Annie took a breath, glanced over at Steve and Tony sitting there like a pair of overlarge bookends, headphones on, arms folded and eyes closed. ‘Redmond’s going there to kill him, isn’t he?’
Max looked grim. ‘Well, let’s put it this way. If Redmond hasn’t done for the bastard, then I will,’ he said. ‘That’s a promise.’
‘Max, I told you. He’s old now. He’s old and he’s confused and he’s scared. He doesn’t deserve it.’
‘Bollocks.’
‘And what about me, then?’
‘What?’
‘Where does that leave me? Where does it leave us?’
Max looked away. ‘Christ knows,’ he said, and fell silent.
Annie gazed out at the black sky, the rushing lights skimming by beneath them, and felt sadness engulf her.
He wouldn’t forgive her.
Yeah, they’d made love. Hot, passionate love.
But really?
It could have been for the very last time.
106
Half an hour later, they were there. Against the purple-dark night sky lit only by a dazzling full moon and a sprinkling of stars, they could see the castle’s towering black outline as the helicopter sped over the sea toward it. At the last moment the craft lifted, and they could see the lights outlining the circular landing pad in the courtyard within the castle keep.
The pilot guided the helicopter down on to it, battling a fierce headwind that was coming in off the ocean. It touched down with barely a bump. Steve and Tony ditched the headphones, and everyone unfastened their seat belts. The rotors slowed, and stopped, then the pilot came and opened the door, helping Annie down. She stood there, her hair whipping across her face in the breeze, and looked around at the castle’s tall forbidding walls and wondered with a shudder of foreboding where Redmond was, right now.
‘There’s a door,’ she told Max. ‘Over here.’
‘Does someone usually come out to meet you?’ he asked.
‘The housekeeper, Mrs McAllister.’
‘Then where is she this time? She must have heard us arrive. And supposing Delaney’s here, how the fuck would he get in? This place is a fortress.’
‘There’s a path up from the beach below the headland,’ said Annie. ‘It’s a slog, but it’s no trick to get in. You ring the bell, and Mrs McAllister opens the gate down there or…’
‘Or what?’ asked Max when she hesitated.
‘Redmond could afford to hire a helicopter. You saw his house. My guess he’s got a lot of gang money stashed away, so this would be no big stretch for him. Maybe his pilot landed round the headland, or even right here in the courtyard. Maybe Mrs McAllister thought it was me or Alberto coming in, came out to meet us, and got the shock of her life.’
Steve and Tony were alighting from the helicopter. Annie led the way over to the door Mrs McAllister usually emerged from. But she wasn’t there this time, and that was odd. Max was right about that. Annie felt a threadworm of fear crawl up her spine. But it was too late now for second thoughts. The pilot was getting back behind the controls, firing up the rotors. Within a couple of minutes, the helicopter had lifted off the ground, spun around, and was gone, away into the night sky.
‘So, no welcome party,’ said Max as they stood beside the door.
‘I hope she’s OK,’ said Annie.
‘She’s probably not,’ he said, and gave a nod to Tony, who twisted the circular handle on the old door. It opened, and Tony pushed through, into the body of the castle.
107
Now Annie was glad she had taken the time on previous visits to familiarize herself with the castle’s layout. They climbed the steep flight of stone stairs that were so old the centre of each step was worn away by several inches. Wild, kilted highlanders with small ceremonial daggers, sgian dubhs, tucked into their socks would have climbed them in centuries past. Now, it was her and Max, Steve and Tony.
At the top of the flight a corridor opened out, stone flags on the floor, suits of armour lining the long in-curving wall. They walked silently on, then Annie indicated a left-hand turn, down more steps; Max pushed open the door and they stepped into a brightly lit and modern kitchen.
In the middle of the room, gagged and tied to a chair, was Mrs McAllister, her eyes wide with panic. When she saw Annie, she started making noises. Annie held a finger to her lips. Quiet.
The woman stopped making noises. She stared as Steve appeared, then Tony, and her eyes nearly popped out of her head when she saw they were holding guns. Moving stealthily, Tony went to the left side of the room, Steve to the right.
Annie looked at Mrs McAllister and mouthed, Anyone in here?
Mrs McAllister nodded frantically.
Shit, thought Annie.
Max moved forward. Where? he mouthed at the terrified woman.
She turned her head and indicated a door. A walk-in larder, Annie knew. Big enough to conceal a man, easily. The door was slightly ajar. Tony went in close, and Steve crossed the room quickly.
Annie held her breath.
Tony nodded to Steve, then threw the door open and dived inside, Steve right behind him.
There was no one in there. Steve shook his head at Max. Max moved over there while Annie stepped forward and quickly ripped the tape from Mrs McAllister’s mouth. The woman winced and opened her mouth to speak, and Annie held up a hand urgently: Shush. Quiet!
Inside the larder there were stacks of provisions, canned and jarred goods; nothing else. There was a tatty old strip of carpet on the floor. Tony threw it back. They were looking at a closed circular trapdoor with a disengaged bolt on one side.
‘Where does that lead?’ Annie whispered to Mrs McAllister, busy tugging the ropes that bound her loose.
‘I don’t, I couldn’t, he came in here so fast and I didn’t know what to do…’ she babbled.
Having freed the ties, Annie came round to the front of the chair and grabbed Mrs McAllister’s shoulders. ‘You’re safe now. Where does it lead, that trapdoor?’
‘Down into the cellars. We use them as wine cellars now, but once upon a time they were dungeons.’
Max looked at Mrs McAllister. ‘One man. Just one. Sure?’
She nodded shakily.
Steve reached down and flicked the bolt shut. ‘Well, he won’t come up that way,’ he said.
‘But there’s got to be another route up from the dungeons,’ said Annie. ‘Mrs McAllister, when this man came in here and tied you up – how long ago was that?’
‘About half an hour, I suppose.’ Mrs McAllister was a tough old bird, but she was choking back tears. ‘It seemed longer. He came in a helicopter, I thought it was you…’
‘And you’re sure he was alone?’
‘I didn’t see anyone else.’
‘So he could be anywhere in the bloody castle by now,’ said Max.
‘What did he look like, this man?’ asked Annie.
Mrs McAllister drew in a sobbing breath. ‘Pale. Sort of smiling. He looked crazed. And he had red hair,’ she said.
108
They left Mrs McAllister in the kitchen. The trapdoor was bolted shut and she was strong enough to shove a largish butcher’s block across the kitchen door when they’d gone back out into the corridor, so she would be out of danger there.
Wish we were out of bloody danger, thought Annie as they went on along the corridor, Tony and Steve throwing open doors on either side of it, stepping in, stepping back out. The silence in here was eerie. And now they were fast approaching the hall where Constantine had wined and dined her over the years – and an assortment of high-priced hookers too – while he still had wits left to do it.
She hoped Constantine wouldn’t be in there. She didn’t think he would be, but if he was, then Max would shoot him, beat Redmond to the draw. Once, she had hoped that Max could have let it go, the animosity he felt over her relationship with Constantine; now she knew he never would.