Macandrew, sensing danger, ran towards the woman. He took her firmly by the arm and steered her in through the doors of the cathedral before she had any real time to protest.
‘Doctor Robin?’
‘What on Earth do you think you’re doing?’ asked the woman, struggling to free herself from his grip.
‘You were followed.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous!’
Macandrew pulled her behind one of the pillars in a corner to the left of the door. ‘Please, just watch the doors.’
Macandrew was conscious of the sound of his own breathing as the seconds ticked by without sign of the man.
‘This is ridiculous!’ hissed the French woman angrily.
Macandrew was beginning to have doubts himself. ‘There were two men,’ he said. ‘They had a young woman with them. She pointed you out.’
Simone Robin’s response was stifled when three people came in through the doors. It was the two men, holding a girl between them. Macandrew heard her gasp, ‘Aline!’
‘Your assistant?’
Simone Robin nodded mutely.
‘You told her you were coming here?’
‘I saw no reason not to.’
‘It’s you they’re after. They must have gone to your lab and forced her to tell them where you were and then forced her to come here and point you out.’
‘This is...’
‘Sssh!’ whispered Macandrew as he saw the tall man look about him and then leave the other two. He seemed to be heading almost straight towards the corner where they were hiding. There was a screened alcove behind them. Macandrew manoeuvred Simone behind the curtain and put his finger to his lips. He took up stance behind an adjacent pillar and listened for approaching footsteps.
There was no sound at all save for the muted chatter of tourists in the main aisles and an occasional echoing cough. This unnerved him. If he couldn’t hear footsteps the man must be deliberately moving quietly. Did he know they were there?
Macandrew’s nerves were being stretched to breaking point. His blood ran cold at the sound of a single metallic click. He knew instinctively that it was a switchblade knife being opened and had a flashback to Burnett’s body and his bloodstained robe.
He couldn’t hear the man and he couldn’t smell him but he knew he was there; he could feel his presence. A mistake now could be fatal. He stopped breathing and listened. The slightest scuff of a shoe told him the man was on the other side of the pillar and slightly to his left. He riveted his eyes on the ground and tensed himself to act at the first sign of movement. The toe of a black shoe appeared and Macandrew edged round the pillar in the opposite direction. He was trying to keep directly opposite his opponent.
Fear had heightened Macandrew’s senses. He found the smell of the cathedral — a cocktail of dust, old books and wood polish — almost overpowering. Although tourists were only a matter of twenty yards or so away from them, the sheer size of the dark, cavernous building absorbed the noise to such an extent that he heard Simone Robin make a tiny sound from behind the curtain. In that instant, he knew that the game of cat and mouse was over. He heard her gasp as the man snatched back the curtain to expose her hiding place.
Macandrew moved swiftly round the pillar and saw the knife being held at her throat. Simone let out a scream that echoed to the roof just as Macandrew, bunching his fist and using it like a hammer to avoid testing the suspect bones in his hand, brought it down on the back off the man’s neck. The man fell to the floor and lay perfectly still.
‘Jesus!’ exclaimed an American voice somewhere off to their right, ‘What in tarnation was that?’ The level of general hubbub rose appreciably. Macandrew held Simone close to him behind the pillar. He could feel her whole body tremble. ‘It’s all right,’ he whispered. ‘You’re safe now.’
‘He had a knife...’
‘Ssh. It’s all right.’
‘It came from over there!’ said a voice.
Macandrew knew that they must move quickly but suddenly, there was another loud scream and attention was mercifully diverted from their corner. This scream was followed by several more and general pandemonium broke out. It gave Macandrew and Simone the opportunity to slip away from the alcove without attracting attention to themselves.
‘He was going to kill me,’ said Simone.
‘I don’t think so,’ said Macandrew. ‘You have something they want.’
In the gloom they could see that a crowd had gathered on the other side of the cathedral; officials were trying to get through. Among the many foreign voices, Macandrew picked up an occasional English one. ‘She’s dead, Frances. I’m telling you; the woman’s dead.’
‘Nonsense. She’s probably just fainted.’
Simone Robin’s hands flew to her face and Macandrew heard her gasp, ‘It’s Aline. I know it is.’
Macandrew told Simone to wait while he drifted off to mingle with the crowd. A young woman was being lifted up from the floor where she had fallen between rows of seats. Her arms hung limply as she was laid out gently along three chairs which had been pushed together. He looked down at the pale face of the young French girl the two men had been holding. The flickering candles, the musty smell and a faint hint of incense all contrived to make the scene seem surreal. As if ordained by some unseen film director, a thin trickle of blood escaped from the girl’s mouth and rolled down her jaw to drip on to the floor.
‘She’s dead!’ whispered a voice.
Macandrew was about to agree when, to his enormous relief, the unconscious girl groaned and put her hand to her jaw, feeling for injury. She started asking questions of those around her. Macandrew backed away to rejoin Simone.
‘It was her, wasn’t it?’ she said. ‘It was Aline?’
‘One of them must have hit her and knocked her out but she’s coming round: she’ll be okay.’
‘Thank God! I must go to her. This is all my fault.’
Macandrew put a restraining hand on Simone’s shoulder. ‘I heard someone say an ambulance was on its way. She’ll be in good hands but there’s still a chance that they’re waiting for you outside.’
Simone looked to the doors. ‘Oh God,’ she said slowly. She put her hands to her face and stared ahead unseeingly for a few moments.
Macandrew could see that Simone was approaching the end of her tether. He didn’t feel so well himself. He watched her take a deep breath, as if to steady herself, then ask with an air of resignation, ‘So, what do we do now?’
‘Let’s attach ourselves to one of the tourist groups when they leave,’ said Macandrew. It was a hastily improvised plan but he wanted to get outside before the cathedral attendants got round to thinking it would be a good idea to stop people leaving before the police arrived. He took Simone by the hand and they walked towards the doors. ‘There!’ he said as he saw a party of Germans start to leave; their guide had just completed a head count. ‘Let’s mingle.’
As they emerged into the light Macandrew put his arm round Simone’s shoulder and they sidled up to a young German couple as if they were old friends. ‘Das war Wunderbar!’ he said in his best schoolboy German.
The German woman looked puzzled. Had they missed all the excitement? She wanted to know. A woman had been assaulted in the cathedral in the middle of the day. It could have been any of them. This city wasn’t safe.
Macandrew, picking up the sense if not the meaning of every word, adopted what he hoped were suitable changes of expression. ‘Gott im Himmel,’ he exclaimed, hoping it might be the right thing to say but knowing it didn’t really matter. All that mattered was that, if anyone was watching, they would see four people engaged in animated conversation. He didn’t think either of the two men had got a good look at either Simone or himself because it had been so dark inside. Nevertheless, he was still apprehensive as they turned into the lane that led to the coach park.