It took him back to it. He was happier when he had closed the door behind him and stood again in the small cramped space between the big bed and the wall. The drag at his heart ceased. He was able to think again. He began to examine the room thoroughly inch by inch. He even moved the radio on the washstand. Then he heard the stairs creak and leaning his head against the door he listened to someone he supposed was Acky mounting the stairs step by step with clumsy caution; then he was crossing the landing and there he must be, just outside the door waiting and listening. It was impossible to believe that those old people had nothing to fear. Raven went along the walls, squeezing by the bed, touching the glossy flowery paper with his fingers; he had heard of people before now papering over a cavity. He reached the fireplace and unhooked the brass trap.
Propped up inside the fireplace was a woman's body, the feet in the grate, the head out of sight in the chimney. The first thought he had was of revenge; if it's the girl, if she's dead, I'll shoot them both, I'll shoot them where it hurts most so that they die slow. Then he went down on his knees to ease the body out.
The hands and feet were roped, an old cotton vest had been tied between her teeth as a gag, the eyes were closed. He cut the gag away first; he couldn't tell whether she was alive or dead; he cursed her, 'Wake up, you bitch, wake up.' He leant over her, imploring her, 'Wake up.' He was afraid to leave her, there was no water in the ewer, he couldn't do a thing; when he had cut away the ropes he just sat on the floor beside her with his eyes on the door and one hand on his pistol and the other on her breast. When he could feel her breathing under his hand it was like beginning life over again.
She didn't know where she was. She said, 'Please. The sun. It's too strong.' There was no sun in the room; it would soon be too dark to read. He thought: what ages have they had her buried there, and held his hand over her eyes to shield them from the dim winter light of early evening. She said in a tired voice, 'I could go to sleep now. There's air.'
'No, no,' Raven said, 'we've got to get out of here,' but he wasn't prepared for her simple acquiescence. 'Yes, where to?'
He said, 'You don't remember who I am. I haven't anywhere. But I'll leave you some place where it's safe.'
She said, 'I've been finding out things.' He thought she meant things like fear and death, but as her voice strengthened she explained quite clearly, 'It was the man you said. Cholmondeley.'
'So you know me,' Raven said. But she took no notice. It was as if all the time in the dark she had been rehearsing what she had to say when she was discovered, at once, because there was no time to waste.
'I made a guess at somewhere where he worked. Some company. It scared him. He must work there. I don't remember the name. I've got to remember.'
'Don't worry,' Raven said. 'It'll come back. But how is it you aren't crazy … Christ! you've got nerve.'
She said, 'I remembered till just now. I heard you looking for me in the room, and then you went away and I forgot everything.'
'Do you think you could walk now?'
'Of course I could walk. We've got to hurry.'
'Where to?'
'I had it all planned. It'll come back. I had plenty of time to think things out.'
'You sound as if you weren't scared at all.'
'I knew I'd be found all right. I was in a hurry. We haven't got much time. I thought about the war all the time.'
He said again admiringly, 'You've got nerve.'
She began to move her hands and feet up and down quite methodically as if she were following a programme she had drawn up for herself. 'I thought a lot about that war. I read somewhere, but I'd forgotten, about how babies can't wear gas masks because there's not enough air for them.' She knelt up with her hand on his shoulder. 'There wasn't much air there. It made things sort of vivid. I thought, we've got to stop it. It seems silly, doesn't it, us two, but there's nobody else.' She said, 'My feet have got pins and needles bad. That means they are coming alive again.' She tried to stand up, but it wasn't any good.
Raven watched her. He said, 'What else did you think?'
She said, 'I thought about you. I wished I hadn't had to go away like that and leave you.'
'I thought you'd gone to the police.'
'I wouldn't do that.' She managed to stand up this time with her hand on his shoulder. 'I'm on your side.'
Raven said, 'We've got to get out of here. Can you walk?'
'Yes.'
'Then leave go of me. There's someone outside.' He stood by the door with his gun in his hand listening. They'd had plenty of time, those two, to think up a plan, longer than he. He pulled the door open. It was very nearly dark. He could see no one on the landing. He thought: the old devil's at the side waiting to get a hit at me with the poker. I'll take a run for it, and immediately tripped across the string they had tied across the doorway. He was on his knees with the gun on the floor; he couldn't get up in time and Acky's blow got him on the left shoulder. It staggered him, he couldn't move, he had just time to think: it'll be the head next time, I've gone soft, I ought to have thought of a string, when he heard Anne speak: 'Drop the poker.' He got painfully to his feet; the girl had snatched the gun as it fell and had Acky covered. He said with astonishment, 'You're fine.' At the bottom of the stairs the old woman cried out, 'Acky, where are you?'
'Give me the gun,' Raven said. 'Get down the stairs, you needn't be afraid of the old bitch.' He backed after her, keeping Acky covered, but the old couple had shot their bolt. He said regretfully, 'If he'd only rush I'd put a bullet in him.'
'It wouldn't upset me,' Anne said. 'I'd have done it myself.'
He said again, 'You're fine.' He nearly forgot the detectives he had seen in the street, but with his hand on the door he remembered. He said, 'I may have to make a bolt for it if the police are outside.' He hardly hesitated before he trusted her. 'I've found a hide-out for the night. In the goods yard. A shed they don't use any longer. I'll be waiting by the wall tonight fifty yards down from the station.' He opened the door. Nobody moved in the street; they walked out together and down the middle of the road into a vacant dusk. Anne said, 'Did you see a man in the doorway opposite?'
'Yes,' Raven said. 'I saw him.'
'I thought it was like—but how could it—?'
'There was another at the end of the street. They were police all right, but they didn't know who I was. They'd have tried to get me if they'd known.'
'And you'd have shot?'
'I'd have shot all right. But they didn't know it was me.' He laughed with the night damp in his throat. 'I've fooled them properly.' The lights went on in the city beyond the railway bridge, but where they were it was just a grey dusk and the sound of an engine shunting in the yard.
'I can't walk far,' Anne said. 'I'm sorry. I suppose I'm a bit sick after all.'
'It's not far now,' Raven said. 'There's a loose plank. I got it all fixed up for myself early this morning. Why, there's even sacks, lots of sacks. It's going to be like home,' he said. 'Like home?' He didn't answer, feeling along the tarred wall of the goods yard, remembering the kitchen in the basement and the first thing very nearly he could remember, his mother bleeding across the table. She hadn't even troubled to lock the door: that was all she cared about him. He'd done some ugly things in his time, he told himself, but he'd never been able to equal that ugliness. Some day he would. It would be like beginning life over again: to have something else to look back to when somebody spoke of death or blood or wounds or home.