'Look, the police will be here shortly. I am sure they're capable of sorting this out. Now if you wouldn't mind…'
'Anyone who appeared drunk? Or slow?' Blackbird persisted.
'No, now look, I really… What do you mean, drunk?'
'Someone that slurred their words and seemed uncoordinated, maybe?' I suggested.
'Anyone asking about the ceremony?' Blackbird added.
Claire looked between the two of us. We suddenly had her attention.
'There have been phone calls, just recently,' she told us, 'that sounded as if the person calling were drunk. I put them down as prank calls.'
'Did the person sound is if they were calling internationally, over a long distance?' Blackbird asked.
'What do you know about this?' Claire demanded.
Blackbird ignored the question. 'Did they ask about the ceremony?'
'Oh God, the ceremony.' Claire ran her fingers back through her hair in an unconscious gesture. 'Well, hopefully he'll have turned up by then. We can put it back a day or two, but-'
'But it must go ahead,' Blackbird finished for her.
She gave Blackbird a very direct look but confirmed it. 'The ceremony will have to go ahead, regardless. It's been a continuous unbroken sequence for centuries. Now I really am sorry, but that is as much time as I can spare you right now. If you'd like to come back when His Lordship is here then perhaps he will spare you the time to go through this with you, but in the circumstances I'm sure you can see that we have other priorities.'
I suspected she knew more, but she had no reason to tell us anything..
'Marcie said that we might come to the ceremony. Is that still possible?'
'Yes, it was originally planned for next Tuesday but the date may change now, of course. If you contact reception at the beginning of next week, they should be able to confirm dates by then.'
'Can you arrange another Remembrancer by then?' Blackbird queried.
'Hopefully we won't need to.'
Blackbird looked at me and then at Claire. 'I think you may need to arrange a substitute.'
'I get the impression that you two know more about this than you're letting on.' She gave Blackbird a steely stare, but Blackbird was a match for her.
'Likewise,' she answered.
'Would it help,' I offered, 'if I said that we'll do anything we can to assist?'
'Thank you, but unless you know where His Lordship is, I don't think you can help.'
We had reached stalemate. She wasn't going to budge, even though I was sure there was more she could tell us. Something had to shift, and it wasn't going to be her.
Blackbird turned to me. 'I don't think there's any more we can do here. The ceremony will go ahead with or without the Remembrancer.'
'But the worm?'
Blackbird shrugged. 'Ms Radisson, the police aren't going to be able to help you. If you want to find your Remembrancer then you're going to have to trust us.'
'I don't have to trust anyone,' she said firmly.
'Very well,' said Blackbird. 'Come on Niall, we have things to do.'
'But what about the worm?' I said.
'I can't make her help us. Come on.'
She walked out of the office. I gave Claire a helpless look and followed. I caught up with her in the corridor.
'Where are we going? We need to know what's wrong with the ceremony.'
'Don't worry,' she said quietly. 'She'll call us back by the time we reach the stairs.'
We reached the stairs and looked back. There was no sign of Claire.
'Maybe we should go back?'
'Maybe that isn't your path,' Blackbird said, and took the stairs down.
I followed her down into the vaulted hall below and we headed for the exit.
'Do you have a plan? Is there another way to find out?'
'We need to look for the next part of your vision. With that we can move forward.'
'I don't even know which is the next part. It could be any of them.'
'We're not getting anywhere with her. There must be another way.' We went through the exit gate, back out through the high stone doorway into the sunshine.
'So where now?'
As we exited into the road, one of the security guards came through the entrance and called after us. 'Excuse me? Sorry, were you with Miss Radisson a moment ago?'
We stopped. 'We were,' said Blackbird.
'She called down. She says you left something in her office.'
'Did she? Then I guess we'd better come back for it.' Blackbird smiled at me. 'Told you.'
'You weren't sure,' I said to her, but she just smiled.
We repeated the ritual with the scanners and then made our way back up to Claire's office. She was waiting for us.
'Perhaps,' she said, 'we could try again?'
'That depends on whether you can help us,' Blackbird said, 'so that we can help you.'
'If there's something you know, something that could help us find Jerry, I would like to know it.'
'Let's go back to the phone calls,' said Blackbird. 'They have a hollow quality, as if the speaker is in a large room, or on speaker-phone, don't they?'
Claire's expression didn't change.
'The speaker's voice is strange and slurred, drunk even, and there's a delay, like on international long distance.'
She still didn't say anything.
'There's something about them that doesn't sound like a phone call. The etiquette is all wrong. How am I doing?'
'Go on,' she allowed.
'These aren't the normal enquiries — 'Would His Lordship be available for such and such a date or this or that event?' — these are odd calls, as if the caller isn't used to telephones.'
Claire cleared her throat. 'The first time it happened, it completely caught me out. It was Monday, I think, and we were dreadfully busy. I picked up the phone and said hello. It was an internal number, you see?' She glanced at the phone on her desk.
'The caller asked, 'What does the Remembrancer remember?' There was no greeting, just the question. I think I said 'I beg your pardon?' and the caller said, 'What does he want?' They slurred their esses and it was difficult to understand them. I said 'What does who want?' wondering whether they were drunk. The caller said, 'The Remembrancer, what does he want?' I asked them who was calling and they put the phone down. The thing was, right through the call, there was an engaged tone in the background as if the lines were crossed. I put it down to a fault on the line.'
'But it happened again,' Blackbird prompted.
'This time it was another voice, more confident and not slurred, but still odd. It was another internal call so I just picked up the phone and said 'Claire speaking' and the caller laughed, like it was funny.'
I looked at Blackbird, but she was focused on Claire.
'The voice said 'The ceremony is cancelled this year, Claire.' I knew it was the same kind of thing because the engaged tone was in the background again, so I said 'Who is this?' The laughter started again and then something was wrong with the power because the lights went dim as if the voltage had dropped. I slammed the phone down.'
'And the lights came back on?' Blackbird suggested.
She nodded.
'That's just as well. What happened then?'
'I asked Marcie to trace the call. It was obviously somebody playing pranks, but I didn't think it was funny. All
