Perfectly Reflected (23 page)

“Where was that, Rob? North Sheen? Is that where she lives? Is that where she’ll be getting the train in the morning?”

He looked trapped. “What are you talking about? I never said that!”

I smiled to myself. Rob had given away what I needed to know.

He was silent for a moment, swirling the remains of his pint around in his glass. Finally he looked at me. “You think you’re so clever, Alex, but you’re the one with the mashed-up face.”

He drained the last of his drink and put the glass carefully down in the middle of the table.

“It’s been good to see you. I’m glad we’ve been able to have this last drink. No hard feelings, eh?”

“For what? No hard feelings for what?”

“Oh, you know, everything.” He stood up and I felt suddenly cold in his shadow. “See you around.”

I watched him go with mixed emotions: some annoyance and frustration but mostly exultation. Catherine had tricked me. Somewhere, not that far from here, the amulet was waiting for me. And with the amulet, Callum.  

Tactical Error

I knew what I had to do the next morning. I couldn’t risk missing Catherine. Once she got on the train and into London the amulet would be lost to me as effectively as when I thought it had been smashed. I couldn’t sleep, trying to remember the details of what I had seen that day in the rain. It had been so murky I guessed that it wouldn’t have been so hard for her to pass off a fake amulet as the real thing. And of course, once I thought it was destroyed, I wouldn’t be troubling her again. Olivia had been right: Catherine was downright evil.

I scoured the train timetable and got myself out of the house really early. Josh had come home late the night before but I had managed to avoid too much in the way of conversation and sneaked off to bed. The festival had clearly been a good one; he looked exhausted and was sound asleep in the morning when I put my head round his bedroom door. I left him a note and walked quickly to the train.

Even at six in the morning the carriage was full of commuters off to their offices. All looked equally miserable and no one said a word. I fought against the tide to get off the train at North Sheen and considered my options. I was lucky that it was that particular station. There was only one way in and out, over a narrow footbridge and on to a single central platform. I set myself up so that I could watch the people coming over the bridge before
they would notice I was there, with my hair tucked into the hoodie I was wearing as a feeble disguise.

After several hours and an interminable number of trains coming and going, the glint of sunlight on someone’s hair caught my attention. The familiar dark gold made my heart leap for a moment as the head bobbed along the footbridge. I slunk back into my hoodie as she turned to come down the steps towards the platform.

It was Catherine, swathed in huge dark glasses and carrying a small wheelie bag. It obviously wasn’t heavy as she was having no trouble carrying it down the long flight of steps, and she looked poised and elegant as she wheeled it along the ramp towards the ticket office.

The second she was out of sight behind the little building, I ran to the bench seat on the platform, pulling out my paper. I slumped down low and held the paper up as high as I dared without looking like a bad detective. I could see her out of the corner of my eye as she walked past the ticket window and on to the platform. She looked up at the departure boards and then at her watch. I couldn’t see the amulet and I had to try really hard to resist the temptation to leap up and wrestle her to the ground. I was going to follow her until we were somewhere slightly more private, then demand it back. I knew that I wasn’t physically strong, but I also knew that her passion and need were going to be no match for mine. I could win, and when I looked her in the eye she would be able to tell that she had no chance. I just needed to be away from too many witnesses, so I clenched my fists in my pockets and waited.

She took me by surprise when she got on to the train heading away from London, and then I almost missed her getting
off at Richmond. I saw the oversized glasses before I realised it was her, and hurriedly stepped off the train. She was standing on the platform looking at a pocket timetable. I dodged the people walking down the platform and nipped behind the old ticket inspector’s booth. I could peer through the grubby glass without too much danger of being spotted.

Two trains went past and she didn’t move, and I was beginning to think that I had been rumbled, that she was playing with me, but then the fast train pulled in. With limited stops to Reading and a change there to the main West Country line, it was a fast option for getting to Cornwall without going through London. Catherine boarded the train and I got on a couple of carriages down from her. I kept a lookout that she didn’t get off again, but she disappeared down inside the carriage.

It was time to decide what to do. The train didn’t stop for a while so I had her captive, but then once I had the amulet off her, I had nowhere to go either. But it was too late to worry about that. I had about twenty minutes before the first stop. I walked through the next two carriages, surprised at how few people were actually travelling. At the door of the one where I thought she was I stopped and pulled down my hood as far as I could. I couldn’t see her through the little window. Ready to fight to get my amulet back, I opened the carriage door.

It was eerily quiet. There didn’t seem to be anyone in there at all, no one making phone calls, no mothers with toddlers, no businessmen folding their newspapers noisily. I sat down in the first set of seats and leaned my head towards the window. From that angle I could see down the long line of seats but there were no shoulders or elbows in view. I got up silently and moved to the other side of the train, and peered down the line there. About
halfway down I could see an arm clad in black, the elbow resting on the window sill. Suddenly she moved, leaning her head against her hand, looking straight towards me.

I shot back upright, hoping that she hadn’t seen me. This was my chance. This was my last opportunity to get Callum back. I wasn’t going to waste it.

I took several deep breaths as I considered my totally unsophisticated plan. Utter determination was my solitary tactic. I decided not to creep down the carriage, but stood tall, head covered by the hood, sunglasses in place. I wiped my sweaty palms down my jeans, and curled my fists ready to fight. Moving swiftly down the carriage, within seconds I was standing facing Catherine, boxing her in.

“The game’s up, Catherine. Hand it over.”

She ignored me completely, looking out of the window as a dreary industrial estate slid past.

“Don’t play games with me. I know you still have the amulet, that you tricked me last week. Now, I’ve asked nicely. If you don’t give it to me, I’m going straight to the guard to call the police. You tried to kill me, and there are witnesses to both that and you stealing from the bank. No one is going to believe a word you say. I’ll just tell them that I was a victim of identity theft, and you’ll spend years in a prison so horrible it will make life as a Dirge seem quite pleasant.”

I paused in my tirade, hoping that she would look at me, but she continued staring out of the window. “Give me back my amulet!” I stood in front of her, instinctively balancing on the balls of my feet, my fists tight.

Still nothing. It was a brilliant tactic on her part, and hugely infuriating. I steadied myself, trying to remain in control; losing
it wasn’t going to help. But I could almost feel the tingle in my wrist – Callum was so close! All I had to do was get the amulet off her and he and I would be together again. I thrust my hand towards her. “Now,” I said in a low voice, hoping to sound quiet and menacing. Finally she moved, turning her huge sunglasses towards me.

“I don’t think so.” Her voice was dead, completely stripped of emotion.

“What makes you think you have the right to keep it, Catherine? It’s mine and you know it,” I hissed, still struggling to stay calm. She shrugged and returned to looking out of the window, hands resting in her lap.

I couldn’t resist, and grabbed for her wrists. But there was no fight in her; she offered no resistance as I shoved her sleeves up to her elbows. She wasn’t wearing the amulet. Holding both her arms tight I leaned in close. “Where. Is. My. Amulet?” I hissed at her.

She turned to look at me and the sudden closeness of our faces made me back up. Behind those huge glasses it was really hard to gauge her mood. I let go of her arm and pulled the glasses from her face, determined to look her in the eyes.

She considered me contemptuously. “It’s gone. I don’t have it any more, OK?”

I sat back on the seat opposite in shock. “But… but who…?”

“Oh, pull yourself together, you pathetic creature. Does it really matter?”

“What! Of course it matters!” The anger was slowly overcoming the shock. “I’m going to get it back – it’s mine.”

“Well, good luck with that.” She smiled icily, leaning
forwards and snatching her sunglasses back from my numb grasp. She slipped back behind her impenetrable mask.

“Who was it? Who’s got my amulet?”

She ignored me, looking back out of the window at the passing scenery. I felt like shaking her. The disappointment at losing Callum again, just when I thought he was so close, was almost unbearable. “Why do you care now? Why not tell me?”

“Actually, I just don’t like you. Isn’t that enough?”

I was speechless again, this time with the injustice of it. Without me she would still be a Dirge, stuck in a miserable existence. She turned the great, fly-like lenses towards me, and a small smile started to play around her mouth.

“You know, I can’t decide which would be more enjoyable actually; telling you now and watching you suffer, or making you wait and find out tomorrow.”

“I don’t understand. What do you mean, tomorrow?”

Catherine looked at her watch and then gazed at me coolly. “I might as well get to see it. I do like watching your agonies. You’re so
obvious
in your emotions.” The sarcasm dripped from her tone.

A feeling of dread started to creep across me. What now? I took a deep breath. “Come on then, get it over with.”

“Well, it’s all your fault anyway. Without you telling him all that stuff he would never have worked it out.”

“Told who what? Come on!”

“Can’t you guess? Who dislikes you almost as much as I do? Any ideas?”

I frowned, trying to work out what she was getting at. “No, not with you.”

“You are
so
dim,” she muttered under her breath. “Rob. That’s who hates you. I’m so glad to see that you took the bait. I didn’t
think that he could drop the hint subtly enough, but he assured me he’d got you hooked. The boy’s gone up in my estimation.”

“What are you talking about?” I gasped.

She shook her head in disbelief. “Getting you on to this train. It was much easier than we expected.”

I stared at her open-mouthed, realising that I’d been completely outmanoeuvred.

“You and Rob?” A hollow pit had opened up in the bottom of my stomach. “What does Rob have to do with it?”

“Listen, you stupid girl.
He knows what the amulet is
, what it does.”

“How can he possibly know that? I didn’t tell him.”

“Ah, but you
did
tell him, just not directly.”

I resisted the urge to slap her. “How many times do I have to tell you? I told no one, least of all that self-centred idiot!”

“Let me take you back, back to that day in Kew Gardens when you so willingly gave up everything for me. I believe that you lost something.”

The penny finally dropped. “The memory card? Rob found the memory card?”

She nodded, smugly. “As I said, all your own fault.”

My mind whirled, and various things suddenly became clear. That was why Rob had the passworded files about me on his computer that had upset Ashley so much, why he was suddenly interested in talking to me again, and why he wanted to see the amulet more closely. “Is that what you meant about it being my fault? When we were talking at the pub?” One perfect eyebrow rose briefly from behind the glasses in response. “But I thought that you had lost that memory, that Olivia had taken it from you?”

“Oh no, I’m perfectly clear on this. It’s definitely your fault.”

“So what did Olivia take? The memory of how the Dirges could escape? Was that it?”

Catherine didn’t answer, just continued to regard me silently. I knew she was trying to irritate me, and I also knew that I couldn’t afford to get distracted. Finding the amulet was my priority.

“What on earth does he want with the amulet? I mean, talking to Dirges is hardly Rob’s sort of thing.”

“He doesn’t intend to keep it. He’s smarter than he looks, that boy.”

“What’s he going to do with it?” I asked, puzzled.

This time Catherine laughed out loud, startling me. “He has a beautifully malicious streak along with his greed. He’s going to sell it to the papers. In fact, he’s organised a bidding war.”

“But why would they be so interested?”

“You know,” she said reflectively, “that’s what I’m going to miss about you; you are so trusting, so … naive.” She made it sound like some sort of disease.

“Get to the point,” I said tersely.

“I suppose I might as well amuse myself. The train isn’t stopping anytime soon, so you have nowhere else to go.” She gave me one of her thin, evil smiles. “Let’s go back to the beginning; what does the amulet let you do?”

She was deliberately winding me up, her voice hugely patronising. I took a deep breath and willed myself to stay calm. “It allows me to talk to Callum.”

“Exactly. And who else?”

“The other Dirges, of course.”

“Excellent!” Her voice was dripping with sarcasm. “And for
a bonus point can you tell me what you have to do to qualify to be a Dirge?”

“You have to drown in the River Fleet,” I hissed through gritted teeth.

“Give that girl the prize! That’s right,
drown
; that would be the key word. The amulet allows us to talk to people who have drowned – Who. Are. Dead!” She punctuated each word individually, but I still wasn’t sure what she was getting at.