' he boomed, striding over to belong with a load of old crocks though. She has ambition. I Trevithick's table. The old man flinched visibly and can see it in her eyes.'

acknowledged the policeman with an embarra.s.sed, They sat in silence for a while, sipping their drinks. A lopsided smile.

cheery hubbub of voices crowded around them and one or 'I gave your autograph to my wife. She was right pleased,'

two couples began to exchange kisses under the mistletoe Loc.o.c.k enthused. 'Can I get you a pint?'

pinned above the bar. The red flocked wallpaper seemed to Trevithick perked up at this offer. 'Oh, that's very kind of glow and blur as Trevithick gazed at it. He smiled, rather you, Inspector.'

contentedly.

'Sergeant,' said Lowc.o.c.k lightly. 'Call me George.'

'So,' he said finally. 'How's business?'

'Er, thank you, George. A pint of Guinness, if you'd be so Unexpectedly, Lowc.o.c.k's face was rather solemn.

kind.'

'Funniest thing really. I like to have a nice clean book at Lowc.o.c.k stood up and did an elaborate mime to the man Christmas. Goodwill to all men and that. There's usually behind the bar. This was evidently understood as the just a bit of rowdiness and the odd drunk.'