Devil's Rock - Chris Speyer [34]
Grandad gave a little shake of his head and took a sip of tea.
‘That’s awful,’ said Anusha.
Grandad stared hard into his mug and when he looked up there was something like fear in his eyes. ‘Then,’ he continued, ‘they said she cursed them.’
‘Did they find anything?’ asked Zaki.
‘Of course not. Why would a woman live on her own in a tumbledown cottage if she had a pile of treasure?’
‘But what did they say about her, about the woman, what she was like?’ asked Zaki.
‘Young, no more than a girl, they said, but wild. And they weren’t going to let some wild girl stand between them and the treasure. Next time they’d make sure she didn’t catch ’em.’
‘And?’
‘There was no next time. They was all killed.’
‘Killed?’ gasped Anusha. ‘How?’
‘Different ways. One at a time.’
Zaki glanced at Anusha, who was staring, wide-eyed, at Grandad.
‘The oldest brother went first. They was liftin’ crab pots and he was haulin’ in the line when somethin’ gave the rope an almighty tug and he was pulled clean out of the boat. Before the others could grab a hold of him he was dragged underwater. When he bobbed up again he was dead – drowned.’
Grandad twisted his mug on the table.
‘Middle brother was next. Everyone knew he was fond of oysters an’ someone left him a present of a couple of dozen on the Silver Harvest. Must’ve been poisoned. At any rate the oysters was blamed when he took sick. Never recovered, though it took him six days to die.’
‘And the youngest?’ asked Zaki.
‘Well, stands to reason no one’d go fishing with him. Went off on his own one day and was never seen again. They found the Silver Harvest; she was driftin’ two miles off the mouth of the Orme.’
‘They could all have been accidents,’ protested Zaki.
‘Could’ve been,’ grunted Grandad.
‘What happened to the woman?’ asked Anusha softly.
‘No one ever bothered her again. We saw her from time to time, standin’ or sittin’ at the top of the cliff, lookin’ out to sea. Like her was waitin’ for someone who never came home.’
Zaki looked down at the chart. There it was – ‘Ruin (Conspic)’ – Conspicuous. The cottage was on the chart because it was a conspicuous landmark. She wasn’t hiding; she chose to live alone but somewhere conspicuous. And yet, no one really knew anything about her. And did his grandad really believe that she could curse people, cast spells? This was not the same person, Zaki reminded himself. If she were still alive now, she’d be an old woman, not a young girl. But there had to be a connection – didn’t there?
‘Do you think she ever had children?’ asked Zaki.
‘I told you, she lived on her own.’
‘No one lives there now, do they?’
‘Cottage was abandoned long ago.’
Grandad gathered the mugs and made a great clattering as he began to wash them with the plates in the sink. Anusha hopped off her chair and stood by with a tea towel.
Zaki thought about their many visits to Dragon Pool. Had he ever seen movement up by the cottage? He didn’t think so, but then you only saw the cottage as you were entering the bay. They’d never climbed up there.
‘Did you ever go up to the cottage?’ asked Zaki.
‘I told you, we left her alone.’
‘But later – when you went there with Dad?’
‘There’s nothin’ there. A pile of old stones, nothin’ else.’ Grandad turned and scowled at Zaki. ‘I didn’t go there – I didn’t let your father go there – and you’re not to go there either.’
‘But why?’
‘Evil – that’s why. Some places have got evil in ’em.’
Grandad stomped off out of the kitchen. Zaki and Anusha looked at each other and Anusha raised her eyebrows. When Grandad