“Dear, dear, dear Mr. Poe.” Sarah’s voice was soft, low, seductive. “Can we not comfort you as well?”
Lord help us, thought Figg. This one really thinks she’s a woman and if I didn’t know the bloody difference, I’d think so too. And Poe, he can only stand there like his feet are nailed to the carpet. Nothing he ever learned about women has prepared the little man for this day, I’ll wager.
Poe’s jaw trembled. He gripped his stick with two hands. This was no woman, this was-
Figg heard the tiny click, saw the blade.
The knife was just behind Poe’s shoulder.
Sarah’s fan. Sarah had pressed a button, sending six inches of slim, bright steel out of the fan’s handle.
Figg was in motion.
He did it all at once. Shift the pistol to his left hand, shove Poe forward and out of the way and with his right hand, grab Sarah’s fan hand.
Figg swung the arm behind Sarah’s back, jerking it up hard, fast and high, jerking it up between Sarah’s shoulder blades and driving the prostitute up on his toes. And with a sickening pop, breaking the arm at the right shoulder blade.
Sarah collapsed on the floor, blonde wig falling off. His face was white, his mouth open in terrible shock. He inhaled loudly through his opened mouth.
Figg leveled the pistol at the other two male prostitutes who were on their feet, fists tightly around their fans. The blades in each fan glittered brightly.
Figg pulled his other flintlock from his pocket. “I don’t miss too often from this close up.”
Poe slowly got off the table. He’d fallen on it, smearing the front of his coat with erotic food and drink. His nostrils flared at the smell and he winced. “My gratitude, Mr. Figg.”
“Accepted, Mr. Poe.”
Poe looked at Volney Gunning. “Where is Jonathan, sir and be quick about it.”
Gunning, vunerable in his pathetic nudity, began to weep. “I cannot say.”
“You cannot or will not?”
“Cannot. I, I do not know.”
Returning a pistol to his pocket, Figg then bent over, picking up Sarah’s fan knife. “I could use this ’ere thing on yer tender parts, Mr. Gunning. Bet you would converse with us then.”
Gunning shook his head, continuing to weep. “I do not know, I swear
Figg sneered. Bloody poof. No spine, no spunk. Figg moved towards him.
Gunning was on his feet. He ran towards the drapes, disappearing behind them. Everyone in the room was caught by surprise. As the two other naked men were getting to their feet and the two male prostitutes were looking in the direction Gunning had gone, they all heard the sound of window glass breaking and they heard Volney Gunning’s fading scream.
Sarah moaned, but in the race to the window, Sarah was forgotten.
Through the broken window, they looked down at the bleeding body of Volney Gunning barely visible in the snow and darkness behind the building. Gunning’s head was at an ugly angle, an angle possible only in death.
Poe said, “Jonathan terrified him, Mr. Figg. More than you or I ever could, Jonathan terrified him.”
A shivering Prosper Benjamin moved quickly away from the window, rubbing his arms, muttering to himself. “This is tragic. This is tragic. What shall we do?”
In the center of the room, he turned to point a finger at Poe and Figg. “You two! Your fault. You killed him and I shall see you hang for it. Yes hanged!”
Poe said, “And reveal to the world the degenerate you are? Unlikely, Mr. Benjamin. Our modern times have not accepted homosexuality and that, sir, is an understatement. There is nothing lower than a homosexual and I, for one, would make sure that the press and public learned of your proclivities even if I have to write the article myself. No sir, you will not do anything to indicate that Mr. Figg and I are criminally involved with the death of Mr. Gunning. For your sake and that of Mr. Pietch, I suggest you evolve a tale explaining Mr. Gunning’s sudden demise. I hear footsteps on the stairs. Think fast, Mr. Benjamin. Your time is at hand, sir.”
Poe opened the door and Figg gladly followed him through it.
THIRTY-FIVE
Jonathan. The second day.
The sun was a hard brilliance; it shone down on the snow to create an eye-piercing glare. Dark shapes slunk in and out of the glare, heading towards the barn on Hugh Larney’s abandoned horse farm. The shapes were starving wolves and they had heard the whinny of the two horses used by Jonathan and Laertes. The wolves, experienced and intelligent, had killed horses before. Made desperate by hunger and a bitter February cold, the wolves closed in on the barn.
There were seven of them and they moved in killing formation, spread out and alert, lean gray bodies loping easily and gracefully across the snow, heads turning left and right to sense danger. Their eyes glittered, their jaws hung down to reveal deadly teeth.
Suddenly the wolves stopped, freezing in their tracks. Their ears flattened against their skulls and a couple of them began inching backwards, mouths closed, heads darting left and right, eagerly seeking the source of the overwhelming danger they now felt.
There was no sound except the howl of the wind. Then came the howl of the wolf leader and the others took it up. The leader’s sense of danger was stronger and he had warned the others. They felt it too and answered him.
The wolves turned and fled, leaving their tracks in the snow and soon they had gone. Behind them all was quiet. No sound came from the barn where Jonathan and Laertes slept.
But the wolves had felt the danger and evil now accumulating around the barn and even these most vicious of killers in nature’s scheme of destruction did not want to confront it.
* * * *
A worried Poe sat on the edge of Rachel’s bed, holding her hand. Behind him the doctor said, “She rests now but that is because of the medicine. According to the servants, her screams occurred too frequently during the night.”
“Jonathan,” whispered Poe.
“I beg your pardon?”
“It is of no matter, sir.”
“There is a great disturbance within her, Mr. Poe. She is deeply troubled and I would assume that her recent ordeal-”
“Yes doctor. She suffers from having confronted an evil most of us can barely imagine.”
“I leave you now, Mr. Poe. Her maid-servant has instructions as to the proper medication and she is to contact me immediately should the crisis reassert itself.”
Poe didn’t turn around. “Yes, doctor. You have my deepest gratitude.”
“Yes, well … ”
Poe still did not turn around. He kept his eyes on Rachel, now deep in a drugged sleep. Was she again having nightmares about Jonathan?
Her fingers clutched Poe’s hand and her lovely face suddenly contorted and Poe’s heart fluttered.
He turned to look at the door, on the verge of calling the doctor back. Then Rachel relaxed her grip and Poe looked down at her once more. My dearest, my dearest. Leaning over her, he gently kissed her perspiring brow. My dearest Rachel.
A tear fell from Poe’s eye, disappearing into the thick, soft redness that was Rachel Coltman’s lovely
