Lady of the Shades (31 page)

Gardiner walked me from the glade when he was finished talking. He made a phone call, gave our position, then sat with me on a stone wall to wait. We said little. When the car arrived, the
driver gazed curiously at me but didn’t ask who I was. Gardiner told him to find a town with a train station, where he left me to make my own way north. ‘Remember,’ he said in
parting, ‘you don’t tell anyone and you never come back. This is my riddle now. I’ll let people think Dash killed Mikis, but I know the truth and I won’t forget. If you show
your face in London again, you’re dead.’

It wasn’t an idle threat, but I can’t let the matter drop. If my investigation draws me back to the Big Smoke, I’ll take my chances where Bond Gardiner’s concerned.

I bought a ticket at the station, found a quiet carriage when the train pulled in and settled back to brood. That’s where I am now, watching the countryside whip by, trying to make sense
of what I was told. Gardiner promised to call ahead to the hospital and clear my visit, but even if he didn’t, they won’t be able to keep me out. Nothing will bar my way. I have to see.
I have to
know
.

Gardiner released me after dropping his bombshell. He stepped aside, a look of shame contorting his features. By that shame, I knew he wasn’t lying.

‘She
isn’t dead
?’ I croaked when I was able to make more than a thin gasping cry. ‘What the fuck is that supposed to mean?’

He didn’t reply straight away. He was disgusted with himself for revealing the truth. He waved me away, and although I wanted to grab him by the throat and choke answers out of him, I said
nothing while he took deep breaths and sought control. Finally he calmed down enough to continue, but he couldn’t get through the story without mauling his book of matches until it was pulp
in his hands.

‘There should never have been anything between Andeanna and me,’ he began. ‘The attraction was there a long time, but we were loyal to Mikis and knew the dangers of betraying
him. For years we resisted. We spent a lot of time alone – Mikis trusted me with her – but we never acted on our feelings. Until . . .

‘She made the first move. We were watching TV one night. Without warning, she leant over and kissed me. I should have pulled away, but I just sat there, stunned. She took off her blouse
and . . . ’ He blushed. ‘We needn’t relive
all
the details. We did what we shouldn’t have, regretted it the next morning, swore never to do it again.’

‘But you did,’ I interjected quietly.

His blush deepened. ‘Yeah. We planned our encounters carefully, usually when Mikis was out of the country and we had the house to ourselves. A few other times we met when Andeanna was
visiting her parents. We took no chances. I think we could have carried on indefinitely if . . . ’ He faltered to a stop.

‘If the Turk hadn’t found out?’ I said, to get him going again.

He shook his head. ‘Mikis never knew. You think I’d be alive if he’d rumbled us? Our friendship wouldn’t have mattered. He’d have killed me.’

‘So what happened?’ I asked.

‘Madness,’ he said, and stirred uncomfortably.

I
stir uncomfortably on the train as I recall this part of the conversation and think about my destination. I’ve only been to an institute for the clinically
insane once before, researching for
Soul Vultures
. It was a depressing experience. On the back of that visit, I cut out the scenes that were going to be set in an asylum. I wish I could
cut out the forthcoming scenes as easily.

‘I only realized later that our affair was a by-product of Andeanna’s breakdown,’ Gardiner told me dully. ‘She was strong, not afraid of anything, but
Mikis slowly crushed her. He loved her, but he was callous. He was a man of violence, the same as you and me. He let the brutality of his work spill over into his private life. He mellowed in the
latter years of their marriage and tried to make amends – that’s why she was allowed to visit her parents – but it was too late. Later than any of us imagined.

‘You know Mikis cheated on her. Andeanna knew too. She never said anything, but she knew.’

‘What does that have to do with –’ I began to ask.

‘Her name was Christina Whiteoak, wife of Arnold. Know him?’ I shook my head, bewildered. ‘Arnold Whiteoak was a munitions baron, a total mercenary. He didn’t care who he
sold to. That’s what did for him in the end — he spent so long playing one group off against the other that eventually . . .

‘But this isn’t about him. It’s about his beautiful wife, Christina. She had an affair with Mikis. It was the only time he let his lust get in the way of business. Arnold
Whiteoak was a shark, far more powerful than Mikis. If he’d found out, he would have washed the streets with their blood, and Mikis knew it. But he couldn’t stop.

‘Mikis and Andeanna were due to spend Christmas and New Year in Scotland. They’d been a couple of times before. Mikis loved the kilts, the bagpipes and the rivers of whisky. He used
to say he was a Celt at heart. That year he made an excuse to return from the festivities early. Stayed for Christmas dinner, then tore down to London. Told Andeanna he had urgent business to
attend to. That shouldn’t have surprised her – he often cut holidays short – but this time she was suspicious. She followed him.

‘She hit London on the twenty-seventh without telling anybody. Caught a train, then got a cab home from the station. She must have guessed what Mikis was up to, but whether she went in
there intending to do what she did, or if it was a spur-of-the-moment reaction, I don’t know. I doubt she knew herself.’

It’s late when I reach Darlington. Dark, wet, miserable. As I step down from the train, my eight ghosts – a seething Mikis Menderes joined the parade while I was en
route – drift out along the platform in a crescent and smile at me smugly, a cool welcoming committee. I’m back to not being sure if they’re real or figments of my imagination. I
could do without that distraction at the moment – I’m tense enough – but since I can’t disperse or claim to understand the shades, I jam my head down and push through, doing
my best to ignore them, looking for the taxi rank.

The hospital isn’t what I was expecting. A modern building backing on to an industrial estate, no signs out front to reveal its true purpose apart from a small plaque over the door and an
ambulance parked in the drive.

‘You want me to stick around to take you back?’ the driver asks as I step out.

‘I’m not sure,’ I mumble.

‘I’m only saying ’cos it might take a while to get a lad out here this late. It’ll cost you a fair bit if I wait, but if I don’t, you might be stuck here longer
than you’d like.’

I shove a handful of notes into his eager fist. ‘Is that enough?’

‘Oh, aye,’ he says. ‘That’ll keep me till morning if necessary.’

I walk to the door, stare nervously at the buzzer, then press it. Moments later I’m stepping inside to face the living ghost of an undead past.

‘It took her a while to find them.’ Gardiner’s face was dark as death, defying the glittering beams of the early-morning sun. ‘They were in one of the
spare bedrooms. Mikis told me, years later, that every door on the landing had been opened. She must have gone from room to room, opening the doors, checking, not closing them, moving on.

‘We never found out where she got the knife. Maybe she bought it on the way home, or lugged it down from Scotland. I often imagine her sitting on that train with a bag on her lap, the
knife inside, hand in the bag, clutching the handle, focused on what she was going to do. Her right hand was all cut up. She’d been gripping the blade, either on the journey or while she
stalked the halls. I don’t think she felt the pain. The madness would have numbed her to it.’

He stopped, and his fingers squeezed around the remains of the book of matches. I could guess what was coming and was almost as apprehensive as Gardiner.

‘She found them in the end. Mikis felt a draught when the door opened, but he took no notice. He thought he’d forgotten to shut it properly. That was almost ten minutes before she
screamed, so she must have been standing there all that time, watching, listening, grasping the knife.’

I wanted him to stop. Despite having forced the issue, risked my life, killed or been instrumental in the murder of four people, I wanted him to leave the story unfinished. I almost asked him to
stop but my lips wouldn’t form the words.

‘Mikis got drunk a couple of years ago and told me that her scream was the most chilling thing he’d ever heard. He said it was like the whistle of a steam engine, only filled with
hate. He was crying. Said it was a sound he’d never been able to block out. It echoed in his ears still, often driving him to the verge of suicide. If not for Greygo, he would have topped
himself years ago.

‘Christina was on top at the time – another detail Mikis only revealed long after the event – and she spun around when she heard the scream. She saw Andeanna framed in the
doorway, one hand held to her head, the other hidden by her side. For a moment Christina stared at her, bewildered. Then she laughed.’

Gardiner dropped the destroyed book of matches, fished in his pockets for another, tore it open, lit a match and continued, letting it burn down to his fingers, not flinching when it quenched
itself on his hard, callused flesh.

‘If she hadn’t laughed, it might have stopped with the scream. But this was Andeanna’s house. Her home. Her husband. And here was this woman, this slut, fucking Mikis. And she
was
laughing
.’

Gardiner lit another match, held it up and nodded at the flame. ‘Andeanna flared into life. She moved so fast, Mikis barely saw what happened. She raced across the room. Christinawas still
laughing. Andeanna sliced through the bitch’s breasts with the knife, then whipped it across her throat.

‘She didn’t stop there,’ Gardiner said as the match burnt out. ‘She carried on hacking. Mikis lay on the bed, staring at the women, his body and face covered with blood,
unable to raise a hand, knowing it wouldn’t have mattered if he had. It was over after the second cut. The rest was mere butchery.’

‘
Mere butchery
,’ I whisper to myself as I wait for Dr Jan Tressman. A young nurse has asked three times if I’d like anything to drink. She looks
worried. Maybe it’s my appearance. I’m not sure what I look like, but I’m not my normal self. I can’t remember the last time I shaved or washed. I spent several hours in the
trunk of a car. There are bloodstains on my trousers from Dash’s death spray. I’ve had my world turned upside down, inside out, ripped to pieces and tacked back together with the glue
of nightmarish madness. I’m not, I think it’s safe to say, at my dapper, dashing best.

‘Mikis expected to die,’ Gardiner continued. ‘Once Andeanna had finished with Christina, he was sure she’d attack him. He lay there anticipating death,
doing nothing to avert it. He was hers for the taking. But she spared him.

‘She stared at him hungrily, gripping the knife, her chest heaving. Maybe the fact that he made no move to defend himself saved him. Perhaps she was waiting for him to raise a hand or
cringe or . . . laugh. But he just lay there, gazing at her desperately, and finally she got off the bed, walked to a corner, sank to her haunches and started to croon.’

‘What did she sing?’ I asked.

Gardiner looked at me incredulously. ‘How the fuck do I know?’ he roared. ‘Does it matter?’

‘Just curious,’ I replied, stung by his reaction.

‘Why don’t we find this mystic of yours and ask if she knows? Perhaps she has a spectral CD player.’ He shook his head. ‘What a dumb fucking question.

‘Anyway, she was
crooning
. Mikis couldn’t lie there all night, much as he’d have liked to. He got to his feet, checked to make sure Christina was dead, then edged past
Andeanna and rushed for the phone to call the police.’

‘I’d have thought they were the last people he’d want to involve.’

‘They were. But he was so shaken, he didn’t know what he was doing. He was two digits in before he stopped to consider the consequences. Calling the coppers would have been the end
of both of them. Andeanna would have been carted away, taken into custody and subjected to the full process of the law. Details would have leaked to the press, Christina’s name would have
emerged, Arnold Whiteoak would have come gunning for Mikis.

‘Going public was out of the question. Mikis put the phone down, sat naked on the floor and thought it through. His survival instincts kicked in and he rang me. He couldn’t handle it
alone. I was the only person he trusted. He knew I wouldn’t milk the fuck-up for all it was worth, or hold it over his head for the rest of his life.

‘He didn’t tell me what happened over the phone, only said it was an emergency. When I walked in and saw Christina and Andeanna, I knew we were in deep shit. I wanted to rush to
Andeanna and comfort her, but I managed to stop myself. Mikis would have known there was something between us if I had. The state he was in, he’d have throttled me with his bare hands there
and then.

‘Mikis had dressed, but he hadn’t washed off the blood. He gave me a rundown of what had happened, explained his basic plan and asked for my input.’ Gardiner cracked a
half-smile. ‘
Input
,’ he repeated with a snort.

‘What was the plan?’ I asked.

‘Kill two birds with one stone,’ Gardiner replied. ‘If it had just been Christina, we’d have dumped her body and prayed that Arnold never found out. But . . . ’

He stalled, so I said it for him. ‘There was Andeanna.’

‘Right. As much as he loved her, Mikis couldn’t let her walk. We could see that she’d passed way beyond reason. We couldn’t help her. There was only one other solution
— we had to kill her.’

A middle-aged, grey-haired, chubby doctor steps into the waiting room and casts an eye around. ‘Mr Sieveking?’ he asks, already stepping forward to shake my hand.
‘I’m Jan Tressman.’

‘Doctor,’ I greet him.

‘Please, call me Jan.’ He studies my face and clothes. If the nurse didn’t spot the bloodstains on my trousers, Tressman does, and his lips tighten. ‘Do you need
assistance, Mr Sieveking?’