Lucifer's Abbey

by Smith, Michael James

  Unbeknown to us Graeme had been pointing out the area that Cherie Leclerc had run across in her doomed attempt to escape from her kidnappers and the trap of the cliffs was the same one that had prevented her from getting away.

  Strangely it was Cherie that we now heard from indirectly. It was not good news.

  Ann Taylor approached and Leon turned to say something to her but she indicated the radio vehicle that was parked on the side of Ilsham Marine Drive just where it joins the Bishop's Walk.

  “They are looking for you in the Communications Van Inspector.” She said to Leon, formal in front of Graeme Dee.

  “Me? Who is looking for me?

  “Interpol H.Q.” Ann said simply.

  Leon looked at me. “Someone must have stolen the Manikin Pis to get them up at this hour!”

  We walked across the road and entered the Van. It would have been our next and last stop anyway. Everything would be co-ordinated by radio when we moved. There were three officers inside and two stood to the rear of the vehicle.

  I recognised the man in Charge, Alan Bolt, local lad and very clever with his technology. “Morning Alan.” I said. “You have a message for Inspector Henry?”

  “Not a message Inspector, an urgent phone call. They are waiting to speak to him.” I saw Leon's reaction and knew that he was as surprised to get a call from Brussels at this hour as I was to see him receive it.

  Leon took the handset and began to talk in French while Ann and I vied over who was going to pour coffee for three. I heard Leon cursing from behind and turned to look at him in surprise. He was clearly upset by the news he was receiving. Ann came to watch him too. Whatever Brussels were telling him had affected him very badly; he was white as a sheet.

  Ann and I exited the Van and stood on the side of the road drinking the good coffee. It was piping hot and very welcome. I pointed to one of the Police Constables and indicated that he should go and get some for himself and his oppo. “Thank you Sir!” he smiled. “Lovely morning but very cold!”

  Ann was watching Leon Henry closely. I could see that she was worried about him. They were becoming very close very fast. His agitation was apparent as the call progressed. My French is non-existent; he could have been talking Swahili as far as I was concerned.

  “There's another child missing over there” Ann said. “I can't follow them. He speaks French too fast for me”

  That wasn't the sort of news we wanted today. We needed to get some points under our own belt; we'd lost every round so far.

  Leon's voice rose and clearly, he was giving someone a piece of his mind. His anger was making him very loud. He saw me and gave me a look that told me that he wasn't dealing with Police business. His face was too drawn and white and I thought that perhaps he had lost someone close. But that wouldn't explain the anger. I stepped back into the Van and stood beside him. He put his hand over the set. “They have taken my niece, those bastards over there!” He pointed in the direction of Hainsley–Sihl's Mansion.

  To say I was shocked would be an understatement. I felt like he had hit me. How the hell would they be able to do that? How would they know where to find his family? It hit me like a train, the bloody press! But it would still take a lot of organisation to trace his origin and find someone from his family. You'd need to be very well connected to achieve that in such a short space of time. Then another more concerning thought surfaced unbidden. Was she still alive?

  I could see from Ann Taylor's face that she'd arrived there before me. The way she was looking at Henry also betrayed the conclusion she had drawn. Mercy wasn't on the agenda at the mansion through the trees.

  Henry impressed me by being very polite to Alan Bolt as he returned the hand set, thanking him for his help. It must have taken a lot of willpower to do that with his emotions turning cartwheels inside of him. At some point in our brief friendship I recalled him mentioning his niece and although I couldn't recall the context I remembered that he had spoken of her with great affection. Then I remembered the text message he had sent to wish her a happy birthday. The evil bastards had kidnapped her on her birthday!

  He came down the steps but didn't speak to either of us. He turned the corner of the van and leaning over pressed his hands to the metal side panel and let his head hang down. I stopped Ann from going to him. “Give him a minute love, let him absorb it.”

  She stood very close to me watching him. When she finally went over to him I went back into the van and left them alone. I told Alan Bolt what was going on and his face went grim. “We're ready to move everywhere Inspector, best get right on with it Sir.”

  I nodded in agreement. “Tell them five minutes, get them all set to go.” The anger inside me was not helping and I pushed it to one side. So Hainsley–Sihl had the two of them now: Henry's niece and my most cherished friend and with her my entire hopes for my future. Once I'd found Juliet it was not my intention to let her out of my sight again.

  Henry appeared around the Van's side and stood looking up at me. “They took her on her birthday, from just a few yards from her home. It's taken Brussels all this time to make the connection! I am so mad at them I could strangle someone.” The pain in his face was hard to see.

  I walked down the steps and took his arm. “We're off to get them back. Everything is ready so let’s go and get them.” He nodded to me and turned to Ann. “Thank you.”

  There were tears in her eyes but I pretended not to see them. I turned and beckoned my own car and we all got in. The driver looked at me waiting for me to tell him it was time to go. I looked across the road at Alan Bolt who was watching my every move from inside his Control Vehicle, and nodded, he didn't need any more than that. The driver didn't need any more either. The car leapt away from the curb, down Ilsham Marine drive and executed a sharp turn into Anstey's Cove Road. There were vehicles moving towards the mansion from several directions and by the time we had turned into Hainsley–Sihl's drive we were one of a convoy.

  Henry was first out and headed for the heavy double doors under a pillared portico with a large cherub's face on the front of it. How incongruous! I followed him and there were at least five of us side by side as I was going to bang on the door and present my warrant.

  Henry wasn't in the mood for warrants. He took the door handle and tried to open it at once. It was locked. We had come prepared for that and I had also decided that the niceties were going to take a day off. I indicated that the door should be broken open and two heavy weight members of the Crime Squad hit it with some considerable venom with that marvellous tool we have for the purpose. It struck the door a resounding blow that would have snapped open a Council House door in a flash but here it hit solid heavy duty doors that probably had been constructed for just this moment. Nothing happened except a loud noise that would alert everyone inside and some jarring of powerful shoulders that hadn't been expected.

  We stood there watching as they continued to try and I turned and saw men women and dogs coming at us from all directions. The cordon had been sealed very efficiently. Some of them must have raced across the fields to be here so swiftly.

  The bloody thing wasn't budging. We tried a crowbar next and failed again. The door had been professionally sealed against this type of assault.

  “Fuck this! Henry took the crowbar, walked around to a French window and did it major damage in seconds. His pent up anger exploded against the glass and framework and the window was reduced to some hanging fragments of woodwork. He marched right on in and I would not have wanted to be the first person from inside to meet him.

  The huge room was completely bare. A very old chandelier, probably worth a fortune, hung from the centre of the ceiling, there was nothing else to see so Henry didn't stop to play tourist. He marched across and opened a door that led into a wide hallway.

  I was following him from very close behind and behind me was enough manpower to rebuild Wembley Stadium. Room after room was completely bare, we were too late. People went in all directions, dogs following f
alse scents of departed occupants.

  Henry stopped in the end, I think he was so busy blaming himself for his niece's kidnap that he was unable to function normally. He stood staring out of the kitchen window and I could see him physically shaking.

  He turned and put the crowbar on the sink. He looked at me, his haggard face full of angst

  “What do we do now?”

  Graeme Dee was in the doorway, I beckoned him over. “They didn't empty this place without the neighbours knowing it. I want the fastest house to house on record, every house that is anywhere near and every road that leads here. Find out when it happened! If you can get a van number or description get it out right across the County. Don't come back to me Graeme Do it yourself you know what I want.”

  “Right Inspector leave it to us.” He was away with several other officers following. Team work is everything in situations like that and they knew it.

  It was Stevie Goss the dog handler who found the panel in the hallway that opened to reveal a flight of steps to the wine cellar. He had taken a leaf out of Henry's book and unable to stop his dog from making a fuss in front of the panel or find any way to open it had simply kicked until he had access. I was going to hear it from the Chief Inspector but right then I didn't care.

  Ann Taylor somehow managed to get in front even of Henry and led the way down the stairs to a huge wine cellar. There were simply hundreds of bottles of wine stored in it. All neatly racked on specially made shelves that were at least twenty foot long. There was nothing else to see. Four stone walls, enough wine for two French weddings and a mop against the wall.

  Henry and I walked right round it; nothing, a complete blank. “Right you lot” I called out. “Take the dogs and go round the whole house, see if there are any other panels that Steve Goss can practise taking penalties on.” I glared at him but only for show.

  It was a huge house, eight bedrooms, two kitchens, two hallways, two lounges, four bathrooms, what might have once been a library, and the huge room we had entered it by. In them all the only thing we had found was a chandelier and France's answer to English Bitter.

  I was starting back up the steps when Ann Taylor stopped me. “Look.”

  I looked and saw absolutely nothing. Leon looked and saw more nothing than I did. We looked at each other. He did that raising of the eyebrows that he liked to do and looked at Ann.

  “You want to share your hallucination?”

  She grinned at him. “There is a lane between each of the racks and they've been regularly mopped. The floor is clean. Except that one over there where the space between the racks is dirty. What little we can see of the floor beneath the rack is clean. Someone moved the rack!”

  Henry was across the room in a couple of fast strides. He got down on his knees and peered beneath the rack. “She is right; this rack has been moved recently.” He crawled along peering as best he could beneath the lower shelf. “I can't see anything but we can move the rack and make certain.” Now I knew just how disturbed he was; his suit was going to need a trip to the cleaners.

  A few strong sets of arms were recruited to slide the rack across and the trapdoor in the floor was exposed. Henry opened it and we peered downwards. The tunnel below was lit with electric light and we went down and looked along it. This was nothing to do with the house proper it was a tunnel carved from the bedrock and it ran forty metres before it stopped at a blank wall. On Either side almost half way along it there were doors.

  We hurried along and found another kitchen. There was a small bathroom off it and on the opposite side a door that we could not open. There was a barred grill and through the grill we could see a long tunnel. It was also lit.

  It was a heavy door and obviously bolted on the far side. It took a quarter of an hour to open it. I sent two officers to see what lay at the end of the tunnel whilst the rest of us turned our attention to the two rooms.

  They had clearly been used to keep people prisoner. On the wall of one a large crucifix hung; incongruous in such a place. There was a small bed, a table and chair and nothing else. If either Cherie or Juliet had been in them we had no way to tell until I did a little detecting of my own.

  Someone had used a sharp pointed object to draw a large circle around the crucifix, making a mark on the wall that was clearly intended to draw attention to it. The wall was an uneven surface and it would have taken time. It was an obviously fresh mark. I walked across and lifted the heavy cross from the wall, it was quite a weight. The blank wall stared back at me but Ann Taylor was looking at the bottom side of the crucifix, from where she stood she immediately saw that something had been scratched into the wood. It was a message from Cherie Leclerc.

  Uncle Leon I was here. They are going to do something in the caves below. There are miles of tunnels there. Please help me. I love you. Cherie Leclerc.

  Leon came across and put his hand over her words. Nobody said anything. We all knew what he must be feeling but none of us knew what to say to comfort him. When he turned he was stone faced.

  “At least I know where she is Mike.” I nodded.

  “And we know what to do about it!” I said.

  There was a commotion in the tunnel outside where quite a lot of officers had gathered. Graeme Dee pushed his way through them. He didn't stand on any ceremony and came right up to me.

  “Woman at the top of Ilsham Close watched them go Inspector. The Lorries woke her at 3am she says. She gave me a good description. I've got the whole of the Westcountry seeking them but she said that there were definitely no cars, just the removal Lorries so we broke open the garages upstairs; the Lexus and a Mercedes are in there.”

  “Well done Graeme.” I said. “Tell them to keep me up to date with the vehicle search. Then if you can find a load of torches it looks like we're in for a day in the caves.” We need to get an organised search going. The helicopter can stand down”

  I knew what was under our feet in principle. Kents Cavern was almost close enough to throw a cricket ball at. Was there some way from here to there? I went after Graeme and called him back.

  “It's only a hunch but put a wagon and some good lads on the entrance to Kents Cavern. No one goes in today, and we want anyone that tries to come out!” He nodded and was gone.

  Leon had been watching and listening and he looked grave but I could see that his mind was making the same connections. He looked at me.

  “If we could find someone who knows the caves from that end we could try from two directions.”

  I should have thought of that! It didn't take long to get someone under way to get that information. There would certainly be up to date local authority maps of the caves that formed the Caverns themselves, perhaps they would help.

  Leon was searching the bed with Ann; they had turned it physically right over to check that nothing else was written anywhere. They drew a blank.

  The second cell produced no such rewards. Had Juliet been in here or perhaps locked up together with Cherie? I would have given anything to find some confirmation that she had been brought to Torquay. I gave orders that would very quickly provide fingerprints from all over both cells. Forensics would have the bedding bagged in no time.

  It would be full daylight in Moretonhamstead now and the crime scene boys would be conducting a full search of the area. The snow would still be on the ground at that altitude, it would be bitterly cold in the wind. They had one dead body to occupy them and I could only hope they would not find a second one.

  I knew the Inspector who would be in charge of their efforts and had sent a message to let him know that the missing woman was known to me and a very close personal friend. If he found any sign of her I'd know inside a few minutes.

  I had quite a long conversation with Leon and Ann and we decided that we would set up a mobile unit in the large room we had first entered the mansion through. Ann volunteered to organise that and also to get some sort of facilities set up in the kitchen. If we were going to organise a major search we'd need everything in pl
ace to handle a lot of manpower.

  One of the officers I'd sent to the end of the tunnel was one of my oldest friends, an Ellacombe boy like myself. The two of us were both relics of another age in policing but we had a very long history of reliance on each other, both as friends and as colleagues. I'd been missing him through the night but it turned out he was on the overnight train from Manchester where he had escorted a prisoner the day before. Detective Sergeant Derek Smith. He could have gone straight home to bed after more than twenty four hours on duty but it wouldn't even have crossed his mind. He'd come straight from the Railway Station to Ilsham to help me.

  It was Derek that now reported that there were more long tunnels and a quick reconnaissance they'd made had gave given him the Impression we had quite a search to organise.

  “There’s a bloody rabbit warren down there Mike. We didn't go far but there are tunnels going off in all sorts of directions. I shone a good torch down some of the unlit ones and they are hundreds of yards long. God knows what's down them. The lit ones alone must be a thousand yards or more.”