Doctor Who_ Foreign Devils - Andrew Cartmel [37]
The Doctor smiled sweetly and said, 'I'm sorry if you're uncomfortable here but it's only a temporary measure. As soon as everything's
all right again the police will be called in.'
'And until that time I am to be locked in my own wine cellar,' said Pemberton bitterly. 'Our wine cellar, old man,' corrected Thor.
His brother stared at him with hatred. 'That's right, isn't it? You will never let me forget that half the estate is yours, whereas you want all of it. And it's the only reason you're going along with this charade.' Thor Upcott murmured, 'On the contrary, I'm inclined to believe the Doctor and Mr Carnacki.' Pemberton turned his furious gaze on the Doctor and Carnacki. 'How can you?' he demanded of Thor. 'They're suggesting that I murdered my own wife.'
'Well, you did have the means, opportunity and motive, old son,'
drawled Thor. 'Particularly the motive. I know how little love was lost
between you and Millicent.'
'Mendacious claptrap! I did love her.'
'Perhaps once, a long time ago, before the hen began to peck, eh?' 'You know nothing about me, or my marriage. I loved my wife. I could never harm her. How can you accuse me of murder? I'm innocent.' He looked at Thor. 'And you know it. You just want the entire estate for your own.'
Thor chuckled. 'It may have escaped your notice, dear brother, but the bulk of estate has vanished. In fact we are floating in the naked void.'
Carnacki cleared his throat. 'Which reminds me. I must resume my enquiries into the exact nature of our disappearance and our current strange situation.'
'And see if there isn't a way to restore things to the way they were,' added the Doctor. With these words he and Carnacki turned towards the steps that led up out of the wine cellar. Zoe hurried to join them. She'd had enough of the cold and damp; and of Pemberton. Thor followed her, a little too close for comfort.
'So you're just going to leave me here!' shouted Pemberton. They glanced back at him. He was standing watching them like a cornered animal. But Zoe couldn't work up much sympathy for the man. The wine cellar was as cold and grim as any dungeon, but Pemberton had been provided with plenty of blankets and cushions, an anodised bucket with a wooden lid for sanitary purposes, a lamp and books, and a picnic basket full of delectables.
'And he certainly won't be short of a bottle of wine or two,' said Thor, locking the door behind them and dropping the key in his pocket. 'In fact it's probably worth snuffing the spouse for the opportunity to be locked up with all the old Chateau Margaux!' He barked a laugh and strutted off through the pantry and out of the kitchen.
The Doctor joined Carnacki in the west dining room where he was setting up what he described as his 'apparatus', which to Zoe looked like a random jumble of very primitive electrical equipment. The Doctor, however, was fascinated and eager to get involved and assist Carnacki in his preparations. Zoe watched in growing frustration. 'How is any of this going to help us find Jamie?' she demanded. The Doctor paused from braiding a wire and smiled at her and said, 'I don't know exactly, but I expect it will, somehow, in the end.' Zoe sighed and left. Even her domestic servant duties were more interesting than this and she willingly spent a few hours working in the kitchen and the ground floor of the house, distributing refreshments to the guests.
The entire atmosphere in the house had changed since the announcement of Pemberton's house arrest in the wine cellar. Along with all the predictable shock and disbelief that their host could be a murderer, there had come a profound wave of relief. The killer in their midst had at last been identified and neutralised. Zoe shared in the relief. No one seemed too concerned about the fact that their shared horizon terminated abruptly a few hundred metres from the house