I panicked. Though it was futile, I started to run. And as I sped along the wet pavement it came to me with wild relief that all was not yet lost.
There was a pedestrian way high above the water, and I could cross by that. It would take longer, but surely I still had time enough.
A policeman was sheltering in a doorway by one of the main towers, and I ran up to him.
‘Please,’ I said urgently, ‘how do I get across?’
He eyed me curiously before touching his helmet, ‘Lift’s just gone this second, ma’am. It won’t be many minutes to wait, though.’
‘Are there not stairs?’
‘Yes, ma’am, but it’s a long way up for a lady.’
‘That doesn’t matter. I’m in a great hurry.’
He showed me where to go, and I started to climb the wide staircase as fast as I could. One, two, three flights I managed in seconds. But by the fifth I was tiring, and was forced to slow down.
I arrived at the top gasping, my legs trembling with weakness. As I paused briefly, gripping the banister rail, I felt a wave of nausea wash over me. I was still in no condition for such exertion.
The broad landing was empty. A huge lantern above the stair-well cast only a gloomily dim light, but enough to show me the doors leading out to the footway.
For a moment, when I abandoned the support of the banister, I thought I would faint. But somehow I kept going. From far below me, I heard the sound of other footsteps on the stairs.
Out on the deserted high level footway I was suddenly exposed to the breathtaking force of wind and rain. The open lattice work of the iron structure offered no protection at all. Like an elongated cage, faintly lit by wavering gas jets, it stretched bleakly ahead as far as I could see. Eerie. Daunting.
But what lay beyond made the immediate prospect seem as nothing. I was going to rendezvous with a murderer. I had to wait with him as a hostage until Luke arrived bearing the price of my release. The price of Esmond’s life.
Clutching my skirt away from the wetness underfoot, I hurried along from one lamp to the next, each faint pool of light a tiny haven from the rain-blown darkness all around. Through the gaps formed by the criss-crossed girders I could see nothing whatever, not even the lights of shipping on the river below. Everything was uncannily quiet, except for the continuous wailing of the wind and the spattering of the rain.
And then there were footsteps behind me. Running footsteps. In sudden unreasoning terror, I broke into a run myself.
From the length of the stride, the speed, I could tell it was a man. And he was gaining on me quickly. I knew I had no chance of reaching the doorway in the farther tower before he overtook me.
But I was being absurd. It was merely someone else in a great hurry, of course.
I slowed to a walking pace and half turned to glance back at him. At the same instant the door ahead of me opened. Two people were coming through, about to cross the footway in the opposite direction. For a second I felt an upsurge of panic, a sense of being helplessly trapped. But just as quickly came a cool, quenching flood of relief. In the light of a lamp I had seen the face of the man behind me.
This was indeed no enemy! ‘Luke!’ I gasped. ‘Oh, Luke!’
He hurried up to me and took my hand. ‘Rachel, my poor dear girl! What’s the matter?’
‘I was frightened alone up here,’ I admitted. ‘But not any more.’
Putting his arm protectively around my shoulders, Luke led me forward at a walking pace as the other couple drew near. A pair of young lovers with arms entwined, they were too absorbed in one another to take any notice of us. They went by, and I heard their giggling and chattering fade away in the distance.
Luke and I were walking very slowly, hardly more than strolling.
‘We must hurry, Luke,’ I urged him. ‘There isn’t much time left now.’
He held a finger to his lips, as if even up here he thought we might be overheard.
I tried to force the pace, but Luke gently restrained me. ‘Just a moment, my dear,’ he said softly.
‘But there’s no time, Luke. We have only a few minutes left…’
‘Yes, I know…’ But still he didn’t speed up.
‘Why are you here, Luke? Have you got the money already?’
He didn’t answer me. I had a curious feeling he was waiting for something. Following his backward glance, I looked over my shoulder and could just make out the loving couple disappearing through the doorway to the stairs down.
Luke and I were completely alone on the footbridge now. There was no possible need for whispering.
‘Have you really got the money?’ I asked again.
With a sudden abrupt movement Luke twisted round and grabbed me by the waist. I was swept off my feet and roughly thrust towards one of the openings between the latticed steel struts.
My head and shoulders were already into the gap before horrified understanding came to me. Luke was deliberately pushing me through! Luke was attempting to hurl me off the bridge and down into the black river far, far below!
My handbag went plummeting into the darkness as I jerked up both arms to clutch at the steel girders on either side of me. I clung to them desperately, and kicked out wildly with my legs.
Behind me, Luke began cursing obscenely as he fought to hold me still enough to force my body through the opening. The pain in my shoulders was excruciating. I knew I could not hold on for long, with all Luke’s strength thrusting at me relentlessly.
Letting go with my left arm, I grabbed blindly for an outer girder. I found one, grasped it, and somehow hauled myself through the framework. Terror was giving me a strength I had never known before. Frantically, treading on my skirts and trying to kick them out of the way, I began to claw up the outer side of the bridge’s structure. I did not dare to contemplate what lay in the darkness a hundred feet below. I was thinking only of immediate escape. What I should do next, what I should do when Luke came climbing after me, I had no idea. Despite the wild strength I had suddenly discovered, his would be much the greater.
But for some reason Luke did not follow me. As, feebly, I tried to climb higher, I realised he had stayed where he was on the footway.
I paused, snatching a brief moment’s rest.
Against the intensity of my fear, there pressed a gigantic question. Why had Luke—my friend Luke—suddenly made this murderous attack on me? Had sanity deserted him, or was he in truth my enemy? Could it possibly be that Luke was responsible for those other attempts to kill me?
There was no time to probe these enigmas. I was fighting for my life. It seemed that my one small hope depended upon someone coming on to the footway. Or perhaps, if I screamed out loudly enough, I could manage to attract attention from far down below.
Before I had even drawn breath, I heard a sudden shout and racing feet. Near me, Luke swore again, a savage, bitter string of curses. And then he began climbing the spider’s web of girders on the opposite side of the footway from me.
I couldn’t make out what was happening. But when the running footsteps came pounding closer, I understood. Luke himself was now trying to escape from a pursuer.
I found my voice, and yelled, ‘Help! Help!’
The newcomer stopped abruptly in his tracks. ‘Rachel! where are you?’
Esmond!
Hanging there above the black void, I felt a wild, muddled fear that fused Luke and Lee Chan into a single murderous unity. My terror was suddenly for Esmond.
‘You must get away,’ I shouted. ‘They are trying to kill you. Quickly! Run.’
He ignored my frantic pleading.
‘Hang on, Rachel. I’m coming. He threw off his greatcoat and clambered out through a gap in the steelwork just below me.
But I could also hear the noise of Luke scrambling and slipping on wet metal. He was above us now, on the mesh of girders that roofed the footway.
‘Be careful, Esmond!’ I cried out. ‘He’ll get you.’
Esmond climbed towards me, swift and surefooted, and in only a few seconds was at my side. Gripping with one hand, he stretched across me and clamped himself to another girder. With his body, he made a firm safe cradle for mine.
‘I’ve got you, Rachel dearest,’ he said softly into my ear. ‘Don’t be afraid any more.’
I felt at once secure with Esmond’s strength supporting me. But he didn’t appreciate the danger. I had to warn him.
“It’s Luke up there!’ I whispered. ‘He was trying to...’
‘I know, my darling. I understand—now.’
Esmond twisted his head back, trying to see what was happening. The noise Luke was making no longer came from above us, but farther along. It sounded as if he was running, up there on top of the cage of girders.
Suddenly there was a scream, a wild piercing cry of terror which was abruptly snatched off by the wind. And then silence for several sickening moments.
Faintly, from the rainswept darkness far below we heard a confusion of men shouting.
Esmond’s powerful grip did not relax for a fractional instant, but I could feel the shock wave that jerked his body.
‘God help him!’ he muttered, as if to himself.