Stones of Fire

quick, breakaway glance of the guilty. No suspect characters prowling about, he next glanced out the plate-glass windows that opened onto Connecticut Avenue, the city pavement teeming with holiday shoppers.

Nothing appearing out of the ordinary, he quietly released a pent-up breath.

All quiet on the western front.

Like most men with a price on his head, he didn’t know how it would end, if the day just lived would be his last. All he knew was that when the thugs of the Real Irish Republican Army did finally catch up with him, they would see to it that he died a barbaric death indeed. An eye for an eye and all that.

Five years ago he had avenged the death of his lover by tracking down an RIRA chieftain and killing the bastard in the streets of Belfast. Such deeds did not go unpunished. Forced to go to ground, he’d spent the last several years living in Paris. A stranger in a strange land. Although he’d spent the time wisely, writing his first book, a treatise on the esoteric traditions of the ancient world. Lulled into a sense of security, he’d decided against using a pseudonym, thinking he’d fallen off the RIRA radar screen.

Only now did it dawn on him that that bit of arrogance might cost him dearly.

Ah, the folly of a first-born son still trying to impress the long-dead father.

He rechecked the digital readout on his mobile. BLOCKED CALL was prominently displayed.

‘Why am I not surprised?’ he murmured. Again he scanned the bookshop, certain he was being stalked.

His gaze fell on a volume of Byron propped on a nearby book shelf.

‘For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast…’

As the long-forgotten line popped into his head, he bit back a caustic laugh, knowing he’d been that same dark angel. Once. A long time ago.

Still holding the mobile in his hand, he strolled over to his publicist. ‘My hotel just rang me,’ he blithely lied, falling back on lessons learned at MI5. ‘A bit of bother with the bill. Something about my credit card being refused.’ He pointedly glanced around the bookshop, the shelves littered with abandoned champagne flutes. ‘Seeing as how the festivities are winding down, you won’t mind if I dash off and take care of it?’

His publicist, a touchy woman with the ironic surname of Huffman, stared at him from behind the frames of her ruby-red spectacles. ‘Do you need me to call the front desk for you?’

‘No problem,’ he replied with a shake of the head. ‘I’m a big boy. Although perhaps I should fortify myself before battling the dragon.’ He picked up a full champagne flute from a nearby tray, ignoring the fact that it had long since gone flat. ‘Cheers.’

Taking his leave of her, the flute still clutched in his right hand, he headed to the back of the bookshop, veering down a hall marked EMPLOYEES ONLY. Blatantly ignoring the admonition, he continued until he came to a room stacked with cardboard boxes, the sole inhabitant a lank-haired young man unpacking a crate with the desultory air of an underpaid cog who didn’t much care if or when the wheel turned.

C?dmon nodded, acting as though he had every right to be there. ‘The exit, if you please.’

The young man jerked his head at the door opposite.

On the other side of the service exit, C?dmon found himself standing on a cigarette-strewn pavement behind the bookshop, the concrete walls covered in ribald graffiti.

No sooner did the exit door close behind him than he smashed his champagne flute against the wall.

Weapon in hand, he waited.

Come out, come out, wherever you are, he silently taunted, readying himself to do combat with his unseen nemesis.

A full minute passed in tense silence.

Realizing he’d given in to his fears, he derisively snorted.

‘The ghost of Irishmen past,’ he murmured, tossing the jagged-edged flute to the pavement.

The moment of lunacy having passed, he flipped up the collar of his jacket, warding off the cold. He recalled seeing a coffee shop several blocks away. In dire need of caffeine, he headed in that direction.

Although he knew he was being paranoid, C?dmon couldn’t shake off the unnerving feeling that an Irish militant who refused to accept the peace had tracked him to the far side of the Atlantic. Where he intended to settle a very old, yet still outstanding score.

Who else would have called him on his mobile? As if to say, we can see you, but you can’t see us.

4

To Edie’s surprise, no fire alarm sounded. There was only the reverberating clunk of the bar handle as she swung open the fire door.

The killer had disabled the alarm system.

Hit by a blast of cold wintry air, she found herself over the precipice between the open door and an external fire escape that zigzagged down the rear of the museum. Completely enclosed in black chain link, the escape was designed so that only those inside the museum had access to it, keeping vagrants and thieves at bay.

No time to worry that it was lightly snowing, that she had no coat or that she was afraid of heights, Edie stepped across the threshold into the caged stairwell, the fire door swinging shut behind her. She kept her gaze on the alley below, knowing that if she looked anywhere else but down, she’d get dizzy, maybe even faint. Like that time she watched the Fourth of July fireworks from a friend’s rooftop patio.

A white-knuckled grip on the railing, she made her descent. The sound of her boots hitting the metal steps echoed in the alley below. At the bottom she opened the cage door, emerging into the alleyway. As with the emergency exit above, the door automatically closed and locked behind her.

Hurriedly she glanced around, disoriented, uncertain in which direction to go. Like a weird nether world, the alley was filled with bins, skips, SUV-sized air conditioning condensers and parked vans. Against an adjacent building there was a tall pile of discarded office furniture, the offices recently remodelled, the old stuff still waiting to be taken away. Given it was December, every window that looked onto the alley was closed. And since no one wanted a bird’s eye view of big blue rubbish bins, the blinds were all pulled shut.

From above her, Edie heard a door suddenly swing open.

The killer had found the fire escape.

Not wasting a second, she ducked behind a condenser, praying she hadn’t been spotted. If she hurried, she could escape the alley before he reached the bottom. But she couldn’t exit the alley without moving into the killer’s line of sight. That left only one option — she had to hide.

Keeping to the shadows, she dashed some fifteen feet to the heap of jumbled chairs, their wooden arms and legs jutting into the air at odd angles. Like so many broken bones. As far as hiding places went, it was pretty pathetic. The pile wouldn’t stop a bullet. Or prevent a big, meaty fist from grabbing her. But it was the best that she could do at short notice.

Espying a small opening at the bottom of the pile, she got down on her hands and knees and crawled into the hole. It was no more than twenty inches in height and she had to navigate with care. One wrong move and the heap of furniture could well tumble to the ground. With her underneath. Unable to crawl any farther into the pile, she came to a halt. Tucking her legs beneath her body, she made herself as small as possible. Invisible would have been better. Better because she knew with a sickening sense of certainty that the man on the fire escape wouldn’t hesitate to kill her.

Hearing the rattle of a metal door, she peered through the jumble of furniture, watching as the killer exited the fire escape. He had removed his ski mask. Edie could see that he sported a military-style buzz cut. His face mottled with what looked like rage, he seemed on the verge of a steroid-induced rampage.

In hunting mode, the killer swivelled his head from side to side, scanning the alley. Edie saw a large bulge at the back of his waist. The gun that had killed Dr Padgham. Methodically, the man’s gaze moved from target to target: blue bins, green condenser, white van. And then his gaze zeroed in on the furniture pile.

These might very well be the last few moments before my death.

Edie envisioned her bleeding body sprawled beneath a pile of discarded chairs. No doubt that’s who would find her, the orange-suited guys from the sanitation department.