Page 6 (2/2)

’How?’ he shouted back ’How can I help you? I don’t even knoho you are!’ But he suspected that he did It was a rare thing for the dead to speak to hi established by soht the which they would norain Which made him suspect that he’d known this one (or these ones?) before, probably in life

Haaarry -for God’s sake find us and make an end of it!

’How can I find you?’ Harry shouted into the night, wanting to cry from the sheer frustration of it ’And what’s the point of it? I won’t even remember, not when I’m awake’

And then - the h to call up a wind that howled along the riverbank and snatched at Harry, causing him to lean into it - there came that final exhortation which chilled the ex-Necroscope’s blood to ice-water, sent gooseflesh creeping on his spine and wrenched hi world:

Find us and put us down! the unknown voice iht now, before they can grow You know the way, Harry: sharp steel, the wooden stake, the cleansing fire Do it, Harry Please do it!

Harry sprang awake Sandra was clinging to hi to hold hi like a leaf; and she was frightened, too, her eyes wide fro a frozen ’O’

’Harry, Harry!’ she lay sprawled half across hied his neck, felt his heart pounding against her breast ’It’s all right, it’s all right It was a bad dreaht, shivering and panting for breath, he stared all around the room and let its faht the ht her awake ’What?’ he said, his hands tre where they clutched her ’What?’

’It’s all right,’ she insisted ’A dream, that’s all’

’A dreaaunt vacancy went out of his eyes He gently pushed her away, began to sit up - then drew air in a gasp and started bolt upright! ’No,’ he blurted, ’it was more than just a dream - much more And Christ, I have to reme, draining back to the roots of his subconsciousness ’It was about about - ’ he desperately shook his head and sent a spray of sweat flying, ’ - my mother! No, not about her but she was in it! It wasa warning? Yes, a warning, and soone, driven out against his will by the will of soacy, of his son -by the post-hypnotic commands he’d planted there in Harry’s mind

’Shit!’ Harry whispered, dae of the bed

That had been at 4:05 am

Harry had had maybe three and a half hours’ sleep, Sandra an hour less When he’d finally calown, then she hadand sipping at his drink, so she had tried to bring his dreaed hi herself inside that she’d slept right through it! For if she had stayed awake shehe’d experienced, whatever it had been That was her job: help hiet back what he’d lost Whether he wanted it or not, and whether or not it was good for him

But: ’No use,’ he’d shaken his head after long one And probably best that it’s gone I have to becareful’

Sandra had been tired She hadn’t asked why he must be careful because she knew But she should have asked because she wasn’t supposed to know And when she’d looked at hiain his soulful eyes had been steady on her, his tousled head tilted a little on one side, perhaps questioningly ’What’s your interest, anyway?’ he’d wanted to know

’Only that if you get it off your chest you’ll feel better about it’ At least her lie had the ring of logic to it ’Once a night’

’Oh? And that’s your understanding of night to be helpful’

’But I keep telling you I can’t re away at me It was just a dream, and no one tries that hard to winkle soood reason, anyway There’s soht here, Sandra, and I think I’ve known it for some time Old Bettley says it’s ht for me, but now I’m not so sure’

There was no answer to that and so she’d kept quiet, acted hurt, drawn apart from him But in fact she’d known that he was the one as hurt, and that was the last thing she wanted And when he finally got back into bed and she joined him there, then it had becohtful where he lay with his back to her

A little over an hour later she ake again, a call of nature Harry slept on, heavy in the bed, dead to the world That thought made her shiver a little as she rejoined him; but of course he wasn’t dead, just exhausted, mentally if not physically His li deep, slow and regular No more dreams Daasbeside him, still Sandra felt distanced fro, which was soood at One slip of the needle and the whole thing coht had been very, very good For both of them, she knew

To reinforce delicious, liquid memories of hi him in her hand And a moment later she was rewarded when he stiffened and pulsed in the tube of her fingers An anirateful for it anyway

Her loyalties were rapidly breaking down, splitting apart, and she knew that, too E-Branch paid the bills, but there had to be more to life than fat pay cheques Harry hat she wanted He wasn’t just a job anyti closer when she must make the break, say to hell with the Branch and tell hiuessed it by noay

Drifting, her thoughts began to run in pointless circles

Before falling asleep again she are of noises in the garden where the property fronted the river Slow noises, shuffling, sluggish A badger? She wasn’t sure if there were any badgers up here Hedgehogs, then Not burglars, anyway Not in a district as rundown as thisNoof stones on the gravel of the garden paths Soarden

Sandra slept in a fashion, but the noises were still on her e of true sleep and wouldn’t let herself be dran But as dawn began to filter its first feeble rays of pale light through the blinds of Harry’s rooradually faded away She heard the faate at the bottoht have been a slow series of shuffling footsteps, and then no , and Harry ca pot of coffee and biscuits on a tray ’Breakfast,’ he said, siht’

’Did we?’ she sat up

’Up and down a bit,’ he shrugged He was still pale but less weary-looking now And she thought she detected a new look in his eyes Wariness? Reluctant realization? Resolution? Hard to tell with Harry But resolution? What had he resolved to do, to say? She ot to her

’I love you,’ she said, putting down her cup on a s else and just remember that I can’t help it and don’t want to, but I just love you’

’II don’t know,’ he said But looking at her -sitting up in his bed like that, still pink froly stiff - it was hard not to want her She knew the look in his eyes, reached out and tugged at the cord of his dressing-gown; and he was hard under there andwith a life of his own

Then they were clinging and she curled herself onto hiainst him; and he touched her in those places where he knew she liked him to, and stroked her at the wet, mobile junction of their flesh It was the best it had ever been, and their coffee went cold

Later, downstairs, with a fresh pot beginning to bubble, he said: ’And now I could face a decent breakfast!’

’Eggs and bacon? Out on the patio?’ She thought that maybe the worst was over She’d be able to break it to hi ’Will it be warh out there?’

’Middle of May?’ Harry shrugged ’Maybe it’s not so hot at that But the sun’s up and the sky is clear, solet’s call it invigorating rather than chilly’

’All right’ She turned towards the fridge but he caught her arm

’I’ll do it, if you like,’ he said ’I think I’d enjoybreakfast for you’

’Fine’, she sh the old house to the front It was the back, really, but facing the river like that she always thought of it as ’the front’

Opening large patio here they overlooked the high-walled garden, the first thing she noticed was the gate under its stone archway, hanging ajar on rusting scroll hinges And she re A puff of wind,especially breezy

She walked down across the crazy-paving patio with its weathered garden furniture The garden was a suntrap, seeht into itself Already the wall of the house arlow It wouldn’t at all be a bad place to live, she thought, if Harry would only get it fixed up

He had, in fact, done a little work on the house and grounds in the last four or five years He’d had the central heating put in, for one thing, and had at least arden She crossed the patio to the lawn and ravel path which divided it centrally The grass was longer than it should be but still arden had been terraced on one side, with a shallow dry-stone wall holding back the soil This was the alleged ’vegetable garden’, though the only vegetation here now consisted of large areas of stinging nettles, brae patch of rhubarb!

She saw that several of the stones werefro sounds she’d heard when she lay half-asleep If a section of the wall had simply fallen, perhaps pushed over by an expansion of dew- or rain-sodden soil, then its debris would be lying here at the foot of the wall But there was nothing, just atop tier; and for her life she couldn’t see so in here just to steal stones! Perhaps Harry would know soate and looked out across the reedy bank to the river, whose surface was inches deep in undulatingthere like crea white ribbon for as far as the eye could see She’d never seen anything quite like it before But ured well for a war it with a half-brick, she paused and sniffed at the ht to sone entirely off, in fact But just as quickly the smell had disappeared

Sohad been about: local nocturnal creatures sniffing at the body of so or other where it lay in the reeds there at the river’s rile on the overgrown path just outside the gate!

Maggots! Ugh! Loathsoarden wall, too, watching her and the ht If she went away the redbreasts would likely s Bon appetit! She wasn’t a bit envious

And then, frowning, turning back fro up the path towards the house, at last she sahere the stones fro after all He’d been laying theentle slope of the lawned area And on some whim or other, he’d caused them to form letters

Before she could connect the letters up to see if they had anyjug of coffee, cups, ar on a tray ’Breakfast in five minutes,’ he called down to her ’By the time you’ve poured I’ll be back with the eats’ And so she forgot the business with the stones and went back up the path to where he’d left the coffee on the garden table

But half-way through breakfast she re with the stones?’

’Hmm?’ Harry raised an eyebrow ’Stones?’

’In the garden, on the lawn’

’Yes,’ he agreed, nodding, ’there are stones surrounding the lawn What about it?’

’No,’ she insisted, ’on the lawn! Stones for letters’ She s secret h Airport or so?’

’On the lawn?’ He paused with a forkful of food halfway to his es to the - ?’ He put his fork down and, frowning now, asked, ’Where on the lawn?’

’Why, just there!’ she pointed ’Go and see for yourself’

He did, and she could see fro about it She got up and joined hiend It was sih, looked unfinished, made no sense whatsoever:

KENL

TJOR

RH

And: ’Messages?’ Harry said again, thoughtfully, aler he stared, then nervously licked his lips and glanced quickly all around the garden, peering intently here and there Sandra wondered what he was looking for He was suddenly quiet, very pale again, obviously seriously concerned about so

’Harry?’ she said ’Is there so?’

He sensed more than heard her worried tone of voice ’Eh?’ he looked at her ’No, nothing Some kids must have been in So they hed but there was no life in it

’Harry,’ she began again, ’I - ’

’Anyway, you were right,’ he abruptly cut her short ’It’s too daet inside’

But as they gathered up the breakfast things she saw him sniff at the air, saw fresh lines of concern, of realization - even of understanding? - gather on his brow

’So dead,’ she said, and he actually started

’What?’

’In the reeds, down by the river, Soots on the path The birds are eating theh in theard

’Eating them’ he repeated her And now he couldn’t wait to be out of the garden and into the house

She took the breakfast things froh to the kitchen, then returned to his study He was pacing the floor, pausing every now and then to look out of the patio s and into the garden But as she entered he ca-ridden look ’So what’s your schedule for today?’ he inquired ’Will you be drawing? What have you got on the board right now, eh?’

Just a feords, but they told her a lot

Sandra was a fashion designer - ostensibly In fact she did design fashionable women’s clothes and had enjoyed several small successes, but ht she had told Harry that she wasn’t doing anything today She had thought they ether But now, for reasons of his own, he obviously wanted her out of here ’You want o?’ She couldn’t keep the disappointave up his weak attehed and looked away, ’I need to be alone to do so Can you understand that?’

’And I’ll be in the way? Yes, I can understand that’ But her tone said she couldn’t And before he could answer: ’Harry, this thing about the stones in the garden I-’

’Look,’ he grated, ’I don’t know about the stones! For all I know they’re only a small partofofoh, whatever!’

’Part of what, Harry?’ Surely he must hear how concerned she was?

But it seemed he didn’t ’I don’t know,’ his voice was still harsh He shook his head, then shot her an inquiring, allance ’Maybe I should ask you, eh? I oing on here than I do, right?’

She s When this - whatever it was - had blown over, then there’d be tih to try to explain about her connections with E-Branch And it would be a good time, too, to quit the Branch entirely and make a clean start With Harry, if he’d have her

He threw so for her in the car when she was ready They drove along the service road froe and joined the et a bus into Edinburgh She’d done it before and it was no great chore

She hadn’tout of the car she found herself saying, ’Will I see you tonight? Should I come up here?’

’No,’ he shook his head And as she turned away: ’Sandra!’ She looked back into his pale, troubled face But he could only shrug helplessly and say: ’I don’t know I mean I really don’t’

’Will you call ed a smile ’And Sandra it’s OK Ilead weight off her heart Soh could do as easily as that ’Yes,’ she leaned down and kissed hih the open car , ’we’re OK, Harry I knoe’re OK’

In Edinburgh, Darcy Clarke and Nor terraced facade of Georgian houses where Sandra had her flat They were in the back of Wellesley’s car, parked up, with two other Branch ot out of the car and round-floor flat; without speaking she ushered theain, Miss Markha a seat

Clarke was less fors, Sandra?’ He forced a slimpse of hisspecific Harry was in it soh, be sure Of course he hy else would these two be here? She said: ’Coffee?’ and without waiting for their ansent into her kitchen alcove Let the

’We have time for a coffee, yes,’ said Wellesley, in that oh-very-well, I-suppose-I-shall-have-to-accept way of his, as if it were his daht! ’But actually we’re pretty busy and won’t prolong our visit too ht to it: did you have plans to see Keogh tonight?’

Just like that and ’Keogh’, not Harry Will you be in his bed, or he in yours? Wellesley was asking Hu about this ot Sandra’s back up And the fact that his loas only a slanced back at him from the alcove with eyes that were cold where they ht call me,’ she answered, unemotionally

’It’s just that we’d prefer it if you don’t see hiht, Sandra,’ Clarke hurriedly put in, before Wellesley could use that blunt instru him ourselves And we’d like to avoid, you know, any e confrontations?’

She didn’t know, really But she brought theave Darcy a smile She’d always liked him She didn’t like to see hih not for s worked out as she hoped they would ’I see,’ she said ’So what’s happening?’

’No need for you to concern yourself,’ Wellesley was quick off the mark ’Just routine stuff And, I’m afraid, confidential’

And suddenly she was afraid, toofor Harry More co to interfere with her own plans, which she hoped would be the best for hiue to tell them about the new developments, what she knew of them, but she held it back

There was that in their attitude - Wellesley’s anyhich warned that noasn’t a good tio in her end-of-nation

They all three finished their coffees in silence And finally: ’That’s it, then,’ said Wellesley, standing up ’We won’t be seeing you!’ - his idea of a smart remark! He nodded, offered her a twitchy half-smile and headed for the door She saw the shot was: ’So if he does, er, call you, do put hiht have answered hiave her ar: ’It’s OK, I’ll be there’

But why should Darcy be acting so concerned? She’d rarely seen hie