Doctor Who_ The City of the Dead - Lloyd Rose [43]
A majority of the tombs, the Doctor noticed, bore French names, and this turned out to be the case with 'his'. The weather-beaten memorial tablet read simply Delesormes, no first names, no dates. The plaster walls were mostly worn away to dark red brick, but the brick itself was still firmly set, and though the roof was cracked it retained its peak. As he had remembered, the fence was in near-perfect condition, its lattice of little iron squares set at their intersections with ornate brass roundels, and the gate capped with a pair of wave-shaped curlicues, each set with pale-blue stone, bowing to each other like the two halves of a pediment.
Behind the memorial tablet, the door was sealed with brick -the Doctor touched it lightly: For the love of God, Montresor! -that had obviously not been disturbed in a long, long time. The left and rear walls were solid, but at the back corner of the right-hand wall was a gap a few centimetres wide just above the ground. He lay on his stomach, took a small torch from his pocket, and peered inside. He saw a glint of bronze.
Well, he thought, sitting up and pocketing the torch, what did that tell him?
From the neglected condition of the tomb, it seemed probable that the Delesormes family were long vanished. Still, it was something to follow up on.
His route to the front of the cemetery took him by the tomb of Marie Laveau. A middle-aged black woman was crouched in front of the door, positioning a pot of bright orange zinnias. She looked up quickly. Her face was lean and handsome, though the whites of her eyes were as yellow as old ivory. At sight of him, she shot to her feet.
'What are you doing here?'
The Doctor didn't really have a simple answer for that. 'Does it matter?'
She was watching him intently. 'Bound to,' she said. 'To somebody. Hope it ain't me.'
The Doctor stopped dead. He stared at her. She smiled without much sympathy.
He said expressionlessly, 'Who do you think I am?'
She frowned. 'Is this a trick, Compair Lapin? I'm not playing no tricks, not with you.'
'I don't know,' he said. 'Is it a trick?'
Her eyes narrowed. Then she smiled her thin smile. 'Not Legba. Shango.
And all wrapped up in the hide of a skinny white boy. You all do work in mysterious ways.'
The Doctor stepped towards her. She moved back. 'I'm not any of those,'
he said, almost desperately.
'Shango,' she repeated. 'The warrior. Iron and lightning. The smith who forged the world.'
'Not me,' he whispered. 'I never made anything. I may have unmade much.'
'Rain coming,' she said. Behind him, thunder rumbled. He turned and saw dark clouds creeping into the edge of the day. "The rider on the storm,' she said quietly. 'You carry trouble on your back like the bluebird carries the sky'
He didn't respond, just watched the clouds. He knew that, when he turned around again, she would be gone, and she was. She'd left the zinnias and, among their stems, a child's watch with Bugs Bunny on the face.
Leaving the cemetery, the Doctor almost bumped into Rust.
The detective stared at him with tired incredulity. 'Just the man I was looking for. Though not where I expected to find him. You do pop up, don't you?'
'I was visiting the cemetery'
'Social call?'
The Doctor ignored that. 'What are you doing here?'
'Mass.' Rust nodded down the block towards a large church. The Doctor fell into step beside him. From the church tower, bells began to sound.'I paid a little visit last night to your pal Dupre.'
'What for?'
'Check up on you. Ms Kapoor told me where you'd gone; she wasn't completely easy in her mind about it.'
"Thank you, but I'm sure you have better things to do. I was quite all right.'
'Nothing untoward occurred?'
The Doctor decided not to strain Rust's scepticism. 'He tried some conjuring and called up a nifty smoke effect.'
'Mm. What do you think of him?'
'He's a fool.'
'A dangerous fool?'
'Possibly.