Mrs Flannagan's Trumpet Page 10

  She stopped here, and Mrs Flannagan said impatiently, ‘Well, go on.’

  ‘He asked me to go along with him.’

  ‘He asked you to go…!’ Mrs Flannagan’s mouth opened into a gape.

  ‘Ah-ha.’ She was nodding at her mistress now. ‘He said what Mr Van had said, that he could get me a good place out in Belgium, Brussels.’

  ‘Brussels?’

  ‘Aye, missis, Brussels. It’s an easy place to remember, like brussel sprouts.’ She gave a little laugh; but then, her face becoming serious again, she went on, ‘He offered me a whole half-sovereign. He said Mr Van had a nice house there and lovely children and I’d be set up for life, and…and I’d be a fool if I didn’t jump at it.’

  Eddie looked from Daisy to his granny, who was sitting bolt upright in the bed now; and he couldn’t understand the expression on his granny’s face. She didn’t look mad at Daisy, it was just as if what she had said had surprised her, shocked her like.

  Daisy was gabbling now, ‘I wouldn’t have gone, missis, and I told him flat to his face. I told him that you had always been decent to me, sometimes as good as a mother, except when you had your tantrums like. Well, as I said to him when he told me to remember how you went at me, well, I said it was like water off a duck’s back to me…’

  ‘Daisy, come here.’

  Daisy walked slowly to the bed now and her face showed surprise when her mistress caught hold of her hand and, shaking it up and down, said, ‘You’re a good lass, Daisy, you’re a good lass, but listen to me, listen carefully. Now I know it’s your time out the day but you said you’d stay in. By that you mean you’re not going on the shore, or into the town, or along to Biddy’s; but very often in the daytime you take a dander on the cliff top just to get a breath of fresh air. I know, I know, I’m not chastising you.’ She was nodding her head vigorously now. ‘But what I want you to promise me is that you won’t go beyond the yard until I tell you, you won’t take a step further than that yard. Now promise me.’

  ‘Aye, missis, aye, I’ll promise you. Anyway, if I have a minute I prefer to put me feet up on the fender to warm me toes with the weather coming on as it is.’

  ‘That’s what to do, put your feet up on the fender and warm your toes.’

  ‘Aye, missis, yes, I’ll do that…Eeh! Eeh! Missis, missis’—Daisy was now gulping in her throat and pointing to the side table on which lay the trumpet—‘you’re hearin’ me. Eeh!’ She turned her bewildered gaze down on Eddie and repeated, ‘She’s hearin’ me without it. It never struck me till now…’

  Again her hand was caught and now slapped hard as her mistress in her old well-known raucous tone cried, ‘Yes, I’m hearing you, Daisy Clinton, and I’ve been hearing you for the past six months, did you know it, ever since I came back from Newcastle. Now go on downstairs and think of all the things you said behind me back.’

  Daisy walked backwards from the bed, then stopped and, her head wagging, she now said, ‘Well, it won’t affect me conscience none if I do, missis, ’cos I’ve never said anythin’ behind your back that I haven’t said to your face, I mean into your trumpet. Eeh! To think that all along you were only kiddin’.’

  ‘There you’re mistaken, girl, because all along I wasn’t kidding. I’ve had partial hearing in this ear’—she pointed now to her left ear—‘for the past six months and it was because everybody said that it was useless going up there that I let them go on thinking it was useless. It served me purpose in many ways, and I found out who me friends were. Anyway, what was the good of shouting about it when they told me up there it may only be temporary and I could lose it at any time again. Anyway, go on now, get down those stairs. But remember what I told you, not to step further than the yard.’

  ‘Aye, missis, aye.’

  As Daisy went from the room she turned her head on her shoulder and looked back at Eddie, and the look was asking, What do you make of this?

  When the door closed on her, Mrs Flannagan beckoned to Eddie, saying, ‘Come here, boy,’ and when he stood by the side of the bed she said rapidly, ‘Go down as quick as your legs will carry you and tell Ted Reade I want to see him. Tell him it’s very important.’

  ‘Aye, Gran; but…but what if he’s gone out in his boat, will I get anybody else?’

  ‘What do you say?’ His granny now turned her head to the side and for the moment Eddie thought she was going to reach for the trumpet, but what she did was cup her ear with the palm of her hand and use it like a sucker. He was reminded of the one they had in the shipyard with which they cleared the pipes, and when of a sudden she said, ‘Damn it!’ he went hastily round the bed, and, picking up the trumpet from the table, he handed it to her, only to have it and his hand knocked roughly aside as she exclaimed, ‘I don’t want it. It’ll come back, it’s got to.’ Her pumping became more vigorous now, and again she repeated, ‘Damn it!’ and added, ‘Don’t let them be right. Oh, anyway’—she pushed her hand out towards him—‘go on, get yourself away. And send Penny up here to me.’

  She now swung her legs out of the bed and, her voice changing to an appeal, she said, ‘Run, boy, run, because this is a serious business! That swine of a nephew of mine was right when he said he could be lynched for it.’

  It was as if his granny’s words had revived the feeling he’d had when just a short while ago he had rushed into the stable and dragged Penny into the kitchen, for now he ran from the room, down the stairs, through the hall and into the kitchen, and there, grabbing up his cap and coat, he shouted to Penny, who was sitting by the fire, ‘Go on upstairs right away, Gran wants you. And you’—he stabbed his finger towards Daisy—‘do what she said, mind, don’t move away from the yard. And don’t even go there unless you have to.’

  ‘What’s it all about?’

  ‘Never you mind, you’ll know soon enough…at least I hope you won’t.’ And with this enigmatic reply, he ran from the kitchen, out of the yard, across the grass and onto the cliff path.

  It was as he reached the path that he stopped and looked out to sea. There were a number of ships on the horizon and nearer to the shore a number of smaller craft, but they all seemed to be moving, with the exception of one. His eyes became riveted on this particular boat. Was it the same boat he had seen yesterday morning? A lot of fishing vessels and even bigger ones looked alike, but this particular one looked familiar and it was anchored.

  Mr Reade…he must get Mr Reade, and it would soon be dark. Now, as if he had wings to his feet, he flew along the cliff path. This was the nearest way to the Lawe and the particular stretch of the waterfront beyond it.

  His running was reduced to a trot by the time he reached the Lawe bank, and he took the last hundred yards at a walk before coming to Ted Reade’s house.

  After he had banged on the door twice it was opened, and an old woman faced him. ‘Well!’ she said; ‘you seem in a hurry. What is it, lad?’

  ‘Mr Reade.’ He brought the name out on a gasp. ‘Is…is he in?’

  ‘No. No, lad. Well now’—she smiled broadly at him—‘’tis Sunday afternoon and…and after a big dinner and a fill-up of beer afore that, he’s usually upstairs at this time sleeping it off. But today he’s taken a sculler across to North Shields, a bit of business he has to do there.’ She nodded at him. ‘Couldn’t wait, he said, ’cos he’s sailing out the night on the tide. Was it some fish you were wantin’?’

  ‘No, no.’ He shook his head. ‘I’m…I’m Mrs Flannagan’s grandson, and…and she wants him urgently.’

  ‘Oh!’—the woman nodded at him now—‘Mrs Flannagan’s grandson. Oh aye.’ Again she nodded. ‘Well now, he’ll be sorry he’s missed you ’cos he’s fond of Maggie, he is that. But I tell you what.’ She leant towards him. ‘The minute he steps in the door I’ll give him your message, an’ if it’s at all possible he’ll be along those cliffs like a linty. Aye, like a linty.’

  ‘Thanks.’ He nodded and backed a couple of steps away from her, then added, ‘You’ll tell him it’s very urgent,
and…and me granny’s very worried? She needs help.’

  The woman’s face was straight now and her voice had a sober tone as she said, ‘I’ll tell him your exact words, lad. I’ll do more than that, I’ll send somebody down to the quay so that when he comes in he doesn’t linger, ’cos he’s got to pass The Anchor an’ who knows but he might drop in.’

  ‘Ta. Thanks.’

  ‘You’re welcome, lad.’

  He turned now and walked up the street.

  What should he do? Go to the police? But the police were already looking for his granda, and if he told them what was in his mind with regard to the dreadful game he thought Hal Kemp and that Mr Van were up to they might just laugh at him and say he had been reading too many penny dreadfuls. But that’s what he should do, he should go to the police.

  Yet what proof had he? Only that the Belgian man had offered Daisy a job in his house. But there was proof enough that Hal Kemp and another had tried to murder his grandfather. If that came out though, it would put them all on their guard and they would scatter and likely carry on their terrible business some place else. What must be done in this case was to nab them both; and not only them, but those in league with them because in a business like this there was a string of villains, evil villains. Yet you could do nothing without proof, could you? And to get proof young girls had first to disappear.

  He was running again, although every bone in his body felt tired and all he desired at the moment was to amble or sit down and rest. Yet he felt compelled to run. His feet were stumbling as he negotiated the shallow valley and came within sight of the house. Then his heart seemed to leap into his mouth for there, running towards him, her hair loose in the wind, her skirt billowing around her legs like a balloon, was his granny. Her arms outstretched, she came towards him shouting, but her words were unintelligible until she stood gripping his shoulders and gasping, ‘They’ve gone. Oh, Eddie, they’ve gone, both of them!’

  ‘No.’ The word was just a whimper.

  Her head was wagging on her neck now like a rag doll’s, the saliva was running from her mouth and the tears were raining down her face. He had never expected to see his granny cry; but it was the very sight of her tears that brought him out of the stupor her words had created, and he yelled now, ‘They can’t be! Not both of them.’ Penny. His first thoughts were for his sister. If anything happened to her his mother would go mad, really mad…insane…And he himself would go mad if anything happened to Daisy. Yes he would. In this moment, he knew that he liked Daisy, more than liked her. He had to let his mind say the words: he loved her. Aye, he did. She was his lass; seems she had been, right from the start.

  He was running towards the house now, his legs seeming not to be touching the ground, and when he reached the yard he ran in and out of the outbuildings, yelling, ‘Penny! Daisy! Penny! Daisy!’

  When he eventually stopped in the middle of the yard his granny was facing him, and she said, ‘It’s no use. It’s no use. I’ve been everywhere and searched every nook and cranny of the house. Penny was with me. I sent her down to ask Daisy to bring up a drink, your grandfather was thirsty. She was a long time in coming back so I went downstairs, and the place was silent. There were three cups and saucers broken on the floor. There must have been more than one of them because one man couldn’t have managed two girls, not one like Daisy, who would have fought like a tiger, and apparently did for even the kitchen table was askew. Oh, Eddie, what’s come upon us? Did you get Mr Reade?’

  ‘No, Granny, he’s…he’s gone across the water.’

  ‘Well, go and get the pollis, the coastguard, the river pollis, anybody.’

  ‘Come on in and sit down.’ He thought she was going to collapse and he put his arm around her shoulders and went to lead her towards the kitchen, but she shook off his hold and said, ‘Boy! Boy! Don’t bother with me. Those two children, don’t you understand what’s going to happen to them? You’re not stupid and you’re nearing sixteen and a man almost, don’t you realise what’s going to happen to your sister and that Daisy? Oh my God!’ She put her hand over her eyes, and as he stood for a moment watching her he had a great desire to be sick, literally sick. Turning, he fled from her, but when he reached the cliff top he stopped, undecided which way to go, to the right and alert the coastguard or to the left and the river police. But where would he find the river police? It had better be the coastguard, they knew how to go about these things …

  … He was on the point of collapse himself as he reached the coastguard station. There were two men on duty and the elder of the two caught hold of him and said, ‘Steady, lad, steady. Now what’s your trouble? Your mate fallen over the cliff?’

  He began wildly and between gasps, ‘Flannagan, I’m Mrs Flannagan’s grandson. Me sister and Daisy, Daisy Clinton, the maid, they’ve been taken, kidnapped.’

  ‘Now, now, now! What’s this? Two little girls been kidnapped?’

  It was the younger man who cut in on his companion’s jocular tone, saying, ‘Listen to him. Listen to him, Jimmy.’ Then taking Eddie by the shoulder, he shook him gently and said, ‘Steady now. Steady. You think two girls have been kidnapped, is that it?’

  ‘Aye, yes, sir.’

  ‘How old are they?’

  ‘Me sister’s twelve and Daisy fourteen or so.’

  The man now cast a sidelong glance towards his companion; then, his attention on Eddie again, he said, ‘Who sent you?’

  ‘Me granny, she’s…she’s nearly mad.’

  ‘Aye, yes, I can understand that.’ Again the man looked at his companion and said, ‘The captain missing since yesterday, and now the two girls from the house, and Abel Denkin’s boat lying off shore. Get word along the coast.’ He jerked his head. ‘It’s a repeat of two years ago but we’ll have them this time or die in the attempt.’

  The younger man now said briskly, ‘And you, me lad, you get to your granny and look after her and tell her to try not to worry. Within a very short time the whole coast will be alerted. By the way, is there anything further you can tell us that might be of use?’

  ‘Yes, yes, I can.’ Eddie now nodded at the man. ‘It’s me granny’s nephew who is behind this, Hal Kemp, and a man called Mr Van, a Belgian man who has been gathering pebbles…’

  ‘Jimmy!’ The younger man’s voice now stopped his companion as he was going out of the door. ‘Did you hear that? Now what did I tell you? What have I said all along? I said we should keep an eye on him. Too smooth by half he was; and a man like him spending his time gathering pebbles. The guises those bastards put on to further their business, it makes me blood boil. As for Kemp, I knew he was a petty runner, but we couldn’t pin him. Yet I never thought he’d get in this deep. By God! Wait till we get them…Thanks, boy; now we know who we’re after. But go on, do as I tell you, get back home. But keep your eyes open and if anything fresh comes up slip along and let us know.’

  As Eddie walked heavily out into the darkening night part of his mind said, Slip along. His feet and legs were so heavy he could hardly lift them, yet his mind was alert, and so full of worry he did not know where to put himself. All he could think of was, Eeh! Me mother’ll go mad…Penny and Daisy. Penny and Daisy.

  His grandmother was still outside the house when he returned and he reassured her straight away, saying, ‘The coastguards are going to alert all along the coast. They say not to worry.’

  ‘Oh my God!’ His granny closed her eyes for a moment before saying, ‘Those are the stupidest words in the English language, not to worry…don’t worry. I tell you, boy, if those children are not found I’ll die, and that is before your mother has the chance to look at me because I couldn’t face her. I know how I felt when I lost her but she was still alive, but the best she’ll be able to hope for if Penny isn’t found is that the child will be lucky and die soon.’

  ‘Oh, Granny, shut up! Shut up!’ He screwed up his face and bowed his head, and she turned from him and walked towards the house.

  After a moment he fo
llowed her, and as he entered the kitchen she was going through the far door and he called loudly to her, ‘Will I go down to the cove?’

  She turned and looked at him and as she shook her head, she said, ‘They wouldn’t be so stupid as to leave them in the cove because that would be the first place we would think of looking. No, wherever they are they’re tied up somewhere waiting to be shipped. They’d have to be taken out to sea from here; they’d never get them across country, not unless they were drugged silly. But…but they could be at that.’ Her head bobbed with each of the last few words.

  And when the door closed on her he sat down on the settle by the side of the fire and, putting his elbows onto his knees, he propped his face in his hands.

  He couldn’t ever remember crying before and the pain of it now was so intense that he, too, wished he were dead. How was he going to face his mother? How? How? How?

  His head was brought up by his granny calling his name. Wiping his face with his fingers, he ran from the room and into the hall, there to see her standing at the top of the stairs beckoning to him. ‘Come up. Come up a minute. Your granda’s fully awake. Come.’

  When he reached the bedroom door it was to see her going sideways through the aperture and within seconds he was following her. His grandfather’s face looked waxen in the lamplight but his eyes were wide and showed that his mind was clear.

  His granny now was talking rapidly, saying, ‘Your granda says he found Hal Kemp on Abel Denkin’s boat. The Belgian man was there an’ all. But all he remembers is that Hal Kemp kept denying that he was up to anything shady and Abel Denkin told him to look around and to take up the hatch and see for himself. And it was as he bent over the hatch that somebody hit him on the head. He doesn’t remember anything more except for one thing. As they pretended to lift the hatch he thinks he heard someone bang against it from the inside.’