by SL Beaumont
* * *
The boys were still reeling from the macabre discovery when a message was radioed from the house.
The girl has just turned up.
James and Andy looked at one another and raced along the tunnel and bolted up the stairs, arriving in the study at the same moment that Max walked into the room, with Stephanie leaning heavily on him.
She was a mess. Her hair was matted with blood on one side where she had a nasty gash on her temple. One cheek was shiny and bruised and her clothes were dirty and torn. James gave an involuntary gasp and rushed toward her.
She threw her arms around him.
“Thank God,” James breathed, holding her close. Over his shoulder, she gave Andy a weak smile.
After a few moments, James led her to the sofa, and sat with his arms around her.
The house was a hive of activity, despite the late hour. Grace appeared in the broken doorway of the study carrying a tray of hot drinks, followed by her husband Ken, his arms full of blankets.
She put the tray on the coffee table and taking a blanket from Ken, placed it carefully around Stephanie’s shoulders. “There you are, love,” she murmured. James smiled gratefully at her.
“Can we get a paramedic in here?” Max called. He was hovering beside his daughter, stroking her hair, not quite believing that she had just turned up on her own.
“How did you escape? You were in the cellars, weren’t you?” James asked.
Stephanie nodded. “Yeah. I got sick of waiting to be rescued, so I just had to do it myself.” She gave a shaky laugh.
“Was it Alex?” James asked, quietly.
She nodded. “I’m sorry, James.”
“God, no. It should be me who is sorry. I should’ve realised that he was capable of something like this,” he replied, holding her gaze.
One of the paramedics, who had been attending to the wounded gunmen, came running. She crouched down in front of Stephanie.
“Do you want me to move?” James asked. Despite her bravado, Stephanie was leaning heavily on him.
“It’s okay. I can work from here,” the woman said quietly.
“Now, Stephanie, my name is Carol. Can you tell me where you hurt?” she asked.
“My head and here,” Stephanie said, indicating to her ribs. “And I’m really thirsty. Could I have a glass of water, please?”
“Of course – let me look at your hand first,” Carol said. The flesh across Stephanie’s knuckles was completely scraped away and was oozing blood. Her sleeve rode up as she held out her hands and James noticed the deep cuts that ringed her wrists.
“Steph – how did you do that?” he asked, concern etched into his face.
“She was tied with plastic box ties,” Andy explained quietly.
Stephanie nodded remembering. “I sawed them off with a nail, but they had already cut into me, I guess.”
“That was clever thinking,” Carol said, as she lifted some gauze from her bag and went to work cleaning and bandaging the injuries.
“James, can you hold this against that gash on her head?” she asked, handing him a square of cloth. Stephanie winced slightly, as he applied gentle pressure.
“Sorry,” he said quietly.
Stephanie sat slightly dazed, letting Carol work. She let the relief of finally being warm and safe wash over her.
“She needs to spend the night in hospital under observation,” she heard Carol telling her father. “We have no idea how much chloroform she was subjected to. I would expect her to go into shock at some stage, and she will need X-rays on those ribs, she is black and blue.”
“Okay – I’ll talk to Marks about a police guard on her room – she is not safe until that bastard is found,” he said.
“Now, young man. Let me take a look at you?” The paramedic bent over to examine James’s lip.
Stephanie turned her head and looked at him properly for the first time since she had been found. His bottom lip had dried blood caked on it.
“It’s fine,” he waved Carol away.
“Not if you insist on kissing Stephanie and getting more blood on her it’s not,” Carol said sharply.
He relented and looked apologetically at Stephanie. “Sorry.”
She smiled slightly. “I think I’m making more of a mess of you, than you of me,” she said indicating her torn and dirty clothes. “How did you split your lip again?”
He hesitated before answering. “Ah, same as before, I’m afraid,” he said sheepishly.
Stephanie shook her head and said, “I don’t understand.”
“I hit Sam and he hit me back,” he said quietly.
“Sam?”
“Yeah – there are a couple of developments that you don’t know,” he said. At that moment there was a commotion outside the door and Sam rushed through followed by two uniformed police officers. His eyes settled on Stephanie.
“Thank God. Why didn’t somebody tell me she’d been found?” he shouted.
James stiffened beside Stephanie and tightened his arms around her. She winced as a sharp pain shot through her. James lessened his hold. “Sorry,” he murmured.
“What are you doing here?” she asked Sam, confused.
“Yeah, Sammy. Why don’t you explain to Stephanie just what you are doing here?” James said, sneering.
Sam hung his head. When he looked up again, all trace of swagger was gone from his face and he looked young and uncomfortable. “Long story, but I was working with Dad and Alex,” he said.
“What?” Stephanie leapt to her feet, only to find that she was hit by a wave of dizziness, causing her to sway. James caught her as she was about to lose her balance. She leaned heavily on him, but stayed standing.
“Unbelievable! You did this to me? Why?” she asked Sam.
“No. I had no idea that he had kidnapped you. If I’d known, I’d have done everything to stop him,” he said, looking at her imploringly.
The look of disgust on James’s face intensified. He looked like he was about ready to step forward and punch Sam again. Stephanie squeezed his hand with her good one.
“So you’ve just been trying to keep me out of the way?” she asked.
“Oh, Steph. It wasn’t like that,” Sam said, looking ashamed.
“But you were working with Alex?” she asked. “What were you doing?”
“Enough,” Peter said as he was escorted into the room. “Glad to see that you are okay,” he said to Stephanie. He put his hand on his son’s shoulder. “I believe that we are leaving now.”
Sam paused in the doorway and looked back over his shoulder at Stephanie. “Sorry,” he mouthed. She nodded and looked away.
Vince came back up the stairs from the cellar at that point. He smiled kindly at Stephanie, who had sat back down heavily on the sofa still shaking her head in disbelief. Vince addressed his comments to DI Marks and Max.
“The tunnels lead out to the river. There’s been activity at the entrance recently. Lots of footprints and tyre tracks and possibly a boat pulled up on the bank,” he said.
“Yeah, I saw a speedboat racing down the river towards the sea, about an hour ago, I guess,” Stephanie said.
“Okay. So that explains how he escaped. What about the bodies?” Max asked.
“You mean that skull?” Stephanie asked slowly. She felt James tense beside her.
Vince glanced at Stephanie and said, “Well forensics will need to look, but the bones are really old. Looks like three skeletons.”
Stephanie shuddered. “Were they in that crate?”
Vince nodded.
“Ugh,” she said shuddering.
“How old is really old?” James asked.
The men turned to look at him. “Hard to say, at least fifty years, if what’s left of the clothing is anything to go by,” Vince said.
Stephanie and James exchanged a glance.
“What?” DI Marks demanded. “If you two know anything you need to tell us.”
“There were rumours about peo
ple smuggling, during the war,” James spoke up first. “You’ll have to ask my grandfather in the morning, but remember that he isn’t always completely lucid these days.”
DI Marks nodded. “Understood,” he said.
Carol walked into the room again. “Okay, the ambulance is ready for you.”
“Do I really have to go, Dad? I’d rather stay here,” Stephanie pleaded with him.
“No, Steph, they need to run some tests and take some X-rays. James will stay with you. Won’t you, James? And there will be an officer on your door at all times. I’ll be up to see you later,” Max said, putting his arm gently around her. “I am so glad that you are safe, my darling.”
The front of the manor was littered with vehicles and lights blazed from the downstairs rooms. Stephanie and James sat silently holding hands watching the scene, as the ambulance pulled away down the driveway and past the lake.
There were still so many unanswered questions.