Two men came out of a door on the right. One of them snapped a shot at me and they jumped over Bruno and rounded the bend at the end of the passage. I was vaguely conscious of movement and sound behind me and took a quick look. Tickener was crouched down near Evans and slightly hampering his attempt to take a shot, his face white and his eyes wide and scared. Jones was standing up behind Evans, snapping and flashing. A man lumbered out of the door the other two had come from. He was big, dark hair spilled through the unbuttoned top of his pyjamas coat and he was groping at the tie of the pants. His face was heavily bandaged and the pistol he carried was pointed nowhere in particular.
Evans shook Tickener away and bellowed. “Costello, police, let go the gun.”
The blind-looking bandaged face turned slowly towards the sound of the voice. Jones stepped forward and snapped. The bulb went off and Grant threw up his hand to ward off the glare. Costello lined him up like an Olympic shooter with 20/20 vision. I swung the shotgun on him and fired. The charge hit him in the chest, lifted him up and slammed him against the white wall. He slid slowly down it, leaving a bloody trail behind him like a wolf shot high up in the snow country coming down the slope to die. Jones walked up and took a careful picture. His hands were as still and steady as Costello’s corpse.
I put the shotgun down. Evans was leaning against the wall. His gun was pointing at the floor and his lips were moving silently. He knew how close he’d come.
“There’s more of them, Grant,” I said quietly.
As I spoke the door behind us opened and Varson came through it sideways, propping it open with his back. He waved a man through with a quick gesture of his enormous, gun-filled right hand. Dr Ian Brave strolled into the passage.
“I got him outside,” said Varson, “he was leaving.”
“He stays,” Evans said.
Brave looked at the crumpled, bloody ruin on the floor. His face had a vacant, other-worldly look — for my money he was floating high and free somewhere a long way off. Along the corridor Bruno groaned and tried to pull himself up against the wall; everyone had forgotten him.
14
The quiet tableau broke up after a minute or two. Jones backed off down the passage and took a quick picture of Brave with Varson looming over his shoulder. Brave was Varson’s prize, all he had to show for the night, and he kept close to him like a nervous spouse at a party. Evans, Tickener and I went into the room which Costello had come out of to die. The window leading out into the shrubbery at the side of the building gaped open.
“He had two goons with him the other day,” I said, “one of them socked me but I guess they weren’t shooters.”
Tickener scribbled on a pad and Evans grunted. “Looks that way.”
“Two hopped it just after I shot the Italian. That makes four on the loose. I hope the boys at the gate got them, but it’s a lot to handle.” He brooded on this for a moment and then shrugged. “You didn’t quite level with me about the strength of the troops, did you Cliff?” I opened my hands apologetically. “Never mind,” he said, “we done OK.” Varson called his name and he went out into the corridor. Tickener looked at me inquiringly but I turned away from him and looked out through the window thinking my own murderous thoughts. Tickener walked out. I rolled a cigarette, lit it and followed him.
Susan Gutteridge was standing in the corridor along with a woman with wild hair and eyes. They both wore severe calico nightdresses. Brave was trying to do his hand-holding act with Susan but Varson was shouldering him aside. Jones had left the scene and Bruno had passed out. The other patient was staring at the body on the floor. Suddenly she collapsed to her knees and pitched forward over it. Blood soaked into her nightdress and she daubed it over her face and body.
“Sally,” she moaned, “oh Sally, Sally.”
Evans started pushing the buttons. He told Varson to take Brave in and book him for harbouring an escapee. He pointed at Tickener who was still scribbling and poking his long thin nose into rooms off the passage. “OK, Tickener,” he roared, “you’ve had your ringside seat, now do something useful. Get on the first phone you see and call an ambulance. Call police headquarters and tell them I want a police doctor out here right away.”
Tickener turned away obediently and Evans rapped out a few more words. “And a nurse or two, tell them about the women.” I was next. “So you know these ladies?” he snapped.
“Take it easy, Grant. Yes, I know the younger one, she’s Susan Gutteridge.” He rubbed his hand over his eyes, then looked down surprised to see that the hand was still holding a gun.
“OK, OK,” he said tightly. “Get her away somewhere. Jesus what a mess!” The older woman was still embracing the corpse and sobbing. I took the Gutteridge woman’s arm and led her down the passage.
I didn’t remember where her room was, so I let her lead me. She plodded on not saying anything until we came to room 38. I pushed the door open and she walked in ahead of me. She still hadn’t spoken a word. I had nothing I wanted to say to her, but I felt an impulse to stir her from her trance if I could. Perhaps I didn’t want her to have the luxury of a cotton wool wrapping while people were dying around her.
“Do you remember me, Miss Gutteridge?”
“Of course I do,” she snapped, “do you think I’m crazy like Grace?”
“Grace?”
“Grace Heron, back there.” She jerked her head at the door.
“No, no I don’t. But you’ve had a shock, I thought…”
“I’m all right I tell you,” she cut in, “what’s been happening here? I heard shots.”
I was surprised at her composure. When I’d last seen her she was as fragile as a spider web, ready to be torn apart and dismembered by the slightest harshness, now she seemed to have put together a tough, no-nonsense personality. But it was hard to tell how real it was or how enduring it would be. She sat quietly on the bed while I gave her an outline of events as they related to what she’d seen in the hall. She nodded occasionally and once smoothed down the rough material over her thighs — they weren’t bad thighs — otherwise she kept still and attentive. I didn’t mention Ailsa in this explanation, but when she asked me directly who I was working for now, I told her, including what had happened to Ailsa that night. I didn’t bring Bryn into it. She said something reassuring and patted my arm so there must have been some indication of how I felt in what I said. It might have been the automatic, professional touch of the social worker, but it felt sincere.
“Well, Mr Hardy,” she said, “you’ve really got yourself tangled up with the Gutteridges, haven’t you? Have you any idea yet who was threatening me and did these other things, I mean to Giles and Ailsa?”
“I don’t even know if the same people are involved,” I said, “Ailsa thought Brave was behind it all.” I waited for her reaction to that. She bit her lip and pondered it so I decided to go on. I wanted a drink badly, but it seemed possible that this new woman with the mind of her own might help me do some reappraising of the case at this point. “That could be,” I continued, “if he’s fallen out with an accomplice. You saw a ferrety-looking guy out there?”