To The Devil A Daughter mf-1

by Dennis Wheatley

  Outside the airport they separated, C. B. and Malouet taking a taxi into the city, while Molly took the road to St. Tropez with John and Beddows as her passengers. At her villa they made a brief halt to drop their suitcases, but out of his Beddows took the bulk of his bank notes and stuffed them in his pockets. They reached the Capricorn soon after four, and as they drove up to the hotel Molly said to John

  `I don't think I'll come in with you, Johnny. I'll just wait in the car and say a little prayer that things may go the way you want them to.'

  `Thanks, Mumsie.' He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss. `Keep on praying till we come out, please. This means an awful lot to me.'

  On giving his name he was shown up at once to the de Grasses' suite. Jules let them in and John introduced Beddows to him. The young Frenchman gave Christina's father a swift, appraising look, then led them into the sitting room. When they were settled there John said:

  `I'd like to come straight to the point. A few days ago you offered to double cross Canon Copely Syle if I would make it worth your while to do so. Is that offer still open?'

  Jules' eyebrows rose in evident amusement. `A lot has happened since then; and things are rather different now, aren't they?'

  `You mean that I caused you a lot of trouble, and that it was largely owing to my having taken a hand in the game that your father was wounded?'

  To John's surprise, Jules replied, `No; I wasn't thinking of that. You made yourself a nuisance, of course, but even if you hadn't been with us at the chateau that hell cat might have got hold of Upson's pistol and run amok as she did; so I reckon that what we lost on the swings owing to your intervention we more than made up on the roundabouts. I saw you knock the gun up when she was about to shoot my father through the heart. I am very fond of my father, and it was your having saved his life that decided me to hear anything you had to say this afternoon.'

  John smiled a little awkwardly. `I'm afraid I can't take any great credit for that, as it's a natural instinct not to want to see murder done. But of what were you thinking, when you said things are different now?'

  `Simply that as we have already handed over the goods I don't think there is much that we can do.'

  `You could put us on to the men who met the Canon, and those who later kidnapped Christina.'

  `Perhaps; but that would mean laying certain friends of mine open to criminal proceedings; and that I am naturally not prepared to do.'

  `I'm ready to ante up handsome, Count,' Beddows put in. `I've quite a tidy sum on me, and if more is needed I don't doubt I could fix passing it through the Tangier International Zone.'

  `Thank you, sir,' said Jules, with a frigid little bow. `But it is not in the tradition of my family to sell our servants.'

  John was tempted to make a swift retort to the effect that it was even more shameful to traffic in dope, arms and women; but he checked himself in time, and said, `May I ask you a question?'

  `By all means.' Jules snapped a gold, pocket gas lighter to the Gitane cigarette that was hanging from his lips. `Do you know where Christina is now?'

  `I haven't an idea.'

  `Then do you know where the Canon plans to hold this abominable ceremony to night?'

  With a genuinely puzzled look Jules asked, `What ceremony?'

  `Surely you are aware of the reason why he has been trying to get hold of Christina?'

  `No. I thought he just had a yen for her. Old boys do get that sort of thing for young girls, you know; and are often willing to part with a lot of money for a chance to gratify it.'

  `This is something very different. He wants to use her

  in what, for lack of a better name, we will call a Black Mass.'

  `Really!' Jules' plump face showed only cynical interest. `That sounds very intriguing. Ellen, or Christina, or whatever you like to call her, would look pretty good stretched out naked on an altar. I think I must try to muscle in on that.'

  John fought down an impulse to hit him, and said, `If you did, as the culminating point of the ritual consists in cutting her throat, you might find yourself later being charged as an accessory to murder.'

  Letting out a low whistle, Jules stood up. `So it's not just fun and games, eh? Well, I don't wish her any harm, even if she is half off her nut; but I'm afraid there is not much I can do about it.'

  `You said that you might muscle in on the ceremony. Could you do that? Or, at all events, find out where it is to take place?'

  `I might, but it would not be easy. We did all that was required of us last night and were paid well for our trouble; but, to be honest, I don't think my own people could help much. What you have just told me explains a lot. You must already have a pretty shrewd idea how the two jobs were done; so there's no point in my concealing from you what happened afterwards. The Canon and the big crate he brought with him were taken to a villa on the outskirts of the town. Some three hours later Christina, doped and concealed in a large trunk, was delivered at what I imagine to have been the same place; but of that I can't be certain. You see, when the men who did these jobs reported to me this morning, none of them had anything but the vaguest idea where they had been. They couldn't even recall the district in which the villa lay.'

  `Oh hell!' John groaned, at the thought that his last hope was slipping away. `Then that swine of a Canon pulled a fast one on you too, and hypnotized your men into forgetting where they had driven.'

  Jules nodded. `That's about it. I couldn't understand what had come over my chaps this morning; but now you tell me that he is contemplating murder, the reason why he went to such lengths to cover up his tracks is obvious.'

  `All the same,' Beddows put in, `you said just now that you might be able to find out where the ceremony is going to take place.'

  `I could try; but it would mean putting a lot of people on the job, and they would have to work fast. You see, by this time the Canon may have carted Christina off to anywhere between Mentone and Marseilles, to have her handy to some devil ridden spot suitable for doing her in; so we shall have to cast a very wide net.'

  `Thin get to it ! Money is no object.'

  Giving Beddows an unfriendly stare Jules remarked, `If I do anything at all it will be for John, because he prevented that crazy daughter of yours from killing my father.' Then, as an afterthought, he added, `Still, we may as well look after the old firm as far as expenses are concerned. How much are you willing to pay?'

  `I'll give you a thousand pounds down and another thousand if you get results.'

  `Good. I'll have my people get a line on all the queers along the coast. There is an old priest at Cagnes who has a pretty gruesome reputation, and a fortune teller in Monte Carlo who does not stick to telling the cards. There is one man in Nice, too, who might know something if only we can persuade him to talk. He is an elderly cabaret singer with a husky bass voice, and he does his act in a dirty little dive off the Place Massena. One of his stunts is to intone the Paternoster backwards. However, the telephoning I am about to do is strictly private; so I must ask you to leave me now. I may be unlucky; in any case it will be a couple of hours or more before I am likely to have anything to tell you; so you had better make yourselves as comfortable as you can in the lounge downstairs.'

  Beddows produced the thousand pounds; and John, now blessing the impulse which had caused him to save the Marquis from a bullet in the heart, thanked Jules for what he was about to do. Then they went down, collected Molly from the car, and ordered tea in the lounge as a means of killing a little time, although none of the three felt like drinking it.

  John never remembered a longer hour than the one that followed. From time to time one of them endeavoured to start a conversation, but it inevitably tailed off into silence after the exchange of a few sentences; and, now that he had the leisure to con the cold, hard facts, the slenderness of their chance of saving Christina became more and more apparent to him. He pinned his faith on either bribing or bullying Jules into giving them the information that they needed so desperately; b
ut it had turned out that he had not got it to give. He had, through a strange freak of fate, become friendly instead of hostile; but, in the event, all that he had actually done was cynically to accept a thousand pounds to institute the same sort of enquiry as Malouet was already engaged upon gratuitously.

  John knew that on the Riviera there must be more people than anywhere else in the world who, having once been rich, had through wars, revolutions or gambling lost all but a pittance, and so were peculiarly susceptible to the temptation to attempt to regain something of their past affluence by trafficking with the supernatural; yet it seemed beyond all reason to hope that, in a matter of a few hours, one such could be found who was not only in the Canon's confidence, but prepared to betray him.

  Outside, the sun was shining. Through the broad windows could be seen the lovely prospect of the blue, unruffled bay; with, in the foreground, two mimosa trees in blossom, a row of striped yellow cactus, and some brilliant scarlet geraniums in pots. Inside, there was the constant passing of well dressed men and women, laughing and carefree, all intent on the enjoyment of a summer holiday snatched from the grim winter in northern lands whence most of them came.

  The contrast between the scene and the thoughts of the little party at the tea table made the long wait all the more intolerable. The minutes crawled by. For John each of them brought a new vision of Christina as she might be now, locked in some cellar; or in an attic room with barred windows; or with her clothes removed so that she could not escape, lying in bed half drugged as she would be tonight, carried away again, stifling in a trunk, to some secret place; fighting on her release until she was beaten into submission; stripped and cowering among a group of ghouls excited to a frenzy by unnatural lusts; screaming as the sharp sacrificial knife severed the muscles of her throat; still and dead with the blood gushing from her neck.

  At half past five John ordered a round of drinks. In the next hour he knocked back five double Martinis. As he ordered a sixth Molly laid a hand on his arm and said

  `Johnny, haven't you had enough anyhow for the time being?'

  He turned and gave her a weak semblance of his old familiar grin. `Don't worry, Mumsie. People can't get drunk when they feel as wretched as I do.'

  It was a quarter to seven when a page came to their table and said that Count Jules de Grasse would like to see them upstairs. Molly went out to the car; the two men hurried over to the lift. As soon as Jules had let them into the suite he said

  `I think I have the information you want; but there is one proviso that I must make before I go any further. I require you both to give me your word of honour that you will not inform the police, either directly, or indirectly through your friends who brought them to the Ile de Port Cros, if I enable you to make use of the tip off I have secured.'

  `Why?' asked John.

  `Because you will need guides to take you to the place where the ceremony is to be performed; and the only guides with which I can provide you at such short notice are two smugglers who are wanted by the police. They are key men in our organization for exchanging goods across the Italian frontier. What is more, they trust me; so I cannot allow their safety to be jeopardized by the police being brought to the scene by other guides at round about the same time as they arrive there with you.'

  `The Canon will probably have a number of people with him,' Beddows pointed out uneasily. `Last night I ... I was subjected to a shock that seems to have aged me greatly; so I'm afraid I wouldn't prove the man I was, in a fight. With only my help John Fountain might not be able to overcome them. In fact, instead of rescuing Ellen the two of us may be knocked on the head.'

  Jules shrugged. `You must take your chance of that. In affair of this kind the participants are certain to be nervy. If you use your wits you should be able to succeed breaking the meeting up. Once my friends have taken you to the place and left you, I naturally have no objection your getting help from wherever you like; but I will not have you telephone to the police in advance any information likely to lead them to the place to which you will taken. Now, what do you say?'

  Glancing at one another, Beddows and John nodded; the latter said, `All right; we both promise.'

  `Good! I accept your promises; but even so it is unnecessary that you should know your final destination for the next hour or two. It is enough for me to tell you that to job is to be done up in the hills behind Nice. Drive back towards the city, but do not enter it. Across the Var and about two kilometres past the airport you will come to a turning that leads inland up to the little town of St. Pancrace. Outside the church there you will find two men waiting for you. The taller of the two has a red beard. they are your guides, and will take you to the spot where the Canon and his friends are meeting. But I should warn you that you have none too much time. The meeting is due to start at nine o'clock.'

  `It would be,' Beddows muttered. `Christina's birth hour is nine forty five, and they would want to perform the ... the actual sacrifice as near that time as possible.' `And it is nearly seven already!' exclaimed John. `Come on! We must not waste a second!

  Beddows threw the second thousand pounds worth of bank notes on the table; and with brief good byes to Jules they ran from the room. As they came hurrying out the hotel Molly saw them and started up the car. John took the wheel, and within three minutes of leaving Jules' suite they were on their way back to Nice.

  It was still light, but there was a sharp chill in the air and the end of the sunny day was fast approaching. There as quite a lot of traffic on the road auto buses taking work people home and bringing less well off holidaymakers’ back from day excursions, many motor cycles, and the cars of the wealthy carrying couples and foursomes to neighboring towns to dinner but John snaked his way through it at high speed without taking too many risks that might have brought them to grief.

  Before they had gone far he said, `It would save a little time if we could stick to N 7. and cut across inland from Frejus to Cannes, instead of going round by the coast road; but now we have to tackle the Canon's crowd on our own I think it's more important that we should call at the villa to collect some weapons.'

  `No,' replied Molly promptly. `I thought this afternoon that we might need the armaments before we were through; so you can go by N.7. While you were dropping your bags at the villa on our way out I picked up some things. C. B. has still got my big gun, but I have the small one in my bag, and I've two heavy truncheons, knuckle dusters and knives in the back of the car for you. I put in a couple of extra torches and a bottle of brandy as well.'

  `Good old Mumsie ! You've thought of everything. I wish you'd let me have your gun, though.'

  `No, darling. I'm hanging on to that. This is a chance in a life time to see how it works.' the streets of St. Maxime and Frejus hardly caused John a check, but he had to slow down to go through Cannes, and by then the sun was setting. When they passed Antibes the sky behind them was a rich glow of orange and salmon pink which by the time they crossed the River Var had faded to a few streaks. It was half past eight and the light had gone as they wound their way up the hill into St. Pancrace.

  The sweep of their headlights picked out a man who was standing on the steps of the church. As John pulled up he came forward. He was tall and bearded. Leaning down to the car window he asked in a low voice

  `Has Monsieur come from St. Tropez?'

  `Yes,.' replied John. `We are the friends of Monsieur le Comte.'

  `Good!' nodded the man, and went on, `Monsieur will excuse me if I do not introduce myself. It will serve if you call me Number One and my companion, who you will meet later, Number Two. Do you know the road to Falicon?' John shook his head.

  `It is through Gairaut and no great distance; but perhaps it would be best if Madame would allow me to occupy the front seat next to Monsieur.'

  The rearrangement was soon made by Molly getting out and joining Beddows in the back. As they set off along the twisting road up hill again, John asked

  `May we know where we are going?'


  `Monsieur has given his word to M. le Comte not to communicate with the police until I and my friend have left him?'

  `Yes; we won't let you down about that.'

  `Then I am about to take you to the Cave of the Bats.'

  Into John's mind there flashed a memory of the first time he had been in the crypt at The Priory, and had seen the bat nailed upside down to the broken crucifix on the altar. He suppressed a shudder as Beddows asked, in French that had an appalling accent but was just comprehensible:

  `What sort of place is it?'

  `A very unusual cave, Monsieur. Most caves are natural fissures in the rock and run more or less level for some distance into the mountainside; but this is not at all like that. It is entered by dropping through a hole high up on the side of a hill and, was made by man, or at' least has been much adapted by him, as it has several passages of uniform size and one quite large vaulted chamber. Even the archaeologists who visit it at times cannot say what race of men first used it. There is a legend that the Phoenicians offered up human sacrifices to their god, Pdaloch, there; but many think that long before that pre historic man had hewed the little temple nearly a hundred metres below the surface of the hillside as a place to perform his secret rites with doves and virgins.'

  John felt the palms of his hands go damp upon the wheel. He had expected that he might have to break into some little wayside chapel which was being desecrated, or stumble his way through the ruins of a long since abandoned monastery; but this underground warren which had been the scene of countless ritual murders through the centuries sounded infinitely more terrifying. He began to pray that they would catch up with the Satanists before the latter reached their horrible rendezvous.

  After they had covered another five kilometres up the winding hill road they approached a group of houses, and Number One said, `This is the hamlet of St. Michael. It is here that we leave the car. To the left of the crossroads there is an inn. You can park your car in the open space alongside it.'