A Girl, a Murder, and Twelve Dreadful Children

Chapter II: Eleven Little Detectives

...she walked sadly through that damp and drear garden in the dusk, with everything falling and fading, and turning to decay around her... -- Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South

School was a bore, in Julie's not-so-humble opinion. She hated Maths, she hated Science, Geography sent her to sleep, and Grammar drove her to distraction. She spent her whole time waiting for the bell to ring, when she would be able to go home and curl up in a corner with a book.

Her brother confused her endlessly. While she was daydreaming through her lessons, Elias actually listened to the lectures. And he genuinely seemed to enjoy being told a series of useless facts he would never need to know. Bizarre. It was truly bizarre.

Finally school ended for the day. Julie gathered up her textbooks and homework, dragged Elias out of the classroom before he remembered anything he wanted to say to the teacher, and went in search of her adopted siblings.

She found them all standing in front of the school, as usual. But where was Dani?

Never before had the children gotten out of school to find their guardian was nowhere to be seen. Even if she hadn't arrived yet, they could generally see Sennacherib approaching. And if they couldn't see it, they could hear it. That van rattled and thunked loudly enough to be heard in Belfast. But now Sennacherib was conspicuous by its absence.

"Perhaps she's been held up at the nursery," Rosie suggested.

Rosie was only just able to conceal her ghostliness by applying plenty of face powder and always wearing gloves. She told everyone it was because of a skin condition. But she still made sure she avoided anyone who might look too closely. Right now she'd wormed her way into the middle of the group of children, where no one could see her clearly unless they made a point of looking past everyone else.

"She's never been held up at it before," Kevin objected.

Max was the only one of the children who went to nursery school. His lessons ended much earlier than the other children's, but the nursery also held an after-school club of sorts for children whose parents couldn't collect them until the afternoon. Max attended this so that Dani only had to go once to collect all the children.

"Maybe it's the primary school, then," Imogen said.

Harriett, Amy and Jack attended the primary school just down the road.

"I don't think so," Noah said. "Look, there's Harriett and Amy coming up the street. And Jack's behind them."

The three younger children came through the school gates and crossed to where their siblings were standing, in the shadow of the sports hall.

"Isn't Dani here yet either?" Harriett asked. "We got tired of waiting for her, so we walked over here."

Cathy shrugged. "No one knows where she is. But if she's doesn't come soon, we might as well walk home ourselves. The teachers will want to close up the school."

~~~~

"Listen, can you please let me go and collect my children?" Dani's temper was steadily fraying, and the knowledge that eleven children were patiently waiting for her -- or not so patiently waiting, if she knew those children -- made things even worse. "You can come with me if you want to convince yourself I'm not going to run away. But they'll wonder where I am."

"Why don't you call them?" the Inspector asked placidly.

"None of us have mobile phones!" Dani snapped.

The Inspector's eyebrows shot up. "None of you? Nowadays? That's very odd, isn't it?"

"I have enough expenses as it is without wasting money on mobiles," Dani said, trying to control her temper.