The Cross

Chapter Forty-Seven

Bal Mawr Manor

‘Spectro-what?’ Dec interrupted.

Returning to the library to talk, the three of them had found the grandiose room empty — Knightly had disappeared somewhere to sulk, or to call his agent. The tall bay windows were growing steadily darker as the last rays of the sun sank into the sea. Slumped in one of the deep armchairs, Joel had closed his eyes as he listened to Chloe’s account, but he’d been attentive to every word. So had Dec, perched on the arm of another chair with one foot hopping nervously, knitting his brows in concentration.

‘Spectroscope,’ Chloe repeated. ‘This lab guy I was telling you about, Fred Lancaster — he used it to test what the cross was made of, and it turned out that it was some kind of rock that didn’t come from here. Not from this planet, I mean.’ Going back through it all had freshened the grief and she had to dab her eyes every so often with a tissue as she talked. ‘So, he and Dad got excited that they’d found something really amazing. It was Fred Lancaster’s idea to call the local press about it. That’s how it got in the news.’

The tears began to roll more freely as she described what had happened next. ‘And it was really all my fault,’ she sniffed.

‘I wish I’d never brought that thing back. How was I supposed to know? How could I?’ A sob burst from her throat. She covered her face with her hands.

While she broke off for a moment to collect herself and blow her nose, Dec got up and reached out an uncertain hand to touch her shoulder. ‘You couldn’t have known, Chloe,’ he muttered softly. ‘You can’t blame yourself, so you can’t.’

The memory of the murder scene was fresh in Joel’s mind, but he chose not to mention it to Chloe — just as he preferred to keep to himself that his opinion of Thames Valley Police Inspector Murdo Williams, heading up the hunt for Matt Dempsey’s killer, was even lower than hers. With a guy like ‘Murder’ Williams in charge, she was pretty much on her own.

‘What is this thing?’ Chloe asked Joel when she was able to talk again. ‘This cross of — what did you call it?’

‘Ardaich,’ Joel said. ‘It’s called the cross of Ardaich. My grandfather spent years of his life hunting for it. He left a notebook when he … when he died. In it were a set of clues that helped me find the cross, in Venice. It had been hidden there, for centuries maybe, underneath an old church.’

‘So your grandfather was a vampire hunter?’

Joel nodded. ‘He wanted to destroy them all. It was his life’s work.’

‘And this cross of Ardaich. You’re saying it’s like some kind of ultra-special weapon against them?’

Even in the gloom of the darkened library, Joel’s acute vision could read the hard look of disbelief in her eyes. ‘That’s exactly what it is,’ he said seriously. ‘I don’t know why. But it seems to have some incredible power over … over them.’ He’d almost said ‘over us’. ‘It’s existed in their folklore for — well, I don’t know for how long. They’re very afraid of it. Even to go near it is lethal to them.’

‘Vampires have folklore?’ Chloe shook her head, then was silent for a few moments. ‘Okay, let’s imagine for a moment that this isn’t just totally insane, but what you’re telling me is actually true. It still doesn’t make sense that some deranged psychopath who believes he’s a vampire would want to steal this famous cross that apparently all vampires know is so harmful. It’d be like …’ she searched for the right analogy ‘… like Superman looking for a lump of Kryptonite, even though he knew it could kill him. Or am I missing something?’

‘It’s a good question,’ Joel said. ‘I can’t tell you the answer.’

A long silence fell over the three of them, so that the only sound in the room was the crash of the distant surf. Dec was watching Chloe with a look of deep concern as Joel sat very still and his mind raced to figure out the puzzle. He needed to know more about this Ash. Fishing out his police BlackBerry, in seconds he was looking up online news items about the killer. The whole internet seemed to be on fire with the story.

It was as he was speed-scanning a BBC article about the jailbreak that Joel drew in a sharp breath. ‘I think I might have something here,’ he said. Inwardly, he was cursing himself for not having noticed it before.

There had been no survivors among the prison staff, but prisoners who witnessed the massacre had given descriptions of the gang of three who had, incredibly, managed to break into one of the country’s most secure prisons, spring an inmate from his solitary confinement cell and walk out free. One of the gang had been a woman. Dark and sexy, clad in red. Another a huge black guy.

Joel didn’t need to read any more to know who the third one had been.

Thinking furiously, he remembered what Tommy had told him back in Southampton: how millions of people out there would do just about anything for the rewards of eternal life and unlimited power. Rewards that only a vampire could give them.

And now it was suddenly all making horrible sense: the jailbreak, the attack on Chloe’s father, the theft of the cross, the things Tommy had said about the vampire rebellion against the Federation. All of it.

‘What?’ Chloe said.

‘Oh, shit,’ he said out loud. ‘I think I understand.’

‘What?‘ asked Dec.

Joel turned to Chloe. ‘Ash didn’t steal the cross for himself,’ he told her. ‘He was hired to do it. By a vampire called Gabriel Stone.’

Chloe stared and said nothing.

‘Stone!’ Dec exclaimed.

Joel nodded. ‘There are things going on that you don’t know about, Dec. I don’t have time to go into it all right now, but there’s a war going on, a war between vampires. Stone wants to use the cross to destroy his enemies. Except he can’t handle it himself, can’t even go near it. He needed a human to get it for him. A killer, a raving maniac, someone obsessed with the idea of being a vampire. What wouldn’t a man like that do to actually become one? Well, that’s the deal that Stone offered him.’

‘Let me get this right,’ Chloe said slowly. ‘My dad’s killer wanted to be a vampire, so a real vampire hired him to steal the cross in return for making him one.’

‘We say “turning”,’ Joel said. ‘I mean, that’s the term that’s used.’

‘Listen to him, Chloe,’ Dec implored her, desperate to make her believe. A sudden flash of inspiration lit up his face. ‘All right. Listen. I can prove to you that vampires exist.’

She raised an eyebrow.

‘Don’t move. Stay right there.’ Dec jumped up, ran out of the room and came back a few moments later carrying one of the many laptops that Errol Knightly had lying around Bal Mawr. Flipping it open, he clicked on the desktop shortcut that took him straight to the home page of Knightly’s website. A couple more clicks, and the video clip from Romania was starting to play. ‘Wait till you see this,’ he said with relish, setting the machine down on Chloe’s lap. She was about to shove it away in protest, then relented with a sigh.

Joel hadn’t forgotten the real reason he’d ridden all this way west. He rose from his chair and walked around behind Chloe to watch the laptop screen. Her neck was just a few inches away. He could hear the beating of her heart as though it were his own.

No, Joel. No. He cleared his throat and tried to focus on what Dec was showing them.

‘This is the eighth time I’ve seen it,’ Dec said excitedly, pointing at the screen. ‘Can’t wait to see the rest. Hold on. There, now. Look. Look. See the vampire? See the frigging teeth on the bastard? Watch, watch. Any minute now and that Federation woman’s going to walk down them stairs and blow the fucker to hell.’

Neither Chloe nor Joel replied. They were both staring at the unfolding images with completely contrasting expressions: hers was one of undisguised contempt, his one of growing anticipation.

‘Here she is,’ Dec said, pointing. ‘See?’

Joel barely heard him. He couldn’t take his eyes off the screen as the unmistakable figure of Alex Bishop came walking down the cellar steps. ‘I have to find her,’ he whispered. ‘I have to talk to Knightly.’

Chloe had seen enough. ‘This is bullshit,’ she muttered. ‘Come on. Any third-rate media student with a Photoshop program could fake this, easy.’

‘No way they could fake that,’ Dec protested, pointing to the screen where the vampire was being cut down by the gunshot, his body peeling instantly, horribly, apart. ‘Jesus, look at it.’ Just then, hearing the door opening behind him, he looked up. ‘Errol, I was just showing them the clip.’

Knightly strolled into the library, glancing out of habit at the mirrors behind the door before his gaze landed on Chloe. ‘I’m so glad you decided to stay,’ he said, beaming warmly; he was obviously prepared to forgive her earlier remarks to him. ‘I’ve sent Griffin out to the local supermarket to fetch some extra goodies for dinner. Is it safe to say we’ll have the pleasure of your company?’

From the glow in his face, Joel could tell that Dec had been hoping much the same thing. Chloe didn’t seem to share their sentiments, however. ‘I wouldn’t be so sure about that,’ she said.

‘Errol, this is my friend Joel I was telling you about,’ Dec said, working to cover his disappointment.

Knightly turned to Joel with wide eyes. ‘The one with—’

‘The one with the cross,’ Dec said.

The glow in Knightly’s face had suddenly drained away to nothing. ‘You must tell me about it. You must show it to me.’

‘He doesn’t have it any more,’ Dec said. ‘He lost it in Romania.’

‘You were in Romania?’ Knightly marvelled, as if Romania were galaxies away. ‘And you actually destroyed a—’ He caught himself before he went any further. Flushing furiously, he said, ‘Not being a professional at the job, I mean. You’re lucky to be alive.’

Joel was searching for an answer when the faint sound his sharp senses had picked up a few seconds earlier distracted him and he glanced towards the library’s bay windows. It was the rhythmic thump of rotor blades in the distance, growing steadily louder.

It wasn’t long before the noise entered the range of human hearing and Dec followed Joel’s gaze with a frown. Within a few seconds it had grown dramatically louder, and now it was filling the room. The window panes began to thrum in their frames. Dazzling white light shone through the bay windows and illuminated the bookcases at the far end of the library.

‘Jesus,’ Dec said, shading his eyes. ‘He’s a bit close, so he is.’

‘Must be the coastguard helicopter,’ Knightly said. ‘They sometimes fly over.’

‘It’s not flying over,’ Joel said. ‘It’s coming in to land.’