When the Bells Fell Silent: A Bondy Adventure

By Peter Garner

The bells ring out for Christmas, but Denise is deaf to their message.
Call me Den, she said. It was best to do what she said. The gang always did - she could use a knife! Then she met Mary!

The Red Kite circles over the forest, its plaintive cry echoing hauntingly.

Barry is lost in a desperate silence, trapped in his own emptiness.
Then he meets Bondy and the Red Kite!

Youll be hanging by your finger ends and holding your breath as James (Bondy), and Mary tackle the gang leaders.

Then the bells fall silent.

What will the silence bring?

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Sep 5, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477218273

Peter Garner

The author is a former Comprehensive School teacher who has been involved with young people for most of his adult life. He has led youth clubs and worked as a leader in youth camps and youth holidays. He has written in a series of “Camp Talks” for young people. Born in north Wales and educated at Grove Park Grammar School Wrexham, he subsequently studied at Manchester University. He now lives with his wife in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, writing novels for children and young adults. His hero VINCE in this novel is a departure from his earlier series of BONDY thrillers. These are, in order of publication: THE CAVE; HIDDEN CITY; WHEN THE BELLS FELL SILENT; FACE OF EVIL and NIGHT OF THE SHADOW - all available from Author House.

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© 2012 by PETER GARNER. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 08/24/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4772-1828-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-1827-3 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

PART ONE

THE RINGING BELL

Chapter 1. A Girl Called Den

Chapter 2. Mary Meets Den!

Chapter 3. Game On!

Chapter 4. What Is It With That Posh Girl?

Chapter 5. The Funeral Bell

Chapter 6. The Quarry

Chapter 7. A Walk In Space?

Chapter 8. I Wouldn’t Do That If I Were You!

Chapter 9. Christmas Bells

PART TWO

THE SILENT ECHO.

Chapter 1. Barry.

Chapter 2. Barry, Bondy And The Red Kites!

Chapter 3. Red Kites In Danger!

Chapter 4. A Time For Reflection?

Chapter 5. She’s Got Loads Of Money!

Chapter 6. Stick Gets A Fright!

Chapter 7. Where’s My Knife!?

Chapter 8. After The Silence… .

Other books by this author in the Bondy series:

THE CAVE

HIDDEN CITY

PART ONE

THE RINGING BELL

She was standing outside the window of the small bungalow. She could see through the slightly parted curtain. There was no one around and anyway it was late; it was very dark. The only light came from the street lamp on the corner—and that was on the blink! That suited her. No one could see her.

That old bag, the Granny inside the flat, had a load of money. It was definitely in the house. She’d seen it once—she was sure of it! Easy pickings—just needed to wait for the right time. She could wait—well, for now anyway. Stupid woman! All alone!

She recalled the Beatle song—what was it? All the lonely people… . Well so what? The old dear didn’t need the money anyway—too old to do anything with it. Somebody else should have it—someone who could make good use of it. That’s me!

She turned away from the window and walked casually up the little path and onto the street.

All the lonely people

The tune and the words slipped into her mind, kind of buzzing round in her head.

She laughed at the thought of the old woman. But then as she made her way across the street, it suddenly hit her. It almost stopped her in her tracks. Was she one of those lonely people? She laughed again. She wasn’t lonely—she had the gang. It was her gang and they all respected her, didn’t cross her—they daren’t!

But somehow the question wouldn’t go away and later that night as she settled down to sleep, the tune and the words just kept echoing round in her mind. She didn’t sleep too well that night! She woke after a restless night to the sound of bells ringing.

Christmas—huh! What’s Christmas all about! Don’t give me that Jesus stuff. Just give me booze and plenty of it. Ding dong, ding dong—no thanks!

The bells kept ringing and ringing. She wondered why they had to keep on so long. She wished they would shut up. She could listen to music blasting away on her headphones all day, but not this stuff!

Now her head was full of a mixture of ding dong and All the lonely people.

Oh shut up will you!

Suddenly the bells fell silent and all was quiet. Then the silence hit her—right below the belt, in the pit of her stomach.

What was that other song—a really old one. Her mum used to like it. What was it called? Oh yes . . . . The Sound of Silence, that was it. Her mum . . . . .

And now she could hear the sound of silence and suddenly she felt very lonely.

CHAPTER 1

A GIRL CALLED DEN

You didn’t say Happy Christmas to Denise! You’d probably get a smack in the mouth! You didn’t call her Denise either—she liked being called Den. It was best to do what she liked; she had a short fuse!

Besides, what was happy about Christmas for Den?—nothing really. Happy was not a word often found in her vocabulary. Happiness was not something she experienced often, if at all.

It wasn’t something she much cared about with regard to other people either. Why should they be happy when she wasn’t? Why should anybody be happy? Den didn’t do happy! Not that she would ever admit to not being happy. She smiled sometimes, but not a lot. Sometimes she smiled at other people’s misfortune. She had this great, loud, raucous laugh that burst out of her like lava from an erupting volcano. It often ended in a bout of violent coughing—she smoked too much.

There wasn’t much real laughter when Den was around; fun to her usually ended in someone getting hurt—either physically or psychologically. Still, who cared? Certainly not Den!

It was Christmas and the bells were ringing and the merry songs were being played in the supermarkets and in the streets of the town in north Wales where she lived, but it didn’t mean much for Den—not now and especially not since her mother died.

For Mary, Bondy’s friend, it was different;

Ding dong merrily on high,

rang out the Christmas message in the local supermarket. It was the Christmas school holidays and Mary was doing a bit of Christmas shopping. James was away at relatives in Anglesey with his parents and wouldn’t be back till Boxing Day. She was getting a few things for the youth club Christmas party; she was looking forward to that, though it was hard work at times! James was disappointed to miss it but the annual visit to aunt, uncle and cousins in Anglesey was quite enjoyable and he felt he owed it to his parents to be there. He got on okay with his cousins; a boy and a girl a bit younger than himself, but good company and good fun.

Yes, it was hard work at the youth club! The youngsters from Toby’s estate could be a real handful. No major problems, because Dave and Sid, the leaders, kept things in order; but they were so undisciplined! Presumably never been taught it at home and found it hard to get used to. But they were a great crowd and she enjoyed helping and joining in.

She was also learning an awful lot from the whole experience and she was learning a lot from Dave in particular. She was keen on sports of all kinds and Dave had taken a select few—of the more responsible ones—to do a bit of climbing. Mary loved it!

Her dad had done a little of that sort of thing with her, but he was too busy with his work and they had not progressed far. It was still only the basics with Dave but it was much further on than she had done before. No great heights and no ropes or anything like that; just about getting proper hand grips and foot holds and learning how to negotiate a rock face; how to position the body correctly and when to take the weight on hands or feet, and so on. They were hoping to raise funds for the youth club to have a climbing wall put in for them to practise the basics indoors. Mary felt really proud and pleased with herself because Dave had been impressed with her progress and had said she was a natural.

Another thing that had happened which Mary was pleased about, was her friendship with Trish. That’s what they called her—presumably her name was Patricia really, but when Mary had asked her she had just replied,

Nah just Trish. So Trish it was!

Trish was twelve years old, though physically you could have taken her for a couple of years older than that. She was another youngster with a very difficult and complex home background—there were so many! She’d been born to a mum who had a major alcohol problem and was incapable of caring for her. Her dad had left them both some time ago, unable to cope with it all—she only saw him very occasionally. The result was she’d been from one set of foster parents to another and never settled. She was now with her latest placement and as she had said to Mary,

Things are looking better, but don’t ‘old yer breath!

Mary liked her. In her way she was very honest even though she told some shocking lies! There was an underlying honesty and frankness which was quite refreshing.

She’d learned in the hard school of life to