Snakeskins by Tim Major

Author:Tim Major
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Titan Books

TEN

Russell rang the doorbell three times. Nobody answered.

He skirted around the Blackwood house, taking care to tread lightly on the gravel of the driveway. Ellis was away on his mysterious trip, and Nell had taken Spencer to her parents’ house for the weekend, but North Oxford was full of busybodies who might inform the Blackwoods about somebody sneaking around.

Of course, there might be CCTV cameras, too. But surely nobody would check the footage, without a particular reason to do so? As he pulled up the hood of his dark coat he thought of Ixion dressed in the same way, and experienced an odd pang of satisfaction. He was determined to find something in the house that might incriminate Ellis and reveal what the GBP was really up to. Whether it would satisfy Ixion or not, it was his only route towards understanding how to help Nell.

The house was far larger than the Blackwood family needed. It would have taken half a dozen more children to warrant its size, with its vast garden crammed with hedged enclosures and outdoor dining areas.

He breathed more easily once he passed from gravel to grass. A strip of lawn led to Nell’s lean-to workshop. The outer wall was mottled plastic that was only semi-translucent. Russell kept low to the ground and every few metres he peered through the plastic, trying to see inside. There was no sign of movement.

The workshop door was slightly ajar. Despite his hurry, Russell felt a sudden impulse to enter. Inside, the thick tree trunk, Nell’s work in progress, seemed to glow as though from some natural phosphorescence. It appeared brighter than the daylight that seeped through the filthy plastic windows.

Nell had been working hard. The tree that lay lengthwise on its struts was now almost entirely hollow. The hole in its side was a couple of feet wide and five or six long, rounded at the corners. Russell frowned. The hole had the dimensions of a body, or at least an abstraction of one, like the shape of a coffin. The insides of the tree trunk were rough and splintered. Running through its precise centre was the sapling Nell had revealed. It looked absurdly fragile. Instinctively, Russell kept his distance. His anxiety that he might snap the slim tree within the hulking, fossil-like exterior had nothing to do with concerns about his break-in being discovered. It was something more unconscious. It was real fear.

He backed away and found himself outside in the bright daylight. He must get into the house. The longer he stayed out here, the greater the chances of being spotted.

The kitchen door was overlooked by the top floor of a neighbouring bank of executive apartments. All of their balconies were empty. Likely, the apartments were second homes, pieds-à-terre for city bankers, and most would be unoccupied for months on end. Even so, he jogged the remaining distance. For a moment he thought he had forgotten to bring the keys, which he had kept after his stint as a waiter at Ellis’s party.

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