Bertie and the Hairdresser Who Ruled the World by Mike A Vickers

are.’
    â€˜Give her time. She has the gift. I know she doesn’t like to go up to the Hall, but see if she can help. Meanwhile, I will try to keep Timbrill under observation whenever he’s in London, but my feet aren’t so good nowadays. Thank heavens he’s a man of disturbingly regular habits so I don’t have to walk very far to find him.’
    â€˜You don’t have to do this.’
    â€˜I’m still a Sister, Gaia. I have my duty.’
    â€˜Alice, please come home,’ pleaded Doreen softly. ‘We all miss you so much.’
    There was a long silence. ‘I can’t, Doreen. I just – can’t,’ she whispered, voice wavering. ‘Please, don’t ask …’
    The phone went dead.
    Doreen slipped the receiver back on its cradle and stared at Sandra. ‘Someone’s attempted to corrupt James Timbrill.’ She recounted the conversation in full. Sandra and Maggie listened intently.
    â€˜Alice won’t return, then?’
    â€˜No. She doesn’t think she needs any help.’
    â€˜How did she sound?’
    â€˜Tired. Thankfully, not so crazy.’
    â€˜We could find her, you know. If she’s tailing Timbrill, we could do the same. Our paths are bound to cross.’
    â€˜And then what? Forcibly detain her? There’s no easy answer. I’m just glad she’s still alive. That’s the first word from her in nearly three years.’ Doreen looked at Maggie. ‘What do you think, Mags?’
    â€˜She’s right. We must to go to Temple Hall,’ said Maggie. ‘The Ninja always disturbs me. I need to take a look, see if anything comes to me.’ A young woman in her early twenties, Maggie was slight of build, with spiked pink hair and a nostril stud. She wore dark eyeshadow to give a little depth to her wan face. Punk still ruled in Chipping Sodbury, even though it had swept through the rest of the country decades ago. It was the sort of place that set its own trends.
    Despite her apparent lowly position at the salon, Maggie was a critical figure in the Sisterhood. She was Doreen’s Pythia, her priestess and oracle, a position previously held by Alice until her breakdown. Because of this, Maggie had been thrust into the position prematurely, and openly acknowledged she was unprepared, but the Sisterhood had never been without an oracle and Doreen needed guidance. She felt a great deal of sympathy for her predecessor and was very conscious of the psychological pressures, but Alice was by far a more capable psychic – and therefore more susceptible to instability.
    Helen herself had lived in an age where much store was laid on the mystical power of the Gods and the complex relationships between themselves and mankind. Oracles were valued above kings, so she naturally wanted to ensure the newly-formed Sisterhood was well provisioned in that direction. The inclusion of a Pythia at the heart of the Sisterhood had become an unshakeable tradition over the centuries and to simply discard such a tradition for the mere sake of modernity was unthinkable, even though today’s society now almost totally rejected the unscientific notion of prophesy as hippy-dippy, a bit suspect, even a complete load of old mumbo-jumbo. Can’t get an app, you see.
    But for all that, it still worked.
    The following morning found them driving slowly through the Cotswold village of Temple Guiting. Maggie peered out of the window. ‘I see Mrs Jenkins has castrated her laburnum again,’ she said absently. ‘The poor thing’s sure to die now.’
    â€˜Still hacking off the good growth and leaving the canker?’
    â€˜Uh-huh. It’ll be down this winter or I’m Carmen Miranda.’
    â€˜She’ll be upset,’ said Doreen, craning her neck as they passed the doomed tree. Or large stick, to be more accurate. ‘But I’d like to see you with a fruit bowl on your head,’ she added.