Plender (26 page)

I walked over to the door and opened it a couple of inches. Then I opened it properly when I saw Knott standing next to Mrs. Fourness.

“I hope it’s all right,” she said. “He said it would be.”

“Yes, it’s all right,” I said.

Knott came into the room and I closed the door behind him. I saw him look at the hold-all and the gun.

“That’s right,” I said. “I’m leaving.”

“Leaving? Why?”

Suddenly I felt very tired.

“You’d never believe me in a million years,” I said.

“But you can’t leave yet.”

“Oh,” I said. “Why’s that?”

“Because I want you to show me where Eileen is.”

I smiled.

“Sorry,” I said.

“You’ll be quite safe,” he said. “I won’t involve you. I won’t tell the police anything about you. I just need to know where the body is. They have to have a body. Otherwise they might not believe me.”

I looked at him. He must have gone completely out of his mind. He didn’t even realise that with me out of the way he had nothing to worry about. Christ, that would be funny if I had to tell him that.

Then the phone rang. Without thinking I picked it up. The minute I put the receiver to my ear the line went dead. They were on their way. It was too late.

Knott picked up the gun from off the bed.

“Take me,” he said. “I have to know where she is.”

I looked at him. They were only a few minutes away. The plans I’d made were useless now. Unless . . .. . ..

“I must know,” he said. “Please take me.”

They wouldn’t try and take me with Knott around, that was certain. That was something I’d taught them. Not in daylight, not when they could be identified. But the quarry, that would be different. If I let them follow me it would be dark by the time we got there; they’d try then. And I’d have the advantage there; I knew every square inch of the place.

I put my jacket on and picked up my hold-all.

“All right,” I said. “I’ll take you.”

KNOTT

The closer we got the more terrified I became. It was the thought of being close to something that had once been alive, something I’d once made love to, something that was now under the earth, with the earth’s things moving through it . . . I squeezed my eyes tight shut and thrust my hand in my pocket and gripped the cold handle of Plender’s gun, like a child who is frightened of the dark grips his toy pistol under the bedclothes.

After we’d been driving for almost three quarters of an hour, the possibility of where Plender might be taking me began to dawn on me.

“Where?” I said. “Where did you put her?”

“I’m going to show you, mate, aren’t I?” he said. “I mean, that’s what I’m here for, isn’t it?”

“Not . . . Not near there.”

Plender shrugged.

“Wait and see,” he said. “Wait and see. This is Brian Plender’s magical mystery tour. The fun starts when the ride finishes.”

He began to whistle to himself.

PLENDER

They’d kept behind me all the way. I had to give them credit; they were doing a good job. Nobody else would have guessed we were being followed.

We reached the top of the hill that overlooked Brumby. Just before I turned left down the track that led to the quarry I said, “Want to drop in for a cup of tea with your mam before we get to the scene of the crime?”

“Shut up,” he said.

I laughed.

“Now, now Brian,” I said. “You’re not in the big city now so let’s have less of your big city ways.”

We got to the overhung entrance of the quarry and I crawled the car along the narrow track until it opened out into the quarry basin and then I turned right and drove towards the old engine houses.

When we got there I switched off the engine and the lights.

Knott was sitting bolt upright, stiff with fear.

“Well, here we are,” I said.

I opened my door and got out and listened. Very faintly I could hear the other car crawling along the track. I looked back at the entrance. Dusk was turning into full night now and the mouth of the entrance was hardly visible.

I walked round to the passenger side of the Cortina and banged on the roof and opened the door.

“Let’s be having you, then,” I said. “No time for shillyshallying. We haven’t got all night.”

Knott got out of the car as if he expected something to charge out of the darkness and leap on him.

“Over here,” I said, walking towards the engine house. Knott followed me, walking on eggs. I stopped in front of the upside-down panniers.

“Now then,” I said, stroking my chin. “Let’s have a little think. Which one was it? Do you know, I’m not entirely sure I can remember.”

Knott stared at the panniers.

“Under there?” he whispered.

“Er, yes, that’s right,” I said. “But which one?”

Knott took a step or two in front of me, as though drawn by a magnet.

“Here,” I said, “you know what it reminds me of? Have you ever seen them do that trick down the market where they have three cups face down and a peanut and they cover the peanut and shift the cups around and you have to guess which cup the nut’s under? This is like that, isn’t it?”

Knott sank down on to his knees.

“God,” he said. “God help me, please.”

“Well,” I said, “you pays your money and you takes your choice.”

The other car nosed into the quarry and the noise of its engine became suddenly louder as it fanned out across the quarry floor.

Knott twisted round like a rabbit in a snare.

“What’s that?” he said.

“Friends of mine,” I said.

I saw the lights cut out and I heard the doors open.

“What’s going on?” said Knott. “For Christ’s sake, tell me.”

“I couldn’t begin to explain,” I said. “But now I’ve done what I said I’d do, I’d like my gun back.”

Knott’s hand dived into his pocket and he scrambled up from the floor, bringing the gun out as he came.

“What’s happening?” he screamed. “Tell me what’s happening.”

“For Christ’s sake,” I said. “Shut up and give me the fucking gun. I’ve got to move while I’ve the chance.”

I could hear the others moving in the direction of our voices.

“No,” said Knott. “You haven’t shown me. How do I know you’re not lying? How do I know why you’ve brought me here?”

“The gun,” I said, walking towards him. “Give me the fucking gun.”

“I’ll kill you,” he said. “If you don’t show me, I will, I’ll kill you.”

Then I heard Gurney shouting through the darkness.

“Plender?” he called. “Are you going to come to us?”

“What do you think?” I shouted back.

I turned to Knott again.

“Quick,” I said. “While I’ve got a chance.”

“It’d be best if you did,” shouted Gurney. “It’s only a talk we’re after.”

Knott peered into the darkness in the direction of Gurney’s voice.

“Why are they here?” he said. “Why did you bring them?”

I made a dive for Knott and the gun but he turned towards me at exactly the moment I moved and more out of surprise that anything else he pulled the trigger. The bullet was yards wide of me but I automatically threw myself face down on the ground. When I looked up Knott was staring at the gun in amazement.

“All right, Mr. Plender,” shouted Gurney. “That’s good enough for us.”

Three powerful torch beams cut through the night. That stupid sod Gurney thought I’d hauled off a shot at him. Knott turned slowly towards the light. I got to my feet and began to race for the back of the engine house.

KNOTT

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Plender get up and start running. Then I stared at the point where the light was coming from. I couldn’t grasp what was happening. I couldn’t believe it. What were these people trying to do? Whatever it was, they were preventing me from doing what I’d decided to do. How dare they? What right had they? They had to be stopped. I began to walk towards them. But the torch beams weren’t trained on me. Two shots burst from the darkness and there was a crash behind me and I turned and looked where the shafts of light were pointing and I could see Plender, lying on the ground, shivering as if he was very, very cold.

They’ve killed him, I thought. He’s dead. My mind was very clear about the situation; they’d killed Plender, and now I’d have to look for Eileen myself. That wasn’t fair of them. They must realise how unbearable that would be for me. They shouldn’t have left me all alone, to do that. I had to let them know what they’d done to me.

PLENDER

I tried to roll over on to my back because the pain in my chest was too much to allow me to stay face down, but everything I tried to move made the pain worse so finally I had to give up. All I could do was to twist my head round to look in the direction of Knott.

I heard them begin to walk towards me, to finish the job. There was no point in taking me away now.

Then I heard Knott shout out, “Look what you’ve done to him.”

“Shut up,” Gurney said. “And stay where you are.” Two of the torches were trained on Knott now, but he had his hands at his sides, and the gun was out of range of the beam. Gurney ignored him and walked towards me, holding the other torch.

“You’ve killed him,” screamed Knott. “Now what am I going to do?”

Gurney had almost reached me. Any minute now the gun would go off and that would be the last sound I’d hear. Not that it would make any difference. I knew how badly I’d been hit.

I waited for the sound of the gun.

KNOTT

I watched the beam of light shorten as the black shape approached Plender. Then the figure stopped and I heard the hammers of the gun being pulled back.

Very quickly I raised my own gun and pulled the trigger.

The beam of light swung through the blackness as the impact of my shot caused the man to throw his arms in the air above his head. For a split second the beam was marvellously perpendicular, shooting straight up into the night sky. Then it described a slow arc downwards again and smashed on the ground and went out. Almost immediately one of the other torches veered over to the ground where Plender and the man were lying. For a brief second the beam played on the man’s head, allowing me to see that I’d shot him in the back of the neck.

Then both the other torches swung away from me and the two men on the ground, and I listened to the footsteps of the others as they crashed away towards their car.

I walked over to where Plender was and knelt down next to him. He knew I was there because I could hear him trying to say something to me, the same words over and over, but I couldn’t make them out.

Then, abruptly, the words stopped.