Scarlet Rose

Chapter 75 (Part 1)

Robert Shaw held Christian's body. Under the moonlight, the pale face of the young man looked smooth like a candle's wax and his lips were bruised blue. The detective stared at the mark of the rope line and the red scratches on his neck when he removed the thin cord.

He searched for a pulse. With the corner of his eye, he looked at Billy who also lay lifeless on the cemetery path. He rushed towards him, leaving Christian behind. A moment later, he stood up. He gritted his teeth. Brushed the sweat off his brow with the palm of his hand.

The breeze rattled the tops of the trees. He heard more police officers coming his way.

"We need an ambulance, God damn it!" He shouted.

The police detective could not stay there any longer. He had to go. The conditions of this operation were changing by the minute and he already feared he had fallen behind. MacDonald would not act like a sitting duck, waiting to be caught. He briefed the two men who approached and left without looking back. If he had stayed a little while longer, he would see the Duke himself appearing from the inside of the Grandchester mausoleum. 

Richard Grandchester was not a man who sat idle either. Especially when the person who had been on the run was his son. All the time it took him to reach the other end of the underground tunnel and come out in the open air, flashbacks of his youth - when Eleanor had been pregnant, when she had given him Terry, when everything seemed possible for a while -  played at the back of his mind. 

He had only one wish. To speak to Christian. 

But when he saw the two men crouching over a couple of fallen bodies... 

He realised he may had been too late. Not by ten years-late. The irony the aged aristocrat felt weighing him down, having turned all the muscles in his body numb, was that it took just a minute's delay to push the hands of fate, to turn the possible into impossible.

He approached the men and was informed of what needed to be done. All the feelings and all the thoughts which may had been turning inside his mind stopped. They were locked behind a face that did not let anything to be revealed. A servant who had followed behind him received the immediate order from the Duke. 

"Bring a car to the Grandchester mausoleum without a moment to waste. We need to go to the hospital-

"NOW!"

************

After the alarm had been raised at the headquarters of Scotland Yard, more and more police officers came. Like ants they swarmed the cemetery and its perimeter. Time counted backwards for MacDonald and his two henchmen, loaded with the Grandchester loot.

Every single place, where the gang leader could have gone, was surveilled. The Blind Beggar, Charles' house, other places of associates he frequented, a warehouse at the London Docks where they had taken Christian to meet with the Wag for the first time. Robert had left no corner unattended. He had a file on the notorious gang leader as thick as an encyclopaedia volume.

Robert was leading the operation. Word came from the team who were keeping an eye to the warehouse at the London Docks. Two cars had approached. Whether or not, it was the gang leader inside those cars, the detective had to take his chances. He ordered for all the man power he had under his command to approach the warehouse.