Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
A fter tea with Esme, her sitting in bed in her pyjamas and him in the clothes he had slept in sitting next to her, Luke had made his way home to open the bookshop for the day. He hadn’t been sure whether it was the right thing to do. Tobias going missing felt as if there ought to be a day of mourning or something to mark respect, but Esme thought they should carry on as normal. She seemed to think that if they acted as though Tobias was just going to wander back into the village, then maybe he would.
The shop greeted him by illuminating soft lights. He patted the counter as he walked past and went upstairs to wash and change. When he took his phone out of his jeans pocket, he realised he had a new WhatsApp message. His mouth was dry as he tapped to open it. Nobody else he knew used WhatsApp. Below the message that Hammer had written – send proof of life – there was a reply. It was the address of a Wetherspoons pub on Otley Road and a time, three o’clock.
His heart had stuttered and begun racing at the sight of the message notification. His first hope – that it was Lewis, finally replying – was instantly snuffed out. The way the message was written, short as it was, didn’t feel like Lewis. If his brother wanted him to meet at a certain time and place, he would have added some more information. Especially after all this time.
It was most likely to be from Dean Fisher, the criminal boss that Lewis had pissed off, or one of his minions. Maybe he was finally going to offer proof of life, or perhaps he was ready to make some kind of deal. Something that would result in Lewis’s return. Or, this was his way of tying up loose ends. Maybe he was ready to get rid of the one person looking for Lewis Taylor.
He didn’t need to wonder whether the three o’clock time meant that afternoon or not, and he wasn’t about to reply to ask. This was the kind of message meant to let you know your position in the order of things. He was being told to jump.
It was almost ten. He tapped the address into Google and it told him the drive would take just over three hours. The lights in the bookshop flickered. ‘I know you have a roadmap,’ he said out loud. ‘But Google tells me about delays.’
Esme was due at the shop at half eleven. They were going for lunch together and, before that, she was going to borrow some books on Neolithic burial mounds and any lore surrounding burial rites and rituals. Luke wasn’t confident that she would find anything useful to solve the mystery of Tobias’s disappearance, but he also understood her need to keep busy.
He had already packed his rucksack with overnight gear and explained to the bookshop that he was going away for a short time. It didn’t reply, naturally enough, but there was a strange charge in the air that suggested that it was listening. ‘I’m hoping to be back tonight, but if I’m too late for the causeway, I will have to stay overnight on the mainland. I will definitely be back tomorrow, though.’ He hoped he wasn’t lying to the shop.
Having rehearsed his speech out loud to a building, it ought to have been easy to say the words to Esme. But they seemed to stick in his throat.
He waited until she had finished browsing the section at the back of the shop and looking through the books in the stockroom. The bookshop obliged by displaying three textbooks on the subject, including a large volume with black and white photographs of tombs and accompanying diagrams. Esme piled them onto the counter. ‘Is it all right to borrow these? I’m happy to pay for them…’
‘It’s fine.’ The finances of the bookshop were precarious to say the least, but the lack of rent really helped matters. And Luke’s monetary needs were small. If Dean Fisher was hoping to extort more cash from him, he would be in trouble. The thought darkened his mood even though he tried to push it away.
‘What’s wrong?’ Esme had her hand on top of the pile of books and was immediately tense.
The lump in his throat had grown, so he showed her the message on his phone.
‘You can’t go,’ Esme said, horrified.
Part of Luke was gratified by her protective reaction and the warm glow it ignited in his heart. The other part needed her to be okay. He didn’t want to cause her distress and he could see that her hands were shaking. He caught hold of them, squeezing gently. ‘It will be fine. I’m going to be careful.’
‘You can’t go now. What about Tobias?’
‘There’s nothing I can do about that,’ Luke said.
She blinked and looked up, as if trying not to cry.
He squeezed her hands again, willing her to look at him. ‘He’s gone. There’s nothing any of us can do about it. But this is something I can do. This is something I can fix.’
Esme’s gaze snapped to his. She pulled her hands away and crossed her arms. ‘I understand.’
‘I don’t want to leave you. Or the island while it’s like this.’
‘We’ll be fine,’ Esme said, and he hated the distant sound in her voice.
‘I’ll be back tomorrow at the latest.’
‘But what does he want from you?’
‘I don’t know.’ It was an honest answer, but it didn’t delve into all the things he suspected. Dean Fisher knew that he had something that Luke wanted – information regarding his brother’s disappearance. That was currency, and Fisher probably wanted to convert that into cash. Given Luke’s financial situation, he was hoping he would be able to pay for the information in some other way. Hopefully in a way that didn’t land him in prison or the ground. He chose the least alarming version of his imaginings to share with Esme. ‘He probably just wants to talk to me.’
Esme shook her head, clearly not buying it.
‘I have to go. It’s a chance to find out what has happened to Lewis.’
Esme didn’t say anything about how unlikely it was that Lewis was still alive and Luke was grateful.
Esme stared down at the floor. ‘You said that Lewis was Dean Fisher’s man. It sounds like you are offering to take his place.’
‘No,’ Luke shook his head. But he felt the shard of doubt.
‘You are going to go anyway, aren’t you?’ She looked at him, then, and took a step back.
‘He’s my brother.’
Luke went to see Hammer. He knew that the island’s enforcer would be likely to turn up at the carpark and stop him from leaving if he didn’t. Or maybe insist on coming with him.
He knocked on the door of Hammer’s home. It was an upturned boat that had been converted into a tiny house. A steel chimney pipe stuck out from near the apex of the curved walls, and there was a hefty padlock on the door that Hammer used when he was out. The fog had thinned to mist, and Luke glimpsed the rolling waves offshore.
There was a single sharp bark from inside and Luke remembered, with a stabbing sensation in his chest, that Winter was staying with Hammer. And why.
The door scraped open and Hammer loomed in the entrance. He looked like shit. Like he hadn’t slept in a month.
He leant on one arm on the door frame and regarded Luke with a flat expression. ‘You about to do something stupid?’
‘Probably,’ Luke said. ‘I’ve been summoned to a meeting with Dean Fisher.’
Hammer looked momentarily confused, but the blank expression was back in place quickly enough. ‘And?’
‘I’m here to ask you not to stop me. I’m going to be careful. I won’t bring any trouble to the island.’
Hammer shrugged and began to shut the door. ‘Do what you want, Book Keeper.’
‘Right.’ Standing in front of the now-closed door, Luke didn’t know what to think. He had come ready for a fight. And a small part of him had been counting on Hammer insisting on joining him. With the man mountain following in his car, he would have known he had backup. Hammer had made it clear he was on his own.