at once forgotten. 'Wel, I'm back,' he found his voice. 'For the time being, anyway. And you told me to stay in touch ...' It seemed a weak, ineffectual way to broach what was on his mind. But the words just slipped off his tongue as if they were someone else's.
'And if anything, your call is early,' B.J. said, without really thinking what she was saying. But it was a fact that the ful moon was stil a week away. Immediately realizing her mistake (why did this bloody man have this effect on her?), she went to add something, anything, but Harry beat her to it:
'I know what you mean,' he said, without really knowing. 'I seem a bit eager, right? Well, maybe it's the moon.'
That shocked her rigid, so that she found difficulty in answering: The moon?'
'Over my garden wall,' he explained. 'I seem to have this tune in my head: "Give me the moonlight, give me the girl, and leave the rest to me." Well, I have the moonlight, but...'
She sighed her relief, inaudible to Harry, and said, 'But no girl, eh?' And before he could answer: 'Where are you?'
'Pretty close. I'm home. Five or six miles.'
'Did you find them? Your wife and child?'
'No,' the Necroscope answered, his voice showing no emotion one way or the other. B.J. wouldn't be able to tell if he was glad or sad. And the fact was that right now, Harry didn't know either.
'It's a quiet night,' B.J. said. 'We'll be closing around twelve ... "
It wasn't much, Harry thought, but she seemed to be saying so much more. And: That's more than three hours,' he answered.
Too long?'
'Yes ... no ... I don't have much to do. I mean I'm alone and ... lonely, I suppose.'
'Do you want to come here?'
'I can if you - '
' - No, don't. Look, why don't you tell me where you are, and I'll come to you? I'll take a taxi. The girls can take care of things here for one night.'
'You'l come now?'
He sensed her shrug. 'I could use a break. Have you eaten?'
'Not in a while.' (It was true, he was starving!)
'Do you have any food in?'
'No food,' he shook his head, despite that she couldn't see him. 'No drink either ...'
She answered pause for pause and finally said, Tm sure we can fix that. I mean, I'll pick something up on the way.
So ... what's the address? Oh, and Harry, give me your 'phone number, too, in case I'm delayed. The number I have doesn't work.'
And he told her both his address and telephone number. Why not? It seemed the most natural thing in the world to do ...
Harry's address was scarcely the easiest place in the world to find. It
was one of four Victorian houses standing in an uneven cluster on a riverbank a mile or two out of Bonnyrig, with undulating patchwork-quilt fields on three sides, dotted with dark copses here and there, and, during daylight, the rare hazy view of a distant steeple or square church tower.
Just why any specific area falls derelict is hard to say, but this district definitely had. Three of the once-proud, even grand old houses were terraced and stood in high-walled gardens extending almost to the river. The two outer houses had been empty for years and were beyond redemption; their windows were gaping holes and their roofs were buckling inwards. They had been up for sale for a long time; every so often someone would come to look at them, and go away shaking his head. They were not 'desirable' residences. The central house was Harry's place. It was lonely, but he could talk to his Ma in private here and never fear that anyone would see him sitting on the riverbank mouthing nonsense to himself.
Glimpsed through the trees lining the riverbank, Bonnie Jean's first view of the house was from a road on the far side of the river. She had asked the driver of her taxi to halt, and sat there a while just looking across the river. It was obvious which house was occupied: the ground floor lights were on; they flooded out and lit the sprawling garden, lending the place an eerie illumination. The house was alive, barely. But by comparison the others were stone dead.
Yet oddly enough, B.J. didn't consider the place as a whole at all out of keeping with Harry Keogh's character. Indeed, she thought it suited him.
The reason she had caused the driver to stop was