Bryant And May On The Loose - A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery Part 25

'You're no spring chicken yourself,' Bryant replied with indignation. 'I'll come with you.'

'What did I just say? Why must you always do exactly the opposite?' But Bryant was already out of the car and heading for the nearest staircase.

They reached the second-floor landing and moved along the balcony to the flat which Toth shared with his girlfriend. Lizzi opened the door at their knock, blinking sleepily at them. 'You again,' she complained. 'You know he's done nothing wrong. And anyway, he's not here.'

'Where is he?' asked Bryant.

'He got a phone call about an hour ago, and went out. I don't know when he'll be back.'

'Did he say where he was going? Or who he was going to meet?'

'I think he was seeing Mr Fox.'

Bryant looked blank. 'Who is Mr Fox?'

'Oh, you know-thingie.' She waggled her hand at them.

'From the church. He's a friend. So I imagine that's where Xander's gone.'

'How do you know this Mr Fox is a friend?'

'Xander met him some while ago. He's always talking to people he doesn't know. I think Fox is just his nickname, though. He works for the Diocese.'

'Leonid Kareshi,' snapped Bryant, annoyed with himself. 'The archivist. Why didn't I think of him earlier? It has to be someone who knows about the church's history. He met Toth and Delaney there, and Standover was always connected because of his obsession with the Beatles' photographic shoot. Call John. 'Tell him to run a check on Kareshi and meet us at the church.'

'We don't need him, I can handle this,' said Land, who was suddenly quite enjoying being back in the field.

'Then I'll call him,' said Bryant, giving Land the fish-eye.

Raymond Land was a careful driver. He had no desire to go racing down alleys, frightening old ladies and knocking over dustbins. It was impossible to do so in London anyway; the traffic was painfully slow, the roads doubled back on themselves, and any kind of vehicle pursuit was unthinkable. Even so, Bryant found his boss unnecessarily cautious. He selfconsciously signalled and braked and waved pedestrians past when Bryant would simply have put down his foot and hoped for the best. Driving like a madman was one of the few perks of the job, as far as Bryant was concerned.

As they pulled up before the gilded gates of St Pancras Old Church, John May came running out to meet them. 'You may be right about the archivist, Arthur,' he said. 'I've just been talking to the vicar. Three years ago, Kareshi was brought up on corruption charges before the FSB, the domestic state security agency of the Russian Federation. There was talk of links to organised crime over the sale of rare artefacts, but the case was dropped after he cut a deal with them. Kareshi has diplomatic immunity now. The Reverend says that he's been growing worried about the number of dodgy-looking acquaintances Kareshi has been bringing here. He fears they're up to something.'

'It might have been a good idea if he'd told us that earlier,' muttered Bryant.

As they pushed back the vestry door, they found the vicar about to turn out the lights. 'Our verger just called in sick,' the Reverend Charles Barton explained. 'There's no service today, which is a good thing because someone stole our snuffer, and I have trouble reaching the candles without it. He has gout, can you believe it? I can't help feeling that it's an inappropriately excessive illness for a church worker. I think Dr Kareshi is downstairs. The lights are on in the crypt.'

'Is there anyone with him?'

'No, I don't think so. He held a meeting yesterday with three men-pretty unsavoury-looking types.'

'We'll take over, Reverend,' May suggested. 'Perhaps you'd be so kind as to lock the main doors.'

'There must be no violence here,' said Barton emphatically.

'Your church is built on a pagan sacrificial temple, for Christ's sake,' complained Bryant.

'That was a very long time ago.' The vicar bridled. 'And I'll appreciate it if you don't blaspheme.'

'Hopefully there won't be any trouble,' May a.s.sured Barton gently. The detectives headed to the worn stone steps leading into the crypt. Beneath the arc lamps, Kareshi was working alone. He had sifted through what appeared to be a ton of dry grey dust, and had cleaned up more than a dozen small grey stone heads, which were arranged on the floor in groups according to type. The intrusion upon his work was clearly unwelcome.

'Is there something you want?' he asked them, standing upright and wiping his hands on a cloth.

'Did you receive a visit from a Mr Xander Toth?' asked Bryant.

'No, I don't allow visitors. This is like-' he gestured at the roped-off pit before him '-one of your crime scenes. I have an extremely limited time to excavate this site before the Diocese requires it to be refilled, and if the artefacts become contaminated I will not be able to verify their authenticity.'

'How long have you been down here?'

'Since seven. I've seen no-one for days except the Reverend and your friend Mr Austin Potterton.'

'Reverend Barton says some men came to see you yesterday.'

'Oh, them,' Kareshi remembered, showing some awkwardness. 'Well, I am helping them.'

'Who are they?'

'They are Belarus exiles; their English is poor and they feel isolated here. They are trying to start a club for fellow expatriates, somewhere they can meet and discuss their problems. They want me to help them, but I cannot spare the time. I don't have much money, but I give them a little whenever I can.'

The detectives glanced at each other, thinking the same thing. Bryant voiced the thought. 'It's someone else.' Without explanation or apology, they headed out of the crypt.

'So much for your criminal mastermind,' said Land unnecessarily. 'A down-at-heel Russian archaeologist. Now what?'

'I could give Austin a call and get him to help us.' On the way out, Bryant collared the vicar. 'Unsavoury-looking types, Rev?'

'Well, shabby, unshaven,' Barton admitted. 'Swarthy.'

'Trust a man of the cloth to think the worst of other people. Come on, John.'

Outside the church, Bryant stopped. He peered through the misty green gloom of the graveyard, as if expecting to find answers there. The Reverend Charles Barton appeared behind them with a bunch of keys. 'I have to let you out of the main gates,' he said sniffily. 'The usual team prefers to leave them open, but I'm taking no chances. I've started to keep them locked whenever I see the kids from the council flats hanging about.'

'No balm of sanctuary available here, then,' said Bryant, who could not help needling vicars he found to be pharisaical.

'Vandals, Mr Bryant. They urinate in my vestry; they desecrate the gravestones. Mr Fox has a hard enough job without-'

'-Mr Fox?'

'Our interment supervisor.'

'You mean Fox is the grave digger?' grave digger?'

'We don't use such archaisms anymore; they upset the parishioners. Besides, there are no new graves here-it's as much as we can do to tend the old ones. Mr Fox looks after the grounds, and is currently engaged in removing some of the old coffins. This is a heritage site and standards must be maintained.'

'How long has he been here?'

'Well, he was here when I arrived. He was employed by the former coroner of the St Pancras Mortuary. There was some kind of scandal-'

'Where does he live?'

'On the Margery Street council estate, off of King's Cross Road. Number seven, Spring House.'

Bryant's eyes widened. 'Spring House?'

'What's the matter?' asked May.

'Margery Street used to be called Spring Place. There was a woman called Black Mary-she belonged to a thirteenth-century Benedictine order that wore black robes.'

'Oh, I can't wait to hear where this one is going...'

'She presided over the subterranean spa room that became known as Black Mary's Hole. The spa was fed by a well bored into the Bagnigge River, which ran down from the St Pancras Old Church. It was capped off into a conduit that lies right underneath Spring House. It's a chalybeate spring.'

'A what?'

'An iron-fed spring, with healing properties. People came from all over London to have their illnesses cured there. But when Spring Place was erected over the conduit in 1815, the local builder turned Black Mary's Hole into a cesspool, ruining it.'

'I don't understand,' said Land, clearly confused. 'What on earth has any of this got to do with our murderer?'

'I told you, he's a local man, and thanks to Xander Toth he now has an extensive knowledge of the area's history. He understands its mystical connections and knows how to exploit them. He lives on the site of London's most venerable spa, destroyed by a builder. I suppose it would be too much to hope that the builder's family name was Delaney.'

They were now outside the church gates, heading for Land's car. 'You'd love that, wouldn't you?' said May. 'It would really confirm your belief in psycho-geographical retribution.'

'You have to admit that certain areas keep the same properties through generations. The King's Cross delis and coffee shops were always Italian, and now, hundreds of Italian students are moving back in. Is that just coincidence?'

'I don't know-is it just coincidence all of this is happening on St Pancras Day, your time of sacrifice?'

'See, you're finally starting to think like me,' Bryant said smugly. 'Right now, we need to concentrate on finding Xander Toth before he forfeits his life and loses his head. I think elements of chance have led Mr Fox to reveal his true nature to us.'

49

THE WOMAN ON THE WALL

I'd a.s.sumed he must be some kind of polymath,' mused Bryant unhappily as they drove, with Raymond Land cautiously following them in his BMW. 'He's not. He's feral and instinctive, the kind of criminal we see so much more of these days. Mind that old lady.'

'You always want to think they're twisted geniuses,' May chided him. 'You long to pit your wits against someone who hides clues in paintings and evades capture through their knowledge of ancient Greek. Forget it, Arthur; those days have gone.'

'Russian agents still get poisoned by radioactive pellets in restaurants. Read your daily papers.'

May was forced to admit his old partner had a point. 'It would be dangerous to underestimate this man,' he warned. 'He's clearly smart enough to use everyone he meets. I bet Toth never realised he was acting as the host to a parasite.'

'Precisely. Mr Fox has one formidable talent. He absorbs the knowledge of others. He used Toth, and I'm sure we'll find he used Professor Marshall, the former coroner of the St Pancras Mortuary. That's how the heads were severed so perfectly. We a.s.sumed it was a professional hit because of the clean cuts to the neck. The amputations were performed with surgical precision. I think Mr Fox persuaded the disgraced coroner to teach him how. You heard Giles-the cuts were virtually identical.'

May called Bimsley and Renfield, summoning them to the apartment building. Land's BMW turned into Margery Street. The council estate had been rebuilt and extended after being bombed during the Second World War. Flat 7 stood on the ground floor, beyond a concrete courtyard.

'Stay here,' May told Land. 'Wait for the others.'

'You can't tell me what to do,' Land complained as they left him alone. 'I'm your superior officer.'

'Oh, don't be ridiculous,' Bryant called back, 'that's just a t.i.tle, like labelling a tin of peaches "Superior Quality." It doesn't mean anything.'

'We may have to kick the door in,' warned May. 'That'll be a challenge.'

Bryant pushed against the jamb. 'I doubt either of us has the strength to shift this. The kitchen window is unlocked.'

It was a simple matter to raise the bolt and swing the pane wide, but climbing inside proved trickier. A few minutes later May lowered himself carefully onto the kitchen counter and came around to open the door. 'There's no-one here. Where else could he have gone?' The pair stood on the balcony, looking around.

'They went out,' called a girl in a lime-green tracksuit, leaning over the railing. 'Him and his mate.'

'How long ago?'

'Just a few minutes ago. He had to hold the other guy up, he was so p.i.s.sed.'

'Did you see where they went?'

'Through there.' She leaned further over and pointed down to a recessed door at the bottom of a flight of steps.

'Why is he keeping Toth alive?' May wondered as the detectives headed toward the bas.e.m.e.nt.

'I think I know why, but I hope I'm wrong. They're going to Black Mary's Hole. It's directly underneath Spring House.'

May found a light switch and strip lights flickered on below them. Fourteen stone steps led to a damp cellar that housed the building's electrical circuit boxes and elevator equipment.

'Look around,' said Bryant. 'There has to be something else down here.'

'I don't know what I'm looking for, Arthur.'

'Oh, you know.' Bryant waved his hand about with annoying vagueness. 'The tunnel.'

'What tunnel?'

'You don't listen to a word I say, do you? The Bagnigge River ran beneath the church to Spring Place, where it was capped off. Our Mr Fox was employed at the church as a grave-maintenance person, or whatever Barton called it. Fox used the tunnel underneath, the one leading from the spa, to get back here. Where else could he have taken Mr Toth?'

'All right,' May conceded, 'but what exactly are we hoping to find?' When Bryant failed to answer, but merely pointed, May slowly turned around. 'Oh.'

Behind him was a grey steel door studded with rivets the size of mushroom caps. 'Try it,' Bryant suggested. 'There's no lock that I can see. Put your shoulder to it.'

May did not have to push hard. The door's hinges were thickly greased, and it swung in easily.

'Do you have your Valiant on you?'

'Of course.' May pulled his cinema usherette's flashlight from his overcoat and switched it on. 'Mind your step. There's a lot of rubble on the floor. Hang onto my coat.' The pair made their way forward at a cautious pace. The floor was uneven, and followed a gentle upward slope. The tunnel smelled of standing water but was neat and square, cemented with lichen-covered terra-cotta tiles, most of them badly damaged. A channel in the floor indicated the former path of the healing spring. Clearly, nothing but rain had come through here in a very long time.