Inside the shed, Femi looked frightened, his skinny arms wrapped around his body. ‘I don’t like them.’
‘Who?’ Minnie asked gently.
‘The demons,’ Femi replied.
‘Is it Omar? Marcus?’ Minnie asked.
Femi bit his lip, but didn’t answer.
From her pocket, Minnie felt the vibration of her phone ringing, then the melody of a call coming in. She pulled her phone out and jammed the mute button. Gran. Probably wondering when she was going to get home. No time for that now. Minnie switched her phone to silent.
‘Are they in this building?’ Piotr moved to the doorway and listened.
‘Can you show us?’ Minnie asked, putting her phone away. ‘We’ll keep you safe, I promise.’
‘You’ll stay close?’ Femi asked.
‘Like fleas on a dog.’
Femi nodded reluctantly. ‘This way,’ he said.
He opened the door. Straight away, Minnie and Piotr noticed the temperature change. The air outside was much colder. Minnie hadn’t noticed a heater in Femi’s room, so why was it so much colder out here? She could feel goosebumps on her arms. Femi’s hand reached for hers.
They were in a short corridor. Opposite was the main door, with a hefty looking square lock. There were two other doors. One was ajar and she could see a small bathroom. The other, at the end of the corridor, was closed.
It was this door that Femi led them towards. He paused in front of it.
Minnie gave his hand a short squeeze. ‘It’s all right,’ she said. She hoped she was telling the truth.
Femi turned the handle and pushed open the door. Minnie and Piotr followed him inside.
The room was dark, entirely dark, and cold: it was like walking into a cave. It smelled like one too, musty and old. She remembered the covered windows she’d seen around the back of the building. They must be inside that space. She could tell from the echoes of their footsteps that the room was large.
Minnie’s eyes strained to see in the dark. Eventually she could make out lumps in a different shade of black. A tiny amount of light must have been squeezing in at the windows’ edges.
Femi dropped her hand and walked away. ‘Where are you going?’ she whispered.
‘Wait!’ his urgent voice replied.
She could hear him patting the walls, scrabbling for something.
Then the room blazed with light. Femi had found the light switch.
Minnie wished he hadn’t. Now she knew exactly what he meant by demons.
Heads. Dozens of heads.
They were arranged on rickety shelves. Carved from wood, each one was scarred and maimed: hundreds of nails had been hammered into eye sockets and mouths; rusty screws, barbed wire and tiny saw blades ripped into the wooden flesh; flattened noses had been cut again and again with terrible piercings. Beside them lay metal swords, wooden clubs and shields made from animal skins. A small museum of smuggled objects.
‘Demons,’ Femi whispered. ‘They were just spirits once, but the men say they have become demons. I must behave or they will get me.’
Minnie walked further into the space on tiptoe, almost holding her breath.
There was a man – no, a costume of straw and rope. It stood six foot high, with a long crocodile’s snout and sharp slices of metal laid one over another to make jaws stuffed with teeth. Its painted eyes had all the patient menace of an ambush hunter. Tin-can monkeys hung from its limbs.
She had heard of masquerades, but had never seen them. But her cousins had told her about the men who’d take on the form of spirits and chant and dance into the night.
She glanced back at the door. Piotr was inside the room, staring in astonishment, but Femi had retreated to the doorway, his arms folded again.
On the right there was a huge figure covered in coloured grass – pink, blue, orange, green, a rainbow of reeds. But its face wasn’t peaceful. Blood red lips glowed in a coal black face, horns rose from its forehead.
‘Femi,’ Minnie said, ‘what is all this?’
‘Demons,’ he whispered. ‘Demons for sale.’
Then Minnie noticed something else tucked into a corner, forgotten. A black suitcase, identical to the one in Femi’s room. She moved closer and checked the luggage label. Mrs Adesina, c/o Beauty Cuts, Marsh Road.
Gran’s case. With her tea inside. And her address attached. The case that had started all this.
Well, now Minnie was going to finish it. ‘We’re getting out of here,’ she said. ‘You too, Femi. We’re going to end this and the police are going to listen.’