Phil Rickman - The Cold Calling

‘Not long. Half a mile?’

‘Right. See, while you were in the bog, he could’ve slashed the fan belt, so it’d snap soon after you drove away.’

‘Why?’

‘I don’t know. Most likely to get you out of the way and get himself some wheels. We should all be bloody glad it worked. He might have done something more drastic.’

Cindy said, ‘He would never do that unless it was a sacrifice. Where killing is concerned, he has his rules.’

Grayle said, voice faltering, ‘What is this? Just what is this about?’

‘All right,’ Cindy said. He held her shoulders, looked into her eyes. ‘You remember when we spoke the other night, in my room at the inn, of the contrasting aspects of the Knoll, male and female? And the male element linked to blood, slaughter …’

Grayle shook herself away. ‘Before you go any further, what’s your angle? Who are you?’

Bobby brought out his wallet. Grayle had never seen British police ID, but it looked straight. Also, he sounded right. He looked all wrong, but an undercover cop, the whole point was he should look all wrong.

‘And you?’

‘Me?’ Cindy said. ‘A concerned member of the public.’

‘And Adrian?’

‘Someone who kills people,’ Bobby said.

It was kind of a hollow moment, the words repeating themselves in her head.

‘And why?’ Grayle asked, her head somewhere up there in the curdling sky but her voice down here and surprisingly calm. ‘Why is he killing people?’

‘Because he believes that’s how we should be living,’ Bobby said. ‘Hunting and hunted and feeding the earth with blood. We think he’s killed about half a dozen people.’

‘Including my sister, Ersula, right?’ That scarily calm voice giving verbal substance to what she’d instinctively known before she even left New York, that Ersula was dead and had been dead for weeks.

‘We think that’s possible. I’m sorry.’

‘How did he kill her?’

‘We don’t know,’ Cindy said. Too quickly.

‘We think …’ Bobby said ‘… we think he may be planning to do something today.’

‘Here?’ Her voice still calm, still grounded. How was she doing this?

‘Here seems the obvious place.’

‘Why would he want to take my car? Why not just stick along with me?’

‘We don’t know. Maybe he needed the car for something and he didn’t want you around. He’d replace the fan belt, no problem …’

‘Practical guy,’ Grayle said bitterly. ‘Comes from a long line of solid chaps who are not terribly bright , but good with their hands. Rigged up the Portakabins, laid down the helicopter pad.’

She saw Cindy wince. Ersula’s death hung in the air between them. Either she could haul it down and go some place to weep or she could leave it suspended there until this was over. If it would ever be over.

‘I think … maybe …’ Something dawning on her. ‘… he didn’t want to be seen to be here. Didn’t want to come in his own truck. Made some excuse that it wasn’t road-worthy. I thought he was just grabbing at the chance to be with me. I thought maybe he, uh …’

‘When was this?’

‘Early morning. I’d just checked out of the inn, he pulled up in the street. Seemed … surprised. Yeah. Real surprised to see me there.’

‘He would be,’ Bobby said. ‘He thought he’d killed you last night.’

Grayle drew breath, felt a weakness behind her knees. Fifteen, twenty yards away, a metallic blue Jaguar melted into the side of the road and a guy in a dark suit climbed out the driver’s side, came round and opened the passenger door. Performed a theatrical bow, extended an arm … and Janny Oates stepped out in a long, plain white dress, a golden circlet in her hair. She saw Grayle and waved, all flushed and excited, looking about sixteen, and Grayle waved back and forced an encouraging smile.

‘He followed someone last night,’ Bobby said. ‘We’re sure he thought it was you.’

‘And he … he killed her?’ Janny was luminous against the sky.

‘Yes.’

‘OhmyGod.’

‘I’m sorry to unload all this on you, Grayle.’

‘We have to find him, don’t we? We have to find him right now.’

‘We do,’ Bobby said.

‘Just tell me. Who else did he kill?’

‘Just people. You wouldn’t know them. He didn’t know them.’

‘Except for Ersula.’

‘Yes.’

‘A friend,’ Grayle said. ‘She was his friend. Listen, he talked about sacrifices. He said people would be horrified if they actually knew what it was like here in the old days. He said … sacrifice … he said it was cruel but it was necessary.’

‘He said that to you?’

‘On the way here. He said the best sacrifice, the only real sacrifice was if you did it to someone who hadn’t done you any harm. He said the ultimate sacrifice was to take the life of a friend. And … and …’

‘Go on,’ Cindy whispered. ‘And?’

‘He doesn’t like New Age stuff. It’s like they’re wimps. He said they’d done real damage to the traditions.’

The wedding march was being played on a violin, ragged and a little out of tune, with guitar backing. Some people were cheering.

‘And I said — a couple times I think I said this — I said Janny and Matthew — because those guys are real New Agers, as you can see — I said, you know, what about them? Like, how come, if you hate all these people, you’re going to their wedding? And he goes, he just goes …’

Through the trees, she could see that Charlie had lit the candles on his altar. It was close to dark.

‘… they’re my friends.’

Marcus coughed.

It had taken him a while to build up the cough, and now it was out there wasn’t much to it. But it was quiet in the castle precincts now that Gallow and Bez had split up. Malcolm had given up barking. There was just the sound of Bez kicking open the barn door, the more distant thrust and rattle of Gallow unsubtly forcing the rear door of the house.

So the cough was distinct.

It brought Bez out of the barn into the darkening yard.

A splintering sound from behind the house meant Gallow was in. Gallow … loose … in the house.

Malcolm barked once.

Bez said, ‘Gallow?’

He stood in the yard looking over towards the castle walls. His hand went inside his jacket, came out with a pistol, a big one, automatic. They were completely bloody mad, Marcus thought. Drove halfway across England with an automatic pistol and a sawn-off shotgun in the van? What would they do if they were stopped?

Well, they probably never had been and so it wouldn’t happen, and if it did they could always shoot it out. The mad, brutal arrogance of young men. No animal more dangerous.

Bez said, ‘Gallow? That yow?’

Marcus smothered his second cough in his handkerchief. It was the cough of a man desperate not to cough, crippling himself to keep quiet.

It was enough.

Bez didn’t say, ‘Who’s that?’ or ‘Come out.’ Bez just wore his smile. The cough had made him happy.

At the top of the spiral, Marcus tensed, his arms so tight around the jagged stone that it rocked, and that stone must weigh more than the average anvil. Marcus closed his eyes as Bez put a foot on the first cracked stone stair. There were eleven steps before the stairs broke off. Seven before the final curve.

Come on then, bloody well get it over with .

Bez came up slowly. One foot on a step, then the other foot. Bez was, God forbid, some sort of bloody professional.

In the house, Gallow would be walking up the hall, being careful because he didn’t know where the dog was.

Bez reached the fourth step. Gallow would have discovered the old treatment room. Three more doors to the kitchen.