Blood Line (16 page)

'Then for God's sake - tell me...'

Vince shook his head. 'All I know is that Lucille's maid - Betty or whoever she is - came back to the Castle just before I left. She was in a terrible state. They couldn't get into the house, Mrs Brook was out. . . '

'Yes, yes - I know all that.'

'Then listen, for God's sake. The maid was in a state, wringing her hands. Rose was the only one to show presence of mind. She thought she knew the road where the omnibuses were. She had never been on one herself, but she was game to try it ... '

'My dear, enterprising Rose,' whispered Faro.

'They boarded the omnibus all right but one stop further on and the driver put them off. The woman had no money to pay the fares. And now they were lost, but Rose thought they were near the Meadows and a short cut might bring them out near the Castle. They began walking and a gentleman's carriage stopped and when they explained their predicament, the coachman offered to take them to the Castle. They thought this was a tremendous piece of luck . . . '

'Luck, God Almighty!' said Faro. 'You know what all this implies, don't you, Vince, picking up children at night. . . '

Vince held up his hand. 'I'm trying not to think of that, Stepfather. And I advise you not to either. The facts are bad enough without us being over imaginative. We need time...'

Faro sank down on to a chair, buried his face in his hands. 'Time. We might already be too late, Vince. Even now your two stepsisters, my wee bairns, may have been violated by some rich pervert whose sexual impulses require . . . '

'Stop it, Stepfather. Stop this, at once!' Vince banged his fist on the table. 'For God's sake, let's concentrate on what we know happened, not what we think might have happened.'

There was a pause before the detective's alert mind gained possession over the distraught father. 'What else did this woman say?' he asked heavily. 'And how did she know it was a gentleman's carriage?' 'Because although it was empty, it smelt of cigars and pomade. She was quite definite about that.'

'Was she now? By God, I could kill her. And I swear I will if anything has happened . . . '

'She was guiltless, Stepfather. Gibbering with terror, I can tell you. She said that if it hadn't been for the presence of mind of one of the girls looking out of the window and noticing in the moonlight that Arthur's Seat was on the wrong side if they were travelling towards the Castle . . . '

'That would almost certainly be Rose, my bright, observant lass,' said Faro, his voice broken, near to tears.

'The woman said she then tried to get the coachman to stop, but he pretended not to hear and whipped the horses on faster. She guessed that they were being taken somewhere against their will. She then showed great presence of mind. The carriage had to stop momentarily at the crossroads, to let another vehicle pass, and she pushed the girls out. She intended jumping down after them, when the carriage took off again at high speed and took her with it. It stopped at some big gates - no, she had no idea where. She tried to get out and when the coachman saw that the girls had gone, he struck her down and when she came to, she - where are you going?'

'I'm going to the Central Office, to have every constable alerted.'

'I've already done that, Stepfather. On my way here. I reported two small girls abducted, and a constable left immediately for the Castle to interview the maid.'

'You stay here - tell the womenfolk any story you like. I'll be back as soon as I have news.'

Cursing the limp that hampered him when he most needed speed, Faro hurried towards Ncwington Road, where he found a hackney carriage setting down passengers. Grumbling about the late hour, the driver was persuaded to take the Inspector to the Central Office.

And there, walking towards a waiting police carriage was the most welcome sight in his whole world. Two small girls in the custody of Sergeant Danny McQuinn.

Faro called out. A moment later, he had them gathered to his breast. And for those prayers answered, a peace passing all understanding reigned in his heart.

'Papa, Papa.' Speechless, tearful with joy, he held them in his arms. 'We've had such an adventure, Papa.'

Over their heads, he looked at McQuinn, grinning with delight. For once, if there had been room he would have included his old enemy in that grateful embrace.

'Thanks, Sergeant.'

McQuinn grinned. 'I was just about to escort these two young ladies back home. Constable McDonald found them wandering along the High Street. That elder lass of yours - Rose is it? - shows great enterprise. Told me some amazing story, mind you, about escaping from a carriage on the Meadows.'

In the police carriage on the way back to Sheridan Place, hugging them to his side as if he could never let them out of his sight again, he listened to the rest of Rose's story.

'It's true, Papa. It was a horrid carriage, all dark and enclosed and smelly - with the blinds down.'

'I didn't like it one bit and that horrid maid of Miss Haston's pushed us out and left us to find our own way back,' was Emily's indignant contribution. 'We were lost, Papa, and anyway we knew there was no one at home.'

'You couldn't have seen anything anyway, you were so busy crying, Em. Luckily the moon helped and I managed to guess from Arthur's Seat and the Castle where the High Street might be.'

'She made us keep walking, for hours and hours, Papa,' wailed Emily. 'And I was so tired. Look at my best shoes. They're ruined, Papa. And they were so pretty. Grandmama will be so cross,' she added with a tearful sniff.

'Never mind, my precious. You shall have a new pair, I promise.'

'As I was saying,' interrupted Rose sternly, 'when I recognised we were near the High Street, after that it was easy. We saw a constable and told him we were lost.'

'I told him that you were our Papa,' said Emily.

'He took us to that nice Sergeant who was just going to take us home in the police carriage. But oh Papa, we were so glad to see you,' whispered Rose, snuggling a little closer so that she could kiss his cheek.

'We were very frightened, Papa,' whispered Emily.

'No, we weren't, Em,' said her sister indignantly.

'What a fib. I saw you crying once.'

'Just when we were very lost, and just a little bit, Em. But it was an adventure, wasn't it, Papa?'

One, thought Faro, that he fervently hoped he - and they - would never experience again.

'Do you think the nasty coachman was going to hold us to ransom?'

'Not really, Rose. I think it was all a bit of a mistake.'

'Mistake, Papa? How?'

He didn't want them to have nightmares. 'He might have been a little deaf and just didn't realise that you wanted to get out.'

'Then why was he going the wrong way?'

'Maybe he got the maid's directions wrong.'

Rose regarded him severely. Her small face registered disappointment. 'You don't really think that, do you, Papa?'

He didn't. But at that moment, the carriage stopped outside Sheridan Place, and leaving them to the rapturous reception from the three eager anxious people awaiting their arrival, Faro told the driver to take him to the Castle.

'It's very late, Inspector.' It was indeed.

The Castle gates closed at eleven and midnight was striking. He must content himself with a scribbled note, 'All's well. Girls safe and sound at home.' Leaving this with the gatekeeper to be delivered to Sir Eric immediately, he ordered the police carriage to return him to Sheridan Place.

As he looked out of the window, the moon was bright as day and he felt a strong desire to propitiate the pagan moon goddess. What would have been the answer to tonight's sinister happenings if there had been no moon by which his enterprising Rose could recognise Arthur's Seat and discover that they were prisoners in a sinister carriage taking them in the wrong direction, away from Sheridan Place?

He shivered, longing to reach home where the girls were now safely asleep and there was laughter, smiling faces and a certain feeling of celebration in the air. Celebration - or was it deliverance from evil?

Suddenly he realised that the disappearance of Rose and Emily had put out of his mind all thoughts about Lieutenant Mace's failure to appear regarding the urgent message. A message which had brought Faro to the Castle in the first place and thereby set in motion the nightmare events of the last few hours.

He slept late next morning and awoke to the sound of church bells ringing. Downstairs Mrs Brook told him that his mother had taken the girls to morning service, leaving strict instructions that he was not to be disturbed.

Inspector Faro and Dr Laurie were lapsed Presbyterians, their kirk-going limited to somewhat perfunctory family occasions. Normally Vince took the opportunity of discreetly sleeping off Saturday night's hangover and did not appear until Sunday luncheon.

Hopeful that he might be awake, Faro looked into his bedroom. There was no response to his whispered 'Vince?', so ignoring Mrs Brook's lavish breakfast for his digestion's sake, Faro made his way up to the Castle.

He was anxious to speak to Bet and be in time to talk to Arthur Mace as he came off church parade. From the maid he learned that Sir Eric and her mistress had gone to morning service at St Giles's Cathedral, but her first question was for Rose and Emily.

'If any harm had befallen them, I would never have forgiven myself, Inspector. Never.' Her distress was obvious and the passion of her words genuine, making Faro realise once again that one should not make hasty judgements based on appearances only. Faces had their own reasons for presenting a dour expression to the world, but that did not mean that the hearts they hid were cold and uncaring.

'I'd like you to tell me what happened last night. First of all, why did you send Sir Eric's carriage away when you reached Sheridan Place?'

'Because the gates at the entrance weren't open, sir.'

That was true. After dusk they were locked and residents had to produce their own keys to gain admittance. As he listened to the maid's story, he realised it was almost word for word what Vince had related to him. At the end, she regarded his stern face apprehensively.

'You do believe me, do you not, sir?'

Some odd turns of phrase and her swarthy appearance had decided him even more than her faint accent that she was probably French.

When he said so, she smiled. 'From French-speaking Canada, sir. But I have been with Miss Haston's family since she was a little girl.'

And that fact put an end to any further doubts he might have had about the truth of her story. 'What about those big gates, where you managed to leave the carriage? Do you know how long it took you to reach them?'

'Ten minutes, maybe more. Half an hour? I have no means of being certain of the time.'

'You say that the coachman threw you out with some violence.'

'He struck me and, yes, I fell to the ground.'

'I trust you were not injured in any way.'

Again she shrugged. 'Not even bruised, sir. I fell on grass and I fainted only with fear, you understand.'

'Would you recognise those big gates again?'

She hesitated and then shook her head. 'It was moonlight, a road with a long wall. But I was so frightened and, as you know, Inspector, I've never been in Edinburgh before. I only know this area round the Castle here and, of course, Princes Street, where I go shopping with Miss Haston.'

'Have you any idea what was intended by this abduction?'

'Ab-duction - what is that, sir?'

'The attempt to kidnap the girls and yourself.'

She thought for a moment. 'It was not I they wanted, for sure. It must have been the little girls.' She looked at him steadily. 'Perhaps they hoped to hold them to ransom. Is that not the way with such kidnappers?'

'Only if they knew who they were, and I am by no means a rich man.'

At his words, Bet opened her mouth as if some thought had occurred to her, then she shook her head.

'Well?' said Faro.

She shrugged. 'It is nothing.'

'Allow me to be the judge of that, mademoiselle.'

'It is too silly, but - but it occurs to me that perhaps you were not the, er- target, is it? And that your little girls were never really in danger. That they were - somehow - only there by accident.'

Her slow speech as she sought for the right words made Faro unnecessarily impatient. 'What are you trying to tell me, mademoiselle?'

'Sir Eric - he is a rich man, yes?'

'Yes.'

'And he has influence with people in high places, yes?'

'He has.'

'And Miss Lucille is his niece - that is so?'

Faro agreed.

'I am only thinking that perhaps it was not myself and your little girls that the kidnappers wanted. You see, Inspector, Miss Lucille gave me her hooded cloak the day after we went to the shops on Princes Street.' She looked up at him. 'This was the first time I am wearing it.' She shrugged. 'Perhaps it is of no significance, but maybe this coachman made a mistake and took the maid for the mistress.'