The Man Made of Smoke

The narrative switches to John’s perspective. Aspinall has brought John to a farm-like space and chained him to a post in a pen. John now knows that Aspinall is James Palmer’s father, intent on punishing everyone who failed his son. John has trouble reconciling the mild-mannered Aspinall with the ruthless killer who butchered Rose and the others, but the mild-mannered man was the mask. John has been in the pen for so many days that he lost count of time. Aspinall doesn’t give him food, just water in a dog bowl. Today, Aspinall brought in Sarah and chained her in another pen. The sight of Sarah jolted John out of his stupor. He struggles against the post, noticing its slight give in the mud. He whispers to Sarah after Aspinall leaves, and her answering whisper assures him that she’s still alive. Calling himself an old man in his head, John forces himself to gather his energy and uproot the post.

Back in the present, Dan follows the camper deep into the forest and feels like he has entered an alternate world. There are only thick trees for miles until they reach a path leading to a clearing. The camper stops. Dan, a little distance away, gets out of the car, carrying the knife he took from John’s house, and walks toward the clearing. He can see fairy lights strung up on the trees, just like Johnson had described. The trees give way to a compound, with a broken-down building in the front and a series of cages and pens on the left. Dan’s stomach lurches as he sees a human shape in one of the pens. He recognizes Sarah. Dan fights his impulse to go to her, as that is exactly what the killer would expect him to do. Dan hears someone call his name and turns around. He expects the man in the mask, but it’s only Craig Aspinall. Before Dan can wonder what Aspinall is doing there, something hits his head hard.

John hears Aspinall say his son’s name and wakes up from his exhausted stupor after having managed to uproot the post. He watches as Aspinall hits Dan on the head with a blackjack (a weighted lead tool). Dan collapses. John wants to scream, but has no strength left. He watches as Aspinall turns Dan over, confiscates his knife, and drags Dan toward the pens. John realizes that the only reason Aspinall wants Dan alive is to make Dan watch as he kills John and Sarah. When Aspinall is close to John’s pen, John knows that he has a split second to act. Aspinall notices the hole in the ground, from where John has uprooted his post, and grows confused. In this moment, John forces himself to his feet and charges at Aspinall.

Dan wakes up disoriented and sees two men grappling with each other a few meters from him. It takes him a few moments to realize that the men are Aspinall and his father. Aspinall, on top of John, hits him with a knife. Before Aspinall can strike John again, Dan lunges at the men. He manages to wrest Aspinall off his father, but Aspinall flips Dan over and raises his knife. John swings the post against Aspinall’s head. Aspinall stumbles and rolls off Dan. John brings the post down again on Aspinall’s face, incapacitating him. Dan can hear the sounds of Aspinall trying to breathe through his broken face. The sounds are eerily close to whistling.

As the man walks toward James, James knows with clarity that he’s going to die. However, he’s no longer afraid of the man, whom he can now see is just an ordinary person with nondescript features. James might be losing the battle, but this doesn’t mean the man will win. James can see what the man yet cannot; the smoke from the fire that James set in the cellar before taking the keys. When the man reaches James and the other boy, James can see his mother smiling at him. He asks her if she’s proud of him. His mother replies affirmatively and asks James to come home to her.

The narrative switches to a present-day news report about Craig Aspinall pleading guilty to the murders of Oliver Hunter, Graham Lloyd, Rose Saunders, Darren Field, and Michael Johnson. The report quotes Detective Chief Inspector Frank Smith acknowledging ex-officer John Garvie’s contribution in catching Aspinall. However, Smith declines to comment on the reported discovery of more human remains in connection with the case.

On Aspinall’s request, Dan visits him in the prison where the older man is being held. Despite the awful things Aspinall did, Dan still regrets the injuries to the man’s face. His lower jaw has been surgically reattached but is misaligned with the rest of his face; scar tissue covers the lower half of his face. As he sits across a wide table from the handcuffed Aspinall, Dan reflects on his recent research on him. Aspinall grew up with an abusive father on Dan’s island. After he moved to the mainland, he had brushes with the law for drug use and escalating crimes. Much is unknown about his relationship with Abigail Palmer, but Dan can guess that Aspinall would have been volatile with her. They never married, and Aspinall was incarcerated on charges of robbery when James was five years old. Aspinall only learned that Abigail and James were gone after his release from prison. By this time, his father had died, leaving him his house on the island. Aspinall moved back, tending to the trails.

Now, Dan asks Aspinall about how he connected James’s disappearance with the Pied Piper case. Aspinall tells him that he became suspicious when he saw John visit Abigail’s grave; the suspicion was confirmed after John left Dan’s copy of The Man Made of Smoke in the graveyard. Aspinall read the book, saw a photo of the sketch based on Dan’s description, and made the connection. As Aspinall recounts the events, he grows angry at Dan, screaming that James is dead because of Dan. A guard steps in, but Dan waves him away. He tells Aspinall that he’s sorry for what happened to James, but it was never his fault. He was just a child who felt tremendous compassion for James but got spooked. Dan hands Aspinall’s copy of the book back to him. There is another item that Aspinall has requested, but Dan will return it after his final question.

Dan asks Aspinall how he found the compound, which the police had been unable to find all these years. Aspinall tells him that he roamed the countryside around where the Pied Piper was found for three years, looking for possible sites. One day, he was parked in the woods, where he felt James call out to him. He followed the voice, drove into the clearing, and knew instantly that this was the place where his son was killed. Dan thinks that Aspinall’s hunch was right since forensic investigation found the remains of four buried children, including James, in the compound. The ownership of the farmhouse was traced to William MacGuire, who inherited it from his father. No photos or documents were found of MacGuire, but Dan is sure that he was the Pied Piper killer. Dan now passes Aspinall his other requested item: a photocopy of the letter that James had written him the Christmas before he was taken. The letter has a sketch of two adults, a child, and a Christmas tree dotted with fairy lights.

Dan heads off to the cemetery where Abigail is buried to meet his father. John’s arm is still in a sling from Aspinall’s attack, and doctors have told him that he may never gain full mobility in the limb. Despite this fact, John looks happier, as if a burden has been lifted. The burial ceremony for James has just finished. Dan looks at the grave next to Abigail’s, the headstone bearing the inscription “We see. We care” (374). Dan places a stuffed lion, the closest thing he could find to Barnaby, on James’s grave.

Back at the island, John makes Dan dinner, after which Dan heads out to the pub to meet Sarah. Sarah has just finished a song. When she walks over to Dan’s table, Dan decides to let his vulnerabilities show and accepts Sarah’s earlier offer to sing a duet together.