Ghostcatcher Read online

  Margaret cocked her head to one side.

  Starkey creased his brows at her. ‘It’s no reflection on you as a dog.’

  Margaret dropped her head. Lil gave her an encouraging scratch and said: ‘Now, don’t let it get you down. If it could be done by a dog, then it would be you but you’d be going in cold with only a map to guide you.’ Lil slid the map out from under the condiments and cups and held it in front of Margaret’s face. The little dog sniffed it, pushed her wet nose against it for long enough to leave a comet of slime there and then looked at Lil again. ‘Plus,’ said Lil, ‘if the door has a round handle, you just don’t have the thumbs.’

  Minnie reached into her pocket, pulled out a cold sausage and offered it up. ‘We’re going to need to think of something else.’ Margaret took the sausage out of Minnie’s hand, then leapt back under the table to eat in private.

  Abe rubbed his jaw. ‘Do we know anyone else small enough to get under that fence?’

  Lil looked at Nedly. ‘I can think of someone.’

  Chapter 16

  Babyface Gets Spooked

  Ever since Babyface had relayed the events of the night when Nedly had gone missing, Lil had checked in on him at the Hawks Memorial Orphanage on a regular basis to have a game of snakes and ladders or share a bag of liquorice toffees, but really the visits were as much for Nedly too. He missed his old friend.

  Lil left her bike by the front path, saluted up at the little bald head that had appeared in one of the top-floor windows and got a wave back.

  ‘Look,’ said Nedly, pointing to a large bare patch of land at the side of the orphanage. Where the allotment had been there were just a few grey slimy stalks lying flat across the soil.

  The orphanage caretaker, Mr Kolchak, was forking over the land, pulling at the decaying plants and then dropping them into a fire he had going in an old oil drum. He paused, leaning on the fork as though it was a crutch. Lil approached softly and laid a hand his arm.

  Mr Kolchak’s wild eyebrows leapt up. ‘Young Lilian! Excuse me, I was in another world.’ He looked older than the last time Lil had seen him, which was less than a fortnight ago.

  ‘What happened here?’

  He raised his hand helplessly. ‘It all just died. We had sprouts in here and leeks and the cauliflowers, not to mention the rhubarb and asparagus. And the fruit bushes. Everything.’ He hung off the fork again and stared at the soil. ‘Maybe it’s some kind of disease. I don’t know.’

  Lil looked out across the field towards the peak of Bun Hill. ‘Can you dig a garden elsewhere?’

  Mr Kolchak’s eyelids drooped for a second and he tried to smile. Weariness hung off him like rain-soaked wool. ‘I’m sure I can. Anyway, don’t you worry. Get yourselves in the warm. I bet young Clark will be glad to see you!’

  They crept upstairs to the third-floor landing and tiptoed to the door to Babyface’s room.

  ‘Ready?’

  Nedly gulped and nodded. ‘Don’t expect too much from him. OK?’

  Lil gave him a when do I ever ask too much? kind of look and then knocked.

  ‘Lil!’ The little boy beamed. His pale, finely furred head was blue-tinged with the lacework of veins below his skin, his cheeks were chapped and rosy and his button nose was orange-tipped with a brewing cold. He was wearing a brown and green turtleneck jumper and orange corduroy trousers and some baggy moccasin slippers that seemed at least two sizes too big.

  Babyface took a seat at a little wooden chair in front of a desk, opened up the lid and pulled out a sheet of card. He held it to his chest for a second and then offered it up.

  It was a collage of three stick figures. One wore a yellow mac, one had a bald head and the other was taller with fair hair and a grey sweatshirt. ‘It’s us,’ Babyface said, pointing at each figure with his little red digit. ‘You, me and Ned.’

  ‘It’s really good.’

  ‘You don’t think your ears are too small in the picture?’ he said, wrinkling his nose at her and then at the collage.

  ‘No, I think you have them just right.’ She ruffled his head in mock annoyance. ‘You’ve got some fuzz growing.’

  ‘Careful,’ he said raising his hands to his crown. ‘Don’t rub it away. I was going to ask Mr Kolchak to put my picture on the wall, for when you’re not here,’ he added.

  Lil pulled out a large bag of liquorice toffees and dropped them on the desk. ‘Here. I brought you some supplies.’

  ‘I’ll never eat all of those,’ Babyface breathed anxiously.

  ‘Share them with your friends then.’

  Babyface blinked a few times and then put his woollen hat on. He pulled a handful of toffees out of the bag and laid them on his bedspread. The misty-eyed old bear that Abe had pocketed at the doll hospital was there on his pillow. Babyface divided up the toffees carefully, half to the bear.

  Nedly watched him sadly.

  That afternoon it was Babyface’s turn with the orphanage train set and so Lil helped him to lay out the warped old rails in a circle on the rug and they made a start on the toffees until both their mouths were black.

  ‘I like this fast one.’ Babyface gave Lil a little red tin engine to inspect and picked up a green one with a wagon on the back. ‘This was Ned’s best one.’ He opened and closed the little doors. ‘Once the older kids dropped it in the water butt but Ned fished it out with two coat hangers twisted together and when he got it, guess what?’

  ‘There was a snail inside it!’ chuckled Nedly.

  ‘There was a snail inside it!’ repeated Lil.

  The little boy giggled too and then a shadow crossed his brow. ‘How did you know that?’

  Lil flicked a glance at Nedly. He shrugged back. Lil threw an unwrapped toffee in the air and caught it in her mouth. It was a good a time as any. ‘I know because he told me.’

  Babyface narrowed his eyes at her. ‘When did he tell you?’

  Lil took a deep breath. ‘Babyface, there’s something you need to know.’

  The little boy eyed her soberly, then he crossed his legs and put his hands in his lap and said, ‘All right.’

  ‘Mr Kolchak told you what happened to Ned, didn’t he?’

  The light in the room buzzed dimly and a draught whispered at the baggy old curtains.

  ‘He’s dead,’ Babyface whispered.

  Lil creased her brows and gave Nedly a small careful smile and then broadened it for Babyface. ‘That’s right. But sometimes, even though someone is dead, a part of them can still be around.’

  Babyface put the flat of his hand against his chest, ‘Here, in your heart.’

  Lil nodded impatiently. ‘Yes, they will always be in your heart.’

  ‘And here,’ Babyface continued, pointing a finger at his temple. ‘In your memories.’

  ‘Yes, that too, but sometimes, in very special cases, a real part of them can actually exist even after they have gone.’

  ‘A skeleton!’ Babyface gasped.

  Lil took a big gulp of air and tried to keep her voice as casual and reasonable-sounding as she could. ‘Not a skeleton, a ghost.’

  Babyface’s small red cheeks drained of colour. ‘I’m scared of ghosts.’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Lil. ‘Most of the time I am too, but you wouldn’t be scared of Ned Stubbs’s ghost, would you? He wouldn’t be scary.’ Babyface shivered and then Lil shivered. ‘And even if he was, it wouldn’t be on purpose.’

  ‘I still think I’d be frightened.’

  ‘No, you wouldn’t be.’

  Babyface stuck out his lip. ‘I would.’

  ‘No, you wouldn’t.’ Lil rolled her eyes, ‘Are you frightened now? Because he’s right here in this room.’

  ‘AAAAHHHHH!’ Babyface howled.

  ‘Great,’ said Nedly.

  ‘Button it, Babyface,’ Lil hissed at him. ‘It’s not that scary and you know it.’ He glared at her through tear-beaded eyelids and then opened his mouth to howl again. ‘He’s still your friend, isn’t he? Even though he’s dead.�
� Lil looked at Nedly for help.

  ‘Go easy on him, Lil,’ he whispered. ‘It’s a lot to take in and he’s only small.’

  ‘Take it back,’ Babyface whimpered.

  Lil shook her head gently and kept quiet for a moment to give the news a chance to soak in, and then she said, ‘He’s only changed a little bit. Otherwise, he’s the same person, your good pal Ned. Wouldn’t you want to hang out again, like old times?’

  ‘Hang out with a ghost?’ Babyface looked horrified.

  ‘Give it a try?’ Lil said softly. ‘He’s right there, in the corner.’

  Babyface blinked at her, and his terrified gaze slid over to where she was pointing.

  ‘We came here to ask you a favour. We need your help with something, Babyface. Ned does.’

  Eventually the little boy gave her a small nod and Lil licked the end of an old dried-up felt-tip and drew him a diagram on the back of the collage to help explain the plan. When she had finished Babyface gave her a scandalised look.

  ‘One, we’re not supposed to go near the asylum now, especially after what happened to Ned. Two, I would have to go out after it’s dark, which is also against the rules. Three, I don’t think I would be allowed to … to …’

  ‘Disable the alarm system,’ Lil filled in helpfully.

  ‘Not that either.’

  ‘You wouldn’t be on your own.’

  ‘Is Ned coming?’

  Lil shook her head. ‘He has to be at the Nite Jar, luring Ghostcatcher.’ Babyface’s expression drooped. ‘But even better –’ Nedly tried to stop her from talking but she batted him away and continued – ‘there’s a dog, a small one – her name is Margaret.’

  Babyface’s lips curled downwards. ‘I’m scared of dogs.’

  Lil couldn’t help rolling her eyes again. ‘Not this one you won’t be. This one is a whole lot less scary than that mangy old bear thing on your bed.’

  ‘Tuft.’ Babyface corrected her. ‘Mr Mandrel gave it to me. It looked after him when he was small like I am.’

  Lil flicked a glance at Nedly. What a yarn. ‘You haven’t even met her yet so how do you know?’

  ‘I just know.’

  ‘Five minutes ago you said you were scared of ghosts too. Just give Margaret a go, all right? She’s a good dog. I know you’ll like her.’

  Lil sat on her hands. She Squinted at the little boy for as long as she could while his head sank further and further into the collar of his turtleneck until his nose was just poking out of the rim.

  ‘If there was someone else we could ask …’

  Babyface’s nose stopped the rest of his head following his chin. He peered out of the jumper like he wanted it to swallow him.

  ‘Lil,’ Nedly whispered. ‘It doesn’t matter; we’ll find another way. He doesn’t have to do it, not if it scares him.’

  Lil’s patience was running low. ‘The plan won’t work without him so, yes,’ she insisted, ‘he does have to do it, even if it scares him.’

  Babyface was listening, his eyes on the corner where Nedly was standing and then back to Lil. ‘Is that what Ned said, that I didn’t have to do it if it frightened me?’ He stuck his bottom lip out and it trembled a bit.

  Lil shook her head at Nedly but Babyface’s eyes were drawn back to the corner.

  ‘That’s exactly what Ned would have said.’ A wave of goose pimples rose over the little boy’s cheek and he shivered. ‘Is he sometimes here, even when you’re not?’ he asked Lil.

  Lil checked Nedly’s face for the answer. ‘We mostly hang around together, but he might look in every now and again – just to check that you’re OK.’

  Babyface nodded solemnly. ‘I get the creeps sometimes, I just wondered if that was him.’

  ‘Everyone gets the creeps sometimes,’ said Lil.

  Babyface nodded again. He flipped over the paper to the collage side, swivelled it towards the corner so that Nedly could see it and smiled shyly.

  Lil raised her eyebrows. ‘So will you help?’

  Babyface looked back down at the three figures and touched the grey one with his finger.

  ‘I’ll try.’

  Chapter 17

  Under the Wire

  As darkness fell, the Zodiac limped out of Peligan City. Its dirty, butter-coloured headlights traced the road that wound to the west as it staggered up Bun Hill carrying Abe, Lil, Margaret and Minnie towards the old asylum. They pulled over when they reached the phone box and Minnie held out her hand. ‘Better give me the torch.’

  Lil pursed her lips. ‘You don’t have one?’

  ‘What do I need a torch for? I’m a hot dog seller.’ Lil and Abe both kept their eyes on the windscreen. ‘Well … come on, one of you must have one. I can’t do the signal without it.’

  Lil folded. Reluctantly she reached into her pocket. ‘You can have mine.’

  Minnie nodded, turned it on and then off to test it. ‘Watch for my sign. One flash when Nedly’s doing his stuff at the Nite Jar; two flashes when Ghostcatcher are on their way there.’

  ‘OK,’ said Lil, watching her torch disappear inside one of Minnie’s jackets. ‘Once we’re in the facility use the Haunting Hotline if you need to send a warning. I think it must ring there.’

  Ten minutes later, Lil, Abe and Margaret were standing in the shelter of a thicket of gnarled blackthorns a few feet back from the perimeter fence. The gate to Rorschach joined the railings to the left of them. The burnt-brick shell of the ruined asylum leered at them from the horizon; its glassless windows were empty eye sockets, its doorway was a mouth with knocked-in teeth. Behind it the pale glow of the research facility shone, a second moon rising.

  Abe’s binoculars were trained on the hillside, waiting for the signal.

  Lil glanced at her watch and then looked back into the blackness behind them, to where the orphanage lights were just twinkling on the hill, like an island in the middle of a deep and dangerous sea. ‘He’s not going to show,’ she said. ‘I should never have asked him; he’s just a little kid.’ She pulled her eyes away and used them to measure the gap under the fence. ‘I’ll do it.’

  Abe flicked a sideways glance at her. ‘You won’t fit.’

  ‘I’ll dig it out a bit underneath, make the hole bigger.’

  ‘What with? The signal is going to come at any minute.’

  Lil pulled out a pencil and chewed on it. ‘Maybe if you drive back to the phone box, tell Minnie to call the Nite Jar and warn them we’ll need longer, then block the road once they’ve passed in case they turn back, that will give me time to dig.’

  Abe held his pincer up. ‘I’m not leaving you here to dig the tunnel on your own. I don’t even think we should dig a tunnel.’

  ‘It’s not a tunnel; it’s just a dip in the ground.’

  ‘It’s too risky.’

  Lil lowered her voice. ‘Nedly is counting on me. I won’t let him down.’

  ‘Neither will I,’ a small voice cut through the darkness.

  There was a crackle of twigs, Margaret struck her alert pose, and Babyface Kennedy climbed through the tangle of old branches to join them, the moonlight glancing off his hairless head. He was wearing a navy blue cagoule and his small fingers clutching the straps of his rucksack reminded Lil of Waldo’s paws.

  ‘You came.’ Lil grinned at him, even though a sudden misgiving uncurled itself in her belly. He looked smaller there in the wilderness.

  ‘Is Ned here?’ Babyface asked hopefully.

  ‘No, he’s at the Nite Jar Cafe in town – he’s doing the decoy, remember?’ Babyface bit his lip. He looked back at the orphanage and then at the asylum and shivered. ‘This is Margaret. She’s going with you.’

  Babyface cautiously approached Margaret. She sat down and looked up at him. ‘Margaret, this is Babyface.’

  ‘It’s Clark, actually,’ he reminded her. ‘But you can call me Babyface. Everyone does …’

  Lil bobbed down to address them both eye to eye. ‘Babyface, Margaret is the smallest so you need to
look after her, OK?’

  ‘Me?’

  ‘Think you can handle it?’

  Babyface gulped. Then he took a deep breath and nodded.

  Abe took Margaret’s lead from his pocket and clipped it onto her collar. He held the looped end out for Babyface to take hold of, saying, ‘Stick together.’ Babyface gave Margaret an apprehensive look. Margaret sat down and lifted her chin nobly, like a little general, appearing dependable but not fierce.

  ‘Do you remember where you’re going?’ Lil asked him. Babyface’s hand trembled as he pointed a cold-reddened finger through the railings.

  ‘Have you got the instructions?’

  He reached into his pocket, pulled out a neatly folded sheet of lined paper and passed it over. Lil opened it up to the moonlight to check they had covered all eventualities.

  ‘When you get to it there will be a lever; you just need to pull it down. If there’s more than one lever, just pull them all down.’ She looked him over. ‘You’ll be pretty well camouflaged in those dark clothes but your face is going to shine like a nightlight out there.’

  Babyface knelt down on the soggy grass verge, sank his hands into the mud and then rubbed a stripe across his forehead, down his nose and under each eye.

  He held his muddy hands out grimacing. Abe sighed, pulled out his crumpled handkerchief and wiped them clean. ‘Pretty good,’ said Lil. Babyface’s bald dome still shone over his dirty face like a winter sunrise, so she pulled up his hood.

  ‘I’m ready.’ Babyface took a deep steadying breath, turned to the railings and held out his hand to take hold of Margaret’s lead.

  Lil eyed him critically. ‘Do you really need the rucksack?’

  ‘It’s got Tuft in it.’

  Abe chuckled awkwardly. ‘It’s just that you’re a bit bulky at the moment, kid. How about you leave the teddy here, under the trees?’

  Babyface shook his head stubbornly. ‘No way. Tuft is coming with me.’ He narrowed his eyes at Abe. ‘You said Tuft would look out for me after Wool disappeared.’

  ‘I did,’ Abe said through gritted teeth. ‘But he can look out for you from here, long distance.’