Doctor Who_ The Banquo Legacy - Andy Lane [85]
‘Nothing yet,’ smiled Catherine. ‘The poor girl and Kreiner were so busy tending to the butler’s leg that they didn’t even notice us leave. They can’t get away. Neither can you, not now.’ She moved her right hand from behind her back. In it she held a massive revolver, pointed directly at my forehead.
‘Wallace’s,’ muttered Hopkinson. ‘She must have got it from his desk.’
‘Why?’ I whispered, ‘Why now?’ But she heard me.
‘Because you know. You know about us!’
‘You were in it together?’
‘Of course. They were all so petty, so frightened of their secrets coming out. They couldn’t find the strength to take the responsibility for their actions. If Richard and I hadn’t taken advantage of them, somebody else would. At least we used the money for good. For Richard’s experiments.’
‘His hellish experiments, you mean?’
Catherine’s eyes blazed. ‘But they worked!’ she screamed.
‘Look at him,’ the Doctor said, stepping forward. ‘Do you really think he can go on much longer? He’s virtually falling apart as we watch. Do you think this is what he wanted?’
Catherine cast a possessive eye over her twin. ‘Only his body, Doctor. Whatever remains of the real Richard Harries we share, now, as we’ve always shared everything. Richard and I were always close.’ She smiled lasciviously. ‘Very close.’
‘You mean that Richard’s mind… ?’ I asked.
‘Oh, he’s in here now,’ she said, and it seemed for a moment as if something else were looking through her eyes. ‘I can feel him moving around, swimming within me. I contain multitudes.’ She smiled, like a shaft of sunlight, and I felt my skin prickle around my neck and shoulders.
‘Doesn’t that worry you?’ Hopkinson asked. I think he had latched on to my tactics: try to keep Catherine talking until something, anything, happened. ‘Doesn’t it bother you that something else is experiencing your thoughts and emotions?’
Catherine turned to look at him. Simultaneously, the body of her brother turned to rake Hopkinson with a bloody stare.
‘No,’ she said. ‘We could never be too close to one another. I loved me… him… I loved him.’ She looked confused, not knowing where the mix-up had originated. ‘And he loved me too,’ she asserted. Her expression smoothed over and was replaced by a malign ingenuity. ‘And I can see through his eyes too. I can move his body, use his strength to do things I could never do. Like kill you all.’ And there it was again: another face, another person looking out through her.
She raised a hand and ran it though her hair. Hopkinson and I exchanged glances. She was tired. The strain was beginning to take its toll.
‘I am my brother’s eyes,’ she said finally. ‘He is my power. And you all know too much.’
Behind Catherine and Richard Harries, through the open door of the drawing room, I could see Susan Seymour walking calmly down the stairs. She opened her mouth as if to speak. If any such thing as telepathy existed without recourse to any scientific equipment then the shouts from the minds of Hopkinson and me should have stopped her from uttering a sound. But it didn’t happen that way.
‘Catherine?’ she said. ‘What –’
The words were lost in her scream as Catherine Harries and her dead brother turned to face the stairs.
‘Run, Susan!’ Hopkinson yelled. ‘Get help from the village!’
Too late. Richard Harries was at the bottom of the stairs before Hopkinson had finished. Rooted to the spot with fear, all Susan could do was whimper.
And that is when Sergeant Baker did the bravest, most foolish, most suicidal thing I have ever seen. Before I could stop him, before I even registered what he was trying to do, he was running towards Catherine Harries. He was slow and noisy, puffing like the ancient steam engine that had brought me to Three Sisters, but his bulk was considerable and his inertia well-nigh unstoppable.
Catherine Harries began to turn as soon as she heard his wheezing. Her brother swung, puppet-like, away from Susan and towards us. The muzzle of her gun looked like a small cannon as she aimed it at Baker. Then he was upon her, and she went flying into the corridor.