15

An Odd Meeting

‘I don’t like this,’ said the ghost. ‘It’s creepy.’

‘How can someone dead think something else is creepy?’ said Claudia.

‘It just is,’ said Hinchsniff obstinately.

‘He’s right,’ muttered Totherbligh, his bottle fidgeting at Claudia’s neck. ‘It’s broad daylight. You don’t have clandestine meetings with mysterious clients in daylight. It’s not natural. There should be badly lit rooms with creaky floorboards, cobwebs and shadows.’

The post office sorting room was not, Claudia had to admit, a particularly likely setting, but it was what the client had requested. She’d had mixed feelings about returning to the funny little town that was the scene of her defeat by the Smidgens, and had reluctantly checked back into the hotel where she had almost – but not quite – obtained a piece of the Mirror. There were lots of bad memories here. But she had work to do.

The postal workers were on their lunch break, so with the help of a lock picker it had been easy to slip inside without being seen. The client had sent a note saying there was a forgotten storeroom at the back of the office, and they were to meet there.

Claudia quickly found the storeroom behind the parcels and sacks of letters. She carefully opened the door and peered inside.

‘That’s more like it,’ said Hinchsniff.

The room was bigger than she expected and had been used more as a dumping ground than a storeroom. It was a graveyard of old machinery, boxes of franking stamps, and even some ancient postal worker uniforms. Crates were piled high on metal shelves, so that the room resembled a forest of thick, square tree trunks. It was indeed shadowy and still, and satisfyingly cobwebby. There was a sinister, watchful atmosphere that sent a chill through her.

‘Hello?’ she said.

‘You’re late.’ The voice was a man’s: old – very old  – raspy, and with a strange echo, as if the person were speaking from a distance. Claudia’s sharp eyes darted from shadow to shadow to find its source. There was a figure, half hidden behind one of the shelves. Claudia could make out a heavily built shape, but the face was shrouded in darkness.

‘I’m here now,’ she said evenly, stepping forward.

‘Stay where you are. I wish my identity to remain secret.’

Claudia reluctantly retreated.

‘I was expecting to learn of some progress in your task,’ the voice said, ‘but you have been silent. I felt we should meet so you had a chance to explain.’

‘I was extremely close to obtaining one of the pieces of the Mirror,’ Claudia began. ‘I’ve discovered it is held by a Smidgen called Gafferty Sprout—’

‘Sprout?’ said the shadow. He sounded surprised. ‘You’re sure it was Sprout?’

‘Yes. She’s tough and brave. The Smidgens are not to be underestimated.’

‘I’m well aware of that. Does she still have the fragment?’

‘As far as I know. Do you have any other information that could be of use? I don’t have much to go on.’ Claudia’s fingers ran over the bottles. Could it finally be time for her to release one of the seekers after their long period of imprisonment? Get him to spy on the client without their knowing? It would be unprofessional, and she’d always prided herself on her professionalism. This assignment had cost her so much already. She lowered her hand. The client was talking.

‘I once knew so much … but I am not the person I used to be. My body is weak. My mind is not always at its best. Sometimes I think I have seen things … and they turn out to be merely dreams. Or, at least, I think they are …’

He was rambling. Was he talking to her or to himself? It was difficult to tell. She had to know more. Claudia’s hand reached for Hinchsniff’s bottle and quietly released the ghost into the room.

‘You said there were three fragments of the Mirror to find,’ she prompted. ‘Have you any idea of where the other two might be?’

‘I remember … three pieces, three clans. They must have divided the pieces between the clan houses, but where are they? Everything is in such a tangle.’

‘Try and remember. These houses – are they obvious? We followed the Sprout girl underground for a while. Could they be underground?’

‘Underground!’ The voice brightened, regained some of its strength. ‘A burrow. Yes – one of the houses was underground, I’m sure of it. Outside the town, there’s a place of open ground where Big Folk go to play their stupid sport …’

‘I passed a golf course on the way here,’ said Claudia. Did he say Big Folk?

‘Yes – that’s it. One of the clans lived there, underground, or at least, they did at one time. You must look there.’

There was a flash of blue sparks from the shadowy figure, and an unearthly screech. Hinchsniff careered back towards Claudia, his ghostly form smoking and boiling. His weaselly face was filled with terror.

‘I tried to creep up on him,’ he wheezed, ‘but I couldn’t get close. It was like there was an invisible wall. When I touched it, it sent a horrible shock right through me!’

He slunk straight back into the bottle, pulling the stopper shut behind him.

‘That’s just what that Smidgen’s knife did to me in the toy shop!’ said Totherbligh with a shudder.

‘I said not to come any closer!’ It was the client, his voice shaking with anger. ‘I know all about your phantom helpers, Slymark. Do not think you can use them against me! Now, leave – and do not contact me again unless you have results.’

Claudia didn’t wait to argue. She ran out into the office, past the surprised postal workers coming back from their break, and out into the alley through which she had arrived. The client was a magic user of some sort. This complicated things.

‘What did you see?’ she asked Hinchsniff. ‘What did he look like?’

‘That’s just it!’ snivelled the ghost, still smarting. ‘There was just a sack of letters with an old uniform draped over it. It might have looked like a person from where you are standing, but in reality, there wasn’t anyone there at all …’