Doctor Who_ The Banquo Legacy - Andy Lane [76]
But from the looks of horror and disgust on the faces below, I knew it was not.
‘What is it?’ whispered Susan, her eyes wide under her creased brow. But she knew the answer.
‘Don’t ask,’ advised the Doctor.
‘Nasty,’ Kreiner gasped as he ran.
‘Great Ras– Good God,’ muttered Simpson and I noticed the shotgun he was holding as he snapped the breach shut and turned it towards us. Stratford and I hurriedly moved aside as we reached the foot of the stairs.
For a moment the Doctor stood in the centre of the staircase. His mouth hung slightly open, and an uncharacteristic frown furrowed his brow. Kreiner was ahead of him already diving down the last few steps. But the Doctor was still, and almost immediately I saw why. Simpson had the gun levelled directly at him.
‘What are you doing, man?’ Stratford demanded. Surely Simpson could not have missed what was following behind?
For another lingering moment Simpson and the Doctor remained frozen, their eyes locked in some silent but deep communication. I have no idea what passed between them. But after that hesitation the Doctor continued down the stairs, as if challenging the other man to shoot him. Simpson tracked him for two steps with the gun before he swung it upwards again, back towards the real target.
Harries – what was left of him – paused, three steps down, as Simpson levelled the gun, then continued his slow, laborious descent. Simpson climbed up towards him, the shotgun held steady, his knuckles white against the gunmetal. He passed the Doctor still on the way down without comment and halted halfway to the landing, just as Harries reached it. Then he fired the first barrel.
The sound of the shot echoed round the hallway and for a moment we could see nothing through the smoke. Then it thinned and we could make out the figure of Richard Harries’s body staggering back under the blast, his chest ripped open by the shot, and thick black clots of blood sprayed across the stairway. Simpson grimaced at the weapon as if chiding it for its inefficiency.
Susan turned away and buried her face in my chest. I held her close for a second.
She felt me freeze and turned back. She screamed. The sound drowned out Stratford’s gasp and Kreiner’s expletive. Baker was white as a bedsheet. The Doctor was tapping his chin, thoughtful rather than surprised.
Harries still staggered, but he did not fall. He steadied and pulled himself upright. And started down the stairs again. Close by me, Catherine watched, pale, fixed, her concentration focused on the horror approaching us. On her brother.
Simpson too was transfixed, unable to move, as Harries’s dead body lunged down at him. How could he have killed what was already dead? He recovered just as Harries reached him, and he fired the second barrel at point-blank range into the corpse’s stomach. Harries reeled under the force and doubled up as if winded. Simpson backed away, lost his footing and grasped at the banisters for support. He was already off balance as Harries came upright again and reached out for him. Simpson swung the shotgun at Harries’s shattered head – a long low arc. But too long, too slow, and Harries swatted the barrels back towards Simpson and followed through the action, catching him on the shoulder.
Simpson remained paradoxically still for a moment as he lost his balance completely and then, gathering sudden speed, his body smashed through the banisters and crashed to the floor below. He let out a cry of pain as his leg buckled under him with the force of the impact. Kreiner and I ran to help him, but the others still seemed too stunned to think or even move as Harries’s blood-splattered form continued down the stairs. Towards us.
It took us only a few seconds to help Simpson up on to his undamaged leg, and supporting him between us we turned back towards the drawing room. But we had taken too long.
Harries had reached the bottom of the stairs, and now he blocked our path. We were trapped in the corner between the stairs and the dining-room wall where it protruded into the hall.
Or almost trapped. While Baker