Dark Side of the Street

6

The man who had impersonated Mackenzie turned on to the Great North Road, pulled up at the first roadside cafe he came to and went into a phone box. He made two calls and the first took some getting as it was apparently routed through a manual exchange. It was at least five minutes before a blunt Yorkshire voice sounded on the other end of the line and he cut in at once.

"That you, Mr. Crowther. Look, we've run into a little difficulty. That package you've been expecting-you'll actually be receiving two. Think you can handle them? We'll double your fee naturally."

Crowther might have been discussing the price of cattle and his voice was completely matter-of-fact when he replied. "I don't see why not. It might take a bit longer, that's all. We'll have to go careful. Another thing, my wife died yesterday."

"Sorry to hear that."

"We're burying her in the morning and that won't help. Still, leave it with me. I'm sure we'll manage."

"I'll be in touch."

He replaced the receiver and found some more change. This time he dialled a London number. The receiver was lifted at once at the other end and a woman said, "World Wide Exports."

"Hello, sweetie-Simon Vaughan speaking from dear old County Durham."

"What happened? I've just been watching the news on television. It seems two birds have flown the coop, not one."

"Couldn't be helped, I'm afraid. I'm not too happy about the additional package. Something about him seems wildly wrong to me. Still, it doesn't matter. Crowther's agreed to take on both of them-for twice his usual fee."

"I'll pass the word along. What about the merchandise?"

"It's in a safe deposit in Jermyn Street under the name of Alfred Bonner. Not what we expected, by the way, but something equally as good."

"What about a key?"

"The sister has it at 15, Wheeler Court, Bethnal Green. There shouldn't be any hitch there. She's expecting a caller."

"Good-we'll pick it up right away. And Simon…."

"Yes, sweetie?"

"I'd check on Crowther tomorrow if I were you."

"Exactly what I was thinking. I'll see you in church."

As he walked back to his car, he whistled softly and there was a smile on his face.

When Chavasse climbed out of the tanker's secret compartment it had stopped raining and he waited for Youngblood to join him, shivering slightly in the chill wind. The driver dropped the hatch back into place and looked down at them.

"There's a track on the other side of the road. You'll be met. Good luck."

He climbed back inside the cab, there was a hiss of air as he released the brakes and the tanker faded into the night.

Chavasse watched the red tail lights dwindle away and turned to Youngblood. "What time is it?"

"Just coming up to half one."

"Which means we were inside that sardine can for almost four hours. I reckon we must have covered the best part of a hundred and fifty miles."

"I know one thing," Youngblood said with feeling. "It was never intended to hold two."

Somewhere in the distance a dog barked hollowly and then a bank of cloud rolled away from the moon and the countryside was bathed in a hard white light. The night sky was incredibly beautiful with stars strung away to the horizon and hills lifted uneasily into the darkness all round.

"Where in the hell are we?" Youngblood demanded.

On the other side of the road, a stone rattled and a young woman moved out of the shadows. "Is there anywhere in particular you'd like me to take you?"

Chavasse recognised her accent at once and turned to Youngblood. "Some part of Yorkshire, that's certain."

The girl wore a headscarf and an old raincoat and waited patiently, her face calm, touched with an impossible beauty by the hard white light of the moon.

"Babylon," Youngblood said.

"Too far for me, but I can take you part of the way," she said in her strange, dead voice.

She moved back up the track and Youngblood turned to Chavasse in exasperation. "This whole bloody affair is getting more like something out of Alice in Wonderland every minute. We'll be meeting the White Rabbit next."

"Or the Mad Hatter," Chavasse said with a grin and went after the girl quickly.

Sam Crowther watched them coming along the track clear in the moonlight from the loft of his barn. "Here they are," he said softly.

There was a stirring in the darkness at his side and Billy leaned forward excitedly, saliva dribbling from the corner of his mouth.

"Two nuts to crack this time, Billy," Crowther said. "But we'll manage, won't we? All in good time."

He patted Billy on the shoulder and went down the ladder. As he emerged from the barn, the girl turned in through the gate, Chavasse and Youngblood followed her.

"Good lass, Molly," Crowther said. "You go in and make 'em some ham and eggs."

The girl moved off without a word and Crowther turned with a big smile, holding out his hand. "Mr. Youngblood and Mr. Drummond, I presume. There was so much about you two on the eleven o'clock news that I feel I've known you all my life. I'm Sam Crowther."

Youngblood ignored the hand. "And what's that?" He nodded to Billy who had just shambled out of the shadows of the barn.

"Only Billy, Mr. Youngblood. Only Billy." Crowther chuckled and tapped his forehead significantly. "He's not got all he needs upstairs, but he's as good as two ordinary men round the farm. But what are we standing round here for? You come on in and I'll show you your room. By the time you've washed up Molly will have a meal on the table, I've no doubt."

"Your daughter?" Chavasse said as they went into the porch.

"That's it, Mr. Drummond. A good girl, our Molly."

"She doesn't seem to have much to say for herself."

"Not so surprising," Crowther said piously. "And her mother barely twenty-four hours cold." There was a door to the left and he opened it to disclose a cheap deal coffin with gilt handles standing on a table. "We're putting her under at the village church at ten o'clock in the morning. It's eight miles away so that means the hearse will be here at nine. You gentlemen will have to lay low till it's gone."

He closed the door and led the way up a flight of narrow wooden stairs covered in cheap linoleum worn smooth by the years. The landing was long and narrow and he opened the door at the far end and switched on the light.

"I think you'll be comfortable enough here."

There was an old double bed with a brass frame, a wardrobe and dressing table in Victorian mahogany and a marble washstand.

Youngblood unbuttoned his raincoat and threw it on the bed. "And how long do we stay here?"

"Until I get the right telephone call. Could be tomorrow. The day after at the latest. But don't worry. You're safe enough here. We're miles from anywhere."

"And where exactly would that be?" Chavasse asked.

Crowther gave him a sly grin. "That would be telling, now wouldn't it, Mr. Drummond? No, I couldn't do that. I've got myself to protect. You gents come down when you're ready. There'll be food on the table."

The door closed behind him and Youngblood took off his jacket and draped it over a chair. "What do you think?"

"I wouldn't trust him out of my sight for very long." Chavasse moved to the window and peered outside. "This place is like a bad film set for Wuthering Heights."

Youngblood poured water from a large jug into a cracked basin and swilled his face and neck. "I know one thing," he said as he towelled himself briskly. "He only has to make one wrong move and I'll break his bloody neck."

Chavasse took off his raincoat and moved across to the basin. "I've a feeling that might not be so easy where our boy Billy's concerned."

"You've got a point there, but why cross bridges?" Youngblood grinned. "Right now I'm more interested in ham and eggs. I'll see you downstairs."

The door closed softly behind him and Chavasse stood frowning into the cracked mirror above the washstand. There was something wrong here, he had never been more certain of anything in his life. It spoke aloud in the girl's silence, in the slyness in Crowther's eyes when he glanced sideways, in the great shambling imbecile that was his shadow. But if something sinister was intended, what could it be? Crowther was no fool, that was obvious and must realise that together, Chavasse and Youngblood presented a formidable combination. Separated on the other hand … With a sudden exclamation, he hurled the towel from him, wrenched open the door and hurried downstairs.

When Youngblood went into the parlour there was no one there and he moved along the passage and entered the kitchen. Molly was standing at the stove in an old cotton dress that was a size too small so that the skirt seams had split in several places. She wore no stockings and when she turned to look at him he realised, with considerable disappointment, that the moon had lied. She was at best plain and with her high cheekbones, olive skin and overfull lips, many people would have considered her ugly.

"It's almost ready," she said in that strange, dead voice of hers and smoothed her hands over her thighs. "I'm just going out to the shed to get some more wood for the stove."

She took a lantern down from a hook above the sink, lit it and moved towards the back door. Youngblood was there before her. "Here, I'll take that," he said. "You could probably do with some help."

She hesitated, gazing up at him, a strange uncertain expression in her eyes and then she handed him the lamp. "All right. It's across the yard."

The cobbles were damp in the night air and treacherous underfoot and Youngblood picked his way carefully, cursing when he stepped into a puddle and water slopped into one of his shoes. When the girl opened the door of the shed, he could smell mouldy hay, old leather and wood shavings and damp where the stars gleamed through a hole in the roof.

"Over here," she said.

He went towards her, lantern raised and paused. A trick of the lamplight, he knew that, but for a moment she looked exactly as she had done down there on the road in the moonlight-as old as Eve and more beautiful than he had thought any woman could be.

She turned, leaning over the woodpile, one knee forward so that the old cotton dress tightened across her thighs like a second skin.

Five years. Five long years. Youngblood moved forward, reaching out to touch and she turned to face him. It was there in her eyes, the sudden shock, the knowing. For a moment they stayed that way and then she seemed to sway towards him.

From somewhere in the house Chavasse called, "Harry, where are you?"

Youngblood smiled, reached forward and gently stroked her face with the back of one hand. "Some other time perhaps? You take the lantern. I'll carry the wood."

She moved back clutching the lantern in both hands, the knuckles gleaming white, betraying her inner tension. Youngblood piled half a dozen logs in the crook of one arm and led the way out.

As they crossed the yard Chavasse appeared in the kitchen doorway. "So there you are? There didn't seem to be anyone around. I got worried."

"Just helping with the chores." Youngblood turned to Molly. "Where's your father got to?"

"Here I am, Mr. Youngblood." Crowther moved out of the shadows on the other side of the yard. "Just settling the animals."

"Where's Billy?"

"Never you mind about him. He sleeps in the barn. Best place for him. Are we all ready then?" He turned to the girl, rubbing his hands together and said jovially, "By gum, I don't know what you've got for us, lass, but I could eat a horse."

It was a good hour later when Billy shambled out of the darkness across the yard and approached the rear door. He opened it carefully and moved inside.

Crowther was sitting at the kitchen table smoking his pipe and reading a newspaper. He looked up and nodded calmly. "There you are then, Billy."

He went to a cupboard under the sink and came back with a ten-pound hammer. "You know what to do?"

Billy gripped the hammer tightly in his right hand and nodded eagerly, saliva glistened on his chin.

"Good lad. Best get started then."

Crowther opened the door, led the way along the passageway and mounted the stairs to the landing. He paused outside the end door, a finger on his lips and tried the knob gently. The door remained immovable and he turned calmly and pushed Billy back along the corridor.

At the bottom of the steps he paused and put a hand on the big man's shoulders. "Never mind, Billy, there's always tomorrow," he said.

In the bedroom, Chavasse and Youngblood stood in silence watching the door knob turn. When the soft footsteps had faded along the passageway, Youngblood's breath left his body in a long sigh.

"My God, I'm glad you're here," he said to Chavasse. "I feel like a ten-year-old kid that's looking for a bogie in every cupboard."

"In this house you'd probably find one. Still, there's one good thing."

"What's that?"

Chavasse grinned. "It's nice to know I'm wanted."