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Jack hesitated with his hand on the ‘Closed’ sign but then he stepped back, leaving the sign in place.‘No, people will have to cope without eggs and milk for ten minutes. It won’t kill them. Just come and see what I wanted to show you, which, I warn you, might be a wild goose chase.’
That might be the case, thought Alyssa, following Jack towards the back of the shop. But at least a wild goose chase would distract her from worrying about what might or might not be going on at Magda’s.
The stone steps to the cellar were narrow and worn and, Alyssa knew, would soon be quite unsuitable for Stan. What would happen to him then?she wondered. Would he have to move and give up this cottage that had been home to his family for generations? A cottage that had once been home to Josiah, who, in her mind’s eye, sported a thatch of flaming red hair?
‘Well, here we are,’ said Jack, switching on a bare lightbulb that hung from the low ceiling. It swayed drunkenly, filling the space with shadows that danced across the stone walls. ‘Can I have your phone?’
‘I doubt you’ll get a good signal down here.’
‘I don’t want to call anyone. I want to see your photo of that map again.’
When Alyssa found the picture, Jack squinted at it in the poor light while she looked around. The small cellar was crammed with boxes of tinned goods, which made it more claustrophobic. And it smelled of damp, as if the sea was lapping against the other side of the wall, waiting to burst in and drown them both.
Alyssa breathed out slowly, silently cursing her over-active imagination. This cellar had given her the shivers from day one. ‘What are you looking at?’ she asked.
‘This symbol, or whatever it is.’ Jack enlarged the photo and peered at it. ‘The circle with a cross in it looks so familiar.’ He handed the phone back to Alyssa. ‘Could you help me to move the cupboard?’
‘The big one filled with baked beans?’
Jack nodded.
The tall cupboard in the corner held boxes of imperishable food, including a tower of tinned beans. The inhabitants of Heaven’s Cove seemed to get through a huge amount of them every week.
‘That cupboard didn’t always stand there,’ said Jack. ‘When I was a kid, it used to be over there, by the steps.’
Alyssa shrugged. ‘OK.’
‘Can you give me a hand?’ asked Jack, pulling out one of the boxes and placing it on the floor.
Alyssa joined in and, when the cupboard was empty, Jack put his shoulder against the piece of furniture and gave it a shove. It scraped little more than an inch across the flagstones, the noise putting Alyssa’s teeth on edge.
‘I need your help again, I’m afraid.’
When Alyssa started pushing and shoving the cupboard, Jack stopped and wiped a hand across his face. ‘Aren’t you going to ask me why we need to move it?’
She shook her head. ‘I figure you must have a good reason.’
‘Miri would have refused to help until she’d heard the whys and wherefores behind my request. But you just rolled up your sleeves and got stuck in.’
Why did he have to bring up his estranged wife and compare the two of them? Alyssa sniffed, not sure if getting stuck in was a good thing in Jack’s mind or more proof of her own lack of evidence-based reasoning. ‘Miri and I are very different types of people,’ she said in the end, and Jack didn’t disagree.
Together, they pushed and heaved the heavy cupboard across the stone floor until it stood a few feet away from the wall.
‘Phew!’ Alyssa put her hands on her hips, her face burning and her arms aching. She must look a sight.
Jack’s face was flushed too. He looked healthier with more colour in his cheeks: far less like a scientist forever stuck in a lab. After pulling his phone from his jeans pocket, he turned on the torch and shone the beam onto the wall, where the cupboard had stood. ‘There it is. I was right.’
‘Right about what?’ Alyssa stepped closer to him and peered at the wall. ‘What am I looking at?’
‘That,’ said Jack, pointing. ‘Can you see it there? It’s very faint.’
Alyssa moved forward until her nose was almost touching the wall. And then she saw it, carved into the old brick at shoulder height. Her heart seemed to suddenly speed up; she could hear it pounding in her ears. ‘Oh, my. Do they match?’
She opened the picture of the map again and enlarged it. The drawing at the bottom, the curious circular symbol with a cross inside it, was exactly the same as the indentation in front of her.‘It is the same symbol. That’s amazing!’
Alyssa breathed out slowly, as the past and present collided. She could almost feel Josiah’s hand on her shoulder as a piece of the puzzle slotted into place – not that anything was any clearer. It was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle when there was no picture on the front of the box to guide you.
She glanced at Jack, who was peering at the lines scraped into the brick. ‘How on earth did you notice this symbol on the wall as a child? It’s so small and faint, it’s hardly visible.’
