Deviance. London Psychic Book 3 (23 page)

He picked up Jamie's feet and dragged her paralyzed body across the floor towards the east opening.

Jamie counted in her mind, knowing that the complete paralysis only lasted a few seconds. She could start to feel a tingle in her limbs again but she remained still, only hoping that she would get her strength back in time.
 

Cameron dropped her feet and swept aside the safety barrier. The wind was stronger now, buffeting them as he dragged her closer to the edge.

"Bracing, isn't it?" He grinned, and Jamie saw a mania born of addiction to power there. Cameron was used to getting everything he wanted, destroying lives in the shadows while he stood squeaky clean in public. He bent to pick up her feet again.
 

Jamie felt tingling in her arms and legs.
One more second
, she thought.
Don't move too soon
. The gaping hole in the building was only a meter away now and she struggled to relax as Cameron dragged her closer.
 

Then she saw it.
 

A blowtorch ready for the next day's welding. It was within reach, but she only had one chance.

"I'll make sure the papers write something good about your death," Cameron said. "Perhaps I'll even do the eulogy at your funeral." He turned and smiled. "Fitting, don't you think?"

Jamie lunged for the blowtorch as she kicked out with both feet.
 

Cameron fell backwards, teetering on the edge. He grabbed for the side girder, pulling himself back in.
 

Jamie pressed the switch on the blowtorch, sending a spurt of flame into his face.
 

Cameron screamed in rage and pain, protecting his face with his hands. The smell of singed hair and burned flesh filled the air. He charged her, bellowing his anger, blocking her path to the exit as he ran at her like a bull.
 

Jamie dropped the torch, ducked away. She just needed to stay out of his reach.

Thick metal girders led up to the next level. Jamie ran for them and began to climb, fixing her eyes on the rivets in front of her, trying to ignore the sheer drop beneath, one thousand feet to the ground below.
 

"Come back here, bitch." Cameron's voice was rough and he breathed heavily as he pulled himself after her.
 

Hand over hand, Jamie climbed. She reached the next level only to find the floor hadn't been finished and there was no way to get down again. She could only go up.
 

The Shard tapered as it rose into the night sky, the girders getting thinner the higher she climbed. Jamie could hear Cameron's breathing below her. Her arms shook with effort as she pulled herself up another inch.
 

***

Blake arrived at Borough Market to find Magda gazing up at the Shard through binoculars.

"The Mayor's new office is up there," she said, focusing the lenses on the upper levels. "If Jamie's up there, we might be able to see her."

Blake stood, his fists clenched as Magda slowly scanned the building. Every part of him wanted to be with Jamie now. He'd been crazy to sleep after telling her about Cameron. He should have known she would take action.

"Oh no." Magda's voice chilled Blake with its dark intensity.
 

"What is it?" he said, grabbing the binoculars from her and training them on the upper levels.
 

"Look at the east corner," Magda said. "That must be her."

Blake could make out a lone figure clambering up one of the exposed metal girders on the open east side of the building.
 

Behind her, another figure climbed with strong movements, gaining on her quickly.

"Jamie…" Blake whispered. "Hold on." He spun to Magda. "How do we get up there?"
 

She shook her head. "There are so many levels of security. We won't get in that way." Her eyes narrowed. "But there might be something."

"Anything," Blake said. "Please. We have to help her."

"You have your gift," Magda said. "I have my own."
 

She pulled one of her sleeves up, revealing the tattooed ravens that whirled on her arm. Pulling a small penknife from her bag, she cut a symbol into the feathers of one of the birds, tracing three whorls into her skin. A bead of blood welled and dripped down her arm to the ground.
 

As it splashed on the earth, Magda began to whistle.

The tune was soft at first and then stronger, the notes a Celtic refrain of growing power.
 

The wind changed and the cold made Blake shiver as Magda called on the Morrigan, the shape-shifting goddess of war, fate and death. She who roamed the battlefields in the shape of a raven, choosing those who would live and who would die.
 

As Magda whistled into the wind, her hands held high, Blake heard the beat of wings on the air. A flock of ravens appeared out of the night and flew overheard, wheeling about her. They were strangely silent, their beady eyes looking down on the one who called them.

Magda turned towards the Shard and her whistling song switched to a harsher refrain.
 

She pointed at the top of the spire and the birds streamed away from her, cawing loudly now, a jarring cacophony that drowned out the sound of the city.
 

They flew up and soon a dark cloud obscured the top of the Shard. Blake could only pray for the outcome above.
 

Jamie's arms burned as she tried to haul herself up a little further, inching away from Cameron into the highest reaches of the building. The wind buffeted her and she clung to the metal, heart pounding as she hung above the void, vertigo making her head spin.

She looked down to see him inches below her foot, his hand stretched out to grab her.
 

"I will see you fall tonight," Cameron said. "So give in to it, Jamie. Lean out and you will see your daughter again."

Jamie stamped down on his grasping fingers.
 

"Polly never gave up," she said, panting with the effort of holding on and trying to kick him away. "Neither will I."

Cameron grabbed her foot and twisted it. Jamie gasped in pain as he forced her leg sideways off the side of the girder. Off balance for a second, she grabbed for another hold and slipped down a few inches.
 

Cameron reached for her and Jamie saw her death in his eyes.
 

As his hand stretched out, a stream of ravens swirled up in a vortex into his face, beaks and claws ripping at his skin.
 

Cameron screamed, his arms waving at them, trying to beat them off even as they pecked and shredded his flesh.

Jamie put her hands over her face, clinging to the girder as the birds dive-bombed Cameron, bodies repeatedly thunking against his. Individually the ravens were nothing, but together, they forced him from the girder inch by inch.

Two birds landed on his hair, claws ripping it away in bloody chunks. He raised both his hands, losing his grip, and for a moment he teetered on the edge of the girder.
 

The flock wheeled, and together they pounded into him.

Dale Cameron plummeted off the Shard, his dying scream drowned out by the triumphant cawing of the ravens.
 

Jamie couldn't move.
 

She clung to the girder, eyes closed, as the wind whipped about her. The birds were gone, Cameron was gone, but she was still at the top of the building, hanging above certain death. Her strength was fading, her limbs ached, and she only wanted to close her eyes and let it all go.
 

Climbing down seemed like an overwhelming impossibility – but perhaps she didn't have to. With Cameron gone, the circle could be closed on the cases she'd been involved with. She could be with Polly if she just relaxed. The end would be swift, she knew that.
 

But then Polly's voice came to her in the wind.
Dance for me, Mum
.

Jamie held on.
One more minute
, she thought.
 

It seemed like a long time later when she heard a voice calling her name.

"Jamie," the voice called softly. Blake's voice. "It's OK. You can come back now. It's safe. Please, Jamie. Look at me."

He was here.
 

Jamie opened her eyes and looked down through the girders to the platform below. Blake stood there, his hands outstretched towards her. Behind him, Magda stood like a dark guardian angel.

"Inch back down towards me," Blake said. "Just a little way and then I can reach for you."
 

Blake's voice was soft, but in his tone she heard a promise. "Please, Jamie."

Slowly, she stretched out a leg, her muscles shaking as she gripped the metal with all her strength, easing backwards down the girder.
 

She inched her way down as her friends called encouragement, every step a huge effort.
   

Finally, she felt Blake's hand on her foot.

"I'm here," he said. "A little closer and then I'll help you in."

She pushed herself with every last bit of energy she could summon. Then his arms were pulling her into the safety of the tower, into his embrace.

A train rattled along the tracks high on the over-bridge, the rhythmic sound a back note to the folk band playing below in Cross Bones Graveyard. Jamie strolled through the open gates, still hung with ribbons commemorating the dead but today flung wide to welcome the community. Towering above her, the Shard rose into a blue sky, its glass panels reflecting the sun like a beacon for the city.
 

Families walked around the flowerbeds and Jamie watched as one little girl bent to smell a pink rose, her little face lighting up with pleasure as the petals stuck to her nose. Jamie smiled.
Polly would have loved it here
, she thought, but the pang of grief for her daughter was more a dull ache than a sharp pain now. It was settling, she realized. This community and the purpose she had found here gave her something to live for.
 

Applause rang out across the green as the band finished one song and then launched into a reel. The dancing began again, bare feet pounding the ground where the dead lay beneath. Jamie thought that the women and children who rested under this earth would relish the celebration. Perhaps they had danced here long ago, a moment of pleasure that connected across the generations.

Magda and O spun together in the crowd, laughing as they danced. O wore a flowery summer dress that floated around her and Magda was her dark opposite in customary tight black jeans and t-shirt. Jamie looked around and realized that she knew many of the people there. This was her community too now.
 

O spotted Jamie and walked over, her blonde hair shining in the sun. She grabbed Jamie's hands and spun her around to the tune.
 

"Isn't this wonderful?" O said with a delighted laugh. "Everyone has come out to celebrate. Finally, Cross Bones can be an official memorial garden."

The last few days had been crazy. Dale Cameron's death had officially been ruled a suicide after the contents of his locked room had been leaked to the press. His part in the Southwark murders was still being established, but Jamie had heard from Missinghall that there was evidence from years of criminal activity to go through and the scandal had rocked the upper echelons of power.
 

The new Mayor, Amanda Masters, had opened her first week by giving Cross Bones Graveyard to the people of Southwark and providing new funding to the Kitchen. The community rallied, and together they were making this a sanctuary for those outcast in life as well as death. Magda and O were leading the development team and Jamie would join them in the next week. It was time she used her skills to build and nurture instead of clean up the aftermath of violence. It felt good to be part of something new, something vibrant.
 

Magda walked up and kissed Jamie on the cheek, her smile wide as she surveyed the happy crowd.

"Thank you for coming, Jamie. We really couldn't have done this without you." She put her arms around O, pulling her tight against her body. O giggled and nuzzled against her. "And I might have lost Olivia without you."

"Get a room," Jamie laughed, pushing them away, and they skipped back to the reel.

"Fancy a dance?" The voice caught her by surprise and she turned quickly.
 

Blake stood there, holding a bunch of purple tulips. He ran a gloved hand nervously over his buzzcut.

"I … I hope it's OK that I came. I brought flowers for the memorial."

"They're gorgeous," Jamie said.
 

She reached out and touched his arm, her fingers caressing his caramel skin before linking her arm with his. He smelled of pine forests after rain.
 

"I thought you were going north for a trip," Jamie said. "Did you change your mind?"

"That can wait," Blake said, his voice soft. "I have more important things to focus on here."

Jamie looked up and met his eyes. She saw a promise there, something they could build upon, a new beginning.

"We can lay the flowers together," she said.