Page 70 of Box of Frogs
His expression tightened. ‘I know.’ He looked back down the corridor. ‘Maybe you should wait outside.’
I snorted. No chance. I wouldn’t even deign to comment on such a ridiculous suggestion. ‘Perhaps the actual lair isn’t here at all. Perhaps this part is just for show and the main den is underground.’
We looked down on the off-chance that the floor would give us some clue. ‘It’s possible,’ he conceded quietly. ‘But we’ve still got a lot to explore on this level first.’
‘Wouldn’t we have heard something by now if anyone was up here?’ I asked. At that very moment, my ears prickled at a distant sound.
I stopped moving. Morgan looked at me. ‘What did you hear?’
‘A clink.’ It hadn’t lasted long but it wasn’t a natural sound.
He nodded. ‘That’s what I heard too.’ He pointed round the corner. ‘Let’s go.’
We set off, our footsteps even lighter and quieter than they had been before. There were no more clinks but I felt more confident that we were heading in the right direction. I couldn’t fail Julie again; it simply wasn’t an option. Images of her corpse flashed through my mind with stomach-churning regularity. There was nothing to suggest she actually was dead; if Rubus had wanted that outcome, no doubt the Redcaps wouldn’t have bothered kidnapping her in the first place. The alleyway attacker would have used a stake, not a Taser. All the same, my trepidation was growing and it wasn’t a feeling I enjoyed.
We kept walking, turning right twice. The corridor remained depressingly similar. It wasn’t until we reached the second-to-last doorway that my senses started to prickle again.
I stopped. Morgan, who’d continued on ahead, turned his head. He frowned at me, indicating silently that there was nothing to be heard beyond the doorway I was standing beside. I jerked my head at it. He was right that there were no sounds but there was something about the quality of the silence through the old oak veneer that was different. As Morgan moved back towards me, I reached for the handle and gently pushed it down, revealing a glimpse of the room beyond. When I saw what was covering the inside of the door and the walls, I knew we were finally getting somewhere.
Not daring to open the door more than an inch or two, I pointed. Even from his awkward angle, he could see the black soundproofing foam covering every inch of the space. His jaw tightened. I grinned; at least this wasn’t going to be a wasted visit. Rubus was indeed a canny arsebadger.
I edged inside. The room was about eight metres square, with two more foam-covered doors at opposite ends. Nothing else was visible – but if this was merely the gateway to the lair beyond, that wasn’t surprising. I strained my ears again but I couldn’t hear anything other than Morgan’s and my own breathing.
I stayed on the balls of my feet and headed for the door on the left-hand side, motioning to Morgan to take the one on the right. His mouth twisted briefly, as if he were unhappy at us splitting up. Although I was more than happy to keep him by my side, I was getting bored with skulking around.
‘Three minutes,’ I mouthed, indicating that we should meet back here after that time was up. He blinked at me in reluctant agreement and, with one final glance at each other, we went our separate ways. I opened my door and Morgan opened his then we vanished from each other’s sight.
Unsurprisingly, the short corridor that greeted my eyes was covered in soundproofing foam, just like the previous room. There was one more door. Grimly, I stalked up to it, pressing my ear against the foam triangles in case there was anything to be heard. When not even a whisper reached my ears, I pulled back and braced myself. I was more than ready for what lay beyond.
With one swift movement, I yanked on the door handle and flung it open, leaping inside with a short-lived roar.
‘Goodness,’ Julie murmured from a red-velvet chaise longue. ‘That’s quite a dramatic entrance, Mads. Being around me has rubbed off on you already.’ She took a sip of the gin and tonic in her hand and smiled. ‘Chin-chin.’
Chapter Twenty-Two
My yell died on my lips and my mouth fell open. ‘What the gasbudlikins…’
Julie tutted. ‘Darling, you look terrible. Have you not been sleeping?’
I stared at her. To make doubly sure she wasn’t a figment of my imagination, I shuffled forward and poked her. She was definitely real. Then it occurred to me that she might be a faery wearing a glamour. Could Redcaps glamour themselves? If I could do it surely they could. I crossed my arms. ‘If you’re really Julie,’ I said, ‘tell me what you were buying the first time we met.’
‘Who else would I be if I wasn’t Julie?’
‘Answer the fucking question.’ My voice was low. I didn’t have the faintest idea what was going on here but I wasn’t going to relax until I got some answers.
‘Darling!’ Her eyes opened wide in mock shock. ‘Language! If you really need me to say it, I was buying some Valium. Or rather Mark was buying it for me.’
I stayed where I was. No glamour then; this really was the Julie I knew. That only meant I had more questions now. I stepped back, suddenly desperate to keep some distance between her and myself. ‘You need to tell me what’s going on here,’ I said. ‘And you need to tell me now.’
The door behind me thumped open. I sprang back, spotting Morgan facing off against both Redcap arsebadgers. My stomach dropped. I jabbed my thumb at Julie and growled, ‘Stay here,’ then I jumped into the fray to help him.
The Redcaps were gunning for Morgan, grim fury on their faces. I had to draw one of them away from him. I needn’t have worried; it took both Redcaps less than a second to recognise me. As soon as they did, they abandoned their onslaught on Morgan and spun towards me.
The shorter of the two reached me first, slamming a punch into my stomach that I wasn’t fast enough to avoid. I doubled over, winded and in agony. The second Recap thumped my spine and I crumpled, wheezing. All I could think about was the pain.
One of them gave a strangled cry. ‘You killed him!’
I rolled onto my side, barely managing to draw my knees up into a foetal position so I could protect myself against more attacks. Some fabulous fighter I was, I thought dully. Morgan roared as he threw himself at the Redcaps, fury lacing every indistinct syllable. Through brimming eyes, I registered him grab the backs of their heads and shove them together so their foreheads bounced off each other. The shorter one took the worst of the impact; he fell backwards with a groan before tumbling down onto the floor next to me.
