The Faithless - Martina Cole [41]
After dragging her sister none too gently, Cynthia pushed her into the back kitchen and, opening the cellar door, forced her inside. Following her, she bolted the door and groped around in the gloom till they reached the bottom of the steps, where they crouched as quietly as they could. It was almost pitch black, the only light coming from under the door above them.
‘Is there a torch anywhere in here?’ Celeste was clearly terrified now. Shaking her gently, Cynthia whispered, ‘For fuck’s sake, Celeste, is there a torch in here?’
Celeste walked unsteadily to a row of shelves and took down a small hand torch. Giving it to her sister, she waited like a young child to be told what to do next.
Turning on the torch, Cynthia looked around the unfamiliar space and, seeing a door that was obviously once the coal hole, she went towards it and made sure it was secure.
By now they could hear people walking around above them. It wasn’t Jonny that was for sure – they could hear the doors being wrenched open upstairs, and they both realised that whoever it was wasn’t visiting for any kind of social reason.
‘What’s going on, Cynth?’
Celeste’s voice was rising and Cynthia went to her and said quietly but forcefully, ‘Shut up, Celeste. Whoever it is mustn’t know we are here, OK?’ But even in the weak torch light Cynthia could see the hysteria rising in her sister’s eyes and marvelled once more at how such a fucking coward could ever be enough for Jonny. She hugged her to her tightly saying in a soothing voice, ‘Calm down, Celeste, we’ll sort this out. Now, has Jonny any weapons hidden down here?’
Celeste was shaking so badly she could barely talk. ‘I . . . I don’t know . . . Probably . . .’
Cynthia looked around the large room and, spotting a large steel trunk, she went over to it. There was a large padlock protecting the contents. She sighed heavily. Looking round again, she grasped a large spanner from one of the shelves and attempted to break the chain with it. It was a fruitless exercise and the noise would alert them as to their whereabouts, but she tried anyway.
She could hear the men at the cellar door now, and she knew that the still-warm teapot would tell them that they might still be in the house somewhere. And now they knew where. She guessed they had come through the French doors in the lounge; they wouldn’t risk the neighbours hearing them kicking in the front or back doors.
The cellar door was another thing altogether though. It was well inside the house, and they were now kicking at the lock with a ferocity that told her they would be through at any moment.
Celeste was crying openly – she wasn’t even attempting to be quiet any more. Terror had taken her over and Cynthia knew that if they were to get out of this it would be down to her. Panic rising inside her, she gave the locked box one last wrench and, even though it didn’t open, she saw that if she lifted the lid there was a four-inch gap – just wide enough to get her hand inside. She did that and, feeling around, she gripped the first thing that came to hand. A few seconds later she was holding a small calibre gun. Whether it was loaded she had no idea, but in her blind panic she pulled the safety back and then, leaving her sister crying in fear, she walked deliberately behind the stairway.
She was shaking herself now, she felt as if she was going to pass out. She took a few deep breaths and, when the cellar door finally crashed open, she waited for the visitors to come down the stairs.
The man was like the anti-Christ. His anger was so consuming he looked willing to rip them limb from limb with his bare hands.
Emerging from the stairway silently, Cynthia pointed the gun at the back of his huge head and fired.
He dropped to his knees, and she felt the bile rising inside her as she saw the gaping hole that was left after his skull and brains had been ripped open.
Twenty seconds later she heard a muttered ‘Fucking hell’, followed by the sound of the other man leaving the house as quickly as possible. She went over and looked down at the man’s body.