The three senior officers retreated inside the house, watching through the kitchen window as the greenhouse was emptied of the chilli plants, which had been, apparently, its late owner’s hobby, and as its sections were unbolted and laid flat on the grass. Then, just as their Strathclyde counterparts had done, the team set to work breaking up its solid floor, attacking it methodically until it was in pieces small enough for them to pick it apart with their gloved hands.
Almost all of the broken lumps had been removed, when the workers stepped back, as if at a command; one of them turned towards the house and beckoned. Again, the chief constable led the way outside. ‘What is it?’ he asked.
‘Take a look, sir,’ said the officer who had waved them over, as his colleagues backed off, clearing the area of their shadows.
Proud crouched beside the fresh earth, and saw. . the edge of a rolled carpet protruding through it. He knelt and began to scoop out the soil until enough of the fabric had been freed for him to grab a corner and yank it away, revealing, unmistakably, the skeleton of a human foot.
Eighty-four
Dover, the capital of Delaware, first state in the Union, presented a complete contrast to its English namesake, as Skinner swung the Corvette off the Dupont Highway into East Lookerman Street. There were no white cliffs in sight. The buildings were all low-rise; they were old and seemed to be built either of wood or brick. A few hundred yards down, he obeyed the navigation system and turned left, driving past the Legislative Hall, and on until he reached the long and tree-shaded Duke of Melbourne Street.
The house he sought was at the end of the avenue, two-storeyed, wooden-faced, with a veranda extending across its full width. He knew it before he reached it; there was a red Plymouth parked outside.
He drew to a halt a hundred yards away, looking up and down as he stepped out into the cool December afternoon. The street was deserted; and there were no signs of any watchers behind curtains. He smiled: it was perfect, so perfect. What could spoil it? he asked himself. The answer was obvious: if the wrong man was waiting in the house, that might put a considerable damper on his day. The people he was dealing with were experienced, and demonstrably dangerous. Walking up to the front door and ringing the bell would not be the wisest thing he had ever done.
He considered his options for a few moments, then slid back inside the low-slung car, switched on the engine, and drove on, past the house, turning right into Malmsey Street, and stopping after a hundred yards. He took a small pair of binoculars from a tote bag on the passenger seat and studied the house from the rear: it stood on a big plot, enclosed by a very low perimeter fence over which he could see easily. All the windows on the upper storey were shuttered, but there was one on the ground floor that was open and uncurtained. He focused the glasses on it, making out a big oak dresser with plates displayed, but no sign of any movement within. ‘Kitchen,’ he murmured. ‘Climbing in the window’s not an option, so what else?’
He studied the building for a little longer, looking for potential entry points, until he saw, not far from the three steps that led up to the back door, a hatchway similar to that he had opened on board the Bulrush. ‘Cellar,’ he murmured. ‘Let’s just hope it’s empty.’
He stepped out of the car once more, his bag slung over his shoulder, and walked back up the tarmac sidewalk for a few yards, before stepping over the low fence and sprinting across the open lawn to the doorway. Crouching beside it, he saw that it was secured by what appeared to be a simple mortise lock. Using Amanda Dennis’s toolkit, he set to work: it was more complicated than it looked, but within a minute he heard a satisfying click.
He swung the hatch open: the cellar was in darkness, but he was well prepared. His flashlight revealed a small sloping ramp, leading down to a concrete floor. He looked into the big den and saw wine-racks, tools, a lawnmower, a rowing-machine, free weights and a bench, and against the far wall, a cabinet containing two shotguns, a hunting rifle, an M4 carbine and a fifth firearm, which he recognised as the new state-of-the-art XM8 assault weapon. Beside it was a second case, containing five pistols; there was an empty space where a sixth might have been. ‘Jesus,’ he whispered, ‘and I got in here with a toothpick. Something’s not right.’ He looked at the inside of the door and spotted an alarm sensor. ‘Deactivated?’ he asked himself. ‘Or is it a silent system? Ah, bugger it!’ He slid down the ramp and closed the hatch behind him.
The area in which he found himself approximated to half the floor area of the house above. He saw a door facing him and opened it to find himself in a small corridor, with another door, and with a flight of stairs rising to his left. He paused, reached into the tote bag once again and took out the silenced Sig Sauer. As he felt its weight, he thought of its owner, and of their respective fates, sealed by a shot in the dark, and suddenly he realised that his heart was pounding.
He was seized by a strong urge to get out of there, to jump back into the Corvette and leave the dust of Dover behind him. He thought of his family, the kids who needed him now more than they ever had, and he asked himself what the fuck he was doing in a stranger’s cellar with a gun in his hand. But he knew the answer to that question also. Until the thing was resolved, and he had dealt with what was above, he would never be safe. He had never considered fear before; having been brought to it, he found to his great surprise that it made him angry, with himself, for lowering his guard to allow it into his presence, but most of all with those who were its cause. He secured the bag on his shoulder, shone his flashlight up the staircase, and followed its beam.
The door at the top had no lock, only a simple roller catch. He stood on a narrow landing and listened: somewhere in the house, music was playing, but not close, not immediately outside. He wrapped the fingers of his left hand round the handle, put his thumb on the door jamb and eased it open a fraction. He saw a sliver of a hallway, and beyond that a front door, slightly ajar, the curtain beside it waving in the breeze. He widened the gap a little; a long mirror came into his field of vision; framed within it he saw the back view of a man, standing, his shoulders rounded and slumped, in a bay window, looking out into the street. Loosely, in his right hand, he held a revolver.
Skinner stepped noiselessly into the hall and raised his own gun, gripping it in both hands. ‘Titus,’ he called out, his voice sounding above the music, ‘drop your weapon, and raise. .’
The speed of Armstead’s reaction almost took him by surprise. He spun round on the ball of his right foot; his pistol coming up towards firing position. It was almost there when the Scot shot him.
The bullet struck his right elbow, knocking him backwards and sending the pistol flying, clattering on to the wooden floor. Instinctively he clutched at the wound, his face twisted with pain. He stared up at the intruder, fear in his eyes. ‘I was only expecting one,’ he gasped. ‘Who the hell are you?’
‘I’m what passes for the good guy in this situation,’ Skinner replied. As he spoke, he felt unexpected elation, as if a weight had been lifted from him. ‘I wasn’t going to shoot you, Titus. . at least not right away.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘It means that if you do what I ask, I’ll walk out of here, and so will you. Where is he?’
Armstead nodded towards the floor. ‘In here.’
‘I’ll tell you what, I’m feeling ultra-cautious today, so why don’t you just come over here and stand in front of me, in the line of fire, while I take a look. Maybe you two decided to surprise me by teaming up.’
‘Oh, we didn’t, buddy, but if it makes you happy.’ He did as he had been instructed, holding his bleeding arm as he shuffled over to form a human shield as they stepped through the archway that led into the living room. There was no need for the precaution: the corpse of Miles Hassett lay in the middle of the floor, a single bullet-hole in the middle of its chest. Bizarrely, it was covered with feathers, from the devastated cushion that Armstead had used as a silencer. Beside the body, Skinner saw a long-bladed knife.