Thirteen Days by Sunset Beach by Ramsey Campbell

Author:Ramsey Campbell
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: fiction, fantasy
Publisher: Flame Tree Press
Published: 2018-08-12T21:26:07+00:00

The Ninth Day 28 August

“Sorry, everyone,” Natalie said. “We needn’t have got up quite so soon.”

While Tim and Jonquil looked as if they might have answered this not just with dull-eyed blinks behind their sunglasses, it was Sandra who said “Not your fault. It’s our transport that’s late.”

“Relax, you two,” Doug said. “That’s Greece.”

“Perhaps we could have been warned about it,” Julian said without quite identifying the culprit.

“The sooner I’m up seeing everyone,” Sandra said, “the better I like it.”

Her children and their partners produced a variety of smiles before they looked away, out of the courtyard. Beneath clouds growing pale with dawn, streetlamps cast shadows like emblems of the stillness of the road. Ray glimpsed movement at the near end of the alley leading to the beach, presumably the shadow of the spider that had the light for its lure – the retreating shape had been thin enough. He remembered last night, and was trying to make more sense of it than he had so far when William said “Please may I go on the swings while we’re waiting?”

“If anyone would care to go with you I should think you may.”

“I’ll take you, William,” Natalie said.

Ray thought Sandra would have offered if she hadn’t joined the teenagers in a state close to dozing. All three were seated on the wall beside the entrance to the courtyard and already wearing hats as well as sunglasses. As Natalie and William disappeared through the gap in the apartment block the boy’s absence let Ray blurt “Doug, you saw the photo in my book.”

“The monastery, you mean? I got a glimpse,” Doug said and visibly refrained from looking at Julian. “You should see it, Pris.”

Ray felt robbed of whatever question he might have asked. “I don’t know if you’ll be able to. I’m afraid I’ve lost the book.”

“Oh, Ray,” Sandra said and made an effort to widen her eyes. “How?”

Her concern felt worse than an accusation. “I left it on the balcony,” he said. “It must have fallen off.”

“Haven’t you looked for it?”

“I did last night. You won’t believe this, well, you’ll have to, but someone had run off with it.”

By now Doug had acquired some of his mother’s concern. “How do you know that, dad?”

“I saw them on the beach with it.” Ray had a sense of abandoning reticence as he said “They were tearing it up.”

“Well, that’s awful,” Pris declared. “What did you do?”

“I rescued some of it. That’s where I was when you didn’t know where, Sandra. I haven’t had a chance to see what state the bits I saved are in.”

“What kind of villain would destroy someone’s book?” Julian demanded. “There was nothing objectionable in it, was there, Raymond?”

“Not unless someone objected to the legend of the monastery.”

Ray saw Doug and Pris ready questions, but Julian was faster. “How long have we been waiting now? I’m somewhat tired of Greekness.”

“It hasn’t been half an hour yet,” Pris said. “Maybe other people have kept the pickup waiting.”

“I suppose we could call the rep,” Doug said, though not as if he meant to.

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