Chapter 20: Chapter 20

I can hardly repeat what Elizabeth told me….

Does she realise I’ve not repeated it?

Charlotte looks between James and Michael, then her eyelids lower. “I thought I was in trouble then, that they were going to gang-rape me. They knocked me about a bit.… That’s where I got some of the bruises.… But Klempner said he had a buyer for me. For Beth too….”

Elizabeth beside me, is reacting to Charlotte’s words. Sitting close to her, her breathing grows ragged.

She’s perspiring, and she doesn’t smell so sweet as she normally does. Taking her fingers once more, I rub my thumb over her palm.

“…. though I’m not sure he wanted to sell her after what I’d told him about who she is. At any rate, I don’t think they wanted to leave too many visible marks on me if the buyer was going to be seeing me….” Charlotte knocks back half her remaining wine in a single swallow.

Is this too much for her?

But she ploughs on. “Anyway, Klempner’s phone rang. It was weird. He listened for a minute to whoever was on the other end, then he looked like he’d seen a ghost. He hit me across the face, knocked me down, and told me he knew about the tracers…”

My mind is racing. Clearly, this is why Charlotte sent the message not to let anyone outside our immediate group know she was returning.

Treason from within?

Within the police?

Someone close to Will?

Will himself?

“…. He told the others to find some different clothes for me ‘cause the ones I was wearing had to go.

He took the locket that had one of the tracers…. and my rings…. Then he…. He told me to…. um…

empty my body cavities... Or he would do it for me….”

I try to keep the smile from my face. “You had a tracer…. inside you?”

Michael looks unamused, but James is also fighting a smile, and Elizabeth looks anywhere but at me.

“Mmm. Yes, inside a condom to keep it dry… Um…. it’s a bit embarrassing, now I tell someone else….”

With an air of huge relief, she shifts the subject…. “Actually, the whole changing clothes thing solved my biggest problem…”

“Which was?”

“Beth’s shoes. She was kidnapped while she was out shopping, and she was wearing high heels. I knew we’d have to run to escape, and there was no way she could run in those. But when they gave me fresh clothes, it meant there was an extra pair of shoes.”

James is frowning, a finger rubbing his forehead. “And by then you’d already planted one of the trackers on Beth?”

“That’s right. Anyway, when Klempner knew about the trackers, they decided to move out immediately.

I’d already warned Beth that we needed to run when they took us out of the building. If we could get out into the open, so the tracer on her could operate properly, you’d be able to find us again. I told her to behave very meek and mild, so that they’d let their guard down and we’d have the best chance to escape.”

Elizabeth is nodding agreement.

We need to know more about this traitor on the inside….

“So, this phone call to Klempner…” I begin.

Charlotte punctuates her words with spreading hands. “It could only have been from someone in the police. Or someone getting the information from the police. Who else would know?

It an unpleasant thought. Will Stanton is my friend of years. “Who indeed?” I mutter.

Charlotte continues, “And I heard him giving orders to have this building watched. That’s why I didn’t want any of you coming out for me, and why I came in the way I did.”

Michael’s face hardens again….

He thinks she made the wrong decision?

Or his pride is damaged that she took that decision herself?

…. Instead of asking for help?

What’s wrong with the man?

He’s got a woman in a million….

A warrior….

…

And James is her Dom?

James interrupts my thoughts before I can ponder the implications of that. “What happened after you and Beth split? We picked up Beth almost immediately, but there was no sign of you.”

I think the wine is working its magic on Charlotte. She’s relaxing by the moment….

Or is it because we’re not talking about Klempner and her mother anymore?

“At first, I just ran, from them, trying to loop back to you. But you were being chased too, and I couldn’t catch up. Then, I heard the gunshots. And there were all those police around, and I didn’t know who to trust. So I just made my way in the dark back to the main highways, and to the nearest town. I wanted to contact you. That’s when I went into that electrical store. I needed the phone so that I could download all those plans I’d scanned, to try to find a way back into the City, and here, without being seen. After that, I just took all the back roads and trails to get to the edge of the City, then went underground as soon as I could.”

You planned it….

You planned it all….

Right from the beginning….

“How did you do that? What route did you take?” I ask.

“I went down through the sewers first to get onto the old Marlepits train line.…”

The what?

This is my City….

Then I remember my recent bar visit with Michael, when it was driven home to me that my City has whole tiers and levels that are alien to me, where I am a stranger….

…. but to be a friend of Michael opens doors….

How long ago was it? Only a few days….

But somehow forever….

I come back to earth, exchanging a blank look with James, then Michael, who shrugs.

Marlepits?

“It’s an old railway track…” she explains… “… from when the City was first built, and they needed construction materials. It doesn’t operate now, or for any time in the last fifty years, but the tunnels are still there. I just followed the line into the heart of the old City and then used the sewers again to get under this building…. Achhe…” She shudders. “That was just disgusting…”

Her story is so amazing. Elizabeth’s eyes are brimming….

Charlotte did it all for her….

How do I repay that?

James sits with chin propped on a fist, a smile ghosting around his lips. But Michael….

Michael has no welcome in his eyes, no joy. I’ve never seen him like this before. It seems utterly out of character with what I know of the man.

Charlotte has trouble brewing there….

…. and I can’t help….

*****