Chapters (32)
‘What letter?’ asked Cordelia, and I swear she was ready to swing for one of us.
I told her. Told her what my son had found and how it had led to Pike chasing him through the woods with a shotgun.
‘Where’s this letter?’ she asked, when I was done.
‘Binned it,’ said Brian, unconcerned. ‘He said there was nowt to it anyways.’
‘Who did?’ I asked.
‘Cuckoo,’ he said. ‘The clock man with the birds. Came to school and spoke to us and I asked him to read it because he said he spoke French and German.’
‘Who the bloody hell is Cuckoo?’ asked Cordelia.
I found that my mouth was dry. I couldn’t unstick my tongue from my teeth. It felt like somebody had sucked all the moisture out of me.
‘Your neighbour,’ said Brian, untying his tie and enjoying knowing more than both of us. ‘The farmer. Swiss man. Mr Parker.’
Cordy said nothing for a moment, then her face creased.
‘The man with the birds, you said.’
‘Aye, I told you. He’s Swiss. They make cuckoo clocks, don’t they? That’s what everybody says. And that’s why he must want the birds.’
‘What birds?’
Brian rolled his eyes. ‘He collects them. Traps them. We’ve seen him, out towards the castle. Uses lures and traps. He came in to school to talk to us about crop rotation but when it got to the “any questions” bit we all asked about the birds. He said he didn’t know what we were going on about but we’ve seen him. His missus took him away after that so I had to grab her to ask about the note. Her husband had a quick glance and told me it was nowt but gibberish. Why?’
I felt Cordelia’s eyes boring into me. It was like she was poking around inside my head.
‘My neighbour,’ she said, teeth locked. ‘That funny little man.’
‘Aye, Mam knows him to say hello to. His missus too. She were at Fairfax’s all the bloody time last winter.’
Neither Cordelia or I spoke. We just let the silence stretch out. I found myself staring through the outline of the bird on the window. Suddenly it was all I could see. The image beyond the glass was just a grey and green blur that seemed unfamiliar to me.
‘We have to,’ said Cordelia, jerking her head in the vague direction of her house across the river.
I nodded. There was no way she was going to stop now. And there was no way I was going to let her go alone.