The Eighth Witch (42 page)

“But you can live with the deaths of Laura and Holly?”

“I’m not responsible for them. Harry’s different. If we stay she’ll kill him.”

Annie raised her eyes to the ceiling. “You don’t honestly believe she’s going to let him just walk away from all this, do you?”

“As I said, we don’t really have a choice.” He disappeared up the stairs.

A sob broke in Annie’s throat.

Jane wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulders. “I’m sorry, Annie, truly I am,” she said and then followed Carter upstairs.

Harry Bailey opened his eyes. He hadn’t seen the blow coming that had floored him, but he’d stepped into the barn and someone just turned off the lights. Now he lay there, his hands tied behind him, his ankles trussed together. He rolled onto his back but the weight on his hands was intolerable, so he turned back on his side. From his position against the wooden wall of the barn he could see most of his surroundings. Not that there was that much to see. The place hadn’t been used in years. The floor was patchily covered with straw. There were a few moldering sacks folded in the opposite corner and a trestle table against the adjacent wall. On the table there was something covered with more sacking, but he couldn’t work out from the shape what it was.

He was looking for something sharp, maybe an old plow blade or perhaps a rusting scythe, or something else he could use to cut through his bonds, but there was nothing.

The thought crossed his mind that perhaps if he focused his attention he could send some kind of telepathic message to Carter or Jane. At least produce a psychic flash and hope that one of them would pick it up. He tried to relax as much as possible, tried to concentrate, but the drugs he had taken a short while ago had crippled his neurological pathways and, no matter how much effort he made, he couldn’t focus. He didn’t even know how long he’d been lying here. His wristwatch was behind him, and with the barn doors closed, he couldn’t tell how light it was outside. His head was throbbing from where he’d been hit, and his broken nose was throbbing. So he lay there and stared at the dusty expanse of the barn, frustrated and powerless, and feeling incredibly stupid.
 

Carter hefted his suitcase and put it in the trunk of his car. And then he picked up Jane’s and laid it in the trunk beside his own. Jane was already sitting in the passenger seat, staring straight ahead through the windscreen, unable to look at Annie who was standing in the doorway, a look of helplessness on her face. Carter closed the lid of the trunk and walked back to the house. He took Annie in his arms and hugged her tightly.

“Annie, I’m…”

“Please don’t say you’re sorry, Rob. Just go.”

He held her at arm’s length. “You might not want to hear it, Annie, but I am sorry. If there was another way…”

“Please go,” she said, fighting back the tears.

Carter walked back to the car, started the engine. When he looked back to the house Annie had gone back inside and closed the door. He slammed his hand angrily on the steering wheel and pulled away from the curb.

“So that’s it then?” Jane said. “We’re just going to drive away and leave her to deal with Diana?”

“Don’t start, Jane. This is difficult enough without you getting on my case. When I spoke to Crozier earlier he made it clear that if anything happened to Harry it will be my head that rolls.”

“So it’s all about you,” she said hotly. “Stop the car and let me out. I’m going back. I can’t let Annie face this alone…even if you can.”

Carter signaled and headed out onto the high street. “No,” he said. “I’m not stopping and you’re not going back there. For all we know Diana might be watching the house and I’m not going to let you sign Harry’s death warrant.”

Jane stared at him contemptuously. “Jesus, and I thought I knew you.”

Carter said nothing, just squeezed down on the accelerator and started to put distance between himself and Annie Ryder.

Chapter Forty-Five

“This isn’t the way to the M62,” Jane said. “We should have taken a right at the last roundabout.”

“We’re not heading for the motorway,” Carter said.

“Rob, I’m getting tired of your games. Where are we going?”

Carter pulled over to the side of the road and stopped the car. He took his mobile phone from his pocket and tapped in a number.
 

“I thought you couldn’t call out.”

“I couldn’t call London. This is a local call. Hello, Ian, how’s it looking?” He switched to speakerphone so Jane could hear the conversation.

“You were right,” Lacey said. “They’re here, all three of them, Holly, Laura and Diana. And the biggest, ugliest-looking dog you’ve ever seen. It makes Bruno look like a cocker spaniel.”
 

“So where are they?”

“They’ve just gone into the barn. Except for the dog, that is. The brute is pacing backwards and forwards outside. It looks like it’s on guard duty.”

“It probably is. Any sign of Harry?”

“No, I’m afraid not. My guess is he’s in the barn, but I can’t confirm that unless I get closer.”

“No. Stay where you are and wait for us. Where are you, by the way?”

“In a bird-watchers’ hide, further up the hill. I have a perfect view of the place.”
 

“Good. We’ll be with you in about twenty minutes.” Carter hung up.

“What was all that about? Where is Ian?”

“As he said, further up the hill in a bird-watchers’ hide, overlooking Pett’s farm. Diana’s been there all along.”

“But that’s impossible. You and Annie were there only yesterday. The place was deserted.”

“Yes, that’s what we thought, but what happened at the coffee house today made me think again. We never took our eyes off Annie while she was sitting there, but Diana came and went and we saw nothing. She was obviously using some kind of spell that blocked her from our sight. We only saw what she wanted us to see. I figured that she might have done the same with Pett’s farm yesterday.”

“Only let you and Annie see a deserted ruin, you mean?”

Carter nodded. “I called Ian when I went upstairs to pack and asked him to check it out surreptitiously. He’s just confirmed what I thought.”

“So it was never your intention to go back to London?”

“I guess not.”

Jane shook her head tiredly. “You really are the most infuriating person I’ve ever met. How could you put Annie through that? She’s distraught.”

“Better distraught than dead. I’m protecting her, Jane. This is our area of expertise. It’s our job, what we’re trained to do. We’ve learned how to protect ourselves over the years. Annie has none of those skills.”

“You lied to her.”

“It was necessary.”

“You lied to me too.”

“I had to. I couldn’t take any chances. Diana might have, in some way, been able to listen in to our conversations while we were in that house. I’m sorry.”

Jane thought about it for a moment. “Okay, apology accepted. But don’t shut me out again.”

“I’ll try not to,” Carter said.

“But no promises?”

Carter smiled and pulled back out onto the road.

Bailey had managed to get himself into a sitting position, leaning against the wooden wall of the barn. The door opened and Laura Sallis and Holly Ireland entered, walking like automatons. They didn’t acknowledge him. They didn’t even seem to notice him. Diana followed them inside and pulled the door closed. She turned to Bailey with a smile. “Company for you,” she said, and then proceeded to tie the arms of the two young women to one of the cross-pieces of timber. The women offered no resistance, simply let their arms be tied, all the while staring blankly ahead.

“Another spell?” Bailey said.
 

“It makes them compliant,” Diana said. “No kicking and screaming. So much better.” She crossed to the trestle table and pulled back the sacking. Laid out neatly were a large pair of scissors, a heavy wooden mallet and two identical bronze effigies of Christ. She picked up one of the effigies and took it across to show Bailey.

“These are the original statutes Jacob Barker used to kill my aunts, Rachel and Rebecca. It took me years to track them down. I finally found them in a convent in Suffolk, of all places. Of course the nuns were reluctant to part with them.”

“But you persuaded them.”

“You could put it like that,” Diana said with a smile and took the statue back and laid it down next to the other one on the table.

“You’re enjoying this,” Bailey said, contempt in his voice.

Diana wheeled on him. “Well, of course I am. I’ve waited years for this. At midnight tonight I will complete a quest I’ve been on for years. I will raise Rachel and Rebecca from the dead, and then take their powers, and believe me, of all the Yardley witches, their powers were the most considerable.”

“And in the process you take two more innocent lives.”

“What would you want me to do, Harry, fling myself to the floor and weep and wail for them? Collateral damage. That’s what the Americans call it, isn’t it? They have to die for me to live a life to its full potential. I think it’s a fair trade.”

“I think you’re as barbaric as Jacob Barker.”

Diana shrugged. “You’re welcome to your opinion,” she said.

“You’re going to kill me too, aren’t you?”

“Eventually, yes I am. But not yet. At the moment you’re my insurance policy. As things stand now, your friends won’t do anything to stop my plans while there’s a chance that you’ll make it out of this alive.”

“I think you overestimate my importance,” Bailey said.

“No, I don’t think I do. Right now Robert Carter and Jane Talbot are driving back to London. I don’t think they will bother me again.”

Harry Bailey said nothing more but prayed that she was lying.

Diana picked up the scissors and went across to where Holly was hanging. She grabbed a handful of Holly’s hair and hacked it off, and then continued until a pile of hair had accumulated at Holly’s feet like a small sheep’s fleece.

“I want things as accurate as possible,” Diana said and put the scissors back. She turned back to Holly and Laura and snapped her fingers. The two women blinked simultaneously and focused on their surroundings. Realizing their plight, they both began to struggle against ropes that held them to the beam. Both of them were making frantic noises, but still neither of them spoke.

Diana walked to the door. “I’ll be back later. I have to go and prepare myself,” she said. “I’m afraid you won’t get much in the way of conversation out of them. I’ve taken away their ability to speak.”

Bailey glared at her but said nothing.

“No parting remark, Harry? Really, you disappoint me.” She stepped out into the late afternoon sunlight, closing the door behind her.

Laura and Holly still struggled against their bonds.

“It will be all right,” Harry said soothingly. “We’ll get out of this,” he added, feeling none of the conviction of his words.

Ian Lacey watched the farm through a large pair of field glasses. They were something he kept in the trunk of his car and used often when on surveillance duty.

He watched Diana leave the barn and head on back to the house. Once she was inside he switched his attention to the windows, but she had pulled heavy drapes across them and he could see nothing useful, so he swung the field glasses back to the barn. The misshapen dog was still on patrol, but there was nothing else to see. He reached into his back and pulled out a thermos flask of tea and a cheese and pickle sandwich wrapped in aluminum foil. He unwrapped the sandwich and took a bite, then unscrewed the cap of the flask and filled it with tea. He took one swig as the door to the hide opened and Carter and Jane stepped inside.

“You were quiet,” Lacey said. “I didn’t hear your car.”

“We parked in the road and came the rest of the way on foot,” Carter said.
 

“Sensible,” Lacey said. “The wind’s blowing in the direction of the farm. The noise of the engine would have carried.”

“That’s what we thought,” Jane said.

“You’ve done this kind of thing before then?”

“More times than I care to remember,” Carter said.

There was room in the hide for the three of them to sit. It was just wooden benches but at least they were dry, and the walls kept out the wind.

“What’s been happening?” Carter said.

“Holly and Laura are still in the barn. Diana’s gone back to the house and that brute’s still standing guard.” Lacey handed Carter the binoculars. “Check it out yourself.”

Carter took them and scanned the farm. “I see what you mean about the dog. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

“It certainly wouldn’t win any prizes at Cruft’s,” Lacey said. “What breed do you think it is?”

“Demon, through and through,” Carter said.

“Let me see,” Jane said, taking the glasses from Carter and studying the dog closely. “It could be a hellhound,” she said cautiously, unwilling to commit herself.