‘I hope you will enjoy this modest spread,’ said the crimson figure. ‘It is but local fare.’
Crowley finally found his voice. He was by nature a predator, and not one to be intimidated by such a theatrical display no matter how convincing it might appear. It would take more than a few bright lights and a bit of cold air to make him deviate from his calculated scheme. It was clear that the Captain had hired this man, possibly a local actor; there was definitely something familiar about him, and those eyes, certainly tinted contact lenses, nobody could have eyes that colour surely?
‘Local fare you say,’ said Crowley merrily. ‘It would seem that you have plundered the finest food halls of Christendom and employed one of the world’s master chefs to prepare this magnificent feast.’
The tall man in crimson smiled his thinnest of smiles and said, ‘I fear that the other guests have declined their invitations and we shall be forced to dine alone, as it were. I also fear that by an unforgivable oversight the caterers have omitted to supply us with either cutlery or serving staff and you will be forced to serve yourselves. Captain, if you would be so kind as to bring in the fish.’
The Captain did as he was bid without hesitation. At the arrival of the fish Crowley clapped his hands together in glee and shouted, ‘Magnificent! Magnificent!’
The four men sat about the enormous gilded dining table, the golden glow of candle flame eerily illuminating their faces whilst casting their shadows about the richly-hung walls in a ragged, wavering dame macabre. Each man was occupied with his own thoughts. Crowley’s brain was bursting with a thousand unanswered questions, everything here demanded explanation. His eyes cast about from face to face, and devious plots began to hatch inside his skull. Councillor Wormwood, although a man greatly in favour of connivance and double-dealing, was capable upon this occasion of no such premeditation. He was an old man and felt himself to be pretty well versed in the ways of the world, but here in this room he knew there was something ‘different’ going on. There was a dark aura of evil here, and it was evil of the most hideous and malignant variety.
Captain Carson glowered morosely about the table, he really didn’t know much about anything anymore. All he knew was that he was seated here in a room, which had been exclusively his for the past thirty years, with three men who out of the entire world’s population he loathed and hated to a point well starboard of all sanity.
At a gesture from the red-eyed man the three set about the mouth-watering dishes. Crowley was amazed to find that the sweetmeat he had sampled minutes before had now taken on the most delicious and satisfying of tastes. He gurgled his delight and thrust large helpings into his mouth. Councillor Wormwood pecked at his choosings like the ragged vulture he was, his claws fastened about the leg of some tropical fowl and his hideous yellow teeth tearing the soft white flesh away from the pinkly cooked bones.
The Captain sampled this and that and found all equally to his liking.
As no cutlery had been supplied the three men dug into the finely dressed displays with their greasy fingers reducing each dish to a ruination suggestive of the march of soldier ants. The crimson figure at the head of the table left most of the dishes untouched. He dined upon bread, which he broke delicately between his muscular fingers, and drank occasionally from the decanter of claret set at his right elbow.
The hours passed and the gluttony of the three men was slowly satisfied. The Captain loosened the lower buttons of his jacket and broke wind in a loud and embarrassing manner. At length, when it seemed that the undignified destruction of the table was at an end, the crimson figure spoke. Sweeping his burning eyes over the three men he said, ‘Is all to your liking, gentlemen?’
Crowley looked up, his mouth still bulging with food. ‘It is all ambrosia,’ he mumbled, wiping cream away with the cuff of his lace shirt.
‘Mr Wormwood?’
The creature raised its yellow eyes. There was grease upon his cleft chin and he had spilt white sauce on his jacket lapel. ‘Most palatable,’ said he.
‘And Captain?’ The Captain chewed ruefully upon a jellied lark’s wing and grunted assent in a surly manner.
Crowley was growing bolder by the minute, and felt it high time that he put one or two of the questions he had stewing in his head. ‘Dear sir,’ said he, ‘may I say how much I have enjoyed this dinner, never in my days have I tasted such claret.’ He held up the short crystal glass to the candle-flame and contemplated the ruby-red liquid as it ran about the rim. ‘To think that anything so exquisite could exist here in Brentford, that such a sanctuary dedicated to life’s finer things could be here, it is a veritable joy to the soul.’
The red-eyed man nodded thoughtfully. ‘Then you approve?’
‘I do, I do, but I must also confess to some puzzlement.’
‘Indeed?’
‘Well,’ and here Crowley paused that he might compose inquisitiveness into a form which might give no offence.
‘Well, as to yourself for instance, you are clearly a man of extreme refinement, such is obvious from your carriage, bearing and manner of speech. If you will pardon my enquiry might I ask to which part of our sceptred isle you owe your born allegiance?’
‘I am broadly travelled and may call no place truly my home.’
‘Then as to your presence in these parts?’
‘I am at present a guest of the good Captain.’
‘I see.’ Crowley turned his eyes briefly towards the elder. His glance was sufficient however to register the look of extreme distaste on the Captain’s face.
‘Then, sir, as you have the advantage of us might I enquire your name?’
The red-eyed man sat back in his chair. He took from a golden casket a long green cigar which he held to his ear and turned between thumb and forefinger. Taking up an onyx-handled cigar cutter he sliced away at one end. Satisfied with his handiwork he placed the cigar between his cruel lips and drew life into it from the candle’s flame.
‘Mr Crowley,’ said he, blowing a perfect cube of smoke which hovered in the air a second or two before dissolving into nothingness. ‘Mr Crowley, you would not wish to know my name.’
The young man sipped at his wine and smiled coyly. ‘Come now,’ he crooned, ‘you have supplied us with a dinner fit for royalty, yet you decline to identify yourself. It is unfair that we are not permitted to know the name of our most generous and worthy host.’
The red-eyed man drew once more upon his cigar, while the index finger of his left hand traced a runic symbol upon the polished table top. ‘It is to the Captain that you owe your gratitude,’ said he. ‘He is your host, I am but a guest as yourself.’
‘Ha,’ the young man crowed, ‘I think not. You suit all this a little too well. You sit at the table’s head. I feel all this is your doing.’
‘My doing?’ the other replied. ‘And what motive do you think I might have for inviting you to the Mission?’
‘That is something I also wish to know. I suspect that no other guests were invited this evening and’ – here Crowley leant forward in his seat – ‘I demand an explanation.’
‘Demand?’
‘Yes, demand! Something funny is going on here and I mean to get to the bottom of it.’
‘You do?’
‘Who are you?’ screamed Crowley, growing red in the face. ‘Who are you and what are you doing here?’
‘What are you doing here, Mr Crowley?’
‘Me? I was invited, I came out of respect to the Captain, to celebrate the Mission’s centenary. I have a responsible position on the board of trustees, in fact I am a man not without power. You would do well not to bandy words with me!’
‘Mr Crowley,’ said the crimson figure. ‘You are a fool, you have no respect for the Captain, you have only contempt. It was greed that brought you here and it will be greed that will be your ruination.’
‘Oh yes?’ said Crowley. ‘Oh yes?’
‘I will tell you why you came here tonight and I will answer your questions. You ca
me here because you knew that not to come would be to draw attention to yourself. It is your plan to have this Mission demolished at the first possible opportunity, and to make your shady and treacherous deals with this corpse here.’ Wormwood cowered in his seat as the tall man continued. ‘I will never allow a stone of this Mission to be touched without my consent!’
‘Your consent?’ screeched Crowley. ‘Who in the hell do you think you are?’
‘Enough!’ The red-eyed man pushed back his chair and drew himself to his full height, his eyes blazing and his shoulders spreading to draw out his massive chest. His hands formed two enormous fists which he brought down on to the table with titanic force, scattering the food and shuddering the candelabra. ‘Crowley,’ he roared, his voice issuing from his mouth as a gale force of icy wind, ‘Crowley, you would know who I am! I am the man to whom fate has led you. From your very birth it was ordained that our paths would finally cross, all things are preordained and no man can escape his fate. You would know who I am? Crowley, I am your nemesis!’
Crowley hurled his chair aside and rushed for the door, his desperate movements those of a wildly flapping bird. His hands grasped about the door-handle but found it as solid and unmoveable as if welded to the lock. ‘Let me go,’ he whimpered, ‘I want nothing more of this, let me out.’
The giant in crimson turned his hellish eyes once more upon the young man. ‘You have no escape, Crowley,’ he said, his voice a low rumble of distant thunder. ‘You have no escape, you are already dead, you were dead from the moment you entered this room, dead from the first moment you raised a glass to your mouth, you are dead, Crowley.’
‘I’m not dead,’ the young man cried, tears welling up in his eyes. ‘I will have the law on you for this, I’m not without influence, I’m––’ Suddenly he stiffened as if a strong cord had been tightly drawn about his neck. His eyes started from their sockets and his tongue burst from his mouth. It was black and dry as the tongue of an old boot. ‘You . . . you,’ he gagged, tearing at his collar and falling back against the door. The tall figure loomed above him, a crimson angel of death. ‘Dead, Crowley.’
The young man sank slowly to his knees, his eyes rolling horribly until the pupils were lost in his head. A line of green saliva flowed from the corner of his mouth and crept over his shirt. He jerked forward, his manicured nails tearing into the parquet flooring, crackling and snapping as convulsions of raw pain coursed through his body.
Above him, watching the young man’s agony with inhuman detachment, stood the crimson giant. Crowley raised a shaking hand, blood flowed from his wounded fingertips, his face was contorted beyond recognition. He bore the look of a grotesque, a gargoyle, the skin grey and parched, the lips blue, bloodless. He raised himself once more to his knees and his mouth opened, the blue lips made a hopeless attempt to shape a final word. Another convulsion tore through his body and flung him doll-like to the floor where he lay, his limbs twisted hideously, his eyes staring at the face of his destroyer, glazed and sightless. Brian Crowley was dead.
The red-eyed man raised his right hand and made a gesture of benediction. With terrifying suddenness he turned upon the Captain, who sat open-mouthed, shaking with terror. ‘You will dispose of this rubbish,’ he said.
‘Rubbish?’ The Captain forced the word from his mouth.
The red-eyed man gestured at the twisted body which lay at his feet; then, raising his arm, he pointed across the table. The Captain followed his gaze to where Councillor Wormwood sat. His hands grasped the table top in a vicelike grip, his eyes were crossed and his head hung back upon his neck like that of a dead fowl in a butcher’s window. The skin was no longer yellow, but grey-white and almost iridescent; his mouth lolled hugely open and his upper set had slipped down to give the impression that his teeth were clenched into a sickly grin.
The giant was speaking, issuing instructions: the bodies were to be stripped of all identification, this was to be destroyed by fire, the table was to be cleared, the decanters to be drained and thoroughly washed out. The bodies were to be placed in weighted sacks . . . the voice rolled over the Captain, a dark ocean of words engulfing and drowning him. He rose to his feet, his hands cupped about his ears that he might hear no more. The words swept into his brain, the black tide washed over him, dragging him down. The Captain fought to breathe, fought to raise his head above the black waters. This was the Mission, his life, the evil must be driven out while any strength remained in his old body. His hands sought to grasp these thoughts, cling to them for dear life.
But the hands were old and the tide strong. Presently the Captain could grip no more and the poison waters swept over him, covering him without trace.
13
The ambulance roared away from the Flying Swan, its bell ringing cheerfully. Most of the smoke had been fanned away through the Swan’s doors and windows, but an insistent smell of electrical burning still hung heavily in the air. After the excitement was over and the ambulance had departed, the cowboys stood about, thumbs in gun belts, wondering whether that was the night over and they should, out of respect to Norman, saddle up and make for the sunset.
Young Master Robert, however, had other ideas. He climbed on to a chair and addressed the crowd. As nobody felt much like talking at that particular moment he was able to make himself heard. ‘Partners,’ he began, ‘partners, a sorry incident has occurred but let us be grateful that the party concerned has not been badly injured. I am assured by the ambulance man that he will be up and about within a couple of days.’ There were some half-hearted attempts at a cheer. ‘To show the brewery’s appreciation of a brave attempt, we are awarding, sadly in his absence, the Best Dressed Cowboy award, which includes an evening out for two with one of our delightful young ladies here at one of the brewery’s eating houses, a bottle of champagne and twenty small cigars, to our good friend Norman, the Spirit of the Old West!’
There was some slightly more enthusiastic cheering at this point, which rose in a deafening crescendo as Young Master Robert continued, ‘The next three drinks are on the house!’
Suddenly Norman’s unfortunate accident was forgotten, Old Pete set about the ancient piano once more and the Swan emerged again, a phoenix from the ashes of the Old West. Young Master Robert approached Neville behind the bar. ‘I am going out to stoke up the barbeque now. I’ll get the sausages on and then give you the nod to start leading them in.’
‘Leave it to me,’ said Neville, ‘and I’ll see to it that the free drinks are only singles.’
Omally, who had been revived by the aid of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation
administered by each of the Page Three girls, overheard this remark and hastily ordered three doubles from Mandy before the part-time barman was able to communicate his instructions. ‘Same for me,’ said Jim Pooley.
Invigorated by their free drinks the cowboy patrons began to grow ever more rowdy. Old Snakebelly’s qualities obviously combined those of Irish poteen, wood alcohol and methylated spirits. Old Pete had already attempted to blow out a lighted match only to find himself breathing fire and smoke. Small rings from glass bottoms had taken most of the polish from the bar top.
Omally leant across the bar and spoke to Neville. ‘You have put on a fine show and no mistake,’ said he. ‘I had my misgivings about tonight but’ – and here he took an enormous swig of Old Snakebelly, draining his glass – ‘it promises to be a most memorable occasion.’
The part-time barman smiled lopsidedly and polished away at a dazzling pint pot. ‘The night is far from over,’ he said ominously, ‘and are you feeling yourself again, John?’
‘Never better,’ said Dublin’s finest, ‘never better.’
‘Ere,’ said Mandy suddenly, ‘that Lone Ranger what stinks of fish keeps pinching my bum.’ Neville went over to have words with the unruly lawman. ‘Omally,’ the Page Three girl said when Neville was out of earshot.
‘The same,’ said himself.
‘Listen.’ Mandy made a secretive gesture and the ma
n from the Emerald Isle leant further across the bar, just far enough in fact for a good view down the young lady’s cleavage. ‘You wanna buy a couple of dozen bottles of this Old Snake whatsit on the cheap?’
Omally grinned. He had not misjudged Mandy from the first moment he’d seen her pocket his pennies. ‘What exactly is on the cheap?’
‘How does a ten spot sound?’
‘It sounds most reasonable, and where are these bottles at present?’
‘In the boot of the white M.G. out the front.’
Omally delved into his money belt, and a ten-pound note and a set of car keys changed hands. Winking lewdly, Omally left the bar.
A strange smell of the kind one generally associates with crematorium chimneys had begun to weave its way about the bar. Some thought it was the last relics of the taint left by the Spirit of the Old West, others sensed its subtle difference and began to fan their drinks and cough into their stetsons. Suddenly there was a mighty crash as Neville brought his knobkerry down on the bar top. ‘The barbeque is served,’ said the part-time barman.
Knowing the rush that would ensue at the announcement of free food, and still wishing to shield his carpet slippers from critical onlookers, Neville remained behind the bar to watch with some interest the way that one hundred or so cowboys might fit into a six-foot-square patio. Young Master Robert, clad in lurid vinyl apron and tall chef’s hat, was going great guns behind the barbeque. Mountains of sizzling sausages, and steakettes and bubbling cauldrons of beans simmered away on the grill and Sandra stood near at hand proffering paper plates and serviettes printed with the legend, ‘A Souvenir of Cowboy Night.’
The first half-dozen lucky would-be-diners squeezed their way through the Swan’s rear door and found themselves jammed up against the blazing barbeque. ‘One at a bloody time,’ bawled a scorched Ranger, patting at the knees of his trousers. ‘Don’t push there,’ screamed another as his elbow dipped into a vat of boiling beans.