Department 19: Battle Lines (23 page)

Panic exploded through Albert Harker. He had been prepared for the fact that it might take some time to track his old acquaintance down, but he had not allowed for the fact that Johnny Supernova might no longer be alive. The journalist was central to his plans, to everything he intended to achieve, to all the good he meant to do for the world.

Calm down
, he told himself.
Calm down. His flat is empty, which means all his possessions have gone somewhere. There’ll be next of kin.

Someone will know.

He tore open the first of the letters and scanned its contents. A smile of pure relief lit up his face as he read, his eyes settling briefly on the name at the bottom of the letter, then on the address printed at the top. He read it a second time, then slipped it into the pocket of the overcoat he had pulled through the smashed window of a tailor’s shop near Liverpool Street, and headed back out into the early London morning.

Tom Clarke parked his car in front of the house he was going to spend the next twenty years of his life paying for, turned off the BMW’s engine, and sighed deeply.

It had been an awful day and he wanted nothing more than to lie in the bath for an hour while his wife put their kids to bed, then open a bottle of wine. His secretary had phoned in sick, an inconvenience he knew he had no right to be annoyed about, given Janet’s impeccable attendance history and the generally exceptional quality of her work. But today had been one of those days; there had been two client conferences before lunch and a partners’ meeting afterwards, and without her he had been woefully unprepared for all three. He knew it wasn’t her fault, but that didn’t stop him blaming her.

He climbed out of the car, locked it, and crunched across the drive to his front door. The house was Bonnie’s dream home: a huge, detached, four-bedroom on one of the best streets in Hampstead that they had bought the year he made full partner. It had been a reach even then, but they were surviving, more or less, and as long as big companies kept buying little companies and needing lawyers to help them, they would probably continue to do so. But it was tight, and he had come to see the house in precisely the opposite way that Bonnie viewed it: as a millstone, a weight round his neck that threatened constantly to drag them down.

Tom turned his key in the lock and pushed open the door. Instantly, he could hear what had become the regular soundtrack to his life: James and Alec shouting over one another, as Bonnie tried half-heartedly to calm them down.

He put his briefcase on the table in the house’s wide hallway and walked into the living room. The chaos was familiar; a bright, garish DVD boomed deafeningly from the television as James and Alec rolled and wrestled on the thick carpet, managing to somehow avoid the huge number of toys that had been scattered across the entirety of the room. Bonnie was sitting in her favourite chair, beaming at their sons with such inane pride that it made Tom want to vomit. He was about to say hello when the doorbell rang and he headed back into the hallway, grateful for the distraction. The outline of a dark shape was visible through the frosted glass of the door. Tom turned the handle and pulled it open, concluding that a chat with Jehovah’s Witnesses or some door-to-door charity worker was a far more pleasant prospect than going into the living room with his family.

The door was barely halfway open when a fist looped through the gap and crashed into Tom Clarke’s nose. It broke with a loud crunch; blood sprayed up and out as he staggered backwards. A bolt of pure agony sliced through the centre of his forehead, his feet tangled, and he fell heavily to the floor, his hands going to his face as crimson pumped out between his fingers.

“Honey?” called Bonnie. “Are you all right?”

Tom’s throat worked convulsively and he fought for breath as the dark figure stepped silently into his house, locking the door behind him. He tried to focus, tried to get a clear look at the person who was invading his home, but his eyes were full of blood and tears. The figure walked past him without even looking down; Tom tried to reach out and grab its ankle, but it kicked his feeble grip away and disappeared into the living room.

A second later the screaming started.

The high-pitched noise hit Tom like a bucket of cold water, instantly clearing his head and galvanising his limbs. He rolled over on to his stomach, forced himself first to his knees then up on to unsteady legs, and staggered for the living-room door. He lurched through the open space and saw something from his worst nightmares made real: Bonnie was lying on the floor, screaming her head off, as a man with a terrible smile on his face stood over her, holding their sons by their throats. The boys’ faces were twisted with fear, and Tom could see that James had wet himself; the dark patch on his pyjamas reached almost down to his knees.

“Don’t hurt them,” shouted Tom, his voice cracking and muffled by the blood that was running down his throat. “Please. We have money and jewellery. Just please don’t hurt them.”

“Mr Clarke?” asked the man, his voice well-spoken and remarkably calm. “Thomas Clarke?”

“That’s me,” replied Tom, staring at the stranger. He was wearing an expensive overcoat over a suit and shoes that would not have looked out of place in the office where Tom went to work every day. His hair was thinning and his skin was pale, but his eyes danced with terrible lividity.

“We have business to discuss, you and I,” said the stranger. “Private business. I would assume that such a lavish house as this is equipped with a cellar?”

“We have a cellar,” said Tom, his voice trembling. Bonnie was staring up at the boys, her eyes wide and frantic. James and Alec were looking at him with terrible faith in their eyes, the unquestioning belief that their daddy would make everything all right.

“Is there a phone down there?” asked the stranger. “Or any other means of communication? Don’t lie to me.”

“No,” said Tom. “There’s wine and our safe. There’s money—”

“I’m not interested in your wealth, Mr Clarke,” interrupted the stranger. “I’m here for a higher purpose than petty burglary. If you suggest otherwise again, I’ll make you choose which one of these two fine young boys I kill. Maybe that will make you pay attention.”

Bonnie shrieked in terror, and James and Alec began to thrash and squirm in the stranger’s grip. He looked utterly unmoved by the reaction his words had caused.

“OK,” said Tom, holding his hands out wide in a gesture of utter submission. “Whatever you say. Just tell me what you want.”

“The cellar,” said the stranger. “Does it lock?”

“Yes,” replied Tom.

“From the inside or the outside?”

“Outside.”

“Excellent. Where is the door?”

“In the hall.”

“Mr Clarke,” said the stranger. “I want you to go and open the door. Then nice and quietly, nice and peacefully, we’re going to lock your family in the cellar. Then you and I are going to talk. Is that all clear?”

“Yes,” replied Tom. “It’s clear.” His heart was racing and his stomach was churning, but the thought of putting his wife and sons in the cellar, putting at least some distance between them and the stranger, ignited a flickering flame of hope.

Maybe they’ll get out of this
,
he thought.
Even if I don’t.

“Good,” replied the stranger. “Before we go, I’d like you and your wife to empty your pockets. Just in case you happen to have any mobile phones you forgot to tell me about. I’d like you to do that now, please.”

Tom immediately fished his mobile phone from the inner pocket of his jacket and threw it down on to the cream leather sofa. He dug into the pockets of his trousers, pulled out his wallet and the entry card for his office, and tossed them down beside the phone, praying that the single remaining item wouldn’t be visible through the material of his suit.

“Thank you,” said the stranger, before turning his attention to Bonnie. “Mrs Clarke?”

Tom watched as his wife, who was now weeping steadily, emptied the pockets of her jeans. They contained her mobile phone, chewing gum, and nothing else.

“Good,” said the stranger. “Lead the way then, Mr Clarke. And please, for your family’s sake, don’t do anything stupid.”

Tom nodded, then walked slowly out of the living room, casting a final desperate glance at his sons as he did so. The cellar door stood near the end of the hall, just before the kitchen; it was plain wood, locked by a single sliding bolt. He slid it back, hauled open the door and stood stiffly beside it. A moment later Bonnie emerged from the living room and came towards him, her face wearing the look of a woman who is trapped in a nightmare from which she has no idea how to wake up. She walked unsteadily down the first few steps, then turned, waiting for her boys. The stranger carried them down the hallway as though they were weightless, and put them down before their father.

“Go with your mother, boys,” said Tom, in a strangled tone. “Go on now.”

James and Alec ran through the cellar door and flung themselves against their mother; she almost overbalanced, but managed to right herself. Then the three of them were sobbing, clutching at each other and whispering incoherently.

“Close the door, Mr Clarke,” said the stranger. “If you told me the truth, then they will be quite safe down there.”

Tom pushed the door slowly closed; the last things he saw before it clicked into place were the faces of his family, staring pleadingly up at him from the darkness.

“Do you mind if I sit?” asked the stranger. Tom had led them back into the living room as soon as the cellar door was bolted, and had taken a seat on the sofa, as instructed.

“No,” he said, slowly. “That’s fine.”

“Thank you,” said the stranger, settling himself into the armchair that Bonnie spent the majority of her evenings in. Tom hoped he might get to see his wife sitting there again. But, as he looked at the stranger’s pale, smiling face, he didn’t think the chances were good.

“Now,” said the stranger, casually crossing one leg over the other, “I am very interested, Mr Clarke, in the death of a man who went publicly by the name of Johnny Supernova. Particularly the circumstances of his death and any will he may have left behind. Would you kindly tell me everything you know about these matters?”

Tom stared blankly at the stranger.
This
was why he had broken into his home? Not for money, or jewels, or even for the information that actually
was
valuable, on oil futures and offshore cash dumps? But to ask about Johnny Supernova?

“It was a heroin overdose,” he replied. “He died in a flat in Clerkenwell. He didn’t leave a will.”

“What a waste,” said the stranger, shaking his head sadly. “Although I can’t say I’m entirely surprised. What about family? Did anyone survive him?”

“There’s a sister,” replied Tom. “She didn’t want anything to do with him. The last piece he wrote was about her. It wasn’t flattering to say the least. Apparently, she refused to lend him money shortly before he died.”

“What about his possessions? His personal effects?”

“Everything is being held in trust,” replied Tom. “It’s being sold next month to pay off his credit cards and settle a number of unresolved advances. There was only a single specified bequest, delivered through me to an old friend of his.”

“What was the bequest?” asked the stranger, suddenly sitting forward.

“An envelope,” replied Tom. “A tape of an interview, a transcript, and a folder of notes.”

“Did you read them?”

“I did.”

“What was it?”

“Nonsense,” said Tom. “Kid’s stuff, about vampires and secret agencies.”

“Who was the interview with?”

“I don’t remember,” replied Tom.

“Was it Harker?” asked the stranger. “Albert Harker?”

Tom stared, as his memory jogged into life. “How do you know that?” he asked, slowly.

The stranger smiled. “It was the only interview I’ve ever given, Mr Clarke. It sticks in the mind.”

“My God,” said Tom, his eyes widening. “Oh my—”

Albert Harker’s eyes bloomed a terrible glowing crimson and he slid out of his seat with a speed that defied reason. He gripped Tom Clarke by the throat, cutting off his words, then lifted the squirming, struggling lawyer into the air as though it was the easiest thing in the world.

“Who did he leave the envelope to?” asked the vampire, drawing Tom forward until their faces were only millimetres apart. “Who has the tape now?”

“McKenna,” spluttered Tom. His head was starting to pound as Harker’s fingers cut off the oxygen supply to his brain. “Kevin… McKenna… He’s a… journalist… for
The…
Globe
.” Panic swept through his body, filling him with a terror like nothing he’d ever known, and he dug his hand into his trouser pocket, his eyes wide and frantic.

“Thank you,” said Albert Harker, breathing out heavily. “Thank you very much, Mr Clarke. You have been most helpful.”

He was about to drop the lawyer on to his sofa when Tom Clarke pulled out his car key, and buried it in his eye.

The pain was enormous, bursting through his head like a mushroom cloud. Harker threw back his head, feeling his eyeball rip as the key tore through its soft surface, and howled at the living-room ceiling. Half his vision was instantly gone, a dark red cloud in its place; Harker dropped the lawyer and clamped his hands to his face, gripping the skin as if he could somehow squeeze out the pain. His head screamed with hurt and anger; as he tried to clear it, he heard a rough, scrabbling sound and forced himself to open his remaining eye.

Tom Clarke was crawling out of the living-room door, dragging himself determinedly towards the hallway. Harker bellowed with rage and lurched across the room, yellow fluid spilling from his ruined eye and pattering to the carpet as he reached down and took hold of the back of Clarke’s neck. The lawyer screamed, struggling against the vampire’s grip. Harker bore down, lifting the man to his feet as he kicked and flailed, squeezing his neck with both hands. He dug his fingers into the man’s flesh, sending blood spilling from the lawyer’s throat and down his arms. Clarke’s eyes widened; he opened his mouth and let out a silent scream of pain as the fingers pushed deeper, before the vampire jerked his hands towards the ceiling with an almighty cry of fury.