‘The brooch was the link,’ he said, turning to look at Gareth. ‘The only piece she took with her when she left Gattenby House. Why, I thought? Why this one thing? I bargained on the fact that she could never let that brooch leave her; it was the last emotional connection with my father. It had nothing to do with cost and everything to do with one lover giving another a special gift. I’m impressed; to have kept a candle burning for him for so long she really must have been telling the truth about her feelings for him. So I knew that if I found the brooch I would find Evelyn. So it proved to be. That I would also discover the whereabouts of one of the missing twins into the bargain was my great fortune! I knew from the moment I saw you, Gareth, that you were Evelyn’s child. She is in your very eyes. It is such a shame we don’t have the girl, too. We would have had the full set.’ Lambert-Chide rose to his feet, his weight taken by the cane.
‘You get some kind of perverted pleasure out of all this, don’t you?’ said Gareth. ‘It’s all a big game with no rules.’
‘Oh, it’s no game, Gareth. Far from it. Have you any idea how old she really is? How many years you, sharing her genes, have the potential to live? Gareth, look at her. We know from the confessions she gave back in the 1970’s that she is more than four hundred years old! What you see here is proof that some people are born without the trigger that causes ageing. They cheat death. They cheat the King of Terrors. And you too, Gareth; you, as her son, have this potential to be immortal.’
Unexpectedly Evelyn was up and out of the chair. She grabbed Lambert-Chide around the neck from behind. Gareth could see now that she’d been largely feigning the effects of the drug, for she seemed to move pretty fast and decisively. Tremain swung the gun around towards Erica. There was no slurring of the voice when she next spoke.
‘Drop that, Tremain, or I’ll wring his neck like a piece of rope!’
Tremain, his nostrils flaring, glowered at her. ‘I told you it was a big mistake!’ he said to Lambert-Chide. ‘She needed to be put under again.’
‘Cut it, Tremain,’ snarled Erica, her arm squeezing tighter around Lambert-Chide’s neck as if it were some kind of slender python. ‘Drop it, now!’
He hesitated, and instead of doing as he was told he brought the gun to rest against Gareth’s temple. ‘Let him go,’ said Tremain. ‘I’ll kill him.’
‘Go ahead. It doesn’t matter to me.’
‘Tremain,’ gasped Lambert-Chide, ‘don’t…’
He ignored the old man. Pushed the gun harder, forcing Gareth’s head to one side. Gareth closed his eyes, expecting the worst.
‘You still don’t get it, do you?’ said Erica. ‘Muller told me you’d fall for it, because you’re so focused on what you want to see you’re blind to everything else. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.’ She shook her head, putting her lips close to Lambert-Chide’s ear. ‘You stupid old fool, don’t you understand? I’m not Evelyn, this man isn’t my son, and I’m certainly not four hundred years old. Sorry to disappoint you all. You’ve been conned and I want out of here!’
39
She dragged Lambert-Chide backwards, towards the door through which Tremain had first brought her.
‘You can’t get out,’ said Tremain. ‘Let him go.’
‘Throw me the gun,’ she said.
‘Take a leap…’ returned Tremain.
She crushed Lambert-Chide’s neck tighter and he croaked in pain. ‘Throw me the gun, you merciless bastard!’
Tremain saw the fear in Lambert-Chide’s eyes, sighed resignedly and held the gun between index finger and thumb, holding it out at arm’s length, then bending and sliding it across the floor. Erica had to release Lambert-Chide long enough to bend and retrieve the weapon at her feet, but as she did so the door behind her flew open and two men threw themselves into the room, barging into Erica’s unprotected back. She fell to the floor. One of the men brought his gun crashing down on her head, once, twice, a third time. He fell on top of her, flattening her to the ground, blood seeping through her tousled hair. The other man went to Lambert-Chide’s aid, supporting him. Lambert-Chide pushed him away, clutching his sore throat. He sent a foot into the woman’s unprotected side and she gave a pitiful yelp of pain.
Tremain retrieved his gun, aiming it at the woman. His breathing was laboured and his eyes betrayed his desire to send a bullet into her back. ‘Now do you believe me? There’s a reason she was kept sedated!’
‘You gullible fools…’ Erica said faintly, her breath pumped from her by the weight of the man.
Lambert-Chide signalled for him to get off her. ‘Don’t listen to her,’ said Tremain. ‘She’s lying. She’s the one.’
‘So you’d like to believe,’ Erica said, rising to her knees. She ran a hand over her head; her fingers came away smeared in scarlet and she glowered hard at Tremain.
‘Shut your mouth, you lying bitch!’ he said.
‘Let her have her say,’ said Lambert-Chide, being helped to one of the chairs. He massaged his neck.
‘Surely you don’t believe her?’ he said.
‘Quiet, Randall,’ he said. ‘Go ahead. Let’s hear it.’
Erica sat up. She glanced briefly at Gareth, who appeared totally dumbstruck. ‘Muller and I were in on this together,’ she said. He’d been tasked with finding this Evelyn Carter woman. OK, so he wasn’t entirely sure why, but that didn’t really matter. What mattered was that he found her and deliver her to you. He wasn’t stupid; he knew she was immensely valuable to you. Knew how much manpower and money you were willing to put into this. The reward for delivering her to you was enough to suggest she was special, very special. After all, it would make him a very rich man.’
Lambert-Chide saw Tremain was about to interject and he held up his hand for him to remain silent. ‘You recruited Muller personally, didn’t you, Randall?’
‘He passed through all the checks.’
‘But it took another, Caroline Cody, to spot what his game was, to double-cross us.’
‘What are you saying?’
He ignored his head of security and addressed the woman. ‘So, tell me who you’d like us to think you are.’
‘Muller figured he’d help things along. He’d guarantee that he’d be the one to find this Evelyn Carter for you. Except that it wouldn’t be the real one, it would be her double. I was working for a small-time modelling agency when he approached me with an offer. He wanted you to think he was hot on the trail of Evelyn, and I helped create that illusion. You were never going to get her, of course; once we had the money we’d divide the proceeds and disappear, a whole lot richer. But he got greedy. He decided that he’d double his chances, by leading you on to believe that Gareth here was her son. Everything, me falling in front of his car, the brooch — an expensive replica; we had all the details from your website — all an elaborate setup. I didn’t mean to end up in hospital; I slipped. But it inadvertently helped convince you that I was Evelyn. We even convinced Doradus, whoever he is.’ She looked over to Gareth, whose face displayed a rising anger. ‘My guess is if Gareth is here then Muller is either dead or has taken the money and run. Either way it’s time to come clean. Game over. I’m pissed off with having those fucking needles stuck in me.’