Full Dark House(135)

‘What’s that?’

‘She can throw her voice down the phone.’

‘Now you’re teasing me.’

‘Our work is far from finished. I think I’ve finally found a purpose to my life. Something I can dedicate myself to. Thanks to you.’

Bryant looked over at his partner and grinned as the sun came out above them, transforming the river into a shining ribbon of light. He rubbed his hands together briskly.

‘But where to start? We have yet to discover the lair of the Leicester Square Vampire. He’s still got my shoes, you know. And that poor girl he snatched, buried alive with all those rabid bats and someone else’s head. There are other cases starting to come in. We’ve got a twenty-one-year-old Hurricane pilot accused of a brutal stabbing in Argyll Street, several witnesses, his bloody fingerprints on the body, and a cast-iron alibi that places him in the middle of Regent’s Park, tied to the back of a cow. He’s one of the Channel heroes, so it’s in everyone’s interests to exonerate him, but how? No, our labours here are only just beginning. This city is a veritable repository of the wonderful and the extraordinary. Isn’t that right, Mr May?’

‘I couldn’t agree with you more, Mr Bryant,’ replied May with a lift of his glass, and this time he really meant it.

Bryant looked over his friend’s shoulder, in the direction of Waterloo Bridge. Something drew his eye to the centre of the bridge. There was a coruscating flash of dark sunlight, a spear of greenish yellow, and for the briefest moment two elderly men could be seen leaning on the white stone parapet. Then the light settled, and they were gone.

Far above them, the silver-grey barrage balloons that protected the city turned lazily in the early evening air, like old whales searching for the spawning grounds of their youth.





62

SLEIGHT OF HAND

‘What time is it?’

‘Almost sunset.’ May came away from the hospital window. ‘You can see the river from here.’

‘Look, John, I’ve still got the mobile phone you bought me.’ Arthur Bryant pulled the silver Nokia out from under the bedclothes and waved it at his visitor, waiting for a compliment. The hospital room was awash with garish flowers and get-well cards.

‘I thought you’d lost it,’ said May, tearing off a grape and eating it.

‘No, I’d accidentally switched it with the television remote. Every time Alma changed channels to watch QVC she speed-dialled the Berlin headquarters of Interpol.’

‘Well, why didn’t you use the speed-dial to call me?’

‘I wasn’t thinking very clearly. I’d been hit on the head,’ Bryant complained.

‘How is the old noggin?’ May peered at the top of his partner’s skull. A row of neat stitches extended from his right ear to the middle of his left eyebrow. ‘You’re going to have a scar there. Can you remember what happened that night after I left you?’

‘Only bits,’ Bryant admitted. ‘I went downstairs to get my paperweight back.’

‘What paperweight?’

‘The one I threw at the lads from Holmes Road when they came by to make fun of me. It must have been around six in the morning when I went out. I thought I’d better get the thing back because it was a souvenir from the war. I was just coming up the stairs when I saw him. The top door was wide open, and Elspeth Wynter’s son was standing there. He had a green metal cylinder in his fist. He started accusing me of persecuting him, and said he was going to kill me. I should never have sought him out at the Wetherby. I’d upset him when I reminded him how his mother had died. It’s funny the way little things can trigger memories. Give me those, for God’s sake.’ He reached forward and emptied grape pips from May’s cupped palm. ‘Ow.’ He clutched at the top of his head and fell back onto the pillow.

‘You shouldn’t move about,’ warned May. ‘The nurse says you have to lie still for a few days. What happened after you saw Todd standing there at the unit?’

‘What do you think? He hit me, and there was an explosion. I’d just nipped out in my shirt sleeves, I had no ID on me, no wallet. I woke up in a hostel off the Charing Cross Road. A very nice lady kept feeding me mushroom soup. I went back home but my teeth were hurting, so I picked up my dental records.’

‘You also took the blueprints covered with your notes from the Palace.’

‘Yes, but I couldn’t remember why I’d taken them. I went to see you but I couldn’t get in, so I thought I’d wait. Some hideous monkey-like woman appeared from nowhere and started screaming at me.’