Doctor Who_ The Banquo Legacy - Andy Lane [81]
‘Surely I would know if contact had been made. There wasn’t anything like that. Nothing.’
‘As I remember, Catherine, you fainted before your brother… before he died. Isn’t it possible that contact was established while you were unconscious? While your subconscious was in control?’
Catherine raised a hand to her forehead. ‘I don’t know… I… I don’t…’
The Doctor leaned forward urgently, trying to convince us of his truth. ‘Don’t you realise? Don’t any of you realise? It’s not Richard Harries out there at all. It’s Catherine Harries’s subconscious mind that’s controlling the corpse!’
‘No!’ screamed Catherine. ‘It’s not true!’ She flung herself away from Hopkinson and collapsed hysterically into Sergeant Baker’s arms. ‘I would know. I tell you, I would know if I was doing it.’
‘Not if it’s all on a subconscious level,’ the Doctor continued insistently. ‘You don’t even realise that you are controlling him. It’s your instincts. You see, you don’t want to see your brother disgraced as a blackmailer, and you want his murderer –’ he broke off and glanced at Hopkinson – ‘whoever that is, to be punished for his death. Your subconscious mind has two excellent reasons for wanting us all out of the way. In the simplest of terms, that is why your instincts want us dead.’
‘No,’ whispered Catherine, horrified.
‘It is ridiculous,’ said Susan. But there was doubt in her voice.
‘No,’ Hopkinson agreed, ‘it’s the only explanation. Some deeply buried part of your mind is using the bond between you and Richard, what there is left of him, to punish us – since you know we could reveal your brother as a criminal.’
The entire upper panel of the door burst open, spraying the room with splinters. Through the gaping hole we could all see the animated cadaver of Richard Harries now concentrating its attention on the bottom part of the wreckage. The light gleamed greasily from the exposed portions of his skull, and the line of his teeth was a malicious smile matched in his one remaining eye. He – it – would take great pleasure in killing us, and now that Catherine knew that subconsciously it was she who was responsible I could see that the overriding feelings of guilt would cause Harries to kill her as well – in a bizarre twin suicide. For with his unwitting controller dead, Harries too would return to death.
‘What do we do?’ screamed Susan.
Hopkinson was at a loss. ‘I’m not sure. We must find some way of breaking the link.’
‘But how?’ I asked.
‘If I might interject, sir.’ Simpson had drawn himself up on the bed and was gazing at the Doctor. ‘Not that I understand what is happening of course –’
‘Of course,’ the Doctor agreed.
‘But if Miss Harries were to be rendered unconscious… ?’
The Doctor nodded. ‘It might give us a chance to render her brother into pieces. Well done, Simpson. You have hidden depths.’
The two of them appeared to be needling each other, and I could not work out why.
‘I do have another suggestion,’ Simpson added.
‘I rather suspected you might.’
‘Your… transportation… Doctor. If you could tell us where it is… perhaps we might use it to leave this place.’
‘Nice try,’ the Doctor said calmly, although I could tell that under his calm exterior he was furious. ‘But you are, as always, missing the point. It’s not my transportation. It doesn’t belong to me. It doesn’t belong to anyone.’
‘There are… forces… out there that could help us, Doctor,’ Simpson insisted. ‘All I need do is call them. I have the means.’
‘Baker and I are the only police around for miles,’ I interjected, puzzled. ‘Or did you mean the army?’
Neither man looked at me.
‘All of our fates are in your hands,’ Simpson told the Doctor. ‘And the price is –’
‘– too high,’ the Doctor finished. ‘We’re getting out of this situation ourselves.’
Catherine looked beseechingly at us all. ‘Is Simpson right?’ she asked. ‘If I can make Richard kill people, surely I can make him stop, if I think very hard?’
‘Yes, make him stop, Catherine,’ said Susan. ‘Concentrate on stopping him. Please hurry, there’s not