Holy Terror by Graham Masterton

Author:Graham Masterton [Masterton, Graham]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK
Published: 2012-10-22T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

He returned to Sebastian’s apartment with such reluctance and dread that he stood in front of the door for almost a minute before pressing the bell.

Eleanor answered almost immediately. ‘Who is it?’

‘Conor. Can you let me in?’

The door opened and Eleanor saw at once that Conor was alone.

‘Something’s happened, hasn’t it?’ she said, her hand rising to touch her throat.

Conor nodded. He entered the apartment and closed the door behind him. He had promised himself that he wouldn’t cry but he couldn’t help it. He had brought Eleanor and Sidney back together again after all these years; and now he was responsible for Sidney’s death. It was almost more than he could bear.

‘Conor, tell me,’ said Eleanor. She reached out and held his hands, both of them, and the look on her face reminded Conor of a picture which used to hang in his grandmother’s hall, of the Blessed Virgin taking Christ down from the cross. O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria.

‘It all went wrong. Victor Labrea had a gun. Sebastian and Ric have both been wounded.’

‘And Sidney? What’s happened to Sidney?’

‘I’m sorry, Eleanor. He was shot at point-blank range, for no sane reason at all.’

‘I see,’ said Eleanor. She slowly released his hands in the way that Sidney might have released them if he had been trying to induce a hypnotic trance. She turned away from him and walked slowly along the white-carpeted corridor to the living room. Conor stayed by the door and watched her. He thought how thin she looked, especially the back of her neck, as vulnerable as a child’s. When she reached the living room she stood for a moment against the brightly reflected sunshine and it seemed to melt her outline, as if she were fading away altogether, going to the light.

Conor came up to her and held her in his arms. He didn’t know how long they stayed like that, clutching each other, the two survivors. He could feel her bones; he could smell her cigarettes and her perfume; he could almost hear all her glory days. Applause, all faded away now.

‘It was my fault,’ he said. ‘I shouldn’t have rushed in there like that. It was totally unprofessional.’

She looked up at him. ‘No. It wasn’t your fault. Do you know what Sidney said to me? Better to die doing something exciting than gradually vanish doing nothing at all. He said he could imagine himself in that hammock, becoming more and more transparent every day; until one day the hammock would be swinging with nobody in it.’

‘He shouldn’t have died, Eleanor.’

Eleanor went across the room, opened her purse, and took out her cigarette-holder and a pack of cigarettes. ‘Do you need a drink?’ she asked him. ‘I need a drink.’

They sat together in the sunlit living room and he told her everything that had happened.

‘In the end, I had to get out of there quick. The paramedics were coming, and the cops, too. I only just missed them. But before I left, there was one moment when I could have shot that Victor Labrea right between the eyes.

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