Chapter 31
M elody hadn’t realised that she’d been holding her breath since William had turned the door handle of the now unlocked door. Now, as he slipped into the building, she exhaled. At what point could she be sure that he was safely inside and, more to the point, alone? She waited, and then she waited. There was no sound of a skirmish, but there was also no sound of anything else. Finally, she could contain her anxiety no longer and slowly and carefully slid through the door, trying to make as little noise as possible.
It was difficult to see much inside the warehouse. A few faint shafts of light pierced through cracks in the walls. In addition, the small window that William had climbed up to look through let in some light, though the combination of the gloominess where the building was located and the dinginess of the panes of glass meant that whatever illumination it provided was barely sufficient to see the figure up ahead, which she hoped was William.
Sticking close to the walls and tiptoeing, Melody approached whoever it was ahead of her, gun at the ready. It looked as if the man was standing by the pit that William had described. If this wasn’t the captain, then had William been pushed in?
Just as Melody was seized by fear that this was indeed the case, the figure turned, and she saw with relief that it was William. He beckoned her over to the edge of the pit. As Melody looked over the edge, it was hard to see much in the pit’s inky depth, but she thought that she saw two faint figures.
“Rat,” Melody whispered. “Are you down there?”
“Melody?” a hopeful voice answered. “Is that you? How did you ever find me?”
This wasn’t the time for an explanation. Instead, Melody turned to William and asked, “How do we get them out?”
“Are you alone?” Rat’s voice wafted up. From the sound of his voice, the pit was deep.
“Captain Somerset is with me,” Melody assured him.
“No! Not Somerset. Melody, Lord Langley warned me that he is the person responsible for Timothy Shandling escaping justice in Britain. He’s behind this all.”
Melody couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It wasn’t possible. Had a man’s insincere regard fooled her again? From the outline of his figure, Melody thought that the captain was pointing his gun down. Without thinking twice, she covered the distance between them and pointed her Deringer at his head.
“You? It was you behind this all along?” she spat. “Did you create this charade of following Mustafa here just so that you could imprison me as well?”
“No, Melody, Miss Chesterton. I have no idea what your brother is talking about,” Captain Somerset protested.
Rat’s disembodied voice answered, “The telegram was very clear that Somerset in the Foreign Office had facilitated Shandling’s escape. Are you going to believe that there are two men with the name Somerset at the Foreign Office?”
It wasn’t such an unusual name that it was impossible. However, Melody realised that to believe so was to accept a more complicated, unlikely scenario.
Just as she thought this, William said in reply, “Melody, I told you that my brother Adam also works for the Foreign Office. He is Sir Edward Grey’s private secretary. I have been worried for some time about where his loyalties truly lie, and this telegram that your brother received confirmed many of my fears. You must believe me, Melody. If there is a Somerset behind all this, it is Adam.”
Melody stood, her arm still outstretched, her gun still aimed at William’s head. She had never felt more conflicted in her life. She wanted to believe him, she really did. And she did remember him mentioning that his brother Adam had helped Alister Blackadder to get his position. Wait! Alister Blackadder. A lightbulb went off, and Melody lowered her gun.
Then, Melody said it out loud, “Alister Blackadder. You were abducted in his office, weren’t you, Rat? Adam Somerset, the captain’s brother, helped him get this post. Could he be the person who is somehow responsible for Brett Rothnie’s murder?”
Suddenly, a different voice that wasn’t Rat’s piped up from deep in the pit, “Murder? I feel quite alive, if a little stiff from being kept down here so long.”
“Meet Brett Rothnie,” Rat called up.
There were so many questions that Melody wanted to ask Mr Rothnie but now didn’t seem the most appropriate of times. Kacem or someone else might return at any minute. Their top priority had to be getting the two men out of the pit.
Just as she thought this, Rat yelled up, “There’s a ladder up there somewhere. It’s how they got us down here.”
“Well, at least in my case, I fell part of the way,” Brett complained. “I was bruised for days.”
It didn’t take William long to find the ladder and to lower it into the pit. Before Melody knew it, Rat had climbed the ladder and had her in his arms. She had never been so happy to see her brother. Brett Rothnie followed Rat up the ladder.
Again, there was no time to exchange pleasantries. While Rat was not entirely convinced that Captain Somerset was on their side, it seemed that the expeditious thing to do was to get out of the warehouse as quickly as they could.
Just as they were turning to leave, there was a sound by the door. “Stay behind me,” William said to Melody.
“Who goes there?” asked a male voice. Suddenly, the room was illuminated as a torch shone in their direction. As the voice came towards them, Melody thought that it belonged to Alister Blackadder. As the torch shone on their faces, the man continued, “I came as soon as I learned of your capture, Mr Sandworth. It seems that Kacem, the consul’s manservant, got a little carried away when he found you looking through papers in my office. The man is a buffoon, of course, and I will ensure that the consul dismisses him immediately.” This was all said in a tone of such shock and concern that Melody immediately second-guessed her earlier seeming epiphany.
“I was not in my office because I had received word that Captain Somerset here is a traitor and was behind the attack on your friend in Casablanca,” Alister explained.
“Melody, you know this isn’t true,” William said. “You just admitted yourself that you believed that it was my brother that Mr Sandworth’s telegram referred to.”
“Ha!” Alister sneered. “I have long suspected that your loyalties had been compromised, Somerset. Your brother had the same concern. You were working for the French, which is why you hired Mr Shandling to attack Conte Foscari.”
“How do you know about Timothy Shandling?” Rat asked.
“You must have mentioned his name to me,” Alister blustered.
“No, I am sure I didn’t.”
They hadn’t realised that, as Alister had been talking, he had been slowly moving towards them. Now, in one smooth gesture, he dropped the torch he was holding, grabbed Melody and pulled her against him. While she had still been holding her gun at her side, the shock of the move caused her to drop it on the ground. The next thing she knew, there was a gun barrel being held against her head. Though the torch had fallen to the ground, it was still on and in the circle of light emanating from it, Alister could see that William was pointing a gun towards him.
“Drop the gun and kick it over, Somerset, or I will blow a hole in Miss Chesterton’s pretty little head,” Alister snarled.
William did as he was ordered. Now, noticing that Rat and Brett had been freed from the pit, Alister continued, “You think that you’re so smart, Mr Sandworth, don’t you? The new shiny operative from the Bureau. Yet you didn’t even think that you had decoded your telegram at my desk. Did it not occur to you that your pen made an indentation in the blotter and that I could use that to recreate your decrypted message? Thank you for doing that for me. When I saw that your Lord Langley had somehow made the connection with Somerset, I hoped that you would jump to just the conclusion that you did. If it hadn’t been for this pretty little sister of yours, that is.”
All Melody could do was think about how to keep Alister talking until the others managed to disarm him. He was a cornered man, and who knew what he might do to make his escape.
“But why, Mr Blackadder? Why are you in league with the French Government?” she said in an almost pleading voice.
“He’s not acting on behalf of the French Government,” Rat told the stunned group. “He’s working for the British Government, or at least a faction within the Foreign Office.”
“A faction?” Alister said mockingly. “Try the faction. Shandling and I both had our orders from on high.”
“Then why kill Shandling if you were in league with him?” Melody asked, genuinely curious.
“Yes, well, that was a rather unfortunate deviation from the plan by the Grand Vizier. It seems that he was not pleased when Shandling failed to stop Conte Foscari. And the man was starting to be rather a loose cannon.”
Melody couldn’t believe all that she was hearing. Just when she didn’t think it could get worse, Alister continued, “I was hoping not to have to kill Mr Rothnie and Mr Sandworth. We prefer not to eat our own if possible. However, now you all know too much, and I have no choice. I am sorry, but you are going to have to die. All of you. Even you, pretty Miss Chesterton.”
As Alister was speaking, Melody was slowly and carefully moving her hand towards her pocket. Now, Alister suddenly pushed her ahead and said, “All walk back towards the pit. I think that’s a perfect place to dump your bodies, and you might as well save me the trouble of dragging them over.”
Once Alister’s grip on her loosened, Melody put her hand in her pocket and pulled out her gun. She had only a split second to consider where to shoot him. She wanted to disarm the man but not necessarily to kill him. But it was dark, and she had no time to aim properly. Instead, she turned quickly and tried for his leg. As the bullet hit its mark, Alister screamed in pain, went to grab his thigh and dropped his gun. William took advantage of the moment and ran at the other man, shoving him to the ground.
“Grab the gun,” William yelled at anyone close enough to act on the command.
Melody thought that the scene couldn’t get more chaotic, but suddenly, there were more men in the room and lots of yelling. From what she could see, Rat had also rushed to tackle Alister Blackadder, who was writhing on the ground in agony from his bullet wound. Melody saw the torch still lying on the ground and went to pick it up. Shining it upwards, she saw that the new arrivals in the warehouse were Omar and Fatima’s men. It seemed that Mustafa had managed to locate them and find his way back to the abandoned warehouse.