The Sentinels of Eden, Books 1-4

Chapter 46

Chapter 41

Liam and Caleb were relieved but confused to find us all rocking up at the house two hours later. It had been a torturously slow hike back with a blind man. They told us that the trip down the river had opened up Harry’s wounds pretty badly. Because of the cuts on his hands, he’d struggled to brace himself properly as the canoe had bumped him around, and by the time the ambos got to him he was slipping in and out of consciousness again. Noah had gone to the hospital with him.

The first thing I did when I got in the door was to call Senior Sergeant Loxwood. When he arrived in a dust cloud of lights and sirens, I had no real explanation to give.

‘You say you found him trespassing?’ the police sergeant asked.

‘Yes.’

‘And now he’s blind?’

‘Yes. But seems okay other than that.’

‘Anything else you’d like to tell me?’

‘Harry’s hurt. Badly.’

‘I know. I heard the call.’ He waited, but I didn’t have anything else to offer, so he crossed his arms. ‘After you’ve seen Harry, all four of you will come straight to the station and make a statement. I’ll be there as soon as I’ve had Mr Beckinsale seen by a doctor.’ It didn’t sound like a request, which worried me because I didn’t want to lie but would have no chance of speaking or writing the truth either.

Harry was unconscious when we finally reached Nalong Hospital. There must have been some internal damage that the small amount of Fruit hadn’t healed, and he had lost a lot of blood. The surgeon was perplexed by his wound. She said he was lucky to be alive and couldn’t understand how he had sustained such a serious injury and yet had somehow managed to miss cutting an artery. I nodded but couldn’t look straight at her, because it hadn’t missed being cut at all.

Aunt Lily and Sarah met us there shortly after. They had only been booked for speeding once. Aunt Lily had been driving, luckily, because Sarah was shaking like a leaf in the wind. We told them everything that had happened, and Sarah spent a long time at Harry’s bedside, not speaking but holding his hand, while my aunt paced around the halls looking for doctors to interrogate. Eventually we had to leave them there to watch over him so we could face up to Sergeant Loxwood’s third polite summons.

‘You claim Mr Beckinsale attacked you?’ he asked as we all crammed into the tiny interview room at the Nalong Police Station. Tessa was the only one who looked vaguely calm. I had no idea what to say.

‘We were camping,’ she explained. ‘We knew Harry was due to come back and we were hoping to meet him on his way home.’ Which was sort of true, but I couldn’t believe how easily she lied to the policeman. ‘Mr Beckinsale found me alone and tried to make me tell him where the cave paintings were. He had a knife.’ Her voice was shaking at the memory, but I knew she was more angry than frightened. I could always tell. She swallowed and continued. ‘I think he was planning to do something to them because he had a satchel with some ochre paints inside. He must have been trying to discredit the paintings as fakes.’

‘What did you do?’ the senior sergeant asked, flicking his pen around his finger. It was a gesture that was made to look casual, but I could almost see his brain taking copious notes as he studied each of our faces out of the corner of his eye.

‘I didn’t have a chance to do anything because Harry turned up and made him let me go, but then they fought, and …’

Noah helped her out, catching the policeman’s eye. ‘We heard the commotion but by the time we arrived, Mr Beckinsale was unconscious and Harry was injured. We called the ambulance and told them to meet us at Lainie’s farm. There was no way they would have been able to get to us where we were, so we bound Harry’s wounds as best we could. He was awake and I thought he would be fine but now …’ His distress was not faked.

‘And what about Mr Beckinsale? How do you explain his blindness and amnesia?’ the sergeant asked, turning back to Tessa.

‘I have no idea. Perhaps he hit his head? He woke up after a few minutes and his eyes were completely white! Does he really not remember anything, or was he faking?’ she asked intently. We all leant in a little closer to hear his reply.

Sergeant Loxwood blinked. ‘He can’t even remember his own name. And yet the doctors have found no evidence of a head wound. Where’s the satchel now?’

‘At my house,’ I replied a bit too eagerly. ‘We looked inside but didn’t touch anything.’

‘And did you find the knife that wounded Harry?’

‘I threw it away,’ Bane interjected. ‘I wasn’t sure what Mr Beckinsale would do when he woke up. I could go and find it, I guess.’

The police officer nodded. ‘So none of you have any idea what happened to him?’

Tessa’s eyes widened as she clutched the sides of her plastic chair. ‘Harry Doolan is an Elder in this community. Lainie told me. Do you think he cursed Mr Beckinsale for trying to mess with a sacred site?’ She looked like a child being told a ghost story.

The sergeant put down his pen. ‘Tessa Bright. This is a serious investigation. Please don’t try to confuse things by bringing up conjecture about the supernatural. If Mr Beckinsale has suffered some sort of medical affliction then the doctors will find an explanation. My job is to establish whether or not a crime has been committed. I cannot fathom how Harry Doolan could possibly be responsible for Mr Beckinsale’s condition, so unless the medical experts are able to shed some more light on the subject, I will not be chasing up ghost stories.’ He placed his palms on the desk in front of him and looked at her seriously. ‘Do you want to press charges against Mr Beckinsale?’

Her mouth opened, and she glanced over at Noah, who looked very conflicted. It would have been very satisfying to send him to jail, especially after what he’d done to Tessa and Harry, but the idea of having to explain what had happened to a judge without revealing anything about Eden felt very complicated.

‘No,’ Tessa said firmly, obviously coming to the same conclusion. ‘I don’t think he’ll hurt anyone again, do you?’

The policeman closed his folder. ‘Then unless Mr Doolan wishes to lay charges, I will write up a report and not take the matter any further. For now, I would like you all to go home and get some rest. Mr Millard, could you please go back tomorrow and check to make sure the cave paintings have not been damaged, and call me when you’ve located the knife—but don’t touch it.’

We all sat there stunned for a minute. How had Tessa managed it? By bringing up the idea of the supernatural while sounding like a young foolish girl she had effectively managed to steer the sergeant right away from any such ideas. She’d even managed to keep the lies to a bare minimum. We would have to watch out for her. She was really sneaky and I completely adored her at that moment. All of us owed her, big time.