Page 95 of The Other Side

“If this was a marsh, I might have thought they were will-o’-the-wisps luring us into danger. But their light will show us the way.”

As they reached the gap in the drystone wall they’d come through, the lights intensified to a brilliant blue-white, then vanished as if they’d never been there. The car was exactly where they’d left it and Drum unlocked it. He felt a little more comfortable when he and Osian were inside the vehicle but today had been off the scale as far as weirdness was concerned.

“I feel like I’ve done nothing,” Drum said. “I can’t even say what I did.”

“You can say you went to Sparlow, did a walk through and talked to people.”

Drum sent the sparse report in, then set off.

His phone rang when they were a couple of miles from home and he pressed to answer. “Hello?”

“Is that Officer Drummond?”

“Yes.”

“It’s Gemma Varley.”

“Hello, Mrs Varley. What can I do for you?”

“Do you think you could call in?”

Drum turned at the next junction. “Now?”

“Please. I think you need to hear what the twins have just told me.”

“On my way.”

“If you’re clocked out, should you be going there?” Osian asked.

“Probably not. Just as I probably shouldn’t have given her my private number. But her boys aren’t bad. They’re just bored teenagers with too much time on their hands and not enough money.”

“I’ll come in with you and cloak myself.”

“Okay.”

The twins had to be dragged away from the TV.

“Hi, James. Hi, Liam,” Drum said.

“You can tell us apart?” Liam’s eyes widened.

“One of you is better looking than the other.”

Their mother snorted with laughter and the boys glared.

“Tell Officer Drum what you told me about Tim.”

“He was drunk,” Liam said.

“And were you?” his mother asked.

“No!” James said. “We couldn’t buy anything. We’re not old enough.” He shot his mother a smug look.

“Tim brought beer from his house but he wouldn’t share,” Liam said. “He kept going on about how much money he’d have now his grandma was dead.”

Drum’s attention sharpened. “Has she left him money in her will?”

James shrugged. “Dunno for sure. He was pretty sure she’d have left him something. She had a big house before she moved into that old people’s place.”