Juliet felt a hand grab her own and they ran hand in hand just as they had at Bellever so long before. She wouldn't let him get away this time!
The falling tunnel roof sent a cloud of dust streaming along the narrow way that outpaced them all. They were suddenly engulfed in dust and unable to run as it was Impossible to see where they were going.
Juliet fell to her knees coughing and choking. The dust had got into her eyes and she could see nothing. Mike's arm came around her and she turned and lent into him. The noise was very frightening but it soon stopped and she sagged against him, too much excitement for one day.
From somewhere he had produced a handkerchief which he pressed into her hand and she held it to her mouth whilst the dust began to settle around them. An outline of David Cooper appeared, he looked like a ghost.
The dog was barking and she heard the handler calming it. Then, beside her Mike started to laugh. She was astonished. She turned to look at him a question in her eyes, he pointed to Leon Henry. “Got the same tailor at last! They both started to laugh and Henry said, “I know you favour heavy fabrics in England but this is ridiculous!” He started to pat himself down and a cloud of dust fell off him.
They stood and started to walk through the dust covered tunnel. “I hope that was only our tunnel; there are forty men at least in this labyrinth.” David Cooper said to them. “We need to get them out and find some expert help.”
They arrived back in the tunnel with the two cells and Juliet was shown the message on the Crucifix.
“We have to help her Mike. She is so brave. She is really very special” The tears were leaving marks down her face where the dust was washed away.
“I don't know how we're going to do that with the tunnel destroyed.” Leon sounded dejected. He'd obviously been thinking about it as they walked.
“There's another way in there.” Juliet said. “They didn't use the same route that we did. Somehow they got in front of us and trapped us. Then she broke away from them and helped me to escape.”
Mike took his handkerchief back and used it to wipe Juliet's face. “We'll be after them as soon as we can reorganise. We have to check everyone is safe after the fall then we'll have another go.”
He turned to Leon, “We need to get all the good heads together and have a real plan of action. It's time we stopped letting Hainsley-Sihl have it all his own way. It was his choice to hide in the tunnels so let’s make sure he can't get out of the bloody things.”
“Coffee. I need coffee and I hope someone has some cigarettes, I'm out.” He turned and led the way back to the kitchen that Ann Taylor had commandeered from Hainsley-Sihl's mansion.
There was a hive of activity there as forensics headed back from the two cells and officers came trundling in covered in dust. The tunnel they had been in themselves was the only one which had collapsed but the dust had filled all the rest and sent men scurrying for breathable air. Everyone was covered in the fine powder.
Juliet went to the sink and washed her face. When she straightened up Ann Taylor was holding a wash bag out to her. She took it and smiled. “That's very kind of you! I must look like something that came down a chimney.”
Ann laughed. “There's a bathroom through there and there's a hair brush in the bag.” She turned and looked at Henry and Inspector Milton and burst out laughing. “Someone take their picture!”
“As long as they don't take my coffee!” Leon smiled at her. “Does miracle working include conjuring up a cigarette?”
“You've got lots of bad habits!” she said, and the look they exchanged was private but everyone in the room laughed. Ann Taylor gave them all a look that had been practised in the bars of Brisbane and they all laughed again.
“Right we need a table and some chairs in a separate room.” Mike Milton was responding to the coffee.
“All prepared in the room with the chandelier, who do you want in there?”
Inspector Milton thought about it for a full half minute before he answered. Time to start winning.
“Yourself and Inspector Henry naturally, Inspector Cooper,” he nodded at David Cooper and got a nod in return. “Derek Smith if he's back. Where's Graeme Dee?”
“Graeme I think is searching the vehicles in the garage, Derek Smith took off to sort somebody making a fuss down at Kents Cavern and was coming straight back. They weren't happy about not being allowed to open.” Ann replied. “He said something about having a friend who worked down there and getting his help.”
“That'll be Ivor Martin.” Milton told them. He looked at Henry, “another Ellacombe boy.”
“Good! Leon replied. That means we will know he is on our side and not Hainsley-Sihl's.
“Is Alan Bolt still in his van or he is set up in here?”
“Still in the van Boss.” It was Derek Smith who answered from the doorway. I'll give him a shout” He walked across and gave Leon Henry a pack of cigarettes. They were his own brand and the surprise on his face said how pleased he was. Derek winked at him. “All the way from Australia if you get my drift.”
Leon looked from Derek to Ann. “I like it when people encourage my bad habits, makes me feel at home. Thank you.”
“Right fifteen minutes to clean up and then let's get started on a plan of action.”
All the bathrooms in the house were soon in use and when they gathered in the chandelier room they looked a lot better, but their clothes were going to need dry cleaning.
They all took a place around one large table formed of several collapsible camping tables that Ann Taylor had got from somewhere.
Mike Milton opened their meeting. “We have a limited amount of time to get this man behind bars. We have a whole rabbit warren to search under difficult conditions and the men who have gone back in there are at risk so anything we can do to help them needs to be a priority. I'm going to ask Juliet to tell us her story so that we have a full picture and then we need to decide how best to proceed.”
He turned to Juliet, who was much improved by her twenty minutes in the bathroom and the coffee and sandwiches she had been provided with. “We need to know everything that happened from the time you left Moretonhampstead on Thursday morning please.” He smiled encouragement.
Juliet told them her story, there were a lot of questions and sometimes she felt their unwillingness to accept the things she had experienced. She had no way to prove anything. They had to accept it as she told it or make their own guess as to what had really happened.
In summation she told them that she believed that Hainsley-Sihl was a genuine practitioner of black magic and had very considerable skills in that art, that he was definitely capable of murder and that he had sought a treasure hidden below Torre Abbey for all of his adult lifetime. She explained that she believed Cherie Leclerc had not been kidnapped because of press reports, but because she had some astral connection to The Ark of the Covenant and to some ancient religion of England from a much earlier time, that she, herself, had been given an astral message that she believed meant they would find some part of the answer to protecting and saving Cherie Leclerc at Buckfast Abbey.
Inspector Milton sat back when she finished. “I am really very grateful for your help Juliet. I think that with your agreement I am going to have you escorted to your home so that you can retrieve whatever is necessary to make yourself comfortable and then have your escort bring you back to Torquay, you'll have to be protected until this business is resolved.”
She thought that her advice about Buckfast Abbey might be ignored in the rush to find Cherie and arrest Hainsley-Sihl. But to her, the moments when she had seen the sculpture on the cave floor were almost sacred. “What about going to Buckfastleigh? When you go I want to be there.”
“Leon Henry leant across the table to her, “We will go to Buckfast Abbey Juliet. I think your story is the most amazing one I ever heard but it's easier for me because I know there are things about Cherie that no one knows here. She has sensitivities that are different from other young people
her age. She is matured far beyond her years. I believe you’re correct when you say it was not the press that caused her kidnapping because I've thought about it and there was not enough time for Hainsley-Sihl to organise a kidnapping after the press release.”
He stopped and looked around the table and then back at Juliet, “you must excuse us if we seem sceptical about some of your horrible experiences but the truth is we were not there so we don't have your knowledge of what happened to guide us. For me it is enough that you say it did. I am prepared to take your word and be guided by you. I will take you to Buckfast Abbey. I want to know if they can help. I will take whatever help I can get for my Cherie. I don't care where it comes from if it helps her.”
He held his hand up to indicate he did not want to be interrupted. “I would like before you go to say to Mike and everyone here in particular yourself that I am so terribly grateful to you for trying to help her. I am glad that you were there for her; you were a light in her darkness. Bless you.”
Juliet stood up. She still had Mike's Handkerchief and needed it to wipe tears from her eyes.
“Thank you Inspector Henry, you’re every bit as good a man as she told me you were. You are her hero, her guiding star and I know you will do everything you can. I hate to say it but she is counting on you.”
She looked at them one after the other. “You’re an old and valued friend Graeme and the rest of you are friends of a whole lifetime. You always go on about being Ellacombe boys and how special that is so now I need you to prove it! I need you to catch Hainsley-Sihl and burn him on your precious annual bonfire!”
They all stood up and filed out into the courtyard leaving Mike Milton to escort her to the window.
“I'm not going to get my dinner tonight am I?” He said to her.
“Oh! I'd completely forgotten it was Friday.” She came close and he put his arms around her and hugged her gently.
“When this is over we're going to talk Juliet. I'm done with the Force and you’re not tied to your post either anymore. It's time to plan for the future - to plan for us.”
Juliet snuggled in closer. “Yes Mike time for us now.” For a moment they just stood in each other's arms then she looked up at him, “where will I have to stay tonight?”
He reached into his pocket and produced the keys to his apartment and gave them to her.
“I can't cook you dinner but I did buy some other things for tonight. I'll bring them with me.” She kissed him quickly; conscious they were the centre of attention and delighted to observe that she'd thrown him completely.
Graeme Dee had driven a car up beside them. He leaned out of the window. “I'll take her myself. You can update me later.”
“Thanks Graeme. I appreciate that.”
Juliet stopped before she got into the car and pointed around at them all with one finger. “None of you are coming to dinner dressed like that!”
Leon looked devastated.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
HAROLD'S REVENGE
Cherie Leclerc struggled against the hands that held her. It was hopeless. Harold was too strong for her; he held her by her upper arms and deliberately thrust his lower body hard against her.
“The more you struggle the more I’ll enjoy it!” he told her. He pulled her back harder against himself.
Cherie looked on as Hainsley-Sihl told Juliet he would send his 'familiar’ to kill her.
The ancient wooden staircase had fallen away completely; it lay shattered at Cherie's feet. It was fully fifteen feet to the lip on which Juliet stood, the wall was completely smooth, no one could climb it.
She screamed at Juliet to run and watched as she turned and disappeared.
Hainsley-Sihl stepped forward towards the cave wall and holding his arm out straight in front of himself he began to chant.
The blonde woman and the other men drew back from him.
The same oily smoke that had issued from his mouth in the crevice began to roll from his mouth again. It settled down along his arms and fell, as though it was heavy, to the floor. In a few seconds the dreadful creature formed from it as Hainsley-Sihl chanted.
Cherie stopped struggling. It was looking at her. The eyes alone enough to cause great fear in her. She felt the Imp’s projected mind all over her body, knowingly probing at her. Enjoying her fear.
Hainsley-Sihl stopped chanting and spoke commandingly to the Imp in some strange language.
It sprang ten feet up the cave wall in a single bound and to Cherie's disbelief clung where it landed as though the wall was sticky. It took just a few seconds to move up the wall like some huge spider and then it disappeared into the tunnel after Juliet.
Hainsley-Sihl walked across to Cherie and looked at her.
“Your astral sight has been blocked from you or you would recognise me and know that your resistance is useless. This is not the first time we have crossed swords Isabella De Montserrat and you have tried to defeat me but only delayed me. This time my powers are grown beyond your strength and you are alone. Tomorrow night you will be instrumental in bringing Lucifer home to his real domain. He is looking forward to your time in the flames.”
A terrible screaming noise echoed out of the tunnel above them and they all looked up at the dark hole in the cave wall.
“Your friend is going to enjoy being a sporting prize I'm sure.” The look on Hainsley-Sihl's face was pure malice.
The shrieking rang out again and it seemed to affect everyone but Hainsley-Sihl. No one else was able to bear the sound of it without cringing away.
He looked at Cherie. “It has her trapped now. Let it play! Soon it will not have to return to the darkness at all!” He turned to walk away but then his back arched and he cried out in great pain. A long scream of agony as his arms went up and he fell backwards as though some force had struck him powerfully.
Cherie had to step back against Harold to avoid his body crashing against her. She sensed Harold was not holding her properly as he reacted to the sudden sight of Hainsley-Sihl being thrown off his feet.
She crashed her head backwards as violently as she could and it hit Harold in the face with a hefty smack. His hands released her and she leapt over Hainsley-Sihl and ran for her life.
The blonde woman lunged at her but she just managed to avoid her outstretched arms. She ran away from the torchlight into the darkness and realised that she would not be able to use her own torch which was still in her top or they would know at once where she was.
They were after her and it was Impossible. She could not see enough to keep her footing on the uneven floor and crashed down driving the torch into her own chest. It knocked the wind right out of her and before she got back to her feet the blonde woman was down upon her back and swearing in her ear.
“I'll give you hell before he sends you there!” she said viciously. She held Cherie until the man with the injured hand had hold of her too. They lifted her to her feet and turned her and marched her back to where Hainsley-Sihl was sitting upon the cave floor.
He looked as though he had just received a great shock which had taken all the strength from his body. Two other people she had never seen before had to help him to his feet.
His face was full of fury as they took Cherie to stand in front of him.
“Their power and perhaps an even older power remain still in some parts of my domain but they cannot help you” He was literally spitting the words at Cherie. “They are relics from Jerusalem - old Monks who think they have astral powers of which they really know nothing! Tomorrow they will be turned to dust and that which they have sought to conceal for long ages will become the power behind a new age of darkness”
He had to stop to gather his breath. He looked as though he would have fallen down without the hands that supported him.
“You!” His arm shot out and he pointed into Cherie’s face. His hands were shaking and the look in his eyes was one of madness “You have been but nothing but grief to us for a thousand years. I tell you now! You are at the
end of your travels in time Isabella. I will send you to Hell tomorrow night, curse you! Curse your bloody Monks”
He turned and with help staggered away and Cherie was marched along behind him. There would be no further chance of escape she knew. They held her firmly from both sides. They knew she would take any half opportunity that beckoned.
At the far end of the cave a flight of stone steps ascended. In the light of the torches Cherie could see that it went up a very long way. They made their way to the half way mark she guessed before another tunnel opened on the right and she was forced into it. She wondered how many tunnels there were in all. The whole place was ancient and must at some point have had hundreds of people involved with it.
After a walk that lasted a full ten minutes Cherie was brought to another small cave that was ideally converted to form a cell. She was thrust in and the door was bolted behind her.
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