Lil put the kettle on to boil and dropped a couple of slices in the toaster. The breakfast things were all out on the table and the eggs were bobbing around in the pan like bald men in a Jacuzzi.
‘Take a look at this article.’ She pulled out a chair for Nedly to sit down on and spread out the morning edition of the Klaxon in front of him. ‘Fresh off the press this morning.’
Investigation Terminated as Silverman Death Recorded as Suicide
At 4 p.m. yesterday, Morpheus Silverman, chief financier at Peligan City Savings and Loans, died after falling forty-eight storeys from the roof of his former place of work. His body was discovered on the pavement below by bystanders moments later.
Police had been alerted to the incident shortly before when the building’s alarm was set off. It was originally thought that an intruder had entered the building but no other person was found on the premises, so it is believed that Silverman himself may have activated the alarm. Although no suicide note has been located, Peligan City Police Department have closed the case after releasing a statement late last night maintaining that Silverman took his own life.
Silverman was known to have bankrolled some of the most controversial projects Peligan has ever seen, including the Golden Loop of super-casinos in the city centre. He was also a major investor in the privatisation of Fellgate Prison and was rumoured to be behind a scheme to repurpose the old asylum on Bun Hill following a second fire there three months ago.
Lil threw a couple of teabags in the pot. ‘I think we should look Silverman up, while we’re at the library. It sounds like he had his fingers in a lot of pies. If we cross-reference him with Gallows we might get a connection. Plus,’ she added darkly, ‘if our theory is correct and Gallows is up to his old tricks then he has another spook on his books. We should check the obituaries.’
Nedly nodded.
‘So?’ Lil swiped the Klaxon and returned it to her pocket, then sat down beside him with two rounds of freshly made toast, which she began cutting into soldiers. ‘Fill me in. How did you get on at Abe’s?’
‘He was still there but I think I got away with it.’ Nedly shifted uncomfortably.
‘So, what did you get?’
‘Maybe something, maybe nothing. This lady came in; she wanted Abe to go and check out this old doll hospital, out on Hen Road. She thought something was going on there.’
‘What did you think?’
Nedly shrugged. ‘I’m not sure Abe is going to follow it up but someone should – she seemed – yurghk!’ His eyes jumped out of their sockets as Naomi whisked into the kitchen and pushed his chair back under the table, half embedding him amongst the breakfast things. Lil watched him disappear as he wilted to the floor.
‘What did I think about what?’ Naomi seemed completely unfazed by her proximity to Nedly; she showed no signs of the creeps most people felt, or the shiver-inducing icy chill. She stood, her hands still on the back of the chair, looking down at Lil with a worried frown.
Lil shuffled through possible clever comebacks and settled on a weak ‘I thought you’d gone to work already?’.
‘I’m leaving now. So who were you talking to?’
‘Myself.’
Naomi gave her a considered look. ‘Are you OK?’
‘Fine. I was –’ What was she doing? ‘I was just running some lines from this film we saw yesterday at the picture house.’
‘We? You’ve made a friend who likes the same films you do?’ Naomi looked amazed. Lil rolled her eyes; it wasn’t that unlikely. ‘That’s great!’ She gave Lil’s chin a soft pinch and tilted her head up so she could look her in the eye. ‘So, does this new friend have a name?’
‘Nedly.’
‘Very unusual. What’s he like?’
‘He’s great.’ Lil glanced down to where Nedly was sitting under the table, his arms wrapped round his knees, looking traumatised. ‘He’s … different.’
‘Well.’ Naomi tucked Lil’s hair behind her ears and gave her a kiss on the forehead. ‘I’m really glad. You should invite him round some time. We could get a pizza in and all watch a film together.’
Lil smiled: they had done that a couple of times already. ‘Sure.’
‘Well, OK then. Have to fly now.’
Lil waited until she heard the squeal of the ancient fan belt from her mum’s car and then ducked down to check on Nedly. ‘It’s OK. She’s gone.’
He crawled out and brushed the non-existent crumbs off his jeans. He was smiling widely now.
Lil grinned back without knowing why. ‘What’s funny?’
‘Nothing, it’s just, your mum!’
‘I know.’ Lil snorted. ‘She’s so weird.’
Nedly shook his head, still beaming. ‘No, I mean, she knows my name now; she knows I exist.’
Hen Road was just round the corner from the Picture House on Spooner Row. It was a quiet area of small-scale warehouses and lock-ups, most of which were closed down and out of business, so the snowfall was untrodden until Lil left her footprints there as she and Nedly approached their destination.
Its frontage was shop-like with a small door and a large window, across which the words ‘Peligan City Doll Hospital’ had once been neatly painted, although now the lettering was chipped and turned dull with age. Lil cupped her eyes to block out the glare of the snow and suckered her hands onto the glass.
Inside the room were shelves, cabinets and chests, all full of the kind of toys that gave her the creeps: clockwork monkeys, jack-in-the-boxes and china dolls, but after Wool, the toy Gallows had used to bind his first ghost, Mr Glimmer, all toys had taken on a sinister shade for Lil.
At the back of the room was a workbench with a magnifying lamp bent over it and sitting there was a man in a loud checked suit and a pork-pie hat. He was holding a limp figure in one of his stubby hands and in the other he had a needle and thread.
‘That must be the new owner,’ Nedly whispered.
Lil tried the door handle. It was locked. She rattled it a few times. The new owner looked up and frowned. Lil put a harmless grin on her face as she waved at him and then knocked briskly on the window.
The man got to his feet, hefted his way over and opened the door, just enough to wedge his whole body in the gap. Nedly backed away out of range.
‘Can I help you?’ The toymaker had been right about his eyes, they were small and close, but a startling blue.
‘Hey, mister,’ Lil said brightly. ‘Can I have my doll back? I brought it in for fixing a while ago.’
The man cocked his head to one side. ‘Aren’t you a bit old for toys?’
‘It was quite a long while ago.’
He opened the door a little more. ‘Why don’t I get it for you? What does it look like?’
‘If I could just get inside I’ll find it.’ Lil tried to sidestep him.
He stuck out his arm to block her path. ‘No can do.’ He smiled again. He was wearing enough cologne to make Lil’s eyes water.
She tried a more direct approach. ‘The old woman who used to run this place, I bumped into her the other day – that’s what reminded me about my doll,’ she added.
‘That old bird! She’s always hanging around here, sticking her beak where it doesn’t belong, am I right?’ It wasn’t really a question but he punctuated it with a companionable jab to Lil’s arm.
‘Look, don’t get me wrong, I feel sorry for her. The place obviously meant a lot, but this is my business now and I got a lot to do before I can reopen. Look at what a mess it is!’
Lil took the opportunity to peer over his arm. It was a mess.
‘So –’ his voice dropped to a conspiratorial level – ‘she’s been talking to you, has she?’
‘No,’ Lil replied honestly.
‘Glad to hear it. The last thing any new businessman needs is someone putting out a bad word against him in the local community, am I right?’ He gave Lil another quick jab and the blue eyes twinkled again. ‘Now, you’ll have to excuse me – I’ve got a lot to do. But come back in a couple of weeks, by then I’ll have the place straightened out and we can reunite you with your precious doll, no problem! What’s the point of all these toys with no kids to play with them, am I right?’
Lil ducked out of the reach of his hand and hit the pavement at a jog, calling over her shoulder: ‘Thanks anyway!’
‘My pleasure!’ he called after her. ‘And if you see that old toymaker, you tell her I said hello.’ He froze there in the doorway for a few moments, hand raised in a wave.
Lil waited until they got to the corner before muttering to Nedly, ‘What a knucklehead! I think maybe I’ll come back when he’s gone. Have a proper poke around.’
As they crossed the road and set off for the library, neither one saw the new owner’s expression change as he lowered his hand. The sparkling eyes narrowed and the smile slipped from his face as easily as a greasy egg off a dirty plate.