Page 202 of The Hallmarked Man
‘You all right?’ said a man in slippers, who’d just emerged from the nearest house. ‘I heard a scream.’
‘Yes,’ said Robin, while Ilsa gabbled from the phone she’d lowered to answer him. ‘Yes, thank you, I’m fine. A man was following me, but he’s gone.’
‘You sure you’re all right?’
He was elderly, and as he drew nearer to the street light she saw his look of concern.
‘Yes, really, I’m fine, but thank you – thank you so much for checking.’
The man retreated inside his house. Robin raised the phone to her ear yet again.
‘It’s all fine, Ilsa, he just threw the knife at me.’
‘Hewhat?’
‘I know,’ said Robin, gaining a perverse strength from Ilsa’s panic. ‘Some attacker.’
‘He threw the knife at you?’
‘Yes,’ said Robin, staring at the dagger lying on the ground. Its nine-inch blade looked blunt. It had a black handle and a brass crosspiece, on which a familiar symbol was engraved. Robin pulled her gloves back out of her pocket, put them on with her phone held between ear and shoulder, and picked it up. Ilsa was still talking.
‘Sorry, what?’ said Robin, straightening up, weighing the dagger in her hand. It was fifteen inches long, weighty and very clearly ceremonial rather than a genuine weapon. Even so, it would make a decent bludgeon.
‘I said,call the police!’
‘I doubt they’ll get him,’ said Robin, now examining the compass and square symbol on the hilt. ‘It’s dark and he was wearing a mask. No cameras… anyway, I’m not hurt. He just wanted to frighten me.’
‘That’s hardly the bloody—!’
‘Where did he follow me from?’ said Robin, talking more to herself than to Ilsa, now.
‘Robin, you’re scaring the crap out of me—’
‘I’m all right, I’m fine… now I just need to find a way of hiding this dagger so I don’t get arrested on the Tube.’
Robin’s phone began bleeping.
‘Ilsa, I’m really sorry, that’s Mum, I’ll have to take it.’
‘But—’
‘I’ll call you back.’
A man walking his dog appeared out of the darkness ahead. Robin thrust the masonic dagger inside her coat, tightened her belt so it wouldn’t fall out and accepted her mother’s call.
‘Hi, Mum.’
‘Oh, Robin, what a nightmare,’ said Linda, who was clearly crying.
‘What is?’ said Robin, in alarm.
‘Martin just threatened to hit the doctor—’
‘What?’
‘It turns out Carmen’s got an android pelvis—’
‘What’s that?’
