Convicted Innocent(9)

Or, Lewis being Lewis, maybe broken bones.

“Your face is hardly prettier than mine right now, I’ll warrant,” his friend returned dryly. “In a few days, we’ll have colors enough between us to rival your garden.”

“Will we have a few days?”

The bleak question was out of the priest’s mouth before he could stop it.

For a moment, Lew just regarded him quietly, and then squeezed David’s shoulder again. “I’d rather find a way out of here under our own steam than learn what it is these chaps have in store for us. Shall we have a look about?”

So they did, the room bright enough that they could move about freely. Their explorations didn’t take long.

Light ghosted in from outside, travelling down deep wells and through a few heavy-paned, dirty glass windows set close to the ceiling; night would likely spell pitch darkness. The room itself had walls and a floor of brick, with a plaster ceiling low enough the sergeant could’ve touched it easily had he but raised his arms, and it smelled like a musty, moldy cellar. About eight strides measured the distance from the door to the windows, and about twenty from side to side. They could hear nothing of what was going on outside the room, whether from their kidnappers (as David supposed they could be called now), or from the world beyond. At one time, some sort of pottery had been stored in there, but now all that remained were large quantities of clay dust and a few empty crates.

The door was a stout one and securely locked, the hinges on the hallway side. The policeman was having a go at it, trying to fit his fingers between the door and the jamb, when David voiced the other question that had been nagging at him.

“Why are we here?”

Lewis paused and pursed his lips thoughtfully.

“I’ve been wondering the same thing. I’m quite certain you’re only here because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. As for me…. My day began an ordinary one: I certainly had no forewarning this would happen. I left early to give testimony at court and returned home after I finished to fetch a few things before going to the station.” He gave the door a yank. “One of those chaps ran up to me just as I was reaching my flat – said he needed my help and to follow him. I did. He tried to brain me as soon as we’d turned down that alley.”

The sergeant looked slightly chagrined. “I’d thought there was something amiss about him from the first, but I still went with him.”

“How did one fellow become four?”

“Oh. He missed on his first attempt…with a little help from me…so a few of his mates joined in from somewhere nearby. And then you happened upon us.

“Incidentally,” he went on, an eyebrow quirked at the priest, “why were you in the neighborhood?”

“I…was actually dropping by to see you – or, rather, leave a message with Mrs. Marsh,” David replied. “I took a shortcut from Commercial. It’s your birthday next week, and best mates have certain responsibilities, et cetera.”

Lewis chuckled, winced, and returned, “All the more reason to make our bows quickly.”

“Do you have any idea what they might have been after?” the priest asked, taking a moment to strip out of the cassock the kidnappers had torn to tatters with their attentions. Underneath, his shirtsleeves and trousers were in far better state. “The leader – that blond chap – seemed upset that they’d bungled whatever it was they’d set out to do.”

“Really?” That caught his friend’s interest.

“He also emptied your pockets while they were debating what to do with us – killing us seemed only unpopular due to the time and place.”