The Infirmary (DCI Ryan Mysteries prequel)(79)

Ryan walked into something solid and stumbled backwards, bracing himself for impact, ready to face another attack, but it was only a concrete wall blocking the pathway ahead.

It seemed Edwards had vanished into thin air.

*

Ryan ran his fingertips around the edge of the concrete and found a narrow gap running down the edge, just narrow enough for a man to squeeze through. He realised he had stumbled into a blast wall and common sense told him it must have been installed sometime during the Second World War. It presented another challenge because the tunnel had gone quiet again and it was impossible to know if Edwards would be waiting just around the other side, if he risked moving around it.

Once again, Ryan thought of turning back and taking his chances that Phillips would have cleared the entrance at the Hancock Museum, but he had gone too far to turn back now. Instead, he flattened himself against the wall and edged slowly, moving inch by inch as he felt his way around it.

The blast wall curved around into a zig-zag, a tunnel within a tunnel that he followed with extreme caution until he emerged on the other side and back into the main tunnel.

Suddenly, he sensed a presence nearby.

“Hello, Ryan.”

Instinct alone had him sidestepping Edwards’ arm as it swung out to attack and Ryan felt a slight gust of air against the side of his face. He could see nothing; there wasn’t a single shard of light inside the tunnel and his movements were guided by his other senses.

He hunkered to the floor, listening.

There.

Ryan wasn’t sure if he heard or felt the tiny motion, but he took his chance, rising up to catch Edwards in a tackle that brought them both crashing to the floor. He heard the air gushing out of the man’s chest and then they were writhing, spitting, clawing at one another, little more than two animals battling for survival.

He tried to pin Edwards’ arms, but they were a physical match and Edwards would always have the upper hand for he had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

He was also entirely without scruples.

Ryan felt something sharp sink into the skin of his upper arm and realised it was Edwards’ teeth. He kicked out, bucking away from the animal that sought his blood, and a moment later there came the sound of light footsteps retreating into the darkness.

His skin burned, and Ryan stemmed the blood flow as best he could. His hands were shaking as he reached for the police radio in his jeans pocket, but he found it missing.

Ryan felt around the ground in case it had been dislodged during the tussle and was relieved to find it had been thrown clear. He grasped it again, clutching it tightly as his only means of communication with the outside world.





CHAPTER 36


Phillips told himself not to despair when the workmen retreated from the entrance to the tunnel, shaking their heads despondently.

“Sorry,” they said. “The ceiling’s completely caved in. Every time we clear a path, more starts falling down. We’d need to get a proper scaffolding team in here and a bigger team just to make a dent.”

Phillips put a call through to MacKenzie.

“Mac? I need to know where the other entrances are to the tunnel. There has to be more than one.”

“We’re looking for them now, Frank,” she said, and he took comfort from the warmth of her voice resonating across the wires. “Lowerson had no luck with the council or the water board, so he’s trying to chase down one of the volunteers who give tours of the tunnel. If anybody knows, it’ll be them.”

“Tell him to hurry up,” he said. “We can’t get through here; the entrance is completely sealed, and it’d take too long just trying to make is passable. God knows what might be happening in there while we waste time trying.”

Suddenly, his radio crackled into life and he ended the call abruptly, hurrying to snatch up his receiver.

“Phillips? This is Ryan. Over.”

Phillips breathed a sigh of relief.

“Ryan? You gave us a run for our money there, lad. Are you okay? Over.”

“I’m okay, just a couple of scratches. He’s still in the tunnel, approximately a quarter of a mile ahead if he’s moving at a steady speed. Have you been able to clear the rubble from the entrance? We need an armed response team and some lights down here. Over.”

Phillips wished it could be that easy.

“There’s no way in. The entrance is still blocked and can’t be cleared. We’re looking to find the next available exit. Over.”

Ryan felt a shiver of fear as he leaned back against the blast wall. The cold was sinking into his bones and the darkness was beginning to play games with his head.

For one thing, he thought he smelled gas.

He did smell gas.

“I think there’s a gas leak somewhere nearby,” he told Phillips. “I need to move forward because it’ll spread. Contact me when you have a map of the exits. I’ve just passed the first blast wall after the museum, heading east. Over.”

“Will do. Chin up, lad. We’ll get you out of there as quickly as we can.”

Ryan clipped the radio onto his belt and left it crackling. The noise alerted Edwards to his location, but he didn’t care anymore; he needed the familiar sound of it fizzing away as he was forced to continue into the darkness that seemed never to end.

*

Lowerson re-entered the Incident Room at a run, armed with a faxed copy of an archive map belonging to the trust who operated guided tours.