Robert Goddard - Sight Unseen

He lolled forward against her. His weight pushed her back. The knife came out of him. There was yet more blood. And something thicker and darker, sagging from the wound. He dropped to his knees, then fell sideways into the kitchen doorway.

He moaned and pressed his right hand to his stomach. The sound in his throat became a gurgle. His feet scrabbled at the thin mat beneath them. Then, suddenly, they stopped. His body slackened. His hand slid away from his stomach. He twitched twice. And then he was still.

'What are we going to do?'

It was the third or fourth time Chantelle had asked the question and Umber was no surer how to answer it. They were sitting on the bed, facing the Catherine-wheel window, neither caring to glance back at the shape in the kitchen doorway. Umber had covered Walsh's body as best he could with the hall mat, though that did nothing to conceal the pool of blood on the tiled floor of the kitchen or the patches of it on the hall carpet. Chantelle had removed her blood-smeared T-shirt and trousers and was now enveloped in Jeremy's dressing gown, but bloodstains remained on the trainers she would at some point have to put back on. Walsh's death and her responsibility for it were facts they could not ignore.

'What are we going to do, Shadow Man?' Chantelle's voice was tremulous and plaintive. But the we was important. Umber had asked her to trust him. And now it seemed she did.

'We can't stay here,' he said, forcing his brain to reason its way through the shock of what had happened. 'They'll come looking for him sooner or later. And you know who they are, don't you, Chantelle? Or should I call you Cherie?'

'Chantelle's my name now. And I don't know who they are. Or what they are. The people my parents work for, I mean. My foster parents, I ought to call them. My false parents. That man…' She gestured with her chin towards the door.

'Walsh?'

She shook her head. 'Waldron. Eddie Waldron. Uncle Eddie, he wanted me to call him. But I never did. I was always frightened of him.'

'You don't have to be frightened of him any more.'

'He'd have forced you to tell on me. When I saw his car and realized it wasn't Marilyn who'd come…' Her head sank. 'I knew it was him or me.'

'We've got to get out of here, Chantelle. That's about all I'm certain of. We've got to get out.'

'I was going to make a run for it,' she went on, hardly seeming to hear him. 'I wasn't sure of you. I reckoned it was safer not to trust you. But when I saw the car… I went back for the knife. I thought, finish Uncle Eddie this time, girl. I thought… stop him ever hurting you again.'

'You did that, Chantelle. You truly did.'

'You're not going to let me down, are you, Shadow Man?' She looked up at him, her eyes moist and red-rimmed. 'I don't think I can… go on alone.'

'We'll get out of this. Together.'

'How?'

'Is there anything in this flat or the office or the boat store to lead them to you?'

'No. Nothing. Jem was always careful about that.'

There were questions – a host of them – Umber longed to put to her. But they would have to wait. The need now was to act. And to make sure they acted for the best. 'My car's just round the corner. We'll walk to it and drive away.'

'What about Eddie?'

'We leave him here. He'll be found soon enough, but I'm betting those who find him won't want to set the police on us. On you, anyway.'

'I can't walk down the street looking like this.'

'Could you put some clothes of Jeremy's on?'

'I suppose.'

'Do that. And fast. We should go as soon as we can. But there's something I have to do first.'

She made no move and merely went on staring at him.

'Please, Chantelle. Do it .'

She flinched at the forcefulness of his tone, which he instantly regretted. But it had its effect. 'Sorry,' she murmured, rising unsteadily and stumbling across to the chest of drawers. 'Sorry.'

Leaving her to it, Umber jumped up and hurried out into the hall. Taking a deep breath, he pulled the rug clear of the body of the man he now knew as Eddie Waldron. Deliberately avoiding a glance at the bloody, oozing mess of the fatal knife wound, he unclipped the small bunch of keys he had seen hanging from one of Waldron's belt-loops. The remote for the BMW was among them. Noticing the bulge of a wallet in Waldron's hip pocket, he took that as well. Then he folded the rug back into place.

He pocketed the wallet and keys and stepped gingerly into the kitchen, keeping clear of the pool of blood. There he hunted down a tea towel, Sellotape and a roll of black plastic rubbish sacks. He took these out into the hall, wrapped the knife in the tea towel, put the bundle inside one of the rubbish sacks, folded it over and taped down the ends. Then he returned to the kitchen one more time – to collect the Juniuses.

'I'm ready,' said Chantelle, watching from beside the bed as he edged past the rug-shrouded shape. She was wearing jeans baggy enough to cover all but the toes of her bloodstained trainers, even though they were rolled up several inches at the ankle, and a navy-blue sweater, with some kind of yachting motif on it, that hung to just above her knees. Only the tips of her fingers were visible beneath the sleeves. Umber saw her glance fall to Waldron's feet protruding from the rug. 'Christ,' she murmured. 'I really did it, didn't I?'

'Don't think about it,' said Umber. 'We're leaving now. OK?'

There was a long silence. Finally, she wrenched her gaze back to Umber. 'OK.'

'Put your clothes in this.' He peeled off a second rubbish sack and tossed it to her, then moved to the front door and edged it open. There was neither sight nor sound of movement on the steps. He waited a few seconds to be sure. Then he stepped back and signalled to Chantelle. 'Come on.'

She hesitated, then hurried out to join him by the door, the sack containing her discarded clothes clutched in one hand.

'Go down to the office and wait there. I'm going to check his car. It won't take long. Then we'll go.'

Chantelle nodded and headed past him. With a parting glance behind, Umber followed, pulling the door shut as he left. Chantelle was already out of sight as he descended the steps. He flicked the remote at the BMW. The sensor behind the rear mirror flashed. The door locks released. There was no-one close by. The nearest passers-by were on the Boulevard and were paying events in le Quai Bisson no heed. He glanced into the car, but could not see what he was looking for. He strode round to the boot and opened it.

Inside was a smart-looking camcorder, nestling in an unzipped shoulder-bag. And there, to his astonishment, towards the rear of the boot space, was a white cardboard box, fastened with string. The word JUNIUS stared at him in his own, long-ago handwriting. He shook his head in disbelief and smiled despite himself.

'What is it?' called Chantelle, frowning at him from the doorway of the office.

'Something I never expected to see again.' He hauled the box out and dropped it on the ground, wedged the black plastic bundle under the string and hoisted the camcorder-bag onto his shoulder. 'Come on.'

Chantelle hurried over. Umber handed her the Juniuses, then picked up the box. The strap of the bag slipped off his shoulder as he did so. Chantelle hoiked it back into place, squinting in puzzlement at the titles on the books she was holding and the word on the side of the box.

'I'll explain later. Let's get moving.'

The walk to the hotel was brief and uneventful. Conspicuous though they felt, no-one in fact paid them any attention. They loaded everything they were carrying into the boot of Umber's hire car, then he went into the hotel and booked out.