ELLIS, THE LOCAL HANDYMAN, WAS summoned immediately to make terrible alterations to the Excelsior Guesthouse. Silently he trailed Molly’s mother through the corridors, jotting notes on a notepad, while Molly objected.
“Mum, this is worse than putting me in prison!” she complained as Mum scrutinized the window at the end of the third floor east corridor.
“Don’t be melodramatic,” Mum snapped. “Ellis, could we get iron bars over this window?”
Molly choked. “Bars! That’s monstrous!”
“I’m trying to make sure you get through the rest of this summer without killing yourself, Molly. I refuse to let anyone else in this family die!”
Mum marched on, leaving Ellis inspecting the window.
“The whole town might end up dead if I don’t carry on with my investigation,” Molly said, trying to keep up with her.
“What investigation, Molly? The ghoul conspiracy, the character-assassination of our next mayor or the werewolf scandal?”
“All of them! All of the ones you blabbed about in front of the whole town!”
Mum wasn’t listening. “Ellis, I want a sign in the snug saying that the telephone is out of order, and directing residents to the phone in the lobby.”
Ellis gave Molly a sheepishly apologetic look, and scribbled on his notepad.
“Mum, we live in a guesthouse. People have to be able to get in and out. What are you going to do, lock me in a room? Or lock the guests in too?”
The look on Mum’s face made Molly fear the worst.
“Funny you should ask,” said Mum.
Downstairs, Mum ordered Ellis to cart the Excelsior’s cosiest armchair into the lobby. Then she called a meeting of several long-term residents, with the purpose of making them an alluring offer: free board and meals for the rest of the summer in return for agreeing to spend three-hour shifts sitting by the front door between morning and bedtime, making sure Molly did not leave.
Mr Banderfrith managed to be the first to put his hand up to volunteer, partly because he was already halfway through a stretch.
“Mrs Thompson, I would be honoured to help you keep this recalcitrant child captive,” he said, adjusting his wig. “You can put me down for triple shifts.”
And so it was decided: Molly would be shut up in the house for the rest of the summer. This arrangement struck Molly as so horrifying that she couldn’t quite believe her mother would insist on it. But she was wrong. By the time Mum had finished introducing Molly to her cruel new regime, it was past bedtime, and Mum marched her to the bathroom Molly used to sleep in whenever Mrs Fullsway stayed. She locked her in without the slightest sign of scruple.
It wasn’t until Mum’s footsteps had faded that Molly noticed an intruder, who’d appeared from nowhere.
“Gabriel! I thought Mum’d locked you out!”
The cat leapt onto the linen basket.
“Any ideas, Gabriel? What the heck am I supposed to do?”
Gabriel meowed.
“No, Gabriel – I most certainly should not have told Mum the whole story of what’s going on. It’s bad enough that she blabbed to the whole town that I’ve been investigating ghouls, and – oh, flipping Nora, Furlock knows about Carl! He’ll kill him!”
Gabriel curled up.
“I’m going to have to escape as soon as possible and break into Loonchance Manor before Furlock kills Carl. The election’s in three days’ time – so I have less than three days to prove to Mr Wetherill that Benton Furlock is a demon-worshipping ghoul-botherer, or he’ll become mayor!” She frowned hard. “Gabriel, there’s no other choice. I want you to go and protect Carl until I can escape. Maybe get together a posse of cats…”
Gabriel sat up and objected.
“I mean it, Gabriel! I’m firing you! You’re not my personal protector any more! You know how to sneak into locked rooms, so you can blooming well sneak out of them too, starting with this one!”
“Meow!”
“Look – it’s my fault that Lowry’s in hospital. I’m a terrible friend. I’ve put everyone in danger. I don’t deserve to have a magical cat guardian. I’m not asking you to do anything silly or brave – just go and watch out for Carl. Oh, and make sure you keep away from a girl named Felicity Quick. She might try to kill you.”
Gabriel stared.
“She looks like, um…” Molly took some nail scissors from the cabinet and trimmed off some of her hair at an angle. She lifted Gabriel from the linen basket, pointed him at the cabinet mirror so he could see his reflection and held the hair over his head. “Kind of a slanting haircut like this, but less curly, obviously.”
Gabriel scratched her.
“Fine – be like that. I don’t want you here anyway! Scram! Do that magic thing where you sneak through locked doors or whatever it is you do!”
The cat sniffed and settled down again, some of Molly’s hair still attached by static electricity. “I’m going to close my eyes and count to ten. If I open them and you’re still sitting there like a lemon, there’ll be serious trouble.”
Silence. She counted to ten.
She opened her eyes. Scanned the bathroom. Gabriel was gone.
Feeling suddenly very alone, Molly climbed into the bath, pulled the bedsheets over herself and tried to think how she could escape from the Excelsior Guesthouse.