2006 - Wildcat Moon by Babs Horton Read Free Book Online

he turned around as if startled by something.
    Nan shrank back away from the window. Fleep put down the bottle and crossed the room on tiptoe. He disappeared from sight and then she saw the front door opening just a crack. He stepped outside into Bloater Row, looked to the right and the left. The wind blew his long hair around his face. He glanced up at the window and Nan thought for a moment that he’d seen her. She wouldn’t forget the terrible look of fear on his face in a long time. Then he hurriedly closed the door and the light was extinguished.
    Nan pulled the curtains across and hastily undressed, climbed quickly into the warm bed and put an arm around Cissie. Cissie groaned softly and pushed her small body closer to Nan. The wind whined around the old building and the ancient floorboards creaked as though bare feet were crossing them.
    She closed her eyes, hugged Cissie even closer to her and fell asleep listening to the wind buffeting Bloater Row and the angry sea pounding onto the rocks below the Skallies.
    It was dark inside the wobbly chapel and it stank. There was the funny holy smell that all churches had but it smelled of other things besides. Mouse droppings, mouldy flock, damp hymn books and woodworm.
    And the faint but definite whiff of Benjamin’s pipe tobacco. Old Shag.
    Archie took his cheap torch out from his pocket. It was part of his Detective Kit, the only bit that worked properly. He found the switch and turned it on. There were no windows in the chapel that could be seen from Bloater Row, the only window was the one above the altar that faced out to sea. No one would know that he was inside the chapel snooping around.
    The beam of light from the torch was weak but he could just make out the outline of the pews on either side of a narrow aisle.
    The chapel was tiny and would only have fitted twenty people in it at the most He shuffled down the aisle until he came to the altar.
    The altar was made of rough uneven wood and was covered in a thick coat of dust The base was made from the front part of a boat. He got closer and screwed up his eyes. There was a name engraved on the side of the altar cum boat but he couldn’t make out what it said.
    A curious-looking crucifix stood on the altar between two ancient candlesticks that were crusted with candle wax.
    Archie put his head on one side and studied the crucifix with interest. All the crucifixes he’d ever seen were made from gold or wood but this one looked as though it was made of two large animal bones tied together with twine. Suddenly light flooded into the chapel through the window above the altar. Archie stood stock-still. There must be someone down on the beach with a spotlight someone who’d seen the light of his torch, someone who knew that he was inside the chapel.
    Then he relaxed. It was only the beam from the lighthouse out beyond Skilly Head that was lit on very stormy nights. He counted fifteen between each beam of light…
    Each time the beam came the round window above the altar glowed for a brief moment and lit up a glorious kaleidoscope of coloured glass.
    He swung the torch around the chapel. There were some ancient plaques on the wall with peculiar writing on them.
    Beneath his feet the floor was damp and sticky with mould and mountains of mouse droppings. There were a few scattered books and some rotten hassocks strewn around. He stooped to pick up a prayer book and opened it gingerly.
    The beam of the torch picked out a name on the fly leaf.
    He screwed up his good eye and read;
This book was given to Thomas Gasparini Greswode on the day of his first Holy Communion…
    The date written beside the name was so faded that he couldn’t read it…
    This couldn’t be what Benjamin had meant him to find, a mouldy old prayer book with the name of someone he’d never heard of in the front.
    He walked gingerly around the chapel. Dust and cobwebs lay thick over everything he touched and when he shone his torch up towards the roof,