“What? So that you can have me arrested?”
“If you get us back through that door I’ll forget I ever heard of you.”
Two of the Hooded Men approached them, their swords held high. Without hesitation, Josh bent down and swept up the sword of the first Hooded Man who had fallen, and stalked toward them, swinging it wildly around his head. Abraxas jumped at the Hooded Men, too, snarling and barking. They backed away, confused, and as Nancy and Frank Mordant and Josh retreated out of the operating theater, they made no attempt to come after them.
Josh said, “They’re not even following us.”
“They don’t think they have to. The second Boudicca dies, that’s it – we’re going to be trapped here, and they can hunt us down at their leisure. And you can imagine what they’ll do to us then.”
They reached Frank Mordant’s car in the hospital parking lot. He fumbled with the keys, but he managed to open the doors and start up the engine. Josh sat in the front. Nancy sat in the back with Abraxas. The dog was quivering with excitement and Nancy had to stroke him to calm him down. He obviously couldn’t understand why he wasn’t allowed to continue biting Frank Mordant’s head off.
Frank Mordant was sweating now, and he backed out of the hospital gates with a jarring clash of gears.
“Candles?” asked Josh. “Do you have any candles?”
“Glove box,” said Frank Mordant. Josh opened it and took out a carton of six.
They sped through the City, weaving in and out of traffic, running red lights. They drove across Ludgate Circus at nearly fifty miles an hour without stopping. A double-decker bus had to swerve to avoid them, and two other cars slewed around and careered up on to the pavement. “We may be too late already,” said Frank Mordant, as the Armstrong-Siddeley squealed around the corner of Carey Street. He hit the curb, switched off the engine, and yanked on the handbrake. They scrambled out and ran up Star Yard as fast as they could, dodging in between passing pedestrians.
Frank Mordant knelt down and lit the three candles with trembling hands. “Oh God, don’t let her be dead yet. Please God don’t let her be dead.”
He and Josh recited the rhyme between them. “Now, go!” Josh urged Nancy.
Nancy jumped awkwardly over the candles and started to walk into the niche. Abraxas jumped after her.
“Please God, let it still be there,” prayed Frank Mordant.
Nancy limped to the end of the niche. She stopped. Then she turned around and said, “It’s OK! It’s still here! I’m going through!”
She disappeared from sight. Frank Mordant stepped back in preparation for following her. As he did so, Josh punched him hard in the face, and then in the stomach. Frank Mordant gasped and dropped on to his knees.
“I’m going to keep my promise,” Josh told him. “I’m not going to hand you in to the cops. But you deserve to be punished, you bastard. You murdered my sister and God knows how many other girls. You would have stood there today and watched us die, and enjoyed it. Well, this is your punishment. Staying here with the Hoodies. I hope you live a long and miserable life.”
With that, he punched Frank Mordant again, so that he fell backward on to the pavement, and lay there, stunned.
Then, with a last quick look at the world of the Doorkeepers, Josh jumped over the candles and started to make his way through the dark brick passage between the buildings.
He was only on his second turn, however, when he realized that the passage seemed much narrower than it had before. His shoulders were actually scraping against the walls. By the time he reached the next turn, he had to turn sideways, and even then it was difficult to force his way through. With a rising feeling of panic and claustrophobia, he realized what was happening – Boudicca was dying, and as she died her consciousness was fading, and the door was closing up. With him still inside it.
He dragged himself through the passage faster and faster, his knuckles scraping against the brick. He managed to maneuver himself around the last corner, and ahead of him he could see daylight, and Star Yard, and Nancy waiting for him, still wrapped in her sheet.
He stopped, and tried to calm himself down, and exhaled. Don’t panic, whatever you do. Take it steady, take it easy, and you’ll get out safely.
Inch by inch, he edged himself nearer the opening. Now he could hear traffic, and Nancy shouting out, “Josh! Hurry! It’s getting smaller and smaller!”
He was nearly at the opening when his left shoe caught, wedged in between the walls. No matter how he twisted it, he couldn’t dislodge it. The walls were so close together now that he could hardly breathe, and he felt his ribs cracking.
“Josh!” screamed Nancy, and seized hold of his arm. She pulled him as hard as she could, and gradually she managed to inch him out. His foot came out of his shoe, and he fell sideways on to the pavement, gasping for breath. Nancy lay beside him, oblivious to the stares from passers-by, sobbing and laughing at the same time.
“We made it. We made it. I can’t believe we made it. What happened to Frank Mordant?”
Josh lifted his bruised knuckles. “I kind of discouraged him from coming with us. I think he’ll get quite enough punishment for killing Boudicca.”
They slowly stood up. As they did so, however, Abraxas started to bark at the last narrow crack in the wall.
“What’s the matter, Abraxas? What’s wrong, boy?” Josh tried to pull him away, but he stayed where he was, still barking. “Come on, Abraxas. I want to get the hell out of here. Nancy needs to see a doctor.”
It was then that he heard a gasping sound, and then another. He shaded his eyes and peered into the niche.
“Don’t let it close!” choked a voice from inside. “For Christ’s sake, whatever you do, don’t let it close!”
“My God,” said Josh. “Frank Mordant’s in there.”
They could just see him, trying to make his way around the last corner in the passageway. He was thinner and much less muscular than Josh, but it seemed almost impossible for any man to be able to squeeze himself through such a tight crevice.
“Let your breath out!” called Josh. “Try and wriggle like a snake; that’ll help you get through!”
“Don’t you think I’m fucking wriggling?” Frank Mordant gasped back at him.
There was nothing they could do but watch in horror as Frank Mordant pulled himself painfully toward them. The passageway was now so narrow that his face was scraping against the brick, and as he came nearer he stopped, and let out a breathless cry of agony. A few seconds later, they heard his ribcage crack.
Somehow, his face lacerated and his fingernails bleeding, he managed to drag himself right to the opening. “I’m sorry,” he panted. “I’m sorry for what I did. Just get me out of here.”
Josh took hold of his sleeve and tried to pull him out. The sleeve tore from shoulder to cuff, so he had to grip his bare arm. He wedged one foot against the wall and leaned backward, tugging Frank Mordant out of the niche inch by scraping inch.
Frank Mordant’s head was out, and half of his chest. “Come on,” said Josh. “One last pull and we’ll have you out of there.”
But it was then that Frank Mordant turned to look at him with an extraordinary expression, almost sad. The bricks closed completely together with a soft, suppressed crunch, and the top half of Frank Mordant’s body dropped into the niche, among the leaves and the candy wrappers and the empty cigarette packets. He stared up at Josh and for three or four seconds he was still alive.
“Sorry, old man,” he repeated, in a small bubble of blood.
DS Paul sat and listened to Josh and Nancy’s explanation of Frank Mordant’s death without interrupting. When they had finished, she closed the file in front of her and said, “We’ll be making a press announcement later today.”