Midnight Never Comes - Jack Higgins [39]
She turned to face him, smiling brightly. 'I'm tired myself. Colonel Craig was right. It's been a long day. I think I'll go to bed.'
To her surprise, he didn't argue. 'You look as if you could do with about twelve solid hours,' he said and kissed her on the forehead. 'You go to bed. I'll see you in the morning.'
He walked out into the hall with her and watched her mount the great staircase. When she reached the top and looked back, he was already turning away, moving towards the library door.
As he reached it, the front door opened and Murdoch came in. Donner went to meet him and Asta drew back into the shadows. When they spoke, the voices sounded very clear, but strangely remote in the stillness.
'We've got him,' Murdoch said.
Donner glanced up towards the dark landing and moved closer. 'Where is he?'
'Stavrou's taken him in through the back entrance. Where do you want him?'
'The cellar,' Donner said and his voice sounded cold and hard. 'And don't either of you lay a finger on him. He's my meat. I'll join you in a few minutes.'
Asta hurried along the landing, opened the door and went inside. She leaned against it in the darkness for a moment, trying to collect her thoughts and then she snapped on the light and took off her dress and underskirt quickly.
When she let herself out of the room five minutes later, she was wearing ski-pants, a heavy Norwegian sweater and suede chukka boots. She moved cautiously to the head of the stairs, paused and changing her mind, hurried back along the landing.
A door at the far end gave access to the servants' stairs and she went down quickly, pausing outside the kitchen door. It was then that she first became aware of the noise, faintly in the distance, like some animal in pain and she moved along the corridor and opened the door to the cellars.
The noise rose to meet her, the same strange muffled cries mixed in with the sound of blows. And then it ceased. A moment later, she heard voices and moved back into the corridor. There was a broom cupboard on the other side and she went inside quickly, leaving the door slightly ajar.
The cellar door opened and Murdoch came out looking strangely subdued. Stavrou followed and Donner appeared a moment or two later wiping blood from his hands with a handkerchief. Stavrou closed the door and they all walked away.
Asta waited until their footsteps had faded along the corridor before venturing outside. She felt no fear when she opened the cellar door and went down the steps, because in some strange way, she knew that what she found below would resolve once and for all, the fears and doubts of years.
The light was still on and she moved along a broad white-washed passage that turned into another, off-shoots running into the darkness. She had not been prepared for quite such an extensive system and paused, wondering which way to go. And then she saw blood on the floor.
There was a trail of it, bright splashes that led to a large oak door, its key in the lock. She opened it gently, peered into darkness, then fumbled for the light switch.
The man who hung by his wrists from a hook in the ceiling was Fergus Munro, she was able to tell that much, but only just. The blood from his broken body had gathered into a pool beneath his feet and one look at the ghastly eyes, fixed for all eternity, told her that he was dead.
And again she was strangely calm, knowing only that she had to get out of that place, leaving all as she had found it. Get out and go to Paul at Ardmurchan Lodge.
She locked the door quickly, went back along the passage and mounted the steps. All was quiet as she moved past the kitchen, opened the back door and let herself out. She hurried across to the garage and then paused. If she took one of the Land Rovers they would hear her leave. She hesitated and then remembered the old bicycle she had seen Jack Murdoch using about the place. She