Stuart Woods - Palindrome

"Heaven only knows what they're up to." Hamish laughed. "The same thing we were all up to at that age, I expect."

"Oh, God,!" the professor said.

At dinner, Liz watched Hamish as he entertained Dr. Blaylock with stories of the island. She couldn't find anything disturbed about him, nor about Keir, come to that, though he was less conventional than most people. She glanced across the room at Dr. Hamilton. He had just been issuing opinions off the top of his head; he didn't know the Drummond twins, and he was in no position to pass judgment on them. She began to relax and enjoy the evening. She turned and spoke to Hannah Drummond, who was sitting next to her. "I invited Aldred to come up to Stafford Beach Cottage tomorrow," she said. "Would you mind if he came?"

"Not at all," Hannah said. "I'm leaving tomorrow, and Hamish is taking me to the airport. I'm sure Germaine would be happy to have him off her hands."

"I've got to take some photographs down at the cemetery tomorrow morning. How about if I pick him up on the way back? Say, about nine?"

"Perfect. We'll be leaving for the airport about then."

"Tell him to bring his swimsuit."

When Liz got home, pleasantly tired and wanting Keir, the house was empty. Maybe he had felt snubbed when she had declined to make love to him, but she didn't care much. If he wanted to be antisocial, that was his problem. She had no trouble falling asleep.

But when she woke in the night, and he wasn't there, it hurt.

Liz loaded the Hasselblad equipment into the Jeep and drove south toward Dungeness. It was seven o'clock, and she hoped that was early enough to get her photographs of the cemetery done before the professor and his crew of students went to work. She parked near the equipment sheds, and as she began to unload her gear, Angus Drummond drove up in his jeep, with Dr. Blaylock, the anthropologist, in the passenger seat. "Good morning," she said to both men.

"Morning," Angus replied.

She fell in beside Angus as they walked down the path toward the cemetery. "I'm going to photograph everything before they begin work," she said.

"A good idea," Angus replied.

"I'd like to have some pictures of the place, if you'll make some copies for me."

"Of course." They walked along quietly for a moment. "Is something wrong?" she asked finally, unable to contain her curiosity.

"Problems," Angus replied. He seemed disinclined to say more.

They arrived at the little cemetery to find a group of half a dozen young people gathered in a knot, talking worriedly. "Good morning," Angus said to no one in particular. "Now, I'd be grateful if you'd tell me exactly what happened here last night."

No one spoke for a moment, then a tall boy said, "It started in the middle of the night-three, four o'clock, I'm not sure just when."

"What started?" Angus asked. "Speak up, young fellow, and let's get to the bottom of this."

"We're camped over there," he said, pointing. The bright orange of a tent could be seen through the trees twenty yards away. "This noise started."

"What sort of noise?" Angus asked. He was becoming impatient.

"All sorts," a girl said. "There was some rustling in the woods, then some animal noises. At least I think they were animal noises."

"They sounded human to me," another girl said.

"They sounded inhuman to me," a boy piped up.

"Was that it?" Angus demanded. "Just noises?"

"They seemed to be all around us," the tall boy said. "I had the feeling that, any second, something was going to come at us. By this time, we were all awake. The noises were pretty loud."

"Then what happened?" Angus asked.

"Then we got out of here," the boy replied. "We ran like hell, and somehow, we ended up on the beach. We walked to the inn from there."

"They woke me up about six," Dr. Blaylock said. "I couldn't make any sense of it. The boy at the inn drove us down here, then I came to get you."

"Was anything disturbed?" Angus asked.

"Nothing," the tall boy replied, "except Dr. Blaylock's stuff was gone."

"Something was stolen?" Angus asked the professor.

"Two toolboxes," he replied. "I've been years collecting that equipment."

"What was in the toolboxes?"

"The things I excavate with-trowels, brushes of all sorts, a lot of jars and containers."

"Anything that would be of value to a thief?"

"Not unless he was an archaeologist or an anthropologist. What do you make of all this, Mr. Drummond?"

"I don't know what to make of it; nothing like this has ever happened before. Oh, we've occasionally had some hooligans from the mainland, who'd come over here in a boat and steal something, break a window or two, that sort of thing. Just teenage vandals. I expect that's who it was. You young people spread out in the woods, here, and let's have a good look around. I expect we'll find your toolboxes."

Somewhat reluctantly, the students did as they were told. Half an hour later, they all gathered at the graveyard again. Nobody had found anything. "I'll tell you what I think," one of the boys said. "I think something doesn't want us to mess with these graves."

Angus laughed. "You mean you think we've got ghosts around here, son?"

"Well, I don't know, sir, but there was something here last night."

"There was a hooligan or two here last night," Angus said. "Ghosts don't have any use for toolboxes. Besides, no ghost would dare show his face on this island. I'll do the haunting around here, myself, when I'm gone."

"I don't know what to do," the professor said. "Nothing like this has ever happened on a dig before."

"I'll tell you what you do," Angus said. "You go over to Jacksonville today-I'll send you on the inn's boat-and you buy whatever you need to work, and I'll pay for it. Then, tomorrow, you get started."

"I'm not sleeping another night in these woods," one of the girls said, and the others murmured their support.

"All right," Angus said. "If you're scared, then you can all stay at the inn as my guests. Germaine's got a little bunkhouse that construction crews sometimes use, and I'll see that it's cleaned up for you." They looked happier at that news. "Tonight, you pack up your belongings and the rest of your tools, and I'll send the van for you. Until then, you'll be working in daylight, and the ghosts won't come around. Neither will hooligans, I expect."

"Go on, now," the professor chimed in, "get your gear together." The students did as they were told, Angus and Dr. Blaylock left, and Liz began setting up. The sun was still low in the sky, and the light was good for bringing the inscriptions on the tombstones into sharp relief. She took shots of each grave, then got wide-angle shots from the four corners of the plot.

Satisfied that she had preserved the place for posterity, she packed her gear and loaded it into the Jeep. It was nearly nine, now, and Liz drove to the inn to pick up Aldred Drummond for his day at the beach. The boy was finishing his breakfast in the kitchen, and there was a pile of luggage at the back door. "Mom and Dad are going to Jacksonville," Aldred said, pointing at the luggage, "but I'm going with you today."

"That's right," Liz said. "It's just you and me all day."

He leaned close to her. "And I get to drive your Jeep, right?"

"Right," she said.

"We won't tell anybody about that."

Hannah Drummond appeared and said her good-byes to her son. 'You be good, now, and I'll see you next week." Hamish Drummond wandered into the kitchen. "We're off as soon as the van's back," he said, and, as he spoke, the van pulled up to the back door and discharged the students. "You two have a good time today," he said to Liz. "And Aldred, you do as Liz tells you, all right? Don't give her a hard time."

"Yessir," the boy said.