Part 7 (1/2)
”That's it, then?” she said. Her voice came out weak and soft and she swallowed to make it hard again. ”That seemed awfully simple.”
Jack gave her a skewering glance before he hunched to examine the bones. He'd started to s.h.i.+ver again. ”Well, it wasn't, so sod off.”
”You can use that blanket on the back of the sofa if you like,” said Pete. Jack sneezed, and used a corner of the blanket to blow his nose.
”Cheers.” He pa.s.sed his hand over the bones, fingers splayed, once, twice, three times. ”Ah,” he said at last, the syllable acres from pleased.
”No good?” Pete deflated inwardly, s.p.a.ce containing the wild hope that Jack could repeat his magic with Bridget on the new missing children, that his pithy p.r.o.nouncement would roll forth and everything would be real and simple again, collapsing.
”It's b.l.o.o.d.y good,” said Jack. ”But you're not going to like it. Got a city map?”
Pete fetched the battered one from her desk, marked in several places with notes from old cases. Jack tried to unfold it with his s.h.i.+very fingers, managed it on the second try, and jabbed his finger at a spot near the heart of the city. ”The kids are there.”
Pete squinted to read ”Brompton Cemetery.”
”I know the area,” she said. ”Not too far from where I grew up, that.” She looked at Jack. ”You're sure?”
” 'Course I'm b.l.o.o.d.y sure,” Jack muttered. He sniffled and rubbed the back of his hand against his nose. His eyes were red-rimmed and every few seconds he s.h.i.+vered as though a winter wind were cutting his flesh, but his cheeks weren't as yellow and sick as they'd been half a day before, and his movements had more lifeless a listless marionette, more of the Jack she remembered. ”All right,” said Pete. She dug in her bag for her mobile and started to dial Ollie Heath. ”What's the part I'm not going to like?”
Jack made another finger-pa.s.s over the bones, and another breath of cold trailed up Pete's spine. ”There's black magic around the children,” said Jack. ”More specifically, them that make use of black magic. Sorcerers.”
Pete kept her expression composed. ”I think I can handle a few gits in black capes drawing pentagrams, Jack.”
”You don't understand.” He sighed, as if she'd just told him London was the capital of France. ”If sorcerers took the children, something is moving. You said Bridget Killi-gan was blinded?”
”She's got a kind of amnesia, too,” said Pete.
We went to see the old Cold Man. He lives on the murky path, just around the bend.
”Ah, t.i.ts,” Jack muttered. ”Be prepared, Petethe people that s.n.a.t.c.hed the brats are dangerous and probably won't be in the best humor when we find them. Something's up, mark my words. I can feel it s.h.i.+fting in the linesthere's a darkness cl.u.s.tering around these kids, and the first one, too. Only scried for her because the ghost voices were cutting into the fix and I was trying to make 'em shut it.” He rubbed his arms, up and down, rhythmic unconscious strokes. ”Any idea how strong a shade has to be to break through an opiate high, Pete? Strong enough to light up the O2. Whole land of the dead is buzzing, and it's the thunder of the oncoming storm.” His eyes were bright as he talked, and his body vibrated like a string, the frantic energy of a street preacher.
”What d'you mean 'when we find them'?” she asked Jack. ”You're b.l.o.o.d.y well not coming along on an open investigation.”
Jack smirked, lacing his hands behind his head. A little sweat gleamed on his forehead, and he coughed, but he'd stopped shaking for the time. ”Planning to be cavalry all by yourself?”
”I very well could be,” Pete said. ”I'm not an incompetent.”
”Yeah, but you won't go on your own,” said Jack. He stood up, swaying but walking, and pulled his jackboots on. ”You know that I'm right, and there's bad magic running through this entire thing. You'll take me along because you don't want to be staring into the night alone.”
Pete started to protest, but Jack stopped lacing his boots and gave her a pained half-smile. ”It's not a weakness, Peten.o.body wants that.”
If it were anyone else, she would swear he was trying to be a comfort.
It would be far less disconcerting if Jack weren't so often right about her thoughts and secrets, but she didn't didn't very well want to go bursting in on kidnappers alone, in a graveyard, at night. Newell would have her a.r.s.e for going at this off the book. ”Why do you care about these kids?” she demanded. ”You didn't even want to help me. Just listening in to ghosts, isn't that right? Nothing selfless about you, not an ounce.” very well want to go bursting in on kidnappers alone, in a graveyard, at night. Newell would have her a.r.s.e for going at this off the book. ”Why do you care about these kids?” she demanded. ”You didn't even want to help me. Just listening in to ghosts, isn't that right? Nothing selfless about you, not an ounce.”
Jack shook his head. ”We're not on about me, now.” He lifted one bone-sharp shoulder. ”If sorcerers are in the mix I might have a laugh, at least. Tick-tock, Inspector. You're the one banging on about time running out.”
”I hate you,” Pete mumbled, grabbing her coat from the hook and a torch from her hall table. After a moment's debate she also plucked her handcuffs out and hooked them to her belt. Feeble protection against what she thought might be waiting for them even in her own mind.
Jack shrugged into his leather, chains rattling on pyramid spikes, and followed Pete out of the flat. ”I'll live with you hating me. At least that way, we're even.”
Chapter Sixteen
The section of Brompton Jack led her to was small and personal, fallen out of use as London marched ever forward, forgetting its left-behind dead. Back gardens and leaning brick flats crowded in against the mossy walls.
”Some Goth freak has his dream view, eh?” said Jack as he rattled the padlock on a rusty crypt gate. ”You got a wrench in the Mini? I know a few blokes who'd pay cold hard sterling for ground bones and graveyard dust.”
Pete pinched between her eyes. ”I'm not even going to dignify that.”
Jack flashed her a closemouthed smile. ”Good girl. Guess that's why you're the copper, eh?”
”I have moments,” Pete agreed. She walked again, pus.h.i.+ng aside waist-high weeds as the path narrowed and the tombs leaned in, crumbling from their foundations. Jack caught her wrist.
”Oi. What do you think you're doing? I'll go first.”
”Sod off, it's not the b.l.o.o.d.y Victorian era,” said Pete, swatting away tiny branches clawing for her face and hair. Muttering, Jack followed her through a trampled gap.
Before them, headstones tilted crazily from dead gra.s.s, a path to the two crypts at the back of the plot overgrown with stinging nettles. Pete felt the breath of ghosts brus.h.i.+ng her cheeks, the sighs of the long-forgotten dead disturbing this silent patch of earth. She s.h.i.+vered. It had been much better not knowing.
Jack winced and rubbed his hands over his eyes. ”You should've let me have the heroin, Pete.”
”Be quiet,” Pete hissed. Though it was almost invisible under the misty glow from the streetlamps, she was sure candlelight flickered from the mausoleum on the left. She touched Jack's arm. ”Someone else is here.”
An itchy feeling started between her shoulder blades, that of a convenient setup. Anything Anything could be waiting in the sagging brick structure, none of the possibilities pleasant or inclined to let her go alive. could be waiting in the sagging brick structure, none of the possibilities pleasant or inclined to let her go alive.
Jack squinted at the candlelit crypt. ”Got a f.a.g?”
Pete handed one over. Jack's face flickered briefly skeletal as he lit the Parliament. ”Right. Let's go get your b.l.o.o.d.y brats.”
”Wait!” Pete whipped him around a full one hundred eighty degrees when she s.n.a.t.c.hed at his arm. She'd forgotten for a moment how light he was.
Jack glared and Pete explained, ”We're not just going to rush in. Procedures to follow, plus we don't know what's in there.”
”Black magic,” said Jack. ”Whole place stinks of it. Feels like cobweb on your face.”
”Whatever the case, we should use caution,” said Pete. ”In the interest of not getting our b.l.o.o.d.y heads blown off.”
”Whoever has the kids isn't going to give us a written invite,” said Jack. ”Sorcerers understand force, Pete, so I'm going to give it to them.”
”But we don't know how many of them there are!” Pete whispered as Jack jerked free and strode across the brown gra.s.s crackled with early frost, crus.h.i.+ng it under his soles.
”d.a.m.ned stupid impulsive arrogant sod,” Pete hissed, running after him.
Jack met the door with a planted foot, black wood shattering under his kick. Dry rot and dust swirled around Jack, turning his skinny dark-clad frame to a ghost in its own right.
Pete fetched up at his shoulder, shouting ”Police!” belatedly, praying that in addition to whatever occult trappings the kidnappers carried, they hadn't gotten their hands on guns.