“Oh yes, so who put you in charge?”
“You know perfectly well. This operation has to be carried out with military precision. I’m in charge, you are merely my comedy sidekick.”
“I’m not a comedy sidekick, I’m a professional.”
“Light the candles, then.”
There came now the sound of a slight scuffle, followed by a heavy thump. Right on top of the trap door.
Eddie flinched, as did Jack, though neither saw the other do it.
“Good comedy falling,” said one of the voices. “See, you excel at that kind of thing. Stick to what you know. I’ll be in charge, you do the comedy falling about.”
“I didn’t do it on purpose. Someone scuffed up this rug. Someone’s been here.”
“Well, they’re not here now.”
“They might be upstairs, asleep.”
“There’s no one here. Just you and me and our little cargo, of course. You didn’t damage the cargo with your comedy falling, did you?”
“Of course I didn’t. I’ll put it here on the table – do you want to see it?”
“Best see it, I suppose. Not that I really want to.”
“No, nor me – they give me the creeps, they way they move about in their little jars. They’re really horrid.”
Eddie looked at Jack in the darkness beneath.
Jack looked at a spider. He thought he was looking at Eddie.
“One little peep, then,” said one of the voices above.
“One is quite enough. I’ll be glad when this job is done. If it ever is done. I can see this job going on for ever. Or at least until everyone in Toy City is jarred-up. They are valuable commodities back home. The boss will have us jar-up the entire city, you see if I’m wrong.”
“It’s not right, you know.”
“Right doesn’t enter into it. It’s business, pure and simple. Gather them up, take them back, that’s what we’re paid for.”
“But they’re living beings.”
“They’re toys.”
“Yes, but living toys.”
“Well, of course they are. There wouldn’t be much point in going to all this trouble if they weren’t living, would there?”
“But it’s murder when it comes right down to it.”
“Murder of toys?”
“Oh, look at that one in the jar at the end. It’s really agitated.”
“The bandleader. He’s frisky all right, just like those monkeys. Shut the case up, I don’t like looking at them.”
Eddie and Jack heard muffled clickings.
Then they heard a voice say, “Get your stuff from upstairs and we’ll be off. We have to deliver tonight’s cargo by dawn.”
And then they heard departing footsteps.
Then returning footsteps.
Then departing footsteps again and the slamming of the front door.
“Do you think they’re gone?” Jack whispered.
“Hold on a bit longer,” said Eddie. “Just to be sure.”
Time passed.
“They’ve gone,” whispered Eddie.
Jack pushed up the trap door, rug and all, emerged from the hideaway, blundered around in the darkness and eventually brought light once more to the late Bill Winkie’s parlour.
“Well, what do you make of all that?” Jack asked.
“Nothing good,” said Eddie.
“Shouldn’t we be following them?” Jack asked.
“No,” said Eddie, “we shouldn’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because we’re not ready to deal with this yet, Jack. We don’t know what’s going on – we have to know more.”
“Then we should follow them now.”
“They said they were delivering tonight’s cargo. They’ll be coming back tomorrow, I would guess. Let’s make certain we’re ready and waiting for them then.”
“Sound enough,” said Jack. “But what were they talking about? What did they have in their jars?”
“Souls, perhaps,” said Eddie. “The souls of the clockwork band.”
“Their souls, Eddie? What are you saying?”
“You heard what I heard, Jack. Draw your own conclusions.”
“I heard what you heard, Eddie, but did you hear what I heard? What we heard?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” said Eddie.
“Oh, I think you do. The voices, Eddie. You heard the voices.”
“Of course I heard them. Now stop talking, let me think.”
“No,” said Jack. “You heard them as I did. You heard those voices.”
“I heard them,” said Eddie. “Now stop.”
“Not until you’ve said it.”
“Said what?”
“You know exactly what. Now say it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes you do, Eddie. Say it.”
“All right!” Eddie glared at Jack. “I know what you want me to say that I heard. And all right, I did hear it, same as you heard it. Their voices. All right, I heard them.”
“Say it,” said Jack.
“They were our voices,” said Eddie. “Yours and mine. Our voices. All right, I’ve said it – are you happy?”
“No,” said Jack. “I am not. They were our voices. What does this mean?”
“It means,” said Eddie, “that not only is there a doppelganger of me doing these murders, but there’s one of you, too.”
Jack did shudderings. “I was really hoping that you might have been able to come up with a comfier explanation than that,” he said.
“Comfier?” said Eddie.
“This is really scary stuff,” said Jack. “Doppelgangers of you and me? I don’t know about the soul-stealing business, but murdering doppelgangers is scary enough for me. Were they space aliens, do you suppose?”
Eddie shrugged as best as he was able. “I suppose so,” he said.
“But space aliens don’t go stealing souls,” said Jack.
“Oh, you know all about the habits of space aliens now, do you?”
“I know what I know,” said Jack. “There’s a blinding light and the space aliens abduct you, stick instruments up your bottom and then return you hours later with your memories erased. That’s what space aliens do.”
“You do talk twaddle, Jack.”
“Listen,” said Jack, “that’s what space aliens do, if there are space aliens. But as I don’t believe in space aliens, I don’t care whether you believe me or not.”
Eddie was now thumping his head with his paws.
“I hate it when you do that,” said Jack.
“It helps to jiggle my brainy bits about,” said Eddie. “Aids cogitation. We have all the clues, Jack, I’m sure we do. We can figure this thing out. I can figure this thing out.”
“Let’s tell Bellis what we heard here,” said Jack. “Let him and his laughing policemen lay in wait for these –”
“Doppelgangers of us?” said Eddie.
“Whatever they are.”
Eddie gave his head some further thumpings. “Something is coming,” he said.
“An idea?” asked Jack. “An answer? What?”
“Something,” said Eddie. “Something.”
“Something,” said Jack. And then he said, “Eddie?”
“What, Jack, what?”
“Eddie, something.”
And then something came upon them. It came upon them in a blinding light, which rushed at them through the windows and up through the cracks between the floorboards and around the trap door and in through the keyhole and down the chimney and even up the plughole in the sink in the kitchen. And this light was white and this light was pure and this light was fearsome.
And Eddie clung to the legs of Jack and Jack held Eddie’s head in one hand and shielded his eyes with the other. And Eddie screamed. And Jack screamed. They screamed together. Together as one. And the bright white light engulfed them, surrounded them and swallowed them up.