I had to smile. I do love it when a case works out for the best.
* * *
I went back down into the garage. The Bentley was waiting patiently, right where I’d left her. I contacted Kate to tell her I’d resolved the situation. Without major bloodshed, for once.
“You have to come home, Eddie,” said Kate. “Right now.”
“Oh, come on,” I said. “I agreed to help the family out on just the one case. What’s so damned urgent?”
“Come home, Eddie,” she said. “Please. There’s been a death.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Good-bye, Uncle Jack
And so I came home, for the Armourer’s funeral.
I drove the Bentley hard, following the shortest route through the side dimensions that the on-board computers could come up with. I kept my foot pressed down, my hands clenched tight on the steering wheel, not stopping for anything, and the old car smashed through world after world like so many curtains in stage plays I had no interest in watching. Through a place where mountains sang to one another, to another where great swarms of multicoloured manta rays swam through the sky, diving in and out of the clouds. A world where the trees walked was replaced by another where rainbows burst up out of the ground like fountains under pressure. Purple skies, green skies, dark skies, studded with blazing stars in insane patterns. I had no eyes and no time and no care for any of them. They were just things I had to get through, things that stood between me and getting home. The last of the spatial dimensions was suddenly shouldered aside by a great blast of familiar light, of brilliant Summer sunshine; as I returned at last to the world I knew.
I reappeared inside the Drood Hall grounds, just past the closed front gates, burning along the path at such speed that I sent showers of gravel flying in all directions. I finally eased up on the accelerator and hit the brake, and the Bentley slewed dangerously back and forth for several heart-stopping moments before I got it under control again. I continued on up the long entrance drive at a more civilised speed, and pulled out my mobile phone. I needed to talk to Molly. She’d spelled my phone a while back, so I could always be sure of reaching her, no matter where in the world or out of it she might be. She took her own sweet time answering, just to make it clear she wasn’t always at my beck and call. She never liked being interrupted when she was off on her own. But we had promised each other long ago that no matter what was happening in our lives we would always take each other’s calls.
“What is it, Eddie?” Molly said finally. “Can’t it wait? I’m busy. Seriously busy.”
“I need you to come back to the Hall, Molly. Right now.”
“What? You have got to be kidding. Why in hell would I want to do that?”
“The Armourer is dead.”
“Oh, Eddie.” Her voice changed in a moment. “Of course, sweetie. Don’t you worry. I’ll be right with you.”
Her voice cut off. I put the phone away and drove on. I rounded the last great curve and brought the Bentley screeching to a halt right in front of the main entrance. Molly was already standing there, waiting for me. I shut down the engine, shrugged out of the seat belts, and then just sat there, for a long moment. Breathing hard. It took real strength to summon up the determination to get myself out of the car. Because once I did that, I was admitting it was all real. That I had come home because Uncle Jack was gone. But I did it; because I knew Uncle Jack required it of me. The moment I stepped away from the Bentley, Molly was there in my arms. Pressing up against me, her cheek against my chest, holding me tight.
I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t. I held on to her just as tightly. The only thing left in my life that I could depend on.
After a while, we let go of each other and stood back. I managed a small smile for Molly, to show her I was okay. Even though I wasn’t. She looked searchingly into my face, and then just nodded. We didn’t say anything. There’d be time for talk later. For now, there were things we had to