Adam’s voice, strained and highly pitched, asked, ‘So what happens now?’
It was Bellringer who answered. ‘Now, Brother, there are choices to be made. Somehow the police have learned of our involvement, and by this time, no doubt, the house will be surrounded — I expect a voice over the loud-hailer at any minute. Realistically, we can only hold them at bay for a limited time.
‘Regarding Sister and the Prelate here, I mentioned that only in extreme cases is extreme action taken. But once it is taken, if things go wrong that action must be followed through to the end.’
‘You’ll hand them over to the police?’ That was Daniel.
‘No, Brother. It is not seemly that men should sit in judgement on those who do the Lord’s work, and provisions have been made accordingly. When need be, the right of execution may be extended to oneself. Our brother and sister here will avail themselves of that right, answering for their actions not to the police but directly to that higher Authority.’
He felt in his pocket and Nina went cold as he extracted several small foil sheets.
‘In wartime, tablets such as these were issued to spies behind enemy lines. Our war, against Satan, goes on.’
‘Suicide pills,’ said Terry under his breath, and Stephanie gave a choked little cry.
‘Death will be painless and instantaneous, my friends, you have my word on that. The moment the police break into the house, Sister Sarah and the Prelate will each swallow a tablet.’
His face was now shining with a radiance that Nina found terrifying. ‘Do we want our brother and sister to journey alone?’ he demanded exultantly. ‘Or shall we be willing fellow-travellers? Naturally, I myself shall be accompanying them; there is no way the forces of evil shall get their hands on this servant of the Lord!’
There was an uneasy stirring in the room as, against their will, his followers felt the pull of his suggestion.
Bellringer’s eyes, mesmeric and compelling, circled them again. ‘Think, brothers and sisters! Today you too could be in Paradise, free to do the Lord’s work without the fetters of this mortal flesh. Naturally, those who prefer to face the police may elect to do so. But what a glorious gesture a mass exodus would be! What a testament to our faith!’
Moving to the small table on the dais, he tore the foil sheets into separate squares and, with great deliberation, laid them out in a row. Then he stood back and lifted his hands, inviting all who wished to come and take one.
‘No more worry and hardship,’ he said softly, ‘no violence, terrorism or cruelty. No loneliness or pain. No fear of the unknown, for all will be clear. The peace of it — ah, the peace!’
Sarah turned and, walking like an automaton, went to the table, took a foil-wrapped pill, and stepped down from the dais. Brad followed her. Rigid in her chair, not breathing, Nina waited. If one moved, they all would. Please, no! she willed them desperately. Stay where you are, for God’s sake!
But after a timeless pause Adam pushed back his chair, and with a slow, ceremonial tread walked to the dais and picked up a foil square. A lesser pause, then Daniel followed him. Around her, chairs were beginning to be pushed back. A multiple tragedy was being set in motion. She could wait no longer.
*
Victoria Drive was cordoned off and neighbours warned to stay indoors. A rendezvous point had been established in the forecourt of the Cock and Feathers in Lethbridge Road, where Webb had passed on his knowledge of the situation to senior officers and briefed the back-up teams as they arrived.
The original anxious group, composed of the Frenches, the Chases, Hannah and Charles, had been joined at the police barricade by a steadily growing crowd who had stopped out of curiosity, persistently ignoring the uniformed constables who tried to move them on.
Behind parked cars and garden walls the firearms team had taken up their positions and cameras were trained on the inscrutable frontage of No. 5. The air crackled as different groups communicated by radio. Hannah could see David talking to the tactical firearms officer. Further down the road, Superintendent Donaldson was conferring with the negotiator. The immediate action plan had been agreed on and operations were about to begin.
*
She would collect a pill, Nina decided. The lab would want to analyse it and there might even be a chance of an antidote, though if death was as instantaneous as Bellringer had said, that was unlikely. Following Ruth, she went to claim her right to die, her brain moving into top gear.
The pills wouldn’t be taken till the police broke in — that was the plan at the moment. Therefore they must be warned of the situation.
Returning from the dais, she saw that Stephanie and Marina were preparing to go up in their turn. Nina stopped and put a hand to her head, and, as she’d hoped, they paused.
‘Are you all right?’ Marina asked anxiously.
Disregarding the banality of the question in such circumstances, Nina replied, ‘I feel a bit faint. Could you — come with me to get a glass of water?’
‘Of course.’ Marina took her arm and for a moment it seemed that Stephanie would continue to the dais. Quickly, Nina swayed against her so that the girl instinctively caught her and the three of them, barely noticed, went out into the corridor.
Even before the door had closed, Nina, taking them unawares, had caught hold of each girl and was running with them through the kitchen to the back door.
Pushing back the bolts, she said swiftly, ‘Now get out as quickly as you can and run.’ No doubt the authority Brad had recognized in her came to her aid — that and the fact that the girls were used to discipline. For whatever reason they made no demur but obediently started through the door.
As they emerged, several heads rose above the level of the back wall and the gate swung open. A man moved cautiously into the gap and, after a moment’s assessment, beckoned them.
Pushing the girls in front of her, Nina ran towards him. ‘DI Petrie. Can you come in straight away — quietly and from the rear? They’re planning mass suicide the minute you appear, but they’re expecting the loud-hailer first.’
‘I’ll get straight on to Control. How many are in there?’
She calculated rapidly. ‘Twelve. They’re in the room on the right, most of them seated at tables. There are two doors, one further up the passage — it’d be as well to come through both simultaneously and go straight for the foil squares they’re all holding. I don’t think anyone’s armed. Now hurry, for God’s sake. I’ll go back and do what I can.’
And before he could remonstrate she had turned and run back into the house.
When Nina slipped back into the room, they were all sitting with bowed heads while Bellringer led them in prayer. No pills seemed to have been swallowed yet, but the Captain, possibly tiring of the police’s waiting game, was obviously building up to it.
‘Your people are desirous of being with you, oh Lord!’ he was intoning. ‘We have saved many souls following your divine inspiration, and others will continue our work here on earth. We pray you will receive us this day to work more closely with you for the salvation that is at hand. Even now —’
Nina moved silently up on to the dais. ‘Wait!’ she said loudly, startling them all. Bellringer swung to face her, the bowed heads jerked upright.
‘Let us first give thanks for all the good things of life,’ she improvised wildly. (Would they be in position yet?) ‘Let us remember the love of family and friends and pray they will not grieve too deeply for us.’ She hoped that message would go home.
‘Let us give thanks for birds and flowers and all wild things, for good food and fellowship, for sunshine and rain.’ It was an amalgam of school grace and ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’ she thought hysterically as she plunged ahead, intent only on delaying the final, deadly act.
‘Sister Nina —’ Bellringer boomed, and she saw dawning mistrust in his eyes.
‘Please, Captain! I want to pray for my mother and my little girl —’
There was a muffled sob from one of t
he tables.
Bellringer said angrily, ‘That’s enough! We go forward joyously, regretting nothing! Brothers and sisters —’
And they were there at last, a dozen silent men materializing among them, each aiming for a particular target and searching out the lethal tablets. In a few cases they were too late, but Nina, thankfully stumbling from the room, did not learn that until later.
*
‘So what happens to them now?’ Hannah asked. It was several days later and they were sitting in her dining-room over a celebratory dinner.
‘It’s in the hands of the CPS. Baines and Lübekker are behind bars on a murder charge and the rest of them detained on bail while a report’s made.’
‘But what can they be charged with?’
‘There could be conspiracy charges concerning the murder. And there are three more dead, remember; it’s an offence to aid and abet suicide.’
‘Surely that applies only to Bellringer?’
Webb shrugged. ‘It’ll all be looked into, though I doubt if we’ll proceed against the rest of them. But if Bellringer and that henchman of his are found guilty, they could get up to fourteen years.’
He refilled their glasses. ‘It’s a messy business all round, but it would have been a great deal worse without Nina. It’s been tough on her, though, since she knew them socially. What of your errant girls?’ he added. ‘Will they need de-programming?’
‘I don’t think so; I suspect the final trauma did the trick. One good thing, their parents will pay more attention to them in future. I just wish we’d been in time to save Miss Hendrix.’
‘Some people are natural victims,’ Webb said reflectively. ‘It sounds as though she was one of them.’
‘What about Victoria Drive?’
‘If they’re freed from bail they’ll move out, and if they’re charged it’ll be closed down. Either way, it’s the end of the Revvies as far as Shillingham’s concerned.’
‘Well, that’s certainly worth drinking to,’ Hannah said.
*
Nina lay in bed, grieving for the waste of life she’d been unable to prevent; for Daniel and Adam and gentle Lucy, all of whom had harmed no one. If anyone had to die, she thought rebelliously, why hadn’t it been Bellringer, or Brad and Sarah who, after all, had killed Kershaw? So many deaths, and all because one old lady had disinherited her son.
She let her mind drift back over the last two weeks, remembering the warmth and fellowship which, with whatever ulterior motive, had certainly been offered to her, the meal round the kitchen table, the laughter. Why could it not all have been as it seemed, without those dangerous undercurrents?
She was filled with a helpless hatred of Bellringer for his manipulation of those trusting souls who had followed him. What would Daniel’s grandmother be feeling now — grief, bewilderment, a total lack of comprehension which, perhaps, she had always felt towards him?
And Lucy’s parents? Nina’s hands clenched, knowing how murderous she would feel if anyone harmed Alice. Suddenly she needed to see her, to reassure herself that the child was safe from the threat to which Nina herself had unthinkingly exposed her. The memory of that day in the hills, and the shadow coming over the sun, was still very potent.
She slipped out of bed and went quietly to her daughter’s bedroom. Alice lay asleep on her back, her hair all over the pillow and a copy of The Borrowers face down on the floor beside her.
For several long minutes Nina stood looking down at her, filled with a tumult of love and thankfulness. Then she bent and slowly kissed her forehead.
It was over, they were both safe, and tomorrow was another day. With which philosophical thought she went back to bed.
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Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
The Gospel Makers Page 21
