Carruthers Demise, Chapters Thirty Three & Thirty |Four (standard:drama, 1938 words) [19/24] show all parts
Author: Brian Cross	Added: Jan 17 2013	Views/Reads: 2409/1822	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Carruthers & Casey Jennings are stranded deep in the New Forest, with an increasingly sinister Adrian. Nearing the completion of my drama.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

rain-drenched conditions. 

They passed the shed they'd seen earlier, heard the rain battering
against a roof in danger of subsiding through neglect, the largest of a 
cluster of farm outbuildings apparently long abandoned – and then 
somewhere a dog barked, causing Casey's eyes to shoot to her left. ‘I 
wonder if...' she broke off, coughing rainwater from her mouth. ‘You 
wonder if what?' Carruthers glanced at Casey but she shook her head. 
‘Oh nothing; thinking aloud again. Mind you, the old Adrian wouldn't be 
seen dead in a place like this, let alone walk round in those soaking 
old clothes.' 

Carruthers bit his lip, managed to free himself from Casey's hold and
forced himself through the packed mud to Adrian's side. Casey's last 
words had hit home, this wasn't Adrian's habitat at all. ‘What on earth 
possessed you to abandon suburbia for a wilderness like this?' he 
spluttered, sweeping rain from his mouth with the heel of a hand. ‘I 
haven't abandoned it old chap,' Adrian announced casually, his eyes 
fixed dead ahead. ‘I was invited as I told you – I'm a guest visiting a 
friend.' 

‘We need to talk about finding Chelsey,' Carruthers said, his tone
suggesting irritability and impatience. ‘You said you were prepared to 
help.' 

‘Indeed I am, old chap - indeed I am - but let's get in the dry first.
Conditions are just too bloody inhospitable to enable me to think.' 

The house loomed over them, stark and uncompromising as they approached,
and Carruthers gave an involuntary shiver at the rain cascading from an 
overflow pipe down its brick walls. In the darkness, he made out a 
rough concrete road leading from the building's frontage, disappearing 
into woodland to the west. Adrian's car stood alongside the portico and 
Carruthers vented his frustration. ‘I take it there's a more civilized 
method of entry to this goddam place, in which case why have you made 
us trail a mile or more through the mud?' 

‘More chance of you getting lost, old chap, and I couldn't have that.' 

Now Adrian did turn to Carruthers, the whites of his eyes large in the
gloom. ‘And I couldn't have vouched for the conditions, either, now 
could I?' 

Except that the soggy conditions hadn't simply materialized as a result
of the current rain, they'd obviously been evident for some while but 
Carruthers didn't press the point, there would be precious little 
purpose in it. But he was beginning to feel a certain unease as Adrian 
pushed open the warped, green wooden door, and it wasn't all 
attributable to Casey's overactive imagination. 

  Chapter Thirty Five 

The musty, damp odour struck Carruthers immediately, soiling his lungs.
Above, one solitary light bulb dangled from a cord providing the only 
illumination in a large, square hall. The gloom on the inside seemed 
little improvement on the dark evening sky. 

‘Mind if I call breakdown?' Carruthers didn't wait for consent, checking
the number and then grabbing the old-fashioned phone from its mounting 
on the wall. ‘There's no line,' he complained. ‘Where's the phone that 
works?' 

Adrian spread his hands. ‘Sorry old chap, didn't I tell you? Bad storm
the other day, apparently; seems it could be some time...' 

‘Now there's a surprise,' Casey murmured, the trace of a smile creasing
her mouth. 

‘What the blazes is going on here?' Carruthers slammed the receiver back
in its ancient wall-mounting. ‘You know bloody well you didn't mention 
it. You had ample opportunity.' 

‘Calm yourself, man. Let's go through to the front lounge.' Casey thrust
herself between Carruthers and Adrian – ‘If you've got nothing useful 
to say, we're leaving right now.' 

Adrian's lips snaked in a bitter smile as he eyed Carruthers. ‘Would you
leave without discussing our beloved Chelsey?' 

Carruthers mopped his rain-sodden brow. He didn't like the sudden
acidity in Adrian's tone. ‘If you've got any useful suggestions, let's 
hear them now.' 

Adrian sauntered through the dim hall, casting a thin shadow across the
peeling green paintwork, and stopped at a closed door. ‘Let's see what 
I can do to help. Come through.' 

Carruthers caught the glare from Casey's ebony eyes, he knew she was
opposed to spending any more time in the place but something in 
Adrian's demeanour strongly suggested that he should be here – that 
this was the starting place to locating Chelsey. 

Adrian appeared relaxed as he settled into a worn winged armchair,
impervious to his wet clothing; only his sharp, restless eyes negated 
the impression, as he waved an arm for them to seat themselves on the 
tatty Chesterfield opposite. Carruthers, however, unsettled by the 
darting eyes shook his head. ‘No, I think we'd rather stand. Just what 
is there to discuss?' 

‘We need to discuss, old chap, exactly what might have transpired to
cause my sister's disappearance.' Adrian took a deep breath. ‘I mean to 
examine the circumstances in their entirety and act accordingly.' 

‘We know the circumstances for heaven's sake, she left for another man,'
Carruthers blustered with undisguised impatience. 'All I want is to see 
her free of any damned murder charge. Whatever else, she's killed 
nobody.' He paused, drew sour air into his lungs. ‘Now we've made an 
unpleasant journey into the middle of nowhere and unless you've any 
light to cast on the subject...' 

‘I might have.' Adrian stretched his legs, sunk deeper into the lumpy
chair and steepled his fingers beneath his chin. His eyes stopped 
roaming, became more focused, moving slowly between Carruthers and 
Casey. ‘You know, even if Chelsey can't be here, it's a bonus to be in 
the company of two of her most intimate soul-mates. It provides one a 
certain solace, to say the least.' 

‘I'd hardly call my relationship with Chelsey intimate – and as for
soul-mates...' Casey screwed her eyes. ‘What planet are you on?' 

‘Look, where's this leading, Adrian?' Carruthers snapped. ‘I've had just
about enough of this – if you've nothing useful to contribute...' 

‘Oh, but you disguise yourself so well, Miss Casey Jennings.' Ignoring
Carruthers Adrian lofted his head, his eyes widening, no longer 
shifting but locked on her. ‘I'll bet our friend Carruthers has no idea 
of your sexual leanings towards my sister. Have you, old chap?' 

‘He's talking rubbish!' Casey yelled. ‘I tell you he's lost it!' As
Carruthers directed an astonished glance at her Casey snatched his arm. 
‘Come on, we're out of here. I knew this was a mistake.' 

‘You'll hear me out, Carruthers, if you want re-uniting with my beloved
sister – I'm the only one who can help you with that.' 

Adrian's voice had deepened in tone yet risen a notch in severity – he
remained in his chair in a room lit only by a pungent oil lamp throwing 
its wavering glare into the darkened recesses, but that voice had 
developed a sinister authority and Carruthers experienced the coils of 
tension gripping him. 

Managing to free himself of Casey's strong hand he turned on Adrian. ‘I
don't know what the blazes you mean by that but are you intimating you 
know something of Chelsey's whereabouts? I mean, for heaven's sake you 
seem to have lured us here...' 

‘Lured? Ha-ha. I like the dramatic edge.' Adrian's thin lips curved into
a smile without mirth, which lasted but an instant – ‘So much you don't 
know Carruthers. So much you've yet to learn.' Adrian angled his thin 
face at the agent, his pupils like piercing brown dots, settling on 
him. ‘So if you really care about Chelsey, you'll sit down and hear me 
out.' 

‘Dammit Marty, you can sit and listen to this crap but I'm out of
here...' Casey screamed, stomping towards the door. 

‘Casey please...' 

‘Let her go.' The humourless smile was back on Adrian's face. ‘It's not
as if she can get far – out here in uncharted territory, on this pitch 
black, inhospitable night.' 

Casey stopped at the door, turned, crossing her arms, fixing Adrian with
a glowering stare that screamed defiance. ‘You're enjoying this, you 
moron!' 

‘I don't derive any enjoyment from my sister's demise.' 

‘Demise? What do you know? You'd better level up Frampton-Williams and
quick...' Carruthers bunched his fingers into fists, closed on Adrian. 

‘Steady on, old chap...' Adrian's hand lowered to a trouser pocket. ‘I
think you'd best sit down, both of you. I'm done with playing the 
genial host.' 


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