Chapter 6: An Overheard Conversation
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"They literally have skeletons in their figurative closet," Donna replied. "Abeit skeleton effigies."
"Do effigies even have skeletons?" Jamie asked.
Donna shrugged.
The three carried on talking and eventually made their way back to the TARDIS, where they went to their rooms (Jamie went to a guest room the TARDIS had set up especially for him) and slept for the rest of the night, waiting for what the next day would bring.
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The next day, Donna was left alone, as she had been the day before. Jamie and the Doctor were off working at the Grove's restaurant café which left Donna to her own devices. Since she hadn't done any investigating on her own the day before (since she had traveled in time to when it was night), she decided to do that today. So before exiting the TARDIS, Donna made sure to place the perception filter around her neck before stepping outside. The air was warm, so Donna took off the jacket she had put on, just in case, and tossed it inside the TARDIS before closing the door completely. Then, she took off, making her way through the trees, taking care not to make any noise.
Donna decided to head for the stone statue of the owl that she, Jamie, and the Doctor had discovered the night before. She had sensed something odd about it. Whether it be her new Time Lady senses or just plain women's intuition, something about it had seemed not quite what it appeared. As Donna walked under the canopy of so many tree branches, she took the time to enjoy what there was of her surroundings. Granted, the air was rather warm, but there was a pleasant breeze that wended its way through the trees; the rustling of branches could be heard as well as the tweets of birds up above. Donna only hoped none of the birds decided to use her head as target practice.
Donna reached the owl unscathed. There were some workers at the owl currently, so Donna stood back in the shadows for a bit to let them get on with their business. Once they were finished, however, and had hopped into their vehicles and left, Donna walked across the stage, pausing once to dip her hands into the cool, refreshing water. She reached the owl and paused for a moment, examining it, before walking round its base.
As she walked round the base, Donna noticed what looked like a door, facing the back of the stage. Weird, for from any other angle the owl looked to be made of solid stone; but nevertheless, Donna pulled open the door after unlocking it with her sonic lipstick and went inside. Not knowing what to expect, Donna was therefore unsurprised to see nothing of much value inside the owl's base. All it appeared to be was a place for storage; probably to store supplies and things of that nature for the ceremony.
Donna shrugged her shoulders and was at the point of walking back outside when she noticed what looked like a few strands of long, blonde hair.
"Weird," Donna muttered to herself. She knelt down, took out her sonic lipstick and pointed it at the hairs and clicked it on. Strange. They're female hairs, yet females aren't even allowed into the Grove.
Donna was startled out of her thoughts by the noise of someone approaching, so she dashed out of the room, closed the door at the owl's base as quickly as possible, then hid behind some nearby bushes to see what she could hear. For, of course, the man approaching seemed to be have a deep and important conversation on his mobile, and Donna intended to find out what it was and if it could be important the the investigation. Unfortunately, Donna was situated so that she could not see the man in question, but she was able to hear him quite clearly.
"Hey, it's me," the man's voice could be heard saying. "Any updates?"
There was a pause, during which Donna got a fraction of an inch closer.
"Of course I'm talking about her, you dimwit! I run things around here; don't ask me if I'm sure about something."
What on earth is he talking about? Donna thought.
Fortunately, the man said just what he was talking about not a few seconds later. "But since you seem to be so stupid, I'll enlighten you." Here, the man's voice became such that it seemed as though he was speaking to a slow, stupid child. "You remember the girl we caught snooping around inside the owl? She was blonde. When we "pressed" her for information, she gave us a bit of valuable information?... Yes, that's right. And in three days' time, she'll be taken care of; see if precious daddy comes running for her then."
At this point, Donna decided that she had heard enough and as she turned around and headed away from the stage and the owl, the man's voice grew louder and more tense, though Donna didn't want to wait and find out what was being said. She arrived at the TARDIS soon after and until the Doctor and Jamie appeared later that night, Donna went to her room, laid down on her bed, and thought about what she had overheard.
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While Donna was examining the owl statue, the Doctor and Jamie were doing their own investigation. Granted, they still had to do their jobs of waiting on tables, but while doing so, they were able to glean information from both their fellow co-workers in the safety of the kitchen and from overheard snatches, and sometimes told directly to them, from the patrons of the restaurant café.
When Jamie was taking orders from one of his tables, the conversation turned from what that day's specials were to the camp's activities that had been planned for the next few days.
"I don't know about you two," one man was saying to his two companions, "but I was thinking of taking a walk down to the river tomorrow, get a bit of fresh air, you know."
"As if we don't get enough fresh air, Neilson," laughed one of the two companions.
"I hear there's good fishing down there, Greene," Neilson defended himself.
"Try catching some of the fish for dinner," said Jamie. "I hear fresh-caught fish is most delicious."
"Yeah, true," said Greene. "But there's also some good swimming to be had. For example," and here, Greene clapped his hand onto the back of the third man at the table, "Maxwell here had quite a time at the river this time last year; at least, that's the word on the street."
"Oh really?" Jamie asked, curious. "What happened?"
Maxwell sighed. "All I did was go for a midnight swim, that's it."
"It wasn't just a midnight swim," said Neilson. "Didn't you sneak one of the girls from the front lot inside the grounds and skinny dip with her?"
Jamie's jaw dropped. "I thought females weren't allowed in the Grove?"
"They're not," Neilson replied. "But they are allowed to work as valet parkers in the front parking lots. But we're getting off-track."
"Yes, and I'd like to keep it that way," Maxwell muttered, to laughter from his two friends.
"Oh all right, you old windbag, have it your way," said Greene.
When the three men were done with their conversation, they glanced at the menus that lay before them and decided what they wanted, with the occasional tip from Jamie as to what might taste the most delicious. Finally, though, Jamie did take their orders, and immediately went to the kitchen to give the order to the chef.
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That night, after tables were finished being waited on and the restaurant had closed, Jamie and the Doctor made their way through the trees under the night sky and toward the TARDIS, where Donna was waiting. Once they arrived, the Doctor gave three smart knocks on the TARDIS door (for he had left his own TARDIS key with Donna, being that she would be inside already). It was a few seconds before Donna answered; the Doctor was on the point of knocking again when the door opened and Donna's face peered out.
"Finally!" the Doctor exclaimed. "What took you so long?"
"I was painting my toenails," Donna replied, and indeed, her toenails were now a pale pink color.
"Right," said the Doctor. "Are you going to stand there all night?"
"No need to be sharp, space man," Donna retorted, stepping away from the door.
"Sorry," the Doctor replied as he stepped over the threshold, followed shortly after by Jamie.
Donna closed the door behind them, and once Jamie and the Doctor had sat down on the seat in front of the console, they all exchanged news of what had gone on during the day. Jamie and the Doctor did not have much to tell, the only interesting tidbit was of Jamie's conversation with the three men earlier that day of females working at the Grove. After Jamie and the Doctor were finished telling their parts, Donna told them what she had learned during the day: about how the owl wasn't really solid, about what she had found inside, and about what had happened afterward.
""Well, I figured the owl couldn't be completely solid," said the Doctor. "Shortly after we came here, I heard something about fire or whatnot shooting out of the owl, and if it was solid, how could that happen?"
Donna nodded. "Very true."
"But one thing that intrigues me is the strands of hair you found," the Doctor continued.
"Aye," said Jamie.
"But what are we going to do about it?" Donna asked. "Especially that poor girl?"
The Doctor shrugged and shook his head. "I don't know. I'm afraid to think of what might happen."
"But what do you think will happen?"
"It's every possibility, considering what we've all learned about this encampment so far, that she will be brought out to be sacrificed in place of the effigy at the ceremony in three days."
Donna and Jamie looked horror-struck. "But that's horrible!" Donna said, aghast.
"It is," said the Doctor, looking equally disgusted. "It seems that whoever this man is, he's the boss of the camp. What else did he say?"
"Something about how her daddy will come running when he sees his daughter in danger."
The Doctor shuddered; he could only imagine how he might feel if it was his own daughter, Jenny, in that situation. But Jenny was dead, he had held her in his arms as she drew her last breath. Shaking this thought from his mind, the Doctor vowed to do what he could to save the daughter of this anonymous man; while he had lost his own daughter, the Doctor couldn't bear the thought of someone else going through the same thing.