CHAPTER THIRTY
Jane stared at him for a moment, then stormed across to the door and yanked it open. ‘Robert, outside. Now!’
She waited until he’d joined her in the hallway, then closed the door behind them ignoring the quizzical looks from the others, and then she wheeled on Carter. ‘No more bullshit, tell me what’s going on.’
‘Jane, I don’t know what’s going on.’
‘Well you seem to know a damned sight more than I do. Is this about what happened at the hotel the other night?’ Her voice had a hard edge to it, a bottom of the bottle finality.
‘Yes.’ It was hard to explain to her what he was still interpreting himself.
‘You’d better explain,’ she said. ‘And make it good. Between you playing your cards too close to your chest, and the Coffee Kid in there with the holes in his socks, I’ve just about had enough.’
He was silent for a moment, and she could almost see the turmoil in his mind reflected in his eyes. When she spoke again her voice was softer. ‘Please, Rob. I need to know.’
He stared at her for a long moment. Finally he sighed. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘In the vision you had at the start of the séance you saw Gemma being dragged through the mattress of her cot, and you saw the helicopter sinking into the ground.’
She nodded.
He continued. ‘The images are the same. Something being pulled from this world, down into another. It ties in with what happened to me at the hotel. I was pulled into the pond. Grabbed and pulled down through the water. I must have blacked out because the next thing I was aware of was waking up in some kind of stone chamber. I can’t swear to it, but I had the feeling it was deep underground.’
‘And Sian?’
‘She was there.’ He took a breath, almost a sob. ‘Christ, Jane, they’d ripped out her eyes!’
‘Do you still think Sian’s alive?’ Jane said when he’d finished relating the events of that night.
He shook his head. ‘I don’t know for sure. The whole thing could have been some kind of illusion. But it certainly felt real enough.’
‘So what connects Sian’s disappearance with what’s happening here on the island? There’s four hundred miles between the two.’
‘You made the connection yourself.’ He was lighting a cigarette but Jane held up her hand to refuse the one he offered her.
She thought for a moment. ‘The ley line you mean? We haven’t actually established that such a ley line exists. There’s certainly no record of one. I had Martin Impey check the database and he came up blank. If the Department hasn’t got it charted, then it’s probably not recorded anywhere.’
Carter blew shrouds of smoke into the air. ‘But that doesn’t mean there isn’t one. You know as well as I do that their location is unreliable, not completely charted.’‘
‘Agreed, but even if there is, I don’t see how it moves us forward any. I still can’t see how it links Sian to Kulsay.’
‘Unless something is using that ley line and others like it to reach out from the island. Think about it, Jane. The population of the island disappeared. The Waincraft team disappeared. Sian disappeared.’
Jane stood and paced. ‘But why only take her? Why not you as well?’
‘I don’t know and, believe me, that question nags at me like a toothache. I can only assume it’s part of a plan, some grand design.’ He waved his hand in the air, ash from the cigarette falling like petals.
‘A plan created by whom?’ Jane’s forehead was as furrowed as a farmer’s field at seed planting time.
‘Whoever or what ever is controlling things on this island.’ Carter savagely ground out his cigarette.
She chewed her lip as she considered this. ‘Let’s go back to the others. They deserve an explanation. I also want to hear what else Bayliss has got to say for himself.’ She paused, her hand on the doorknob. ‘How did he know about you?’
‘I’m not sure.’
‘But he addressed you by name, so he obviously knows who you are. You’ve never met him before?’
Carter shook his head. ‘No. I’d remember. He also knows about the Department, so he’s obviously done his homework,’ Carter said. ‘I think there’s a lot he needs to tell us.’
‘I agree,’ Jane said. ‘Let’s go back in.’
There was silence in the room as they reentered. Bayliss hadn’t moved from his chair; the others were seated at the table, ignoring him and each other. Kirby looked anxiously at them as they came in. ‘What’s going on?’ she said, giving voice to what they were all thinking.
Carter pulled a chair away from the table and set it down in front of Bayliss, a yard away. He took out a cigarette and offered Bayliss the pack. The younger man shook his head.
‘Shouldn’t there be a spotlight directed at my eyes and electrodes attached to my genitals?’ Bayliss said.
Jane smiled ruefully. ‘Don’t tempt me.’
Carter looked up from lighting his cigarette, squinting slightly as the smoke stung his eyes. ‘This isn’t an interrogation. We just want some answers from you.’
‘I won’t split hairs about the semantics of that statement. Anyway I’m happy to tell you anything you want to know.’ He smiled across at Kirby and raised his empty coffee mug. ‘Any chance?’
Kirby glared at him, but then the glare softened into a faint smile and she came over, took his mug and disappeared back to the kitchen.
‘So what are you really doing here?’ Carter said.
Bayliss sat back in his seat, totally relaxed. ‘Research,’ he said. ‘For a book I’m writing.’
Carter nodded. ‘The subject being what exactly?’
‘Kulsay, and places like Kulsay. Sites of great evil.’
‘Well Kulsay certainly has an unusual history, but I’d hardly call the island a site of great evil,’ McKinley said.
‘Which just goes to prove that you really have no idea what you’ve wandered into,’ Bayliss said.
‘Well, I’m sure you’re going to tell us,’ Jane said.
Bayliss grinned at her. ‘But of course.’