Murder in Time (23 page)

Abdi clapped both hands to his head. More temper. He stamped around, shooting out orders in – whatever language it was. Somali, presumably.

His men slid out of the room.

Abdi towered over Ellie. ‘Why did you have to poke your nose in, eh? Only see what you've done, now. I hadn't taken your interference into account. You can't go home till we're safely away. You must see that.'

Mikey looked around him. ‘Is this your house?'

Abdi mopped his forehead. ‘Of course. And yours, now.'

Mikey shook his head. ‘This is not my home. You wanted me to see it, and now that I have, I wish to return to my mother.'

‘You can forget all that. Your future is with me, and not with the woman who bore you. In a few hours' time we'll be on our way, and you need never see her again.'

Mikey sighed. ‘I'll make you regret it, if you don't send me home straight away.'

An indulgent smile from Abdi. ‘Yes, yes, of course you are a little bit upset. I will have some food sent up for you, and a change of clothes. Now, I will leave you while I make the final arrangements for our journey. Be ready to leave in two hours' time.'

‘And me?' said Ellie. ‘My husband will call the police if I don't return by supper time.'

‘Who cares about him? Anyway, he won't have a clue where you are. I'll phone when we reach our destination, and my men will release you then. What a nuisance you are, woman!'

Mikey caught Ellie's eye. Did he really wink at her?

She kept her face straight.

Abdi made as if to embrace Mikey, caught the stench of the baby and recoiled. With a handkerchief over his mouth, he left the room as one of his men arrived with a pile of soft hand towels and some safety-pins. ‘Bathroom …' he indicated, and fled.

Mikey went to the door, opened it, and closed it again. ‘Mrs Quicke, would you like to use the bathroom while I explore?'

Ellie hoisted up the sleeping baby and took him through the bedroom into the bathroom. Everything glittered. She wondered if the taps really were made of gold. No, they'd be gold-plated, wouldn't they? She washed Evan down and, in lieu of proper nappies, pinned some soft hand-towels around him. He woke up, yawning. Eyes bright, moving around. He liked the gold of the taps.

Ellie used the facilities herself. She took off her coat and sponged down the brown stain the baby had made, before taking him back into the sitting room. Some clothing had been delivered for Mikey. Good quality. It looked as if it was the right size, too. Abdi had probably arranged for a complete wardrobe to be made ready for him.

Ellie looked, but there was no landline phone in sight. How on earth were they going to escape?

Mikey was wandering around the room, twitching back curtains, clicking side lamps on and off. She opened her mouth to speak, and he hushed her. He was up to something, definitely.

Ellie shushed. She damped down panic. She told herself that Mikey wasn't panicking, so she mustn't, either. It would do absolutely no good to start screaming and shouting to be let out. Mikey was expecting her to be calm. After all, he might be able to think of something. He'd certainly learned a lot about electricity and plumbing last year when a neighbouring house had been undergoing conversion to a hotel. He'd forever been over there when he should have been doing his homework.

Besides which, if she gave way to hysteria, Evan would get upset and start screaming, and that would not be a good idea. Not at all.

She walked the baby around the room. There were two long windows overlooking the street. She took Evan to look out of the nearest one, parting the net curtains so that he could look out. They were on the third floor in a terrace of beautiful houses. Four storeys? Five? The drop outside this window went down and down into a basement. She spent a moment or two wondering how she'd manage to climb down a rope from that window – that is, always supposing she had a rope, which she hadn't – and especially with Evan in her arms. She concluded that, as she'd never been much of a gymnast, Abdi was correct in thinking she'd not be able to get out that way.

There were trees in the street and topiary in tubs outside the porticoed front doors. She let the net curtains drop and fingered the heavy brocaded inner curtains which were of silk damask and looked expensive. They were double-lined and looped up with tasselled cords. Each window was alarmed. What was the time now? Her watch was still stopped. She really must get it seen to. How soon would Thomas or Vera realize they were missing, and what would they do about it?

Mikey went into the bathroom, but didn't take any of his new clothes in with him.

Someone – a woman who looked to be a servant – arrived with a tray holding tea things; tea, milk, ice cream, cakes and sandwiches. Also some small bowls containing gooey-looking foodstuffs. Ellie helped herself to a cuppa and a sandwich. Evan looked interested, so she let him have half a sandwich. Mikey returned, closing the bathroom door behind him. He refused sustenance with a shake of his head.

‘Can I help?' asked Ellie.

‘I can manage. There's no one outside our door. I suppose they think it's not necessary since we can't escape through the windows, and there's so many of them downstairs. There's no fire extinguishers on the landing, but I expect they've got some somewhere. I had hoped there'd be some kind of Internet connection here so that we could phone out for help, but there isn't one. I expect they've got Wi-Fi, but even if I can find a computer somewhere I don't know the code, so I can't use that. I'll have to try something else.'

He removed the brightest of the side lamps from a side table and plugged it into a socket beside one of the windows. He switched it on and placed scrunched-up toilet paper over the bulb. Then he draped one of the net curtains over all. And waited.

Ellie fed Evan sips of milk and tried out the contents of the little dishes by dipping her finger in and tasting – whatever it was. This one was honey. Or very like it. Honey and yogurt? Evan could have some of that. ‘Yum yum,' she said to the baby, who smacked his lips and opened his mouth for more.

‘Ah,' said Mikey, pleased with himself. A spiral of smoke arose from the lamp, and then came a flicker of fire, darting up the net curtain.

‘Clever old you,' said Ellie, looking round for her coat and handbag.

‘This should set off the sprinkler system. I think we should try to vacate this room as soon as possible, don't you? Where's your coat?'

‘I think I left it in the bathroom.'

‘I'll fetch it.'

When Mikey returned with her coat, he was careful to shut the bathroom door after himself. She noticed that the carpet around the door to the bathroom had turned black. Good. Now, where had she put her handbag? One really did not wish to be caught in a fire, did one? Cue for a hasty exit. She said, ‘I don't know what happened to the baby buggy, do you?'

‘It's still down in the basement, with my school bag. Let me hold Evan while you get your coat on.'

She handed the baby over and got into her coat. ‘I wish they'd managed to find him a dummy.'

The fire was licking its lips as it ran up the net and started on the heavy curtains.

Mikey eyed the window which he'd not set fire to. ‘Suppose we set the house alarms off before we go?' Grinning, he picked up a spindly-legged chair and took a run at the window, only to rebound. Bang!

‘Is it toughened glass?' said Ellie. ‘It doesn't look like it. Try again.' Evan didn't like sudden, loud noises. He stiffened and began to wail.

‘Ha!' Mikey smashed the chair against the window again. This time he succeeded in breaking the glass, and the house alarm went off.

‘Well done, you!' said Ellie, just as the sprinkler system went into action. ‘Help! We're going to get wet!'

Ducking their heads, they ran for the door.

Ellie hoisted Evan to her shoulder, hoping he wouldn't be sick when he burped. He didn't like being bumped about like this. He was going to start yelling any minute. He was fighting to get off her. It was difficult to hold him fast. She mustn't drop him. Whatever would Diana say …?

Mikey held the door open on to the landing for her, and left it open. ‘To help the fire along …'

There was no one in sight on the landing, and the yammering of the alarm covered their retreat. Mikey peered over the banister. He shouted in her ear, ‘We'll have to take the stairs. The alarm might stop the lift working.'

‘Three storeys. Or is it four?' Ellie groaned, shifted Evan to a more comfortable position, and gave her handbag to Mikey to carry so that she had a hand free for the banister as they descended. Evan had had enough. Just as he was starting on a nice meal, he'd been roughly carried away. He added his voice to the din.

The yammering of the alarm continued. Panicky shouts came from below. They'd be running around downstairs, trying to locate the source of the alarm. The fuse box should tell them which floor was in trouble. Would the sprinkler system also say which room was affected?

Third floor, or was it the second? Ellie shifted Evan from left to right shoulder. They should have realized that trying to cage Mikey was like trying to cage the wind.

Was that someone pounding up the stairs? Yes. Oh dear …

Mikey had heard, too. He opened the first door they came to and beckoned her to follow him inside. The room was empty. It was an expensively furnished sitting room, complete with a huge television set, stereo equipment … and a laptop.

As Mikey closed the door someone ran past them, going up the stairs. Shouting.

Mikey grinned. ‘Bang, bang: you're dead!' He darted across to the laptop, picked it up, held it high over his head, and brought it down with a crash on the edge of the table.

Ellie gasped. Evan jerked in her arms and howled.

Mikey did it again. There was a rattling sound. Mikey threw the ruined laptop on the floor.

Ellie opened the door a crack, to see a second man running up the stairs past them, eyes wild, shouting to someone upstairs … who shouted back down. They'd found the fire and the broken window, then? Had they also discovered that their prisoners had escaped? She shut the door, breathing hard. Would they search this floor next or assume they'd gone out of the window?

Mikey said, ‘Hold on a mo.' He opened drawers in the desk, searching for something. He took out a tube of … superglue? And squeezed it into the power plug points and over the remote control for the television. Then threw the tube under the desk.

Ellie had the jitters. If Abdi caught them now …? ‘Hurry up!'

‘One more window, then!' This time he used the broken laptop to smash the window. Yet another alarm went off. Evan had quietened down momentarily, but this set him off again.

Ellie was on tenterhooks. ‘Come on!'

Mikey nodded. He cracked the door open an inch to look out, and signalled OK. They could hear shouts from above. The lift whined, passing them, going upwards. Dealing with the fire, or searching for the escapees?

They left the shelter of the room to descend the next flight of stairs. With caution, keeping to the wall so that they wouldn't be easily seen if someone glanced over the banister. More shouting from the top floor. They heard the lift descending. Someone had gone down for fire extinguishers? Or looking for the prisoners?

So, the fire hadn't put the lift out of service.

How long was it going to take before Abdi realized they were still in the building? Windows had been broken on two floors, and he might well suppose they'd gone out that way, if they'd found a rope – or tied bedclothes together … although Ellie had never thought that method of escape would be as easy as it sounded.

Down and down to the next landing. More shouting from below, echoed and answered from above. Which floor would they search next?

Ellie paused to catch her breath. Evan was unhappy, wriggling like mad, yelling in her ear. She shifted him to her other shoulder. He was making almost as much noise as the alarm.

Mikey gave her a look, assessing her strength, hiding impatience. If he'd been on his own, he'd probably have been out of the building before now. She knew she was holding him up. But he was a good lad. He realized she wasn't as nimble as he was, and he wasn't going to urge her to go faster, but she knew – and he knew – that at any minute …

The yammering continued. Ellie told herself that it couldn't be too difficult to isolate the fuse dealing with two different circuits and take them out of action … Or was it? She'd heard that you could have your alarms linked to the mains, which foiled burglars who thought they could cut off the alarm by removing a fuse or two. If this was so, what would it take to shut off the alarm? They'd have to shut off the electricity to the whole house. Would they know where the master switch might be? Perhaps that was what they were searching for, down below?

Down, down. Slowly. With care. The shouting continued. No one could hear what they said. The lift went up again.

If only Abdi didn't appear to block their retreat! More screaming from above. More advice shouted up from below. Surely, Abdi would come rushing up the stairs in a minute, to direct operations!

Mikey held up a hand at the top of the stairs leading down to the ground floor. A woman was screaming, down in the hall. Was she the one who'd brought up the refreshments? A man; no, a couple of men were shouting up the stairs, and others were answering back from above. Whatever language it was, it appeared they were not happy about the situation. Where was Abdi? Wrestling with circuit breakers or fuses or whatever?

Out in the street, searching for some indication of an escape?

Mikey signed for Ellie to stay put. She stayed. Mikey opened doors, one after the other. The noise was appalling. Evan didn't like it. He screwed up his eyes and threw himself around. Ellie tried to cover his ears with her free hand. She tried putting his head under her coat. That didn't work, either.