Midnight is a Lonely Place

LXXI

The police Land Rover slid and bucked down the track with Joe in the front between the two uniformed constables. Behind them Doctor Jamieson clung on for grim death to the back of the seats as they skidded through the increasingly wet slush. ‘Not far now.’ Joe peered through the windscreen. ‘Down through those trees and we’re there.

A gust of wind rocked the car sideways and the driver swore as he fought to keep it on the track. In front of them the radio crackled and spat with interference. The younger constable, Bob Garth, grinned at him, his face grey with fatigue. He had already been on duty for forty-eight hours. ‘You reckon your ghost will be waiting for us then, do you?’

Joe had told them the whole story as far as he knew it. It was greeted with solemn interest by the two policemen. The doctor, an old friend of the Farnboroughs’, was more forthcoming. ‘If I didn’t know you better, Joe, I’d tell them to breathalyse you. I’ve never heard such a load of bollocks. You’ve all been letting the solitude get to you.’

‘I’ve heard stories about Redall Bay before,’ Bob Garth put in. ‘A lot of the locals reckon it’s haunted. If not by the Black Dog then by a whole range of sinister things. You won’t catch them going down on the marsh or the beach in the dark. When I was up here the other night I reckoned it felt strange. There was something very funny about all that business at the cottage.’

‘The ghosts the locals are afraid of were invented by the smugglers to keep the revenue men away,’ the man at the wheel put in. Mat Larkin had lived nearby all his life. ‘You don’t want to believe a word you hear about them.’

‘I suppose not.’ Joe did not sound too sure. He too was local born and bred.

‘Nearly there now.’ Mat swung the Land Rover expertly round a slippery bend. The wheels skidded in the wet slush, throwing muddy white spray across the bushes.

‘Looks peaceful enough now.’ All four men peered through the windscreen at the farmhouse as they drew up outside. Climbing out, both Joe and the doctor instinctively hung back allowing the two policemen to go first. A face at the window showed them that they had been seen. Seconds later the front door opened.

‘Come in. Quickly. For God’s sake, look! He’s tried to take Susie too!’ Cissy, near hysteria, grabbed the doctor’s arm.

Joe stood looking down, paralysed with fear as Hal Jamieson knelt and felt the girl’s pulse. He pulled up her eyelid and peered at her eye and then laid his hand on her forehead. ‘She’s asleep,’ he commented tersely. ‘Heavily asleep.’ He turned to Alison and frowned. His examination this time took longer. He glanced at Diana. ‘Her temperature is low and her pulse is weak. She’s suffering from exhaustion. They should both be in hospital – Good God! What was that?’

The crash upstairs was louder than any before. They all looked at each other. Greg gestured towards the staircase. ‘Up there,’ he said weakly.

Glancing nervously at one another the policemen disappeared and the others heard their footsteps pounding up the stairs and along the landing.

A few minutes later they returned. ‘Nothing.’ Bob Garth sat down at the kitchen table and felt in his pocket for his notebook. The sooner they had taken statements the sooner they could be on their way. He glanced up with a shiver. There was something nasty here. He could feel it.

Kate talked to him first. As calmly as she could, she related everything that had happened since she had arrived at the cottage, watching as she did so, the doctor examine Greg’s foot, rebandage it and nod to himself in apparent satisfaction. He moved on to Cissy.

‘And you actually saw this figure?’ Bob turned the page on his notebook. His mouth had gone dry. ‘You are a writer, Miss Kennedy. Are you sure you haven’t imagined some of this?’

‘No, she bloody hasn’t!’ Greg had been listening. ‘You heard that bang yourself! Did you imagine that?’

‘I think,’ Hal Jamieson put in, ‘that all this is academic at the moment.’ He straightened with an exhausted sigh. ‘What we need to do is to get these people out of here to hospital. Cissy needs an X-ray, Alison should have a CAT scan, in my opinion as soon as possible, and both girls need a complete checkup before I’ll be happy with them.’

‘We can’t take everyone, sir,’ Mat Larkin put in.

There was a moment’s silence. Kate felt her heart sink. For a moment she had thought it was all over; that they were safe.

‘I don’t suppose we could get your old banger going, Joe?’ Bob Garth put in. ‘Supposing we give it a jump start.’

Joe nodded. ‘It’s worth a try.’ He felt in his pocket for the keys.

Kate gnawed at her fingernail as they waited, looking from one tense face to the other as, through the closed door, they heard the sound of Joe gunning the dead engine. Nothing happened. Again he tried. Again nothing, then they heard the sound of the two bonnets slamming shut. ‘No go, I’m afraid. The old girl seems to have had it,’ Joe said grimly when they were back inside. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘OK. You take the injured to hospital, Mat,’ Bob Garth said firmly, overcoming his own reluctance. ‘I’ll stay here to check on the cottage and see about poor Mr Norcross.’

‘Yes. You must get us out of here!’ Cissy clutched at Larkin’s sleeve. ‘You’ve got to get us out of here. He’s after my daughter – ’ Her voice slid up the scale hysterically. ‘You’ve got to save us!’

‘It’s all right, Cissy. We said we’ll take you,’ Jamieson put in comfortably. ‘And Diana and the girls. And Greg. That foot is not all that good.’

‘And Joe,’ Cissy put in, sobbing wildly. Her voice rose dangerously again. ‘You have to take Joe – ’

‘I’m not going,’ Greg interrupted her. ‘You said my foot was OK, Hal. It can wait. I’m not leaving Redall. But take Joe. That’s fine by me.’

‘I’m afraid that’s all we can manage,’ Mat put in, worried. ‘The doctor has to come back with us. He’s needed elsewhere, and that makes eight of us already – ’

‘Don’t worry.’ Kate caught Anne’s eye and saw her sister grimace. ‘We’ll be all right. I think it is the two girls who are most at risk. We’ll hold him off.’

There was an uncomfortable silence then Bob Garth grinned. ‘I’ll look after you all, Miss Kennedy, don’t fret.’ He would not allow himself to feel afraid.

They watched as the large police vehicle turned and churned its way up the path into the trees. ‘You must have been sorry there wasn’t room for you.’ Greg looked curiously at Pete who had watched them from the window.

Pete shook his head. ‘I reckon I’ll hang around until this is all over. If you and the constable are going out to the cottage I think it would be a good thing if someone stayed here to keep an eye on the boy and the ladies.’

Greg gave a half-hearted humourless laugh. ‘I think they would consider that remark patronising at the least and sexist more than likely.’ He led the way back into the farm house.

‘I doubt it, sir.’ Bob Garth put in. ‘Don’t forget. We have a murderer on the loose somewhere – ’

‘Haven’t you taken anything in!’ Greg swung round on him. ‘We are not looking for a man – ’

‘Greg.’ Kate put her hand on his arm.

He shook it off angrily. ‘No! We are not looking for some escaped lunatic or a robber or a psychopath. We are trying to stop a man who died nearly two thousand years ago – ’

‘Quite, sir.’ Bob managed to keep his face impassive. ‘But whoever we are looking for, dead or alive, he is still a real threat. I think this gentleman is right. Someone should remain here.’

‘Well, I’m going with you.’ Kate stepped forward. ‘I was a close friend of Bill’s, and I am the tenant of the cottage. It’s right I should be there.’

‘And I’m coming too.’ Jon put his arm around her once more. ‘I’m not letting you out of my sight again, Kate.’

She looked up at him startled. Then she smiled. Quietly she reached for his hand. She did not see the anger on Greg’s face.