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Fluffy grimly hung on to the coach, desperately trying to get a better grip before being added to the mess in the streets. He had his paws wrapped around the suspension arm and looked like a little furry trapeze artist as he swung from side to side. He’d noticed a little platform just at the back of the coach on the underside and he tried to ease his way towards it. A toolbox sat in there, but Fluffy decided that it wouldn’t be there for long. Just above him he could see a wooden support, so he unsheathed his claws, reached up, and dug them deep into the wood. He had a purchase now, and he swung towards the platform catching his foot claws on the border. Arm over arm he traversed the support, and then dived into the tool platform with a squeal of triumph. He kicked at the tool box and pushed it to the edge; he then got his claws underneath and flipped it out and over, he had space, and now he could breathe easier.
When Isabella and Cornwallis were attacked the cat was ready to fight too, but when the man had grabbed hold of Isabella and dragged her off towards the coach he knew that she would disappear into the city, perhaps never to be found. She had said she wanted a companion and he had envisaged a life of pampering and luxury. If he didn’t find out where they were taking her, that dream would go the way of all the others — plus the fact that he quite liked helping the investigators.
The coach slewed around a corner and came to an abrupt stop, the wheels screeching as the driver applied the handbrake. The horses were blown from their exertion and lathered in sweat. Fluffy took a peek and saw the driver jump down and fling open the door to the coach.
‘Keep hold of her,’ ordered the driver.
‘You try and keep hold of her; the bitch has nails like talons.’
Fluffy saw the driver jump in and then the coach rocked wildly as the three men fought to keep hold of Isabella. A male voice yelled in pain followed by a cry of triumph from Isabella’s.
‘Get your hands off me you malicious evil bastard,’ cried Isabella, as she fought the attackers.
‘See what I mean,’ said one of the men who had been inside with her.
‘Don’t you dare touch me there,’ she yelled indignantly.
‘Ow! Grab her hands; she’s got hold of me gonads!’
Fluffy had a problem; did he go to Isabella’s help now, or wait for a better opportunity? It looked to him as if they were inside a yard with a stable block. He wouldn’t have a problem in getting away, but he doubted that it would be as easy for her. Fluffy knew he had to wait and see what they were going to do.
He heard a thump, and then everything began to get quiet. The motion of the coach slowed until a little bit of peace descended. Fluffy heard the men breathing hard, and then a click as the door opened.
‘Let’s get her out now, then she’s gonna be her problem and not ours,’ said one of the men.
The others obviously agreed, as shortly after there came a scraping noise, and then a grunt, and then they carried an unconscious Isabella out of the coach and across the yard to the back entrance of a house. Fluffy waited for a few seconds and then jumped down to follow.
They’d left the back door open as they went through, but that didn’t matter, as they were obviously cat lovers in the house as the door had a flap built into it. Fluffy grinned and knew he had an escape route. He tentatively edged his way into the house and saw the men carrying Isabella go around the corner of the corridor and then into another room. He ran forward and watched as they kicked open a door and went through. Fluffy saw there were steps leading down and he waited, and then they took Isabella through yet another door, which unfortunately this time banged shut. Fluffy waited for a few seconds before padding down the steps to the bottom. He sat down and licked his paws.
A crash startled the cat as something hit the wall. ‘Who do you call this, then?’ screamed a voice. Another crash came, followed by lots of tinkling noises. ‘I told you to get the girl he was with, not this one.’ Then a thwack, as something solid hit something squidgy.
‘Ow! That hurt!’
‘It’ll hurt a bloody sight more in a minute, can’t you do anything right?’
‘Gordon got killed; Cornwallis did it. This girl was with him. Ow! Don’t do that!’
Fluffy grinned to himself.
‘You are all bloody useless; if we still had Maxwell here, he’d use your sodding heads as doorstops. I’ve lost count of how many times you’ve managed to bugger it all up.’
Another crash and something else disintegrated, quickly followed by another thwack and then a low groan. ‘Get out all of you; I now have another problem to sort out, thanks to you.’
Fluffy dived up the stairs and skidded around the corner, just as the basement door flew open and the men inside rushed up, covering their heads from the missiles that followed after. The door below banged shut and the men at last slowed to a halt.
‘Could have been worse,’ observed one of the men after they got their breath back.
*
THEY HAD SEARCHED ALL night. MacGillicudy had got half the Yard looking as well, but they couldn’t find any sign of the coach, and even worse, no sign of Isabella. The trail had quickly gone cold. They had checked with Algernon and his band of watchers, but there had been no movement at any of the locations under watch. Everything had drawn a blank. They had even checked the warehouses, and took a quick look at the brothel, but all appeared silent. As they trudged forlornly back to the office all three were in despair.
Rose stoked up the fire and brewed a fresh cup of coffee. All of them tired out from searching and they needed to take a few minutes to think. They were getting nowhere running around the city like headless chickens, they had to stop, work it all out and come up with a plan; unfortunately, at the moment, nobody could come up with one.
‘If what that man said was true,’ reasoned Rose, as she set the mugs down on the table, ‘then at some point they are going to have to get her out of the city. If the plan is to sell her out east then they will need a ship.’
Frankie nodded. ‘And that means the docks.’
Cornwallis looked at the two of them through eyes full of remorse, he blamed himself for the situation and the guilt weighed heavy. ‘You’re just forgetting one thing, Rose, I don’t really want to point this out, but they weren’t after Isabella; they were after you. As soon as they realise they haven’t got you, what will they do?’
If Cornwallis felt guilty, then Rose felt the guilt equally so. She had inadvertently escaped being kidnapped, and should therefore feel relieved. But she didn’t. She felt as if it was her fault that Isabella had ended up in the hands of these evil greedy people, and possibly faced a fate far worse than she would have done. ‘Thanks, Jack, it’s not as though this is easy for me. I know what should have happened; perhaps you’d have felt better if they had taken me instead.’
‘You’re being silly now, Rose. Of course I wouldn’t feel better, but if I hadn’t kept hold of that man who tried to kill me, then I could have stopped it.’
‘Or have been killed in the process.’
Frankie tried to inject some semblance of reason into the proceedings, a novelty for him. ‘It don’t matter who did what or who didn’t do this, we can’t do nothing about it now, apart from trying our best to find Isabella. At the moment all I hear is you two competing to see who is feeling worse about it. I say forget guilt, ‘cause that ain’t gonna help anybody now. We’re sure it’s all tied up with Kintersbury, so I say, let’s go grab the bastard and squeeze him ‘til he squeaks.’
Cornwallis and Rose stared at Frankie for a moment because he’d hit the nail on the head; they were each trying to outdo the other in the guilt department, and in so doing were forgetting what they should in fact be doing. Cornwallis held up his hands. ‘You’re right, Frankie.’ He turned back to Rose and apologised. ‘I’m sorry, Rose, I know we both feel like shit about this, but feeling shit is not helping matters. It’s not our fault; the fault lies with the bastards who grabbed Isabella.’
From somewhere Rose found a smile, the first one since they had left the Jerkey Turkey late last night. ‘It’s all right, Jack, I think we’re all tired and worn out and our tempers are a bit frayed; that’s not really helping much.’
‘Good morning,’ trilled Mrs Gridlington, as she breezed into the office. ‘My, my. Look at you all, anyone would think that you’ve been up all night.’
Cornwallis snapped his head up and painted on a smile of welcome. ‘Good morning, Mrs Gridlington, I didn’t realise that was the time,’ he responded, checking his pocket watch. ‘We haven’t had a very successful night, I’m afraid, so are not looking our best. You’re a bit early aren’t you?’
‘Tch, tch. Never mind I’m sure. Yes, I am a little; I thought I’d pop in first to see if you need me to do anything. Mr Gridlington is a bit unwell this morning, but this being only my second day, you know, what would it look like if I didn’t turn up? I told him I’d pop back a little later, if that was all right with you?’
‘Unwell, you say?’ said Cornwallis.
Mrs Gridlington nodded.
‘Then I suggest you go home and look after him. There’s nothing here that can’t wait a day or two.’
Mrs Gridlington looked surprised. ‘Are you sure, Mr Cornwallis? It looks like you three could do with a little looking after, I’m sure he won’t mind.’
‘No, no. You go. We have a lot to think about, and to be frank, we would be better off thinking without you here. We don’t want to burden you with our little problems.’
‘Oh dear, you do sound very depressed. Incidentally, a gentleman handed me this letter to give to you as I came in.’ She fished out the letter from her pocket and handed it over.
Cornwallis took the letter and slid his fingernail down the edge; he pulled out the contents and then began to read. Suddenly all his weariness drained away and he sat up in attention. He read the note again and then handed it to Rose. ‘Who gave you this?’ he demanded.
‘Oh, a gentleman downstairs, but he’s gone now. He tapped me on the shoulder and said to give it to you. Is it important?’
‘Yes, Mrs Gridlington, it is. What did he look like?’
‘Oh, I didn’t really get to look at him. Just an average sort of man, I suppose.’
Cornwallis sighed as Rose gave Frankie the note to read.
‘You go and look after your husband. We’ll be all right here,’ said Cornwallis sombrely.
‘Well, if you insist. Toodle pip then, and thank you.’ Mrs Gridlington blessed them all with a smile and then departed.
When the door closed, Cornwallis reached for the note again. ‘Ten thousand dollars ransom they want. Gornstock Bridge, tonight.’
‘At least we know she’s still alive,’ said Rose, with a little relief. ‘What are we going to do?’
‘Pretend to pay it of course, unless we find out where she is before then. We have all day to work it out.’ Cornwallis’ face took on a steely expression. ‘The bridge is the worst place for them for an exchange; we can seal off both ends.’
‘Bastards,’ exclaimed Frankie vehemently. ‘If they harm her, I’ll rip them apart with my bare hands.’
For the next few minutes, they went over all the possibilities and ramifications of the ransom demand. The act of receiving it had nudged them back into positive thinking and suggestions were coming thick and fast. They were so engrossed in contriving a workable action plan that nobody heard the scratching at the door, and it wasn’t until a howl like a banshee assaulted their senses that they realised that something out there wanted to get in.
Rose jumped up and flung the door back on its hinges to reveal Fluffy sitting outside. The cat regarded Rose with a look of utter contempt before standing up and striding in with his tail stuck up high in the air.
‘Well, look what the ca...’ began Frankie, before realising that the cat actually brought itself in.
Fluffy looked disdainfully at Frankie before turning his attention to Cornwallis. He jumped up on the desk and sat down with a superior look on his face. ‘Youse wondering where I got to, ain’t youse?’
‘I expect some back alley somewhere,’ replied Frankie with a sneer. ‘Hiding perhaps?’
‘That’s not fair, Frankie,’ replied Rose, regaining her chair. ‘You can hardly expect a cat to tackle a man with a knife.’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ said Cornwallis calmly to Frankie, ‘Fluffy owes us nothing; he’s already been more than helpful.’
Fluffy lay down and purred. ‘I can be even more helpful now, if youse wants to know.’
‘Really? How?’
‘Because while youse lot were scrapping and running, I got on the coach.’
‘What?’ exclaimed Cornwallis, his head snapping up.
The cat had everybody’s attention now.
‘How?’ ‘Where did it go?’ ‘What happened to Isabella?’ The questions were suddenly pouring out of them, while Fluffy lay there cleaning his whiskers and enjoying the attention.
Fluffy explained what had happened and how someone decided to lock the cat flap, trapping him in the house, however, the wait was worth it, as he overheard that they planned to send Isabella overseas, where she would be auctioned off to the highest bidder. Fluffy didn’t know when they were to do this, but he assumed it would be soon. In the meantime, they held her in the cellar at the house, but he couldn’t get in to see her as they kept the door locked. There were five men and a woman guarding her, and the woman screamed the place down when the men turned up with the wrong girl. She eventually recovered and decided to make as much money as she could out of the failure. It wasn’t until this morning that anyone in the house ventured outside, giving Fluffy the opportunity to escape. Rose had shown him the office when she brought him back the other day and again last night to meet up with MacGillicudy, but Fluffy still had to find it. It took a lot of going up blind alleys until he eventually came across somewhere he recognised and could make his way here. Of course, he didn’t relate everything to Cornwallis, as that would have given the game away about how they had all followed him last night.
‘That settles it then, the ransom note is a ruse,’ deducted Cornwallis, when Fluffy had finished. ‘They just sent it to buy some time. They don’t want us digging around and finding out where they are, which means they plan to move her on today. They’re hoping that we won’t do anything until after the deadline.’ He grinned mirthlessly. ‘But they are going to be wrong.’
‘And you think you can find this place again?’ asked Rose.
The cat grinned. ‘Of course I cans, what do youse take me for?’
‘In that case,’ said Cornwallis. ‘What are we waiting for?’
The cat’s information had galvanised them into action, renewing their energy straight away.
Cornwallis and Frankie made sure they were well armed, but Rose made do with just a small dagger. They would have to inform MacGillicudy as they might need a few more men to help storm the address. Fluffy described the layout of the house the best he could, adding that it had a communal stable and a yard out back. Cornwallis listened attentively, being thankful that because of the cat’s quick thinking they would soon be able to save Isabella. Anything else they might find out would be a bonus.
Fluffy led, and the three people followed frustratingly behind. The cat had eventually found them in Hupplemere Mews but he’d taken a lot of detours on the way; and by retracing his steps, he did the same, because he followed his scent trail. Fluffy had sprayed at virtually every street corner and the cat now admitted that it began to get a little confusing, as his scent had got mixed up with all the other cats that had passed by.
‘We’s a getting closer now,’ Fluffy confirmed, as he sniffed at a particularly rank piece of boarding. He twitched his whiskers and headed off down a fetid alley. ‘Definitely came this way, recognise this bit.’
‘We’re going in circles,’ observed Frankie, his frustration increasing. ’This is a cut through back to Buryshaft Lane. We’ve already been down there.’
Rose was more understanding. ‘He’s got to go the way he came, it might take us a while, but he’ll get us there in the end.’
‘Yeah, but will the end be too late?’
Cornwallis set his face hard as they followed the cat; he kept his impatience more in check than Frankie did, but that didn’t stop his mind from screaming at the cat to hurry up. Then half way down the alley the cat stopped, his hackles rose and he went into stalking mode. Behind him, the three investigators stopped and waited for a moment; as Cornwallis opened his mouth to say something, Fluffy shot off beneath a railing and into an old building. Cornwallis, Rose and Frankie looked at each other; in the end, Rose ventured the question.
‘Do you think we’re there? This doesn’t look like the terrace house he described.’
Frankie shook his head slowly. ‘Why-oh-why are we following a bloody cat?’
‘Because the cat’s the only one who knows where they’re holding Isabella,’ replied Cornwallis, tight-lipped.
Fluffy crept out from under the railings looking as sheepish as a cat ever could. ‘Sorry, saw a mouse,’ he said by way of an excuse. ‘Difficult to stop the old urges youse knows.’
Frankie sighed. ‘Any more of that and I can assure you, I’ll find a way,’ and then he mimed wringing a neck.
‘No needs fer that, a cats gotta do what a cats gotta do,’ he said indignantly.
‘Let’s get going,’ interjected Cornwallis, seeing that the two of them could keep this up for hours. ‘Time is passing and we don’t need arguments.’
‘Not arguing,’ said Fluffy, huffily, before running to the end of the alley and taking a sniff.
Fortunately, there were no more cat excursions after mice or rats or any other edible small rodent, and the rest of the journey passed without incident.
Nearly an hour after they set off they came close to the House of the Assembly, and for the first time in an age they just waved to Frankie’s mum instead of taking a break and eating a free lunch. As they crossed the road, Fluffy seemed to be more confident in his location and now set out with a determination born of knowledge. He stopped sniffing the scent trail, and with his tail held high, he confidently walked down the Trand. They dodged all the people and traffic then turned into a side street, then another turn into a side street, and Cornwallis felt a sense of foreboding descend. If they turned left at the bottom of this street, it would confirm what had just gone through his mind.
They turned left.
Cornwallis swore to himself as they stood at the corner and looked over towards Havelock Crescent. Last night there had been no sign of anyone in the building, no lights, no nothing, just deathly quiet. They had been so close, but they hadn’t realised it, and here they were again. A brothel of all places; they should have realised that a brothel should have customers coming in and out of the place. Fluffy confirmed that they had been aiming here all along, and he indicated the house that held Isabella by running over and sitting outside. It confirmed it all.
‘We are definitely going to need some more bodies,’ decided Cornwallis, thinking the situation through. ‘We are going to have to be patient for a while longer.’
Frankie went for reinforcements while Cornwallis and Rose kept an eye on the place, hoping against hope that they weren’t too late. Rose stayed on the street corner watching the front of the house, while Cornwallis made his way to the back with the cat. He strained at the leash as he desperately wanted to go ahead himself and force a rescue, but with the probability of there being at least six of them inside, he reckoned his chances were remote. Better to wait just a little while longer and be certain of success.
Fluffy brought him around to the stables and showed him the back gate into the house, which appeared firmly shut; but whether locked or not, he couldn’t take the risk to find out. The stable block looked like a good vantage point as a little hayloft overlooked the yard. He pushed open the door and poked his head inside. The heads of five horses stared back at him from the neat row of stalls; they regarded him with interest to start with, but that soon wained, as if to say if you haven’t brought any titbits, then you can just sod off. Cornwallis ignored them and looked for the ladder to take him up to the hayloft. The horses snickered one by one as he walked past them with Fluffy; the cat looking up at them disdainfully as if to say you’re banged up, but I’m not. The horses looked back at Fluffy as if to say that if you came in here we might change our mind about being vegetarian.
Cornwallis came to where the ladder leant against the loft. The stable block was shaped like the letter “F”, and there in the first “-“ of the “F”, they found the battered coach from last night. He gave himself a wry grin, then climbed the ladder and kicked a path through the loose hay to the loft door. He knelt down to look through the slats, and found he had a good view of the houses opposite, being able to see over the wall and into the garden, where he could observe both the back door and the privy, and he could see who would use it. A technicality entered his mind, and he decided that it was a long drop, old technology but still useful; it just meant that some unfortunate servant would have to go down periodically and clean off the pebble dash. He had a much better one, up to date and inside the house too. It had a water cistern fed from the tank on the roof, and a u-bend just after the pan which stopped it from smelling. Strange what entered the mind when a long quiet wait beckoned, he thought. He sent Fluffy back to Rose to tell her he had found a good position, and then settled down to wait, hoping that Frankie wouldn’t be too long in bringing the reinforcements.
Rose found it a little more difficult to be inconspicuous, the street corner being not perhaps the best place to stand when observing a brothel. A few people passed by giving her curious glances, but her own imagination did the rest. Street corner. Brothel. Girl standing nonchalantly. How many of them know there’s a brothel here, she wondered? That would be the second time in a matter of days that someone had mistaken her for a lady of easy virtue. She decided to move around a bit, always keeping the house under observation. The park seemed a nice place to take a stroll, but would that be worse? Virtually all the other girls she has seen around this residential district wore long dresses, and most had a hat. She wore trousers and a jacket, which definitely placed her in the working fraternity, and as the trousers weren’t far off being of the painted on variety, her standing near a brothel might have indicated what work she did. So perhaps she could understand the looks she received. And, she continued thinking, if it wasn’t for her spurning Jack, then Isabella wouldn’t have been kidnapped, because Jack wouldn’t have gone to the Inn to see the ghost and hope to indulge in the afters. She still felt guilty, not only because Isabella had been kidnapped, but because after they had spoken for a while she found she actually liked her, and thought that they would be friends. Isabella had told her that one look from her, and how Jack had looked at her when they’d come in, was enough to know that whatever might have happened would definitely not happen now, and besides, she quite liked Frankie too.
She sighed, and Fluffy sighed. Rose looked down at the cat, who she had not noticed come back, and bent down to ruffle his neck.
‘He’s in the hay loft out back, he sent me to sees if youse is all right,’ purred Fluffy.
‘I am. It’s just a matter of waiting now.’
Cornwallis watched the door and the windows through the slats, hoping that they wouldn’t move just yet. He piled up some hay to make it more comfortable and settled back down. He cast his eyes along the windows of all the houses and noticed that he could see inside relatively easily. Little dramas were being played out, and here he sat, watching it all. It reminded him of working on suspected adultery cases, but with more of an edge to it. A movement took his eye along the row and he could see a maid at the window polishing. He counted the hands and made it four. He screwed up his brow in thought and then watched as two of the hands began to wrap around her waist. She began to giggle, and part of him wished he’d bought one of those new-fangled seeing-up-close devices that had just come on the market in order to see better. He slapped his wrist and returned his attention back to where it should be. A curtain twitched in the upstairs window and he concentrated, trying hard to see who twitched it; but he just saw a shadow, so he put away the information that someone was up there. The back door flew open and a man hurried to the privy with a rolled up newspaper tucked under his arm. That looked like it could be a long one, he thought, hoping the seat was full of splinters. The back door opened again and this time two more men came out, but this time they went past the privy, but took the opportunity to bang on the door and laugh. They then headed for the back gate, opened it, and walked through; with a degree of concern, he then saw them come towards the stables.
He hunkered down low as they opened the big double doors, listening intently to hear what they were up to as they came in; they swore profusely and headed straight for the coach to drag it outside.
‘Haven’t long put the buggering thing away and she wants it bloody out again,’ says one of them.
‘Aye,’ agrees the other. ‘She’s never sodding happy. This should be the last time for a while though, gonna take her guest down to the docks to wait in the warehouse for the ship to come in.’
Cornwallis snapped to attention.
‘Oh right, well thank the Gods fer that. You gonna drive?’
‘Hmmm,’ affirmed the driver.
‘That old git Kintersbury didn’t stay long, where’d he go?’
‘I overheard him saying he had to go to the bank; then him and Dumchuck were going to the Collider later, what a waste of money, eh? I could retire in luxury for just a fraction of what they charge for that thing.’
‘Probably getting the bank to pay for it. As long as it don’t come out of our money, eh?’
Cornwallis couldn’t believe his luck, Dumchuck and Kintersbury, neatly wrapped.
They dragged the coach out and then returned for the two horses. Cornwallis wracked his brain trying to think of a way to nobble the coach, as he knew that he and Rose had little chance of taken them on their own.
He watched through the slats as they harnessed the horses to the coach and then they tied up the reins to a hook on the post. They then started laughing at some joke as they headed back inside the house.
Cornwallis didn’t have much time. He jumped down and moved to the door and pulled out his knife, he checked to make sure they hadn’t come back and crept out. The horses looked at him suspiciously and backed off a bit as they saw the knife, but he patted one of them on the haunches and they settled back down. He then proceeded to cut the traces, leaving just a thread between the halves. The horses seemed to know what he planned to do and he could have sworn they were grinning. He dived back inside the stables just in time, as the gate opened and one of the men came back out. Cornwallis prayed that he wouldn’t notice the sabotage.
Fluffy appeared again just as he began to climb up the ladder, he paused, and then took the couple of steps back down. ‘Go and tell Rose they’re trying to take Isabella to the warehouse on the docks. I’ve done my best to stop them, so if she sees two horses going hell-for-leather then I have, if she sees a coach still attached then I haven’t. Got that?’
‘Fer...!’ whined Fluffy. ‘Yer gonna wear me legs out.’
He watched the cat disappear and then began to climb the ladder again. He got to his vantage point just at the right time as four men marched out of the door, pulling Isabella with them. They looked quickly as they got to the gate and then hurried to the coach. The man who’d come out first, flung open the door and the four pushed and pulled her in. Isabella didn’t make it easy for them as she fought like a tiger, kicking out and twisting this way and that. The door slammed shut and the driver climbed up to his seat and took a deep breath.
Cornwallis crossed his fingers as the driver picked up the reins and then let off the handbrake; he adjusted himself a little to get comfortable and then snapped the reins, shouting ‘Gee, ah.’ The horses didn’t move, so he swore and snapped the reins again, still nothing happened so he fished down the side and came up with a whip. He tightened his grip and shouted at the same time as cracking the thing. The horses snorted, and then took off like a ferret after a rabbit.
There were two problems for the driver. The first of which were Cornwallis’ doctoring of the traces, which had the effect of at first a slight movement of the coach, closely followed by a loud snap as the traces parted company, and hence a gentle roll forward a few feet before coming to a stop. The second problem was that the driver had looped the reins around his wrist which tightened into a knot the moment the horses took off. The drivers face contorted in pain as the reins gripped, and then he realised that he would shortly become airborne, only to stop being airborne at some point within the next few seconds, which would undoubtedly hurt; a lot. His mouth opened in a scream, but it shut off pretty quickly as the ground rushed up to meet him, which resulted in an oomph noise followed by a rasping sound, and then his mouth found the scream that he’d lost and he wailed in pain. The horses were enjoying themselves; they went from standing still to a gallop in just a few short yards, and by the time the driver had made contact with the ground they were going at full pelt. They hammered out of the yard and then turned into the street, sensing a freedom that they could only have dreamt about; the time had come to pay back all those whippings they’d got in the past. The driver’s ordeal lasted for just a few short seconds, for after the third long bounce he lapsed into unconsciousness as his head hit the ground. He had a moment’s lucidity before oblivion took over, and he wished he’d listened to his mother after all and had taken that job in the funeral parlour.
Cornwallis grinned in satisfaction as the horseless coach ground to a halt. A head poked out of the window to see what had happened and spat an expletive. The first head dipped back inside and then another head appeared momentarily before it too disappeared. The door on the far side crashed open and all the occupants, including Isabella, poured out and hurried back to the house. None of them even thought about going after the hapless driver.
Rose listened to Fluffy and watched the well-dressed distinguished man, who had just walked past her, knock at the house. The door opened, just as a noise diverted her attention. At first, she heard the thundering of hooves, before looking around and seeing the two horses come hammering down the Crescent and then turn into the street towards her. She then noticed a bundle of rags dragged behind before identifying it as a person as it sped past. Her gaze followed the tableau, and as she raised her eyes, she saw Frankie come hurrying around the corner. He had a group in tow, and from that group she saw two figures detach themselves and step into the street; one looked like Big George and the other looked like Chalkie from the docks. The horses took one look at the two bears and skidded abruptly to a stop, panting and snorting from their exertion. Rose dare not think what the facial expression of one of the horses would have been, because the driver, bouncing along behind them, was still in mid-air as the horses stopped, their tails high in the air. The momentum carried him through the air until his head entered a horse, just below the raised tail, and even from that distance, Rose could hear the squelch. The aim was perfect! The horse reared at the unwanted attention in its back passage and began to dance around in order to get rid of the obstacle. The drivers knees bounced on the ground, before at long last his head slipped out and the hapless driver’s ordeal came to an end. She couldn’t take her eyes away from the drama for a few moments, and when she finally managed to drag her eyes back up to the house, the man had disappeared inside.
Frankie pulled up puffing from all his running. ‘What’s that all about?’ he asked, pointing at the driver lying unconscious on the ground.
She explained it was probably one of the men holding Isabella.
Frankie grinned evilly. ‘Well, he ain’t dead, unfortunately, but he’s definitely full of horse shit.’
MacGillicudy turned up with a bunch of feelers in tow, including Dewdrop. He told them that he had a hurry-up wagon on its way and it should be there shortly. Gerald and a few of his heavies also made an appearance, because as he put it, “Someone had gone and shat on his turf, so he would go and have a shit on theirs.”
Fluffy then rushed back to Cornwallis with the news of the man at the door and the arrival of Frankie with the additional man/bearpower, and what did he want them to do?
It all began to happen now; Rose could hardly keep pace with events.
*
MRS FITCHLEY OPENED the door and saw Bertram Radstock standing there with a smile on his face.
‘Oh, Mr Radstock. What, er, a surprise.’
‘Yes, Mrs Fitchley, it’s me. I know I don’t as a rule come during the day, but I’ve had a particularly torrid time in the House, and the mistress did say to call anytime.’
‘Oh... er, yes, but...’
Just then, she heard the thunder of the horses and saw the coach-less equines come haring out from behind. Her eyes widened for just a moment and then she pulled Radstock inside. Something had gone wrong. She hurriedly ushered Radstock into the parlour and closed the door behind her.
‘I don’t think it’s very convenient at the moment, Mr Radstock, the mistress is somewhat busy, I’m afraid,’ she explained, agitatedly.
‘Oh, I don’t mind waiting, anticipation is half of it, you know,’ beamed back Radstock.
‘Right, erm... Just wait here a moment.’ A kerfuffle came from the hall and she whipped her head around at the noise, ‘I’ll just go and see...’
She smiled thinly, yanked the door open, and quickly stepped into the hall. She took a moment for a breath then hurried through to the back door where the little entourage that should have been on the way to the docks stood around looking confused.
‘What happened?’ she barked.
‘Sommat went wrong wiv the ‘orses and coach,’ explained one of them. ‘It all broke. It weren’t our fault; it was Broddy, ‘e were meant to be driving.’
Mrs Fitchley swore and then gathered her thoughts. ‘Upstairs, and take her with you. Keep your hands off her and make sure she doesn’t get away; and keep her quiet. Now off with you quick, I’ll deal with it all later.’
The four of them dragged Isabella towards the stairs and then up, all trying to go upstairs at once, jamming it, like a cork in a bottle. Mrs Fitchley watched and then slowly shook her head as the jam cleared and they managed to disappear around the bend in the stairs. Without giving them another thought, she hurried to the back room and down the stairs to the basement, quickly tidying up after Isabella’s incarceration. When she’d done that, she rushed back up the stairs and then stood outside the parlour to get her breath back. She calmed herself and then opened the door.
She smiled at Mr Radstock. ‘The Mistress has agreed to see you, but the price will be double as you have no appointment. I’m afraid she wants payment in advance today.’
Radstock nodded agreement; he considered the money well spent. He counted it out and handed it over. ‘Thank you, Mrs Fitchley, I’m sure she’ll treat me that extra bit special, she does so like a willing customer.’ He waited a moment, hoping for a cup of tea and biscuits, but it seemed that today he would be disappointed, tea appeared off the menu.
Mrs Fitchley ushered him out and down the corridor; she had a quick look upstairs and listened briefly, but it seemed as if they were at last doing as they were told. She showed Radstock into the back room and opened the door to the basement, smiled at him as she reminded him about the bottom step, and then shut the door. Radstock descended the stairs and went into his favourite room to wait.
As normal, Radstock began without being told. He picked up a cloth and began to polish all the ornaments in the basement. It seemed quite a while later, when he had gone through nearly half of them, that the door opened and Miss Lena came in. She carried a particularly nasty looking three thronged leather punisher in one hand and a long whip in the other; Radstock felt his heart quicken.
‘You started before I told you again, Radstock.’ She cracked the long whip. ‘That means you will be punished. Everything off. Now,’ she ordered.
Radstock obliged, feeling his excitement increase.
*
CORNWALLIS FELT CONFIDENT that they had more than enough assistance to deal with anything they would find in the house and to free Isabella unharmed. He decided a cordon of feelers outside the front of the house should prevent anyone from running away, while everyone else, including the bears, would go in through the back and then pass out to the feelers everyone they caught. MacGillicudy insisted on going in with the rest, and Dewdrop pleaded to go too. Rose, still feeling sorry for his embarrassment on the docks, persuaded Cornwallis to agree to Dewdrop’s request.
Frankie, Rose, MacGillicudy and Dewdrop, plus two other feelers, stood in the yard waiting to go in the gate. Gerald and two of his men, Snuffler and Conk, along with Cornwallis, Fluffy and the two bears, waited too. Cornwallis told Big George and Chalkie to wait outside the back door, because they were far too big to go marauding through a house without getting in the way, and grab anyone they didn’t recognise. The rest of them were to go in and methodically search.
MacGillicudy, Dewdrop and the two feelers were to do the ground floor, Gerald and his men to do the first floor. The top two floors were for himself, Rose, Frankie and Fluffy. He checked that everyone knew what they were doing and then grinned. He felt he should give a little speech to get them in the mood, but a look at all their faces told him that if he did they wouldn’t be responsible for their actions. He kicked open the back gate and they all went in.
Something jogged Cornwallis’ memory as they went through in a rush, he stopped and spoke quickly to Big George and Chalkie and then carried on. Frankie kicked the back door open and they stormed in.
George and Chalkie grinned at one another and then turned to the door of the privy. Cornwallis had remembered he had seen one man go in, but he hadn’t seen him come out again. George knocked politely on the door and received a reply.
‘Sod off, I ain’t finished yet.’
Chalkie yanked on the door and pulled it open.
The man inside sat comfortably with his trousers around his ankles reading the back page of the paper. He looked up and opened his mouth to issue a response to the intrusion when he abruptly changed his mind. Chalkie reached inside with his paw and flicked out his claws one by one. The man stared dumbstruck at the deadly talons as they each appeared in sequence. Chalkie issued a low growl and bared his teeth, then swiped down at the paper, shredding it in one fell swoop. Having already finished what he had gone in there to do and now just bided his time to finish the paper, the appearance of the two bears and the shredding of his paper had the remarkable effect of inducing another urge, which dissipated remarkable quickly as he fell forward in a faint. George craned his neck through the door and sighed in disappointment. Chalkie reached down, grabbed the man by the ankles, and dragged him outside, still with his trousers at half-mast.
As the rest of them went in, a door in the corridor came open. A head appeared, but it took too long to compute what was going on. Dewdrop, closest to the head, held his trusty truncheon in his hand; whether a reflex or a reaction to his humiliation on the docks, he couldn’t have said, because where normally he would have turned tail and run, this time he didn’t. He raised the weapon and brought it crashing down on the top of the man’s head with a thwack sound, a grunt followed, and then the man collapsed. Cornwallis grinned and patted Dewdrop on the back before rushing up the stairs.
Gerald and his men dived into the corridor on the first floor and began to kick open the doors one by one, while Cornwallis and Rose headed further up with Fluffy. A scream came from the first floor and Frankie stopped, a female scream, more than likely Isabella’s, so he yelled to Cornwallis that he intended staying there. Cornwallis called back his agreement and carried on up.
They found the second floor empty as they quickly searched the rooms, then Fluffy ran up the next flight of stairs, closely followed by Rose. At the top, she began to peer into all the rooms before finding one that had an incumbent. She stopped, and stared, and the man inside smiled back.
‘Jack,’ she yelled down. ‘Jack, I think you should come up.’ She then noticed an arm on the sill of the window.
Fluffy saw it too and leapt. His claws sprang out and he raked the arm, then sunk his teeth into the flesh and bit down hard; a yell came from outside and the arm was yanked away. Fluffy very nearly went with it, but just managed to jump down in time. Rose hurried over to the window and saw a man sliding down the drainpipe.
‘George,’ she yelled, and the big brown bear looked up.
The man had got half way down when Rose yelled, and he made the mistake of twisting his head to look below, swallowing hard as he realised that two bears and an unconscious looking colleague awaited him. His choices were limited. He looked up as Rose looked down and she blessed him with a knowing smile, his chances of getting away were somewhere between nil and none. He decided to risk it and jumped. Chalkie still had the first man in his hand, and as the escapee jumped, he began to swing his arm. A polar bear is perhaps one of the strongest animals around, and the man in his hand felt as light as a feather, so he swung hard. As the man landed he came head to head with his friend at a particularly rapid speed of knots, and the sickening crunch of head meeting head set Rose’s teeth on edge.
Cornwallis dived into the room and abruptly stopped, sitting on the bed he saw a man they had been looking for — Roland Goup.
A couple of floors down, Gerald and Frankie had found Isabella. They had also found two more men, one of whom pointed a crossbow at the door, while the other held a knife to Isabella’s throat.
They backed off into the corridor and waited a moment before Gerald shook his head. ‘No point in waitin’. Let’s go get ‘em,’ he said, rubbing his hands.
Frankie nodded. ‘I’ll take the one holding Isabella, you can have the other.’
‘Suits me,’ agreed Gerald. ‘I wonder if ‘e knows about me?’ He then stepped into the door frame and grinned at them. ‘Shall I introduce meself? My name is Gerald, an’ I come from the Brews. What do I call you, dead an’ deader perhaps?’
They had obviously heard of the King of the Brews as they quickly looked at each other with a worried glance.
‘Well, my boys, are we going to do this the easy way, or are yer going to make it difficult? I’d like you to choose the difficult way because then I won’t feel guilty about what I’m about to do. Now tell me, which o’ you buggers went treading on my territory, eh?’
Frankie stood behind Gerald, and Snuffler and Conk stood behind him. The two men failed to respond to Gerald’s polite enquiry, they just looked two very confused and scared individuals; they didn’t expect all this to happen.
The crossbow wavered and wobbled a bit and then as Gerald stepped in, it fired. The bolt hurtled straight towards Gerald’s chest, but to the amazement of the firer, it went straight through and thudded into the wall.
Gerald grinned.
Frankie had only a moment to act as the man holding the knife dropped his jaw in astonishment. Gerald stepped further in as Frankie stepped towards the knife holder, just as the one holding the crossbow rushed at Gerald. He made a mistake in thinking he would just bowl him over, but instead found that going through Gerald was like wading through treacle. When he emerged from the other side he went straight into the arms of Snuffler and Conk, who gleefully dispensed instant justice. Frankie saw that his man was still open-mouthed; with the knife held against Isabella’s throat, but as the crossbow fired, the knife dropped a little and then fell away completely as he watched his friend dive straight through Gerald. Before he could recover, the man looked up, just as Frankie’s fist came towards his face.
Cornwallis met a grinning Frankie on the landing as he made his way down, a safe and unharmed Isabella clinging onto his arm. He sighed in relief, all had gone to plan, and no one had been hurt; well, none of the good guys anyway.
On the ground floor MacGillicudy called up. ‘You done up there, Jack? Only we’ve just found the cellar.’
They all stood in the back room of the house and listened at the door to the sounds that came up from below. MacGillicudy winced at the thwacking noises, closely followed by cries of pain and a pitiful whimpering moan. ‘If he’s paying for that then he wants his head examined,’ he opined, to everyone’s agreement.
Cornwallis decided they had to clear the house once and for all. He began to descend the stairs, followed by Rose and MacGillicudy and then Dewdrop and Gerald. Frankie held back until last, as Isabella still clung onto his arm and he got to like it. The bottom step creaked and then splintered, and Cornwallis had to move quickly before it gave way. He listened for a few moments, concerned that the noise of the step had given away their presence; but he needn’t have worried, as another thwack came and then a moan. The moan turned to a whimper and he decided that the time to finish had arrived; he then slowly turned the door handle.
The door opened and everybody began to pile through. Once inside, they all looked at a sight that none of them had ever seen before. The woman wore high-heeled thigh-high leather boots, a leather thong, and a tiny leather support for her chest; there was absolutely no doubt that she was superbly built.
‘Wow,’ said Dewdrop, his tongue hanging out.
She wore a leather mask and had long dark hair down to her waist. Her elbow length gloves held two whips, both directed at a naked man standing on a little turntable. Above his head, he had his arms tied to a similar turntable, and the whole seemed to spin around. They had come through the door at the same time as the woman struck, and the man moaned again. Rose’s eyes widened as he obviously enjoyed the experience.
The woman spun her head at the intrusion. She hesitated for just a moment, and then struck out at Cornwallis with the long whip, cracking the air. He just managed to get his arm up in time, but felt the sting as the end whipped around his wrist, but then he yanked back with his arm and the whip flew out of her hand. Dewdrop had obviously found his courage a little earlier when he had smacked the man on the head, because now he raised his truncheon and stepped towards the woman.
‘I am arresting y—’ He never got any further as the woman grabbed hold of his truncheon and pulled him towards her. She expertly spun him, wrapping her arm around his throat and pulling him tight in against her. His legs buckled, and his head nestled between two very interesting looking earmuffs.
The man spun and then came to a stop facing Cornwallis and the others.
‘Oh, Gods,’ he whined, as his excitement waned.
‘Radstock!’ exclaimed Cornwallis, recognising the man. ‘It’s Bertram bloody Radstock!’
‘Oh, Gods,’ he whined again.
The woman dragged Dewdrop over to the side and grabbed a silver toasting fork off the table, she held it out towards Cornwallis and began to manoeuvre her way to the door. As she edged closer she kept everyone away with repeated stabs of the fork, but then Dewdrop excelled himself. He turned his head until he had the left one in reach of his mouth and bit down hard. The woman screamed, dropping Dewdrop like a hot coal. Cornwallis took his chance and pounced.
Cornwallis had the sensation of feeling soft warm flesh as he flung himself onto her. They clattered to the floor and he heard the rush of air as it gushed out of her lungs. He reached for the fork and managed to dislodge it from her grip, just as Rose and MacGillicudy dived on top. The short fight was over quickly as her arms were now pinned to the side. Cornwallis breathed, relaxed, and then remembered what and whom he was lying on top of; he then scrambled to get up.
Dewdrop had regained his footing and stood looking at the woman with a mixture of admiration, desire, and distaste. She had been perspiring with the effort of using the whip and he could still taste her salt in his mouth. He licked his lips, his mind full of “what if’s?”
As Rose and MacGillicudy dragged her to her feet, she seemed to sag, as it now dawned on her that the game had finished.
Cornwallis stepped closer, and then reached out to grab her mask. ‘Let’s see who we are, shall we?’ he said, prising the mask up.
He stood back, and he stared in shock.
‘Mrs Fitchley,’ exclaimed Radstock, from his upright spit.
‘No, it isn’t,’ replied Cornwallis, shaking his head. ‘It’s Mrs Gridlington!’
From somewhere she found a smile and held her head up high. ‘That’s the second handful you’ve had off me, Jack Cornwallis, but if you let me go, I’ll let you have as many handfuls as you like.’
Cornwallis chuckled wryly and shook his head. ‘Thank you for the offer, but I don’t think I’ll take it up, but you could tell me why.’
She chewed her lip for a moment, and part of him felt gratified to see that she seemed a little disappointed. ‘Why what? If you mean why did I come to work for you? It’s so that I could know what you were up to and where you were going. You were getting to be quite a nuisance. It’s just a pity that I got saddled with amateurs who couldn’t do their jobs properly.’
‘No, not that. I mean Isabella.’
She laughed. ‘It wasn’t meant to be her, only the boys got it wrong. It should have been this one,’ and she tilted her head towards Rose. ‘A pity, as she would have made some good money for me; mind, Miss Thrape would have brought in a bob or two too.’
‘You had no intention of releasing her then, you sent that ransom note just to give you time to get away?’
‘Release her? Of course not, we would have been well away by then.’
‘On the ship? The Greyhawk?’
Mrs Gridlington stared at Cornwallis, her composure beginning to slip; she looked a bit worried now.
‘It wouldn’t have arrived; it’s currently in the hands of... Well, let’s just say we have it safe,’ he continued.
Her eyes widened and Cornwallis grinned.
‘You have the gold then,’ she replied deflated. It was a statement, not a question, and Cornwallis remembered that the Bagman had said they’d found nothing. He didn’t think the Bagman would lie about that, so where had it gone?
‘And to think I actually liked you,’ said Rose with a sad shake of the head.
Cornwallis decided to change tack. ‘Kintersbury and Dumchuck were taking their orders from you, weren’t they?’
Miss Lena/Mrs Fitchley/Mrs Gridlington nodded. ‘Of course they were; they’re customers of mine. I just persuaded them to take their subservience a little bit further.’
Gerald peered closer at her. ‘Hmmmm,’ he said, thoughtfully. He then snapped his fingers. ‘I know yer, don’t I? Yer Glenda Pilchard, a tuppeny tom from the Brews, ain’t ya?’
She looked at Gerald with loathing. ‘And you would know, wouldn’t you, seeing as you used to take advantage. It’s men like you who made me what I am today. Just use me and discard me, eh? Good for nothing else, eh? A quick knee trembler to clear out the custard, eh? What a man, eh? I probably told you how good you were, that you were a real man, eh? I was just a young girl with no money doing the only thing I could to get by. I got the bruises too, got knocked about a bit. But you wouldn’t have worried about that, no, just whip it out, shove it in, and give it a wiggle. That’s why I decided to do this, time for me to get my own back,’ she spat, contemptuously.
At least Gerald had the decency to look ashamed, and he nodded as if he agreed with her. ‘I wondered where you ‘ad gone,’ he said lamely.
‘But why?’ asked Rose aghast. ‘You would have sent Isabella or me to that sort of life, why?’
She turned her head to look at Rose. ‘Simple. You have it too easy.’
All those arrested were led out of the front door to the waiting feelers. Big George and Chalkie dragged their prisoners through the house and chucked them into the hurry-up, which now had got quite full. They released Radstock, though they were tempted to leave him in situ for quite a while longer.
As they filled up the wagon, a man approached. ‘You’ve done well, Mr Cornwallis,’ said Sparrow. ‘Mr Hawk is going to be pleased. However, you still have the other two to find.’
Cornwallis whipped his head around and regarded the man with distaste. ‘You, Sparrow. Go away. Now.’
He smiled back. ‘I don’t think so. I’ll take care of these fine looking people you have here, thank you.’
Frankie and Rose came and stood either side of Cornwallis. ‘You won’t,’ growled Frankie, ‘they’re all ours.’
Sparrow chuckled. ‘No, I... nuh!’ He didn’t get any further.
Cornwallis stepped forward and let fly with his fist. Sparrow’s head snapped back and the nose sort of collapsed in on itself. Before he hit the ground, he was unconscious.
Cornwallis shook his hand. ‘Ow, that hurt. But by the Gods was it worth it.’
‘What are we going to do with him?’ asked Rose, looking down on Sparrow.
‘Throw him in with the others. Let the Bagman sort it out,’ replied Cornwallis, indifferently. ‘And it’s my guess it will take quite some while. In the meantime we have to go and pick up Kintersbury and Dumchuck, and I know where they are.’
*
THEY FOUND ALGERNON at the Collider, still being diligent, following Kintersbury and Dumchuck out from the bank and into the countryside to the Universal Collider. They were just debating what to do when Cornwallis happened upon them.
MacGillicudy had commandeered a wagon and they’d hurried out with Gerald and Isabella as well, so all in all there were six of them. Rose had been very subdued on the journey out, and Cornwallis could only think it had something to do with Glenda Pilchard. He had tried to break through the barrier, but she had steadfastly refused to let him get inside. Isabella on the other hand hadn’t let it worry her one little bit, and she laughed easily at Frankie’s jokes, a little disconcerting because they were never funny. Even Gerald was unusually quiet, and a polite enquiry just elicited a grunt in reply. So it just left Cornwallis and MacGillicudy to talk between themselves for a while.
They now stared at the edifice built into the hillside as they discussed the best way forward.
‘Why don’t we just wait until they come back out?’ suggested Rose, coming back a little to her normal self. ‘It’s not as though they can get lost in the streets.’
Cornwallis nodded. ‘But they have horses tethered in the compound, and I don’t fancy chasing them all the way back to Gornstock. No, I think we will go in and catch them; they’ll be trapped inside. Algernon here can wait outside, just in case. How many have you with you Algie?’
‘Three and me,’ replied Algernon.
Cornwallis nodded again. ‘Good. If they come out without us then do what you like with them, only don’t let them get away.’
The wagon rolled forward into the entrance to the Universal Collider. Cornwallis had never been here before, as he’d never really seen the point. Why spend all that money trying to find out your future, when the really interesting part of it was to let it all happen without knowing what was going to happen. To his mind, if you found out was going to happen and decided to do something about what you had learnt, then whatever was going to happen wouldn’t happen, so in effect something else would happen, and then where would you be? Having to go back to the Collider to find out what would happen. You would just go around in circles all the time, and nothing would happen except what should happen. So he saw no point in trying to find out what was going to happen in the first place. It seemed simple to him.
They left the wagon tied up in a line of coaches, and the six of them made their way to the entrance. It would be MacGillicudy’s warrant card that would get them in, otherwise it would have be Cornwallis’ pocket, which he was loathed to do, as he knew how deep it would have to be. However, the jobsworth in the Collider wouldn’t let anyone in, not without a paper signed by the Justice, who at that moment probably wondered how his basting experience on the spit had come to an abrupt stop in the cellar. They should have brought Radstock with them. Frustrated they turned tail and walked back outside.
Cornwallis tried to think, and then an idea came into his mind. ‘Gerald,’ he began. ‘Can you remember how you got in all those years ago?’
‘Uh?’ replied Gerald, still in his reflective mood. ‘Oh, right. Erm, yes, I think so. Why?’
‘Because that’s the way we’re going to get in.’
Gerald took them around the back of the Collider to where it looked for all intents and purposes just a hill in the landscape, but as they began to climb up the slope, they saw small vents cut into the hillside.
‘Where’s all the security?’ asked Rose.
‘They don’t think they need it,’ replied Gerald. ‘The vents are locked, so as far as they’re concerned the Collider is secure. This one’ll do.’ They gathered around a small vent with a side opening, and Gerald dug into his pocket. ‘I know I gotta key here somewhere,’ and he smiled at them as he produced the lock-pick.
It didn’t take long with an expert like Gerald. The little lock began to grate, and then it clicked. The bars on the vent swung open slowly, and then all of them looked deep inside.
‘Now the way to get down is to keep pressure on the sides, if yer don’t, it will be like going down one o’ them kiddy slides. An’ keep quiet, as the sound will travel. It’s downhill all the way, so I’ll lead, an’ I’ll try an’ remember the way.’
One by one, they all started to climb in. Cornwallis followed Gerald and then came Rose and MacGillicudy with Isabella behind him. Frankie brought up the rear, making sure he pulled the vent to, but it missed the catch and swung open a bit as he moved on down.
A bit like a caterpillar, the awkward little procession crawled along. There were times when the vent got a little steep, but with care, they slowly made their way into the inner depths of the Collider. Gerald had to think hard at several junctions, but in time, they began to hear the noises of people talking. They were getting close now, and Cornwallis could only hope they were in the right area.
The vent then began to go horizontal, with gaps where short extensions branched down into a room. As they passed over, they looked down, trying to figure out where they were. But as the only person who had been in there before was Gerald, they just had to trust to his memory and judgement.
Soon there came the unmistakable hum of the Collider itself, and everyone knew where they were. Gerald dipped his head down the offshoot and took stock of his bearings. There were a few people about, but he wanted to find an unoccupied room where they could all get down unobserved. He pulled himself back up and pointed along the vent a bit, then slid over and dipped his head down once more. This time he came up satisfied, giving them all a thumbs-up.
He flicked the little catch on the grille and let it drop down gently, stuck his head through to check again and dropped through, then one by one, they all tumbled out. They were in a store room, and Cornwallis walked over to the door and opened it a crack to peer out into the Collider chamber.
It was just as Gerald had described, a big room with what looked like a large mirror on the far wall with desks in front of it lined with toggle like things. There were a few people walking around, but more were sitting at the desks, fiddling with the toggles and looking at the screen. Cornwallis supposed they were trying to focus on something or other, but he couldn’t see either Dumchuck or Kintersbury amongst them.
‘We’ve missed them, they’re not here,’ he said dejectedly, as he shut the door and turned.
Isabella came over and opened the door a crack. ‘I hear there are some private rooms where they link the feed in, so that you can view it undisturbed. Perhaps that’s where they are.’
Cornwallis nodded. ‘Perhaps, but how do we know which one and where it is? It’s not like we can go in there and walk around searching for them.’
‘Why not? Look.’ She backed off and Cornwallis took her place. A group had entered the chamber, and it looked like a guided tour. One of them, presumably the tour leader, began to gesticulate, explaining everything. There seemed to be quite a few of them, so it was possible one or two more wouldn’t be noticed. He beckoned Gerald over and together they slipped out as the group passed the door and joined in at the back. Gerald at least had the advantage of being able to walk through a door, or at least sticking his head through without having to open it first.
The guided tour leader, obviously knowledgeable but far too nerdy for Cornwallis’ liking, dragged the group around, spouting facts in a patronising manner, as if to say, look how clever I am. Each door they passed, Gerald quickly poked his head through, the idea being that even if someone on the other side saw him, they just wouldn’t believe what they were seeing.
The guide then began to tell the group about how all the universes exist at the same time in the same place, albeit in a parallel plane, and that here everything became connected through a fault in the time/space configuration, and that by careful manipulation, someone who knew what they were doing could focus in on a particular moment within a chosen universe, basically, as he put it, to have a good nose at what was happening on the other side. Cornwallis looked up at the big screen and saw the tour group looking back, all of them, including him; except for Gerald, who stood right next to him. He turned his head to look and then turned back to the screen.
Gerald just smiled, because he knew he didn’t exist.
Cornwallis felt a chill go down his back. Although he knew Gerald’s story, here in the Collider it brought it home to him in no uncertain way. There on the screen in front of them — was not Gerald.
He had an urge to ask the guide and see how he dealt with it, but they were here to look for Kintersbury and Dumchuck, so he would have to leave that pleasure for another time. Gerald shoved his head through yet another door, and this time came back with a grin on his face. He twitched his head in the door’s direction, indicating that they had found who they were looking for.
The guide started to look perplexed. He kept looking at the screen and then looking at the crowd of tourists. He scratched his head and then began to count. Cornwallis smiled as he saw him. He nudged Gerald, thankful that his arm didn’t go through him, and cocked his head towards the guide. They didn’t need to panic, instead Cornwallis looked to the store room where the others were peeping out and beckoned them over. The time had come to act, and there would be now something else for the guide to comment on — the arrest of two felons.
MacGillicudy, Frankie, Rose and Isabella poured out of the storeroom to the consternation of everyone in the Collider, and then hurried across the room. The guide watched bemused, not sure what to do, as this had never happened before. MacGillicudy pulled out his warrant card and held it aloft.
‘Police,’ he yelled, above the hum of concern. ‘Please all stay calm and stay exactly where you are.’
The conversations became an excited buzz, much like a swarm of wasps when an idiot with a stick decided to poke the nest. The buzz then settled down as they all waited to see the next instalment in their exciting day.
‘Your key please, Frankie,’ ordered Cornwallis, as the hush descended.
Frankie stepped up and shook his shoulders before bracing himself to kick out. Rose got in first and turned the handle, it clicked and the door swung open.
‘You have a habit of not checking, haven’t you?’ she said sweetly.
Cornwallis coughed and had the decency to look a little contrite, while Frankie just shrugged his shoulders. They quickly regained their composure and piled through the door.
The room was just a smaller version of the main Collider chamber, a big screen dominating the far wall with a bank of controls in front. There a man in a white coat pulled levers behind a protective shield, which stopped him viewing the screen to give the customers total privacy. Standing next to him, and looking up at the screen, were Kintersbury and Dumchuck, both wearing a look of consternation as they saw everyone come through. Gerald caught hold of Isabella and held her back to guard the door, the only door into the room.
‘What’s this?’ demanded the man on the desk, his head whipping around at the sound of the door coming fully open. ‘This is a private viewing.’
‘It was,’ replied Cornwallis easily. ‘But now it’s on general release.’ He looked up at the screen and saw himself staring back, and like a mirror, so were everyone else — apart from Gerald. ‘Did you see this in your viewing?’ he asked Kintersbury, taking a step towards him. ‘Did you know we were coming through? Did you see that you were about to get arrested?
Kintersbury took the momentary look of confusion off his face and replaced it with a knowing grin. ‘Actually, yes, we’ve just seen what happens, Mr Cornwallis, and you are going to be very disappointed.’
‘And pray tell, why is that?’
Kintersbury’s grin widened. ‘Because in a few seconds time you will wish you hadn’t stepped foot inside this building. We are not on our own you know.’
‘Cornwallis,’ warned Gerald. ‘He may be right. Sum o’ them tourist out there are starting to look a little mean.’
‘How many?’ enquired Frankie, coming over to look.
‘Six,’ replied Gerald. ‘Oh dear, it looks like they may be armed.’
Kintersbury could hardly contain himself with the excitement that foreknowledge had brought. ‘Give up now, Cornwallis, and you may actually survive all this.’
Cornwallis looked hard at Kintersbury. ‘Is that what you saw then, me giving up?’
Kintersbury shook his head. ‘Actually, no, you died.’
Rose’s hands went straight to her mouth and she gasped.
‘You too, Miss Morant, in fact none of you will come out of this room alive,’ added Kintersbury, gleefully rubbing his hands. ‘Oh, this is wonderful.’
‘Er, Pelegrew.’ Dumchuck spoke up for the first time. ‘That gentleman there,’ and he pointed towards Gerald. ‘I don’t remember seeing him on the screen.’
‘Of course he was,’ replied Kintersbury dismissively. ‘The Collider never lies.’
Frankie quickly pulled Isabella out of the way and together he and Gerald barred the door.
‘No,’ countered Dumchuck with a little more certainty. ‘I’m sure he wasn’t, in fact I know he wasn’t.’
‘Then you weren’t looking properly, Abraham.’
MacGillicudy pulled out two pairs of handcuffs and handed one over to Cornwallis. ‘I don’t know about you, Jack, but I have no intention of dying just yet, I’ve only just been promoted.’
A commotion began at the door, and Cornwallis fought the temptation to look around, instead he stared up at the screen. Frankie had already suffered from a knife wound to the chest and the six men were rushing through the door. One of them grabbed Isabella, while two others ran towards Rose. Cornwallis couldn’t look at it anymore and spun around to confront the knife that headed towards his ribs. When he turned, he found no knife coming towards him, in fact, Gerald and Frankie were not only holding their own, but had already downed two of the tourists.
He turned back around and grinned at Kintersbury, who now had a look of utter confusion on his face. ‘You should have listened to Dumchuck, Gerald is an anomaly, he ain’t really there.’
Rose watched the screen too and saw the way Isabella and she had been grabbed, not altogether very gentlemanly. It made her feel violated, even though nothing had actually happened. It was though she could see things through a different pair of eyes, but a part of her knew that she looked at things that were actually happening somewhere else, in some other universe, at some point in time. She looked at a reality, and she willed herself to fight back as the men grabbed her. Mesmerised, she just couldn’t take her eyes away from the screen as she saw herself fight off the men. She could also see how Cornwallis had turned, just as the knife had entered his ribs. He staggered, clutched at the knife, and then fell to his knees, a hand held out towards the other Rose. Having fought off her attackers, she rushed over to him and took him in her arms. Then she saw a man throw a knife at her, hitting her in the back, and she slumped forward on top of Cornwallis. She gave a long shudder, and then both of them went still.
Frankie had knocked out another of the tourists, and Gerald had his hands around the throat of yet another. Rose finally managed to drag her eyes away from the screen and back to the events in her reality; she then stepped determinedly towards Kintersbury, wanting to exact her revenge for the other Rose, for the other Cornwallis, for the other all of them, to do to Kintersbury what he and his men were doing to her and her friends.
Cornwallis stepped in front of Rose just as she reached Kintersbury. ‘No, Rose, don’t do it.’
‘But, Jack, didn’t you see what happened up there?’ she said, angrily pointing towards the screen.
‘I did, Rose, but that is not how it ends: this is how it ends.’
‘But, the screen shows what happens — at least somewhere.’
‘Everything happens somewhere, but not here. In some places we aren’t even born, some places we don’t even exist, have never existed and won’t exist. Here is the only reality that we know. The dangers of the Collider are just this; looking at something other than what is, does not mean that it will in reality happen.’
‘But the Collider shows the other universes.’
‘But not here. If the operator plays with his toggle, we go to some other place at some other time. There are infinite places anyone can go, but here, now, is the only place that matters to us. This is all we will ever know.’ Her eyes were wide and frightened and she panted as her heart raced. Cornwallis reached out and held her arms; he pulled her forward, forcing her to look at him. ‘That...’ and he indicated the screen with his head, ‘... did not happen here. They...were not us. It...did not happen.’
Gerald downed the last of the attackers and peace finally descended. There followed a round of applause from the genuine tourists who thought that their money had been well spent, considering all the entertainment they were getting. The big screen showed the other reality, and the guide desperately tried to explain it all in a way that did not become detrimental to the income of the Collider. He knew now that Gerald had caused it all, because he still did not show on the screen, but he couldn’t explain how.
The operator now decided that discretion would be the better part of valour and pushed back his chair and ran for the door. Bugger his boss’s instructions to stay whatever happened, he intended to make sure that whatever happened didn’t happen to him. Frankie and Gerald smiled as they stepped out of the way to let him pass.
MacGillicudy took a step towards Dumchuck, slapping on the bracelets before the banker could even move. ‘You are being arrested for murder, kidnapping, and I believe theft of a substantial amount of money. Anything else you can think of, Jack?’
‘Not at the moment, Jethro, though I’m sure we will find something.’
‘It’s finished, Pelegrew,’ sighed Dumchuck, looking over towards Kintersbury. ‘And quite frankly I’m glad. This has all been such a strain. Mrs Dumchuck has been wondering why I’ve been so tense.’
‘Abraham, this is far from finished. We are men of power with powerful friends; nobody will convict us as there is very little evidence for anything.’
‘I think there is, Kintersbury,’ replied Cornwallis. ‘You thought you would get away with it, but you haven’t. You stole all the money that the bank received from the Assembly, didn’t you? You put it into Gornstock Trust and Holdings and then bankrupted the business. I know now that you intended to get it out of the country, but you didn’t. You see, the Bagman intercepted the ship and he has it safe. All the gold you stole is still sitting in that ship, it’s going nowhere, Kintersbury, and neither are you.’
‘You have to prove it, and you won’t be able to. You’re dealing with a banker and the Treasury Secretary here, you know. Don’t you think we would have found a way to hide everything? The ship means nothing, so go ahead, that was just small change.’
‘That won’t be my problem. Somebody else will go through all the books, somebody who knows far more than me; and quite probably, far more than you too.’
Cornwallis let go of Rose and advanced towards Kintersbury to slap the handcuffs on, when suddenly the screen flickered and the picture broke up. It went blank for a few seconds, then another picture came up, and this one showed everyone alive and well — only...
Rose stared at it, even more confused now. Kintersbury cast a look over his shoulder and saw the new image. He winced; he just couldn’t understand it at all. As Cornwallis stepped forward, Kintersbury sprinted away, and he moved pretty quickly, but he could only move towards the screen. He stopped in front of it and turned, and then pulled a knife from his pocket and started waving it menacingly in front of him.
‘No closer,’ he growled. ‘This is not over yet.’
‘I think it is,’ replied Cornwallis patiently.
‘You’re wrong. I checked the Collider, it confirmed everything.’
‘We have your mistress too, you know that. Your Miss Lena is under lock and key and has told us all about it.’
Kintersbury turned and looked up at the Collider screen, and saw himself looking back; but his clothes were different, and so too were everybody else’s. Cornwallis wore some sort of uniform with a flat type of hat, and so too did Rose and Frankie. MacGillicudy wore a kind of suit and stood there with his hands in his pockets. Isabella wore a short skirt that showed quite a lot of thigh. All of them stared at Kintersbury, both on screen and off.
He backed away from them until he could hardly go any further; the screen being right behind him; then in through the door came Fluffy.
‘Where d’you come from?’ asked Frankie, looking down.
‘Come wiv yer, didn’t I. I were under the cart as youse told me I couldn’t come. So when youse went down that pipe thingy, I came too. So here I is. That’s the one I’s scratched,’ he said, indicating Kintersbury. ‘Still sees the marks, see, did ‘im good and proper, like.’ He sauntered over and jumped up on the desk in front of the screen.
Rose looked at herself on screen in that strange uniform and wondered what it all meant. She peered closer and saw the words “Police” on a thick padded waistcoat and she sort of felt better inside as it confirmed that she was still on the side of the law. She stepped closer to Kintersbury just as Cornwallis did too. Fluffy meowed and then spat, and then arched his back just as Kintersbury began to wave the knife again. The cat took exception to the knife whistling just past his head, so with a growl, jumped off, and sank his teeth into Kintersbury’s leg.
Kintersbury kicked out, and the cat went flying across the room. But the action left him unbalanced and he stumbled backwards towards the screen. He threw out his arm to counter the imbalance, but he just wind-milled and continued to fall. Cornwallis suddenly realised what was going to happen, and leapt forward.
Everything happened, but it seemed to happen in slow motion, but so quickly at the same time. Kintersbury fell into the screen, and as he touched it, it sort of sparked. It then dragged him in, further and further, and Cornwallis watched in fascination as the two images in front of him sort of merged into one. He leapt forward to grab hold, but it seemed like something held him back. Try as he might he just couldn’t break away from whatever anchored him. Kintersbury screamed, and then came a sort of sucking sound, and then suddenly Kintersbury had disappeared.
Everyone stared at the screen, and those on the screen stared back, their expressions were exactly the same. They were horrified.
‘Well,’ said Gerald, breaking the silence that followed. ‘I’ve been there, got the shirt with the logo on, even. So I can tell yer this; ‘e ain’t coming back!’