Dennis Wheatley - The Devil Rides Out

‘For us to sit here like a lot of dummies while you go off to give yourself up at twelve o’clock, I suppose?’ Richard, who had just rejoined them, cut in acidly.

‘I have been expecting that, knowing Simon,’ the Duke observed. ‘Terrible as the consequences may be for him and although the idea of surrender makes my blood boil I must confess that I think he’s right, with certain modifications.’

‘Oh, isn’t there some other way?’ Marie Lou exclaimed desperately, catching at Simon’s hand. ‘It’s too awful that because of our own trouble we should even talk of sacrificing you.’

One of those rare smiles that made him such a lovable person lit Simon’s face. ‘Ner,’ he said softly, ‘it’s been my muddle from the beginning. I’m terribly grateful to you all for trying to get me out of it, but Mocata’s been too much for us, and I must throw my hand in now. It’s the only thing to do.’

‘It is my damned incompetence which has let us in for this,’ grunted the Duke. ‘I deserve to take your place, Simon, and I would—you know that—if it were the least use. The devil of it is that it’s you he wants, not me.’

Rex had been cutting thin slices from the ham and pouring out the tea. Richard took a welcome cup of his favourite Orange Pekoe from him and said firmly:

‘Stop talking nonsense, for God’s sake! Neither of you is to blame. After what we’ve all been through together in the past you did quite rightly to come here. Who should we look to for help in times of trouble if not each other? If I was in a real tight corner I shouldn’t hesitate to involve either of you—and I know that Marie Lou feels the same. This blow couldn’t possibly have been foreseen by anyone. It was just—well, call it an accident, and the responsibility for protecting Fleur was ours every bit as much as yours. Now let’s get down to what we mean to do.’

‘That’s decent of you, Richard.’ De Richleau tried to smile, knowing what it must have cost his friend to ease their feeling of guilt when he must be so desperately anxious about his child.

‘Damned decent,’ Simon echoed. ‘But all the same I’m going to keep the appointment Mocata’s made for me. It’s the only hope we’ve got.’

Richard stuck out his chin. ‘You’re not, old chap. You placed yourself in my hands by coming to my house, and I won’t have it. The business we went through last night scared me as much as anyone. I admit it; but because Greyeyes has proved right about Satanic manifestations, there is no reason for you all to lose your sense of proportion about what the evil powers can do. They have their limitations, just like anything else. Greyeyes admitted last night that they were based on natural laws, and this swine’s gone outside them. He’s operating now in a country that is strange to him. He confesses as much in his letter. You can see he is scared of our calling in the police, and that’s the very way we’re going to get him. You people seem to have lost your nerve.’

‘No,’ the Duke said sadly. ‘I haven’t lost my nerve, but look at it if you like on the basis which you suggest, Richard—that this is a perfectly normal kidnapping. Say Fleur were being held to ransom by a group of unscrupulous gangsters, such as operate in the States, the gang being in a position to know what is going on in your house. They have threatened to kill Fleur if you bring the police into the business. Now, would you be prepared to risk that in such circumstances?’

‘No, I should pay up, as most wretched parents seem to, on the off-chance that the gang gave me a square deal and I got the child back unharmed. But this is different. I’ll stake my oath that Mocata means to double-cross us anyhow. If it were only Simon that he wanted he might be prepared to let us have Fleur back in exchange. You seem to forget what Tanith told you. He doesn’t know that we know his intentions, but she was absolutely definite on three points. One, he means to do his damnedest to bring her back. Two, he will fail unless he makes the attempt in the next few days. Three, the only way that can be done is by performing a full Black Mass, including the sacrifice of a baptised child. Kidnappings take time to plan in a civilised country unless you want the police on your track. Mocata has succeeded in one where he thinks there is a fair chance of keeping the police out of it, and no one in their senses could suggest that he’s the sort of man who would run the risk of doing another just for the joy of keeping his word with us. It’s as clear as daylight that he is just keeping Fleur as bait to get hold of Simon and then he’ll do us down by killing the child in the end.’

De Richleau slit open a roll and slipped a slice of ham inside it. ‘Well,’ he said as he began to trim the ragged edges neatly, ‘it is for you and Marie Lou to decide. The prospect of sitting in this room for hours on end doing nothing is about the grimmest I’ve ever had to face in a pretty crowded lifetime. I would give most things I really value for a chance to have another cut at him. The only thing that deters me for one moment is the risk to Fleur.’

‘I know that well enough,’ Richard acknowledged, ‘but I am convinced our only chance of seeing her alive again is to call in the police, and trust to running him to earth before nightfall’

‘I wouldn’t,’ Simon shook his head, ‘I wouldn’t honestly, Richard. He’s certain to find out if we take steps against him. We shall waste hours here being questioned by the local bigwigs, and it’s a hundred to one against their being able to corner him in a single day. Fleur is safe at the moment—for God’s sake don’t make things worse than they are. I know the man and he’s as heartless as a snake. It’s signing Fleur’s death warrant to try and tackle him like this.’

Marie Lou listened to these conflicting arguments in miserable indecision. She was torn violently from side to side by each in turn. Simon spoke with such absolute conviction that it seemed certain Richard’s suggested intervention would precipitate her child’s death, and yet she felt, too, how right Richard was in his belief that Mocata was certain to double-cross them, and having trapped them into surrendering Simon, retain Fleur for this abominable sacrifice which Tanith had told them he was so anxious to make. The horns of dilemma seemed to join and form a vicious circle which went round and round in her aching head.

The others fell silent and Richard looked across at her. ‘Well, dearest, which is it to be?’

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ she moaned. ‘Both sides seem right and yet the risk is so appalling either way.’

He laid his hand gently on her hair. ‘It’s beastly having to make such a decision, and if we were alone in this I wouldn’t dream of asking you. I’d do what I thought best myself unless you were dead against it, but as the others disagree with me so strongly what can I do but ask you to decide?’

Wringing her hands together in agonised distress at this horrible problem with which she was faced, Marie Lou looked desperately from side to side, then her glance fell on Rex. He was sitting hunched up in a dejected attitude on the far side of Tanith’s body, his eyes fixed in hopeless misery on the dead girl’s face.

‘Rex,’ she said hoarsely, ‘you haven’t said what you think yet. Both these alternatives seem equally ghastly to me. What do you advise?’

‘Eh?’ He looked up quickly. ‘It’s mighty difficult and I was just trying to figure it out. I hate the thought of doing nothing, waiting about when you’ve got a packet of trouble is just real hell to me, and I’d like to get after this bird with a gun. But Simon’s so certain that if we did it would be fatal to Fleur, and I guess the Duke thinks that way too. They both know him, you must remember, and Richard doesn’t, which is a point to them, but I’ve got a hunch that we are barking up the wrong tree, and that this is a case for what Greyeyes calls his masterly policy of inactivity. The old game of giving the enemy enough rope so he’ll hang himself in the end.