Tedd and Todd's secret (38 page)

Helen White still didn't understand what had happened. She had woken up nude in the living room, in front of strangers, a seven-foot-tall policeman and a beautiful young woman.

The man had at least had the decency to offer her a coat to cover herself, but neither of the two explained what they were doing there. They'd asked her about someone called James, a man with the same surname as hers, and she had been surprised to find she didn't know who they were talking about. Helen felt disorientated. The attitude of the couple had been strange. And what were they doing there in her house?

She had asked them to leave when they started talking about chess. Why would they have talked about a board game under those strange circumstances? All the more so when the policeman had suggested she was the new white queen. Just as she was about to demand an explanation for the whole mystery of their presence and strange comments, they disappeared.

Now that they were gone and she was alone and she could forget about the whole thing. Helen went to the kitchen and drank two glasses of orange juice, one after the other. In her bedroom she took off the coat the policeman had given her, opened the wardrobe and began to study her clothes. It took her more than fifteen minutes to decide. Finally she chose a comfortable casual suit that she liked.

She was just finishing getting dressed in front of a full-length mirror on the back of one of the wardrobe doors when her clothes disappeared before her eyes, replaced just as quickly by an elegant white dress. She left the room and went to the front door. She had to go straight to a person named Otis, whose whereabouts she knew without having the least idea how.

When Helen White walked out into the street she was carrying an enormous bow in her right hand.

Aidan Zack's car came to a screeching halt across the street from the art gallery advertised on Tedd and Todd's flyer. He crossed over quickly and entered the gallery.

"Ashley!" he called out.

No one answered. The place was deserted.

A wave of nerves surged through his body as he went from one room to the next calling out his wife's name. The works of art hanging on all the walls were no more than frames with vague representations within them as he did a complete circuit of the building.

He realized a few minutes after walking in that she wasn't there and panic welled up in his veins. He screamed her name once more and with a wild kick knocked a sculpture crashing to the floor. Even the thought of ruining a work of art didn't bother him as he did another round of the building. He couldn't give up. Aidan went up a flight of stairs to the first floor where a series of closed doors no doubt led to luxurious offices. If there'd been anyone there they would've been alerted to his presence by the commotion he'd unleashed downstairs. But there was no sound. The first floor was as silent as the ground floor had been.

He continued up the stairs to the second floor, opening all the doors as he went along the corridor. Only one was locked, but he knocked it down in his fury. But there was no one there, just another empty office.

While he was thinking it through, he became aware of the smell of smoke coming from somewhere in the building. Aidan flew down the stairs. Before he reached the gallery he could hear the unmistakeable roar of a fire. The flames were devouring the works of art on one of the walls greedily, spewing black smoke everywhere. Without stopping to think how the fire had started, he made for the exit as fast as he could but found another surprise there.

The metal security door had slammed down for some unknown reason, barring the exit. A few minutes before it had been open, but now it was shut tight. It was obvious that someone had activated the door while he was upstairs. The fire was fiercer here, so he backpedalled, edging his way back along the wall, his lungs heavy with smoke. Passing a painting that was as yet untouched, he pulled a fire extinguisher off the wall, and tried to use it against the flames, but found it empty. He cursed and threw it away and continued his desperate search for a way out.

The ceiling was covered with sprinklers, but none were working. Whoever had made sure that the front door was locked had also ensured that no water was going to come down from above. Someone wanted to fry him alive within these walls.

The heat was unbearable. Sweat was pouring off him and his coughing was getting worse. He took his sweater off and ripped a piece off to cover his nose and mouth. The smoke was going to suffocate him in minutes if he didn't find a way out right now. But with his vision blurred, he could barely see the wall of flames almost upon him.

After five years of intense combat, the end game had arrived. Otis Cade knew that well enough. Checkmate was inevitable. Ashley was on the verge of winning and it didn't even surprise him when three white arrows hit the ground a few feet from his king's throne. It was Helen White and he knew that the adjacent square was threatened by her. Three arrows near the wheelchair were testimony to that. There was only one vacant square where he could go, but, as the next move would leave him exposed to checkmate, he wanted to postpone the moment for as long as possible and use what little time he had left to good purpose.

He was up against the white queen now instead of James White, and Helen's next move would bring the game to its end. He imagined Ashley studying the board. She must be expectant, excited at the prospect of finishing everything once and for all. He couldn't blame her. One had to win and one to lose. That's what it was all about.

He didn't like to admit it but the situation hadn't looked good for some time. Looking back, he figured that he had played the opening game well. They had been close during the first two years. There had been a moment, too, when he'd made a tactical sacrifice that had given him the chance of victory. Tedd and Todd had told him that later. Unfortunately, he couldn't see it at the time and now it was too late to change the outcome.

Resigned to his destiny, Otis turned around and went in the direction of the only square that he could occupy to wait for his end.

Helen White arrived at the right place, on the roof of a building, and leant over and glanced around the street. She confirmed that it was the area she wanted to cover and once she was satisfied she took aim with the bow and drew the string back. A white arrow was in place waiting to fly true. She stayed like that for nearly a half an hour. If anyone had seen her from below they would have thought there was a statue on top of the building.

She looked along the street, certain that at that moment there was nothing more important in the world that guarding this street. Time passed slowly until her target finally appeared, a black wheelchair moving along under its own steam. She knew Otis was sitting in the chair and a wave of hate and repulsion consumed her. She felt a sudden desire to shoot straight away, to shoot a million arrows into his heart. But that wasn't her mission and she couldn't fail. Her fine fingers released the arrow and it flew straight towards its target. It hit the ground three feet from Otis. The throne stopped its advance along the street and she fired two more arrows beside the first to make sure he got the message.

She put a fourth arrow in the bow and took aim. She could see Otis sitting on the throne. She watched him carefully until he turned and went away.

Her next objective didn't take long to materialize in her mind.

A giant game of chess with living pieces, London the board and Big Ben the clock. How extraordinary! If someone got the exclusive on the story would anyone believe it?

Carol couldn't think clearly. She tapped her pen on the table like a drummer trying to perfect a rhythm. She had to investigate Otis Cade, find out what his beef with Ashley was. She'd promised Aidan she'd do that; promised the man she loved that she'd help him. The widower's wife had been born again. The woman he'd cried over for five years was back, alive and kicking, and that was bad luck for Carol.

She felt bad thinking about it. Aidan had suffered so much and the news of his wife being alive should have pleased everyone. But it was difficult for Carol to join the party. She knew she was being selfish, even pathetic, but she couldn't help it.

Carol decided to go over everything that she'd found out up to that point, to see if it could help. It was a good enough exercise to concentrate on something else other than the sad twist of fate that had put her future with Aidan in doubt. She turned her computer on and ignored the constant murmur of the office around her and started to compile a list of the events on a blank page. She typed all the names she could remember, together with dates and incidents that had occurred in the last few days. The number of things that had happened in such a short time was surprising. The saddest thing of all had been Lance's death.

After she was satisfied that she'd put everything of importance down, she reread it and pressed ‘save’. Her head was spinning with information. She got up and walked to the cafeteria before coming back and delving deeper into Otis's life.

The corridors were full of reporters and editors, contributing to the usual sense of urgency that characterized the newspaper. All the offices were occupied and when she got to the cafeteria she found it full.

Carol waited for a while, ordered a latte, sat down at a recently vacated table and looked around. What caught her attention straight away was a small child of around ten years old who was carrying a cup in his hand. He had the sweetest expression and the strangest violet eyes Carol had ever seen. She wondered, as he walked to a table near her, what a child was doing drinking coffee. He stopped at a table where an old man with a walking stick resting on his legs was sitting. The boy put the cup down on the table in front of the old man.

"Here's your coffee, Tedd," Carol heard him say.

"Thanks very much, Todd."

Carol almost fell off her chair when she heard their names. She remembered Aidan's description of them and it was a perfect fit. But what were they doing here?

"She's already seen us, Todd," Tedd said. "She's a very observant woman."