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‘Yes, but we don’t know how.’
Thea rolled her eyes. ‘Come on, then. If you’re going up there, I’m coming too. You need someone to keep you out of trouble.’
* * *
It seemed that he’d come prepared, because he had torches, face masks and heavy-duty gloves in the boot of his car. They found the caretaker, who showed them through to some back steps that led up to the roof area, and unlocked the door at the top for them.
‘No one ever comes up here. Not since we had a problem with the water tank two years ago.’
‘That’s good to know.’ Lucas handed a mask to Thea and walked into the loft area.
It was hot up there, and the air smelled musty. Lucas shone the beam of his torch along the ventilation ducts, which criss-crossed the space.
‘I can’t see anything wrong with these. And I don’t smell any patchouli.’
They walked carefully across the boarded floor, looking for any signs of something that was out of place.
‘Nothing.’ Thea was suddenly disappointed. Someone else would find the final clue that they’d been searching for all these weeks.
‘There must be more than this.’ Lucas checked the plans of the building. ‘Yeah, look. The loft’s divided into two sections. This part we’re in here is over the library, and there’s a second half over the theatre.’
They found a doorway in the brick wall at the far end and opened it. Another space, equal in size to the first.
‘I reckon that the loft over the props room is through there.’ He indicated an access hatch in the wall at the far end. ‘The roof dips right down at that end of the building so it’s probably just crawl space through there.’
He walked over to the hatch, bending down. ‘I smell something.’ He tugged at the hatch and it didn’t budge.
‘Want a hand?’
‘That’s okay. Hold the torch, will you?’ Lucas squared up to the hatchway and pulled hard. When it gave he almost fell backwards, and the distinct smell of patchouli started to leak through the opening.
His mouth was obscured by the mask, but in the torchlight his eyes were smiling. ‘We’re getting warmer.’
He angled the beam of the torch through the hole. Beyond it, Thea could see the underside of the roof, sloping downwards. ‘There’s the extract vent.’
‘Yeah, and it looks pretty filthy. See those slipped slates? I reckon that the air’s being extracted from the building and then leaking back inside through that hole.’
‘That’s one half of the puzzle.’ Thea bent down beside him, shining her torch beam over the rest of the space, and suddenly recoiled. ‘Ugh!’
‘What?’ He steadied her, putting himself in between her and the access hatch.
‘I think it’s a rat’s nest.’ Thea shivered, looking around in case anything was headed towards her.
‘All right.’ He kicked the hatch closed, his hand finding hers. ‘We’re going back now.’
It was clear what Lucas had on his mind. Darkness and rats. He knew they reminded her of that police cell in Bangladesh.
‘Don’t you want to see?’
‘I’ll come back up later.’ He was holding tightly onto her hand, pulling her back, away from the one thing that she knew he was desperate to see.
‘Thinking of taking the credit all for yourself, are you?’ There was no point in telling him not to come back—telling Lucas not to do anything was like a red rag to a bull. And he wasn’t going into that crawl space on his own.
He turned slowly. In the silence she could hear a scrabbling sound coming from somewhere. ‘You don’t have to do this, Thea.’
She took a step towards him. Just having him close gave her courage. ‘I do, actually.’
He nodded. ‘Okay. Stay here, then.’ He left her a few paces away from the hatch and bent to open it then crawled through. Thea shuddered, keeping her torch beam on the opening.
