THE SENTINEL

THE SENTINEL  By Tessa Harvey     "There was a man sent from God whose name was John," mum had said long ago when John was five. She had crouched down, put her hands on his small shoulders and looked earnestly into his sea-blue eyes. "John means 'gracious gift.' You are a gift from God to us, son."     "When he got to school, John was relieved to find there were other boys called John. He was happy they were not called 'God's gifts,' and relieved to learn that no-one at school was special at all.     As he grew older, he began to believe a little bit in this God of a book called the Bible.     He read some songs with the funny name of "puh salms," then remembered other words sounded just as strange. A girl came to High School. Her name was Aine. It sounded like Anya. Her parents were Irish and Russian, but she looked like him!     When he was sent decades later to help this boy on the plateau in this odd place, it was like being a ...

 THE SENTINEL By Tessa Harvey     Abuse was abuse. But Mrs. Wintergarden was now on this strange plateau helping a poor defenseless boy.     From what Alistair could learn, the boy had learning difficulties. He wondered at that. Child prodigies were often difficult, supposedly. But the fact was that the timber wolf husband was now searching for his son. Only one woman and another child were in his path. --------------------------      Tony Smith was very angry. He had been watching the boy moving closer to the edge of the plateau as though to test his resolve. Tony knew that some people were drawn to heights and while most were repelled by the fear of falling, others were fascinated, though they would not risk a fall - unless ill.     Tony wanted vengeance. He thought he knew everything, having fooled the authorities for so long. He had been involved in a lucrative drug scam. Wily and smart, his operation had run as smoothly as an expens...

THE SENTINEL   By Tessa Harvey     Detective-superintendent Alistair Sutherland tapped his pen uneasily on his untidy desk. Nearing retirement he was a broad-shouldered, well-built man. His blue eyes were astute, though the fire of ginger on his thick hair was dying down a little.     He was puzzled. A message had been passed up the ranks to him. Far away was a small town, fairly nondescript, but on a nearby plateau odd events were linking themselves in his memory.....     A woman had been calling all the local hospitals and even in his own patch of the city. This lady with the unlikely name of Anemone Wintergarden fleeing from her abusive husband, had reached out to her two adult neighbours on this plateau, only to find an abandoned child. And she remembered grimly, the husband had pulled off a well-planned disappearance ten years ago.     Sources had told the senior police officer this man was back to his old nefarious activities. And, this...

THE SENTINEL  By Tessa Harvey     The younger police officer spotted the shoe first and signalled to her companion. He quickly came over, and as they shone torches around the area, they realised they were dealing with a possible murder. The victim was already icy cold and still, but one of them noticed a slight rise and fall in the fallen woman's chest.     Unwilling and inexperienced, both officers were reluctant to disturb a possible crime scene, but time was of the essence to save this young person's life.     One called for back-up and medical help, the officer who was more heavy-set took off his coat, lifted the woman, only a girl he thought with pity, and wrapped her tightly in his warm overcoat. They both held her close between them, lifting her away from the frozen ground.     Later they were accredited with saving her life and their senior officer commended them for their initiative and intelligence in not doggedly following arrest p...

THE SENTINEL   By Tessa Harvey     Eliza Schonbaum drove merrily for a long time feeling like a newly-fledged bird, but slowly a vague apprehension grew.     She tried the car radio but none of the music soothed her, seeming discordant and out of place.      As she approached the city, her disquiet grew. Seeing a scenic viewpoint approaching, the woman indicated and pulled off the highway. The view was marvellous, the mountains already snow-tipped on the distant high rocky outcrops. Streams shone silver in hesitant sunshine, casquading downwards, their purpose sure.     Eliza liked the small town near her home, a village really, and the distant vista drew an old bitterness of loss. Her husband Karl had disappeared, lost from an almost indistinguishable hiking trail. She had followed it for days - searching, searching until overcome with exhaustion she had fled for refuse to the plateau.     Had she hurt her children? Sylvia had...

THE SENTINEL  By Tessa Harvey     The   nights were now the worst for Theodor. The creatures he loved and watched were mostly asleep. The boy knew the owls. He was not afraid of the tiny bats. One came in the small house by mistake one evening. It settled in his mum's shower cap, but the blue flowers were only plastic. Slowly, carefully his mother wrapped the baby bat inside the shower cap.     He was very quiet, the little one, and so was Theodor. They went outside. This time his mother closed the door her son had left ajar. Mother and child opened the shower cap and stood back, softly. Theodor was only six, but he heard a high faint squeak, then an answer and the bat was suddenly gone in the cascading darkness.     His mother could hear the stillness when he was thinking of going out without asking, but she could no longer hear the bats - at least not very much.     Sylvia could not think straight. I must have had far too much to dri...

THE SENTINEL  By Tessa Harvey     The boy stood at the very edge of the sheer crag dominating the valley below. He was much closer to the edge than he had ever been allowed before.  But tomorrow he was ten years old. His mother had said, her grey eyes flashing with excitement: "You will be ten years old! Think of that, Theodor. Double digits. Ten!"     Her joy and enthusiasm had propelled her out the door and so she had flown down the long arrow-straight road that led across the valley floor to the far-distant town.     "Something special!" she had trilled like one of the little wrens clustered in large families in people-high bushes, very mobile and busy birds.     But the boy had been watching three days. Mum had not come.     "Sylvie will be home in an hour. You will not be alone long, son." Mum had hugged him and then there was no-one. Sylvia, his big sister, who did not at all like him had also vanished. So he waited and w...