Ramsey Campbell - The Claw

Liz strode downstairs. Whatever happened, she wouldn't let Isobel in. Isobel was standing with her back to the house, but she turned and came forward as Liz opened the door. 'Where is Anna?' she demanded.

Her grim face made it clear that she didn't mean to be turned away. 'At the hotel,' Liz said at once.

Isobel peered suspiciously at her through the veils of misty breath that drifted between them. 'If she is, so much the better,' she said, stepping forward.

Liz found she couldn't close the door entirely; she'd let Isobel come too near. With barely controlled fury, she said 'Goodbye, Isobel.' The words sounded like a curse.

Isobel's eyes narrowed. 'Why are you so anxious to get rid of me?'

'Isobel, I'm tired. If you're so worried about Anna, why don't you go to the hotel?'

Surely that ought to get rid of Isobel – but Isobel stayed where she was. One good unexpected shove against the door would send her flying, but Liz controlled herself, though her hands were fists, and her fingernails were aching, aching. Shoving Isobel would hardly get rid of her. 'Isobel,' she said as calmly as she could, 'will you please let me close the door. I want to be alone.'

'I'm sure you do.' What did Isobel suspect, that she emphasized that so heavily? 'Not this time, Elizabeth, I'm afraid.'

Liz's fist began to tremble on the latch. Isobel would still be here when Anna regained consciousness. Liz's mind felt like her fists, hard and aching and unable to open, all the more so when Isobel looked beyond her and said, 'I thought you said Anna wasn't here.'

At that, Liz whirled round and strode blindly down the hall – anything to shut Anna up before she got to Isobel. But she'd taken only a couple of steps when she saw that the hall was empty. Of course it was; Anna couldn't have got out of the locked room. She turned to demand what Isobel was trying to do, and saw that Isobel had already done it. She was in the house.

As Liz watched, speechless with fury, Isobel closed the front door and stood with her back to it, arms folded. Liz was close enough to scratch her face and her hands were trembling to do so, but what good would it do? Eventually she said, in a voice she hardly recognized as hers: 'So you have to trick your way into my house now, do you?'

'If it wasn't Anna, I don't know what it was. It certainly wasn't tall enough for Alan.' Nevertheless something had undermined her certainty. 'He isn't here, is he?'

'No, he isn't,' Liz said fiercely, 'so there's no reason for you to stay."

Isobel gave a shrug which dismissed that and Liz as well. 'Perhaps it was a shadow. Well, I'm not here to talk about shadows,' she said, and stepped around Liz into the long room.

Liz's nails were throbbing, her nails were going to puncture her palms. Shaking with rage and frustration, she went to the foot of the stairs to make sure that Anna hadn't got out after all, though she knew it was impossible. Upstairs all was silent, but for how long? Suppose Anna was already conscious, and plotting? Suppose the child tried to phone for help? Liz grinned savagely: the phone wasn't working. But she couldn't afford to feel secure, she couldn't take the chance of Isobel's hearing Anna. She strode into the long room. 'Isobel, will you please leave my house at once.'

'Is it just your house now?' Isobel shook her head sadly and sat back in her chair, as if to be more immovable. 'I thought it belonged to my son.'

'I've told you he isn't here, nor is Anna.' Liz's head felt raw. 'So what do you want here?'

'You'll find out.' For a moment Isobel looked almost sorry for her. 'You'll see soon enough.'

'Don't play games with me, Isobel.' Liz^s voice was rising; soon she'd be screaming, loud enough to wake Anna. 'Can't you see I need to be alone? Will you please have the decency to leave!'

'Why are you here if Anna's at the hotel?'

Liz was trapped. Get out, you interfering bitch, you fucking dried-up cunt, she screamed. She had never expected to use language like that, and saying it out loud would be no use. Instead she said the first thing that came into her throbbing head – anything to get rid of Isobel before Anna heard her, or she heard Anna. 'Look, Isobel, I haven't been honest with you. Alan's coming home.'

'Indeed,' Isobel said, with an unreadable look.

'Yes, and I want to be alone with him. We haven't been together for so long. I have things I want to say to him as soon as he comes home. Surely you can understand that? If you care at all about our marriage, you'll leave now.'

'I can certainly see that you'd rather nobody was here when he comes home, but I'm sorry, Elizabeth, it's not to be.' She folded her arms again. 'He called you to say he was coming home, did he?'

'That's right. Why not?' Then Liz remembered that the phone was out of order. Well, that didn't matter; as far as Isobel knew, he could have phoned Liz at the hotel. Or had Isobel already called the hotel? Did she know Anna wasn't there – was that why she was insisting on staying? Liz's thoughts whirled about her throbbing skull; she couldn't get rid of Isobel without knowing what she'd come for, but she didn't dare find out in case that gave her away. By God, if she couldn't make Isobel leave, she'd render her incapable of interfering. Before she knew exactly what she meant to do, she was sneaking behind Isobel's chair; whatever it had to be, she was committed to it now – and serve Isobel right… Then Liz faltered; she'd seen that Isobel was listening.

Had Anna made a sound upstairs? So much the worse for her and Isobel. But Isobel wasn't looking upward, she was staring towards the fog where the road should be. Now Liz could hear what Isobel had been waiting for: the sound of a car approaching slowly through the fog, a car that was slowing to a stop outside the house. The ignition was switched off, and there was silence.

Isobel stood up. Liz stayed where she was; moving would be pointless now. She wanted to lash out at Isobel, but what was the use? She knew the police were out there. Isobel had called them and come here to wait for them. Liz could hear them, two sets of footsteps on the path.

Isobel strode into the hall. Liz followed her, though she wasn't sure why. Had she time to confront the police before Anna stirred, to persuade them that nothing was wrong except interfering Isobel, or could she still dodge upstairs and sneak Anna out of the house? She was wavering as Isobel went quickly to the front door and let in the fog.

Beyond the drift of fog, two men were advancing down the path. At first Liz couldn't see their faces, because she was staring past them in confusion. The vehicle beyond the gate wasn't a police car at all, it was a taxi. It must be the taxi-driver who was helping the other man along the path. Liz's feelings were chaotic, and she had to support herself against the wall. Then the men came forward into the light from the house, and she saw that the man whom the taxi-driver was supporting was Alan.

At first, when Anna realized she wasn't in bed, she thought she was at the dentist's. That was why she'd come back to herself in such a strange place, that was why her head and her jaw were aching. When she opened her eyes mummy would be there, leaning down into her eyes, saying, 'It's all right now, mummy's here.'

Then she remembered, and her eyes sprang open in terror, in case mummy was. But daddy's workroom was deserted except for her. One arm of the cross that his chair swivelled on was digging into her thigh, which throbbed worse when she flinched away. As she stumbled to her feet, she realized that the rough weave of the carpet had left an imprint on her cheek.

Standing up made her headache worse: the room was tilting, and she was crying out with the pain. As she limped giddily to the door, she was only half-aware of what she was doing. She shook the door when it wouldn't open, until she heard the noise she was making, and then she stumbled, sobbing, away from the door and sat in daddy's chair in case she fell down. Mummy had locked her in. What would she do if she heard her trying to open the door? She'd already knocked her down when Granny Knight was here – what would she do when Granny Knight had gone?