Return to Ribblestrop by Andy Mulligan

Author:Andy Mulligan [Mulligan, Andy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857076663
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK

Chapter Twenty-six

‘An intruder,’ gasped the headmaster. ‘Children – stay here!’

He jumped to his feet and slipped straight onto his face. Skates were torn off and everyone was running.

The sun was low, so there were lights on in the south tower. There was a crash of glass or crockery, and another scream. Asilah was the fastest, closely followed by Tomaz and Imagio. They raced up the winding staircase and reached the top landing in time to see Crippen – the elderly servant – stagger out of the door. His face was a mask of horror and he was breathless. He leaned against the wall, gasping – there was yet another scream from inside and then it softened into a desolate wail.

The children dashed inside, piling through the Vyner rooms. Turning into the lounge, they came upon a terrible sight. Lady Vyner was on her back. The sofa she’d been sitting on had been upended and her right hand clutched either a neck or shoulder wound. Her face was grey and her lips translucent – she was squawking and flapping weakly, in an old white nightgown, like a broken-winged bird. The orphans gasped as one: the upper half of her nightie was drenched in blood. She tried to sit up and there was an awful sucking sound; there was a puddle of blood underneath her and it was spreading rapidly.

The next moment Routon was there. ‘Scissors!’ he shouted and he knelt down close. Somehow scissors were found. Whatever he was saying to the old lady was inaudible – just the murmurs of comfort one tries to offer.

Lady Vyner seemed delirious. ‘Get off me!’ she cried, flailing at the man, but Routon’s powerful hands were too strong for her. He was snipping at her clothes, gently pulling the fabric back, probing with careful, professional fingers, even as he caught a stinging slap across his cheek.

‘I want everyone outside!’ said the headmaster, panting and wheezing. He came in close and his hand sprang to his mouth; he seemed about to faint. Nobody else moved. Lady Vyner’s pale shoulder was coming into view and it was soaking red. You didn’t need any training to recognise – at once – the black mark of a bullet-hole.

‘Ambulance and police,’ said Professor Worthington – and raced from the room.

‘The intruder could still be at large!’ cried the head master. ‘Back to your room, boys! Asilah!’

Routon had ripped the sleeve from his shirt and was attempting to stop the exit wound.

‘Fool!’ cried Lady Vyner. ‘Fool!’

‘I need sheets from the bed,’ Routon said to Millie and she sped off in search of them.

‘Where’s Caspar?’ said Israel. ‘What if they shot Caspar too?’

Sanjay and Podma raced up the hall to check bedrooms.

But little Caspar Vyner was sitting under a table, not two metres from his grandmother’s body. He still held the gun, as though it was welded to his fingers – he could not shake it loose. His sobs had run out and he’d pushed himself back as far as he could go into the darkness.

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