uppers to keep him mentally right on top of things, only God knows what else you slip in there till finally the boy collapses. Plenty of choice, him being a pedlar in a small way. Then you slip away. Only you made two mistakes, Franny. One, you were seen by a witness who can positively identify you. Two, you couldn't resist taking his drug stash and, more tellingly, this love token, which it must have torn your guts to see Jake flashing around.'
He held up the watch.
He didn't expect Roote to start like a guilty thing surprised, but the youth was full of surprises. His face crumpled and tears came to his eyes as he looked at the watch. Could this at last be confession time? Pascoe asked himself.
The security man's radio crackled. He lifted it to his mouth, pressed the Send button, and said, 'Yes, over.' Then he listened.
Wield couldn't make out the words, but didn’t need to, the body language told all.
The security man took a step back from the Praesidium men.
The radio was still pouring urgent words into his ear.
Don't be a hero, urged Wield, letting the bike move gently forward.
The man pressed the Send button and began to speak.
The taller of the other men reached into the cab of the pantechnicon. When he straightened up, he had something in his hands.
Wield, because he had that kind of mind, identified it even from this distance as a Mossberg 500 ATP8C, shotgun.
He sent the Thunderbird raging forward.
The big man pushed between the Praesidium pair, pointed the gun at the security man, and fired.
The man staggered back drunkenly, took a few steps sideways, then collapsed.
Wield had to swerve to avoid his body and felt the machine going from under him. His loss of control probably saved his life. The big man had swung the gun to cover his approach and now he fired again. Wield heard shot pellets ricocheting off concrete, felt a spatter of them bed themselves into his leathers. One of the Praesidium men was yelling angrily, but his words were drowned by the noise of a fast approaching siren. At the same time, several more security men came racing down the ramp.
Wield hadn't stopped rolling till he fetched up against the front wheel of the van. He came to his feet in a single movement and scrambled through the open door, pulling it shut behind him as the next shot ploughed into the armour-plated side. The key was in the ignition. He turned it on, pressed on the accelerator and swung the wheel over hard, swinging the vehicle round till it crashed into the front of the pantechnicon.
'Get out of that if you can,' he mouthed at the big man, who sent another ball of shot crashing into the van's window, which bulged and crazed but didn't give.
A police van was coming fast up the slip road.
The heisters seemed uncertain what to do, all except the big man, who had seized the crate from the back of the pantechnicon and was now dragging it, screaming at the others for help, into the loading bay, heading towards the service lift.
The others began to follow him. Police officers and security men began to run forward. One-handed, the big man sent a shot towards them. It didn't find a target, but it was enough to discourage heroics and send the pursuers diving for cover.
The four fugitives and the crate disappeared into the lift and the doors closed.
Up above, aware of the sound of police sirens but happily ignorant of the drama going on beneath her feet, Ellie Pascoe grimaced as Suzie's mum, the founder of the feast, acknowledged that the partygoers had eaten as much as they could contain. Next on the agenda was the Punch and Judy show, a sore test of political correctness but a good way of channelling the little buggers' newly refreshed energies and aggressions.
Leaving the other mums to get the kids into a rough kind of line, Ellie went outside to summon Rosie and her friend. Little Mary came instantly, but Rosie yelled, 'Just one more go,' and vanished into the Dragon. The sound of sirens was nearer, coming from all sides. Along the walkway beyond the play area, Ellie saw four men running, two of them in some kind of uniform. One of the uniformed men and a short square man in overalls were carrying a crate between them. The other uniformed man was jogging alongside another man in overalls who was huge and carried something in his right hand.
It looked like a gun.
'Oh Jesus,' said Ellie. Then she screamed, 'Rosie!'
Her daughter had appeared on top of the dragon. She waved at her mother and launched herself down the switchback neck. The beast roared, the crimson smoke belched, Rosie vanished into it and, when she reappeared through the fumes, she was caught up under the big man's left arm.
'Mum!' yelled the little girl.
Ellie began to run forward. Their paths must intersect. The gun began to wave in her direction but she knew it didn't matter. It would take more than a gun to stop her now.
But before her suicidal bravado could be put to the test, there was the sound of a siren behind her and a police car came round the side of the Jumbo Burger Bar.
The fleeing men changed direction, now heading away from the play area towards the crowded commercial shopping area of Estotiland.
Ellie went in pursuit, but as they disappeared through a sliding glass door, she felt herself seized from behind.
She turned on her captor, swinging her fists, but stopped struggling when she saw the unmistakable features of Edgar Wield.
'They've got Rosie’ she sobbed.
'It'll be OK, Ellie,' he said urgently. 'There's nowhere for them to go.'
She wanted to believe him, she wanted to run after her daughter, she wanted… above all – fuck feminism – she wanted her husband.
'Wieldy,' she said. 'Get Peter, for me. Please. Get Peter!'
‘It's funny,' said Roote. 'You know where the quotation comes from?'
'Death's Jest-Book,' said Pascoe. 'What's so funny about that?'
'Just the context. A message of love from Sam. But if you look at the context of the quote, we're back with that tragic irony you were talking about, Mr Pascoe. Here it is.'
He took down the other volume of Beddoes' works and opened it at a page which was marked by what looked like a sheet of writing paper.
He said, 'Athulf, the Duke's son, is talking to his brother, Adalmar. He says 'I have drunk myself immortal.' His brother replies, 'You are poisoned?' And Athulf says,
I am blessed, Adalmar. I've done't myself,
'Tis nearly passed, for I begin to hear
Strange but sweet sounds, and the loud rocky dashing
Of waves, where time into Eternity
Falls over ruined worlds.
Beautiful, isn't it?'
'I'm not here to discuss aesthetics,' said Pascoe wearily. 'If you've got a point, make it, then I'll arrest you.'
'Yes, I'm sorry. My point is… I think you'd better read this, Mr Pascoe.'
He removed the bookmark and handed it over. Pascoe now saw that it was indeed a sheet of writing paper which was enclosed in a piece of transparent plastic through which he could see writing.
He looked up at Roote, who nodded encouragingly. And sympathetically.
Don't read this, Pascoe told himself. It's another spell this evil sorcerer is laying on you. Take him in, hand htm over to Fat Andy, the Witchfinder General!
But even as he told himself not to read, his eyes were taking in the scrawled words.
Darling Sam its all too much its not just the work though thats more than I can get through without the help you promised me its what you said to me I thought you loved me more than that Im looking at the watch you gave me as I write well my worlds really broken now why did you do this to me youve been carrying me for two years now you always said that as long as you were around I didnt need to worry about grades or anything whats
