‘No,’ said Rob, without looking at him. ‘You didn’t.’
‘I saw a fellow falling right off of the top of your motor there, I’m sure of it.’
‘No,’ said Rob. ‘There was nobody.’
‘Well, my eyes must have deceived me, then, because I swear blind that’s what I saw.’
‘Yes,’ said Rob. ‘They must. Deceived you, I mean.’
The black streak in the River Plym gradually thinned out, like an oil slick, and soon it had slithered off between the rocks altogether. So John Kipling had been right that Esus was afraid of water, and now Rob had seen why. It could dissolve him.
Esus, sometimes known as the Bonebiter, or the Fluter, the demon mistaken by Dartmoor folk for the Devil, or Old Dewer as they called him, had melted away in the water that he had always dreaded.
A woman in a woolly hat and a bulky red sweater came up to Rob and said, ‘Are you all right, love?’
‘I don’t know yet,’ he said. ‘It’s still too early to say. But thank you for asking.’
40
It was three hours before he could return to Allhallows Hall. Two police officers came from Crownhill to question him and give him a breathalyser test, and a tow truck had to be called in from Tavistock to haul his damaged Honda down off the Dewerstone.
‘There’s witnesses here that say they saw a man hanging on to the roof of your car as it come up through the woods, and that he went toppling off when you come to a sudden stop at the edge here.’
Rob shook his head. ‘No. It wasn’t a man. It was only a black rubbish bag full of old clothes that I was taking to the Cancer Research charity shop in Plymouth.’
‘Those two climbers over there, they’re dead sure that it was a man.’
‘You haven’t found a body in the river, have you?’
‘No, we haven’t. But we haven’t found no rubbish sack full of old clothes, neither.’
‘Maybe the bag burst open and they just got washed away.’
The police officers looked at each other and shrugged. Without a body they had to accept what Rob had told them, and even though he had taken a glass of his father’s whiskey, he was well under the limit for alcohol. They cautioned him and said that they would be considering a charge of dangerous driving, but that he was free to go. In fact, they would give him a lift back to Sampford Spiney.
While he waited for the police officers to make notes and take photographs, he borrowed a phone from one of them so that he could call Vicky to tell her he was safe. He didn’t mention Esus because the police were in earshot.
All he said was, ‘It’s all over, Vicks. He’s gone, and he’s never coming back. Is Timmy there? And Martin?’
‘I don’t know, Rob. I just don’t know. The whisperers won’t come downstairs and they won’t let any of us go up. One of them’s a priest and he says they’re still afraid. “Mortally fearful”, that’s what he said.’
‘What are they afraid of? He’s gone.’
‘They say they need proof that he’s never coming back. They still think he’s going to take his revenge on them because they were the only reason he was kept shut up in the cellar for so many hundreds of years. They’re absolutely terrified that he’s going to trap them in time all over again, or else he’s going to kill them.’
‘Have you asked this priest if Timmy’s there?’
‘Yes, but he wouldn’t say.’
‘Listen, darling. Try to stay calm. I’ll be back as soon as I can. But you can tell that priest, you can tell all those whisperers, they’re free now.’
He looked across at his dented and damaged Honda, and saw that one of Esus’s gauntlets was still caught in the handle of the driver’s door.
‘Tell them I can bring them proof.’
The police drove him back to Allhallows Hall. Both officers were friendly and chatty, although one of them kept shaking his head and laughing and saying, ‘I’ve seen motocross before, but I’ve never yet seen nobody try to drive up to the top of the Dewerstone. I can’t think for the life of me what must have been going through your head to do that.’
Rob smiled tightly but didn’t answer. He couldn’t stop thinking of Esus staring through the shattered windscreen at him, upside down, his silver eyes shining with hatred.
When they turned into the driveway of Allhallows Hall, he saw that there were two other police cars there already, as well as DI Holley’s car, and John Kipling’s, too.
‘Hello,’ said one of the officers. ‘Looks like the dicks is here, for some reason.’
As soon as he climbed out of the police car, Vicky came out of the front door and ran up to meet him. He hugged her and kissed her, and then he held up the gauntlet.
‘Proof,’ he said.
DI Holley and DC Cutland were standing outside in the courtyard, talking to John Kipling. Five uniformed officers were standing around, looking impatient.
‘I gather you’ve been doing some rather adventurous cross-country motoring, Mr Russell,’ said DI Holley.
‘Yes,’ said Rob. ‘I’ve already been cautioned.’
‘Anything to do with what’s going on here, by any chance?’
‘You know what’s going on here?’
‘Your lady wife has given us a pretty comprehensive picture of the situation, which is why we’ve refrained up until now from entering the premises. To be frank with you, it’s all extremely hard to believe. But – incredible as they are – the facts do appear to tally, and she’s begged us not to go barging into the house with undue haste, and so we haven’t.’
‘What has she told you?’
‘She’s said that the house has been covertly occupied for some time by a number of males who appear to be criminals. She explained that there’s a particular room in which they’ve been concealing themselves, and that this room has some highly unusual properties. She said that
