There was only one place to hide in the whole room, so Jude threw herself under the desk, her bare shoulders pressing painfully into the wood and her boots wedged tight against the other side. She’d be discovered instantly if anyone came round the front. She could only hold her breath and pray that didn’t happen.
“—isn’t going to be much use to her, is it? She’s dead, after all.” Jude recognized Etienne’s voice. He sounded exasperated. “So what harm is there in it? Well? Aren’t you going to say anything?”
“It appears you have enough to say for the both of us.”
Jude almost gasped out loud at the sound of that second voice. It was one she knew immediately – one she had heard twice a week for over a month now, talking softly to her through the wire mesh of the screen in the Owlery, a voice she would recognize anywhere.
The Phantom. But how had he even known about the party when he hadn’t got the invitation?
Jude couldn’t help staring at the wooden front of the desk, hoping for some small crack to peer through and get a glimpse of him. All those weeks of being in the same room and she’d still never actually seen him with her own eyes. It was hard not to be curious, especially given what everyone said.
“No, really,” Etienne went on. Jude heard the creak of furniture as he sat down, presumably on the couch. “Since you clearly have an opinion on the matter, share it with me, please. What harm is there in auctioning the coin?”
“It’s ghoulish,” the Phantom replied.
“As I pointed out to the police, it can hardly be returned to its rightful owner now, can it?” Etienne said. “Given that it belonged to the murderer.”
“I rather thought the rightful owner might be you,” the Phantom said.
Etienne gave a short laugh. “Well, you’re in a charming mood this evening, I must say.”
“It should have been returned to Ivory’s family once the police released it,” the Phantom said.
“Perhaps, but I was the one who found it and that gives me some right to it, I suppose? The police seemed to think so at any rate.”
“Of course they did,” the Phantom replied. “They’re sell-outs.”
“Subjects, you mean,” Etienne corrected.
“You must do as you see fit,” the Phantom said. “But I don’t care for it.”
“I would have preferred you not to fraternize with the woman who ruined my life, but there we are. We each have our own cross to bear.”
“I was not fraternizing with Ivory,” the Phantom replied shortly.
“No? So you didn’t ask her to come and visit you at Moonfleet on a regular basis?”
“She did come to Moonfleet but you know full well what that was in regard to. You also know I would never have asked her were I not desperate.”
“Still the same old savage, I take it?”
Jude frowned, wondering what he was talking about.
“Quite,” the Phantom replied. “But I did not come here to speak of that.”
“No, you came to lecture me about something that’s none of your damned business,” the vampire replied pleasantly. “Are you sure I can’t persuade you to have something to eat?”
The vampire sighed. “Well, fetch yourself a drink at least. Bottom desk drawer.”
Jude felt her stomach plunge into her boots. If the Phantom came round to the front of the desk then she would see him and he would most certainly see her.
You stupid girl! Ivory groaned. You should have worn the beauty charm. Then he wouldn’t have recognized you.
What difference would it make? Jude hissed back. He’d still expose me!
“I am not thirsty,” the Phantom said.
“But I am,” Etienne replied, his voice suddenly hard. “Fetch me the bottle, can’t you?”
“I am not your servant, Etienne,” the Phantom replied in a growl. “And good thing too. I saw the state of that waiter who was leaving as I came in. Your handiwork, I presume?”
Despite his words, though, Jude could hear the creak of footsteps as he walked over to the desk, and her hands bunched up into fists at her side as her mind tangled itself into knots desperately trying to find a way out.
“You’re a fine one to talk,” Etienne drawled. “Given the atrocities that have gone on in your house. That business in your attic – a ghastly affair by anyone’s standards. People accuse me of being a monster, but in truth I don’t believe I could ever be half so ruthless as you’ve shown yourself to be. And to someone you proclaimed to love, no less.”
The footsteps were almost at the desk now and Jude’s heart raced in her chest. Her palms became slippery, her breath hitched in her throat and it was hard not to groan aloud. She gritted her teeth, preparing to be dragged from the desk by her hair, dreading the thought of broken noses and picking up teeth off the floor…
And then he was there. Frozen halfway down to reaching for the bottom desk drawer. Slim and elegant, wearing a beautifully tailored charcoal-grey suit. Despite her dread of this moment, and how it would play out, Jude couldn’t help her eyes flying straight to the Phantom’s face. A face she had been dying to see for ages and that everyone said was hideously deformed, a grotesque horror that kept him mostly confined to Moonfleet.
In that first instant, she thought that a demon’s face stared back at her – the skin a deep, dark red, the colour of blood clots. But then she realized that he was wearing a Cajou Night mask. It covered his face, starting at his forehead and coming down over his cheeks and nose to end just above his mouth. In fact, his lips and chin were the only part of him on display – even his hands were inside gloves. The small bit of skin she could see was pale, like porcelain, his lips were wide and his black hair fell to his shoulders. His eyes, behind the mask, were a smoky-grey, and Jude thought she saw them widen in surprise at the sight of her. Through the eyeholes of the mask, she could just about make out that the skin around one of his eyes was mottled and that the lower eyelid sagged downwards, exposing the inner red eye socket.
For an endless moment, they just stared at one another, and Jude couldn’t help trembling. If he gave her away, she was done for. The Phantom hesitated for barely a moment before he yanked open the bottom drawer and pulled out a bottle of moonshine, along with a cut-glass tumbler.
“What happens at Moonfleet,” he said, straightening up, “is none of your affair.”
“I could say the same to you about the Fang,” Etienne replied.
“When is this auction going to be anyway?” the Phantom asked, moving round the desk and out of Jude’s sight.
“Next week. Gives me time to drum up as much interest as possible beforehand. You know, if you get enough people in then you can make almost as much in bar takings as you will on the auctioned item itself.”
“Is business really that bad,” the Phantom asked, making no attempt to disguise the contempt in his voice, “that you must keep afloat by auctioning off macabre murder weapons?”
“Macabre murder weapons are immensely popular in Baton Noir,” Etienne replied. “Just you wait. People will pay good money to come and gawk at the weapon that finished off the cajou queen.”
“I can see there’s no talking sense to you,” the Phantom said. “Let’s go back out. I was enjoying the jazz.”
“Sometimes I think that’s the only reason you come here any more,” Etienne grumbled.
Fortunately, the vampire seemed only too glad to return to his club and another moment later the door closed and they were gone, leaving Jude alone.
That bastard! Ivory hissed. How I hate him!
Jude didn’t reply as she scrambled up from behind the desk and then hesitated beside the door. Fortunately, it had a little peephole set into it, which allowed her to see through to the other side. After giving it five minutes, Jude used the magic word to unlock the door and hurry through before locking it behind her again. As discreetly as she could, she slipped out from behind the curtain and began making her way back through the railcars.
But we haven’t got what we came here for, Ivory protested.
You saw his comb, Jude shot back. The only way I’m getting some of Etienne’s hair is if I pluck it from his head myself. And I’m not doing that. Not after what I saw him do to that waiter. We’ll have to come up with another way.
Ivory didn’t seem to have an argument to that because she fell silent. As Jude strode down the train, she glimpsed Etienne lounging in the same booth as before, but there was no sign of the Phantom. She went straight to the exit, stepping out into the warm night air with relief.
And then a gloved hand clamped down on her arm.
“There you are, my dear.”
Jude looked up into the Phantom’s glowering red demon’s mask and had to force herself not to shrink back. The mask itself was an ugly, fearsome thing. How much worse must his real face be that he would choose to cover it with such a hideous visage?
“Allow me to escort you back to the station,” he said.
His voice was level, almost pleasant, and Jude realized that he was talking for the benefit of the nearby doorman. Those slate-grey eyes, though, were steely hard and cold as he stared at her. Despite the warm night air, Jude shivered. It was beyond strange to be so close to the Phantom like this, with no screen to separate them. He was not much taller than Jude herself and slender, almost thin, yet it was an elegant thinness rather than a scrawny one. There was a sort of repressed energy about him – like a coil that longed desperately to spring. And when Jude took the arm he offered her, she could feel the tension in his body and the hardness of the muscles beneath his jacket sleeve.
They started off down the tracks together and the Phantom spoke as soon as they were out of earshot of the doorman.
“What can be the meaning of this?”
Jude desperately wracked her brains for an explanation, but coming up with nothing decided to go for the defensive approach.
“Only the other day you said that what I do when I leave Moonfleet is my own affair.”
The Phantom breathed out hard through his nose. “Fortunately, the doorman knows me, or else I may not have got in at all tonight. Etienne was adamant that an invitation had been sent to Moonfleet. You broke in,” he said. “And you stole it. Is that not so?”
Jude couldn’t help but squirm. “It … it wasn’t premeditated,” she said at last. “But it was wrong. And I’m sorry.”
“Apology not accepted,” the Phantom snapped. “Why are you wearing that Royalty charm? You’re a Citizen.”
Jude was glad that he’d used the word “Citizen” rather than “Scrap”, but she had no idea how to reply. The Phantom stopped on the tracks and gripped her wrist to force her to stop too.
“You must listen to me; I am serious,” he said. “Whatever is going on, do not cross Etienne Malloy. He is … unbalanced. And do not ever think of setting foot in Moonfleet Manor again. It isn’t safe. How dare you go against my instructions like that? I cannot think what possessed you to do such a thing.”
Jude opened her mouth to reply, but before she could do so Ivory seized control of her tongue and spoke in her rasping old voice.
“Don’t bully the girl, André. And as for what possessed her – that would be me. The cajou queen.”
Jude thought she saw the Phantom’s eyes widen behind his mask. He let go of her abruptly. “No,” he said. “It cannot be. Ivory Monette?”
“There’s only one queen of Baton Noir, darling,” Ivory replied.
Would you stop that? Jude thought furiously at Ivory. I can speak for myself.
She shoved the cajou queen aside with a mental effort. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Sometimes she manages to take control of my tongue.”
“So it is true?” the Phantom replied. “You’re possessed by the cajou queen?”
“She wants to find out who murdered her,” Jude replied.
I’ve thought of something I need from him, Ivory said. Something he can do. Tell him.
He won’t want to help, Jude thought back.
Tell him or I’ll speak for you.
“She says she wants your help,” Jude said reluctantly.
“Does she indeed?”
Tell him if he doesn’t help then I’m going to reveal his secret.
Jude hesitated. How on earth would he react if she said such a thing?
“Well?” the Phantom said quietly. “There is something else she wishes to say to me, is there not?”
Jude sighed. “She … she says that if you don’t help then she’s going to reveal your secret.”
The Phantom had gone absolutely still. “I see.”
A dark shape fluttered above their heads and Jude looked up sharply, squinting into the night. Something large and leathery rustled past in the shadows, just out of sight.
“This is not the place to talk,” the Phantom said. “Come to Moonfleet tomorrow. Go straight to the Owlery.”
No. To the front door, Ivory said. He will allow us inside.
“Ivory wants us to go into Moonfleet itself,” Jude said.
“That isn’t permitted,” he snapped.
I will not talk business in a filthy Owlery, Ivory said. Tell him the whole city will know his secret if he doesn’t allow us into the house.
Jude groaned. “I’m sorry, but she’s saying that she’ll tell everyone your secret if you don’t let us into the house.”
The Phantom made a growling sound in the back of his throat. “Goddamn you, Ivory Monette!” He shook his head, breathing hard. For long moments he was silent. “Very well. You will come into the house. But I will not be held responsible for anything that happens. Now, let’s go. I must get back – Paris will be waiting for me.”
Jude followed the Phantom along the tracks, her swamp boots knocking off pieces of rust and cajou moss. She couldn’t shake the conviction that they were being watched. Several times she glanced back over her shoulder, but there was only disused track stretching along behind her.
It’s Etienne’s vampire bats, Ivory said.
The Phantom must have been aware of them too, because he glanced up and the next second flung out his gloved hand towards them. There was a burst of silver light, and then a flurry of feathers as a ferocious-looking hawk owl flashed past, tearing after the bats above like it meant to rip them apart.
Jude’s mind immediately flew to that night six months ago, when she’d broken up with Leeroy. She’d had tea with Sharkey and his grandmother and then arrived home to find Leeroy waiting for her on her balcony, drunk and angry.
“Where the hell were you?” he’d said, the smell of beer sour on his breath. “I’ve been waiting here all evening.”
“How was I supposed to know? We didn’t have any plans to meet—” Jude began.
“So you thought you’d sneak off the moment my back was turned?” he snarled.
“I didn’t sneak off anywhere! I just had dinner with my friend.”
Jude felt suddenly exhausted by the conversation, knowing exactly how it would play out, as it had so many times before.
“He’s after you!” Leeroy said. “Just can’t wait to get into your pants. If he hasn’t already. And I’m sick of it.” His mouth set. “I don’t want you to see him any more.”
Jude gaped at him. “He’s my best friend. I can’t—”
“If there really is nothing going on between you then you won’t mind not seeing him again,” Leeroy said, a crazed look of triumph on his face. “How many times have you slept with him? You slut!”
Jude felt the sting of the word and tears filled her eyes against her will. “We’ve … never even kissed,” she said, but it came out as a whisper. What was the point? She knew he would never believe her, whatever she said. “I can’t do this any more. I think … I think we need to … break up.”
For a long moment, he just stared at her, his eyes bloodshot in the dark.
“You ungrateful bitch!” he said in a hoarse voice.
Suddenly he no longer looked handsome to Jude at all. It was like she could see him clearly for the first time and she knew what she had to do. The certainty of it was a relief after all the months of agonizing about how she could fix things between them. It was a glorious thing to feel her resolve harden inside her as she realized she no longer wanted to fix it. She no longer wanted Leeroy and hadn’t wanted him in some while. Whatever love there might once have been was dead.
“Get out,” she said. “I don’t want to—”
He lunged at her before she could finish. Suddenly his hands were wrapped tight round her arms and he was shaking her so hard that she bit down on her tongue and blood filled her mouth. “Bitch!” he hissed. “You worthless, ugly, useless bitch!”
Jude tried to twist out of his grip but he was stronger than her, and she could see a terrifying wildness in his eyes. She didn’t know what he would have done if the silver owl hadn’t arrived. It swooped at them so fast that Jude didn’t get the chance to see it properly. She only knew that it gave a terrible shriek and then attacked Leeroy like a deranged thing, tearing at him with its claws and beak so that he fell to the ground, arms raised protectively over his head as blood ran down his wrists.
It only lasted a few seconds, and then the bird left as suddenly as it had arrived. Leeroy staggered to his feet, and with one last furious look at Jude fled down the stairs to the street. As she wiped blood from her chin, Jude searched the sky for the bird, but it had completely disappeared.
Now, on the train tracks, she said, “What the heck was that?”
“A hawk owl,” the Phantom said briefly. “It’ll chase away the bats. Temporarily.”
“But … it looked like it was made of moonlight…”
André is descended from Krag, Ivory said inside her mind. The night legba. His descendants can do strange things with moonlight sometimes.
The Phantom offered nothing more about the owl and they made their way back to the train station in silence. When they arrived, the girl Jude had left there was gone.
“You came by boat?” the Phantom said.
“Yes, but there was a girl. She was hurt. I promised I’d take her back to the Hurricane Quarter with me.”
“Pointless,” the Phantom said, dismissing the idea with a wave of his gloved hand. “If she’s one of Etienne’s girls then she’ll already have gone back to him. There’s no saving such a person.”
Jude clenched her hands by her sides. “You’ll save any owl that comes your way but won’t lift a finger to help a human girl?”
The Phantom paused and his voice softened just a little. “A person has to want to save themself first,” he said.
“Well, I promised,” Jude said. “I’m going to look for her—”
“You are not.” The Phantom cut her off, his voice hard once again. “You’re going straight home. You will not meddle in Etienne’s affairs any more than you already have.”
Jude thrust her anger down deep. “Fine,” she said, doing her best to sound meek. Contrite. Both things she had never been in her life. “Whatever you say.”
She followed the Phantom over to the pier and recognized his swamp boat tied up at the other end.
“Come at eight tomorrow morning,” he said curtly.
Jude thought of her pa and how she’d have to get him up and dressed and breakfasted first.
“I can’t come at eight,” she began. “I have to—”
“Don’t be late,” the Phantom said.
And without another word he walked down the pier to his boat.
You arrogant bastard! Jude thought, glaring at his back, feeling a sudden rush of resentment.
Well said, dear, Ivory remarked.
Jude hopped down into her own boat and made a show of starting up the engine but the Phantom was so convinced his orders would be obeyed that he didn’t even linger to make sure she left. Instead he gunned his engine and shot straight out into the canals. Eager to get back home to Paris, Jude supposed. She shook her head and scrambled back on to the pier.
What are you doing? Ivory demanded.
“Going back to look for that girl,” Jude replied.
You shouldn’t. André is right. There’s no helping her. Girls like that don’t want to be helped.
“You don’t know her!” Jude shot back. “You don’t know anything about her. I made a promise and I’m going to give her every opportunity to come back with me, to get away from this place if she wants to.”
She couldn’t help thinking of the crying child at Moonfleet and how she had just left her there without even trying to find out if she was all right. She wasn’t about to do the same thing again.
It is tempting fate to go back, Ivory warned. All for the sake of a girl you don’t even know, and who will not want to be saved.
“I don’t care,” Jude said, striding along the wooden boards. “I’m going to have a quick look around the station. If she’s not there then so be it, but I can spare her five minutes before I abandon her in this awful place with that monster. Whoever she is, no one deserves that.”
She walked back into the Ghost Station and spent the next ten minutes poking into its dark corners, but there was no sign of the girl. Perhaps she really had gone back to the Fang. Jude decided to have another look around the pier and started to walk back across the ticket hall. She was almost at the exit when a cool voice spoke behind her.
“Giving up so soon?”
Jude turned and saw Etienne standing there, gazing straight at her with his hands in his pockets.