The Mysteries of Brambly Hollow

impact. “And, did you know he has a rifle?” Meli fired again, unprepared when this remark backfired and struck terror in her too. Until that moment, she had forgotten all about the rifle. So now there was a choice. They could either be blasted into tiny pieces or burned to crisps? Personally, she didn’t fancy either, in fact she wasn’t ready to die.
    “And where would he get a rifle from?” Bill was so close now that she could feel his hot breath blasting on her cheeks, and she tried not to flinch under the ferocious stench that rose up from his empty stomach and smelled like he’d brushed his teeth with dog turds. Hers probably had a similar aroma.
    “Elsa had one. I saw it once in her hallway, then it was in that cupboard the other day,” she jerked her thumb over her shoulder, “but now it’s gone. So, unless Elsa sawed her way out of her coffin, clawed her way up through four feet of soil and walked barefoot on decomposing legs across two miles of fields to come and get it, then it’s a pretty safe bet that Finn has it.” Green eyes gleaming with victory, they defied him to dispute her perfectly sound female logic.
    Lifting both hands, Bill wrapped his head in them tightly and let out a long groan, with the resonance of a grizzly with severe toothache. “I don’t know what’s worse.” His stifled voice emerged. “Being shut in here with Miss Crabby, listening to her stupid prattling, or this headache.” Privately, Meli suspected that she came top of the list. Letting his arms fall, he hoisted a pair of jaded eyes from the ground to gaze at her, the overhead lighting emphasising the rucked sacks hanging beneath them. “Elsa did have a rifle,” he conceded. “But Finn wouldn’t know how to shoot one.” His voice was emphatic, boding no argument.
    “Well,” Meli snorted superciliously down both nostrils. “One of them used it on SS.” Bill’s tetchy look took a fleeting holiday as his features scrunched up in puzzlement. “SS was a squirrel who lived in the garden, until one evening someone blew him into Kingdom Come.”
    “This just gets better,” Bill groaned again, his shoulders sagging as though someone had just dumped a sack of rice on them. Even the shadows were retreating from the verbal battering, fleeing from his features, as they headed back to their corners, leaving his complexion an ashen grey.
    “Your son is a menace, and he should be locked away. I think he killed Elsa. Oh, maybe not intentionally,” she granted with a brusque flick of her hand when Bill opened his mouth to protest. “But there was blood in one of the barns on the day I found Elsa. Don’t you think it is in the least bit possible that if he’d been fighting with Elsa, he could have smacked her on the head in anger? He’s strong as an ox, we’ve both been victim to that.” Bill only stared at her unblinking. “To think that he befriended my sons. He could have killed them. He might be going to kill us,” her voice pitched with mounting panic. She could almost feel the heat from the imaginary flames blistering her skin. “He still might, if he isn’t stopped.”
    Unexpectedly, Bill lay a placating hand on her arm, as if sensing that Meli was on the verge of having a very hysterical breakdown. Even more unexpectedly, Meli didn’t feel the urge to flatten him for daring to touch her. She craved companionship, the reassurance of another human being, and unfortunately, as Bill was the sole candidate, he would have to do. She felt her animosity dissolve away like jelly cubes in boiling water.
    “The twins are safe Meli. Finn is probably hovering somewhere nearby. Let me try talking to him again.” Peeling back his thin lips, he bared his teeth in an encouraging if awkward smile that resembled a sparrow trying to pass a square ostrich egg, almost embarrassed by the sudden procreation of camaraderie that was developing between them.
    Meli found herself nodding. She tried to swallow, but only succeeded in secreting a thick, slug-like globule of phlegm that struggled to slither down her swollen throat. He hadn’t refuted nor made any reference to her comment about Finn killing them. She tried not to read too much into the omission, it was undoubtedly just an oversight in the heat of the moment.
    “You just sit down, and leave this to me.” With an unusual display of meekness, Meli obeyed him.
    Lifting her feet from the floor, Meli hugged her knees and listened to Bill wasting his breath as he