Thirteen Days By Sunset Beach (27 page)

"This said the abbot fed the dark. You can see it did," Ray insisted, poking the incomplete sentence with his fingertip so hard that the corner of the torn fragment humped up like a grub. "And it went on to say the man he'd invited in fed on the other monks as well. Shall I tell you what else it said?"

Nobody seemed eager to reply, but Sandra said "If you like, Ray."

"When the page was all there, it said how the man wanted to contemplate eternity but ended up being taken over by it somehow. I think you can see that was there if you look. I suppose it means he couldn't die, but he had to feed on other people to live. Only if they died of it they'd become like him, and so he tried to keep them alive. It's like one of the legends you're so fond of."

He was appealing to Doug and Pris. "That's right, dad, legends," Doug said, "but why are you—"

"There was more that I haven't got here any longer. As I read it he used people to feed on his behalf, and then he fed on them. You know what it means by feeding, don't you? Drinking their blood. And sharing like that extended their lives as well, because he needed them, or the dark did." As he realised that he might be saying too much too soon Ray said "Tell me one thing if you can. Why do you think anybody would want to destroy the book?"

He was asking everyone, which only earned a concerted silence. Eventually Doug said "I don't think we can know."

"Don't you remember what I suggested at the time, Doug? You seemed to think I could be right. I wondered if someone hadn't liked what it said about the monastery, but now I'm convinced it was more than that. They didn't want us to read what you say is just a legend. If that's all it is, why would anyone bother?"

He might have assumed nobody could think if Doug hadn't said "Is this why you went after that woman last night?"

"I wanted her to tell me why she'd singled me out for the book."

"Probably because you paid so much for William's cross."

"I don't mean why a present. Didn't you see how anxious she was for me to read it?" When this failed to find any agreement Ray pleaded "Then did really none of you see why she panicked last night?"

"Dad," Doug said, "we saw you harassing a disabled person when she wouldn't even have been able to tell you what you wanted to know. If we'd been at home you might easily have got yourself prosecuted."

"Do you imagine I'd have behaved like that unless I had good reason?" This revived the silence, which infuriated Ray. "Just take a look at this," he blurted.

He ought to have had the remnant of the other page to hand. As he searched through the ragged contents of the drawer his fingers made a sound like a rat scrabbling in litter. He found what survived of the last page of the chapter and brandished it. "See what this says?"

"There isn't much to see," Natalie reminded him.

"Just the last sentence. That's what I'm showing you."

Pris took hold of the scrap of paper to control its tremulousness. "I don't know what Skiá means."

"Do you, Doug?" Ray hoped.

"Not without looking it up," Doug said unlike any kind of promise.

"It means shadow. It said so on the other part of the first page. Check it on your phones if you like."

"I'm certain we can trust you, Raymond," Julian said.

"It's the name he took when he joined the monks, the traveller. Maybe they thought he was trying to be humble, but you can see it showed what he was actually like inside."

Nobody's eyes betrayed what they were seeing until Natalie said "It's not a very likely name, is it? Not the kind you'd think monks would let someone use. What do you two think?"

"It shows it's just a legend," Doug said, and Pris visibly agreed.

"No, this shows a lot more." Ray jerked the scrap of paper, almost ripping it afresh until Pris let go. "You're leaving out the tense," he said. "It doesn't say he fed, it says he feeds. They still feed on his behalf, that's what it's saying."

In the midst of the latest silence Sandra said "Who are you talking about, Ray?"

"For pity's sake," Julian said before Ray could start to answer. "Please tell me someone else can see the reason."

"Which is..." Ray said without wanting to know.

"I don't think anyone would claim your writer is exactly fluent in our language. He can't even get his title right.
History of Greece Islands
, for heaven's sake. I'm quite willing to acknowledge that his English is streets ahead of my Greek, but all that tense means is he's got something else wrong."

Ray saw the others welcome the explanation, though he wasn't sure that Sandra did. Perhaps her uncertainty helped him to say "There's a lot more to the book."

Natalie let out a sigh that Doug might have been putting into words by asking "What else do you think there is, dad?"

"I think people here have been giving us hints ever since we arrived. Maybe even before that," Ray realised as a memory caught up with him. "Natalie was saying they told you on the mainland that people here aren't like them."

"And I told you that's what Greeks say about the Cretans," Doug said with a determined laugh. "You aren't trying to tell us everybody here is, I'm not even going to use the word."

"Not everybody, not even most, but I think we've seen a few of them."

"If you mean who I assume you mean," Julian said, "I think that's quite unnecessary."

"The one you grabbed last night sounds a lot like the one who stole my book. He was faster than you, wasn't he?" As Julian made his incredulity plain Ray grasped what he had to ask. "You told me he showed you his teeth," he said. "What were they like?"

"Good Lord above, why do you think I would take any notice of them? I was looking the fellow in the eye. That's how to deal with his sort."

Was Julian using too many words? Ray couldn't be sure they were meant to deny any nervousness. "You didn't notice them at all," he persisted.

"I saw he must have wanted me to. Exactly why I didn't look."

"All right, let's forget him for the moment," Ray said in a bid to leave his frustration behind. "Let's talk about what certainly did trouble you. The state Mr Ditton was in."

"You'll recall we were told fish were responsible for that."

"If you believe it." Ray saw that Julian and Natalie weren't alone in doing so, but surely he needn't despair. "I don't just mean how he was when we found him," he said. "I mean what they did to the corpse."

"I'm not sure what you have in mind."

"Oh, come along, Julian," Ray said, only to realise that offending anybody wouldn't help. "Sorry, but you know you were outraged because they'd removed the head. I believe you thought what I think now, it was the police who did."

"I'm certain I said nothing of the kind. I should think it goes to prove how bad a condition the body was in, which I'll remind you was exactly what you thought, Raymond. Now does anybody really need to hear any more about this?"

"Doug, you said you knew about it," Ray managed to remember. "You said it was how they made sure the victim didn't turn into—"

"That's just another legend, dad. I should never have brought it up. It wasn't in the best of taste, and I'm sorry I did."

Ray felt as if they were all turning off lights in his mind. As soon as he found a thought he blurted "You won't say nothing happened to you last night, will you?"

"I'm not sure what you're saying did."

"You thought they went in for a custom I believe they have all over Greece, wishing people on their birthdays a long life."

"Or a thousand years," Pris said. "Daphne asked us not to, but what are you thinking that shows?"

"Just that they know about people who live too long and why they do, and they don't want to be among them. We all heard her say it was like a curse."

He thought the silence meant he'd finally given his listeners a reason to ponder until Doug said "We shouldn't have said those things last night, but that isn't why."

"Why, then?"

"Because we should have thought of mum, and so should you. How can you waste your time with this stuff when she's dying?"

Ray's stomach constricted as if he'd been punched in the guts. He was trying to think of an answer when Julian twisted around to stare over the balcony wall. "Who's down there?"

For a moment Ray was able to imagine that some evidence had presented itself in support of his claims, and then Julian demanded "Is it you, Jonquil?"

The response came not quite from below him. "It's me."

"Tim," Pris said very little like a welcome. "What are you doing?"

"Getting my phone."

"Then why are you on the balcony?" Without waiting for a reply she said "How long have you been there? Have you been listening?"

"Wait a moment, Tim." Much lower Natalie said "Can you bring him up to talk? We don't want anyone else hearing, do we?"

"Tim, come up here," Doug called, "and make it quick."

Ray let him in. Even more than sometimes, Tim visibly wished he were smaller. He looked ready to let his height bow him down if this would make him less conspicuous, but even the hat couldn't obscure how much he was blushing. Behind the sunglasses his eyes were as wide as they could stretch, holding back a frown or fending off some other reaction. "I'm sorry," he muttered as Ray closed the door.

"I might have done the same in your place," Ray said for nobody but Tim to hear.

As he led the way onto the balcony Pris said "Well, Tim, what do you think you heard?"

Tim seemed to wish he could do without blinking. Barely audibly he admitted "What dad said about gran."

He sounded ten years younger—William's age—and Ray might have tried to comfort him if Sandra hadn't reached for their grandson's hand. "Oh, Tim, I wish you hadn't found out like this."

"Maybe things aren't as bad as I made out," Doug said. "That's what you've been saying, isn't it, mum?"

"That's right, Tim. We all have to go eventually, and I thought I was, but I feel as though someone's given me an extra lease of life."

"Forgive me," Julian said, "I don't believe we established whether Timothy was eavesdropping."

The teenager blinked—indeed, squeezed his eyes momentarily shut. "I'm sorry," he said as if he wished only his parents could hear. "I was."

"We can award you a mark for honesty at least."

"I won't blame you, Tim," Sandra said, "so I hope nobody else will."

As Doug and Pris confined their rebukes to their eyes Natalie said "Will you make me a promise, Tim?"

"What is it?"

"No harm in being careful," Natalie told Julian as he looked offended by Tim's response. "Tim, will you please not tell anyone what you heard?"

"All right," Tim said, but looked thwarted.

"We shouldn't be asking so much of you at your age." Sandra clasped his hand with both of hers while she said "It can be our secret, all right?"

Ray felt there were already too many of those—subjects the family wanted to ignore or refused to discuss. As Tim nodded, though without much vigour, Sandra said "Do you know what I've just thought, Tim? You haven't had your day yet."

"I shared mum's when we went off the road."

"Well, I think you're still owed one. Tell us what you'd like to do." Ray saw she meant to reward their grandson for the demand that had been made on him. Perhaps he was passing on her generosity by saying "Auntie Nat, you never got your trip off the island."

"That's kind of you, Tim, but is it what you'd like yourself?"

"He's always liked that kind of jaunt," Doug said. "No reason he'd have changed."

As Tim's black lenses glinted in the shadow of his hat Julian said "That's settled, then. We'll go into the town and see where a boat will take us."

Ray felt events were moving faster than he liked—leaving too much behind or at any rate unacknowledged. "We'll come down with you now, Timothy," Julian said, only to linger as the rest of the family followed Tim out of the apartment. "I trust there'll be no further talk of legends and the rest of it," Julian said while Ray returned the drawer to the bedside table, and Ray felt robbed of the chance to voice a good deal more. He was dismayed by how close he was to resenting Tim as well as Julian for robbing him. He could almost have imagined Tim preferred him not to speak.

***

As the bus passed the Happy Snappy shop Ray said "I never explained properly about the photograph."

"You said it was a trick," Doug reminded him.

"I thought it was," Ray said, lowering his voice. "Now I'm not so sure."

"What's there to be sure of?" Sandra said.

"There were two of them, two photographs. You heard me saying so. The girl you saw was in both."

Pris leaned across the aisle and kept her voice low, which sounded to Ray like addressing an invalid. "We didn't see any girl."

"Yes, in the photo. The one the man in the shop left up."

"The cutie in the bikini," Doug murmured, earning Pris's elbow in his ribs. "Only trying to be certain who we mean."

"That's her. You saw how young she was, and you could see it was a recent photograph."

Doug looked not far from anxious. "How could we?"

"Because you saw the man behind the counter. You saw he was the same age in the photo."

"If you say so, dad. I expect he was close."

Ray became aware that Tim was chatting loudly if not chattering to William and Jonquil. He must be ensuring they didn't overhear in case the discussion was about their grandmother, a thought that made Ray more desperate to convince his listeners. "But he wasn't that age in the one he took down," he insisted. "He was years younger, I'd say at least ten, and yet she was exactly the same in both."

"As you said, Ray, it was a trick." Pris looked sad to have to tell him. "Anyone can do that kind of thing these days, not even just a photographer."

"I know that, but why did he hide the other photograph? He wouldn't give me an explanation."

"He didn't have to, did he?" More reasonably still Doug said "Maybe he'd decided it was sexist. Maybe somebody objected."

"In that case why didn't he take both the photographs down?" Ray saw Doug and Pris fail to find an answer, and the sight seemed to illuminate his mind. "Wait a moment," he said. "Did you notice the bite?"