Death Notes (A Phineas Fox Mystery)

by Sarah Rayne

  Bea said, ‘How did you get into my house?’ and was grateful to hear that her voice came out with an edge of annoyance. My house. How dare you come in here uninvited?

  ‘I have a key,’ he said. ‘Your husband gave me a key about an hour before he died.’

  ‘You knew Niall?’

  ‘Slightly. He was returning to England that day, and I was going to look at the faulty window for him, to make sure the house was secure until someone could fix it.’

  The faulty window catch Niall had never got round to having fixed. The window catch that Maxim Volf had used to get in. Oh, Niall, thought Bea. You’ve caused so much trouble.

  She stood up a bit straighter, and said, firmly, ‘Yes, I see. I’ll have the key back, please. And then I’d like you to leave.’ When he did not speak or move, she said, ‘I met your cousin, Jessica, just briefly.’

  ‘Briefly?’ said Donal, softly. ‘But wasn’t she here with you all of yesterday afternoon? And didn’t she talk to you about all kinds of things?’

  ‘Yes, she was here, but—’

  ‘She talked about me while she was here,’ said Donal. ‘She told me she did. So I was coming to see you. To explain that she’s a confused, troubled little soul. To tell you she’s given to making up wild stories, and that she’ll probably have to be put somewhere safe and quiet and peaceful.’ He took a step nearer. ‘And that’s what I would have told you, Beatrice, if it hadn’t been for—’

  ‘What?’

  ‘If it hadn’t been for the fact that not fifteen minutes ago you stood at that window and you watched me. You saw where I took Jessica, didn’t you? You even took photographs.’

  ‘I didn’t see anything. I was photographing the mist over the trees and the mountains,’ said Bea, forcing anger into her voice. ‘I’m an illustrator – it was for my work. You – you and Jessica just happened to be there. I saw you both, but I thought you were taking a walk.’

  ‘On your land? Didn’t you think that a bit strange?’

  Bea said, ‘Not particularly. And if you want the photos I took, you can have them. Take the camera and go. I didn’t see anything.’

  ‘I’m very used to knowing when people lie,’ he said. ‘It’s part of my profession. You know what I did because Jessica told you. And today you watched where I took her. That’s all too much knowledge, Beatrice, and I’m not risking my career for you, or for that stupid creature, Jessica.’

  ‘But I didn’t see anything!’ cried Bea. ‘And Jessica didn’t tell me anything! I keep telling you that!’

  ‘You do. It’s a pity I don’t believe you,’ said Donal, and stepped forward.

  Phin parked the car on the track below Tromloy, switched off the engine, and looked at his companion.

  ‘D’you want to stay in the car while I go up to the house? It’s fine if you do.’

  He had expected Maxim would remain in the car, but surprisingly he said, ‘I’ll come with you.’ His voice was expressionless, and Phin had no idea what he was thinking or feeling.

  But he just said, ‘Good. We can leave the car here. It doesn’t look as if it’s blocking the path.’

  ‘No.’

  As they walked up to Tromloy, Maxim indicated a small hatchback parked outside the house.

  ‘Bea Drury’s car,’ he said. ‘So it looks as if she’s at home.’

  ‘And there’s a light on in that room,’ said Phin.

  ‘Sitting room.’

  ‘Is it?’

  ‘Yes.’ As Phin glanced at him, he said, ‘I told you I got into the place. Several times.’

  When they knocked on the door there was no response, and although Phin tried twice more, no one came to open it.

  ‘There’s a kitchen door around the back,’ said Maxim. ‘We could try that.’

  ‘All right. She might be in the kitchen with the tap running or something.’

  ‘She might not actually be in at all. She might have walked somewhere.’

  ‘Let’s try the back anyway.’

  But the kitchen, when they peered through the window, was deserted.

  ‘There’s a jacket thrown over that chair and a handbag on the table,’ said Maxim. ‘As if she was about to go out.’ He stepped back from the door and stared up at the window.

  ‘What’s wrong?’

  Maxim came back to the door, and lifted a hand indicating a warning. ‘She’s up there,’ he said. ‘At the bedroom window. And there’s someone with her.’

  ‘Well, if she’s in the bedroom with someone, we’d better go at once and hope we haven’t interrupted—’

  ‘It’s not that,’ said Maxim, impatiently. ‘The man who’s up there is … he’s dragging her across the room.’

  They looked at one another. Phin said, a bit uncertainly, ‘People do go in for weird bedroom games—’

  ‘Phin, the man who’s dragging her across the room is the man who came out to the Sexton’s House and tried to get in! He stared in through the window at me! And whoever he is, he’s bloody dangerous – I saw his face just now,’ said Maxim, and a different note had come into his voice. ‘Whatever’s happening up there isn’t a game, Phin. I think she’s in real danger.’

  ‘All right. Do we call the police? Or try to get in?’

  ‘Both.’

  ‘Are you sure? I mean – we aren’t misjudging the situation?’

  ‘I’m very sure, and I’m the one who saw it, and I’m not misjudging anything,’ said Maxim, curtly.

  ‘I’ll call the police – Garda,’ said Phin, accepting this, and thrusting a hand into his pocket. ‘Hell, I’ve left the phone in the car. If I sprint back to get it and call them, can you break a window and get in?’

  ‘I could, but it’d take some time – that’s a very small window,’ said Maxim. ‘He’d certainly hear. And if he panicked, God knows what he might do.’

  ‘All right, you stay here, and I’ll get to the car for the phone. I’ll be as fast as I can.’

  ‘There’s no time. We need to do something now. We need to reach her – Beatrice—’

  ‘If we could get into the house without alerting him,’ said Phin, frowning. ‘But there’s no other way in that I can see—’

  Maxim turned abruptly away from Phin, his shoulders bowed as if a massive weight had suddenly been dropped on them. He stood like that for several seconds, then put his hands up to his head, almost as if he was trying to hold it in place. In a soft voice he said, ‘Oh, God. Oh dear God. I can’t believe—’ Then he straightened up and turned to look at Phin. ‘There is another way in,’ he said, and his whole demeanour had changed so completely that Phin could almost have believed a different person stood there.

  But there was no time for questions; he said, ‘Another way? Where? How?’

  ‘Come with me.’ Maxim was already half running across the uneven ground, and Phin went after him.

  ‘Where are we going?’

  ‘To the old ice pit,’ said Maxim.

  His voice is different as well, thought Phin. I don’t know what’s happening, but there’ll be time enough later for explanations. ‘Ice pit?’

  ‘It was part of the old Kilcarne Manor. Used for storing ice blocks in summer – nineteenth century. Before that, even. It’s shown on the old plans. The main entrance – where they used to carry down the ice – is in the grounds, just about here, I think.’ He walked around impatiently stamping on the ground. ‘But the thing is that the pit itself comes out inside Tromloy.’ He looked at Phin, his eyes unreadable. ‘Tromloy used to be the housekeeper’s wing of the manor house.’

  ‘How on earth—?’

  ‘There should be a trapdoor sunk into the ground,’ said Maxim. ‘We have to find it fast, Phin. I must reach Beatrice, because … Hold on, I think it’s here.’

  He knelt down, and Phin saw the small square door, like the underside of a loft door. It was set flat into the ground and there was a ring handle.

  ‘It must be it,’ said Maxim. ‘It’s exactly where I—’ He broke off,
and said, ‘Listen.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Listen.’

  Then Phin heard it as well. From beneath the ground, someone was shouting for help. They both reached for the handle of the trapdoor and began to haul it up.

  Jessica heard the footsteps overhead, then the scrabbling sounds, and at first she shrank back against the hard-packed earth wall. The prospect of Donal’s return was now very frightening indeed, because now that she remembered everything that had happened, she no longer trusted him to let her out of this place.

  But there were two people up there – she could hear men’s voices, and surely Donal would not have brought someone with him.

  She drew in a deep breath, and shouted, ‘Help,’ as loudly as she could, over and over again. ‘Help me – get me out— I’m shut in—’

  The voices came again, then the trap’s hinges creaked and a thin thread of light showed around the edges. Jessica saw for the first time that she had fallen further from the trap than she had thought, because it was not directly overhead as she had been visualizing it.

  She called out again, and one of the voices said. ‘It’s all right. We’re getting to you.’ It was a nice voice – a voice you could trust.

  The trap was dragged back, and the light poured in, painful, almost blinding, after the long darkness. Jess put up a hand to shield her eyes.

  The first voice said, ‘God Almighty, you poor child – how on earth … Never mind, just hold on, we’re coming down and we’ll get you out. Phin, put that lid all the way back, flat to the ground.’

  There was a dull thud as the trapdoor hit the ground outside, and Jessica, still trying to adjust her eyes to the light, struggled to her feet.

  The man who had called to Phin to fold the trap back, dropped down next to her, and took her arm. He said, very gently, ‘You’re all right. Quite safe with us. Are you hurt?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Good girl. We haven’t time to explain now, because there’s someone in danger up there in the house—’

  ‘At Tromloy? Mrs Drury?’ Jessica tried to take in what was happening.

  ‘Yes, Mrs Drury. And there’s a way into the house from down here, if only I could bloody find it … Phin, will you get down here and help!’

  But the other man was already in the ice pit with them. ‘Are you all right?’ he said to Jess at once.

  ‘I think so. Yes.’

  ‘Good. I’m Phineas Fox, and the person prowling around in the dark corners is Maxim Volf.’

  ‘Um, I’m Jessica Cullen.’

  ‘We’ll get you out in a minute, Jessica, but first we need to get through to the house. Maxim, have you found the way? Because this looks to me like a dead end.’

  Maxim turned from the far corner. For the first time Jessica saw that his face was badly scarred – burned. But even with the scars, there was something about him that made you want to go on looking at him and listening to what he said.

  What he said, in a voice of suppressed fury, was, ‘It is a dead end. Oh God, Phin, I’ve got it wrong! There isn’t a way into the house from here – probably there was once, but it’s been blocked up! And Beatrice is trapped up there by that bloody man!’

  ‘By my cousin? By Donal?’ said Jessica.

  ‘I’ve no idea who he is, but we need to get to her.’

  ‘If it’s Donal, you certainly do,’ said Jess. ‘It was Donal who put me in this place. If he’s got Bea—’

  ‘Phin, you go hell for leather to the car for the phone and call the Garda. I’ll break a window and get in. If he goes for me, at least it’ll take his attention from Bea.’

  Jessica said, ‘I could get the phone and call the Garda. That’d leave both of you to deal with Donal.’

  ‘Could you? Are you sure you’re all right?’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ she said impatiently. ‘Give me the car keys. I’ll be more help doing that, and I know the people so I can explain what’s going on.’

  Phin exchanged a quick glance with Maxim, and Jess saw that they were thinking she would be safer out of the action anyway. Phin said, ‘Good girl. Here’s the car key. Button press there to unlock it. The car’s near the foot of the track – a red hatchback. All right?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘The phone’s in the glove compartment. Can you get out of here on your own, or shall I go up and help you? Oh, wait, there’s a couple of ledges just there – footholds, almost. If you use those you should be able to reach up and get out. I’ll give you a hand.’

  Jessica, grasping Phin’s hand and climbing on to the footholds that somebody must have hewn out years ago, was able to reach up and grasp the edges of the open trapdoor very easily. Phin waited while she clambered through and on to the grassy land beyond.

  ‘I’ll run all the way to the car,’ she said, kneeling down for a moment to look back at them.

  ‘Make sure you keep out of sight of the windows. And when you’ve made the call don’t come back up to the house,’ said Phin. ‘Keep running down to the road and meet the Garda there.’

  ‘I will.’

  It felt incredibly good to be out in the fresh air again, and to see the sky and the trees. Jess felt a bit peculiar and slightly light-headed, but there was no time to give in to this. Bea Drury was being threatened by Donal. It’s because he thinks I told Bea what he did to me, thought Jessica, running towards the track, careful to keep out of sight of Tromloy. I’ll feel dreadfully guilty about that later, but for the moment I’ll concentrate on reaching the car and calling the Garda.

  She ran a bit, slithering down the track, and saw with relief the small scarlet car, parked just off the track as Phineas Fox had said. The door locks blinked as she depressed the key, and Jess tumbled thankfully inside and reached for the phone. Not long, Beatrice, she thought. But Phin and Maxim will get to you in a very few minutes, anyway.

  In the ice pit, Maxim had pulled himself out on to the ground above, and Phin was about to follow, when he stopped.

  ‘Maxim – look back down here.’

  ‘What? Where?’

  ‘It’s a door,’ said Phin. ‘It’s half covered with earth and roots, but I’m sure—’

  Maxim leapt back down. ‘It is a door,’ he said, as Phin pointed. ‘It’s got to lead up to Tromloy.’

  ‘Can we get it open?’

  Phin was feeling all round the door’s edges for a handle or a lock, but Maxim said, ‘Sod that. Stand clear.’ He stepped back and aimed a fierce kick at the door’s side. It protested, and clouds of earth billowed up.

  ‘Maxim no – you’ll never do it. It might be locked.’

  ‘I don’t care if it’s guarded by the three-headed hound of Hades,’ said Maxim, and he kicked the door a second time. There was a splintering of old wood, and a harsh grating sound of hinges snapping. The door swung slowly inwards, and stale, bad-smelling air gusted into their faces.

  ‘All in the best Gothic tradition,’ said Maxim. ‘And now we go as softly and as stealthily as we can up into the house, and we grab that evil bastard before he knows what’s happening.’

  It was dark beyond the old door, but it was not as dark as the ice pit had been. Faint chinks of light came in from overhead, and after a cautious walk of perhaps fifty yards, they came to a flight of stone steps.

  ‘They’ve got to come out somewhere in the house,’ said Maxim, starting up them. ‘But I don’t know exactly where.’

  ‘If they used ice for cooking,’ said Phin, following him, ‘then surely the tunnel – those steps – would come out in the kitchen?’

  ‘There’s a big larder in the kitchen,’ said Maxim. ‘And it’s got one of those old-fashioned marble slabs for cold stuff. Oh, God, I wonder if it’s a lid in itself, that slab.’

  ‘Maxim,’ said Phin, ‘exactly how much do you know about Tromloy?’

  ‘A very great deal,’ said Maxim. ‘Keep quiet now, will you, because we’re at the top of the stairs.’

  ‘Pray God we get up there before Donal Cullen tips
over the edge.’

  ‘I am praying,’ said Maxim.

  The minute Donal Cullen reached for her, Beatrice raised the paperweight above her head. Then she froze, because it was suddenly sickeningly easy to imagine how it would feel to bring the heavy marble crunching down on bones and nerves and flesh.

  In that second of hesitation, Donal knocked the paperweight from her grasp, and snatched her wrists, holding them together tightly.

  Beatrice fought and kicked out at him. ‘Let me go! Get out before I call the Garda. I don’t give a stuff what you’ve done. For all I care you can have broken all the commandments and committed every sin in the calendar!’

  ‘I probably have,’ he said. ‘But we’re beyond the point where I can trust you. So since you got on so well with my weird little cousin, I think it’d be a fine idea if I took you to spend some time with her now.’ His grip on her hands tightened and he began to pull her out of the cramped alcove.

  Bea fought him with every ounce of strength, but he had her hands in an iron grip, and he was starting to pull her across the room. It was useless to scream because there was no one to hear her, but she did scream.

  At once Donal Cullen brought up one hand and hit her very hard across the face. The blow missed her eyes, but Bea felt the hard bruising pain across one cheekbone.

  ‘There’ll be more of that if you scream again,’ he said.

  ‘Let me go!’ shouted Bea again, and with the words there was a sudden massive crash from somewhere downstairs, followed by the sound of footsteps – two pairs of footsteps – running hard up the stairs. From outside the house was the sound of wailing police sirens. It was all right. She was going to be safe. The knowledge gave her a sudden burst of extra strength, and she twisted out of Donal’s hands, and pushed him back against the wall.

  The bedroom door was flung open, banging against the wall, and two men were in the room. One was a complete stranger, but the other— Bea gave a gasp, partly of shock, partly of relief, and half fell against the wall, dizzy and trembling as Donal bounded towards the door. He was down the stairs before either of the two men could stop him, then the younger one – Bea had no idea who he was – went after him.