‘I said it is not possible.’ His eyes narrow. ‘The Master has left instructions that he must not be interrupted. Twilight is upon us. The ritual has begun.’
Gideon is returned to the cell and the door locked. Caitlyn sits on her bunk, her hair still wet, awkwardly holding the ceremonial gown about herself. It is split up the back so the knife of stone may be used on the naked flesh displayed beneath it.
Gideon slips off the rope from around his waist. ‘Here, use this. It will help you fasten the gown.’
She takes it and chokes back a sob. ‘It’s stupid, isn’t it? I’m about to be killed and here I am worrying about showing my ass.’
He understands her need to maintain some self-respect, some dignity. ‘It’s not stupid. It’s dignified.’
Caitlyn looks to the door. She’s almost too scared to talk. ‘What’s happening out there?’
‘They’re going to complete the ritual here, not at the henge.’ He wishes he had better news to break.
Her face is heavy with sadness. She looks completely lost. ‘Can you just hold me for a moment? I feel like I’m going to fall apart.’
Gideon moves closer. She wraps her hands around his waist and rests her head on his shoulder. It feels good to be comforted. To cling on to someone who doesn’t want to hurt her.
‘Hey!’ One of the Lookers rattles the cell door. ‘None of that. Back away from her.’
Gideon gives the man a withering glance. Does the idiot think he’s planning to have sex with her? How stupid. He knows as well as anyone that a defiled sacrifice wouldn’t be any use to anyone.
No use to anyone.
How could he not have seen it.
He might still be able to save her life.
169
The Henge Master stands clad in a hooded ceremonial sackcloth robe bleached red using an ancient mixture of beets, madder and chokecherries. Beneath his hood there is a moon-like crescent, the outline of his shock of grey-white hair.
The Sacreds have been positioned in their tabernacles. Special sanctuary lights, multicoloured glass tubes filled with virgin candles, have been positioned and lit at equidistant spaces around the henge.
Through the star shafts he sees the colour of the sky.
Twilight is but a blink away.
The Master is close to exhaustion. The strain of transporting the Sacreds to the Sanctuary has wearied him. But he will not fail.
He raises a ceremonial stone sprinkler, filled with water washed from the Sacreds and creates a divine line from the Altar Stone inside the horseshoe of trilithons, out through the eastern arches of the sarsens, across the Slaughter Stone to the Heel Stone.
From a pocket in his gown, he draws the ceremonial stone knife and gazes upon the slab where the sacrifice will be cut. Five cuts. One for each of the mighty trilithons where the Chief Sacreds reside, the gods of the sun, moon, stars, earth and afterlife.
She will be left for five hours. One hour for each god. Afterwards, she will be untethered and washed again in blessed waters. Then she will be offered.
The Master’s hand falls to his other deep pocket. He feels that they are there. The sacrificial hammers. He turns his attention to the two Bearers watching and waiting from the other side of the opening to the Great Room. In their grasp is the rough litter made of pine, ready to convey the sacrifice on her fatal journey.
He is ready.
He nods. The Bearers move instantly away.
170
‘What were you running for, Lee?’ Megan twists his arm even further up his back as she stands over him. ‘I don’t have time to mess around and neither do you.’
‘All right. All right, I’ll tell you.’
She sees Jimmy crossing the field and lets go of Johns. The kid struggles to his knees. Cradles his twisted and aching arm. ‘I got scared. I saw you at my place and just freaked.’
She pulls him to his feet. ‘You and Sean Grabb killed Jake Timberland and you helped him kidnap Caitlyn Lock. In policing terms, you are screwed, my strange young friend.’ She jabs a finger in his bony chest. ‘We already have the forensics to link Grabb with the killing and the abduction. And I’m sure that once we go hunting for your DNA, we’ll find it. Juries love DNA. Three letters that they’ll believe more than anything an ex-junkie like you could dream up.’
Johns has been jailed before. He doesn’t want to go back. He looks beyond them, down the road to the big open world. Balancing his options. Finally he speaks: ‘I want immunity, right? A guarantee I ain’t going to get charged with nothing.’
‘Dream on,’ says Jimmy. ‘We’re past immunity. It’s down to damage limitation now. Hurry up. What have you got before we throw the charge sheet at you?’
He nurses his arm again. ‘Not much. It’s not like you think.’
She glares at him. ‘Don’t piss about, Lee. We need everything. No lies. No leaving bits out. Everything.’
He puts his hand to his head. Images are swimming back to him. The man lying dead in the van. The pretty woman screaming and kicking. Him in the Camper suggesting they kill her rather than get caught. ‘It was an accident. Nobody meant anyone to die or anything.’ He sees their unbelieving looks. ‘I mean it. We were after them because the girl touched one of the Sacreds. Things got out of hand. Sean hit the bloke and when we drove him away he died. It freaked us out. We didn’t plan it like that.’
‘I said don’t leave things out.’ Megan jabs him again. ‘Why were you at the henge? Who wanted them and for what?’
He swallows. ‘A stranger has to be picked for the ritual. Sean said it had been decided that it would be whoever touched one of the Sacreds. It didn’t have to be that girl or the bloke with her, it could have been anyone, you know? They just got themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.’
‘So where is she?’ asks Jimmy.
‘She’s at the Sanctuary, the place I told you about. But like I said, I don’t know where it is.’ He can see their anger. ‘Really. I’ve never seen it from the outside. Out along the A360. Out near Imber, that’s all I know. We stopped on a road just before the village, near the range. Sean went on from there with the girl in his Warrior and I waited in the Camper with the stiff.’
Megan wants to crack him. ‘You’re talking about a young man whose life you stole. Show some respect.’
‘Go on,’ says Jimmy.
‘Sean came back and said he’d phoned someone. A member of the Inner Circle. He looked relieved. He thought it was all going to be all right.’
‘So what was all that earlier today?’ Megan asks. ‘That story about something happening at Stonehenge?’
He colours up.
She reads his face. ‘If this girl dies, you’re getting charged with murder.’
He understands. ‘A man called Matt Utley, we just call him Musca, came to me.’ He looks towards Jimmy. ‘He knew you were trying to get hold of me, to talk to me about Sean. He says that I’m to contact you, tell you that something’s going off tonight at the henge.’ Johns glances back to Megan. ‘I was confused like, because something was supposed to be going off there tonight. It’s the start of the ritual.’ He dries up.
‘Go on, Lee.’ Jimmy’s voice is firm.
‘Tonight is when the girl should be, you know, sacrificed. And it should be at Stonehenge.’
‘Should be?’
‘That’s the point,’ he explains, looking from one to the other. ‘They know you’re on to them. They know everything. Musca wanted me to say this to you. So you’d go to the stones.’
She lets out a long sigh. ‘So where would be the right place?’
‘The Sanctuary, I guess.’ He puts his wrists together and offers them out to Jimmy. ‘You’ve got to lock me up. Put me in protective custody somewhere. Musca said he’d kill me if I fucked this up. Said I’d go the same way as Sean if I didn’t do what he wanted.’