A New Stone Unturned (first page preview)

Chapter One

Their Canadian trip should have been the holiday of a lifetime as the Stone family celebrated Daniel’s promotion to Detective Inspector at the Hillingdon police station. Unfortunately, memories of the holiday had the opposite effect, as on only the fourth day of enjoying the many exploits North Vancouver’s seaside had to offer in 1975, their whole world was thrown into chaos.

  

   Moments earlier on the beach, a relaxed and contented Daniel Stone stood up from his deckchair to take in the wonderful views of the ocean, his loving wife, Angela, and their two children; twins Scott and Jessica. He had to shadow his Casio watch from the sun, squinting to read the digits. ‘It’s gone six o’clock kids, time to go back to the hotel for something to eat,’ Daniel said with a smile. Angela slipped a bookmark into the book she was reading, and once they had gathered their towels and suntan lotion, they walked the short journey to where they were staying.

   Inside the hotel, Daniel looked up and blinked the sweat from his eyes. He saw the ceiling fan rotating at mid-speed and towelled his face dry before sitting down with his family. A nearby waiter handed Daniel a menu. ‘Mr. Stone, sir, would you like the BBC News on today?’ asked the waiter, knowing the preference of the guest over the past few days.

   ‘Yes, thank you,’ Daniel said before ordering and handing back the menu. The waiter walked to the wooden surround television, pressed a button on the side, and the picture and sound emerged onto the screen.

   Daniel Stone enjoyed keeping up-to-date with current affairs back home, and with his new position on the force his interest was keener still. He and Angela turned to the television, and for fun, the children played games of whispering what they thought other diners were saying to each other at other tables.

   The food arrived, and as they began to eat, Daniel divided his attention between family discussion and what the Newsreader was saying. Once the current story had ended, the next grabbed Daniel’s complete attention. ‘Breaking news,’ the Newsreader announced as a picture of a blue bungalow was shown on the screen.

   ‘Can I, Dad? I really want to learn how to dance,’ Jessica said, excitedly. Daniel didn’t hear her. His gaze didn’t move from the television, and his head began to shake involuntarily.

   ‘What’s wrong, honey?’ asked Angela, intrigued. She turned to face the television and instantly recognised the bungalow. The broadcast from West Drayton, continued:

   ‘I’m stood outside the bungalow of Albert and Joyce Stone,’ the man said into a thin metal microphone in a volume to be heard over the police sirens bellowing behind him. ‘The couple were found dead this afternoon. Both had been tied back-to-back and stabbed multiple times in their kitchen. We’re seeking information from anyone who may have seen someone acting unusual, out of the ordinary, in or around the West Drayton area.’

   Angela reached out and held Daniel’s hands tightly, and tears swam down their faces as the story continued, showing a picture a Daniel’s parents.

   ‘That’s Grandma and Granddad,’ both Scott and Jessica said almost in unison. At eleven years of age they were old enough to understand what was happening; sadness took them. Daniel was choked, and his ability to speak seemed so far away; he simply closed his eyes and nodded. The hotel manager came running into the restaurant area.

‘Mr. Stone… Mr. Stone, there’s an urgent telephone call for you.’

The Boy Whose Tooth Fell Out

The boy whose tooth fell out

Sweet smells flowed from the kitchen to the dining room as Mrs Harrison added the finishing touches to the chocolate cake she was making. She put the cake on a tray, and smiled to herself as she picked it up – Mrs Harrison’s cake looked amazing!

   Mr Harrison was sat at the dinner table with their son, Oliver, who was five, and they were both very excited at the thought of eating the cake, and they both had big smiles on their faces when the cake was placed down on the table in front of them.

   Mrs Harrison sat down and handed Oliver a really big slice. ‘You did want a big piece of cake Oliver, didn’t you?’ she asked. She knew that Oliver liked chocolate cake, and was really surprised at how much cake he could eat. Oliver nodded his head, and soon had the cake on his plate. As his Mum and Dad began to talk about grown up things, which he thought was always very boring, he looked at the sweet piece of brown chocolate cake, and within a couple of minutes, he had eaten all of it; it tasted so good he had another slice.

   Oliver knew that one of his teeth was loose, as he had been pushing it backwards and forwards - like a swing - with his tongue for a little while, and just before his bedtime the tooth broke free and fell out. Oliver felt sad because he didn’t want to have a gap where his tooth used to be, but he quickly cheered up after his Mum said something to him: ‘Don’t worry son,’ she said. ‘It will grow back in no time, and you may get a visit from the tooth fairy tonight.’

   When it was seven o’clock, Oliver had to go to bed. He happily put his tooth under his pillow, and then his mum tucked him in so he was comfortable. She kissed him on his forehead before turning the light off and leaving his bedroom. Oliver heard his mum walk down the stairs, and as he looked around the bedroom walls and ceiling, Oliver felt a little bit scared as everything was dark. He was tired, and knew he should just close his eyes, like usual, and go to sleep, but he really wanted to see the tooth fairy. Oliver closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep, and to make sure he didn’t accidentally fall asleep, he started to count to the highest number he could think of. But, less than 30 minutes later Oliver did fall asleep, and if he slept until the morning he would never know if the tooth fairy came to leave some money under his pillow.

   Downstairs, Oliver’s Dad accidentally knocked over a cup of tea, and although he was asleep upstairs, the loud noise from the cup smashing on the kitchen floor made Oliver wake up. Oliver opened his eyes and saw that his bedroom was still very dark, and as he was still very tired, his eyes began to close again. But, before Oliver’s eyes had completely closed, something happened that made him more awake. He saw tiny silver pieces, like glitter, falling from the bottom of his window into his bedroom, and the more Oliver stared, the more the glittery pieces flowed in until all he could see was lots of sparkling silver in front on his eyes.

   As the silver glitter faded away, Oliver saw something with two wings flying close to him, and he had to rub his eyes to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. ‘You’re the tooth fairy,’ he said, smiling at how beautiful the tooth fairy looked all covered in glitter. She wasn’t very big, and not scary at all.

   ‘Yes I am, but… you should be asleep at this time of night,’ she said. Nearly every time the tooth fairy had to visit someone whose tooth had fallen out was in the middle of the night, and they would be asleep. She looked at Oliver and smiled. ‘I think you should try and go back to sleep,’ she suggested. Oliver just kept staring at her, wondering what she would do next.

   ‘I can’t go to sleep now, not when you’re in my bedroom. Do you want my tooth that fell out?’ he asked.

   ‘Yes please, that would be good. I know where it is. All the good children leave them in the same place,’ the tooth fairy said. Then she slipped her hand under Oliver’s pillow and picked up his tooth, put it in her bag, and then she handed Oliver a round shiny coin.

   ‘Thank you very much. I’ll save it up, and I’ll buy something really nice,’ Oliver said, with a big smile on his face - he was so happy!

   ‘You’re welcome,’ she said. ‘But, I really do have to go now, so you should go back to sleep.’ Oliver was too excited, and was wide-awake now thinking about what he could buy with his shiny coin. He thought for a moment, and then asked the tooth fairy where she lived. ‘I live a long way away, high up in the clouds,’ she said.

   ‘Can I see?’ Oliver asked. He had lots of energy now, and wanted to get out of bed to explorer and to play.

   ‘I’ve never been asked that before,’ she said, ‘but, if you promise to be a good boy, always, I’ll show you where I live.’

   ‘I don’t have an aeroplane, so how can I fly up to the clouds?’ Oliver asked, feeling a little bit sad because he thought that maybe he couldn’t get to where the tooth fairy lived.

   ‘It’s easy. All you have to do is hold on to my hand, and then we can use my fairy power to fly both of us,’ she said. Oliver reached out to hold on to the tooth fairies hand, and he found out that they were very small and very soft, and once he was holding on properly, Oliver saw his bedroom window open by itself – it was like magic, and he floated through the window so he was outside.

   Oliver held on tightly as he flew high above the trees and the houses, but he didn’t feel scared at all; he was trying to imagine what the tooth fairies house looked like. ‘We’re nearly there,’ the tooth fairy said, and only a minute later they slowed down and landed on a white cloud that was bigger than anything Oliver had ever seen. He thought he might fall through the cloud when the tooth fairy told him to let go of her hand, but when he realised he could walk on the cloud, he was really happy. ‘OK, here we are,’ she said.

   ‘I can’t see any houses,’ Oliver said, looking all around; he really wanted to see where her house was.

   ‘It’s not the same as the big house you live in,’ she said, smiling. ‘Wait here for a little while and I’ll get a ladder for you.’ Oliver couldn’t believe it when the tooth fairy flew into a large hole in the cloud, and then a ladder appeared for him to climb down into the middle of the cloud.

   Once Oliver had climbed down to the bottom of the ladder, he was quite shocked by what he saw. It wasn’t like his house at all. It was very small, and the walls were made from hundreds, or thousands, of teeth! ‘Are all of these teeth from people like me?’ Oliver asked.

   ‘Yes, I have to put them somewhere, so what tooth fairies do is they build their houses from teeth. I do make sure they’re all very clean,’ she said.

   ‘They do look really clean,’ Oliver said. He’d never seen so many teeth in one place before, and wherever he looked there were shiny white teeth. The tooth fairy thought that maybe Oliver was thirsty, as he had flown all the way from his house up to the clouds.

   ‘Let me get you something to drink. I only have milk though, which is very good for your teeth,’ the tooth fairy said. She poured Oliver a big glass of milk, which tasted really nice, and he drank all of it.

   ‘Are you going to have some milk too?’ Oliver asked.

   ‘Not today,’ she said as she opened a cupboard with more drinks inside. ‘I need some fairy juice so I can get you back home safely.’

   ‘What’s fairy juice?’ Oliver asked, as he’d never heard of it before.

   ‘It’s something all tooth fairies drink because it gives us special magical powers so we can fly to people who leave teeth under their pillows.

   ‘Can I have some? I wish I could fly, just like you,’ Oliver asked. He thought it would be so good if he could fly.

   ‘I’m sorry, but only fairies can drink the fairy juice. If you were to drink some I think you’d be very sick, so it would be better for you to drink milk,’ she said.

   ‘OK, I understand, and I really don’t want to get sick,’ Oliver said.

   Anyway young man, I think it’s about time for you to go back to your own house. I think you need to get some sleep or you’ll be very tired all day tomorrow,’ the tooth fairy said, feeling fully charged from drinking all of her fairy juice. Oliver felt a little bit sad, but he knew his house was much nicer, and there was more things to do at his house. ‘OK, I’m ready,’ he said, and then he turned around and climbed up the ladder to the top of the cloud.

  

   Oliver and the tooth fairy flew back down to the ground, and were soon going through his bedroom window. Oliver felt good when his feet touched his bedroom floor. He did enjoy his trip to the tooth fairies house, but it felt good to be home again. The tooth fairy looked at Oliver, as she wanted to give him some helpful advice: ‘Before I go, just promise me that you’ll always drink plenty of milk, and that you’ll be a good boy and always brush your teeth,’ she said.

   ‘Yes, I will, and thank you for letting me see your house,’ Oliver said.

   ‘You’re very welcome,’ the tooth fairy said before she flew out of his window and back up into the sky.

   After seeing the tooth fairy fly away, Oliver felt tired and went to bed with a smile on his face - he had a good nights sleep with his shiny coin in his pocket.