Innocent Blood (20 page)

Frank pulled a face. ‘Whoever they are, they've certainly done what they set out to do. Almost every new TV series is on hold, and three major movies have been closed down altogether.'

‘Why don't you come inside?' said Nevile. ‘Let's see if Danny can't give us some answers.'

Nevile showed him into his study. One wall was lined with reference books and leather-bound encyclopedias and files on the paranormal; another was clustered with photographs of Nevile with various famous people – Uri Geller, Elton John, Shirley Maclaine, Henry Kissinger. There was no desk, only a large, low table in the center of the room, made out of a solid square of highly polished black marble.

‘This is my pride and joy, this table. I had it shipped over from Delphi, where the oracle Pythia lived. You've heard of the Oracle of Delphi?'

‘Sure.'

‘The story is that she could tell the future by getting high on bay leaves. But I think there's much more convincing evidence that she was a psychic. She was capable of giving accurate predictions of what was going to happen in the near future, but only in flashes and riddles, the same way that things come to me, and any other psychic detective. For instance, she foresaw that “wooden walls will save Athens from Persia,” and what happened? The Greek fleet defeated the invasion fleet of King Xerxes of Persia at the battle of Salamis, 480 BC. And she predicted dozens of other famous events.'

Frank said, ‘There's one thing I wanted to ask you, before we started. If another spirit's pretending to be Danny, how are we going to get in touch with the
real
Danny?'

‘I think he'll make himself known, if he's recovered. It's my belief that he must have been just as shocked as Kathy Ashbee and all the other children, and so the last time I tried to contact him, his spirit was still very weak. The other spirit was much more mature and consequently much stronger and so it was able to drown him out. It jammed his signal, as it were. But I'm hoping very much that Danny is going to be able to talk to us, this time.'

‘OK, then. I understand. Let's get on with it.'

Nevile sat up straight in his black leather armchair and focused on the wall just above Frank's head. Frank sat up straight, too, although Nevile hadn't asked him to.

There was a long, long silence. It was so quiet that Frank could hear Nevile breathing. After three or four moments, a clock chimed eleven. Outside the house, in the sunlight, the teenager in the Hawaiian shirt was giving a last brisk polish to the Mercedes' front bumpers.

‘Is that you, Danny?' asked Nevile suddenly. ‘I want to talk to Danny.'

Frank sat up even straighter, right on the edge of his chair. He looked at Nevile, trying to catch his attention, but Nevile's eyes were still focused on the wall above his head.

‘I want to talk to Danny,' Nevile repeated. ‘Nobody else.'

It was all Frank could do to stay in his seat. ‘Nevile,' he demanded, ‘is somebody there?'

Nevile glanced at him quickly and nodded.

‘Is it Danny? Please, God, let it be Danny.'

There was another silence. Nevile slowly lowered his head, so that he was staring down at the shiny oak floor, and he nodded, and nodded again, as if he were listening.

Eventually, he said, ‘All right, if you're really Danny, why don't you give me a sign? Better yet, why don't you show yourself?

Frank waited, his heart beating –
thumpp
,
thumpp
,
thumpp –
as slowly as a funeral drum.

Nevile nodded again and then he looked up. ‘He says you should forget about him and make a new life for yourself.'

‘
What
? How can I forget about him?'

‘He says that you have to look forward, not back.'

‘How do I know that it's really him?'

‘He says he forgives you, he knows that it wasn't really your fault. He was angry before because he didn't realize that he was dead.'

‘Yes, but how do I know that it's really
him
, and not this other spirit pretending to be him?'

Nevile covered his eyes with one hand, and didn't say a word for more than a minute. At last he said, ‘Mr Rumbles. Does that mean anything to you?'

‘What?'

‘Mr Rumbles, his teddy bear. He says that you called it Mr Rumbles because you blamed it for your stomach rumbling when you were reading him a bedtime story.
Green Eggs and Ham
, that's what you were reading him.'

Frank opened his mouth and closed it again. It
was
Danny. It had to be Danny. What other spirit could have known that? And Danny had said that he was forgiven. Unexpectedly, his eyes filled up with tears.

‘Danny! Danny, can you hear me, it's Daddy!'

Nevile listened again, and then said, ‘Yes, he can hear you. He loves you. He just wants you to be happy. He says you should make a new life.'

‘Danny, I'm not going to forget you. Not ever.'

‘He says you should follow your heart. You've already met the person you're going to spend the rest of your life with.'

Frank frowned at him. ‘I don't understand. How does he know about that?'

‘Because he's with you, wherever you go, and he always will be.'

‘Danny – who do you mean? Who are you talking about?'

Another pause. ‘He says her name begins with A. A is for aardvark.'

‘Who do you mean, Danny? Who are you talking about?'

Nevile waited, and waited. ‘No answer. I think he may have gone. Either that, or he's too tired to talk to us anymore. It's very exhausting, getting in touch with people who have passed over; and
they
find it very exhausting, too.'

Frank said, ‘You're sure he's gone?' He looked around the room, half expecting to see Danny standing in one of the corners, or out on the deck.

‘I think so. I can't hear anything, and I can't feel any resonance.'

Frank pulled out a crumpled tissue and blew his nose. ‘I don't know what to say. That
was
Danny, wasn't it? I mean, he knew what his teddy bear was called, and why.'

‘I wouldn't take that as conclusive proof, Frank. But it does seem very likely that it was him.'

‘God, I wish I could have heard him myself. But he forgives me, and that's what I care about most.'

Nevile stood up and laid his hand on Frank's shoulder. ‘I'm pleased about that. I'm really very pleased. But . . . I don't know. There was one thing that didn't quite ring true.'

Frank looked up at him and frowned.

‘It's nothing much,' said Nevile. ‘I just wonder why he was so enthusiastic about your starting a new life.'

‘Maybe he knows that Margot and I have reached the end of the road. I mean, if Margot can't accept that I didn't kill Danny on purpose—'

‘I don't know. It seems to me that most eight-year-old boys would want their parents to stay together, no matter what.'

‘I guess he realizes that we're never going to be happy.'

‘Hmm. That's rather a grown-up assessment for an eight-year-old boy – particularly an eight-year-old boy who's just been killed . . . But how about a drink? I've got some rather good Riesling if you like that kind of thing.'

‘No, thanks. I think I'd better be going. I have to get back to the studio to find out what's happening with
Pigs
.'

‘
Is
there a woman in your life beginning with A?'

Frank hesitated for a moment, and then said, ‘Yes.'

‘I hope you don't think I'm being inquisitive. But when I come to write this up for my book, I'd like to be able to say if Danny hit the mark or not.'

‘Her name's Astrid. I met her at The Cedars after the bomb went off. She's very attractive, and I guess we get along pretty good, although I think it's way too soon to think about spending the rest of my life with her.'

‘Of course.'

‘For one thing, she's very secretive about her background. I don't know where she lives or what she does for a living. I've never met any of her friends. For all I know, her name isn't Astrid at all.'

‘That's unusual. Not unheard of, I suppose, especially if she's married. But unusual.'

‘I know. But she's a very good listener, and she seems to understand how I feel, and as far as I'm concerned that's all that matters for now.' He stood up and took hold of Nevile's hand. ‘I want to thank you for this. You've taken a load off my mind. Really.'

‘We should do it again. Perhaps we can find out more.'

Nevile opened the study door and Frank went into the hallway. As he did so, Danny stepped out of the living room, right in front of him, even though the walls were all glass and Frank hadn't seen him waiting for him.

Frank heard himself saying, ‘Oh my God!'

Danny looked as solid as if he were still alive, except that his hair was wildly tousled and his face was deathly white. He was wearing a gray check shirt and khaki shorts and gray worn-out sneakers with no socks – clothes that Frank didn't recognize. His shirt and his shorts were blotchy with dried blood, and there was dried blood on his left ear, as well as bruises on his forehead and briar scratches on his legs. His eyes were wide open but they stared at him like glass eyes in a stuffed animal, expressionless.

Frank felt as if his skin were shrinking. ‘Danny?' he said hoarsely. He took a step forward, but Nevile grabbed hold of his arm.

‘Frank – don't!'

‘You see him too?'

‘Yes, but it isn't Danny. Believe me, Frank, Danny wouldn't have the strength to do this.'

‘Danny?' Frank repeated. ‘Danny, what the hell happened to you? Did somebody hurt you?'

He tried to pry Nevile's fingers free from his arm, but now Nevile caught him around the waist as well, trying to pull him back. ‘Don't, Frank! He could be dangerous!'

‘That's
Danny
, Nevile! Look at him! That's Danny!'

‘For God's sake, he
can't
be!'

‘Danny, who did this to you? Who hurt you? Let me go, Nevile. For Christ's sake, let me go. I have to know who's hurt him.'

Danny said nothing but continued to stare. Frank wrestled himself free from Nevile and took two or three steps toward him, holding out his hands.

‘Frank, will you listen to me –
don't
!'

Frank went down on one knee. ‘Danny, don't you know me? It's Daddy. Who hurt you, Danny? Let me help you.'

Danny's eyes turned toward him. They didn't look like Danny's, but there was something about them that Frank recognized, as if somebody familiar were watching him through the cut-out eyes of a Danny mask. ‘Daddy,' he whispered.

‘What?'

‘
Daddy
hurt me.'

‘I don't understand. I never beat up on you, not like this.'

‘
Daddy
hurt me.'

‘Danny, come here, let's get you cleaned up.'

Nevile said, ‘He's a spirit, Frank. You can't clean him up. You can't even touch him. He isn't there.'

Frank turned around. ‘What the hell do you mean, he isn't here? I can see him and I can hear him and he's been hurt, and that's good enough for me.'

‘Frank—'

But as Frank turned back again, Danny let out a scream of terror and hurtled against the wall. Then he was flung across the hallway, hitting his head and his shoulder against the leg of the side table. A glass vase toppled off the table and smashed on the floor. Danny slid feet-first toward the front door, as if he were being dragged by his ankles.

Frank tried to grab his hands and pull him back. He felt a sharp slice across his knuckles but there was nothing there. No hands, no Danny. Danny had vanished, instantly, in the same way that he had appeared. Frank stood up, shaking, confused, blood dripping from his elbow. He had cut himself on a curved piece of broken glass vase.

‘What happened? Where is he?'

‘I told you, Frank. You could see him but he wasn't there.'

‘He knocked the vase off the table! If he wasn't there, how could he knock the vase off the table?'

‘Psychokinetic energy, that's all, like a poltergeist. Here, come into the kitchen. Let's take a look at that cut.'

‘He was there, Nevile. He was right there in front of me.'

‘I know. I saw him too. But he was only in our minds.'

The dumpy cook stared disapprovingly as Nevile held Frank's knuckles under cold running water. Then Nevile tore off a sheet of paper towel for him, so that he could dry his hand and stem the bleeding.

‘There – it's not serious. You'll live.'

‘That looked so much like Danny . . . I just can't get my head round it.'

‘I know, Frank, but it wasn't him. I think it was probably the same spirit we saw on your patio.'

‘But why? What does it want?'

‘I imagine it's trying to tell you something, trying to explain something to you, but God alone knows what. Spirits are like the Oracle of Delphi. They have a frustrating habit of speaking in riddles, and suggestions, and hints.'

They went out on to the deck and Frank sat down, still trembling. Nevile opened the bottle of wine and handed him a glass. ‘Unless you'd rather have a brandy?'

‘No, this is fine.'

Nevile sat opposite him, and held his glass of wine up to the sunlight. ‘Beautiful color, isn't it? Pure gold.'

‘What do I do now?' Frank asked him.