“Do you think he fell down the elevator chute?” asked Tara hopefully.

“No,” said Richie emphatically, deciding against getting the girl’s hopes up only to have them dashed again.   “We couldn’t be that lucky.   But hopefully it’s thrown the fear of death into him.   And depending on how big a fruit loop he is, he might decide to abandon us and get out of this place now, instead of risking staying until almost dawn.”

Despite the extent of Richie’s injuries, they hobbled past the first set of stairs toward the second staircase.   Holding the banner rail in one hand, Tara started to head down to the ground floor, but Richie stopped her.

“No,” he protested, “not down.   Up.”

“What?’ asked Tara, wondering if her guardian angel was getting confused from blood loss?

“We can’t possibly outrun him with me in this condition,” explained Richie.   “But he’ll be expecting us to go down to the ground floor to escape.   So, if we go back up to the third floor, where he’s already searched for us, we might be able to hide in one of the rooms.

“Then with any luck he’ll search the lower floors till dawn, then give up and leave.”

“Well … okay,” said Tara Weston, looking decidedly dubious as she started to lead her rapidly weakening guardian angel up the stairs toward the third floor.

*      *      *

For what seems a lifetime Roderick Voss flounders in the dumbwaiter chute, almost believing that the twelve-year-old has managed to get revenge for the deaths of her parents by killing him.   But always cool under pressure, he does not panic, but reaches out into the shaft with both hands.   Knowing it is only half a metre or so deep in the wall, he finds the inner wall and presses both hands against it to stop himself falling down the elevator tunnel.

Then slowly, motivated by anger, not fear, he pushes himself back into the kitchen until he drops out of the dumbwaiter shaft and lands on his backside on the tiled floor.

Breathing deeply to calm himself, Voss is more determined than ever to kill Tara Weston before leaving the mansion.