The Question Left Behind

The Committee in the Rain

The Jacks had the Oak almost to themselves that afternoon. Rain blew through its upper branches, and Mr Jack Daw’s cousin appointed himself keeper of the dry side.

“There isn’t a dry side,” said Mr Jack Daw.

“Then I am doing exceptionally well under the circumstances.”

The committee spent several hours discussing Gary’s remark that Stirling had listened to him. Nobody knew what had been said. This did not prevent three versions of the conversation from circulating before the weather cleared.

As evening closed in, Batman Smith emerged from the hedge to ask whether the investigation had made progress.

“We have eliminated several possibilities,” said the cousin.

“Which ones?”

“The ones we thought of yesterday.”

Batman went home before he could be given a position on the committee.

Across the Family Boundary

The Square emptied. Long after its busybodies had run out of daylight, Marlboro took her place beyond the family boundary. The wind had eased, and nothing interrupted her. She surveyed her own trees with the satisfaction of an owl who had survived a whole night without being told where she ought to live.

Later, when the darkness was colder and quieter, she returned to the edge of her garden. She had no reason to go farther. She made certain the other side understood this.

For a time nobody answered. Then Marjorie appeared beyond the boundary.

“I thought you preferred it when I kept my distance,” Marjorie said.

“I do. You can still hear me from there.”

Marjorie remained where she was. Marlboro refused to move back among her trees.

“Is it working?” Marjorie asked.

“What?”

“Your place.”

Marlboro glanced back at her trees. “I was beginning to think you wouldn’t ask.”

“Would you have answered?”

“Yes,” said Marlboro. “It is.”

“Good.”

“You could sound pleased.”

“I am pleased.”

“You sound as though you’re checking I haven’t crossed over.”

“I can manage both.”

Marlboro nearly laughed. Marjorie almost let her see that she had noticed. The two of them remained on opposite sides, with enough space between them for both to keep their dignity. When Marlboro returned to her trees, Marjorie stayed a while longer. Then she left her daughter the dawn.

Breakfast First

Steve was already awake when Mrs Steve found him on the Fruit Tree. He had been watching the Jacks arrive and was preparing an account of everything they had done wrong.

“Have breakfast first,” she said.

“It may be urgent.”

“Then you’ll need your strength.”

Brenda worked through the hedge beneath them. Batman and several Robins emerged into the chilly morning with their usual determination to be heard. By the time Mildred reached the Vegetable Garden, the Jacks had filled the Oak again. Clive passed through their branches without accepting an invitation to join the inquiry.

Across the Garden

Gary arrived while the committee was still deciding what to ask him. He settled where they could all see him, which the cousin described as suspiciously confident.

Then Stirling’s squad appeared below.

For a moment Gary and the Lieutenant Colonel watched one another across the garden. Stirling sent two squirrels past the Vegetable Garden and remained where he could see the Oak.

“You could come up,” Gary called.

“You could come down.”

“I was here first.”

“I noticed,” said Stirling.

He moved off before Gary could decide whether that was an accusation. The cousin immediately tried to follow him, but Mr Jack Daw caught him by the tail feathers.

“You heard every word,” he said. “There were only four.”

Gary stayed through the brighter part of the morning, appearing in one corner of the Square and then another. Whenever the squirrels returned, he seemed to have business somewhere just out of their way. Stirling was no less careful. Neither gave the Jacks a conversation they could safely repeat.

The Squad Searches

Mortimer crossed above the Oak later. He found the cousin attempting to organise the committee into witnesses and declined to become one.

Before noon, Stirling’s squad suddenly made a thorough business of the garden. They crossed the lawn and worked the Vegetable Garden while the Jacks watched from above. Gary was nowhere in sight. When the last squirrel had gone, Mr Jack Daw’s cousin announced that the operation had produced a result.

“Did you see one?” Mr Jack Daw asked.

“No. That is what makes it important.”

Once the paths were quiet, Derek came up the Oak by his own route, ignored Batman’s objection to it, and carried on.

The Question Left Behind

Gary returned after the garden had fallen quiet. He looked down at the paths the squad had used, then up at Mr Jack Daw.

“Did Stirling say anything?”

“Not to me.”

The cousin shuffled closer. “He did ask something before he left.”

Gary waited.

“He asked,” said the cousin, unusually careful with another bird’s words, “whether you had told him everything you lost.”

Gary looked towards the place beyond the Square where his old territory lay. For once, even the cousin knew better than to improve the silence.

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