Part 6 (1/2)
”How do you know?”
”She babbled in her sleep.”
Perhaps it wasn't Kitty. Perhaps she was just a stranger who'd lost her mind. But what if the babbling was Ancient Egyptian? Hadn't Kitty believed she was the reincarnation of an Egyptian priestess? And when this woman had sat at her blank page, was she trying to communicate with the witch or the spirits?
Ruth removes the pan from the fire and pours the soup into a bowl. It's so hot Sam scalds her mouth, so she pauses, spoon in hand.
”Memories can come back though. Maybe she can remember everything now, Ruth.”
”But she isn't here to ask, is she? The last time I saw her, it was three minutes past three in the morning. I went to find her a coot's egg for breakfast; when I came back, she was gone.”
”No note, nothing?”
”Well ... there was something.” Ruth squirrels around in a drawer and puts something in Sam's palm. It's a gold cat charm. ”She left this under my pillow. By way of a thank you, I suppose. Funny, she remembers her manners but forgets her own name.”
”It's Kitty Bastet,” announces Sam. The babbling, the automatic writing, the wors.h.i.+pping of cats; she can be no other.
The witch raises her eyebrows. ”Bastet, you say? It sounds like a stage name. Was she an actress?”
”An artist. She carved things out of wood. If only I knew where she was, she might be able to help me find my father. I have to find him. He's the only family I have.”
”Oh? Don't you even have a grandfather?”
There's an uncomfortable pause. Sam hadn't mentioned Yafer Tabuh because she's still not sure if he really exists. She's seen him in her dreams and heard him when she chanted the resurrection chant, but what if that means she just hears voices in her head like mad Kitty?
”I'm not sure if he's dead or alive. Either way ... oh, he's on the other side of the world.”
Ruth lets it pa.s.s. ”Why bother to find your father? You've managed without him for all these years.”
”Yes, but only because Lola looked after me so well.” Sam explains about Lola: how she was like a mother to her and how she's in a laboratory somewhere, lost and alone. ”If I could find my father, he might be able to help me rescue her.” She braces herself. ”You don't think he was trapped in the warehouse fire, do you?”
Ruth stares at the ceiling, ignoring her gaze. Sam is sure she's hiding something.
”You know, don't you! He's dead, isn't he? That's why he never came for me!”
The witch flaps her hands in nervous agitation. ”You mustn't jump to conclusions! I did see someone leaving the burning warehouse, but it was a lady. She ran out and slammed the door. I thought she'd gone to raise the alarm.”
This wasn't the same woman that Ruth had discovered half-drowned. The one running away was blonde. So, there were two women in the warehouse.
”But no man?”
”Not that I saw. But as I got closer to the building, I thought I heard a baby cry. It might have been a cat, but I couldn't see for the smoke.”
Ruth had run to nearest phone box but when she got there, it had been vandalized. It was Sunday, none of the shops were open but, finally, she'd found a cafe and persuaded the owner to call the fire brigade. Unfortunately, by the time they arrived there was nothing left to save; everything had turned to ashes.
”All they found was a silver rattle.”
The rattle might have belonged to a baby who had grown up and moved out years before there was a fire. Or maybe there was no baby. Maybe Ruth had heard a cat.
”Maybe, dear.”
The witch's expression changes subtly for a second, she averts her gaze like someone who's said too much. Most of us would have missed this little nuance, but not Sam.
”Why don't you think it was a cat, Ruth?”
The soup works both ways. The witch, who has kept this secret for so long, finally spills.
”I met someone who recognized the rattle. Sometime after the fire, I found a young man standing in the dark, just as I found you. I didn't approach him. I just busied myself with my basket. Such a handsome man, so elegant, so-”
”So what did he say? I'd have said something if a witch was hovering.”
Ruth purses her lips. ”I wasn't hovering, I was being patient. Mindful of his privacy. It's a gift, is patience!” She s.n.a.t.c.hes Sam's bowl and disappears into the kitchen to wash it up. Finally, she returns.
”He asked about the fire. How it had happened. He'd been in Scotland at a wedding. He'd come to collect his baby from someone in the warehouse. They'd promised to look after her until he came back. He had no idea everything had gone up in smoke.”
Ruth had been right; there had been a baby in the warehouse and the man's eyes had filled with unspeakable anguish as he forced himself to ask, ”Did anyone survive?” When he heard that a blonde woman was spotted running from the scene, his eyes flashed and he said, ”If only she'd been in the box instead!”
It may seem like a mad thing to say, but it wasn't, as you'll discover. When he learnt about the other woman the dark one he'd smiled hopefully and asked. ”The lady you rescued from the wharf is she all right?”
The witch couldn't say; the woman had lost her memory and disappeared without trace. If she had tried to rescue the baby, there was no sign of it; there was no little body in the wharf. Was there any chance that the blonde woman had the baby in her arms?
No, all that remained was the silver rattle. The man had asked to see it. He insisted, in case it didn't belong to his baby. Sadly, he recognized it immediately, held it to his chest and roared like a wounded animal.
”His heart was broken,” sighs Ruth Abafey. ”More soup, dear?”
Sam shakes her head. She's trying to make sense of the facts. If the woman who jumped into the wharf from the burning warehouse was Kitty and she'd been looking after the man's baby, that man had to be her father. Sam leaps out of her chair.
”I was the baby in the fire, wasn't I?”
Ruth hides a knowing smile behind her hand. Sam doesn't need to see it; she knows she's right.
”But how did I survive?”
”More soup!” insists the witch.
Here is why John Tabuh never came back for Sam; I am the Masked Magician and it falls upon me to tell you that, having spoken to the witch, he truly believed that his baby daughter was dead. He didn't believe it at first though. Like everyone who's lost someone they love, he hoped it had all been a dreadful mistake and that, by some miracle, she'd been saved.
John watched the top flat in St Peter's Square for nights on end, listening for baby cries but he heard none. He saw no one. No one answered the door. The front windows were boarded up and he a.s.sumed, quite understandably, that its wicked tenant, Candy Khaan, had moved out but it was just an illusion. She was there all along, in a drunken stupor. Sam was there too, her pitiful cries m.u.f.fled in the knicker drawer.
He couldn't go to the authorities to see if anyone had signed Sam's death certificate; her birth had never been registered. There was no paper trail to say she'd ever existed. He couldn't go to the police because he had a dark secret: he'd entered the country on a stolen pa.s.sport. He was wanted for murder.
John Tabuh was probably innocent. Probably? Usually a man can be sure if he's murdered someone, but not in this case. The manner of the victim's death was most bizarre; he couldn't help wondering if it had been caused by the Old Magic and panicked on two counts: 1. Was his father infinitely more powerful than he'd given him credit for?