Chapter 24
‘Us be watching the local news last night.’
Lisa realised with a start that the back door had opened and Frank was standing in her utility room, a wine-coloured tracksuit emphasising the paunch which had recently become quite noticeable. Phyllis and Paul were with him. He was, apparently, jogging them to Lodsham House School.
‘Be trying to get fit,’ he explained, patting his cider belly. ‘Thought us’d call in on our way and say hello. Not seen much of yer lately.’ He looked flushed, his chest heaving as he recovered his breath; he was still clutching his twins by the hands.
Lisa sensed Frank’s small currant eyes exploring her. He’d obviously come for a specific reason. She felt nervous, intensely aware of his presence and of the way he watched her every move as she directed Seb on how to put his jumper on.
‘I can do it, Mummy! I always do it by myself at school.’
‘All right, Seb. But you were getting your fingers caught in the threads at the back. Bestie would be upset.’
Betsy Beste had hand knitted Sebastian a jumper with white rabbits on a green ground.
‘On the telly. Them did come across the decomposing body of a young’un in an old pit. Jest the remains of a bare body; no clothes nor nothing. Boy around about eighteen months, them do believe.’ Frank trotted out the information as though he’d rehearsed it.
Lisa’s hands turned to blobs of ice as she let go of Seb and turned towards Frank. So it had happened, after all. He was actually confirming that she hadn’t imagined the cloning of two months ago. But why had Frank come to tell her this? Did he know what was going on? Is that what this visit was about? Or was it just coincidence?
Lisa tried desperately to pull herself together. She was jumping to conclusions. No one could possibly prove anything. So there was a body. Someone had come across the body of a toddler, a boy. That’s all. Why should that be connected with her and her family? Unless there was a picture of the child in the local paper... Heart thudding, she turned away from Frank and bent towards Seb again as he was stretching his arm through a sleeve, catching a finger on a loop of yarn.
‘Make your hands into a fist, Seb.’ Her voice sounded strangely squeaky, and she saw Seb look curiously at her. Her freezing hands felt numb. Instead of pulling the child’s arm out of the sleeve she made matters worse, puckering the loosely knitted material. She could not stop herself from looking over her shoulder. Frank’s eyes, fixed on her back, were waiting for further reactions. That’s why he hadn’t phoned, she knew at once. He wanted to see how his news affected her. The narrowed questing eyes surged fury through her, pumped blood. What was he playing at? He might suspect what was going on - but he couldn’t possibly substantiate it. Nor would he want to. It would draw public attention to what had happened on his farm when he’d tested out the original strain of Multiplier. Lisa stood tall, squaring her shoulders back, and lifted her chin defiantly. He was bluffing, trying to flush her out. But why?
‘No one’s come forward, well, someone must be missing they little’un and baint said nothing.’
Seb pulled his sleeve on for himself. ‘Why didn’t he have any clothes on, Uncle Frank? It’s cold today.’
‘We’ll be late, Seb,’ Lisa said briskly. ‘Hurry up and get your anorak on.’ She saw Frank was still staring at her and faced him out. ‘Completely naked, did you say? Wouldn’t that suggest one of those ghastly - well, child abuse cases?’ She dropped her voice and motioned her head towards Seb, to indicate that he was listening. ‘You know what I mean.’
‘Arr, could be.’ The eyes had sunk away.
She smiled at his retreat. He’d expected her to show fear, to give him the chance to bully her. She gathered three pairs of shoes into stiff hands, still anxious, feeling Frank’s truculence.
‘How be the triplets? None of we seen they for a while.’
‘Same as ever; hard work.’
‘All right then, be they? Getting on well?’
‘Come and see for yourself,’ Lisa said coolly. ‘They’re with Alec in the kitchen, waiting for me to get them ready.’
‘Apparently,’ Lisa said to Alec as Frank followed her, ‘Frank’s called to tell us about a rather odd snippet on the local news. They’ve found the body of a toddler in the Priddy Woods.’
‘I never said that!’ Frank said. ‘Whatever made you reckon that?’
Lisa stopped short, the blood draining from her brain. ‘Didn’t you just say...’
‘I never said nothing about Priddy Woods. I said as them had found the remains of a toddler in an old pit.’
Lisa swallowed hard. ‘Lift your leg, Jansy; don’t kick.’ She was squatting, her back to Frank, putting the triplets’ shoes on, grasping their feet and pushing hard. Frank had followed her right into the kitchen, still holding on to his twins.
‘Hello, Frank. We don’t often see you at this hour.’
‘Morning, Alec. Just purdled in to let yer know the news; makes we worry about the young’uns playing on their own.’ He walked closer to Lisa. ‘Weren’t Priddy. T’were farther downalong. Milton way. Could’ve been dragged from the Priddy side. More than likely, the police do reckon. State the body’s in they say him been mauled about a fair bit.’
‘Mauled about?’
‘One of they dogs folk make pets of. Could be a stray, could be an old lady walking her pet, not keeping proper control.’
‘Bloodhounds again?’ Alec asked, startled.
‘No, not hounds,’ Frank said. ‘More like a terrier, Warwickshire bull or suchlike.’ He saw Alec frown. ‘Could be a grockle, allowing animals to roam. Voreigners don’t seem ter know what them be dealing with. Dog’s instinct be to hunt.’
Lisa noted that Frank still liked to blame local problems on tourists, or recently arrived residents.
‘Good heavens,’ Alec said, startled. ‘Can they be as specific as that? A child killed by a terrier?’
‘Not a feature left in the face, and the body completely mangled, the police do say. But them said nothing about whether him were dead when the dog got hold of he.’
‘It was a he, then? They were able to identify a boy?’
‘Them can tell from they bones. There be nothing else for they to get ahold on. Too young for proper teeth. Nothing them could identify.’ He paused dramatically. Lisa could feel his eyes on her. ‘Apart for one thing; them did come across a pair of unusual walking reins nearby. Yellow ones.’
Lisa’s mind skimmed rapidly back over what had happened the day she’d driven Janus to see Morgenstein. She’d lost the yellow walking reins - but nowhere near Milton. She hadn’t even stopped there. She’d probably left them in the Priddy Woods, where she’d undressed the child. That proved that the body mentioned on the news could not have anything to do with her. But she still couldn’t stop her shoulders trembling a shudder.
‘It sounds horrific.’ Alec, unaware of possible implications, laughed as he looked over the top of his Financial Times. ‘Still, we can’t go by that bit of evidence. We lost a pair ourselves a little while ago. But we haven’t lost a child,’ he went on, chuckling. ‘Not at the last count, anyway.’ He put his paper down and smiled amiably. ‘That’s a very exciting item of news for such a quiet area. But someone must be missing a toddler, and presumably will come forward to say so.’
‘Not up till now.’
‘Perhaps a visitor to the area.’
‘Grockles? And didn’t get on to they police?’
‘It’s a strange old world,’ Alec said easily. ‘Do excuse me, Frank. I’ve got to rush.’
If Lisa hoped that would be the end of the matter she was wrong.
‘Them do seem to be getting more alike, not less,’ Frank remarked. ‘Us could swear Jansy were much fatter than the other two last time us saw he. And him do have much more of a look of Jeffers.’
‘You’re quite right.’ Lisa bent towards her triplets, lifting them off the bench. ‘He was. Not really fat, actually. Sort of bloated.’ She smiled engagingly at Frank. ‘He had an allergy, the specialist said.’
‘Oh, arr.’
She shepherded the triplets towards the pushchair. ‘You haven’t come across them for some time, Frank. Most people think they all look alike - peas in a pod, they always say.’
‘You be forgetting, Lisa. Us do know un since them be born.’ He knelt down by the children. ‘Jiminy be easy to spot. Delicate, like. But Jansy and Jeffers seems almost identical.’ He looked back at Lisa over his shoulder, his eyes fine slits. ‘Now us do remember as Jansy be quite different, somehow. Bit of a bruiser, if yer don’t mind us saying. These other two be sweet as pie. Even the one as is wearing the gold ring.’
The one? He was pointing at Jeffrey. What was he trying to say?
‘Just growing up, I expect. Dr Morgenstein says the result of the allergy could easily have been aggression.’
‘Yer’d reckon as him be an entirely different child,’ Frank said laconically.
Lisa laughed grimly to herself. She only wished that Frank was right and she did have a non-cloning child with her. The one she’d taken to the doctor from the Priddy Woods, she was quite clear, was Janus. And Seb called him Janus. That had confirmed it for her.
‘Dr Morgenstein wanted us to leave off Jansy’s earring.’ She smiled at Frank again. ‘But I think he’s got that wrong. I’m happier if they all wear earrings, or we don’t bother with any of them,’ she explained, careful to keep her voice even and unexcited. ‘We don’t want Jansy to think of himself as different from the others.’
It sounded hypocritical, even to herself. She knew, better than anyone else, that Janus wasn’t just different. He was very different indeed. The question was, what did Frank know? He couldn’t know, Lisa repeated anxiously to herself. He could suspect, because of what was happening on his farm, and he could be trying to find out more. But why was he concerning himself with her children all of a sudden?
‘So what I thought,’ she confided thoughtfully, ‘was that I’d swap them round. Platinum for Jansy, gold for Jeffers. Sorry if that confused you,’ she added genially. ‘It wasn’t meant for that.’
Was she imagining it, or was there anger in Frank’s attitude?
‘So yer decided ter play tricks?’ he said. ‘Can’t make a fool on me! Us knew right off that there be someutt different.’
‘Looks like that paediatrician was actually worth his money. He seems to have worked out the problem for poor old Jansy,’ Lisa said smoothly. ‘Fancy an allergy causing a change in personality.’ She straightened up and began to manhandle the pushchair towards the drive. ‘We’d better go or we’ll be late.’
Frank dusted his knees off and planted himself directly in front of the chair. ‘Best give yer a hand,’ he said, walking round and grasping the handle. ‘Want to watch out going down they drive. Bit of a drop there. The three of they be heavy now. Pushchair could run away with they.’
‘I keep the brake on,’ Lisa said, but let him take the pushchair. She took Seb’s hand in hers, then looked around for Phyllis and Paul as they were turning into the road. ‘You take Seb’s hand,’ she instructed the little boy and held Phyllis with her other hand. The child looked strained. She seemed to drag her bad foot more than Lisa remembered.
The rumble of a lorry coming up behind them made Lisa pull the three children on to the safety of the verge. She expected Frank to do the same with the pushchair.
‘Get to the side, Frank! The milk tanker’s coming up fast!’
He stopped, but it seemed to Lisa that he made no effort at all to move the pushchair out of the way. In fact he seemed to be turning it into the road. She dropped the children’s hands and leaped over, tugged the handle down away from Frank and dragged the chair back towards the verge. The tanker lumbered past with inches to spare.
‘No need to panic, they be good drivers,’ Frank said, standing stolid, looking her full in the face. He turned to the triplets again. ‘Them be identicals, right?’ he continued, stepping aside and looking at them searchingly. ‘Means them be equal genetically. Means yer may get the same trouble with Jeffers.’ He stopped in front of the school gates. ‘Leave yer here,’ he said. ‘Us be going on.’
‘Hello, Frank.’ Geraldine was tripping down towards the gates. Her long slim legs were displayed almost to her hips but, Lisa noted, her feet were shod in low-heeled, though stylish, leather boots.
‘Morning, Gerry. Yer be smartish on the job.’
‘Bit of a flap on. Three new children this week. Anne asked me to come in early to help out.’ She grinned at Lisa, no doubt to show how indispensable she was to her new employer. Then she turned to Frank. ‘No Landrover this morning?’
‘Keeping fit.’
‘You? Since when?’
‘Got to get started somewhen.’ He waved at her as he started off.
‘Will you be over as usual later? What about the - ?’
‘All taken care on, Gerry,’ Frank interrupted, voice loud, drowning Geraldine’s soprano. ‘No need for yer to worry none.’ And he loped off without another word.
It struck Lisa as odd that Frank and Geraldine should be on such familiar terms. Geraldine stared uncertainly after the departing figure, then turned towards the children. ‘Come on, you lot.’ She took the large pushchair over from Lisa, about to push it to the playground. ‘You’re wanted on parade!’
Anne Marsden had taken to having a sort of assembly now that her numbers had grown.
‘Frank says there’s been some horrifying news on television,’ Lisa said, walking beside the girl, watching Geraldine’s expression. ‘The body of a toddler found near Milton.’ She paused, seeing Seb looking up at her.
‘He didn’t have any clothes on,’ Seb said.
Geraldine’s long legs strode on, her face turned away. ‘Uncle Nige rang last night,’ she called back over her shoulder. ‘It sounded really gruesome.’ She continued pushing the pushchair. ‘Hurry up,’ she shouted to the children. ‘You’ll be late!’
Lisa kept up with her, helping Phyllis. ‘In that case I’d have thought you’d have worked out a theory by now, Gerry. You’re always reading those mystery stories.’ Somehow she had to try to find out if anything else had been reported. Geraldine would surely have gathered all the facts together. ‘Slow down a bit,’ she said, determined on an answer. ‘Phyllis is having trouble keeping up.’
Geraldine turned, holding out a hand to Phyllis.
‘Did they mention if there was anything with the child, something which might identify him?’ Lisa went on as casually as she could. Her voice, still somewhat breathy, purred pleasant. ‘Good test of your deductive powers.’
The girl shrugged, apparently not interested. ‘Uncle Nige said there was absolutely nothing at all. Not a stitch of clothing, not even a scrap of anything nearby. A real puzzler.’
Lisa was sifting her impressions, trying to evaluate what she’d been told. Something was very wrong somewhere. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but she could sense it. Reluctantly she waved goodbye, about to leave.
The vigorous assertive barking of a dog made her stop, tense, an odd jolt of memory coming back. That bark. She’d heard that bark before. Instinctively she turned to sprint towards her children. Janus was brandishing his left arm at Duffers. The terrier jumped at it, excited now, the barks turned into snarls becoming high yap yaps. James, Lisa noticed at once, had begun to whimper, and Jeffrey leaned away. But Janus, apparently unafraid, pummelled the dog’s snout with a metal aeroplane clutched in his right hand, lunging at Duffers’ eyes. Lisa drew in her breath as she pitched towards the dog, aware of danger.
‘Sit, Duffers!’ Geraldine shouted, alerted in her turn.
Too late. The dog, provoked by the child, followed Janus’s arm as he pointed it towards the wheels. The terrier jumped, seizing the arm in his flews, his paws on child and pushchair.
Geraldine snatched the dog’s collar as Lisa, plunging forward, galvanised the pushchair into explosive movement. Janus, his left arm grabbed by the terrier’s teeth, swiped with his right. Swirling the metal toy he jabbed again at the terrier’s eyes. The animal, his jaws around the sleeve of the yellow anorak, felt the attack from all sides and began to clamp his teeth, shaking his rear from side to side. He yelped raucous barks in sudden pain as he felt his paw trapped in the turning wheel. He had let go of Janus.
Reluctant memory of Priddy came flooding back to Lisa as she caught flashes of something buff-coloured, light, streaking through the dark spruces. Had Geraldine, and her bull terrier, followed her that day? That was absurd. She really was letting her imagination take over. Geraldine, she knew perfectly well, had been at Anne’s, doing her job. But someone had been following her, she was sure of that now. And there had been a dog. The fleeting look she’d caught of the animal meant it could have been a bull terrier. And, of course, they were the sort of dogs who mauled their quarry.
‘Get down, Duffers!’ Lisa screamed at him, incensed and outraged. ‘Down!’ She kicked the dog hard to one side and bent to Janus.
‘What’s going on?’ Anne was running towards them. ‘Is Jansy frightened?’ She turned to Geraldine. ‘What’s Duffers doing here? You know you’re not allowed to bring him. Did he snap at one of the triplets?’
Lisa looked up to see a flash of fury as Geraldine turned to Anne. ‘Jansy trapped his paw in the wheel!’ the girl shouted, gathering the dog into her arms. ‘He wouldn’t begin to hurt one of the children. He’s gentle as a lamb when he’s not hunting.’
‘He’s bitten Jansy!’ Lisa exploded, lifting Janus out of the pushchair, holding him to herself protectively, stroking his head.
‘Only because his paw was trapped!’
Anne was already by Lisa’s side. ‘Jansy’s been bitten?’
‘I think the anorak took the brunt of it,’ Lisa said, recovering, examining Janus’s arm. The toddler, she noticed, showed neither fear nor pain. It was almost as though he’d provoked the dog deliberately. She levered the coat off carefully. The sleeve of his jumper showed no blood, but as she pushed it back Janus rubbed his arm. Lisa could see tiny pinpricks of tooth marks on the smooth skin. Her heart sank. His flesh had begun to swell again.
‘I’m sorry, Anne. I’ve got to get him to a doctor. I don’t think it’s serious but he could be infected.’
‘Come in, my dear. Of course. I’ll give the surgery a ring.’ She turned to Geraldine. ‘Lock Duffers away, Gerry. In the scullery. I said he could come if you locked him up. You know that perfectly well he’s to be nowhere near the children!’
Why wasn’t Anne demanding that the dog be sent away for good, Lisa thought angrily? Why was he here in the first place? He’d attacked Janus! And Anne had no right to have a bull terrier anywhere near children in a playschool. Was she kowtowing to the Fitch-Templetons? Because she was running a business?
Something sinister was going on, Lisa was sure of it. She even had the distinct feeling that Frank had tried to push the triplets in front of the lorry earlier on.
Things were getting out of hand. It was much more dangerous than she’d imagined. Janus was being stalked. Overwhelming waves of maternal feeling drowned out rational thought. She had to protect her little boy, had to take Janus away, keep him safe. Her child, she realised with a start, could be in mortal danger. And his triplet brothers were sufficiently like him to be in danger too.
‘It’s no good, Anne. I’m really shattered. I’m taking the children home again.’
She watched Janus’s reaction, saw his eyes gleam their understanding. He knew; he definitely knew that she was about to remove him from the chase.
‘Why not leave the others, Lisa? They’ll be perfectly safe.’
Lisa turned the triple pushchair round and headed towards the gate. ‘I’m not leaving any of them here today,’ she said, as calmly as she could, her voice tremulous. ‘I’m afraid all this has made me very nervous. I’ll give you a ring later.’ She took Seb’s hand. ‘Come along, Seb. No school today.’
And as she walked her children home Lisa thought again of Frank’s strange visit, his oddly threatening attitude to her. Of course the body talked about on the news couldn’t have any connection with her - that child had been found in Milton, several miles away from where she’d been. But something nagged at her, something that Frank had said, something that didn’t quite fit in.
‘You’re going too fast, Mummy!’ Seb said, trotting beside her, trying to keep up.
She slowed her pace, relived again the feeling in the woods. Dark spruces, all identical, brooding overhead. A running dog, the plop of something falling, the snuffling scurrying sound… she brought herself back to her children.
‘Sorry, Seb,’ she sighed at him. ‘We’re almost home.’
How could she convince Alec that she had to keep the children at home again for their own safety? Not all of them, of course. Only Janus. He was the cloner. He was the one they were after, the one who could betray the secret. He was the target. It was Janus she had to safeguard, to keep away from everyone. She knew that now.