The Mirror of Pharos by J S Landor

Author:J S Landor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Published: 2017-10-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

The doorbell of number 12 jangled furiously. When no one answered, there was a scuffling in the porch and the letterbox clanked open.

A pair of hazel eyes scoured the hall. Apart from the gentle ticking of a clock, the house was silent. The only sign of life was a small frog sitting at the bottom of the stairs. He puffed out his chest and chirruped hopefully.

The hazel eyes narrowed into a frown and the letterbox crashed down.

On the other side of the door, Charlie threw her schoolbag on the ground and kicked it in frustration. Jack was either out or, worse still, ignoring her. She scooped up a handful of gravel and hurled it at his window. ‘Oi! Are you up there?’

The blank pane of glass stared down at her like an unblinking eye.

‘Where are you then?’ she growled under her breath. She had to see him, to warn him about what had happened today. First there’d been Blunt and his creepy threats, then in afternoon registration their teacher had mentioned the burglary. The police were coming tomorrow to talk to everyone in assembly. Convinced the thief was a child, they were looking for witnesses. What if Blunt tried to pin the blame on Jack? When it came out he’d been to Osmaston Hall, it wouldn’t look good.

Charlie hoisted her bag on her shoulder and was about to head away when she heard a screeching sound in the back garden, followed by Nan’s angry voice, ‘Serves you right, you hooligan! What gives you the right to come in here and do that! There’s no use denying it – I saw you with my own eyes!’

There was no reply. Charlie assumed the trespasser must be lost for words. She crept around the side of the house and made her way across the lawn.

Nan’s voice came from behind a row of laurel bushes. ‘I wondered why they kept disappearing. I found one lot halfway down the road, completely mangled. You must have dropped them from a great height. That’s theft and vandalism, you know.’

Charlie brushed past a long border of catmint. In places the plants were flattened, where Odin had rolled in delirious enjoyment of their scent. The cat, however, was nowhere to be seen.

‘Well, it can’t go on. Those wind chimes are important. But then, you already know that. Don’t you?’

Again, no reply. But there was a strange clattering sound, like a stick being rubbed back and forth along iron railings.

‘It’s no good. You can’t get out. Not alive anyway.’

Charlie’s step quickened and as she rounded the laurel bushes, a long rasping cry filled the air, ‘Tsche, tsche, tsche.’

Unaware of Charlie’s presence, Nan crouched over a large wire box, a curious contraption consisting of three compartments. Perched in one of them, its wings spread wide in defiance, was an enormous magpie. When it saw Charlie, it lowered its head, rattling its beak along the bars of the cage, first one way, then the other. Another grating cry exploded from it, ‘Tsche, tsche, tsche.

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