Chapter 17 - His Goddess

*.*.*.

Eventually Jack ran out of excuses to stay at the club. He had sent Hugh off with the champagne and glasses for testing and lots of other orders. He had pretended to need to look around but Phryne knew that he just didn't want to leave her alone. He also knew she'd never make it back to his later, not with the club in the state it was. Worse, Madam Lyon looked like she was getting suspicious of the Inspector, although Phryne acknowledged that expression on her face could just be the poison working its way out of her system.

Jack had left, however, and Phryne had organised taxis to get the women home and eventually she even managed to get Madam Lyon to bed as well, finally leaving Phryne alone with her own thoughts.

Her thoughts went back to Theresa Cavalli. She wondered what she'd say in fifteen years time if someone came interrogating her because she used to be Jack's lover. Well, she wouldn't be a nun so she'd use much more colourful language, that much was certain.

Theresa seemed convinced that someone had been in contact with Foyle in prison, someone who'd known what that ring she'd given Jack would mean to him. Albert Monkton would be the obvious choice but he was dead and someone had to still be hiding Foyle. If he'd been staying with Monkton they would have found something to prove it and he would have struggled to continue living there and keep hidden while the place was crawling with police.

The way Rhodes had stared at her when Jack had explained to him that Foyle had tried to take her… he knew her, or knew of her at least. He knew that Foyle saw her as his fourth goddess and that he wanted to…

Phryne was angry at herself for being horrified at the thought of Foyle's apparent plans for her. He wanted to kill her. He wasn't the first man to want to do that. Yes, by pulling her brain out of her nose was not the usual threatened manner of her dispatch, but it was no different to a man threatening to punch her lights out or slit her throat.

And he still had Lena.

Phryne changed back into more sensible trousers and made sure she had her loaded gun with her.

If Rhodes was helping Foyle, that meant a trip to the university.

*.*.*.

Jack was woken by a noise. He wasn't entirely sure when he'd fallen asleep so he likewise couldn't guess how long he'd been asleep. He'd gone home at his boss's insistence. Men were still out looking for Lena and Foyle; he'd do them no good if he was exhausted he'd insisted.

Jack had followed his advice and gone home for some form of rest, expecting neither sleep nor Phryne although he craved both.

Somehow he had fallen into a restless sleep where he dreamt of trying to find Phryne and failing so he was just endlessly looking for her. That damn woman had even infiltrated his dreams now, was there not a part of his life she'd leave alone?

He called her name, hoping the noise he'd heard was her coming, well, not exactly home he knew, but almost.

There was no response.

He was still fully dressed. He'd fallen asleep through exhaustion not intention while sitting downstairs in his armchair. He lived alone, except for the frequent visits from Phryne and a maid he hired once a week to clean the place while he was at work, so what had made the noise that had woken him?

The ring.

In horror he remembered Phryne telling him that Foyle had been following him, had seemed to know about them, by which logic meant he knew where he lived. He may have even been the person Phryne had shot at on her first visit, he never found out who that had been. Foyle or not, if he knew where he lived then he might also know he had the ring.

Jack rushed into the hall. He had left the ring in his coat pocket. A foolishly unsafe place to keep it, he knew, but he had naively assumed most criminals wouldn't want to break into a policeman's home while they were in.

He put his hand in the pocket and felt no ring but a piece of paper. He pulled it out.

'Thank you for helping me find my ring and my goddess, I couldn't have done it without your help' the note mocked him.

Jack suddenly felt a knot of cold dread inside. Did that mean that he had Phryne?

But the women had come around, she wasn't alone at the club and they would be on the lookout. He'd also increased patrols in the area in the unlikely event that Foyle would try to return, knowing that it would have been pointless to even suggest leaving a police guard at the club for their security, so it was improbable that Foyle would have been able to sneak back in to take her unnoticed. Surely Phryne wasn't stupid enough to go to try to rescue Lena alone?

Of course she was.

Which meant that Phryne had figured out where Foyle was, which was more than he and Hugh had managed to do.

Jack swore as he put his coat on, fruitlessly checking his other pockets in case he'd forgotten which pocket he'd put it in and the note was a red herring. Which of course, wasn't the case.

He raced out of his house, not bothering to lock the front door as the whole world seemed to break into there anyway, and drove to his office probably very much over the speed limit.

*.*.*.

Rhodes' office was surprisingly easy to break into. Phryne looked longingly at all the trinkets he'd left out. She had never been much of a thief even though she'd stolen things as a child, although that was usually with her father being somehow involved, then later before she'd gone to the club she'd stolen as a matter of survival only. Still, if someone left valuables out unlocked and unattended…

"Rhodes," she called into the room. "Are you here?"

"Hello, Miss Fisher."

Phryne jumped at his voice and the sound of a closing door. Murdoch Foyle.

"So Rhodes is working with you. Or is that was? Have you killed him like the others?"

Foyle smiled. "It's so hard to explain, this isn't about anything as simple as…"

"Murder? Kidnap?" Phryne spat at him.

"It's about eternity, Miss Fisher."

"Hell is eternal," she replied, her gun pointing straight at him.

Foyle didn't seem to think he was in any danger. He sighed and sat in a chair, completely ignoring the gun. "Miss Fisher, I wish you could understand…"

"Oh, I understand. You're insane. You think you're the reincarnation of some Egyptian king and you want to take my soul with you as your protection to the afterlife, right?"

"It's your destiny, Miss Fisher. Come now, you're a bright young woman. Do you really think you were put on this earth just to please men?"

Phryne laughed. "No more than I was put on this earth to be your sacrificial lamb. The Deben said the girl child. I'm not exactly a girl child any more, am I? Why do you still want me? Can't you get another goddess?"

"You were born on–"

"Yes, I know, we share a birthday, like countless others. Or can you just not find anyone younger without Waters' help? He worked for Births, Marriages and Deaths, right? He must have been the one to tell you which of us girls shared your birthday." Jack had told her about Water's job, how he suspected he had given Foyle the information on their birthdays although it had been immediately obvious to Phryne too.

Foyle nodded. "I considered it, Miss Fisher, but when I saw your cousin's engagement in the paper just after my release I knew it was a sign. Then your sister restarted the search for you just in time for our birthday and when I found you, saw how you'd fallen without my guiding you to your destiny, I knew. I knew I'd failed you all those years ago. You should be a goddess in the next life, worshippers at your feet with no pain or suffering. Instead you sell your body to men who have no comprehension of what you truly are."

"No, my men know exactly who I am, you're the deluded one."

Foyle sighed and stood up, his arms wide. "I would never force you, Miss Fisher. All my followers have come willingly and I want you to do the same."

"Why would I do that? Why would I willingly choose to let you end my life in that way?"

"It's not the end, Miss Fisher, just the start," he insisted, completely taken in by his own delusion.

Phryne shrugged, keeping her gun pointing straight at him. "We have no proof of what happens when we die, just that we no longer live in the here and now. Countless philosophies have tried to guess what's next but the truth is we'll never be certain. So I intend to live this one, certain life, for as long as possible. What else have you got?"

"Well, I have got that young lady from your club. She's unharmed of course, a little scared I suppose," Foyle let out a sigh. "I have no wish to harm her, Miss Fisher. If you come with me, I'll set her free."

Phryne thought through everything he said. "It's more like blackmail than being willing. What will you do if I say no? Lena's birthday is in May, she's no good to you."

"Well, thankfully, through your Inspector I also know where to find the other lost goddess, Myrtle Hill. I have options. Of course, I can't let you warn her, so I will still have to kill you, and Lena."

"So," Phryne hated hearing the slight shake in her voice, "my choice is to come willingly, and save the life of two other women, or let you kill Lena, hunt down Myrtle and kill her and spend the rest of my life worried that you'll be around every corner."

"Oh no." Phryne jumped at the sound of a third person. Rhodes came out of the shadows, holding a rather lethal looking ancient sword. "As Murdoch said, I'm afraid we can't risk you leaving here, Miss Fisher, you know too much. You will die tonight, I'm sorry to say. All you can choose is whether or not you die peacefully or in pain and agony, and whether your whore friend and poor innocent Myrtle die too."

Phryne moved towards the exit but Rhodes was surprisingly quick at blocking her. Foyle stayed absolutely still. She should be able to take them both but she wasn't completely sure she'd succeed and she needed to make sure Lena was safe. And Myrtle Hill. She should play for time, make sure Lena was released or at least her location given up before she made any further move.

Phryne lowered her gun and Rhodes quickly relieved her of it.

"You'll let Lena go?"

"Of course," Foyle replied and Phryne found herself believing him. Odd. He was completely insane and delusional but he clearly had no wish to harm anyone but herself. She wasn't as convinced by Rhodes; she didn't know what he was after. He seemed a little too intelligent to be the faithful lackey he was portraying. "Come with me, my goddess."

*.*.*.

The constable on the desk looked surprised as Jack entered the building. Hugh had also gone home for the evening, leaving the station at the same time as Jack. In fact, Jack belatedly wondered if Hugh had been given orders to follow him to make sure he had gone home.

"Sir…" the constable started but Jack glared at him as he walked past into his office.

His notes on the case were still strewn over the desk. What was he missing that Phryne had figured out?

A newer file lay on top of the pile. Jack picked it up. After he had left they'd received a call from a priest. Theresa Cavalli's body had been discovered in his church, a rope around her neck. The initial coroner's report confirmed that she, too, had the same marks around her nose as the others although they were still awaiting the final results of the autopsy. This did nothing to calm Jack's fears as it seemed only Phryne and Rhodes were left for Foyle to kill and he had Phryne.

Jack put the file to one side. It wasn't relevant, he was already fairly certain that Cavalli hadn't been involved in whatever Foyle was up to, not since she'd rescued Hill at least. He went back over some of the older files. Foyle's mother had not been in contact with him since he had been released, neither had Rhodes according to their statements. Of course, they could have been lying.

Someone from the outside world had been contacting Foyle while in prison, that much was clear. Buried under criminal files was Foyle's prison record. Jack hadn't learnt much from it. Foyle had been a good inmate, never causing trouble, rarely getting caught up in the other inmates' shenanigans. There had been nothing there to interest Jack when he'd started looking into the man. What the file also contained was his written contact with the outside world. Nothing from his mother, Jack noticed. He had written to Waters and Monkton on multiple occasions but received no reply from either man. No contact at all with Cavalli. The only ones who had made any contact with Foyle was someone called Jones and there were letters to Foyle written on Melbourne University headed paper but unsigned. Jack could only think of one man this could be. So he'd been working with Rhodes this whole time, why?

"Damn it," Jack cursed out loud.

He ran back out to reception. Constable Foster looked up in concern.

"Foster, I need you to organise armed back up. I have reason to believe Murdoch Foyle is holding at least one, maybe two hostages at the University's Department of Antiquities. I need men there now."

"Yes, sir. Shouldn't you wait until–?"

"No time!" Jack snapped back as he went through the door and ran back to his car.

*.*.*.

Rhodes' own inventory of his treasures had lead Jack down into the vaults under the university. It was cold, dark and eerie. In the distance he heard voices, sadly they sounded male and no matter how hard he strained his hearing, he couldn't make out the unmistakable sound of Phryne's voice. Jack could only hope he wasn't too late to rescue Phryne and Lena. A gunshot hurried his steps.

He supposed he should have known what to expect. Rhodes's inventory wasn't neatly stacked in crates but was out on display. A small table at one end had been set up as some sort of crude altar. Only one person remained standing and was able to turn to look at the intruder. Jack already had his gun trained on Foyle before he'd become aware of his presence.

"I suggest you drop it," Jack told him darkly.

Foyle's eyes grew wide and he let the gun in his hand drop to the floor. On one side of him the body of Rhodes lay in a pool of blood. Jack couldn't afford to drop his attention from Foyle enough to check but he suspected Rhodes was dead. He had no idea what had lead to Foyle shooting him instead of preparing his body the same as Waters, Monkton and Cavalli. It didn't really matter why, what did matter was that with all four students now deceased Foyle had to have been close to his final act.

Slumped near the altar was the body of Phryne. There was no blood, no sign of injury but that had been the case with both Waters and Monkton. Jack could only hope she was drugged rather than killed but, like Rhodes, he couldn't check. It was too dark in the vaults and he was too far away to be able to tell if she was breathing or not. If he dropped his gun or attention from Foyle the man would either run or attack him and he couldn't afford for him to do either. If Phryne was already dead there was nothing more he could do for her and if she wasn't he had to make sure that Foyle wasn't given the opportunity to finish the job.

"She came willingly, Inspector," Foyle told him. "She was never yours, I'm afraid. She was always my goddess."

Jack swallowed and tried not to let it show that Foyle's words had got to him. "She was never anybody's, Foyle, she was only ever her own person."

Foyle shook his head. "Why is it so hard to explain?"

For a moment, Foyle turned to look at the altar as if hoping for divine intervention. One moment was all Jack needed. Nearby was some coiled rope, clearly used in some expedition of Rhodes'. Jack grabbed it as he made his move. Foyle tried to pick up the gun and realising that Foyle was going to be tricky, Jack shot him in his foot. Foyle screamed in pain and his distraction was all Jack needed to gain the upper hand and bind Foyle's hands with the rope. He had nothing else to secure him to something with, but between his foot injury and his bound hands Jack had to hope it was enough to keep him there until his backup appeared to arrest him. He collected Foyle's gun and a scan of the room showed the only other likely weapon was a decorative knife on the altar above Phryne's head.

He rushed over to Phryne and picked her up in his arms. To his delight her body was still warm and he could see the gentle rise and fall of her chest that told him she was still alive. The light was dim underground but he couldn't see any sign of cuts or blood around her nostrils so it looked like somehow Jack had managed to reach her before Foyle had managed the unthinkable.

Jack managed to put both the gun and knife in his suit pocket so they were well out of reach of either man in case one of them was in a state to make a bid for freedom while he was gone. He knew he should check Rhodes and that he should search for Lena and also keep an eye on his captive until help arrived, but Foyle was wrong about something Jack would never dare utter. Phryne was his. His what, Jack still had no idea, and he knew that she'd hate him considering her to be his anything. What he'd told Foyle about her being her own person had been true, it was just that the individual that was Phryne Fisher had somehow become utterly essential to Jack's very existence.

He held her close to him as he walked back through the university campus. As he neared the exit he heard the sirens that heralded his backup. He met Foster as he left the building.

"Murdoch Foyle is injured and bound in the vaults under the building," Jack instructed as if he wasn't holding an unconscious woman in his arms. "With him is Professor Rhodes, I suspect he is already dead but I didn't have the time to check. Bullet wound I think, I heard a gunshot and considering the blood he's lost I would be surprised if he survived. Oh, and the missing woman from the Imperial Club, Lena, must be down there somewhere too. Make sure you get her out of there and take her to the hospital to be checked out. She would have at least the remnants of the same drug in her system that this one has."

He watched Foster's eyes flicker to Phryne. "And the woman?"

"I'm taking her to the hospital, Foster. There's no time to wait for an ambulance. She's breathing, just. In my pocket is what I believe to be Foyle's gun and knife. Could you take them for processing while I'm gone?"

Foster nodded and delicately so as not to touch Phryne, pulled out the weapons which he immediately wrapped in a clean handkerchief ready to be examined. He then indicated to the other officers he had brought along to follow him into the university building. Jack bundled Phryne into his car and drove off, still at speed and with his own sirens blaring.

TBC...