Nick snatched her away from him, twisting her arms behind her.
“Have you forgotten your cat so soon?” Emily said, looking at him thoughtfully. “You’d better go. You needn’t bother with her or us any more. You’re lucky. You tell a good story, and I think it’s true. I’m sorry about your cat. You mightn’t think it, but I like animals myself.”
“George!” Cora screamed. “Don’t go! Don’t leave me!” Nick put his hand across her mouth. His fingers dug into her cheek.
“Go now,” Emily said.
George walked unsteadily to the door. He hesitated, then went on out of the flat to the stairs. As he began to walk down the stairs a dreadful cry of terror and despair tore through the door past him into the dimly lit confines of the building. He shivered, the bleakness in his heart frightening him; but he kept on. Then there was a bright flash of blue light from the fuse box at the bottom of the stairs, and the lights went out. He knew that Cora would never worry him again.
For a moment he stood still, trying to see in the suffocating darkness. Thoughts flashed through his mind. Where was he going? What was he going to do? He would be lonely. There was no Leo now. There was no Cora either. He would have nothing. The future loomed before him: dark, empty, ageless.
He reached the front door, opened it and stepped into the rain. Men appeared from out of the darkness and crowded round him He saw the glistening capes and the police helmets.
“What…?” he began, weak with fear.
“I’m Detective Inspector Tuck,” a voice said, and George could just make out a tall man wearing a bowler hat pushing his way through the little crowd of policemen. “I think you are George Fraser. It’s my duty to arrest you and charge you with the robbery of a garage near Kingston.”
George blinked at the detective, then his fear went away and he sighed with relief. In his bones he had felt all along that they would get him in the end. Well, now they had him. It was a good thing that all this ghastly business was ended.