The Creeping Thing: Part Eleven

In the bright glare of morning, the shattered ruins of the derelict house looked very stark indeed. Rubble lay all about, and it was clear that no-one could have survived the building's collapse. Not that Mr. Lemon could have survived the attack by the Creeping thing, for that matter. But the exact circumstances would probably not be known until some curious person saw the twisted hand that stuck out from under the rubble of the collapsed building. Or the distorted, blood-stained, claw-like nails on the end of it, the long hair that lent it a bestial aspect.

"So," Ms. Madison turned to the Green Man, "why did you send me up to Llanthorn place?"

"I'd had my eye on Mr. Lemon for a while," the Green Man explained. "Lemon was partner in an investment firm that was revealed to have been investing in some very dubious biotechnology - including a man-primate hybrid. His partner had been about to give evidence against him when he was killed at Llanthorn place by some unknown creature. The Police were going to take him in for questioning, and I believed he would attempt to escape somehow."

"And the creeping thing?" the lovely blonde asked.

"The abomination created by those unethical experiments," the Green Man told her. He had trained it to be afraid of strong light - hence the searchlight. I realised that when he tried to use the creature to attack us, rather than shooting."

"So by shooting out the searchlight we made the creature attack him rather than us!" Ms. Madison gasped. "What do we do?"

"We disappear," the Green Man told his companion. "The news comes from London that Nora was delayed, andthey conclude that you were an impostor. By the time the collapse of this house is investigated, the body of Mr. Lemon will be completely unrecognisable - just another victim of the Creeping Thing. And no-one will ever know the extent of Mr. Lemon's evil."

"What about his wife?" Ms. Madison asked.

"She was the one who knew her husband had killed his partner," the Green Man told Ms. Madison. "It was she who contacted me."