Simon Green - The Dark Side of the Road

Leilah came forward, to stand before her husband. ‘You’ve never had to do that before.’

‘Neither have you,’ said Jeeves. ‘I will spare you that, if I can. So; guard the guests while we’re gone. Don’t take any nonsense from them. And avenge me if I don’t come back.’

‘Come back,’ said Leilah.

While they were talking, Penny gave me a hard look, so I went over to stand with her. She’d turned away from her mother’s body, so she wouldn’t have to look at it. She met my gaze steadily. ‘Why can’t I go with you? I thought we made a pretty good team.’

‘We do,’ I said. ‘As detectives. But this is killing business, now. You have no experience in that area, and trust me, you’re better off without it.’

‘So what am I supposed to do? Just … stand around, wringing my hands, till you come back? Or until it’s clear you won’t be coming back? I need to do something, Ishmael!’

‘Leilah can’t guard this room on her own,’ I said quietly. ‘If Jeeves and I can’t find Sylvia, if she slips past us, she will come back here. She wants everyone dead. For revenge; for defying her … and to ensure there are no witnesses. So; you work with Leilah and Khan to make this room safe, so Jeeves and I don’t have to worry about you while we’re gone. Can you do that?’

‘Of course I can,’ said Penny. ‘If you don’t come back … I will avenge you, Ishmael. I will hammer a stake through that bitch’s rotten heart and spit in her eyes as she dies.’

‘Of course you will,’ I said. ‘Wouldn’t expect anything less.’

‘And afterwards?’ said Penny. ‘If there is an afterwards? What about you and me? Could you use a new partner?’

‘I usually work alone,’ I said. ‘It’s safer that way. For me and for everyone else. I walk the dark side of the road, Penny. I live alone because I hurt fewer people that way.’

‘That’s no way to live,’ said Penny.

She took me in her arms, and we held each other for a long moment.

In the end I let go of her and pushed her gently away. ‘There will be time to talk of many things afterwards,’ I said. ‘But right now I have a job to do.’

‘Kill the bitch,’ said Penny. ‘And afterwards, I’ll show you what living is all about.’

‘Well,’ I said. ‘It’s always good to have something to look forward to.’

I turned away, to talk with Jeeves, but Khan intercepted me. He stood in my way and looked me over carefully, as though searching for signs he should have spotted before. And then he smiled briefly, uncertainly.

‘Look at you,’ he said. ‘When we first met we were both the same age. Now I’ve grown older, and you haven’t aged a day. All those years working together, for Black Heir, and I never even suspected that you’re … What are you, Ishmael? Really? Your name was Daniel when I knew you, thirty years ago, but I don’t feel right calling you that now. Daniel wasn’t real; but then, I suppose Ishmael isn’t either. What are you?’

‘In a hurry, Alex,’ I said. ‘I have work to do.’

‘I could come with you,’ said Khan. ‘I had the same training you did, at Black Heir.’

‘You were a paper-shuffler,’ I said, as kindly as I could. ‘The one time you worked with me in the field, in Moscow, you hated it. Couldn’t wait to get home. I need you here, helping barricade this room and make it safe. Sylvia may be a supernatural creature, but she still has physical limitations. You can keep her out, if you work at it.’

‘And afterwards?’ said Khan. ‘What’s to stop me telling everyone about you?’

‘Who would you tell?’ I said. ‘Daniel disappeared from Black Heir, and Ishmael will disappear from Belcourt Manor. And if you start talking wildly about vampires and aliens … They’ll put you away.’

Khan nodded reluctantly. ‘Who do you work for now, Ishmael? Who did James work for?’

‘The Organization,’ I said. ‘And now you know as much as I do.’

I went back to join Jeeves, who was standing in the open doorway, looking out into the hall. It all seemed quiet enough. Behind me I could hear Penny and Leilah and Khan quietly planning their defence of the drawing room. I looked at Jeeves. ‘Are you ready?’

‘Not really. You?’

‘Ready as I’ll ever be.’

‘Then let’s get started,’ said Jeeves. ‘Before we both have a rush of common sense to the head and think better of it. Leilah!’

She looked round immediately. ‘Yes? What do you want?’

‘Give us an hour, tops,’ he said, calmly enough. ‘If we’re not back by then, we won’t be coming back. Then it will be up to you to decide what to do next. But remember, Leilah: our job is to protect people. Not take revenge.’

‘The client is dead,’ said Leilah.

‘His daughter isn’t,’ said Jeeves.

‘Understood,’ said Leilah. She looked round at the rest of us. ‘He’s my man. Isn’t he wonderful?’

She hugged Jeeves goodbye, kissed him hard, and then pushed him away and went back to the others.

Jeeves looked at me. ‘She’s very warm-hearted.’

‘I could tell,’ I said.

And then, together, we went out the door and into the still, quiet hallway.

There was already a distinct chill in the hall as the storm blew snow and wisps of fog through the open front door. I could hear the wind rise and fall, and beyond the open door I could see night had fallen. Blue-white moonlight reflected in from the fallen snow. I looked carefully up and down the hall. All the doors were shut, and nothing moved in the shadows. It was cold inside the house now. Cold as death, cold as the tomb. Cold as a vampire’s heart. I couldn’t hear anything moving, and I couldn’t smell blood or decay anywhere.

‘She could have just hauled the front door open, to make us think she’d gone outside,’ Jeeves said slowly. ‘And then … sneaked back down the hall, to hide in the house again. In the hope some of us would go outside and split up the group. She’d probably think it a fine joke, to have the two of us stumbling around in the cold and the snow, while she attacked the others.’

‘She’s not in the house,’ I said. ‘I can see her footprints in the snow outside. She couldn’t have come back in without tracking some of that snow with her. She may be a supernatural thing, but she still leaves traces of her passing in this world, just like us.’

Jeeves looked at me. ‘I thought for a moment you were about to say you couldn’t smell her anywhere in the house.’

‘I’m not that good,’ I said.

‘But you can see footprints in the snow, outside the door at the far end of the hall,’ said Jeeves. ‘I couldn’t make that out if I had a telescope.’ He studied me thoughtfully. ‘Sylvia … the vampire … said you were no more human than she was.’

‘She’s wrong,’ I said. ‘I’m a lot more human than she is. Just in case you need me to say it: I am not a vampire.’

‘Never thought you were,’ said Jeeves, just a bit too quickly. ‘But you are quite definitely weird. Did you really work with Alexander Khan back in the eighties?’

‘When this is all over,’ I said, ‘I’ll explain.’

‘I’m so glad you said when and not if ,’ said Jeeves. ‘I’ll take all the encouragement I can get.’

We both moved cautiously down the long empty hallway and stopped before the open front door. Back in the drawing room, I could hear the others moving heavy furniture about, building a barricade. Jeeves and I looked out into the world beyond. Snow was falling hard, but the wind had dropped away to just the odd gust, here and there. A pearly fog curled slowly on the air, swallowing up the distant view. It was all deathly still and deadly quiet. Just standing there in the open door, exposed to the night and the storm, made Jeeves shiver violently.