Caught On Camera (Chapter Three)

Chapter Three

The Vanishings 

   “Whatever’s the matter?” Mrs Rumblefish asked, peering over the gold rim of her teacup.

   Billy Moon was still standing in front of the photograph, looking shocked. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief and then stared at the picture again. Everything was still and silent. The waves were no longer crashing against the rocks and the mysterious, pale-faced girl had vanished from view.

   “I saw somebody,” Billy said, pointing at the photograph excitedly. “The picture came alive and I saw a girl standing on the rocks in front of the lighthouse. She was shouting for help.” 

   “I sometimes see figures too,” Fiona Rumblefish replied, putting down her teacup with a very loud clatter. “But it’s just an illusion, that’s all. A trick of the light.”

   Billy glared at the picture for a several more moments. Mrs Rumblefish was right. It was just a picture – a beautiful, stark, black and white photograph of the lighthouse on Cloudberry beach.

   “I must have been dreaming,” he said, rubbing his eyes again. “But it’s an incredible picture. In fact, I think it’s the most beautiful photograph I’ve ever seen.”

   “One of Diane Honeydew’s very best,” Mrs Rumblefish was saying. “It was taken in the 1970s, I think. I used to take my son there sometimes.” She shook her head sadly. “Poor Danny,” she sighed and gently pressed the framed photograph of her lost son against her heart. 

   Billy felt an overwhelming sadness within him and lowered his voice to a whisper. “Was he one of the missing children?” he asked.

   Solemnly, Fiona Rumblefish nodded her head.

   “I wonder what’s happened to them?” he said.

   At first, Mrs Rumblefish showed no reaction, sitting there as cold and as quiet as a porcelain doll. Then she creased her brow into a frown and began to stroke the end of her chin with her fingertips. “There seems to be a pattern,” she mumbled, as if thinking out loud. “The vanishings happen every five years, normally during the Spring Equinox. First, the cats and dogs and other animals begin to disappear, and then… “ She paused, closed her eyes in prayer and suddenly lowered her voice to a sinister whisper. “And then three children are taken from us, one by one. They are never seen again.”  

   Billy felt his scalp prickle with fear, and looked nervously around the room. Was it his imagination or were some of the shadows in the corners congealing into sinister shapes?

   “So what do you think is happening?” he asked.

   Mrs Rumblefish opened her eyes. “There are rumours of an angel of death,” she replied. “A tall, beautiful woman who suddenly appears in a blinding flash of white light and then snatches the children away. But I don’t believe such nonsense myself.” She pointed an orange-painted fingernail at the teapot on the table. “If the tea leaves can’t tell me what’s happening, then it’s unlikely anyone will ever know.” Then she looked at Billy with wide and unblinking eyes and said, “And I hope you don’t mind me saying this, young man, but I’m surprised your parents are letting you out of their sight, especially at a time like this. Losing a beloved pet is heart-breaking enough, but losing a child is the worst thing in the world.”

   Billy shuffled his feet guiltily as he remembered how he’d hidden the sheet of newspaper from his mum and dad and then thrown it away. “I don’t think they’ve read the news,” he said. “We only moved here a few days ago, and the man who sold the house to us said nothing about it at all.”

   “The estate agent?” Mrs Rumblefish asked.

   Billy nodded his head.

   Mrs Rumblefish laughed sardonically. “Ah,” she said. “It must have slipped his mind. How convenient.”

   Billy looked puzzled. He didn’t understand sarcasm.

   He thanked Mrs Rumblefish for her time, left a leaflet on her coffee table and headed for the door.

   As he stood on the dampened street with raindrops pattering softly on his head, Billy suddenly remembered something. Mrs Rumblefish had told him that every five years three children mysteriously vanish, one by one. Victoria Spike and Jeremy Sponge had already been reported missing, so who was the third child going to be? 

   With his stomach turning cartwheels inside, Billy walked through the rain and pressed the buzzer on the house next-door.

To be continued....