The Room on the Second Floor

by T A Williams

  Before he left the study, he put his hand on Roger’s shoulder and tried to give him comfort. ‘Don’t worry about your fiancée. Nothing bad can have happened to her yet. Otherwise, why send the note?’

  ‘Yet?’ Roger echoed the inspector’s word, an icy fear gripping him. For one horrible moment, he thought he was going to be sick again, but it passed. The cold ache in his stomach, however, remained.

  After a few minutes, Inspector Cocker reappeared with two solid-looking policemen. ‘Professor Dalby, these officers are here to protect you. I have also asked for a firearms team. They should be here in the next five to ten minutes. As it looks as though the ransom note came from upstairs, I will go back up to the second floor now with a few other officers. We’ll check all the rooms again, and then we’ll try to get up on the roof. I have just been told that the fire brigade will be here any moment with a turntable ladder and floodlights.’

  He laid the note back on the table beside Roger.

  ‘If the telephone rings, try to keep him or her talking as long as possible. One of these officers will alert me on his radio.’ With that he was gone. Roger waved the policemen into the room. They took up places either side of the broken window, backs to the wall, eyes covering the whole room. They smiled reassuringly, but did not speak.

  Chapter 52

  Duggie nodded to the policeman on duty by the security door to the Salon.

  ‘No sign of our friend on the roof?’

  The constable shook his head. ‘I would imagine she’s getting pretty cold out there by now. Anyway, the fire brigade will be here any minute.’

  Duggie passed through the doorway and hurried down the row of now empty bedrooms. Mo had escorted the clients out via the back stairs, assuring them as she did so that they had nothing to fear from the police. As one of them was a judge and two were solicitors, she was on pretty safe ground there. A stereo was still playing the theme music to Star Wars in the Gossamer room. Idly, Duggie found himself trying to remember which of the clients requested that. Mo had told him, but he had forgotten. The man liked to pretend to be Chewbacca, the Wookiee. He would chase the girls around the bedroom, uttering plaintive, wailing cries.

  Each to his own.

  He stopped at the entrance to Gossamer. Mindy had said that it was possible to get out onto the flat roof from the window of that room. He decided to investigate. The brick with the message had been attached to a rope, presumably dropped down from the second floor or the roof. As Rachel Turner was still at large on the roof, he decided to start there. Maybe he could kill two birds with one stone ? catch the crazy woman and the kidnapper in one fell swoop. And there was always the possibility that they were one and the same.

  He closed the door behind him and switched off the light. He felt his way across to the CD player, and switched it off. The sudden silence was deafening. As he waited for his eyes to adjust to the dark, he found himself wishing he had an MP5 in his hands. A pair of night-vision goggles would be handy as well. For the first time since he had left the regiment, it felt good to remember.

  He knew he had waited too long to talk to someone about his years of active service. Inevitably, by bottling it up, he had let it fester. There were things he had done that he was very proud of. And others he never wanted to think of, ever again. But now that he had started to open up to Tina, the sorrow was fading. He took a deep breath as the old, familiar adrenalin charge swept through him.

  He reached for the window and released the catch. He did his best to slide the old sash window up as silently as possible. A blast of cold night air blew in. Nevertheless, he slipped off his jacket, thankful that he was wearing a dark jumper underneath. He stepped out onto the roof. Up here, far from the street lights of the road, it was pitch dark. He pushed the window down behind him until it closed. He leant back against the wall of the building and glanced up. No moon, no stars. The sky was completely overcast. The only source of light was the glow from the broken window of Whiplash, further along the roof.

  He stayed immobile for a good few minutes, watching and listening. He began to make out the shape of the roof alongside where he was standing. It sloped up, away from him. He knew that on the other side of the ridge, it fell sharply away to the gutter. From there, it was three storeys to the ground. There was no way either the kidnapper or the crazy manager would be up there, so he concentrated on the shadows beyond the lighted window. Still he did not move. One thing you learn in the regiment is how to stay still and wait.

  Then, a few yards beyond Whiplash, there was a movement. His eyes narrowed.

  Chapter 53

  The telephone on Roger’s desk started ringing. Everything in the room stopped, including Roger’s heart for a second. He looked across at the two policemen and raised an eyebrow. The one with sergeant’s stripes nodded back. Roger reached across and picked up the receiver.

  ‘Roger Dalby.’

  For a moment there was no response at the other end. Then, after a long, heartfelt sigh, came the voice. At first it sounded like a woman, but he quickly realised it was a man’s voice. It sounded unexpectedly high-pitched, close to hysteria.

  ‘At last…I’ve got Linda here, Professor Dalby.’ There was something very, very familiar about the voice. Roger struggled to recognise it. ‘But it’s not her I want. It’s you.’

  Roger broke in. ‘How do I know you’ve got her there? How do I know nothing has happened to her?’

  The high-pitched voice screamed back at him at him. ‘Of course I’ve got her. Listen.’

  As Roger strained his ears, he heard the man speaking to her.

  ‘It’s Roger Dalby on the phone. He wants to know if you are all right.’ His voice was full of menace. Roger breathed in deeply. ‘Go on, tell him you’re all right. Tell him I haven’t started hurting you…yet.’

  There was silence for a moment. Then he heard her voice. ‘Roger, I’m all right, but he’s really crazy…’ She was suddenly silenced.

  The man came back on the line again. ‘Now listen. I know you have called the police. I saw them arrive.’ Roger looked across at the police sergeant, who was speaking quietly into his radio. ‘I’ve been after you for a long time now, but this time I’ll get you. You broke my ribs, you bastard.’ Roger looked blank. ‘And I almost froze to death. Then that stupid girl got in the way. But this time, there is no escape for you. If you want the lovely Linda back, you have only one chance.’

  As he heard the words ‘lovely Linda’, suddenly, the penny dropped. Roger realised with amazement who was on the other end of the line. Before he could speak, the voice came back again. Roger’s blood ran cold.

  ‘Do everything I tell you and she will come to no harm. If you try to trick me, I’ll cut her throat. Now listen.’

  As the man on the other end of the line paused for breath, Roger saw the sergeant waving to attract his attention. As he caught Roger’s eye, he mimicked being sick. Immediately, Roger understood. He made a thoroughly convincing retching noise into the phone, panted, ‘I’m being sick again,’ and hung up. The police sergeant gave him an enthusiastic thumbs up, while listening attentively to his radio.

  The door opened and Cocker rushed back in. He came across to Roger and clapped him on the shoulder.

  ‘Well done. Is she all right? Did you hear her? And the man, did you recognise his voice? Know who he is?’

  Roger had worked that out, halfway through the call. That crazy, vicious little bastard.

  ‘Yes, I do. At least Linda’s still all right. I heard her voice in the background. And he said he saw the police arrive, so he must be very close, somewhere here in the house.’ His mind was whirling, desperately trying to think of where the kidnapper might be.

  ‘So you did recognise him, then? Who is he?’

  Cocker’s voice cut into Roger’s musings. He collected himself. ‘His name is Edgar Lean. He is one of my PhD students. At least, he was.’

  ‘One of your students? Trying to kill you?’ This was every bit as weird to t
he inspector as some of the things he had seen up in the Salon. But, there would be time to work out the why later on. For now, what mattered was to find out where Lean was, and to rescue the professor’s fiancée.

  ‘You say you reckon he’s here, in the house?’

  Roger nodded.

  ‘Right then.’ Cocker pulled the radio from his breast pocket. Before he pressed Transmit, he looked across at Roger. ‘As long as you can keep him talking, Linda is safe. Do your best to keep him on the line. Tell him anything. Promise him anything. I’ll get my men to do a systematic search, room by room. I’m sure Mr Scott is right. That brick came from above, so we’ll concentrate on the second floor. My men have already started up there. Time is of the essence.’

  ‘I’ll do my?’ Before Roger could say more, the telephone rang again. He nodded to the inspector and picked it up.

  ‘Try to stop being sick this time, or else she will be more than sick. Got it, Dalby? Now, tell all the other people in the room to leave, including all the police. Yes, I know exactly what is happening in there. Do it now or Linda will drown in her own blood.’ Roger had no doubt he was dealing with a person who was completely unhinged. He sounded capable of anything. Roger shouted at the others to get out. The police sergeant looked across at the inspector, who thought for a moment and then, reluctantly, waved them out. The inspector’s final words were a whispered, ‘Keep him talking.’ And then they all left.

  ‘They’ve all gone, including the police. Can you hear me, Lean? They’ve gone.’

  Chapter 54

  A shadow detached itself from the shelter of a chimney stack, just beyond the lighted window. Duggie followed its every move. As it approached the illuminated area, he saw who it was. It wasn’t a pretty sight. Rachel Turner was naked, all bar some ludicrously tiny underwear. The light from the window reflected on her pale skin, making her a large and unmissable target. Once again, Duggie found himself thinking nostalgically of his little Heckler and Koch with the cut-down barrel. However, even without a weapon, this one would be easy to stop.

  She was walking with difficulty. Presumably she had hurt herself as she climbed onto the roof. Serves her right, he thought to himself. The image of the terrified girl who had been abused by her, flashed cross his mind. He would enjoy giving this psycho a good slapping. But, he stopped himself, Rachel Turner was not his target. At least, not yet. What he wanted was to know if the kidnapper was up here as well. And, along with him, Linda. The only person who might know this was Rachel Turner. She had been up here long enough. If there was anybody else on the roof, she would know.

  He slipped away from his position against the wall and crept towards her. By now, the light from the bedroom had compromised her night vision. She wouldn’t be able to see anything outside the radius of the window. He knew the same would happen to him, so he ran the last few yards. With one foot, he kicked her legs out from underneath her. She didn’t have time to cry out before she found herself sprawled on the frozen roof, Duggie’s hand over her mouth, and his knee in her back.

  ‘Rachel, listen carefully.’ He kept his voice low, his tone insistent. This is about more than just you, Rachel. I need to know something. Something very, very important. Do you understand?’ To emphasise his point, he dug his knee down between her shoulder blades. He felt her squirm, and saw her head nod.

  ‘I’m going to release my hand from your mouth now, Rachel. If you make so much as the slightest sound, I will grab your hair and slam your face onto the lead. That will be very painful and will break your nose. Do you understand?’ Again she nodded.

  He took his hand away from her mouth and felt her gasp for breath. She heeded his warning and stayed silent. He leant closer to her.

  ‘Now, all I need to know is whether there is anybody else up here on the roof. You’ve been here a good half hour. Have you seen anybody else?’ As he spoke, he realised that she was shivering all over. Her skin was cold to the touch. Borderline hypothermic, by the feel of her. For a moment he found himself wondering if Paddy would have shared his diagnosis.

  ‘No, nobody.’ She could hardly get the words out. Her teeth were chattering uncontrollably.

  He tried again. ‘Seen nobody, heard nothing?’

  ‘No, nothing.’

  Right, that ruled out the roof as the kidnapper’s hiding place. He lifted his weight from her and stood up. She lay where he had felled her.

  ‘You’re freezing, Rachel. Come back inside and we’ll get everything sorted out.’ He didn’t have time to waste on her for now. He left her lying there. The broken window to Whiplash was wide open. He climbed back inside and made his way along the corridor to the security door.

  The constable on guard turned towards him as the door opened. He relaxed as he saw Duggie.

  ‘Anything happening through there?’

  ‘I think you’ll be getting a visit from a very cold lady very shortly. You might need a blanket.’ He left the reception area and went out on the landing. The corridor to the, as yet, undeveloped east wing of the house was swarming with police. He spotted Inspector Cocker, accompanied by a squad of uniformed police officers.

  ‘Anything I can do to help?’

  Cocker turned and flashed him a smile. ‘No thanks. We are checking the rooms up here one by one. Nothing so far.’

  ‘The roof is clear.’

  The inspector looked across at him. ‘Clear?’

  ‘I thought I had better go up and check whether the kidnapper might be hiding up there. All I found was a woman in her underwear.’ Seeing the expression on the inspector’s face, he explained. ‘Rachel Turner. A very cold Rachel Turner. She tells me she hasn’t seen any movement up there on the roof. I am inclined to believe her.’

  ‘Thanks for doing that, Mr Scott. But it could have been dangerous.’

  ‘I can look after myself.’

  I bet you can, the inspector thought. He had made a few discreet enquiries about the occupants of the manor, Duggie included. Ten years’ service in the Marines. Part of the time spent with the SAS in Hereford. A string of medals and commendations, but no details recorded. He knew they didn’t publish that sort of thing. Yes, he was probably better equipped for this kind of situation than his own police officers.

  On the roof above, unbeknown to everybody in the house below, Rachel Turner pulled herself to her feet. She wiped the blood from her knees and straightened up. The light from the Whiplash room beckoned, promising blessed warmth. But she was past rational thought. She turned and staggered off at an ungainly run, back down the roof towards the east end. She was muttering over and over again to herself. ‘Bastard, bastard, bastard.’

  Chapter 55

  Lean’s voice was getting more and more loud.

  ‘Did you know my research grant has been withdrawn since you left? Seems the foundation don’t think much of my ideas. That’s all your doing, Professor Bastard!’ The last words were delivered in a hysterical scream. ‘You sod off and leave me high and dry. And you get to have Linda. I know you did it deliberately to spite me. I’ll never forgive you for ruining my life.’

  His screams were coming through the receiver so loud, Roger had to hold it away from his ear. The man was definitely off his head.

  ‘But I know how to ruin yours, starting with the love of your life. If she’s not going to be mine, she’s not going to be anybody’s…’

  His voice was suddenly cut short. There was the sound of a horrific thud at the other end of the line. This was followed by a crash of breaking glass. No voices, no screams, no shouts. Roger stopped breathing, waiting desperately to know what had happened to Linda.

  Then, faintly, through the receiver, he heard a rustling sound, like a weight being dragged across the floor. Oh God, not a body, Linda’s body. Roger almost screamed out loud. The noise slowly got louder as it approached the telephone. Then he heard the most beautiful sound in the world. It was Linda’s voice, very indistinct, no doubt through a gag, but still unmistakably Linda.

  ‘
Roger, Roger. I’m all right, but I think they are dead.’

  The scene that greeted the police when they broke into the old orangery, at the far end of the second floor, was grotesque. Lean’s bulging rodent eyes stared out in everlasting shock. His lanky frame was squashed beneath the bloodstained body of a heavily built woman. She was wearing very little, bar a black leather corset and stockings. Broken glass from the skylight, through which she had plummeted onto him, surrounded them. There was glass all over the floor, while a single long splinter transfixed their two bodies. The bloodstained point protruded upwards, between her naked shoulder blades. Both of them were stone dead.

  Epilogue

  ‘You look absolutely gorgeous.’ Tina had no doubts.

  ‘Stunning. He’s a lucky man.’ Mo stood back and surveyed her handiwork.

  Linda risked a glance in the mirror. I’ll do, she thought to herself, as she subjected the dress, her hair and her make-up to a critical study.

  ‘Now, you’re sure you’ve got all the bits?’ Tina was taking her job seriously. ‘Something old, something new?’

  ‘Yes, Tina, and I’m wearing blue pants and you’ll get your earrings back in the morning.’

  Tina and Mo exchanged glances. Normally very understated, Linda was glowing as only brides on their wedding day are allowed to do.

  ‘So, will the groom be equally gorgeous?’ Ingrid’s blond head looked round the door.

  ‘Not equally,’ Tina was sure of that, ‘But I’m sure he won’t disappoint.’