couldn't let him stay there and it was wrong to hang the German girl now that the quads were safe.
Eva grabbed Wilt's legs and began to pull. Outside the police had reached Gudrun Schautz and were cutting her down. As the rope broke Wilt fell from his perch and mingled with portions of the chair.
'Oh my poor darling,' said Eva, her voice suddenly taking on a new and, to Wilt, thoroughly alarming solicitude. It was typical of the bloody woman to practically turn him into a cripple and then be conscience-stricken. As she took him in her arms Wilt groaned and decided the time had come to put the boot in diplomatically. He passed out.
On the patio below Gudrun Schautz was unconscious too. Before she could be more than partially strangled she had been lifted down and now the head of the Anti-Terrorist Squad was giving her the kiss of life rather more passionately than was called for. Flint dragged himself away from this unnatural relationship and cautiously entered the house. A hole in the kitchen floor testified to the destructive force of a ruptured bio-loo. 'Out of their tiny minds,' he muttered behind his handkerchief and slithered through into the hall before climbing the stairs to the attic. The scene that greeted him there confirmed his opinion. The Wilts were clasped in one another's arms. Flint shuddered. He would never understand what these two diabolical people saw in one another. Come to think of it he didn't want to know. There were some mysteries better left unprobed. He turned back towards his more orderly world where there were no such awful ambiguities and was greeted on the landing by the quads. They were dressed in some clothes they had found in Mrs de Frackas' chest of drawers and wearing hats that had been fashionable before the First World War. As they tried to rush past him Flint stopped them.
'I don't think your mummy and daddy want to be disturbed,' he said, firmly holding to the view that nice children should be spared the sight of their naked parents presumably making love. But the Wilt quads had never been nice.
'What are they doing?' asked Samantha.
Flint swallowed. 'They're...er...engaged.'
'You mean they're not married?' asked Samantha gleefully adjusting her boa.
'I didn't say that...' began Flint
'Then we're bastards,' squealed Josephine. 'Michael's daddy says if mummies and daddies aren't married their babies are called bastards.'
Flint stared down at the hideously precocious child 'You can say that again,' he muttered, and went on downstairs. Above him the quads could be heard chanting something about daddies having wigwags and mummies having... Flint hurried out of earshot and found the stench in the kitchen a positive relief. Two ambulance men were carrying Mrs de Frackas out on a stretcher. Amazingly she was still alive.
'Bullet lodged in her stays,' said one of the ambulance men. 'Tough old bird. Don't make them like this any more.'
Mrs de Frackas opened a beady eye 'Are the children still alive?' she asked faintly.
Flint nodded 'It's all right. They're quite safe. You needn't worry about them.'
'Them?' moaned Mrs de Frackas 'You can't seriously suppose I'm worried about them. It's the thought that I'll have to live next door to the little savages that...'
But the effort to express her horror was too much for her and she sank back on the pillow. Flint followed her out to the ambulance.
'Take me off the drip,' she pleaded as they loaded her inside.
'Can't do that, mum,' said the ambulance man, 'it's against union rules.'
He shut the doors and turned to Flint. 'Suffering from shock, poor old dear. They get like that sometimes. Don't know what they're saying.'
But Flint knew better, and as the ambulance drove away his heart went out to the courageous old lady. He was thinking of asking for a transfer himself.
