"What the hell?"
Quinne stood at the door to the Snug, staring in horror at the mess it was in. Toby by now was crouched like a wild animal on the open chest, rooting through the books inside. Their notice board was drowned in scribbles, notes and doodles, and some of the notes spread halfway across the wall. The only clear space was the bookshelves, as the floor was now carpeted with the contents.
"Toby!" Quinne groaned, wading through the sea of paper and leather before picking his brother bodily off the chest. "Number one, you're sat in my spot. Number two, what the hell are you doing?"
"Looking for the Other Mother" Toby replied grumpily, slipping free like a snake and clambering back to where he had been. "I've found Maleficent and the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, that's all in already, but I know I have to find the Other Mother, which I suppose is kind of silly, since I already know I'm right, I'm just checking, but all the same it might show me something else and..."
Quinne tackled his little brother to the floor, pinning him down before tying his hands behind his back with his school tie. Toby glowered as he was seated quite firmly on the desk. Quinne glowered right back.
"Look at the state of this study!" the elder brother snapped. "No, don't speak, just look."
Toby gave his brother a death stare, but obediently looked. It was a complete tip, there was no denying. Oops.
"Right" Tarquin carried on. "If our mother walked in right now, and read some of this stuff you've been looking up, what would she say?"
Toby wriggled uncomfortably, trying to free his hands.
"Answer me" Tarquin ordered.
Toby stuck out his tongue.
"Fine" he said. "She'd have a fit, cos I'm not supposed to be investigating, and I'll get myself killed, blah blah. Now get me out!"
Tarquin seemed to relent.
"I'm only letting you go so you can help clean this mess up" he told his little brother firmly. Toby scowled again as Quinne undid his hands.
"And once we've done that, we can go about this investigation in a tidy and organised manner" Tarquin carried on, scooping up a whole pile of books and beginning to put them away neatly. Toby did a double take.
"You're kidding" he said.
"I'm not kidding" Quinne replied, grabbing another pile of books and beginning to place them back on the shelves.
"I thought you were going to be mad!" Toby spluttered, still not quite believing it.
"I am mad" Tarquin snapped suddenly. Toby sobered up.
"I'm mad because of the state of this study!" the elder Smart brother groaned frustratedly. "Toby, it's a bombsite! I can't think how you got it like this, it's so untidy..."
"Quinne, I get it!" Toby sighed relievedly. "I'm sorry, and I won't do it again. Let me help."
With them both working together, tidying the Snug didn't take long. When they were done, Toby collapsed on his armchair, and Quinne settled himself on the top of the chest once more.
"Now then" the latter sighed. "What were you rabbitting on about when I first came in?"
Toby took a deep breath in. This was going to take a while, he reckoned.
"Right" he began. "We originally thought that there were only two fairytales being alluded to here. In fact, I reckon there are four. Through The Looking Glass, Sleeping Beauty, and Alice In Wonderland are the ones I know for definite, but there is a fourth, which has something to do with a character called the Other Mother. That's what I've been trying to find all afternoon..."
"Hold on" Quinne butted in. "How does Alice in Wonderland fit in? Only two girls have died."
"Well, Through The Looking Glass is the sequel to Alice In Wonderland" Toby explained. "So it only makes sense to assume that Alice Carroll was the star, so to speak, in Alice In Wonderland too."
"So what's the Alice In Wonderland bit of Alice's story?" Quinne asked, quick as a flash. Toby grinned. His brother was indeed on the ball today.
"A couple of weeks ago, she apparently went to a mysterious tea party that nobody in the village held" he said, sitting up in his chair and pointing at the relevant points on his spiderweb of information with a metre ruler.
"Mr. Carroll told me. I was deploying the dumb-down tactic when he was here earlier. Hopefully he'll have gone to tell the police" Toby added, still pointing with the stick.
"The Mad Hatter's Tea Party" Quinne murmured. "That's what you think it is!"
"Quite" Toby agreed with a smile. "And if that piece of information is correct, then it leads us on to a very interesting scenario. Now we know Alice knew who her killer was, so she would have been perfectly happy leaving Book Club with her on the night she died."
"Her?" Quinne queried. Toby frowned.
"Alright. I don't know it's a her. I'm guessing, because Alice referred to someone called the Other Mother, who I assume will have spoiled her silly when she was in her care, in order to win trust."
"Right" Quinne sighed, massaging his temples.
"Which is why I need to find that story!" Toby snapped, suddenly exasperated.
"Well, we'll go and raid the library tomorrow" Quinne said firmly. "Right now, I've got relaxing to do and you've got a shift."
"Don't you mean I've got relaxing to do and you've got a shift?" Toby corrected. "I've been in all day."
Now it was Quinne's turn to scowl.
"Go to hell, Toby" he grumbled. "You've been at home these past few days."
"I've been very busy, believe it or not" Toby argued.
"Busy making a mess?" Quinne mocked, quickly changing tactics. "Busy reading pretty fairy stories like a little boy?"
"Get on your shift, you lazy old man" Toby retorted, planting his feet and hands so it was impossible to wrestle him out of the armchair. Quinne gave him a death glare and stalked out.
Toby relaxed. For about eight seconds.
Quinne reappeared just as quickly as he had left, and as Toby opened his mouth to speak his elder brother clamped a hand over it.
Annoyed, as this was the second time this had happened in two days, Toby let Quinne lead him to the door before wrestling his brother's hand away.
"You're making a habit of this" the younger brother complained. "And I'm not liking it-"
"Shut up!" Quinne hissed. "Come on."
Together, they sneaked through the house, and both put their ears up against the bakery door. Inside, they could hear the endings of a discussion.
"So, you want them to play messenger? Why can't you send someone?" That was their mother, Toby realized. And she didn't sound too happy.
"Our men don't know the village, Mrs. Smart, and we need the biggest group of men we can, as quickly as possible!" came the angry reply. Toby's eyebrow shot up. That was Carmen.
"Well my eldest is busy with schoolwork, and my youngest is barely fourteen!" Mrs. Smart argued ferociously. "You can't send a fourteen year old boy outside when there's a murderer and a kidnapper about!"
"With all due respect, madam, that fourteen year old of yours is without a doubt the cleverest and most mature child of his age!" Carmen barked back. "Please. We're wasting time here."
"Wasting time?" Mrs. Smart screeched. "You're the ones wasting time trying to get my boys..."
Toby'd had enough. Without telling Quinne, he pushed open the door, to see his tiny little mother standing her ground fiercely against the giant that was Detective Inspector Carmen. David and Goliath sort of sprang to mind.
"Mother, what's going on?" he asked innocently, half-dragging Tarquin in behind him. His mother deflated.
"There's been another child gone missing this afternoon" Carmen explained briskly, turning to Toby as if he was twice his age. "We need someone to rally a search party, and fast. I thought perhaps..."
"Quinne, we're going" Toby interrupted firmly, looking up at his brother decisively. Tarquin's eyes widened, but Toby was halfway to the door.
"Toby!" his mother snapped, grabbing her son's arm roughly to drag him away. "Don't be so utterly ridiculous! It's dangerous outside..."
"And someone else might be about to die, Mother!" Toby shouted back, dragging his arm away. "And if me and Quinne don't go, more time will be wasted. We might already be too late. Quinne?"
Tarquin, seemingly back in focus, hurried with his brother to the door. Carmen followed them.
"Don't you two lose each other" Mrs. Smart warned, crossing her arms, but sounding defeated. "And you" she added, looking particularly at Quinne. "Keep an eye on that other one."
"I'm sorry, Mum" Toby said quietly, guiltily. "But right now, we don't have time."
The two boys stepped out into the night.
"Left first" Quinne suggested, as they walked to the road. "There's less people, but it'll be quicker."
"Take a side of the road each?" Toby asked.
"Call for me every thirty seconds, and I'll call back" his brother replied. Toby smiled a little, knowing Quinne was only trying to look after him. Besides, he could keep excellent time.
"Deal."
The two of them finished the left side of the village very quickly, and as they sprinted up to the bakery again people were beginning to trickle out of their houses with torches and, Toby realized with a jolt, weapons.
By the time the two of them were done the rest of the village, the centre of it was aglow with the search party's lights. They took a breather on a little bench under a streetlamp, on the side of the village bordering on Harper Woods.
"Do we know who's missing, this time?" Quinne asked, breathing heavily.
"I think it's a little boy" Toby replied, still panting. "Heard the Detective Inspector saying as we went past the search party."
"What does this all mean, Toby?" Tarquin sighed, shaking his head. His brother shook his head also.
"I don't know. I don't get it. I reckon whoever is doing this must be pretty derailed, unless there's a reason we haven't found yet" he admitted, feeling the hot flush of his cheeks from the exercise begin to cool.
"I say-you don't think the little boy'll be in the woods, do you?" Quinne asked suddenly, sitting up straight and looking curiously into the trees. Toby thought about this.
"I suppose he could be" he agreed. "I mean, there are an awful lot of woods in fairytales."
Quinne got slowly to his feet.
"No way" Toby said firmly.
"We won't go in deep" his brother reasoned. "Just a little way, and shout about a bit. If he's out there..."
"Quinne, you're mad" Toby sighed. "We'll wait until the search party..."
"What if they're too late?" Quinne pressed. "What if unless we go now, we can't save him?"
"Quinne..." Toby groaned, staying firmly seated. "It's a bad idea!"
"Well, you can stay here, then" his brother retorted. "I'll be right back."
"That's even more of a bad idea!" Toby protested, as his brother began to walk away, towards the edge of the forest.
"Then come on!"
Toby considered his options, none of which, he realized, were any good. It was a bad situation for him and Quinne or a bad situation for some poor little boy. And since there was only one situation he could try to change, he took that one.
"Coming!" he called, jogging to catch up with his brother as he reached the treeline. The two of them walked together into the forest.
"Hello?" Tarquin yelled into the black.
"Is there anyone there?" Toby added, slightly quieter, as his nerves were jangling and there was a warning bell going off loudly in his head.
"We're here to help!" Quinne shouted again, as the two boys kept walking. Toby's feet hit tree roots and scuffed through leaves as they went, and all the time, he could feel the black forest closing in on them. The streetlamp and safety was fast becoming a tiny speck in the distance, and Toby wondered whether his brother really knew what he was doing.
"Quinne" he said tightly, stopping them both in their tracks. "Haven't we gone far enough?"
The silence, now without their footsteps, was heavy and seemed to hang off the twisted, dark trees around them. Toby could hear his brother's breathing, and his own, loud in his ears.
Then they both heard the harsh crack of a twig snapping close by.
"Toby?" Quinne hissed, and Toby heard the catch in his brother's voice. "That was you, right?"
"It wasn't me" he forced a reply.
"Hello?" Quinne called tentatively into the surrounding gloom. "Anyone there? Answer us!"
The two brothers waited, hearts in mouths. The younger's lips were dry.
Crack. That one was much closer.
"Quinne?" Toby asked, his voice high with panic. "I-I think we should go."
Then, in the light of the thin moon slipping down through the canopy of leaves above, Toby caught a glint of something in the darkness to their right.
He let out a strangled gasp, grabbing his brother's arm, and without stopping to think, sprinted off towards the faint golden glow of the streetlamp far away. It seemed Quinne had sensed something too, as they both ducked and weaved through the black trunks as fast as they could. Toby couldn't hear if anyone was chasing them, there was only his own breaths and heartbeat in his ears, and Quinne's feet hitting the dry turf beside him. There was no denying now. They were both utterly terrified.
Upon finally reaching the treeline once again, though, neither boy faltered in his step. It seemed despite their fear they both knew what they should do.
They rounded a street corner, and the main bulk of the search party came into view. If he hadn't been sprinting so hard, Toby would have sagged with relief.
"There's something in the woods!" Quinne yelled, as a few of the party had already seen them running and begun to head toward them. At Quinne's shout, more of them came to meet the boys, Carmen, Barnes, and Mrs. Smart at the head.
"What? Where?" Carmen demanded.
"I don't know" Quinne replied, still sounding panicked."I don't know. I didn't see. Toby did. He saw something. I know he did or he wouldn't have pulled me away. Toby, what did you see?"
"Toby?" Barnes asked.
"Tobias?" Carmen echoed.
But Toby had ran straight for his mother, and had his head buried in her shoulder as he tried to stop himself shaking. There was no denying it, he thought. He'd pushed himself too far this time.
Toby couldn't see, but his brother, and the two policemen were still staring at him, expectant, but now hints of pity were starting to creep into their faces. But it was Mrs. Smart who spoke first.
"You leave him be!" she snapped, but not so aggressively as she could have been. "Look at you all! He's fourteen, he's a child, for God's sake, gentlemen, and Tarquin, this is your brother here we're talking about. And he's obviously frightened out of his mind! Frankly, if I was in his position, I would be too. Go and search the forest all you like, but leave him here with me."
For once, Toby agreed wholeheartedly.
"Can I go, Mother? Please?" he heard Quinne ask. Mrs. Smart sighed, tutting.
"If you must. You've proved yourself to be quite the grown-up here, Tarquin. But don't let him out of your sight, Detective Inspector."
"I promise" Toby heard Carmen reply. "He'll come to no harm."
The search party passed them, and Toby was beginning to calm down. He looked up at his mother gratefully, who smiled and ruffled his hair.
"You must never try to be too old, young man" she sighed fondly. "Youth only comes once, and when it's gone, it's gone."
"There was someone in the woods, Mother" Toby said urgently, as the two of them began to make their way back to the bakery. "They were holding something in their hand that caught off the moonlight."
His mother squeezed his shoulders.
"I think you were lucky, Tobias" she said firmly, but gently. "Rest assured I won't be letting you do something like that again."
"I won't be wanting to, Mum" Toby replied truthfully. "It was scary, being out in that forest."
"I can't imagine how little Jake must be feeling, wherever he is" Mrs. Smart sighed, letting them into the house by the side door.
"Jake Kingston?" Toby asked curiously, despite his recent ordeal.
"Quite." Toby got the feeling his mother didn't want to talk much about this much longer, so he obediently allowed himself to be fussed over, dumped with a hot cup of tea and settled in front of the fire.
"You know" his mother commented. "It's still the summer fête tomorrow."
"They won't put it on after all this, will they?" Toby said, amazed. His mother raised her eyebrows cynically.
"Mrs. Llewellyn is unfortunately still quite the force to be reckoned with, and she's been working on this fête for months" his mother replied sadly. "I'll be damned if it's called off. We could have a hurricane tomorrow and old Linda Llewellyn would still be out there with her stick and her floppy hat, shouting at the volunteers who can't put the marquee up properly."
"Do we have a stall?" Toby then asked, taking a gulp of tea.
"We do" his mother sighed. "We'll do a little bit first thing, and take everything we've got already to fill space. You can do some cupcakes and a couple of full sizers, and I might get your brother to cook up a few of his 'experiments' just to add variety. I'll ice the showpiece I did today."
"Busy, busy" Toby smiled dryly, putting his feet up close to the fire.
He couldn't help but wonder how Quinne was getting on.