The Skeleton Room Read Online Free PDF Page A

flashed past, a blur
     of headlights like the eyes of some fast swoopingpredator, intent on its goal. He inhaled the smoke and closed his eyes.
    Then a sudden noise made him jump. The driver’s door was flung open and he felt strong hands dragging him out of the vehicle.
     He flopped helplessly onto the cold, rough ground. Then the blow came and he knew nothing more.

Chapter Two
Marbis grabbed my hand and held on to it tightly. Not wishing to cause offence I allowed it to rest in his as he spoke.
    He was most insistent that I should not speak but listen to the tale he had to tell. I agreed, anxious as I was to be out
     of that dreadful place, and hoped that his talking would be brief.
    I set down here what he told to me upon that night. It was not a story that I shall easily forget.
    George Marbis’s tale began in the year of Our Lord 1732 when he was but ten years of age. His father, old Josiah Marbis, was
     a man over-fond of strong liquor who frequently absented himself of an evening from the cottage where he lived with George
     and his mother. George noted his mother’s discomfort during his father’s absences and yet he suspected nothing amiss, rather
     that his father was drinking away all the money he earned working on the land. Then, one October night in 1732, George’s mother
     was heavy with child and her pains began when his father was away from the cottage. George was sent to fetch Mother Padley,
     the midwife, and as he hurried to her cottage through the wind and the rain, he saw lanterns and the shapes of men in the
     dark. Then he heard screams drifting inshore on the wind. The screams of terrified women and children.
    Forgetting his mother’s plight for the moment, young George followed the glow of the lanterns in the darkness. They were heading
     for the shore and George stayed some way behind. He watched from the cliff top as the men scrambled down to the sands, and
     he saw that a ship had foundered on the rocks, her mast already afloat and her back about to break in the relentless waves.
     The screams were those of the poor souls trapped upon the ship, and George’s first thought was that the men with the lanterns
     would rescue the people and take them to safety.
    But George Marbis witnessed no acts of heroism or Christian charity that night. Rather what he saw would stay in his thoughts
     until his dying day.
    From
An Account of the Dreadful and Wicked Crimes of the Wreckers of Chadleigh
by the Reverend Octavius Mount, Vicar of Millicombe
    On his way to Tradmouth police station the next day Wesley took off his jacket and loosened his tie: it was far too hot for
     formality, even first thing in the morning. Gerry Heffernan, who had discarded his own jacket on the way to work, followed
     him into the building and glanced back longingly at the busy river, where pleasure boats and private yachts were gliding over
     the water in the sunshine.
    Hungry seagulls circled above the fine array of scented flowers that bloomed in the Memorial Gardens and tumbled from baskets
     on lamp-posts and window ledges. Even the police station boasted its own colourful display in the small flower beds either
     side of the main door. Wesley breathed in deeply as he climbed the stairs to the CID office, contemplating another day at
     work.
    Tradmouth’s holiday atmosphere had crept through the open windows and invaded the office. A couple of the detective constables
     were wearing brightly patterned shirts; hardly Wesley’s idea of plain clothes. Nobody had venturedin wearing shorts yet, but Wesley suspected that if the weather kept up it would only be a matter of time.
    Rachel Tracey had taken off her jacket to reveal a neat, but slightly see-through, white blouse. She was sifting through a
     pile of reports, but when she saw Wesley she looked up at him and smiled.
    ‘Someone’s determined that we shouldn’t enjoy the weather. A lorry was hijacked last night between Neston and Newton Abbot.
     The driver was knocked