by Matt Drabble
She suddenly leapt to her feet and flung the chair backwards hard enough to make it topple over. What the hell was that? How had she suddenly been filled with a devotion to a man that she had been wary of only seconds before?
She stared down at the upturned chair, a chair that had held him and perhaps still held the remnants of his presence.
Her head was thumping hard now and she had to get out of here, out of the office and out of the whole damn building. Being in close proximity to his private space made it so difficult to even think straight and she felt that her hold on herself was slipping.
“What are you doing in here?” a shrill voice demanded from the doorway.
Avery turned to find herself facing Mrs Wilberforce. The usually demure and dapper woman now had eyes blazing with sheer fury and Avery took a step backwards.
“I just needed something,” she blustered, feeling suddenly afraid of the smaller, older woman.
“LIAR!” the assistant shrieked.
“Mrs Wilberforce, really!” Avery responded, attempting a tone of seniority. She was the woman’s boss, after all, but her voice betrayed her and she felt like a schoolgirl caught red-handed by the headmistress.
“You would dare to deface his private sanctuary by your sheer presence? You would dare to lie in this holy place? Liar, imposter, DEFILER!” the woman screamed.
Avery tried to summon her own anger but any that she found was dwarfed by the assistant’s raging wrath. She had no idea what had driven the woman to such heights of anger but she was afraid, very afraid.
“Look, I’m going to leave now, so please get out of my way,” she ordered, but Mrs Wilberforce stood like a stone statue.
“I seek to serve him, we all do, whore! All but you. You are an abomination here, you have no place amongst the virtuous, NO PLACE!”
With that, the older woman suddenly sprung at her with her long-fingered hands curled into vicious claws. Avery only just had time to raise her own hands in defence before the woman was on her.
Despite being larger and fitter than the older woman, Avery was horrified to find herself being driven backwards and then to the floor under the hellcat assault. Mrs Wilberforce’s nails were slashing towards her face and she had to work hard to keep them at bay. All rational sense had left the older woman’s face, which was now a mask of ferocious anger.
They landed on the floor together and Avery tried desperately to squirm out from under the assault. The older woman’s legs were kicking at her, striking her shins as she continued to try and claw her eyes out.
Avery had neglected the gym during the campaign and already her arms were growing tired from staving off the attack. In a last ditch effort, she rolled with the woman’s momentum and hoisted her feet up into Mrs Wilberforce’s chest before shoving hard. Desperation and fear gave her strength and the older woman was suddenly airborne and flying across the office. She landed against the bookcase with a sickening thud, breaking several shelves.
Avery climbed back to her feet, panting. Mrs Wilberforce inexplicably was already starting to move. Her expensive suit skirt was rumpled up around her waist, exposing her bony legs, and Avery looked on again incredulously at how the skinny woman had been so strong.
Mrs Wilberforce staggered back to her feet and stared hard at her from across the room. Avery now had the desk between them and intended to keep it that way given the murderous look in the older woman’s eyes.
“I don’t know what the hell is wrong with you but you’re in enough trouble already; why don’t you calm down and we’ll get you some help?” Avery tried.
Mrs Wilberforce only smiled. She turned and punched through the side of the sturdy bookcase, smashing the wood apart like it was paper. She ripped a piece of wood out and held it with a bloody hand. The broken shard had a jagged tip and Mrs Wilberforce brandished it like a sword.
Avery stared at the woman, still trying to process what she was seeing. “Look, just calm down, okay?” she said, holding out her hands.
Mrs Wilberforce lifted the weapon and proceeded to use the sharp end to gouge a trail down one cheek, splitting open the skin and causing blood to flow freely.
“You crazy-ass bitch! What the hell is wrong with you?” Avery cried out in shock.
“I live to serve him.” Mrs Wilberforce smiled as her tongue flicked out to savour her own blood. “He shall lead and we shall follow him into the kingdom of a new god, for we are his children and we owe him our lives.”
“What?” Avery exclaimed, just hoping to keep the crazy bitch away from her until someone else arrived in the office to help.
Mrs Wilberforce approached, stalking her around the desk, as Avery matched the assistant’s movements.
“We are all his children, even a godless harlot like you,” Mrs Wilberforce continued. “I can help show you the light, child. I can help you to repent. All you have to do is submit to him and show your devotion in blood.”
“Tolanson? You’re talking about him, right?”
“The one true God is among us, child; even you must have felt his power?”
“You know you’re nuts, right?” Avery couldn’t help but ask. “I mean, you do know that, don’t you?”
It was the wrong thing to say and Mrs Wilberforce answered with a scream, launching herself over the desk with her weapon raised high in a killing stroke.
Avery lifted one foot and kicked the desk as hard as she could, sending it forwards - not far, but enough. As a result, Mrs Wilberforce’s knees were caught by the lurching desk as she leapt, sending her sprawling.
Avery moved around the fallen woman and jumped over her body to try and reach the door. Impossibly, the older woman’s hand suddenly shot out with snake-like reflexes and caught her ankle. Avery pitched forwards and landed hard, face down. She just had time to turn over as Mrs Wilberforce loomed over her. The older woman’s eyes were glazed in triumph and ecstasy as she swung the wooden shard downwards for the kill.
All Avery could do was to raise her hands up in a poor attempt to ward off the plunging weapon. As she prepared for the ultimate impact, the office suddenly exploded with the sound of a gunshot.
Mrs Wilberforce’s face became a mask of shock and pain as a hole appeared in her chest, the impact driving her backwards.
Avery took the opportunity to scramble backwards and up to her feet. She turned to face her saviour and found a man that she couldn’t immediately place.
“We don’t have much time,” Lomax said, his voice thick with shock at his own actions.
CHAPTER 21
CLOAKS AND DAGGERS AND DANGER
Tolanson slept for an age. His dreams were restless and full of darkness. There were times when he couldn’t quite grasp who or what he was and others when his destiny was shining brightly like a beckoning beacon.
When he finally woke, he felt more tired than when he’d laid his head down.
He walked to the bathroom and paused by the mirror. His reflection told a tale of his struggle to maintain himself. The man staring back was old and worn. His features were craggy and his skin blotchy.
He closed his eyes and concentrated hard, feeling the life flood slowly back into his body with some reluctance. When he opened his eyes again, his reflection was once more filled with life and vitality, but there was a tiny trickle of blood running from his nose. He wiped it away with anger before slamming his fist down on the ceramic sink basin hard enough to crack it. His essence might be struggling but his strength was still full enough.
He dressed quickly in a smart blue pinstriped suit. He admired his reflection but had to work a little on getting some warmth into his smile.
The phone beside his bed was a constant nuisance to him but modern life seemed to run on the things and it would have been highly suspicious for him not to follow suit. There seemed to be a new poll every day that had an opinion on what he should wear, do and say. The Grant woman was constantly bombarding him with advice that he had to follow. It was driving him crazy that he had to pa
nder to strangers when all he needed was the public’s undivided attention, but that was what the debate was for.
He’d had to dance for them long enough to place himself in the race. Now that they were at the party, he was going to start choosing the music.
He knew that it was going to be close and that he couldn’t afford to waste any of his power. As a result he had started to close off various avenues of his abilities. He had to conserve whatever energy he had left for the debate.
He was going to flood the airwaves with his influence and every watcher was going to vote for him, regardless of the debate outcome. He had the ability to affect those in close proximity to him but now he was going to shine that light through a television camera and directly into viewers’ homes.
A loud banging at the door woke him from his thoughts and he was worried that he’d been drifting again.
“What?” he snapped.
McDere entered looking awkward.
“Well?” Tolanson demanded.
“There’s trouble at the office.”
Tolanson suddenly realised why McDere was looking so sheepish: he’d never had to tell him anything before, he’d always just known.
“What is it?” he asked tiredly.
“Looks like a break in and…”
“And what?”
“Mrs Wilberforce is dead, Sir.”
Tolanson swallowed the rising tide of anger that threatened to consume him. He just couldn’t spare the energy.
----------
Avery nursed the bump on her head with a bag of ice. The offices were now crawling with police and figures in white body suits as they went about their business combing and collecting.
The bump on her head was courtesy of Lomax, even if she’d had to insist upon it. After he had saved her he had suggested the idea of making it look like a break-in but she knew that she needed the blow to the head to sell the idea that she hadn’t been involved.
He’d ransacked the place to make it look convincing, all the while providing her with scant information.
Two Hours Ago
“Tell me what the hell’s going on?” she demanded as Lomax bashed open a desk drawer and rummaged through the contents that had landed on the carpet.
“I can’t tell you much that you’d believe, at least not yet,” Lomax answered.
“You’d be surprised what I’d believe right now,” she said, glancing over at the body of Mrs Wilberforce.
“I tried telling you before but you weren’t willing to hear me out.”
“Well I’m willing now, Mr Lomax.”
He stared at her hard and she knew that he was deciding what to tell her and what to keep back. “He’s a bad man, Ms Grant - a dangerous man - and if he wins this election, then we all lose.”
“But how? I don’t understand what’s happening here or what I’m supposed to do about it.”
Lomax stared at her for a long time without blinking. “I can’t give you the answers that you seek,” he sighed. “I don’t even know if I can trust you. Hell, I don’t know if I can trust anyone.”
“So let me help. Let me come with you. I’m damn sure I’m not staying here!”
“If you want to help then you have to stay,” Lomax said seriously. “I’m not going to lie, if he finds out that you’re on to him, or even that we’ve spoken, then you’ll die. It’ll look like an accident, maybe a mugging gone wrong or you’ll just simply disappear.”
“You can’t be serious?”
“You said yourself that something’s wrong here, that something’s wrong with him.”
“But murder? I didn’t say that.”
“You’re a smart woman, Ms Grant, you just have to look for the answers. He’s old but he’s tired now; he’s making the sort of mistakes that he’s never made before, or at least rarely made. You just need to keep your eyes and ears open. You’ll soon find out what he’s done and who he’s done it to.”
“Jesus, I don’t know,” she said, exasperated. “I came here to run an election campaign; the rest of this shit is over my head. Right now, all I want to do is walk away.”
“He won’t let you. Not now. Not when he’s so close to winning.”
“What about Debbie?” she asked suddenly. “Did he have anything to do with that?”
“What do you think? She was a reporter, wasn’t she? Or at least wanted to be. Was she trying to get any information from you? Would she have gone after Tolanson alone? What do you think?”
“I think that she was my friend and if he had something to do with her death then I want to bring him down.”
“Then that’s a good enough start. His legacy is one of vengeance, Ms Grant. There’s an ocean of people who want to see him pay for what he’s down the centuries.”
“Excuse me, centuries?”
“We’ll get to that...” He smiled. “…when you’re more open-minded. For now, you need to look into him; look into his past and his plans. I need someone on the inside. Here’s my number,” he said, handing her a slip of paper. “And call me when you’re ready.”
“I don’t know about any of this,” she said, casting an eye again over to Mrs Wilberforce’s dead body. “I just wanted to do my job - the rest of this seems a little too crazy for me.”
“You have to decide for yourself what you are prepared to do and what you can live with.”
“What did he do to you?”
Lomax had a small sad smile dancing across his lips. “It’s a family thing.”
“Look, I can just about accept that he might be corrupt - at a push, maybe he put a bug in my car - but murder? I don’t know.”
“And what about her?” Lomax asked, nodding towards Mrs Wilberforce.
Avery stared hard at the corpse. “Maybe she was just nuts.”
“You don’t believe that.”
“Don’t tell me what I believe! For all I know, you’re just as crazy as she was.”
“Tell me something, Ms Grant… this place, these people - hell, this campaign - did any of it ever seem normal to you?”
Avery said nothing as she had had the same thoughts recently.
“And Tolanson? An unmarried man without children? Did you ever hear about a politician running for the highest office in that position before?”
She opened her mouth to speak but the question cut her off at the knees. The very idea of an unmarried man running for any kind of office was unheard of; it was also something that had never occurred to her before. It was such a simple question but one that she had never considered.
“I got him to where he is, Mr Lomax; no one gave him a chance before I came on board and most still didn’t believe then. You expect me to believe what? That he’s some kind of Oz style Wizard? No offence, but screw you. I worked my ass off for this.”
“He has an influence, Ms Grant. You must have felt it, seen it?” Lomax continued. “But he is more, so much more, than that.”
“Tell me,” she urged.
“There’s not time, not now. You have to decide if you’re in this or if you’re walking away,” he said, looking up as the sound of approaching sirens drifted on the morning air.
Avery tried to think but it was hard as there was too much pressure. She wanted to do the right thing, but she also wanted to run. In the end it was Debbie’s face that she saw when she closed her eyes. Debbie had reached out to her and she hadn’t been there and then Debbie was gone. If Tolanson had been involved in that then she had no choice.
“Okay,” she finally replied. “But you’re going to have to hit me in the head, to make the break-in look legit,” she explained.
----------
Sutherland got the call summoning his presence and left Donovan, fuming as he drove away, leaving the young man standing out in the cold.
He was worried about leaving Donovan to his own devices, but he had little choice. He’d gotten two phone calls in swift succession: one from Superintendant Chambers and one from Tolanson, both demanding his presence at a crime scene.<
br />
He’d left Donovan with strict instructions just to watch Victor Michaels from a safe distance. He wanted to know where the man went and what he did.
There was no way that Michaels was going to offer up Tolanson, and after getting caught with his pants down once before, he was bound to be more careful now. But Sutherland knew that Michaels was a man with an itch, one that would have to be scratched sooner or later.
He pulled into the campaign headquarters and flashed his ID at a uniformed officer guarding the perimeter. He didn’t recognise the kid, who looked about 15, and suddenly he felt very old.
The force had changed around him while he’d been sleepwalking through his career. Nowadays there was no room for anything off the books or off the official script. Officers these days were little more than automatons, unable to think on their feet. His time had passed and it already felt too late to get out. He wasn’t foolish enough to think that he could possibly undo everything that he had done down the years, even if he stopped Tolanson. His books would remain firmly in the red, but at least he might be able to spit one time in defiance before he was swallowed up by his own guilt.
He headed into the building and found Tolanson and Chambers deep in conversation. He bypassed the talking men knowing that whatever the politician was telling his boss would spell bad news. Instead, he headed to the crime scene.
He’d gotten the details on the phone from Chambers and the dead woman was still lying on the floor. She was surrounded by several scenes of crime officers. SOCOs, as they were known, carried out the detailed evidence search of the scene and were hard at work.
Sutherland took a small notepad from his pocket and jotted down what he knew so far. The notepad was another reminder of his dinosaur status as the SOCO boys were using tablets.
The woman’s name was Mrs Wilberforce. He made a note the get her first name. Apparently, she was a senior assistant at the campaign headquarters and initial reports suggested that she’d walked in on a break-in.