The Last Weekend Read online

  ‘I’ll go.’ He made to get up. Mayfly held him.

  ‘No, don’t do that. We were okay, weren’t we? Before this?’

  He nodded.

  ‘So, let’s do what we were doing before.’ She saw doubt flicker in his eyes. ‘Please, Indigo. I don’t want to be alone.’

  ‘Okay.’ He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. ‘I don’t either, if I’m honest.’

  ‘Good. Okay, then.’

  Indigo lay back and Mayfly snuggled into him, her head on his shoulder. He rested his cheek on her hair again and cursed his actions, his life, his inability to just let go and move on.

  He hadn’t expected to sleep, but not long after he felt Mayfly slip into slumber, he, too, drifted off.

  ***

  In the room next to Mayfly’s, Scaredycat trembled beneath her quilt, the covers pulled up over her head. She slept fitfully. She was worn out with fear, sick at heart about the whole situation. She was scared to be on her own, but would have been scared to be with JunkieScum, too; not just in case she turned out to be the killer, but also in case she turned out to want something from her. Everyone, it seemed, wanted something from Scaredycat. It had been like that her whole life; people taking and taking, each time a little more of her dignity, her courage, her sense of self. She wondered if she still had a soul or if that, too, had been stolen a fragment at a time by those who should have known better, those whose job it had been to care for her, but who had instead used her and hurt her and loaned her out or sold her to others who used her and hurt her in their turn.

  She heard noises outside her room; the lift door opened, the wheels of the trolley clanked over the gap in the floor between the lift and the hall, a key turned in a lock … she heard nothing more for some minutes, then the sounds reversed, followed by a mechanical hum as the lift purred into life and ascended.

  She wept into her pillow, quietly, softly. This weekend was supposed to have been when it all stopped. This was meant to have been the end of the fear; instead, it had simply brought more. Finally, as dawn was breaking, Scaredycat drifted off to sleep although, mercifully, she did not dream.

  Chapter 18

  Indigo woke early, disorientated, and thought he had Emily back in his arms. For just a moment, hope surged through him and he kissed the top of the head that rested on his chest, then wondered that the hair was auburn and not brunette. When he remembered where he was the familiar sense of loss and heartbreak flooded through him. It was followed by another feeling, one that he had not felt for a very long time: longing. He felt longing and a warmth that he had not expected to experience again. He held Mayfly while she slept, warm and peaceful in his arms, breathed in her scent, buried his face in her hair and neither imagined nor wanted her to be anyone other than who she was.

  ***

  When Indigo and Mayfly strolled into the rear sitting room just after half past eight that morning, they found everyone already there, with the exception of Scaredycat and SpeedKing.

  ‘We’ll give them another five minutes,’ said BlackWidow, ‘then we’ll go chase them up.’

  Technogeek said, ‘You don’t think they’re—’

  ‘Getting it on?’ said Monkeyboy.

  ‘No,’ said BlackWidow firmly, ‘I do not.’

  ‘They wouldn’t be the only ones if they were,’ said DeadManWalking, looking pointedly at Indigo and Mayfly.

  ‘Hi, gang. Am I late?’ said SpeedKing, as he strolled into the room.

  ‘Yes,’ said DeadManWalking.

  BlackWidow gave DeadManWalking a sharp look. ‘Just so long as you’re here and in one piece, honey. That’s all that matters,’ she said to SpeedKing.

  ‘We’ll go and check on Scaredycat,’ said Mayfly, and she and Indigo headed out of the room. As they walked up the stairs, she said, ‘Are you okay with the comments?’

  ‘Sticks and stones,’ he said.

  ‘Should we tell them they’re wrong?’

  ‘None of their business. Let them think what they want.’ He stopped at Scaredycat’s door.

  ‘Fair enough.’ Mayfly rapped on the door. ‘Hey, Scaredycat. You in there?’ She listened closely, thought she heard movement. ‘Scaredy, it’s me, Mayfly.’ She nodded to Indigo.

  ‘And Indigo as well. We’re both here. Everyone else is downstairs.’

  The door opened and Scaredycat peered through the crack. Once she’d had a good look at them, she opened the door fully and stepped into the corridor. ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t sleep at first, then I overslept, then I didn’t dare come out because I couldn’t hear anything from anybody.’

  ‘That’s okay. You’re better off being wary, I reckon. We’ll always come and get you and check that you’re okay.’

  Scaredycat gave them a shy smile. ‘Thank you,’ she said, then locked her door and put the key in her pocket.

  When they got downstairs, BlackWidow was calling everyone to action. SpeedKing and JacktheRiffer were to go outside and check on the phone line, and also see if there was anything useful out there. DeadManWalking had given them the front door key, so they could lock the door behind themselves on the way out and get back in again when they were done.

  Technogeek and Monkeyboy, and Indigo and JunkieScum, would search the house for computer equipment, mobile or satellite phones, or anything else that might prove useful. BlackWidow and DeadManWalking were to go back into Reaperman’s room to search it, to see if there was anything in there that could help them sort out the mess they had found themselves in. Mayfly and Scaredycat had been tasked with making breakfast for the group.

  ‘I don’t know about the rest of you,’ said Monkeyboy, ‘but I want something to defend myself with, just in case.’

  ‘Where are you going to get a weapon?’ said JunkieScum.

  ‘The kitchen, it’s got knives. Anyone else want one?’ Monkeyboy walked out of the room, across the hall and into the kitchen. The others trailed along behind. He went over to the magnetic knife rack on the wall by the stove and selected a cleaver. He made a few trial swipes with it, then said, ‘That should do. If anyone comes anywhere near me, they’ll get a dose of this.’

  ‘You sure you won’t do yourself harm with that, honey?’ said BlackWidow. ‘It’s an awfully big knife.’

  ‘What if there is somebody and he takes it off you?’ said JunkieScum. ‘He could have your head off with that.’

  ‘Or I could take his head off.’ Monkeyboy looked defiant, despite his small stature and habitual stoop.

  ‘I’ll take this one,’ said SpeedKing, selecting the knife with the longest blade.

  ‘Well, we can’t all take a knife,’ said BlackWidow. ‘There are only five left on the rack, plus that poker thing.’

  ‘It’s a steel,’ said Scaredycat, ‘it’s used for sharpening the knives.’

  ‘It looks like it’d make quite a good weapon in itself,’ said JacktheRiffer. ‘Maybe take that or a knife, per pair?’

  Mayfly was busy going through the kitchen drawers. ‘Steak knives,’ she said, when she found what she was looking for. She held one up; it had a wooden handle and a serrated blade, about four inches long. ‘Shorter, but very sharp. Easier to carry around and there are about a dozen in here; who wants one?’

  ‘I’ll take one,’ said Indigo.

  She handed one to him. ‘Anyone else?’ She passed knives out to those who wanted one. ‘Scaredy?’

  Scaredycat shook her head and wrapped her arms around her body. ‘No, I don’t like knives,’ she said.

  ‘Me neither,’ said DeadManWalking, ‘and if any one of you waves a knife anywhere near me, you’ll get what’s coming.’

  JunkieScum rolled her eyes, but held her tongue.

  ‘BlackWidow?’ said Mayfly.

  ‘Not for me, honey.’ She feared the biggest danger was someone having a knife taken from them and used against them, as JunkieScum had suggested, but she said nothing. She had to weigh her concerns against the comfort people got from feeling they could defend the
mselves.

  ‘Get some coffee on,’ called JacktheRiffer as he headed out of the room. ‘And make it good and strong.’

  ‘Bacon sarnies,’ instructed SpeedKing, ‘and don’t skimp on the brown sauce.’

  The two men ran upstairs to get their coats before going outside; the rain had stopped, but it was still blowing a gale and the wind was icy.

  ‘Everyone be back here in half an hour,’ instructed BlackWidow. ‘That’s …’ she checked her watch, ‘… at half past nine.’ The others checked their watches, too, feeling a little silly, but doing it all the same. ‘If you still have areas to search or things to check, you can return to that afterwards. Be back on time. Don’t make us worry about you, now.’

  ***

  Technogeek and Monkeyboy had opted to search the ground floor, leaving Indigo and JunkieScum to scour the second, which no one had entered yet. With the exception of Reaperman’s room, the bedrooms on the first floor weren’t going to be searched; everyone had locked their door, so they were presumed safe.

  Technogeek and Monkeyboy started turning over the front sitting room, opening drawers, looking through cupboards, even tapping the backs of them to see if they sounded hollow.

  ‘What do you think we might find?’ asked Monkeyboy, as he opened yet another empty drawer.

  ‘I don’t know … something that would help us,’ said Technogeek. ‘Let’s face it, even an envelope with an address on would be a step in the right direction.’

  ‘True.’

  They found nothing useful in either of the two reception rooms, and moved across the hall to the dining room.

  ‘Last chance,’ said Monkeyboy. ‘Fingers crossed we come up trumps this time.’

  ‘I don’t think we’ll find anything here, either, to be honest,’ said Technogeek. ‘Reaperman said this was the first event, and they don’t really seem to have settled in to the house. The stuff that’s here just seems to be left from when it was a hotel.’ He sighed. ‘Mind you, what I’d really like to find is a computer with an Internet connection. Some way of communicating with the outside world and also leaving information about what’s gone on here, just in case.’

  ‘Just in case of what?’

  Technogeek stopped searching through the chest of drawers that had his attention. ‘Just in case one of us is a fucking homicidal nutter and we don’t make it out.’

  ‘Do you think that’s likely? I mean, really? A killer among a bunch of folks that just want to die?’

  ‘A bunch of folks who say they just want to die. There’s a difference. I mean, what do we really know about each other? What did we really know about Reaperman, for that matter? Any one of us could be a killer. It’s a fucking lottery.’ He looked at Monkeyboy, big green eyes staring intently at the other man’s face. ‘It could be you.’

  ‘Or you.’ Monkeyboy gripped the handle of the cleaver more tightly.

  ‘Exactly. It isn’t, by the way. Me, I mean.’ Technogeek pushed the drawer shut.

  ‘I’m glad to hear it. Just for the record, it’s not me, either.’

  ‘Well, I’m glad that’s cleared up. Come on, let’s go through the reception desk in case they missed anything last night.’

  ***

  Indigo and JunkieScum climbed the stairs to the second floor, steak knives held in front of them.

  ‘I know it means it’ll take longer to search, but I think we should stick together,’ said Indigo.

  ‘No argument from me on that.’

  ‘I wonder how many rooms there are?’

  ‘If the first floor is anything to go by, there could be quite a few.’

  ‘We should have had help.’

  ‘Let’s do what we can,’ said JunkieScum. ‘Whatever we haven’t searched by half past, we can get help to do afterwards.’

  ‘What if we search, say half, and then we have to leave to meet the others? Somebody could sneak back into somewhere we’d already checked and we wouldn’t know.’

  ‘True, but it isn’t very likely, is it?’

  ‘It’s possible,’ insisted Indigo. ‘Let’s face it, if you were a killer, wouldn’t you take advantage of that?’

  ‘Well, maybe we should search really quickly, so we hit every room we find in one visit. Then, if we think it’s worth it, we can come back mob-handed and go through ’em all again.’

  ***

  Mayfly and Scaredycat were in the kitchen. ‘Let’s get breakfast sorted,’ said Mayfly, ‘but let’s have a scout round the kitchen area while we’re about it.’

  ‘You search,’ said Scaredycat. ‘Just so long as I know where you are. I’ll do breakfast.’

  ‘You sure? It’s a pretty big job.’

  ‘I’m sure. You can muck in when you’re done. In fact,’ she said, ‘you can pass out what I need so I don’t have to be the first to go in anywhere.’

  Mayfly started with the walk-in pantry. She passed out the goods Scaredycat said she would need, then set about checking the room out properly. She found nothing untoward. Next, she searched the cold store, again selecting those things that Scaredycat would need. After that came the freezer, which she gave a perfunctory check. Nothing could survive in there for long, it was just too damn cold. There was a storage area, but it was just a big, empty space. Finally, she checked out the kitchen itself, the cupboards and the units that made up the large, well-equipped room.

  ‘Nothing,’ Mayfly told Scaredycat when she’d finished. ‘Not a damn thing.’

  ‘Probably just as well.’

  ‘Wow!’ Mayfly said, when she saw what Scaredycat had done. Juice, cereal, fruit and milk were laid out on one worktop. Bacon sizzled on a griddle, eggs sat waiting to be cooked, as required, porridge bubbled in a pan, and Scaredycat was busy flipping pancakes. ‘What can I do?’

  ‘You can toast some bread,’ said Scaredycat, indicating a toaster on the side. ‘And make some tea and coffee.’

  By the time Technogeek and Monkeyboy came into the kitchen, everything was ready.

  ‘Jeez,’ said Technogeek. ‘We got Delia and Nigella!’

  ‘All down to Scaredy,’ said Mayfly. ‘Anything to report?’

  ‘’Fraid not,’ said Monkeyboy. ‘Not even a sniff of anything useful.’

  JacktheRiffer and SpeedKing were next to return. ‘Bad news,’ said SpeedKing, ‘the telephone wires have been cut.’

  ‘Just yesterday?’ said Monkeyboy.

  ‘I don’t know,’ said JacktheRiffer, ‘possibly, but they might have been like that for ages, for all we could tell.’

  ‘What about transport?’ asked Mayfly.

  ‘We checked everything out there,’ said SpeedKing, ‘and there’s nothing. No old Harley in a barn, no well-preserved Morris Traveller under a tarp.’

  ‘There’s a shed with a lawnmower and some jerry cans filled with petrol,’ added JacktheRiffer, ‘but that’s about it.’

  ‘Just a big, overgrown old garden and that high brick wall all the way around. I think there are attic rooms, though,’ said SpeedKing. ‘Judging by the windows I could see from the outside, I reckon there’s a fourth storey.’

  Indigo and JunkieScum clattered into the kitchen and expectant faces turned to them. ‘There are four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a big room with some old furniture stored in it on the second floor,’ said JunkieScum, ‘but nothing untoward, and nothing useful.’

  ‘Did you see any stairs leading up to an attic?’ said SpeedKing.

  ‘No,’ said Indigo. He looked at JunkieScum for confirmation and she shook her head.

  Finally, BlackWidow and DeadManWalking arrived, right on the button.

  JacktheRiffer looked from one to the other. ‘What’s up, guys?’ he said, noting their expressions.

  ‘It’s Reaperman,’ said BlackWidow. ‘He’s gone.’

  ‘How? I mean, he was dead.’ Indigo put down the bacon sandwich he was eating. ‘I saw him.’

  ‘I know, honey, but he’s gone now.’

  ‘Was there anything else in the room? Any
clues?’

  BlackWidow shook her head.

  ‘It was like he’d never been there,’ said DeadManWalking. ‘The bed was straightened up, the rope’s gone; the room’s been cleared out. There aren’t any clothes, there’s nothing left in the bathroom.’

  ‘What does it mean?’ asked JunkieScum.

  ‘I don’t know,’ said BlackWidow, ‘but it ain’t right. Something smells bad about this whole thing.’

  ‘Oh no, oh no, oh no …’ chanted Scaredycat

  Mayfly hugged her. ‘It’s okay, don’t worry,’ she said.

  ‘I heard it,’ Scaredycat whispered.

  ‘Heard what?’

  ‘The lift. In the night.’

  ‘Why didn’t you mention this earlier?’ said BlackWidow.

  ‘When I woke up, I thought I must have dreamt it, but now I think it must have been real.’

  ‘Did anyone else hear the lift?’ asked Mayfly.

  No one had.

  ‘What did you hear, exactly?’ said BlackWidow.

  ‘I heard the door, and a clunking, and a key in a lock. Then the key turned in the lock again, there was the clunking, and the lift door closed. Then it moved. It went up, I think.’

  Indigo looked at JacktheRiffer. ‘Come on, let’s go and see if the stuff in the lift’s still there.’

  The two men left the room and headed up the stairs.

  ‘What the hell’s going on?’ said Technogeek. ‘This is starting to freak me out.’

  Scaredycat clung to Mayfly. ‘He’s creeping round in the dark. Whoever he is, he likes the dark.’

  ‘We’ve all been okay, though. So far, anyway,’ Monkeyboy was saying, as Indigo and JacktheRiffer walked back into the kitchen. ‘If something is going on, it isn’t happening to us.’

  ‘It isn’t happening to us yet,’ said JacktheRiffer. ‘For all we know, any one of us could be next.’

  ‘What did you find out?’ said Mayfly.

  ‘The lift is back on the first floor and the stuff’s all still inside,’ Indigo said.

  ‘Does that mean it was used to move Reaperman or it wasn’t?’ said Mayfly.

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Indigo. ‘It could have been used and then put back again.’