The Left Series (Book 4): Left In The Cold (24 page)

“Sure but he doesn’t strike me as the sort of guy who would…”

“Well believe it, it happened,” Batfish snapped.

“Why would he do that?”

“You need to ask him,” Cordoba said, shaking her head. “Any sign of Gera?”

“Still missing,” I admitted.
“Nobody seems to have seen him.”

“I expect that damn Davie has locked him in another cellar someplace,” Batfish growled.

We reached the upper floor level, adjacent to the recreation room. Wingate led the way, stomping through the doorway and across the room. Mo sat on a bean-bag in the corner of the room and glanced up from his car magazine at us as we marched through in single file. He didn’t say a word and looked bemused as we filed past towards the opposite doorway. I felt we should have quizzed Mo on the strange goings on but I knew Wingate wanted to check on Smith before we did anything else.

“Oh, yeah, I forgot to say that all our gear has been ransacked and our spare weapons, ammo and assault rifles have been taken,” I explained, as we climbed the narrow staircase to the tower.

“What?” Cordoba squawked. “What the hell has been going on, Brett?”

“Ah, hell if I know,” I sighed. “I think these guys in the castle are all a bit weird.”

“You can say that again,” Batfish groaned.

“And Spot is also missing,” I admitted.

Batfish turned to me, open mouthed. “We’ll have to damn well find him,” she hissed.

We hadn’t encountered anybody else on our way up to the tower bedrooms but Alex and Trevor were still in Smith’s room. Wingate barged them out of the way to take a look at Smith.

“Who has gone through our things and where’s our dog?” Batfish demanded.

Alex shrugged and Trevor shook his head.

“I’m sorry about this,” Alex said. “I don’t know who is responsible but I’m going to find out.”

“We need to speak to Davie,” Cordoba seethed. “He locked us in a damn cellar and we want to find out why.”

“Okay, I’ll have a word,” Alex groaned sheepishly, holding up his hands in a surrendering motion.

Wingate felt Smith’s forehead with the palm of her
hand, checked his tongue and his pulse. “What the hell did that woman poison him with?” she barked.

“I’m sorry, I just don’t know,” Alex admitted, hunching his shoulders. “I’ll go and try to find the people concerned and speak to them.”

“Chloe said Mrs McMahon keeps a jar of the
Deadly Nightshade
plant, whatever that is, in the kitchen,” I said.

“Oh, Christ, that’s
belladonna
,” Wingate groaned. “That’s a damn seriously poisonous plant. How much did he ingest?”

“Not much,” I said. “He only ate a few mouthfuls of the
soup we think was poisoned. Everybody else ate pie but she gave Smith a bowl of soup to eat because of his swollen lips.”

Alex left the bedroom and Trevor followed. Smith looked slightly better than when I’d left him as he did have some color back in his face. Wingate studied his bruises around his eye and mouth then turned to look at me.

“Did you and he get those injuries when you were attacked by this weird guy?”

I nodded. “
The guy just leaped out and started swinging at us. He was strong as a gorilla and looked like one too.”

“Okay, listen, I’m going to stay with Smith but you guys should carry on looking for Gera,” Wingate said. “We should try getting out of here as soon as we can.”

“We can’t leave you on your own,” Cordoba said. “I’ll stay here with you.”

Wingate nodded and glanced at Batfish and I. “You guys cool with that?”

“Yeah, that’s all right,” I said.

“I want to find my boyfriend and my dog,” Batfish whined. “The bastards have taken them both from me.”

“You’ll find them,” Wingate said, in a soothing tone.

“Go get ‘
em, tiger,” Cordoba cheered and punched me on the shoulder. She then leaned forward and kissed me briefly on the cheek. “Don’t be too long and keep your wits about you.” She gazed at Batfish and I in turn. “Both of you come back safe, okay?”

Batfish and I
nodded. I knew Batfish was worried about Gera and Spot in equal measures but the little dog was more incapable of defending himself.

“Look after Smith and make sure he’s okay,” I muttered.

Wingate audibly gulped and nodded. “I’ll see what I can do. I’ll have a look in my room for my medical kit in a second. I just hope that my supplies haven’t been stolen along with everything else.”

Batfish and I checked our handguns and the spare magazines, then turned and left the bedroom.
We hurried down the stairway and narrow corridors, through the Great Hall, then the dining area and back up to the recreation room. I wanted to speak to Mo and see if he knew anything about what was going on. Nobody was in the room; Mo’s car magazine lay open on top of the bean-bag.

“Shit, he’s gone,” I hissed.

I glanced out through the window and saw the sun starting to dip across the white horizon. The shadows grew longer in the room and it would soon be time to light more candles.

“Damn it,” I spat. “I wanted to be out of here before nightfall.”

“I don’t think we’ll get much sleep tonight, Brett,” Batfish sighed. “Where is everybody?”

“I don’t know,” I groaned. “These people are like ghosts. They disappear and reappear all over the damn place. I can’t keep up with them and I don’t know where they go. Some of their bedrooms are upstairs in the tower above us.”

“Shall we try up there?”

I thought about
Maddie propositioning me earlier and didn’t want a repeat of that little scenario.

“Ah, I already tried earlier,” I sighed. “Nobody answers their doors so I don’t even know if they stay in there. I think they all just creep around the castle and meet up at meal times.”

“That’s no good, Brett. We can’t wait until supper time.”

“I know,” I groaned, frustration creeping into my mind set. I stopped myself snapping at Batfish. She was obviously worried and a little unsure of what to do. With Smith out of the picture and Wingate and Cordoba keeping guard over him, I had to
take charge and lead this particular operation. But my leadership was flawed, as I was out of ideas at where to search next.

Chapter Thirty-Five

I poked my head through the kitchen door but Mrs McMahon thankfully wasn’t in there. I really didn’t want to run into her again and she wouldn’t help us anyway. The darkness rapidly increased as we strolled around empty rooms, looking for anybody or anything that would help us find Gera, Spot or our stolen weapons. Batfish and I turned on our flashlights and I told her about our findings of the profile files in the office and the mysterious, hanging dead girl as we wandered around.

We moved through parts of the castle I hadn’t seen before, a disused ballroom, a golfing gift shop and some empty function rooms.
I remained wary of Rory or any other hostile person leaping from the ever growing shadows.

“The longer this goes on, the less likely we are to find them alive,” Batfish sighed.

“We’ll find them,” I said, trying to sound convincing. Whether we found them alive was a different matter.

“It was only by luck that you found us down in that cellar. There could be dozens of them under each section of the castle. We’ll never have time to search every place and dark corner.”

I knew she was right but we couldn’t just give up. We had to at least keep searching until we were too tired to carry on.

As time ticked by and the rooms became darker under total nightfall, I felt a sinking feeling of despair wash over me. It seemed we were faced with a hopeless task. The people in the castle could remain unfound and unseen if they wanted to be. Gera and Spot could be
anywhere and not necessarily within the castle walls or grounds. They both could be zombie food, while we fruitlessly searched for them.

We trod through a hallway, somewhere at the rear of the castle.
The air was cold and damp with a musty stench hanging in the air. A vast, dark wooden staircase and landing with a balconied walkway stood to our left and above us. I shone the flashlight around the stone floor and walls and across the arched windows. The area had a unsettling atmosphere and reminded me of an ancient chapel.

I heard a hiss from the balcony above us and I spun around on my heels, pointing the flashlight over the wooden balustrades and reach
ed for my handgun. Batfish heard the sound too and shone her light across the upper walkway.

“What was that?” she whispered.
Her voice caused an eerie echo.

“I don’t know,” I muttered, feeling goose bumps form on my flesh.

I scanned the balcony, trailing the flashlight from left to right and caught sight of a flash of white material. I stopped moving the light and shone the beam between two balustrades, picking out a pair of blinking eyes and a pale face.

“Chloe?”
I hissed.

“Come up here,” she whispered.

A shiver ran down my spine. I trusted Chloe but there was still something creepy about her. Why did she keep following us around like this?

“What is it?” I asked.

“I want to show you something.”

I glanced at Batfish and she looked worried.

“Chloe’s okay,” I said. “She’s on the level.”

“You sure?”
Batfish asked.

I wasn’t totally convinced but she was more
dependable than the other castle dwellers. I nodded and gestured with my head to the staircase. Batfish followed me as I trod cautiously up the steps to meet Chloe.

I shone the flashlight across the width of the balcony to check nobody else lurked in the darkness. Chloe still crouched behind the balustrade as though she was hiding from somebody.

“What’s up?” I asked.

Chloe stood up and beckoned me to follow her. I flashed Batfish a backward glance and gave her a slight shrug. Chloe turned right into a room situated beyond an alcove behind the balcony. I hesitated slightly then followed her into the room.
Batfish hovered a few feet behind me as we moved through the entranceway.

I shone the flashlight around the
dark room and heard a whine and a grunt coming from near the floor. Chloe bent down to touch something. I flashed the light to my right. Spot’s little face loomed in the light. He stood still with his tail wagging, as he was tethered by a leash to a big wooden chair.

“Spot!”
I cried out.

Batfish moved quickly towards him and ruffled his head.

“Shh,” Chloe hissed.

“Did you take him?” Batfish growled, in an accusing tone.

“No,” Chloe gasped. “I saved him. I saw him in Mo’s room earlier. I think he was planning to do something horrible to him.”

I thought about Mo’s conviction for animal cruelty
, as expressed in his employment file. The printed text hadn’t gone into any great detail of his crimes but they obviously had to be pretty horrific deeds.

“What about our guns?” I asked.

“I didn’t see any guns in his room but I wasn’t really looking for anything else,” she whispered. “I crept into his room when I saw him leave to go downstairs. I took the dog away and I’ve been trying to find you since. I hid him away and I hoped you’d come this way.”

“How long have you been tracking us?” I asked.

Chloe looked a little sheepish and glanced away into the darkness. “Since you left the recreation room,” she admitted. “I saw Mo leaving the room after he saw you and I thought he was probably going to check on the dog in his bedroom. He’ll know he’s gone and he’ll be looking for him now.”

“Well, he’s not having him back,” Batfish spat.
“Not at any cost.”

“He went to prison once for animal cruelty,” Chloe said.

“I know, I read his file,” I sighed.

“You read those employment files?” Chloe gasped. “Don’t tell any of them you’ve read them.” She clutched her hand over her face and her eyes were wide in shock. She was behaving as though I’d committed a cardinal sin. “I read those files a while ago but I don’t think the others realize they exist, otherwise they would have destroyed them.”

“The reports in those files don’t exactly inspire confidence, do they?” I muttered.

“What are you planning on doing now?” Chloe asked me.

Batfish glanced up at me as she stroked Spot. I guessed she was hoping I’d make a decision.