A werewolf?'
'Someone who thinks he's a werewolf,' Darcy shrugged. 'Or wants us to think it.' He relaxed a little, feeling pleasantly surprised that the Necroscope had got straight to the heart of the matter. Harry Keogh had always been precocious, of course, but there was a lot more than that to him. There was his history, too, his knowledge of the darker side of life.
'And we don't believe in werewolves, right?' (Was there a touch of sarcasm in the Necroscope's voice?)
'We're E-Branch,' Darcy went on the defensive anyway. 'We can't afford to simply disregard or disbelieve anything -not after what we've seen and what we know. But in this case, it's more that we'd like - '
' - That you'd like some proof? That you've simply got to know one way or the other? Because if this is the unthinkable, you can't let it go on?'
Again Darcy's shrug, a little nervous but in no way careless. Two years ago we wouldn't have turned a hair. But since then ...' He let it tail off, and of course Harry knew why. For since then there'd been the Necroscope and everything that went with him. Namely vampires! Upon a time, people hadn't believed in them either.
'But a werewolf is ... something else,' Harry was thoughtful now, his gaze sharper, less soulful. And staring at Darcy: 'You said you think these murders are the work of "someone who thinks he's a werewolf." But as you also pointed out, this is E-Branch. So what do you think?'
Now Darcy's face was grim, even gaunt-looking. His eyes, suddenly vacant, seemed to scan the past. 'It feels like only yesterday,' he answered. 'I can hardly believe it was - what, eighteen months ago?' Again Harry knew what Darcy was talking about: the Bodescu affair.
'I was in on most of it, down there in Devon,' Darcy went on. 'I saw ... saw what became of poor Peter Keen. Hel, I was the one who found him, or what was left of him! But you know, we never did make up our minds just what did that to him? Yulian Bodescu? Wel, maybe. Or was it that godawful dog of his, that Thing that was more than just a dog? I don't mind admiting, I still have nightmares about it, Harry, and I suppose I always wil. We thought we had Harkley House contained. Huh! How wrong can you be? Yulian escaped, and his bloody dog very nearly got out too! But that was only at the end, the finale. And what I've been asking myself ever since, is - '
' - I know,' the Necroscope cut him off again. 'You know how hard it is to kill such things. You're wondering if something - something like that dog, maybe? -might have escaped before you moved in for the kill, before you razed Harkley to the ground.'
The other nodded, then changed his mind and said, 'Wel, not realy. We were fairly wel satisfied that we nailed down everything that could be nailed down. But the Dragosani thing, then the Bodescu affair and al - the whole chain of events - seemed designed to make us aware that we espers aren't the only different things in creation. We're one side of the coin, yes, but for white there's black, and for good there has to be evil. We knew that, of course, but we weren't aware of the different bands of evil. I mean, we didn't know just how dark they could get.'
'So now that you know, what do you think? About this so-caled werewolf, I mean.'
'Personaly? It's like I said. I think, I hope, that he's a man - but only a man! A lunatic, affected by the moon at its ful, trying to murder as many policemen as he can before they get him.'
'But why policemen? Why should a "werewolf discriminate in that way? When his blood and the moon are up, surely a victim is a victim? That is, if our understanding of the "legend" of the beast is correct.'
'But that's why I think it's a man!' Darcy nodded. 'It's one of my reasons, at least; I mean quite apart from logic and commonsense telling me it's a man! This is someone who reasons and discriminates, someone who knows the police wil hunt him down. So if he must kill, who beter to take out than the ones who are looking for him, threatening him?'
Harry found himself interested, and no longer just because it was something to