‘It was Blackfield,’ said Gemma.
‘What was?’ I was too busy wriggling to pay attention. I hadn’t liked the sound of ‘You won’t need these any more.’
‘Blackfield hit Albert to discourage him from cycling along his fence in search of mushrooms. He came off his electric bike. But he didn’t kill him, at least that’s what Deeks said.’
I could hear van doors sliding and slamming, then the sound of the big engine starting. Deeks and his girlfriend were leaving.
‘I’m a bit ahead of you in the wriggling game,’ Gemma said, grunting with effort. ‘I had a lot of time to try and get out of these while they were waiting for you and this is rope, there’s always some give. I think I’m nearly there.’
The engine of the van surged outside as Deeks turned and churned it up the hill, taking most of the light that fell through the little window with it. I had stopped shivering, not feeling quite so cold now. It took me only a few seconds to realize why when the first wisps of smoke rose from the floorboards.
I stated the obvious. ‘Shit, we’re on fire. I can smell paraffin, too.’
‘I use it for heating the greenhouse. At least it’s not petrol.’
The nylon cut my skin as I pulled and pulled. I didn’t manage to snap it but the twine stretched a little around my ankles. ‘It’s still raining, that’ll slow it down a bit.’
‘It’s not raining under the hut, though, is it?’ Gemma argued.
‘Good point.’ The hut began to fill with smoke and both of us started to cough. We’d die of smoke inhalation about five minutes before burning to a cinder. ‘Those gas bottles outside, they’re empty, right?’
‘Yup. All except one.’
‘Great. If I know Deeks at all then he’ll have stuffed it under the hut. At least it should be quick.
‘ I rocked the chair back and forth on to the front legs, hind legs, front legs, until on the last swing I ended up on my feet with the chair attached to my behind. I waddled the short distance across and threw myself at the cast-iron stove as hard as I could. I heard an encouraging crack and despite the pain joyfully threw myself at it again. One chair leg came adrift. It was enough to loosen the entire net of twine around me and I managed to kick and pull myself free. I opened the door. Flames were kindling the steps. The inrush of cold air helped me breathe easier, though every lungful made me cough. I grabbed Gemma’s armchair and dragged it to the door, yanked it outside with one big heave while the flames licked about us and we both tumbled over.
An eerie light reflected on to the Hollow from the rim behind the polytunnel, far too bright for just one burning laboratory. I ran into the caravan.
‘On the draining board!’ I heard Gemma call. I grabbed the bread knife and seconds later had cut her free of the tumbled armchair. I was trying to drag her away from the fire while she dragged me the other way. ‘No!’ she cried. ‘The gas bottle’s not in the fire, we can save the hut!’
She ran off towards the nearest water trough while I cut off the rest of the twine from my limbs, then I followed her.
‘What are those lights?’ she asked, throwing an empty watering can at me.
I could now see two blinding light sources shining down into the valley further on where Blackfield’s stalag amphetamine lab was. Had been. I wondered if the chemists had been inside when that went up. ‘No idea what they are.’ We ran back and started throwing water on to the fire, Gemma from a bucket, me with the plastic watering can. The floor of the hut was completely on fire now.
‘What’s that sound?’ she asked.
‘Helicopter.’ Even as I spoke the word a helicopter swooped across the Hollow, turning night into day with its powerful night-sun focused on us. I presumed it was friend, not foe, so I gave it a quick wave, then went on firefighting. A combination of rain, mud and Gemma’s determination to save her hut eventually defeated the fire. The helicopter remained hovering above the rim of the Hollow, shedding light on our labours. At last we realized we had done it and stopped. We were both still coughing, we were wet, covered in mud, and steam rose from our bodies in the cold light of the night-sun. We sank against each other, not quite in an embrace, just keeping each other from falling over. I was still too hot from running back and forth to feel the cold, despite being half naked. There were emergency sirens in the air.
A leather-clad Annis arrived on the Norton only half a minute ahead of her pursuers, slithering the Norton to a stop beside the Land Rover. ‘Blimey, looks like your usual style, Chris,’ she called over the helicopter noise. ‘I won’t ask why you’re both half naked but where’s Jill? Where’s the boy?’
My answer was drowned out when the helicopter swept closer and Detective Superintendent Needham and his convoy roared into the little herb farm, doors opening even before the cars had squelched to a halt.
I shivered as the cold began to get to me, but before I could even suggest to Gemma the loan of a towel Needham’s irate form hove into view from among the cars. ‘Chris Honeysett, you’re under arrest. And you, and you,’ pointing at Annis and Gemma. ‘Sorbie,’ he called to his Detective Sergeant who was following in his considerable wake, ‘read them their rights and arrest them properly, I just can’t be arsed today, I cannot be arsed.’
Epilogue
At least this time we hadn’t shot anyone. But that was about the only law we hadn’t broken, according to Detective Superintendent (‘Two-sugars’) Needham. The shock was not of being arrested — I had always expected that — but being arrested for all the right offences: breaking and entering, theft of the Rodin, obviously, the attempted theft of the Penny Black from Rufus Connabear, and the Telfer burglary. My suspicions were aroused even more when DS Sorbie seemed to have more detailed memory of the items we had nicked than I did.
Needham admitted it. ‘Deeks was bent. He was under investigation but we didn’t want to spook him by suspending him. We wanted to find as much evidence as possible and catch all his contacts, in and outside the force, that’s why I gave him DS Sorbie to run with, who did an excellent job of pretending to be his loyal sidekick. Deeks was under constant surveillance, of course. And then suddenly, though not atypically, I might add, you turned up in the middle of it all. We had to find out what was going on. So we put you and your lot under surveillance too for a while. I couldn’t really see you and Deeks working together. So we took a step back. I wanted whatever you got out of the Telfer place but had to make it look like a mugging. We got some of our esteemed colleagues from Bristol to do the job and I’m afraid they went a bit over the top, sorry about that. But amongst the crud you stole was a secretly filmed video of Deeks accepting money from Telfer, which will be enough in itself to put Deeks away for a while.’
‘Glad to have been of service.’
‘His involvement with the amphetamine factory on Blackfield’s land and six counts of attempted murder and two counts of arson is going to age the man even more.’
‘He tried to fry the drug chemists too?’
‘Tied up just like you. They were lucky we’d decided to give them a tug that very night. But it’s a huge place to raid. We had brought searchlights and generators on flat-back lorries and sixty officers, but Deeks and his woman had already rigged the place to burn and he was sitting in his van, waiting for you to drive into the Hollow, where Jill was waiting for you. The helicopter crew realized that your lives might be in danger when they detected the fire and stayed overhead to direct us to you. Otherwise Deeks would never have managed to give us the slip.’
‘You let him get away?’
‘Don’t worry, we’ll get him. I’d worry about myself and my mates if I were you.’
‘Hey, without me you wouldn’t have the video. I was helping.’